It seems that every year buying gifts and necessities for our little ones becomes harder and harder. Now there is a new low that bans the use of certain toxic chemicals in the toy manufacturing since February 2009.

Toys containing the chemicals, called phthalates, can no longer be manufactured or imported after February 2009…

Sounds great, doesn’t it? However, the new law has a loophole: selling of the old toys with those chemicals continues to be absolutely legal!

The agency [Consumer Product Safety Commission] wrote a letter last week telling manufacturers they can still sell their existing stocks of phthalate-containing toys even after the ban takes effect in February.

Don’t you wish you could have the best of the both worlds – the best of Doman, the best of phonics, all in one method? Actually, that can be done as well! Thanks to A Proud Papa for sharing his method of successfully teaching his own son to read:
Download A.P.P. flashcards with phonetically grouped words and their illustrations
Step by step directions for using these cards
Flesch’s Instructions [how to teach children to read using phonics]
Amazing Power point presentations on every possible subject by A.P.P.!
Some notes from the producer of these cards

With education costs increasing every year, don’t you worry how your precious little home genius will afford college education? This mom devised a few tips that help save the money for this important and expensive educational milestone: Lisa M. recommends

• putting money into his education account 4 times a year
• enrolling in the Upromise program: you receive a percentage of purchases into your education fund
  

  This includes regular grocery shopping, pharmacies, gas, stores and Internet shopping.

I’ve finally got my hands on “How Smart is Your Baby?” by Doman. Since someone recently was asking if this book is worth buying (in addition to other “Teach Your Baby” series) I decided to post this review:

First of all, I have all “How to teach your baby…” – Reading, Math, Encyclopedic Knowledge, Swimming, Physically Superb. “How smart is your baby” is slightly different (I haven’t read the “increase your baby’s intelligence”), though it has bits of everything.

Back To Encyclopedic Knowledge Topics Listing
How do I use these books?

English PowerPoint Presentations
Russian PowerPoint Presentations
Spanish PowerPoint Presentations
German PowerPoint Presentations
Presentations in other languages*/ ?>

Note: files marked with ^M include Magnitudes of data – fact listing about each Intelligence Bit. Files marked with ^V include links to videos. Files marked with include sound effects.

Presentations in English

Top Ten Largest Deserts M(enhanced with sounds and magnitudes Top Ten Largest Deserts Thank you Perla Adams!)

Top Ten Largest Islands M(enhanced with sounds and magnitudes Top Ten Largest Islands Thank you Perla Adams!)

United States 1 Thanks to A.P.P. for a fantastic work!)

United States 2 Thanks to A.P.P. for a fantastic work!)

Art? Problem solving?

Yes. Exactly. Art is one of the activities that kids can engage in very early. Self-expression through art can help vent some accumulated negative feelings. But according to Susan Striker, the author of Young At Art doing the RIGHT art project can do a lot more: it can serve as gateways to all forms of learning, from vocabulary building to early math skills and improved dexterity. Not the traditional coloring books or “this is how your art project should look like” type of work, but truly expressive, creative and educational.

Now there is a scientific evidence, that concentrating on positive feedback with our little ones works better then pointing out their mistakes!

Eight-year-old children have a radically different learning strategy from twelve-year-olds and adults. Eight-year-olds learn primarily from positive feedback (‘Well done!’), whereas negative feedback (‘Got it wrong this time’) scarcely causes any alarm bells to ring. Twelve-year-olds are better able to process negative feedback, and use it to learn from their mistakes. Adults do the same, but more efficiently.

10 Parenting Tips – Things You Shouldn’t Say to Your Children
By Maureen Lawrence

Do you use phrases that edify and encourage your children?

Sometimes we don’t say things that edify or encourage our children.

Avoid using these ten parenting tip phrases to your children and you will starting on the road to raising more positive and self-confident children.

1 Just because I say so is not a good reason. Try to avoid using these words to your child.

Parenting tip

always have a reason why your child should or shouldn’t do something.

We all have heard that kids exposed to violent content are more prone to violence.

Researchers point to an existing body of research that documents the negative effects of violent media on children. “A clear picture has emerged that exposure to violent media increases the likelihood of aggressive thoughts, emotions, and behavior.”

But many parents don’t even realize how much violent are actually the movies their kids do get to watch: