Monthly Archives: November 2013

Learning Doesn’t Have to Stop Over Thanksgiving Break

For Parents
Learning Doesn’t Have to Stop Over Thanksgiving Break

Taking a trip this weekend, get your child involved in the plans.

When the kids come home for the Thanksgiving break, you might be tempted to let them veg out in front of the TV and video games, giving their brains a recharge from their studies. And while downtime is scientifically proven effective in the overall growth of a child’s brain, that doesn’t mean that a whole week needs to go by where they aren’t learning anything.

Thanksgiving week is full of opportunities for students to learn new things, and perhaps even bring them closer together to you. Here are some ideas:

Give them some control of the feast

If you’re hosting Thanksgiving, or just producing a dish for a potluck, get the kids involved. If you already do that, put an educational spin on it. Have them research what was actually served at the first Thanksgiving and whether any of those dishes can be reproduced for your meal. Then have them explain the dish at dinner to the gathered guests. The process will give their brain a workout.

Give them some control of the trip

If you’re traveling, especially by car, let the kids pick a place to stop during the trip. It doesn’t necessarily have to be historical, but they need to be able to guide the rest of the family around the site and explain why it’s important or interesting. Be completely hands-off on this. Your interference can backfire, making them feel less trusted.

The goal is to give them ownership of the project, which should help engage them throughout the week.

Give them some control of Black Friday

Millions of Americans make a tradition of the marathon to consumerism known as Black Friday. Instead of blindly going from store to store, enlist the kids’ help in some research. There are plenty of sites out there, like blackfriday.com, that show what will be available at each store and for what price. Have them compute where the best deals are and then formulate an itinerary that will get you the best bang for the buck. Being an intelligent consumer might be one of the most important lessons you ever give a kid.

Give back

Finally, many families (but not nearly enough) make it a point of sharing their Thanksgiving with people less fortunate than themselves. That might mean helping out at a shelter or soup kitchen or simply donating some toys and gifts for the upcoming holiday season. During the week, make it a point of showing that the holidays aren’t just about how much you can eat or buy, but being thankful for the opportunity and sharing with those who cannot.

Deeper Educational Facts about Thanksgiving

For Teachers
Deeper Educational Facts about Thanksgiving

The Plymouth Thanksgiving occurred sometime between September 21 and November 1. It was simply too cold to have it any later than that.

There are plenty of resources for learning about the history of Thanksgiving (here’s a great collection of videos from WatchKnowLearn, if you’re interested). But to get kids really interested, sometimes you need to dig deeper. Sometimes much deeper. Here is a collection of little known facts and coincidences about Thanksgiving, both the holiday as it stands now and what is considered the First Thanksgiving in 1621.

We’ll start with a doozie:

The first Thanksgiving celebration in America actually occurred in 1541 in the Texas panhandle by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and his expedition.

Many countries have had harvest celebrations similar to Thanksgiving for hundreds of years, including Russia, China, and many African tribes.

Abraham Lincoln established the official federal Thanksgiving holiday in 1863. Until then, previous presidents proclaimed various times of the year as “Thanksgiving”.

Much of the food at the Plymouth Thanksgiving was not what we would consider traditional: lots of shellfish, lobster, venison, and wild boar were served along with the occasional turkey.

The Plymouth Thanksgiving occurred sometime between September 21 and November 1. It was simply too cold to have it any later than that.

In keeping with another American tradition, the southern states refused to observe the federal Thanksgiving holiday until well after Lincoln established it, fearing it was a federal takeover of their rights.

The first Thanksgiving football game was Yale vs. Princeton in 1876.

The Detroit Lions have been hosting a football game on Thanksgiving since 1934. The Dallas Cowboys stole the idea in 1966.

The oldest Thanksgiving Day parade is not Macys’, but rather the IKEA Philadelphia parade, started in 1920.

Since 1975, Native Americans have gathered on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco during Thanksgiving for “Unthanksgiving Day”, where they commemorate the loss of their culture and land.

The US Virgin Islands have two Thanksgivings: the national holiday and “Hurricane Thanksgiving Day” on October 19th to give thanks for the islands being spared from hurricanes that year (if, indeed, one has not hit them).

Native Hawaiians have had a Thanksgiving celebration for hundreds of years before the Plymouth Thanksgiving. Called “Makahiki”, it lasts for four months and people were forbidden to work during that time.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the biggest day of alcohol sales in the US, outselling New Year’s Eve, St. Patrick’s Day, and the Super Bowl.

Pork, chicken, and cheese all contain more tryptophan than turkey.

Thanksgiving Ideas for Older Students

For Teachers
Thanksgiving Ideas for Older Students

How will you make Thanksgiving interesting for your older students?

Without trying to sound dismissive, planning Thanksgiving lessons for younger students is easy. Making a turkey out of a handprint or pilgrim hats and Native American headdresses out of construction paper is fun and gets elementary students into the mood of the holiday.

But what about older students, who are no longer impressed with paper headwear? There are still some great lessons revolving around Thanksgiving that are not only age-appropriate, but also interactive and historically accurate.

The Mayflower Compact

Thanksgiving is important, but equally important is why the pilgrims were here in the first place. Those ideas are captured in the Mayflower Compact, the first governing document of the new colony. Once you and the students do some background study of the document itself, have some student groups start drafting their own. You can even go so far as to have them use parchment paper and calligraphy, just as they did almost 400 years ago.

Revisionist history

There has been a lot written about the first Thanksgiving and the general experience of the pilgrims in the new world, some more accurate than others. It might be out of the purview of the class to analyze the fact from fiction (although it’s a lot of fun), but you can have the kids speculate about differing futures that would have happened if certain events never took place. What if the natives viewed the pilgrims as enemies from the start? What if the pilgrims had reached their intended destination of Virginia rather than what would eventually be Massachusetts?

Sell the colony

By all accounts, life for the pilgrims was miserable before the first Thanksgiving and didn’t improve much afterward, yet people from England kept coming to the new colony that would become Massachusetts. Have the students pretend it’s their job to “sell” the new colony to the people back home. They can make brochures or even a PowerPoint to talk about the positives of living in the New World.

Cultural understanding

Many countries around the world have what could be considered Thanksgiving celebrations, even though they might have nothing to do with pilgrims and natives. These holidays—in France, Great Britain, Greece, Brazil, and even China—tend to take place around harvest time, just as Thanksgiving does for us. Have the students compare and contrast these Thanksgivings with ours. You might even want to organize your class celebration to resemble one of the foreign harvest celebrations for a change of pace.

The Foods Kids’ Brains Need

For Parents
The Foods Kids’ Brains Need

Brain Foods for you kids.

Maybe not.It’s not news to find out that kids, generally speaking, do not have the most adventurous palates. In an effort to have them eat anything, parents often turn to foods that may not seem to lack nutritional value, but might be lacking in brain-building ingredients. As long as it’s not a sugary cereal or frozen pizza, we should be fine, right?

Here are some ways to guide your child through three meals a day of brain food without starving them to death.

Breakfast

Most cereals lead to a sugar crash in the mid-morning. If you’re keeping your kids away from them, that’s great. But you’re also looking for some protein, choline, and antioxidants. Eggs are a good start, but what if your child doesn’t eat eggs? No kid can turn down French toast.

Oatmeal, although lacking a particular ingredient that helps in memory and brain function, keeps kids satisfied for longer, which means they stay focused during class. Mix in some strawberries or blueberries for an antioxidant kick.

No time to make breakfast, but still want a brain boost? Nuts are high in protein and choline, like eggs. Pick some breakfast bars that contain nuts and you have a good breakfast on the go.

Lunch

Lunch might not be up to you, depending on whether your child likes to eat school lunch or not. If you do make their lunch, you’re probably aware of how nutritious whole wheat bread for sandwiches is compared to white bread. What you might not know is that wheat bread also contains a brain booster called folate, which you might remember from pre-natal vitamins. It’s key to the creation of memory neurons in the brain.

Dinner

Fish is one of the best-known brain foods there is, full of Omega-3 fatty acids and other ingredients that help the brain function. It’s also one of the most challenging foods to get children to try. Don’t give up. Try many different varieties prepared many different ways. Provide some dipping sauces if you have to. It’s worth finding a way to get fish into your child’s diet.

How to Refocus Your Child after Halloween

For Parents
How to Refocus Your Child after Halloween

Now that we’ve let them have fun taking for the night, how do we get their attention back?

There is an argument to be made that Halloween might be the most distracting holiday of the year. It normally occurs on a school night. Everyone is pretending to be something they aren’t (and none of those costumes are “successful student”). And, of course, the abundance of candy.

Depending on the candy supply and the age of the child, the Halloween hangover can last a week or more. Here are some ways to get your child refocused sooner.

Candy management

Parenting during Halloween is all about candy management. Just because they “earned” their stash of sugar doesn’t mean that you can’t still control the output. In fact, use the candy as a source of positive reinforcement when they do something well over the next week. Every chore deserves a trip to the candy jar. So does complete and correct homework. Of course, if they’re just sneaking pieces behind your back it undermines the system, so make sure you’re keeping tabs on the candy receptacle.

Quickly return the house to normal

It’s hard not to stay excited about a holiday if you’re still surrounded by skeletons, pumpkins, and ghosts. And it’s even harder if you’re trying to do your homework in a graveyard. For the people who really pull out all the stops, it can be hard to say goodbye to Halloween. But they must, and quickly. The sooner the house returns to normal, so too does your child’s focus. And then refrain from decorating for Thanksgiving until school is nearly out for the break.

Turn Halloween into a learning experience

Scary movies and costumes are great, but there is real historical significance to the day formerly known as All Hallows Eve. The History Channel used to do a really good job of showing documentaries to that effect, but they have since abandoned that strategy for Swamp People. You can still find plenty of materials on YouTube or through other online portals. You don’t necessarily want to give the kids any added homework. Just foster some curiosity about the holiday and its roots.

Give something back

Let’s be honest: Halloween is all about taking. Yet there are plenty of children around town who don’t get to dress up, go trick-or-treating, or receive candy. Plenty of shelters and charities would love some help, not only with donations but also helping to facilitate whatever they have planned for Halloween. Seeing children less fortunate than themselves can really help to work out any selfishness in your own children. It might also help them app