10 Websites Safe for Kids
By Melissa Taylor
July 14, 21014
My kids could easily become addicted to technology, especially as they grow older and find more to do online. But, I still keep their screen time limited and focused on learning. Here are our top ten educational websites for kids.
1. PBS Kids
Find all your favorite PBS characters, each with learning games for kids to play: Clifford, Curious George, SuperWhy, The Cat in the Hat, and lots more.
2. Wonderopolis
Discover a new wonder each day. Wonders are amazing facts and intriguing questions such as: Why are they called Lava Lamps? What Badger has a sweet tooth?
3. National Geographic Little Kids
National Geographic Little Kids features games, crafts and recipes, science, videos, and animal information. It’s perfect for the 5 and under crowd.
Games, videos, information, cool photos, and more will keep your kids engaged and learning on this educational site.
5. Fun Brain
Math and reading video-like games like math baseball and Mad Libs Junior.
6. Whyville
Tweens hang out in Whyville to play learning games and socialize.
7. Pottermore
J.K. Rowling created this site so kids could read the books and do interactive features and games. My kids LOVE it and can’t wait for all the books to be on the site.
8. Spatulatta
Get into cooking on this kid-friendly cooking website with lots of videos and recipes.
9. NGA Kids
This website gives users art adventures and activities from the National Gallery of Art.
10. Yahoo Kids This is the least educational of all the choices since the site includes both games and videos of all sorts. But, kids can find lots to learn on this interactive website like homework help, learning about science, and access to an encyclopedia.
Do you limit screen time, too?
Did I miss your favorite websites? What are they?
Source: Parenting
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com
Medal of Honor Recipient – Navy Seal Lt. Michael Murphy
By Dan Samaria
Publisher/YC
June,14 ,2014
Each week we at the Chronicle will be honoring one of these true heroes. We will call it Medal of Honor Recipient of the Week. We hope you will join us to honor these true heroes who have given us the greatest sacrifice that one could give their life, to save their fellow soldiers.
This Week’s Hero: Navy Seal Lt. Michael Murphy
By Center of Military History
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as the leader of a special reconnaissance element with Naval Special Warfare Task Unit Afghanistan on 27 and 28 June 2005.
While leading a mission to locate a high-level anti-coalition militia leader, Lieutenant Murphy demonstrated extraordinary heroism in the face of grave danger in the vicinity of Asadabad, Konar Province, Afghanistan.
On 28 June 2005, operating in an extremely rugged enemy-controlled area Lieutenant Murphy’s team was discovered by anti-coalition militia sympathizers, who revealed their position to Taliban fighters.
As a result, between 30 and 40 enemy fighters besieged his four-member team. Demonstrating exceptional resolve, Lieutenant Murphy valiantly led his men in engaging the large enemy force.
The ensuing fierce firefight resulted in numerous enemy casualties, as well as the wounding of all four members of the team. Ignoring his own wounds and demonstrating exceptional composure, Lieutenant Murphy continued to lead and encourage his men.
When the primary communicator fell mortally wounded, Lieutenant Murphy repeatedly attempted to call for assistance for his beleaguered teammates.
Realizing the impossibility of communicating in the extreme terrain, and in the face of almost certain death, he fought his way into open terrain to gain a better position to transmit a call. This deliberate, heroic act deprived him of cover, exposing him to direct enemy fire.
Finally achieving contact with his Headquarters, Lieutenant Murphy maintained his exposed position while he provided his location and requested immediate support for his team.
In his final act of bravery, he continued to engage the enemy until he was mortally wounded, gallantly giving his life for his country and for the cause of freedom.
By his selfless leadership, courageous actions, and extraordinary devotion to duty, Lieutenant Murphy reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
Source: Center of Military History
Editor’s Note: We welcome your comments. Please Login in or Register to post a comment on this article. Thank you and we appreciate your support!
Nudge: DOA to Use ‘Food Behavior Scientists’ to Modify Kids’ Eating Habits
By Jonathon M. Seidi
Oct. 13, 2010
Federal officials are turning to psychology in a new approach to get kids to choose healthier foods in the school lunch line.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced today it is giving $2 million to food behavior scientists to use marketing tricks to encourage kids to pick fruits and veggies over cookies and French fries.
Some of the ideas include hiding chocolate milk behind plain milk, putting the salad bar near checkout, placing fruit in pretty baskets and accepting only cash as payment for desserts.
Another idea suggests using pre-paid cards that only allow students to purchase healthy options from the school cafeteria.
