education Archives - 3 Kids and Us

4 Methods From Talkspace to Discover Whether Online Learning Works for Your Child

November 10, 2020 by admin

Throughout the world, many students are experiencing school in a completely new way. Instead of students learning in a classroom, most educational facilities have begun online or distance learning. Other students are experiencing hybrid plans, combining both in-person and distance education.

Many students are dealing with new ways to learn. However, it’s also important to think about what these children’s parents are going through.

Determining Whether Distance Learning Works for Your Child

If you want to learn how your child is doing with distance learning, you can follow a few tips. Here are four great ways to learn more about how online learning works for your child.

Take a Closer Look at Their Problems

During this time, many children feel that online learning is like entering a new world. Because of this feeling, it’s understandable for children to feel like they’re struggling in certain areas. If you want to help your child, take a closer look at the exact issues they’re experiencing.

Work to Establish Educational Goals

Another important step to take is to understand your child’s goals. These types of goals can vary, depending on your child’s age and where they’re at in lesson plans. It’s also a good idea to ask your child’s school or teacher if they can provide you with copies of current lesson plans.

Focus on Your Child’s Mental Health

As people continue focusing on physical health issues, it’s sometimes easy to forget about your family’s mental health. When you’re used to attending school in person, remote learning sometimes causes mental health issues to develop.

Another way to help your child includes online therapy. Popular online therapy services like Talkspace enable children to speak with therapists. Plus, Talkspace has many therapists on hand who specialize in helping younger patients. Best of all, services like Talkspace are often more cost-effective than working with a local therapist.

Take Time to Speak With Educators

There’s another important group to focus on during this time, and that’s those teaching your children. Educators also have to make many adjustments to work from home. With that in mind, they know a lot about what you and your child might be going through. If your child is dealing with distance learning issues, it’s a good idea to schedule a time to speak with their teacher.

This type of meeting is helpful because it allows teachers to take a closer look at what issues your child might be dealing with. Unfortunately, it’s sometimes hard for teachers to spot what’s happening with one student in a remote setting. It might also allow your child to schedule one-on-time time with a teacher.

Parents Know Best

If things are going well with your child’s distance learning, that’s great. However, as a parent, you probably know the signs of a struggling child. It’s difficult to find children and parents who aren’t struggling with this new way of learning. Fortunately, the stress of this event is something we will all eventually put behind us.

How to Win a Scholarship

September 14, 2020 by admin

Scholarships are essentially financial aid toward schools and courses which are gifted, rather than loans or need-based grants that accrue interest from the moment it is taken out. With a scholarship, part or all the funding will be covered, so that talented students have the option to further their career debt-free while being treated as an investment.

While scholarships are a gift, they also come with strings attached, which are usually rules and clauses which must be kept intact to receive the scholarship money. That being said, where does a student even begin to look for winning a scholarship?

This piece will serve as a guide on what to do and where to look.

Write a Standout Resume for a Scholarship

Those who are looking to win a scholarship need to be able to stand out from the rest, which is where an exceptional resume comes in.

A resume should cover anything from extracurricular activities, awards that have been achieved, accomplishments, and interests. A resume can also help support an application and allow teachers to write letters of recommendation that coincide with the content.

For those that love sport, browse through asmscholarships.com.

Apply to as Many Scholarships as Possible

Like most things, scholarships is a numbers game, and the more you apply for, the more it should statistically increase the chances of obtaining one. A student can have all the skills, goals, and achievements necessary for a scholarship, but luck is also an extremely important factor too.

That said, it is important that scholarships are applied for only if the student matches all the criteria. The same applications or essays can be used for each scholarship to save time, but make sure they are personalized to the specific scholarship, and be sure to proofread everything!

Do Not Miss Scholarship Deadlines

Half of the deadlines for scholarships are during the fall, and the other half is during spring, so it is important to be prepared. Start searching for scholarships from the moment grades have been confirmed and pay attention to what the scholarship requires of the student. There are scholarships for different levels of education, but the terms and conditions can vary, such as already having a college, or another progressive position confirmed.

Always Complete the Optional Scholarship Application Work

If any scholarship applications that are being applied for have any “optional work” attached to it, make sure you do it. This not only shows that the student is both serious and keen about the scholarship, but it also shows initiative and the willingness to go the extra mile.

This is another one of those tips that will help student applications stand out from the ones who opted out of their extras.

Do Not Wait to Apply to a Scholarship Last Minute

There is nothing worse than having minutes to spare, only for the internet to crash, the laptop to die, or the essay that has been so carefully constructed to disappear into the computer abyss with no trace. Leaving applications until the last minute means there is no room for error, even if the error is no one’s fault. So, make sure to leave plenty of time to get the application in.

