We Need A Smile
April 4, 2010 by Dan
Filed under Encouragement
By Dan Samaria
Publisher/YC
Apr. 4, 2010
With everything that this President, is doing to this Country which is not good. We all need a laugh. This was sent to me by one of my readers. I hope it will bring the same smile that it has brought to me.
A mom was concerned about her kindergarten son walking to school. He didn’t want his mother to walk with him. She wanted to give him the feeling that he had some independence but yet know that he was safe.
So she had an idea of how to handle it. She asked a neighbor if she would please follow him to school in the mornings, staying at a distance, so he probably wouldn’t notice her.
She said that since she was up early with her toddler anyway, it would be a good way for them to get some exercise as well, so she agreed.
The next school day, the neighbor and her little girl set out following behind Timmy as he walked to school with another neighbor girl he knew.
She did this for the whole week.
As the two walked and chatted, kicking stones and twigs, Timmy’s little friend noticed the same lady was following them as she seemed to do every day all week.
Finally she said to Timmy, ‘Have you noticed that lady following us to school all week?
Do you know her?’
Timmy nonchalantly replied,
“Yeah, I know who she is.’
The little girl said, ‘Well, who is she?’
‘That’s just Shirley Goodnest,’ Timmy replied, ‘and her daughter Marcy.’
‘Shirley Goodnest? Who the heck is she and why is she following us? ‘
‘Well,’ Timmy explained, ‘every night my Mom makes me say the 23rdPsalm
With my prayers, ‘cuz she worries about me so much.
And in the Psalm, it says, ‘Shirley Goodnest and Marcy shall follow
Me all the days of my life’, so I guess I’ll just have to get used to
It!’
The Lord blesses you and keeps you; the Lord makes His face to shine upon
You, and be gracious unto you; the Lord lift His countenance upon
You, and give you peace.
May Shirley Goodnest and Marcy be with you today and always?
I know you smiled!
If you have something that you would like to share with our readers. You can sent it to dan@youngchronicle.com
Missing Colo. Girl
April 4, 2010 by Dan
Filed under Human Interest
By AP
Apr. 1, 2010
GREELEY, Colo. – Four days after a 12-year-old northern Colorado girl disappeared after leaving home to walk to a friend’s birthday party, authorities expanded their search Thursday to include places she was known to frequent, including a music store, library and shopping mall.
“We’re hoping against hope that she’s out there, she’s safe and she is just a runaway,” said Sgt. Joe Tymkowych of the police department in Greeley, about 60 miles north of Denver.
“But we have to try to figure all the possible propensities of things that could happen and pursue those leads as well.”
Kayleah (Kay LEE uh) Wilson was last seen Sunday afternoon, when she left her Greeley home to go to a birthday party just across a busy highway from her apartment building.
Authorities have since gone door to door seeking information on her whereabouts and used dogs to comb medians, ditches and bushes along the highway for clues.
Investigators also have interviewed friends, family and acquaintances and have found nothing to indicate she ran away, Tymkowych said. Police planned to re-interview some of those people Thursday.
About 60 police and FBI agents were aiding in the search for the sixth-grader, whom her mother, April Wilson, described as a “good kid.”
“She never hanged out with the bad crowds,” Wilson said Thursday outside her apartment. “She had her friends. She liked to hang out at the mall, go to the library — you know, typical kid stuff.”
Wilson said she had no information on what may have happened to her daughter but wanted her to know, “We love you. We miss you. Just come home. We want you home.”
Tymkowych said police have contacted the girl’s father, who lives in California, and other family members to advise them that she’s missing and may be contacting them if she ran away.
He says Kayleah had a boyfriend, who has been interviewed and is cooperating.
He is not considered a suspect or person of interest. April Wilson also spent about 12 hours at the police station Wednesday, but Tymkowych said Wilson was there assisting police in the search.
The middle school student is 5-foot-1, weighs 145 pounds and has brown hair and blue eyes. Authorities say Kayleah has asthma and was believed to be carrying an inhaler. She doesn’t have a cell phone.
April Wilson said her daughter likes pizza and the color pink, and that her favorite band is called Celtic Thunder.
At Kayleah’s school a few blocks from her home, teachers on Thursday wore purple and pink memorial ribbons turned sideways to resemble a “K” for Kayleah.
Brentwood Middle School science teacher Mandy Skinner described Kayleah as a soft-spoken girl who often kept to herself but participated enthusiastically in group discussions and completed her assignments.
“She’s a typical sixth-grader,” Skinner added.
Kayleah’s case is not the first missing-child case in Greeley. Jonelle Matthews, 12, disappeared on Dec. 20, 1984, and was never found. That case remains unsolved.
“That again was one of those situations where we were never able to establish if there was a runaway involved, or if it was an abduction,” Tymkowych said.
FBI Denver field office spokesman Dave Joly said the FBI regularly provides help in investigating possible child abductions.
Source: Yahoo News
Editor’s Note: AP – This undated photo provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children shows Kayleah Wilson
We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com
Creating a Easter Basket
April 4, 2010 by Dan
Filed under Human Interest
By Apple 4 Teacher
Apr. 4, 2010
With the rate of childhood obesity on the rise, try something new. This year, buy healthy snacks instead of candy.
You don’t have to sacrifice flavor, either. Low-calorie or low-fat doesn’t mean it has to taste bad.