Studies by Cornell University researchers have found these tactics work, the Associated Press reports, and Cornell will start a new child nutrition center to test more of these methods.
According to a release on the DOA’s website, the Cornell-based research center will be called the Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs.
The money will also fund 14 other research projects in Connecticut, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
The release outlines the reasoning behind the funding as well: leaving choices to schools, students, and parents is not the way to ensure students make “healthful choices.” Good intentions, it explains, often do not translate into good choices:
[I]t is well recognized that understanding the value of a healthy diet does not always translate into healthy choices.
Research has shown that good intentions may not be enough: when choosing what or how much to eat, we may be unconsciously influenced by how offers are framed, by various incentives, and by such factors as visual cues.
“This research can suggest practical, cost-effective ways that the school environment can better support healthful choices,” the release adds.
Source: The Blaze
Editor’s Note: The Associated Press contributed to this report. We would like to know what you think. If you would like to comment on this story please login. We appreciate your comments and input.
Can You Spell ‘Stromuhr’? Ohio Student Did to Win National Spelling Bee
By AP
June 4, 2010
No theatrical flourishes for Anamika Veeramani. She kept her hands behind her back and rattled off the letters of every word she was given — until she was crowned the spelling bee champion.
The 14-year-old girl from North Royalton, Ohio, won the 83rd Scripps National Spelling Bee on Friday, acing the word medical word “stromuhr” to claim the winner’s trophy and more than $40,000 in cash and prizes.
Anamika became the third consecutive Indian-American bee champion, and the eighth the last 12 years.
It’s a run that began when Nupur Lala won in 1999 and was featured in the documentary “Spellbound.”
Anamika was one of the favorites among the 273 spellers who began the three-day competition, having finished tied for fifth last year.
She stood deadpan while the audience cheered, not cracking a smile until the trophy was presented.
There was a three-way tie for second. Adrian Gunawan, 14, of Arlington Heights, Ill.; Elizabeth Platz, 13, of Shelbina, Mo.; and Shantanu Srivatsa, 13, of West Fargo, N.D., were all eliminated in the same round.
Anamika survived the round by spelling “juvia” — a Brazil nut — and then had to wait for a nerve-racking 3 1/2-minute commercial before spelling the championship word.
The finals were preceded by an unpopular move that had some spellers and the parents claiming the bee was unfair and had kowtowed too much to television.
Concerned that there wouldn’t be enough spellers left to fill the two-hour slot on ABC, organizers stopped the semifinals in the middle of a round Friday afternoon — and declared that the 10 spellers onstage would advance to the prime-time broadcast, including six who didn’t have to spell a word in the interrupted round.
Essentially, the alphabetical order of the U.S. states helped determine which spellers got to move on the marquee event.
“I would rather have five finalists, than five who didn’t deserve it,” said Elizabeth, the finalist from Missouri and one of the four spellers who spelled a word correctly before the round was stopped. “I think it was unfair.”
Elizabeth’s remarks were greeted with applause from parents in the hotel ballroom where the bee is held.
It’s one of the pitfalls of the growing popularity of the bee, which has to yield to the constraints of its television partners.
There were 19 spellers left at the start of the round, which was too many for prime-time. But when the round turned out to be brutal — nine of the first 13 misspelled — ABC was on the verge of having too few.
“I don’t feel bad at all for giving these children the opportunity,” bee director Paige Kimble said. “Do I wish we could give it to 19?
Yes, certainly, but that’s not practical in a two-hour broadcast window.
We know it’s unpopular and we don’t like to do it, but sometimes you can get into a position where that’s exactly what you have to do.”
Kimble stressed that the move was within the rules and that the round would pick up where it left off.
Only the spellers remaining at the end of the round would officially be declared finalists.
Still, the episode renewed the debate over whether the bee has come too close to selling its soul to television.
“They already have,” said 14-year-old two-time bee participant Sonia Schlesinger, who represented Washington, D.C., last year and Japan this year and was eliminated in an earlier round.
“It kind of seems like the bee should be more about spelling. We’re just here to spell words — not about TV.”
Even Shaquille O’Neal unintentionally got caught up in the furor — in the name of TV footage.
The NBA star created a buzz when he walked onstage and challenged last year’s winner, 14-year-old Kavya Shivashankar, to a spell-off for his “Shaq Vs.” reality show.
Afterward, O’Neal posed with the 10 remaining spellers who were unofficially being billed as “finalists” — adding more fuel to the debate over whether it was fair for all of them to be there.
“Just because one person lives in California and another person lives in Wisconsin, it doesn’t mean the person from California deserves any less attention,” Sonia said.