3 Fun, Simple and Powerful Ways to Teach Young Kids About Money

June 24, 2019 by admin

For parents, the message and motivation is simple: if you don’t take the time to teach your kids about money, then something or someone else will — and those lessons are likely to be financially costly and emotionally painful.

What’s more, unlike talking about that other subject (yes, you know the one — birds and bees and all of that stuff), discussing money doesn’t need to be uncomfortable or awkward.

Instead, talking to your kids about money can be fun and interesting — not just for them, but for you, too. Here are three suggestions:

1. Take your kids food shopping and make them part of the process from purchasing to paying.

Understandably, most parents who take their young kids food shopping have one clear goal in mind: get in and get out as quickly as possible, and with a minimum amount of whining, complaining, and “if you don’t start behaving right now then no TV for a week!” threats.

However, one way to get kids interested in the experience and boost their budding financial literacy, is by coaching them to be part of the process. Help them understand how similar products have different prices, and why some products like milk and butter are cheaper than others like imported fruits and pine nuts. And when it comes to paying, help them see — or better yet, let them handle — the transaction, so they can start understanding how the system works.

2. Use rewards and incentives to help kids pay themselves first.

In the financial world for grown-ups, a new and better way of looking at saving these days is to “pay yourself first”. In a similar sense, you can help your kids appreciate this fundamentally important aspect by using rewards and incentives for them to save more and spend less.

For example, if Santa Claus had your child on the good list (even after that “incident” with the grape juice) and handed him or her a $20 bill at Christmas, then you might offer to match their savings dollar-for-dollar after two or three months. Or, if your child has their heart set on something that costs more than they have available — like a new bike — then you can offer to help them reach their goal if they take the lead by being a smart, diligent saver who pays themselves first.

3. Stop giving allowances, and start giving commissions.

The time-honored practice of giving kids a weekly allowance is well-intentioned, but can actually be counterproductive if it encourages kids to believe that when they get older, a regular dose of money will magically appear.

To avoid setting your kids up for dismay and disappointment — and maybe some big financial losses later in life that are rooted in a sense of entitlement — stop giving allowances, and start giving commissions. For example, you can give out a basic amount for completing normal, age-appropriate chores (for 5-6 year-olds, this might be making their bed in the morning each day and putting away toys after play, for 7-8 year-olds it could be tasks like helping around the house, and so on).

It’s also important to tie commission to performance. If your child over-delivers and goes above and beyond, then boost the amount with a one-time bonus, or give them a raise if it’s something they’ve been doing for a while. Conversely, if they don’t meet a basic standard, then let them know that it’s going to cost them. Make sure that the message is consistent and clear, like a giant full-color banner from the Landmark Sign Company.

The Bottom Line

Teaching your kids about money doesn’t have to be difficult or full of angry statements like “money doesn’t go on trees!” Instead, it can be fun, interesting and most importantly: very profitable for your kids, and indeed, for your whole family.

Children At Play: The Many Ways Playing Games Benefits Your Child’s Development

January 17, 2019 by admin

As an adult needs to work in order to stimulate and exercise his or her brain, a child needs to play in much the same way. When a child plays, he or she learns about the world and discovers new things and the mind learns how to process. Furthermore, the child needs to play so that he or she can learn how to interact with oneself as well as with other individuals.

In fact, play for a child is of such vital importance that the United Nations has declared it as a basic right for every child. If you want to know more about why the UN has placed such importance on the play for a child, check out the below ways that play, whether it is learning based or unstructured and free, can benefit your child’s development.

– Encourage Creativity and Imagination

When a child plays, the child tends to imitate adults. A child will create made up games that imitate real life ‘adult’ situations. This helps to stimulate the child’s imagination and the events are usually based on real life. Through this imaginative storytelling, the child imagines and creates the narrative which then encourages abstract thinking. This abstract thinking then becomes the base for which the child can develop problem-solving skills as well as training the mind for advanced learning.

– Cognitive Growth

Several studies have shown that play is great for the developing brain. Moreover, when a child gets lost in free play, the free play can positively affect how the neural circuits become connected. When a child is free to experiment and play freely, it encourages confidence in the child as well as communication and intelligence.

– Behavioural and Emotional Benefits

When a child can enjoy regular play stress, anxiety and frustration become reduced. A child who can play regularly will develop a strong sense of self and self-esteem. For a child’s emotional development, the child will develop emotional flexibility as play will encourage a child to cope with unexpected changes. This promotes resilience. Want to find some great games to encourage this for your child? Then check it out!

– A Child can Learn to Interact with Others

Children who spend time playing with others in a group setting learn how to positively interact with others. They learn how social and cultural differences can be perfectly fine and that being different doesn’t mean that different is bad. A child who learns how to be cooperative in a group setting from a young age can benefit from this as he grows older and will be introduced into more group settings. The following skills can also be learned: navigating relationships, group behaviour and self-control. These skills can form the foundation for a. developing a child’s healthy grasp of social skills.

