Introducing Engineering 4 Kids, an Engineering Curriculum to Enthrall


As the world becomes more and more developed, the wide-ranging fields of engineering are quickly becoming important. Here to help children enter this under-taught subject is Engineering 4 Kids.

April 12, 2017 – There is no denying that STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields are on the rise. As technology becomes more prevalent in more and more areas of life, employers everywhere are crying out in an attempt to find potential employees with engineering degrees. In turn, the STEM fields are quickly becoming a necessity in early education to acclimate more children to the fields of the future from a young age. However, there are simply not enough comprehensive instructional materials to entertain children while providing a full, progressive education. As a father of a five-year-old girl, one professional engineer by the name of Ernst Bergen noticed this lack of a comprehensive set of high-end materials, so he set out to create his own materials for both his child and other children to enjoy and learn from.

As a parent of a home-schooled child and an instructor of adults in the professional world, the Ernst feels up to the challenge of formally constructing a full-fledged, hands-on engineering curriculum. Despite the complexity of engineering concepts, Ernst has found ways to make core ideas seem intuitive, breaking them down to a level any child can understand. The teaching style incorporates visual, auditory, and hands-on elements to ensure that all types of learners are both receptive and entertained.

As for the course's topics, the curriculum is planned to cover an array of the main engineering fields including mechanical, electrical, computer, and civil engineering, giving learners a vast knowledge pool to pull from as they grow. In each of these subject, Ernst has developed a variety of activities, many of which sound appealing to even adults. These activities include a spaghetti bridge challenge, building homemade speakers, circuit designing, constructing water rockets, and more. But what sets this curriculum apart from other online materials is that it is truly comprehensive and progressive, meaning that a child can build a foundation of knowledge instead of being simply overwhelmed by a hodgepodge of science experiments. The K-4 curriculum even begins with a proper introduction that speaks to the importance of engineering while teaching a few problem-solving techniques.

Sadly, for a father to build such a broad curriculum largely on his own is not an easy or cheap task. To remedy this issue, Ernst has launched a crowdfunding campaign to support the curriculum's development. Those who support the campaign will be rewarded with recognition on the Engineering 4 Kids website alongside a series of lessons made for the final curriculum.
Additionally, anyone who visits the Kickstarter campaign page will be treated to a sample lesson, which Ernst has released as a free demo. With the support of readers, Ernst hopes to inspire both his daughter and kids around the world to change the world through the power of engineering.

To learn more visit the Kickstarter campaign page.

Transform your home in a cozy, but stylish place



You just moved in a new house, or you want to redecorate your old one, to throw the old furniture, and bring a wave of freshness and style. Is as simple as that! You may start with the accessories and if you aren’t content about the change you may continue with the hard pieces: the furniture and walls color. 

Let me give you some tips: which is the accessory you can’t live without, the most used through the day? Yes, you are right: the mirror! She might be your best friend, our your greatest enemy, but, in the same time a stylish accessory for your home. Why don’t you start your redecoration with it? Achieve vanity mirror with lights ikea. It will look absolutely perfect in your bedroom. It is a stylish, but cheap accessory, so your budget won’t suffer.  For a cozier and more inviting bedroom achieve a faux fur to a neat and tidy space. Chose a really luscious texture, for a glam note. Will add an err of opulence, but in the same time, will create a modern, cozier space. Faux fur pairs well with a wide range of materials, ranging from silks to velvets to heavy wool. Chose warm colors, for a note of elegance and style. For the color of your walls you may want blue. It has been showed that blue color enhances the melatonin production, so you will have a nice and pleasant sleep. 

You might want to have the opinion of a feng shui artist in order to balance the energies from your home, and then might hire a home decorator. If you can’t afford both, than give up to the decorator. You may find lots of good ideas for your home, for free in Ikea, for example. More, you can have many decorations on affordable prices, for all your rooms. 