During the actual competition, the event continued to display its newfound funny bone. Only at a spelling bee could one hear sentences like these:
“Lauren gently informed her father that the exploding fist bump had fallen out of consuetude” and “The phillumenist had a hard time obtaining fire insurance on his storage unit.”
A consuetude is an established custom, while a phillumenist is a matchbook collector.
Source: Fox News
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. If you would like to comment on this story and you are haven’t problems logging in.
Send your comment to dan@goldcoastchronicle.com and we will post it.
Obama Dishonoring Vets Skipping Memorial Day at Arlington Cemetery
By RJ
YC/Staff
May 26, 2010
In a highly unusual move, President Barack Obama is going to skip the traditional Memorial Day event at Arlington National Cemetery to return home to Chicago for the long holiday weekend.
Obama sees it as addressing one of the great broken promises of his administration: his early pledge to return home to Chicago every six weeks or so, according to The Washington Post.
On Monday, Obama will make remarks at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery and miss the usual tradition of presidents speaking at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day.
Instead, Vice President Biden and his wife will appear in Obama’s place, laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, as well as holding a breakfast for Gold Star families — families whose loved ones died in military service — at the White House earlier that day.
See the entire story at The Washington Post.
Source: Paul Reveres Riders
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. If you would like to comment on this story and you are haven’t problems logging in. Send your comment to dan@goldcoastchronicle.com and we will post it.
Obama Out to Change TX Textbooks to Socialism
By Fox Nation
May 22, 2010
Should history books refer to the president as Barack Obama, Barack H. Obama or Barack Hussein Obama?
Who’s more important: Christopher Columbus or John Smith?
Clara Barton or Ruby Bridges?
Ruby Bridges or Dolores Huerta?
Is the story of Nathan Hale too gruesome for first graders?
Will history books refer to the 44th American president as Barack Obama, Barack H. Obama or Barack Hussein Obama?
Late into the night, the Texas Board of Education considered these and other questions for the state’s social studies curriculum.
The debate has set off a culture war, pitting conservatives against democrats in a battle that attracted 40,000 e mails from parents, teachers and academics from around the nation.
The curriculum covers grades kindergarten through high school, and yet after 12 hours of debate the board had only just begun talking about its biggest challenge – high school standards – at 9 p.m. Thursday.
All day long the board dropped, added and swapped the names of historical figures and events into and out of the standards.
It began with 1st graders. John Smith was dropped, as was Nathan Hale, not because he wasn’t important, but because, according to one teacher, ‘the kids couldn’t get past the hanging.’
Despite deep political differences, the debate remained polite until the topic focused on President Obama. Then it got personal. Lawrence Allen, a black former high school principal from Houston offered a motion to enter President Barack Obama’s name in a section of the curriculum that recognized significant dates in U.S. History.
David Bradley, a white businessman from Beaumont, motioned that the president’s legal name should be used, Barack Hussein Obama.
“I think we give him the full honor and privilege of his full name.”
“I am getting pretty fed up with this,” said Democrat Mary Helen Berlanger. “You don’t have to be derogatory.
We don’t always put in Jefferson in William Jefferson Clinton.”
“The intent behind what you are doing I think is pretty obvious,” said Republican Bob Craig.
ALSO:
Conservatives make changes to Texas curriculum
TX Textbook: Before We Tackle History, A Little Math
Texas Textbooks: Is America Exceptional?
Texas Textbook Debates Lead to Death Threats
Atheists Fight to Change Textbook Standards
Source: Fox Nation
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@goldcoastchronicle.com
For Those Who Believe or Don’t Believe A Must See Video
By Dan Samaria
Publisher/GCC
May 20, 2010
I received this video from one of my readers Earle Scott Bushnell and I would like to share it with you.
America is going through a lot right now and we need to pray for it. If we continue to go in the direction that we are in now, we might not be able to go back.
There is only one person that can stop this that is GOD, he is allowing this to happan because we have gotten away from him.
Chron. 7:14 Reads:
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Please pass this around it should be shown in every Church this Sunday.
In the video the screen fills up with words, than the words tumble to the bottom and new words start up again at the top of the screen.
It has a beautiful powerful message of TRUTH!
We hope you enjoy it and will pass it on to your friends the message needs to get out.
Please send us a line and let us know what you think. We will post your comment good or bad. dan@goldcoastchronicle.com
Michelle Obama Talks to Kids about Illegal Alien Mom
By Fox Nation
May 19, 2010
Democrats and Republicans continue to trade barbs over the Arizona’s new, controversial immigration law and federal reform efforts, but First Lady Michelle Obama today saw the personal side of the debate, from the perspective of a child.
