EVERYTHING
FOR YOUR FAMILY
KID
QUIPS
“Can you spell your mommy’s name, too?” Expecting to hear her spell the name Lindsay, Maya said, “Yes. M-O-M!” READ MORE
Education
|
||||
|
Crumbled up in the bottom of my son’s backpack on any given day, I’m sure to find a number of items. Smashed goldfish crackers that somehow leaped from his lunchbox, a copy of the school newsletter that is now 10 days old, and invariably – the project. “Our fourth-graders are learning more about important Americans for our social studies class,” the text announces as I feel my breath start to get heavy. “In three weeks, they’ll be presenting their report on the citizen of their choice. There will be a 10-minute show-and-tell on their part, which will be graded based on neatness, effort and content. They will need an adult to help them prepare…” As a parent I have learned to accept the regular reminders about the things I’m not good at. My children need a costume for a school event; I’m void of any seamstress talent. A sibling fight erupts in the kitchen about who ate the last Oreo; my conflict management skills are nowhere to be found. And then the school project. Not that the project itself is insurmountably difficult, but where to draw the line between helping my child, and taking it over? “That’s easy,” I say to myself, heading to the PC. “We’ll just go online and find a few websites to help our task along.” And with the click of a button, the answer to my query “all about Betsy Ross” is matched with more than 1,000 replies. This is both good and bad news. The key is how to streamline the barrage of information from the overcrowded cyber superhighways and into content that is actually educational. “That’s exactly the challenge of the Internet,” explains Melissa Hartson, who works at the Newport Beach Public Library. “You could end up on some random website that a guy in Montana has created just because he wants to. Or the site will have links that take you away from where you really want to be.” So what’s a parent to do? Whether it’s a science project, or a struggle with math, or an interest in ancient civilizations, the World Wide Web is ready and waiting to show us a page or two. If, that is, we have a thousand hours to pinpoint the really good sites that actually have what we’re looking for. Oddly enough, educators can only go so far coming up with “the best of” lists from the web. A phone call to the State Department of Education reminded me that since most websites are tied to for-profit businesses, by law the state can’t really endorse a group of sites for educational purposes. Ditto for the school districts. Well, thank goodness for the old-fashioned concept of the library. And while my children might not be buckling down the way I did, with books up to the ceiling, their approach to research is the same – keep it diverse. Ms. Hartson pointed me in the direction of their library’s resourceful website city.newportbeach.ca.us/nbpl/ where you can link up with databases that streamline online research for school subjects. You can find links to maps, charts, timelines, population descriptiona, encyclopedias, all based on a subscription the library provides for its users. This is a service that individuals would ordinarily have to hunt down and pay for. There are periodicals and magazines galore to browse, which allows for a diverse pool of resources. Not near Newport Beach? Try the county’s library website for a list of branches near you (ocpl.org). “The key difference between these databases (and a random search) is that they’ve been peer reviewed; the articles have been researched; the sources are confirmed,” says Hartson, who has been with the library for more than a decade. “You can find anything from ancient Egypt to medieval Europe.” You will need a library card for use of these online resources, which usually requires a trip to the library itself to present a picture identification. A temporary one may be obtained online for some locations. As a parent, I’m still a big fan of old-fashioned research in that it provides less instant gratification than the computer. And as a writer, I adore the written word, holding something in print and flipping through the pages of an interesting book. So while I still shudder when reaching into that backpack for that umpteenth assignment, it’s a sign that my children still have contact with what I grew up with. The computer is here to help, but not completely replace the standards. A quote from the late author Sydney J. Harris sums it up well: “The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computers.” Freelance writer Jenny Bioche has four children and has just completed a move with her family to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Email jbioche@yahoo.com. HOMEWORK HELP In addition to the online databases and articles available through libraries, here are some other websites worth visiting. • For help with science projects, visit Energy Quest at engergyquest.ca.gov. The award-winning energy education website for the California Energy Commission offers several science and energy activities for students, a link to the annual California Science Fair contest and more. • Explore animals, nature and more at National Geographic Kids (kids.nationalgeographic.com). Like the magazine, this website offers beautiful imagery from still shots to videos. • Smithsonian Education is another visual treat (smithsonian-education.org/students/). Children can journey back in time and walk with the first men on the moon, learn about America’s presidents and more. • kids.gov, the official kids portal for the U.S. government, offers a gateway to information resources. Categories include the arts, careers, geography, government, money and more. –Compiled by Sandy Bennett |
||||
RSS Subscribe
Digg This ArticleSEARCH THE SITE