– Children can Learn to be Independent

The benefits of play for a child are not only restricted to play which relates to group play. Solo play can encourage a large number of benefits as well. A kid who learns to play on his builds a strong sense of self, creativity and independence. There are many children who may prefer to play alone when given the choice and it is important for parents and guardians to know that this is not a negative sign and that the child is learning exactly the things that he or she needs to through his or her choice of play.

– Play can Promote Physical Benefits as well

The majority of kids have an abundance of energy and enjoy moving around and being active. Physical play becomes a kind of exercise for children and assists them in stimulating growth, enhancing reflexes, hand-eye coordination, motor skills and other important things such as promoting healthy bone density and cardiovascular health. As a child learns to have fun moving his body, this sense of trust and enjoyment through moving the physical body will continue and help the child to develop a healthy attitude towards physical activity.

Furthermore, when a child is physically active, the child learns to trust in his or her physical body, they learn how to use their body correctly and that their body should be treated with care since it can help them to perform physical activities.

– Memory and other Mental Skills

There are many mental skills that a child can learn through play. In games such as Scrabble, a child will learn broader spelling and vocabulary. Through word related games such as Scrabble, the child is exposed to new words and can also begin to understand word associations.

The more traditional card and board games such as Rummy and Chess can encourage a child to develop strategic and logical thinking as well as problem-solving. Memory skills are one of the important skill a child can learn through games. Through playing more complex games where rules need to be remembered, the child’s memory ‘muscle’ is trained. This can also happen through the above-mentioned games, where the child needs to remember previous moves made by the opponent in order to anticipate future moves.

Always remember that play is one of the most essential parts of childhood. Play can have far-reaching positive consequences and can become the backbone of a child’s development. Whenever a new skill is learned through play, or the child experiences a ‘win’ or completion of a game, the child will feel a sense of pride which will reinforce self-confidence and self-esteem. In today’s modern day, there is an extreme amount of importance and pressure placed on winning and on being ‘great.’ When a child has no time to play because too much importance is placed on structured development, key developmental essentials can be lost. A child needs play. Children are naturally inclined to be curious about their environment, their surroundings and about life itself. Play helps them to figure out life and helps them to understand themselves with respect to the surrounding world. And when the play is used to explore these natural curiosities, the child can figure it out with a sense of independence and develop essential self-esteem.

Top 4 Educational Benefits of Cartoons

October 31, 2018 by admin

Cartoons are synonymous to kid entertainment. The little ones are extremely fond of the animated stuff and the funny shenanigans of the adorable characters the famous cartoon films come up with. While we all are aware of the entertainment value of cartoons, do you know there are some educational benefits too? Well, sounds surprising, right? You bet.

The post below entails the top 4 educational benefits that carton brings to your home.

Improvement of IQ and general knowledge

A lot of studies have shown brain function & architecture in little children are modified through exposure to different audio visual presentations. It creates a profound and positive influence on little minds and leaves great impacts in the behavioral and mental outcomes of children. You will be glad to know, children who watch cartoon are higher in IQ and general knowledge.

Enhances creativity

It should also be mentioned here that cartoon programs have shown to enhance creativity in kids. These programs show a fun-filled out-of-the-box world which instills the seeds of imagination and creativity in little minds. They learn to think beyond what they sees around and consequently tend to do things differently.

Learns vocabulary

Cartoon programs also help to enhance the vocabulary skills in children. A child gets to meet a lot of characters in a cartoon program and each of them talks in his/her own unique way. This way, the child gets to experience various speaking styles and new words over the course of time. Moreover, cartoon is also great to improve language skills in children. For example, children from non-English speaking countries will be able to polish up their conversational English by watching English cartoons.

Boosts attention & concentration

Studies have also shown that cartoon shows helps to amp up attention and concentration levels in children. The cartoon programs are generally streamed on TV in series of episodes. It means a child has to remember the previous day’s episode to enjoy the current one. As a result, the child is always inspired to watch each of the episodes with strong attention. And that eventually, boosts his attention and concentration levels.

You will find a wide range of popular cartoons online which you can play on your mobile to show your toddler. However, it’s to mention here that not all cartoon files available online will be suitable for your smartphone- especially the M2TS files. In that case, you have to Convert M2TS to MP4 file with the help of a reliable video converter software. Movavi Video Converter will be a great suggestion here as it’s one of the most advanced yet easy to use converters today.

Now, it’s to stress here parents have to maintain their due diligence while allowing the little ones for cartoon. While we have got some of the most cartoons out there, there are some that don’t always extend the right message. So, it’s the parents’ duty to keep check on the cartoons to ensure their munchkins are in the exposure of a positive environment only.