Obama today traveled with Mexican First Lady Margarita Zavala to the New Hampshire Estates Elementary School in Silver Spring, Maryland, where a second-grade girl asked her about how immigration reform would impact her family.
“My mom… she says that Barack Obama is taking everybody away that doesn’t have papers,” the girl said, sitting cross-legged on the gymnasium floor with her classmates, while Obama sat in a folding chair next to them.
A large blue banner hanging behind them, adorned with the American and Mexican flags, read, “Welcome, Mrs. Obama! Bienvenidos, Sra. Zavala!”
“Yeah, well that’s something that we have to work on, right?” Obama said. “To make sure that people can be here with the right kind of papers, right? That’s exactly right.”
The little girl continued, “But my mom doesn’t have any papers.”
Source: Fox Nation
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@goldcoastchronicle.com
Medal of Honor Recipient – Civil War Veteran 1st Lt. Alonzo Cushing
By Dan Samaria
Publisher/YC
May 19, 2010
Each week : We at the Chronicle will be honoring one of these true heroes.
We will call it Medal of Honor Recipient of the Week.
We hope you will join with us to honor these true heroes. Who have given us the greatest sacrifice that one could give their life, to save their fellow soldiers?
We would like to know what you think. dan@goldcoastchronicle.com
This Week’s Hero: Civil War Veteran 1st Lt. Alonzo Cushing
by Dinesh Ramde
DELAFIELD, Wis. – Seven score and seven years ago, a wounded Wisconsin soldier stood his ground on the Gettysburg battlefield and made a valiant stand before he was felled by a Confederate bullet.
Now, thanks to the dogged efforts of modern-day supporters, 1st Lt. Alonzo Cushing shall not have died in vain, nor shall his memory have perished from the earth.
Descendants and some Civil War history buffs have been pushing the U.S. Army to award the soldier the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration. They’ll soon get their wish.
Secretary of the Army John McHugh has approved their request, leaving a few formal steps before the award becomes official this summer. Cushing will become one of 3,447 recipients of the medal, and the second from the Civil War honored in the last 10 years.
It’s an honor that’s 147 years overdue, said Margaret Zerwekh. The 90-year-old woman lives on the land in Delafield where Cushing was born, and jokes she’s been adopted by the Cushing family for her efforts to see Alonzo recognized.
“I was jumping up and down when I heard it was approved,” said Zerwekh, who walks with two canes. “I was terribly excited.”
Cushing died on July 3, 1863, the last day of the three-day battle of Gettysburg. He was 22.
The West Point graduate and his men of the Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery were defending the Union position on Cemetery Ridge against Pickett’s Charge, a major Confederate thrust that could have turned the tide in the war.
Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was planning an invasion of the North; both sides knew how important this engagement was.
Cushing commanded about 110 men and six cannons. His small force along with reinforcements stood their ground under artillery bombardment as nearly 13,000 Confederate infantrymen waited to advance.
“Clap your hands as fast as you can — that’s as fast as the shells are coming in,” said Scott Hartwig, a historian with the Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania. “They were under terrific fire.”
The bombardment lasted two hours. Cushing was wounded in the shoulder and groin, and his battery was left with two guns and no long-range ammunition. His stricken battery should have been withdrawn and replaced with reserve forces, Hartwig said, but Cushing shouted that he would take his guns to the front lines.
“What that means is, ‘While I’ve got a man left to fight, I’ll fight,'” Hartwig said. Within minutes, he was killed by a Confederate bullet to the head.
Confederate soldiers advanced into the Union fire, but finally retreated with massive casualties. The South never recovered from the defeat.
The soldier’s bravery so inspired one Civil War history buff that he took up Cushing’s cause by launching a Facebook page titled “Give Alonzo Cushing the Medal of Honor.”
Phil Shapiro, a 27-year-old Air Force captain, said such heroism displayed in one of the nation’s most pivotal battles deserved recognition, even at this late date.
“We need to honor those people who got our country to where it is,” said Shapiro, of Cabot, Ark.
Zerwekh first started campaigning for Cushing in 1987 by writing to Wisconsin Sen. William Proxmire.
Proxmire entered comments into the Congressional Record, she said, and she assumed that was as far as it would go. But current Sen. Russ Feingold later pitched in and helped Zerwekh and others petition the Army.
After a lengthy review of historical records, the Army agreed earlier this year to recommend the medal.