You might notice that for an elegant touch you shouldn’t forget about the flowers. Whether there are cut in an elegant vas, or “alive” in the ground, they bring out a note of style and elegance. For a cozier home, buy more pillows for your sofa. For an original note, you might want to picture your family tree and hang it on the walls. Bring some new candles in your bedroom or living-room. For a relaxing environment choose artwork that isn’t too busy or jarring or is busy to the eye. Don’t overreact with technology. You’d better invest in a new wardrobe, or new make-up products, especially if you are a single woman. For a full transformation, don’t forget about the kitchen and bathroom. Do small changes: change the carpets. Buy new chairs, new towels and a new vessel. You’ll feel that you have a new great, astonishing home. 

You can’t control the world, but you can control your own home! It’s up to you!

5 Clutter - Free Tips for Moms

1) Store your child's outgrown clothes in large plastic bins. Attach identifying labels such as "0 to 3 months," "6 to 9 months," "9 to 12 months," and so on. Once your child has grown out of a size, you can easily store the clothes, loan them to a friend, or take them to a consignment shop

2) Turn your hangers backward at the beginning of every season. Anything left hanging on a backward hanger at the end of the season hasn't been worn – give it away!
 
3) Get rid of one bag of clothes, toys, and books for every bag that comes into the house. It means less stuff to clean up.
 
4) Label shelves in the linen closet so family members know where to store items like beach towels and guest room sheets.
 
5) Open mail with the trash can or recycle bin nearby so junk mail and catalogs can be thrown out immediately.

6 (of many!) top reasons that you (yes YOU!) should sponsor a child


source: https://www.thesmallthings.org/blog/2016/4/13/the-top-6-of-many-reasons-that-you-yes-you-should-sponsor-a-child

1. IT’S EASY.
If you can afford a daily cup of coffee, you can afford to sponsor a child! Sponsorship starts so low (less than a soda or cup of coffee per day) because your money goes so far in Tanzania, where so many still suffer from dire poverty. Just $20 feeds a child at the orphanage for a month, and $50 cover’s a week’s salary for a caregiver. Even better, as a small, grassroots NGO employing mostly local staff, we are able to achieve incredible results on a comparatively tiny budget. That’s what our organization is all about - bringing together small contributions from individuals all over the world in order to achieve big results! Sponsorship covers food, caretakers, education, medical care, and all other needs for your sponsored child.

2. IT’S FUN.
You’ll enjoy watching your sponsored child grow and thrive! These kids are sweet, funny, smart, and hilarious - your life will be enriched by knowing them. This is crucial for you to understand - these kids are not broken, and despite having lived through often immense trauma, they are at their core just normal, happy, healthy kids. Little Baracka, one of the strongest willed little boys I have ever had the immense pleasure of knowing, decided around one and a half that he refused to be left behind in the mornings with the other younger children, including his twin sister, when the older kids (3+) attended preschool. Instead he simply followed them out day after day, screaming bloody murder if interrupted, until he was allowed to stay. Recently, Ema (who is ten years old) asked me if his sponsor is old. When I asked him what old meant, he considered for a minute before responding, “Like, 30?” David is nine, and describes himself gleefully as having “big ears like an elephant.” They make me laugh every single day. Sponsors receive quarterly updates, photos, and often direct letters and videos from the children as they grow up.

3. IT’S GOOD FOR YOU.
Not only will sponsoring a child make you smile, you will feel great knowing you are making a difference in the world. There are even studies that show that charitable giving improves the health and happiness of the giver! There is a large and growing body of research demonstrating charity’s positive effects on the giver, a real win/win situation! According to a study done in 2008, those who give to the needy reduce the odds of a premature death by nearly 60% compared with those who don’t lend a helping hand. Lead author Stephanie Brown explains, “Making a contribution to the lives of other people may help to extend our own lives.” In another study from 2008 originating at Harvard, giving money away created more happiness for participants than spending it on themselves, even if they expected the opposite. This happens because altruistic actions releaseendorphins in the brain, giving you that great “warm fuzzy” feeling that comes from doing good.

4. IT’S GOOD FOR YOUR FAMILY.
Sponsoring a child together with your own kids or grandchildren can be a great way to bond as a family while teaching them about the importance of giving back. For kids, it can be hard to grasp the immensity of problems like poverty and lack of medical access. Sponsoring a child, especially one around their own age, helps put a human face on abstract ideas, while also helping them get to know kids from another culture. This type of interaction with real kids can also help them to understand that tough childhoods or different backgrounds are nothing when compared to the vast commonalities between children all over the world! We have one great couple who sponsor a little girl the same age as their own baby girl, May -they share the same raucous laugh and chubby cheeks!

