Kids Play

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Kids Learning Games – Should Your Kids Play Computer Games?

January 28th, 2011

Disproportionate gaming can stunt a child’s social development, but you should not overlook the benefit your child can get from kids computer games.

Young kids live in a world that has always had the Internet. Children these days will use computers in discipline quite often; with even before, they begin school, they are using games online for kids that they can use to learn.

When children play computer games, some areas of their brain become more active. Those areas that translate and decode visual information and transmit information and instructions to your hands are used more, and both of these are important. If nothing else, if you allow your child to play kids computer games they will be able to interpret visual stimuli faster, and have slightly improved eye/hand coordination.

On the other hand, if you manage to find some good educational games, children can learn a lot when they play kids computer games. You can find the type of collaborative interface, which allows up to four children to play the same game together on one computer, using four separate mouse pointers.

When your children play computer games that are educational and high quality, they can learn number skills, word skills and collaboration – three things that are vital for other forms of learning. While playing violent computer games does tend to have a negative effect, most computer games do little harm, and might even teach some good. All you need to do is watch your child to make sure that they spend at least some time outdoors.

You know how to find all sorts of things online for kids. Not only are there learning games for almost every single age group, there are too many home schooling sites that comprise popped up for both the children and the parents. These are great resources. I have been going through some of them to find learning things for my daughter.

Though the Internet is a wealth of great information online for kids, to hand are effects that you have to watch out designed for. Just like in your own community, there may be dangerous types lurking around where kids are known to be. Around are those who pretend to be teenagers (or even younger) in order to get close to children. If your child is using message boards online for kids, make certain you check everything they are doing and know who they are talking to. It is vital that you keep an eye on what is being said.

By: Jane Reynolds

About the Author:

Jane Reynolds is an authority educator in the areas of Education. She is also a mother and a writer who wrote few learning games articles for children. In the website of http://www.the-child-learning-game.com you will find a new refreshing way of looking towards education and fun process.

For more information to help parents find time-saving tips and parenting strategies to help children learn at home, succeed in school, and grow up healthy, visit http://www.the-child-learning-game.com and find out more recommendations for child learning games activities.

The Child Learning Game is an incredibly versatile and globally unique glimpse on the educational learning. It allows you to understand the learning process and get tips for fun education.

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Sports ALL Kids Should Play

January 26th, 2011

One of the questions that I get asked most routinely is which sports I believe offer the best development capacity to young athletes.

This is a loaded question for several reasons…

First of all, ANY sporting activity lead by a quality-based coach is wonderful for kids.

That being said, the true crux and efficacy of that statement is based largely on the ‘quality-based coach’ comment.

It is only when poorly educated and over zealous parents and coaches (i.e. adults) get involved too heavily in youth sports that the experience can become sour. Parents often push too hard and seek success at a young age; coaches often are limited in their understanding of developmental science and routinely ‘drill’ kids with ‘sport specific’ (I hate that phrase) exercises that are too narrow in scope (not to mention that many youth sport coaches don’t know how to TEACH specific aspects of movement or speed and yet get annoyed when their athletes don’t perform a given drill to a high enough standard).

One the most prominent and problematic realities of the above comments is that there don’t seem to be many (any?) outlets for kids just to play anymore. Every young sporting activity is a life or death struggle that MUST climax in a victory… heaven forbid we actually teach developmentally sound skills in a fun and energetic way in order to promote a wholeness to our youths development – which by the way should include emotional stability (for instance highlighting the skills gained in a given season rather than the ‘wins’ and trophies accrued) and mental stimulation (in the form of engaging life lessons that instill a lifelong love for physical activity rather than a win-at-all-costs mentality which can burden kids with various complexes for years).

Having said that, I encourage parents to remove the desire to watch their 8 year olds win the weekend tournament; I encourage coaches to remove there ‘Lombardi’ hats when they walk into a practice or game situation; I also encourage strength and conditioning coaches to remove there yearning to ‘test’ young athletes from a biomotor perspective and look only to increase a child’s ability from a performance outlook.

In fact…

My message is simple…

Play sports seasonally.

Find coaches and programs that highlight skill acquisition rather than victory.

Find trainers who do the same – work towards instilling skills into kids rather than creating performance markers.

So, here than are my top four sports that all kids should play (in no particular order)-

1) Soccer

In most parts of North America, kids lack foot dexterity and soccer is a wonderful natural enhancer of both foot dexterity and foot-eye coordination. Don’t pigeon hole this ability as only necessary for soccer either. Remember, the crux of developing a ‘whole’ athlete is to engross them in as much athletic stimulus as possible at a young age. Increased foot dexterity will, in time, round out a youngsters overall ability and allow them to progress in there ‘chosen’ sport more proficiently.

Additionally, although many North Americans find soccer to be ‘boring’ (although I will need an explanation on how soccer is boring, but baseball and golf are America’s pastimes) it is a wonderfully athletic and tactical-based sport. Sudden bursts of explosive power, change of direction, looking two plays ahead, playing a ‘forcing’ based defense in which the defender uses their body/skills to change what the offensive player wanted to do – these are fantastic athletic lessons that can be filed away in the nervous system and used at a later point in any sporting activity.

