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The road well travelled I do believe that the journey is more important than the destination. I even try to live that way, but when I travelled with our four frisky children in a confined space, I sometimes found it hard to remember. Today, some parents rely on hand-held games, some on portable DVDs or videos, but our children were young in the days before electronic entertainment, and we made do the old fashioned way with a variety of books on tape and lap projects. It was actually kind of satisfying. The kids used their mental muscles and imaginations. We made frequent stops on the road or forays down the aisle from our plane seats. It was a good combination that made the miles fly by. Give it a shot. Whether you travel by car, train, or plane, the following activities will keep your child entertained for hours. You may even grow to enjoy the way as much as the end. Portable permanent tictac-toe Make this clever tic-tac-toe square with your child before you leave home. You can also use dried pasta shapes, buttons, or coins as your markers. What you will need: • 4 popsicle sticks • glue • construction paper • scissors Lay the popsicle sticks in a tic-tac-toe grid Boredom Busters Nancy Blakey books: • Go Outside! • More Mudpies: 101 Alternatives to Television • Boredom Busters • Recipes for Invention Available from www.nancyblakey.com <strong>byronchild</strong> 44 on a piece of construction paper. Then glue the sticks together in the grid shape. Next, glue the grid on to the paper. Cut out 5 X’s and 5 O’s from the remaining construction paper to use as markers. Bubblegum experiment This is science. Really and truly. The kind of science that makes kids curious and want to know more. It’s also good fun for parents to participate in too. What you will need: • several different types of bubblegum • a small notebook and pen First talk to your child about what a hypothesis is — an educated guess — then hypothesise which brand of bubble gum you guess would blow the biggest bubbles and why. Write down the hypothesis and the order of the bubblegum brands from the best to the worst in the notebook. Next, scientifically unwrap one brand of gum and chew for a set amount of time, say three minutes. This is where you come in, because the more people that try the gum, the truer the results. Then blow several bubbles over a set amount of time. Record the approximate size of them and move on to the next brand. Did the results surprise you? They often do. And that, my friends, is science. Write a Foot Expressing yourself clearly on paper is a resource for life. This project helps children use this skill in a noncompetitive and entertaining way. Begin before the trip by outlining your child’s foot with a heavy black marker on a piece of paper. Place the outline in a plastic sleeve used to protect papers or photos. Next, ask your child to write words that describe her around the outline of the foot. Ask what this foot can do, where it will go, what it feels. You can also trace hands or simple objects that appeal to your child: baseballs, kittens, horses, dinosaurs, candy canes, umbrellas, bunnies, flowers, soccer balls, etc. Just make sure the outline is simple enough to trace with words. Save the out- lines in the plastic sleeves to be used over again, when the writing mood strikes. Straw and pipe cleaner constructs This is another project with little direction (the best kind!). For older children, include the scissors with the straws and pipe cleaners to cut the pieces while en route. What you will need: • bendable straws • pipe cleaners • zipper-type bag to store the pieces in • scissors The constructs are simple to form, but the results can be elaborate pieces of art. The only instructions needed are to cut the straws and pipe cleaners in half (or to a desired size), then place the pipe cleaner inside the straw. Keep adding straws to the pipe cleaners, bending the straw ‘joints’ wherever desired. These constructs can lie flat, or rise to grand three-dimensional heights. Magnetic play By Nancy Blakey You can use a variety of magnets for this project—from alphabets, to magnetic poetry words, to simple shapes. The cookie sheet makes a good base to draw on when the magnetic play is done. What you will need: • metal cookie sheet • lots of magnets: magnetic poetry, alphabets, shapes, and figures • zipper-type plastic bag to store the magnets in This is a self-directed project. Older children may like to make words from the letters or poems and phrases while younger kids can play with the shapes and figures. Nancy Blakey is the author of The Mudpies Activity Books. Her latest book is Go Outside! Interested in more projects? Visit her web site at nancyblakey.com