This is one time that toys are okay. According to my kids, you can never have too many toys.
An Easter basket is about getting a special treat. No one said those treats had to be edible. Small hand-held electronic games are available at stores like Wal-Mart, Target, and Toys ‘R Us for less than ten dollars.
Card games like Yugioh and Dungeon Dice Monsters are winners with kids these days. For the younger set, try dolls or action figures.
Jelly beans versus dried fruit. Jelly beans would be great if it wasn’t for all of the sugar. You can never eat just one or five for that matter.
Dried fruit offers nutrition and taste in the same bite-sized portion as jelly beans. Ocean Spray® makes a snack called Craisins®. They are dried sweet cranberry snacks in different flavors.
Also, Sun-Maid®, best known for their raisins, makes dried fruit treats including yogurt- and chocolate-covered raisins. My favorite is chopped dates. Kids won’t believe they’re eating something that’s good for them.
Snack size versus regular size. If you add candy to your basket, smaller is better. Choose snack-sized morsels like Three Musketeers® or Peppermint Patties®. These candy treats are lower in calories than other choices. Just add three or four for a sweet treat instead of chocolate bunnies or cream eggs.
Store bought versus homemade treats. We all enjoy going to the store and getting bubble gum and cupcakes, but do you really know what’s in what you are eating?
Most if not all marketable treats started in someone’s kitchen. That means they were homemade at one time.
Let’s take Rice Krispy treats® for example. The recipe was on the cereal box before they became a pre-packaged item in the store.
At home, low-fat ingredients can be substituted to create delicious treats for the Easter basket. When you know what’s inside your food, you feel better about serving it to your kids.
Easter baskets don’t have to be chock full of junk to be fun. Healthy additions make you a better parent without sacrificing taste.
Teach children to eat right while they are young so that they develop a lifetime of good habits.
Source: Apple 4 the Teacher
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com
The Crucifixion – Children’s Bible Stories
He Is Risen
The Real Easter Story
Talking While Cooking
April 1, 2010 by Dan
Filed under Parent's Advice
By Time to Talk
Apr. 1, 2010
Baking provides a unique opportunity to connect with your kids, learn more about them and have open, honest conversations about different things, while engaging in fun baking activities.
Not only is baking an enjoyable family activity, but it helps kids learn patience, precision, math and organizational skills and how to follow directions, while piquing their curiosity.
Parents can take the time to talk with their kids about many topics to help keep them safe, healthy and happy!
Source: Time to Talk
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com
Standardized Testing
March 29, 2010 by Dan
Filed under Parent's Advice
By Emily Arms, Ph.D
Mar. 29, 2010
Thirty years ago, American school children spent two or three days a year bubbling in answers on standardized tests.
Today, children in some school districts spend as much as 18 days per 180-day school year on standardized testing.
And that’s not counting teacher-developed spelling quizzes, book reports, and unit tests.
In short, US public school children are tested more than ever, and at younger and younger ages.
This testing is, in part, fueled by the accountability measures built into the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation of 2003.
And the testing mania shows no signs of abating, despite the fact that most measurement experts would agree that testing very young children — kindergarteners, for example — rarely yields valid or reliable data.
What is a parent to do? The first step is to become informed and know your rights.
Find out what type of test your child’s school is giving and what it measures.
There are basically two types of standardized tests: norm referenced and criterion referenced. They each yield different information.
The test score your child earns on a norm-referenced test like the California Achievement Test (CAT) or the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) tells you how your child compares to the other children who took the test that year.
For example, if your child scores in the 50th percentile, half the children who took the test that year scored above your child and half scored below.
It does not tell you if your child has achieved certain benchmark levels of proficiency.
That is reserved for criterion-referenced examinations that do tell if your child, for example, has achieved proficiency in multiplying numbers up to nine.
Find out how your child’s school uses the test data.
Are your child’s test scores used to determine his or her placement in certain classes such as gifted or resources classes?
Are they used to determine whether she or he will advance to the next grade level at the end of the year?
It is important to find out how your child’s test score data will be used. Critics have pointed out that many of the most popular standardized tests are now being used in ways that their developers never intended.
Find out which grade levels get tested.
NCLB mandates that students in grades 3 to 8 be tested every year. In many districts, however, children are tested every year beginning in second grade.
A few districts even test kindergartners and first-graders, though critics point out that this is waste of time as most 5- or 6-year-olds can barely hold the pencil to properly bubble in the Scantron sheet.
Find out how much classroom time is spent preparing for the tests.
These are important things to know, as researchers have found that teachers now
spend more time than ever on what is basically a “test-preparation” curriculum. This results in an overemphasis on basic reading and math skills, and short-changes subjects like science, history, and music.
For example, some schools spend over three hours a day on reading, but only do science experiments once a month.
Middle school science teachers often get sixth graders who have never done any science because of the overemphasis on English and Math.
When you, as a parent, talk to teachers or principals, use their language. Ask how many “instructional minutes” a day are spent on each subject, for example.
Understand that you, as a parent, have the right to request your child opt out of the tests.
This is a little known, but very important, fact. School districts are required by law to inform parents of this right, but it’s not widely advertised.
There have even been cases where principals have pressured parents to not opt out because their child’s score is needed to bring up the school’s overall ranking.
Source: Family
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com