More than 1,500 soldiers from the Civil War have received the Medal of Honor, according to the Defense Department. The last honoree for Civil War service was Cpl. Andrew Jackson Smith of Clinton, Ill., who received the medal in 2001.
The Cushing name is prominent in the southeastern Wisconsin town of Delafield. A monument to Cushing and two of his brothers — Naval Cmdr. William Cushing and Army 1st Lt. Howard Cushing — stands at Cushing Memorial Park, where the town holds most of its Memorial Day celebrations.
Shapiro, the Facebook fan, said he thought of Alonzo Cushing plenty of times last year as he faced a number of dangerous situations during a five-month stint in Iraq.
“I’d think about what Cushing accomplished, what he was able to deal with at age 22,” Shapiro said. “I thought if he could do that then I can certainly deal with whatever I’m facing.”
Source: Yahoo News CMHS
Hero of the Week – Wal-Mart Feeding American Families
By Dan Samaria
Publisher/YC
May 17, 2010
Editor’s Note: Each Week we will be Honoring people or groups that are making a difference in helping others especially during this tough times in America.
When we as Americans are put through a test, we come out in flying colors on the other side.
We would like to know what you think. And if you know someone or group that we can Honor. You can contact us at dan@goldcoastchronicle.com
This week we will be honoring: Wal-Mart. Here is his story:
By Emily Fredrix
AP
NEW YORK (AP) — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to significantly ramp up its donations to the nation’s food banks to total $2 billion over the next five years, the retail giant said Wednesday.
The company is more than doubling its annual rate of giving as the number of Americans receiving food stamps has risen to one in eight, and food banks are straining to meet demand.
Wal-Mart’s plan comes in two parts:
At least $250 million in grants over five years will go to efforts such as buying refrigerated trucks, which help fruits, vegetables and meat last longer to make it from store to charity, and programs to feed children during the summer when they’re not in school and receiving government meals.
But the bulk of the donations will consist of more than 1.1 billion pounds of food that doesn’t sell or can’t be sold because it’s close to expiration dates, for example.
About half will be fresh fruit, vegetables, dairy and meat — items that food banks say they’re seeing more demand for.
The company estimates the food will provide 1 billion meals. Store employees will even offer assistance to food banks to help run their operations more efficiently.
The move extends Wal-Mart’s sharp increases in donations in recent years.
In 2009, the company spent $21 million on hunger relief and donated 116.1 million pounds of food, up from $12 million in cash and 42.7 million pounds of food in 2008.
The donations may also represent Wal-Mart playing a bit of catch-up with other grocers.
The nation’s second-largest supermarket chain, Kroger Co., donated 50 million pounds of food in 2009.
Certainly, Wal-Mart’s donations are small compared with the rising need. Some 39.7 million people received food stamps in February, an increase of 22 percent from the same month last year.
Wal-Mart’s donation would be enough to feed everyone now on food stamps only about five meals a year.
“As we laid out the case for need over the last couple of years, I think it became clear that this was something that Wal-Mart, as the largest grocer in the country, needed and wanted to do,” Wal-Mart Foundation President Margaret McKenna said in an interview.
St. Mary’s Food Bank in Phoenix, Ariz., has nearly doubled the amount of food it distributes in two years to keep up with the rising need.
First-timers are easy to spot, said St. Mary’s Food Bank President Terry Shannon.
“They walk in the door, their eyes are down on the ground. They’re embarassed to be there.
They don’t know what else to do,” said Shannon, who will help make the announcement at a news conference in Washington on Wednesday.
The food bank now picks up about 1,000 pounds of food per week from each of 53 area Walmart and Sam’s Club stores.
Wal-Mart also plans to use its logistics expertise to help food banks operate on a larger scale and run more efficiently.
Company experts will help food banks make tweaks such as installing heavier shelving to hold more food or set up their locations more like stores so they are easier to navigate, McKenna said.
Although there are signs of economic recovery as companies make more profits and the stock market rebounds, job creation is still weak.
That means needs will remain high, said Vicki Escarra, CEO of Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger relief charity.
“I think people are recognizing as recovery takes place, middle-income jobs are becoming more and more scarce, and so I think this is certainly a crisis in America,” she said.
Wal-Mart has been one of the country’s biggest corporate givers for at least the past decade, but the $2 billion commitment is a “huge gift,” said Steven Lawrence, director of research at the Foundation Center, a national authority on philanthropy.
Food assistance typically goes overseas, so this announcement could inspire more foundations and companies to shift priorities.
“I think it’s sending a message to the grant-making community and to the world that the economic crisis is not over,” he said.
Source: Yahoo News