5. IT MAKES A HUGE DIFFERENCE FOR ONE CHILD
We create hope for orphaned and vulnerable children, by providing loving care when they have nowhere else to go, and by building up the capacity of their families and communities in order to give them brighter futures. 100% of sponsorship funds are spent on the children’s care! Up until about ten years ago, the children who grew up in the orphanage were simply sent back to the village at age five, regardless of whether there was anyone there able and willing to care for them. More than a third ended up abused, neglected, or passing away. Now there are two possibilities - either we find loving relatives who want to take them in but require financial support, and assist them through payment of school fees, microfinance and business development. Alternatively, they move into the warm family-style homes at Happy Family Children’s Village, attend high quality schools while living as a group with the children and caretakers they have known their entire lives.

6. IT CREATES A BETTER FUTURE FOR US ALL.
It’s not just the kids who benefit from your generosity. Sponsorship raises leaders and helps families and communities, ensuring that the positive effects of your donation continue for many years to come. TST is local at every level -we have Tanzanian caretakers, volunteers, support and management staff. We are not anyone’s saviors - we simply provide the support and infrastructure that the community needs to lift itself up. Overall, more than 90% of our budget is spent on the ground in Tanzania and goes right back into the local community. Through our family preservation and reunification efforts, we use sponsorship funds to either bring children home from orphanage care or keep them from entering residential care in the first place. We’ve helped many families to create sustainable businesses, pumped over half a million dollars into the local economy, and given happy, healthy childhoods to over a hundred children. With their excellent educations, high levels of support, and global perspective, they are poised to become the next leaders of Tanzania and (who knows?) maybe the world!


Teddy Bear's Picnic - 7th Album Release by Kinderjazz

http://www.kinderjazz.com/index.html

The world's only big band/jazz ensemble for kids, Kinderjazz has released their seventh album, Teddy Bear's Picnic. The family-friendly album is available through the group's website at http://www.kinderjazz.com, as well as CD Baby, itunes, amazon and all major online music retailers. The Australian-based ensemble, led by Dr. Christobel Llewellyn and her husband, composer/lyricist David Llewellyn, features top musicians from the region, who are selected for both their musicianship and their ability to relate to children.



Watch their latest video on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxDd4noEEfc&sns=em



“We are passionately committed to bringing the magical world of music and its instruments to children of all ages,” said the Llewellyns.

Whether you're looking for ways to stimulate a developing young mind, you'd like to introduce children to the pleasures of music, or you just want your kids to have fun, you'll find Kinderjazz’s collection of blues, latin, ragtime, jazz, and swing music is perfect for girls and boys under the age of 12.

The one-of-a-kind swing band for children has performed in some of the most prestigious venues in the world, and their recorded music is specifically written to engage young children, while simultaneously appealing to adults of all ages.  Parents love it because it is jazz and its educational in a fun way, grandparents love it because it takes them back.  Children love the rhythms and enjoy the instruments.

Kinderjazz has received praise from both educators and critics, including a previous recommendation from Sesame Street.

"Australia's Kinderjazz swings from Latin to blues to funk with childlike glee" --Vivian Fields - Midnight Jazz

"Kinderjazz push boundaries of genre with 'unbreakable joy'. The Australia-based Kinderjazz symbolize the past and future of the genre, respectful of their swing ancestry but unafraid to play in the sandbox. Before you reject Jazz Kings for praising "children's music," take note that Kinderjazz are not delivering you canned music or covers; these are new songs with the flavors of old, performed with unbreakable joy and impressive technical skill. There should be a sticker on the CD which flatly states, "Contains no cheese."--Al Coleman Jr. - Jazz Kings

Kinderjazz is a 12 piece fully acoustic swing orchestra, who opened Manly Jazz Festival in 1998, and since then, have performed at the Sydney Opera House, Daring Harbour, the Teddy Bear’s Picnic at Parramatta Stadium, to more than 10,000 families, Carols in the Domain 2000 on Channel 7, Stadium Australia and many major venues around Australia. www.kinderjazz.com

Creating a memorable childhood


When I was growing up my whole treasure trove of toys comprised of a few hand -me -down dolls, missing a few limbs; a rusted bicycle which was a remnant of the lost childhood of some older cousin and a whole lot of books. I would often dream about the fairy tale like toy collections of my friends and if I could have one wish come true I would have asked for the replica of the fancy dolls my friends, aunties and uncles brought from their foreign trips. Since I was not lucky enough to have any such strategically placed relations, my father tried to make my wish come true by buying me a doll from the local market. Today I do not, for the life of me, remember anything about that much cherished doll. What I do   remember however, is the little wooden doll house he built and the fun we had designing and decorating it with cardboard cut-out furniture and painting it with left over wall-paints.


 
When I look back  the fondest memories of my childhood have very little to do with that much coveted and cherished doll What I recall best is the time I spent watching him build that wooden house out of old odds and ends and getting that paper furniture together. I have vivid memories of Papa and me, our hands covered in white enamel paint, sitting in our balcony and painting our old garden chairs. I hated science till Papa fashioned a magnifying glass for me from an old lens and helped me discover intricate patterns in leaves, fabric, hair etc. My happiest memories  are of  me and my father  reading and sharing interesting  bits of information from numerous periodicals and him , recounting tales from his own childhood And in all this ,  that much coveted imported doll figures  nowhere in my memories.


Much later in life when I had   my own children I tried to give them all that I had dreamed about when I was that young. The latest    toys, gadgets, stationary anything… the best that we could afford and   I was satisfied that they would have a ‘complete’ childhood

One day while looking at old family photographs I was amazed to see how my kids recalled each tiny detail of the trips we had taken together. Our first trip abroad  when they were 7 &10, yet they remembered names of places, the hotels ,the things that had gone wrong, how much trouble we had with language, how much fun we had grocery shopping and cooking in our studio apartments in the various cities we stayed in, trying to decipher maps and dragging our suitcases where escalators were out of order…… everything we did together.  Everything was etched in their minds with amazing clarity and warmth.   On an impulse I asked them about some of their most  prized possessions of their childhood…..an expensive  model of a Cadillac my son had bought on a trip to Canada,  a Disney trinket my daughter  had bought  and kept carefully wrapped up … were  vague recollections now but the good times we had had  were vivid memories years later  .

I felt so contented that just like me ,my  children had a whole treasury  of  happy , wholesome  family  memories of our “together ‘times, and that somehow makes me convinced that we  have been successful, to some extent ,as  parents.



As parents we are so preoccupied with providing the latest gadgets, toys, playthings to our kids, to fulfill their endless demands thinking that we are providing them a happy, complete childhood. Instead, try to focus on how much of your time and yourself you can give to them. What they are likely to remember and cherish most when they are older is not their playthings but who they played with. Children recall pleasant times spent with loved ones with more warmth and accuracy than any fancy toys you might buy them. What we buy for their momentary distraction, or to make up for the lack of time that we spend with them remains just that---- momentary. What children remember and cherish for a lifetime is what they do with you not what you buy for them. So spend more time ---it doesn't’ matter whether we do anything productive or just fool around with them ---the dividend would be much higher than by buying them mindless toys just to keep them occupied when we are too busy to be with them







The Trotters of Tweeville


In this second book of the Trotters of Tweeville series, one little girl works
hard to practice kindness and care when speaking to others.

"Harraf Namrattle lives in Tweeville and is a girl who always says what she thinks--no matter what! She doesn't seem to understand that sometimes words can hurt others' feelings and that some things are better left unsaid. Today, however, Harraf's mother reminds her to;..."

Think before you speak!

Harraf sets out to play baseball with her friend Bo, who has a new baseball mitt. What will she say when she sees it?Then she meets her friend Hennaj, who has a lemonade stand. What will she say when she tries the lemonade? When she sees another friend drawing on the sidewalk, will she take her mother's advice and be nice? Can Harraf Namrattle learn to think before she speaks and to be kind to the people in Tweeville?

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Introducing Engineering 4 Kids, an Engineering Curriculum to Enthrall

As the world becomes more and more developed, the wide-ranging fields of engineering are quickly becoming important. Here to help children...