2) Swimming

Unloaded shoulder and hip mobility adds a great deal of pliability to the frame of a young athlete. With so many injuries occurring due to restrictions and tightness in kids (yes… I do believe wholeheartedly that many of the youth sport injuries we see annually throughout the world could be prevented with a simple and basic increase in both systemic strength and mobility) hip and shoulder mobility initiatives are crucial.

Additionally, kinesthetic differentiation is a physical skill lacking in many kids (this refers to the knowledge of how much force is necessary to produce a desired result). My opinion on this matter is simple – everything we tend to do with kids, both in sport and training, is based on maximal efforts. In our zeal to search for those ‘performance markers’, we overlook the notion that sub-maximal efforts are both developmentally sound and build certain physical qualities not seen in high force-based outputs. Swimming is the essence of building kinesthetic differentiation – kids simply won’t last long in a pool if they put as much force as possible into every stroke.

3) Martial Arts

Almost every martial art I am familiar with is based on skill acquisition as a primary marker. Not only is that mentally and emotionally good for a child, but it infers the teaching of patience and ‘enjoying the journey’ rather than ‘searching for the destination’.

While a great deal of martial arts practices in North America have become watered down (8 year olds earning black belts – if you knew anything about traditional martial arts, you know how ridiculous that is), most organizations I am familiar with teach a wonderful style of patient skill development and discipline.

Athletically speaking, dynamic flexibility, end-range systemic strength, mobility, spatial awareness – the physical ability built through martial arts is awe-inspiring and can apply to any sport.

4) Gymnastics

Again, the physical elements that can be built through gymnastics are amazing – spatial awareness, flexibility, relative strength, dynamic and static balance – the list goes on.

If for no other reason, the ability to know where you are in space and take a fall ‘well’ is a required skill for any sport.

So… there’s my list.

Don’t get me wrong, the list is nothing without a quality coach at the helm of each of these respective sports. Martial arts instructors for instance, are often archaic in their knowledge of warm-up design as are gymnastic coaches in their practices of flexibility enhancement. Having said that, good coaches do exist and I urge you as a parent to find them. I also encourage trainers to seek out joint venture partnerships with quality coaches and augment a child’s development with solid strength and skill acquisition-based training habits.

Play soccer in the autumn.

Swim in the summer.

Participate in martial arts through the winter.

Take gymnastics in the spring.

Mix in some developmental training and play other sports recreationally for interest and development sake (basketball and baseball for example).

By the age of 13 – 14, you’ll have a solid athlete with limited injury who understands sport tactics and is strong, mobile and flexible…

Not a bad place to be!

By: Brian Grasso

About the Author:

Known as ‘America’s Youth Fitness Coach’, Brian Grasso spends all his time training young athletes, children with disabilities and those encumbered with body weight concerns.

He has authored two books on the subject and was recently featured in Newsweek magazine for his work in youth fitness and sports training. He has also been named as one of the ‘Top 100 Trainers in America’ by Men’s Health magazine.

Brian is the Founder and CEO of the International Youth Conditioning Association and can be contacted through his website – http://www.DevelopingAthletics.com

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Tags: Lombardi

What Age Should Your Kids Start Learning to Play Acoustic Guitar?

January 25th, 2011

You may have a child that is desperate to start learning the acoustic guitar, but what age should they start. This is like asking the question “How long is a piece of string?” You must take into account some very basic questions.

First, is your child big enough to hold an acoustic guitar comfortably? The smallest real guitar that you can buy is a ? size guitar. This guitar is designed for kids between the ages of 4-6 years old whose height is between 3ft 3inches – 3ft 9inches.

The next size guitar is a half size for kids between the ages of 5-8 years old and whose height is 3ft 10inches- 4ft 5inches. The ? size guitar is designed for children 4ft 6inches- 4ft 11inches and the full size guitar is for children 5ft and over.

Once you have established the size of the acoustic guitar that you need the next questions to ask is “Are their fingers strong enough for them to be able hold down the strings of the guitar.”
This is a very important point, just because they can hold a guitar doesn’t mean that their fingers will be strong enough too able to play it.

I would also like to point out that when buying an acoustic guitar, make sure the guitar has nylon strings.
Why you may be asking? This is because nylon guitar strings will be much kinder to soft finger.
Metal guitar strings are very hard and after a few hours of practising their fingers could become very tender.
And last but not least do you think they are old enough to sit down and practice, will they really have the commitment and how long will their enthusiasm last.

If you can answer yes to all these questions then your child will be ready. If on the other hand you have the smallest doubt, then I would wait a couple of months and review the situation.

If your child is not ready wait and save yourself some money. If you rush them into it to early they will not enjoy it and you will only find yourself stress and your child will be unhappy.Take your time, when the time is right you will have more fun and less heartache, and you will not have wasted your hard earned cash.

Good luck I hope this has helped.

By: Susanne Penfold

About the Author:

I work full time and have a teenage daughter who wanted to an acoustic guitar to learn to play. Because of the problems we had I decided to set up a site to help other parents, so they don’t make the same mistakes as I did.