I haven’t posted any new articles for quite awhile now, so you’re probably thinking I’ve been sitting at home all day eating bon-bons and watching Oprah. No way! I’ve actually been taking a conscious break from article writing to focus on a book… or two. What started out as an idea for one middle grade book has now become a
What has more kid appeal than a gigantic truck that drives from town to town looking for tires to chomp? One that cleans up the environment at the same time! Here’s one company’s latest invention intended to help clean up waste tires in the U.S. and Canada.
No, not the specialists who know a lot about children. Rather, the children themselves who know a lot about their chosen specialty. Is it better for today’s kids to be well-rounded generalists or hyper-focused elites? That is the question I examined over the summer. You can read all about it here. The risks and rewards of ‘specializing’ early, LearningMap, October 2007
KONO is a brand-new martial arts magazine for kids ages 5–12. My article about nutrition tips for healthy bones, “Bones of Steel,” appeared in their May 2007 premier issue!
Extreme Treasure Hunting, which introduces kids to the fun of geocaching, was the first article I wrote for children. It was accepted way back in April 2006, but finally made its appearance in the May/June 2007 online issue of Wee Ones Children’s Magazine for ages 4–10.
FACES: People, Places, and Cultures is a Cobblestone Publication for kids ages 9–14. I profiled an organization called Riders for Health for their March 2007 global health issue. By using fairly simple machines, Riders for Health has solved a complex problem. They use motorcycles to deliver medical supplies and services to regions of Africa with little or no infrastructure. Simply
You certainly can’t tell by looking, but our kids love to help clean the house. Unfortunately, this is one thing I’m sure they didn’t learn by example. If I enjoyed it even half as much as they do, we could probably do something crazy like invite people over for dinner once in awhile. Maybe someday they’ll be able to do
Here’s some encouraging news. The Measles Initiative partnership recently announced that worldwide measles deaths fell 60% from 1999 to 2005, from 873,000 down to 345,000 deaths per year. That’s 528,000 lives saved every year. “One of the clearest messages from this achievement is that with the right strategies and a strong partnership of committed governments and organizations, you can rapidly reduce
Doctors Without Borders recently released a list of the 10 most under-reported humanitarian crises of 2006, which they say “accounted for just 7.2 minutes of the 14,512 minutes on the three major U.S. television networks’ nightly newscasts for 2006.” Central African Republic Tuberculosis Chechnya Sri Lanka Malnutrition Democratic Republic of Congo Somalia Columbia Haiti Central India
Scientists at ECOCEAN are using pattern-recognition software developed for NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope program to recognize individual whale sharks, which are covered with small, white spots on a dark background similar to a starry night sky. I wrote a short news piece about it for the May/June 2007 issue of KNOW–The Science Magazine for Curious Kids.