Mother love keeps anger in check Good parenting may be enough to counteract the effects of a ‘bad’ gene linked to aggression. In a new study that adds to the nature versus nurture debate, scientists have found that upbringing had a big moderating influence on the behaviour of monkeys that were genetically predisposed to violence. An American team led by Stephen Suomi of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (US) split a sample of rhesus monkeys into two groups. One group was deprived of their mothers at birth and left with their siblings to fend for themselves for the first six months of life. The rest were reared naturally. The Turn off the television!! The nation’s pediatricians have spelled it out: keep toddlers away from television and strictly limit the amount of time their older siblings spend in front of the box or playing computer and video games. In its first formal policy statement on children and the media, the peak pediatricians’ group has fired a broadside at exploitative marketing that its author said ‘directly and intentionally violated’ children too young to withstand it. ‘The amount of money spent by large commercial organisations on understanding children’s development for the purpose of exploiting them is now more than universities spend on child development studies,’ said the Preservatives, colourings and behaviour Artificial colourings and preservatives in food and drink boost levels of hyperactivity in pre-school children and urgent consideration should be given to removing them, claim doctors. The additives have a ‘significant’ impact on the behaviour of ordinary children and their elimination would be in the long-term interests of public health, researchers from the University of Southampton say. The proportion of children with high levels of hyperactivity was halved when the additives were removed, the researchers found. The additives in the test were: Colourings: Tartrazine (E102): A synthetic yellow azo dye found in fruit squash, fizzy drinks, custard powder, ice cream, sweets, chewing gum, jam and yoghurt. Banned in Norway and Austria. Sunset yellow (E110): Also a synthetic yel- childnews team also tested for a gene linked to aggressive behaviour, called 5HTT, which influences how the brain deals with the ‘feelgood’ chemical, serotonin. Monkeys with a ‘bad’ version of the gene that leads to low levels of serotonin and aggressive behaviour were found to become extremely violent if they were separated from their mothers. But this genetic variation had no effect on monkeys who had been raised by their mothers. Monkeys with a version of the gene that leads to high serotonin levels were placid, irrespective of their upbringing. Sydney Morning Herald statement’s author, Michael McDowell, head of the pediatric policy committee of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. The advice comes in response to accumulating evidence that media exposure can alter the development of children’s brains. McDowell said the evidence that watching violent or other inappropriate material could damage children’s development by desensitising their responses to real-life situations was now too strong to be ignored. He said governments had failed to act to protect children from excesses of advertising, or to acknowledge ‘the exquisite vulnerability of children vis-a-vis marketing’. Sydney Morning Herald low azo dye which must be heat treated. Found in orange jelly and squash, Swiss roll, apricot jam, hot chocolate mix, packet soups, canned fish. Banned in Norway and Finland. Carmoisine (E122): A synthetic red azo dye which must be heat treated. Used in blancmange, marzipan, jams, sweets, brown sauce, yoghurts, jellies and cheesecake mixes. Banned in Japan, Norway, Sweden and the US. Ponceau 4R (E124): Also known as Cochineal Red, a synthetic red azo dye used in dessert toppings, jelly, salami, seafood dressings, tinned strawberries and fruit pie fillings. Banned in Norway and the US. Preservatives: Sodium Benzoate (E211): The sodium salt of benzoic acid used as a food preservative and antiseptic. Found in margarine, pineapple juice, prawns, milk products, baked goods, lollipops and soft drinks. news.independent.co.uk Toddlers too sedentary New research suggests even 3-year-olds aren’t getting enough exercise, raising concerns over their weight, future disease risk, psychological wellbeing, behaviour and learning ability. In the first study to rigorously track the movements of preschoolers, scientists found that the average 3-year-old is physically active for just 20 minutes a day, well short of the recommended hour a day for that age. ‘A 3-year-old 25 years ago was eating 25% more than a 3-year-old today,’ said the study’s leader, John Reilly, a physiologist at the University of Glasgow. ‘But physical activity levels have dropped quite dramatically over the last 15 or 20 years.’ In the study, the children were spending between nine and 10 hours of their waking day hardly moving at all. The dangers of a sedentary childhood go beyond obesity, experts said. More active children tend to be better behaved and scientists suspect that more active children learn more effectively, perhaps because physical activity is a stimulus to brain development. Associated Press Television watching may hasten puberty Children who watch a lot of television, new research suggests, produce less melatonin, the ‘sleep hormone’, which has been linked to timing of puberty. Scientists at the University of Florence in Italy found that when youngsters were deprived of their TV sets, computers and video games, their melatonin production increased by an average 30%. ‘Girls are reaching puberty much earlier than in the 1950s. One reason is due to their average increase in weight; but another may be due to reduced levels of melatonin,’ suggests Roberto Salti, who led the study. ‘Animal studies have shown that low melatonin levels have an important role in promoting an early onset of puberty.’ Other studies have shown that children who spend a lot of time watching television or playing video games weigh more than other children, which might also exacerbate the early onset of puberty. New Scientist <strong>byronchild</strong> 45
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Page 37 and 38: Photo by Lisa Engeman Compiled by S
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