Go Green Kids & Parents Magazine December 2019

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kids & parents

MAGAZINE December 2019

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Contents

PG 5 Harvard Study shows the dangers of early school enrollment

PG 10

5 tips to keep children healthy

PG 13

The Artists Who Are Challenging The Education Status Quo Things you need to know this month Flower PG Fruit 20-23 Animal

PG 29

PG 25 Presents Ethanol Is Terrible for Health with and the Environment purpose:

PG 29 Hello, I’m your Mentor

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Go Green Kids & Parents Magazine Founder and Editorial Director Charlene Sena-Alvarez

Publisher Ggk Media www.gogreenkp.com www.ggkchange.org https://issuu.com/gogreenkp charlene3w2@gmail.com gogreenkidsandparents@gmail.com

Editor

Graphic Design

Charlene Alvarez

Aaron Steven

Regional Manager Louis Catalina

954-548-6513

954-548-1291

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December 2019

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GoGreenKids&Parents Magazine

Christmas, Children, is not a date. It is a state of mind.

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Harvard Study Shows the Dangers of Early School Enrollment

Š CEphoto, Uwe Aranas

Are ADHD rates rising because we send children to school at younger ages?

Every parent knows the difference a year makes in the development and maturity of a young child. A one-year-old is barely walking while a two-year-old gleefully sprints away from you. A four-year-old is always moving, always imagining, always asking why, while a five-year-old may start to sit and listen for longer stretches.

Growing Expectations vs. Human Behavior Children haven’t changed, but our expectations of their behavior have. In just one generation, children are going to school at younger and younger ages, and are spending more time in school than ever before. They are increasingly required to learn academic content at an early age that may be well above their developmental capability.

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In 1998, 31 percent of teachers expected children to learn to read in kindergarten. In 2010, 80 percent of teachers expected this. Now, children are expected to read in kindergarten and to become proficient readers soon after, despite research showing that pushing early literacy can do more harm than good.

In their report Reading in Kindergarten: Little to Gain and Much to Lose education professor Nancy Carlsson-Paige and her colleagues warn about the hazards of early reading instruction. They write, When children have educational experiences that are not geared to their developmental level or in tune with their learning needs and cultures, it can cause them great harm, including feelings of inadequacy, anxiety and confusion.

Hate The Player, Love the Game Instead of recognizing that schooling is the problem, we blame the kids. Today, children who are not reading by a contrived endpoint are regularly labeled with a reading delay and prescribed various interventions to help them catch up to the pack. In school, all must be the same. If they are not listening to the teacher, and are spending too much time daydreaming or squirming in their seats, young children often earn an attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) label and, with striking frequency, are administered potent psychotropic medications.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that approximately 11 percent of children ages four to seventeen have been diagnosed with ADHD, and that number increased 42 percent from 2003-2004 to 2011-2012, with a majority of those diagnosed placed on medication. Perhaps more troubling, one-third of these diagnoses occur in children under age six.

It should be no surprise that as we place young children in artificial learning environments, separated from their family for long lengths of time, and expect them to comply with a standardized, test-driven curriculum, it will be too much for many of them.

“Children who start school as the youngest in their grade have a greater likelihood of getting an ADHD diagnosis than older children in their grade.

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New findings by Harvard Medical School researchers confirm that it’s not the children who are failing, it’s the schools we place them in too early. These researchers discovered that children who start school as among the youngest in their grade have a much greater likelihood of getting an ADHD diagnosis than older children in their grade. In fact, for the U.S. states studied with a September 1st enrollment cut-off date, children born in August were 30 percent more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than their older peers.

The study’s lead researcher at Harvard, Timothy Layton, concludes: “Our findings suggest the possibility that large numbers of kids are being overdiagnosed and overtreated for ADHD because they happen to be relatively immature compared to their older classmates in the early years of elementary school.”

This Should Come as No Surprise Parents don’t need Harvard researchers to tell them that a child who just turned five is quite different developmentally from a child who is about to turn six. Instead, parents need to be empowered to challenge government schooling motives and mandates, and to opt-out.

As universal government preschool programs gain traction, delaying schooling or opting out entirely can be increasingly difficult for parents. Iowa, for example, recently lowered its compulsory schooling age to four-year-olds enrolled in a government preschool program.

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As New York City expands its universal pre-K program to all of the city’s three-year-olds, will compulsory schooling laws for preschoolers follow? On Monday, the New York City Department of Education issued a white paper detailing a “birth-to-five system of early care and education,” granting more power to government officials to direct early childhood learning and development.

As schooling becomes more rigid and consumes more of childhood, it is causing increasing harm to children. Many of them are unable to meet unrealistic academic and behavioral expectations at such a young age, and they are being labeled with and medicated for delays and disorders that often only exist within a schooled context. Parents should push back against this alarming trend by holding onto their kids longer or opting out of forced schooling altogether.

About the Author Kerry McDonald is a Senior Education Fellow at FEE and author of Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom (Chicago Review Press, 2019). She is also an adjunct scholar at The Cato Institute and a regular Forbes contributor.

Kerry's research interests include homeschooling and alternatives to school, self-directed learning, education entrepreneurship, parent empowerment, school choice, and family and child policy. Her articles have appeared at The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, NPR, Education Next, Reason Magazine, City Journal, and Entrepreneur, among others.

She has a master’s degree in education policy from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Bowdoin College.

Kerry lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband and four children.

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303-247-1100

5 tips to help keep kids healthy during cold and flu season It's here again - that time of year when everyone seems to unwittingly pass colds and other illnesses around. As every parent knows, kids can bring germs home from school and share them with the entire family, spreading illness at warp speed. In fact, 60 million school days are missed every year by children nationwide due to preventable illnesses like cold and flu.

(BPT) -

What can you do to fight the spread of illness and help keep your kids - and you - healthier during cold and flu season this year? It's all about practicing healthy habits and making sure you have the right tools.

Lysol's Here for Healthy Schools campaign is working with schools, educators and parents to help reinforce healthy practices and curb the spread of illnesses in the classroom.

As part of the program, Here for Healthy Schools spokesperson, actress and parent Sarah Michelle Gellar shared five tips for keeping your kids healthy during cold and flu season, and beyond:

1. Model healthy habits

"Your children pay closer attention to smaller things than you'd expect," says Gellar. She advises modeling the habits you want your children to follow. Demonstrate how you use a tissue to cover your mouth and nose when you sneeze. And be sure that they see you washing your hands often, especially before eating a meal. Actions do speak louder than words, so practicing what you preach can go a long way to instilling these healthy habits in your kids.

2. Reinforce healthy habits with caregivers

Gellar explains how important it is that caregivers and others who spend time with her children follow the same healthy habits she wants to teach her children.

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"I truly rely on my village to help me," says Gellar. "This means my children interact with many dierent people within their day-to-day activities, and inevitably come in contact with even more germs."

She makes sure everyone who spends time with her children understands the vital role these healthy habits play in helping to avoid preventable illnesses.

3. Involve kids in preparing healthy meals

"Food is so important in our family," says Gellar. "Most of our fondest memories take place in the kitchen." By making her children part of the process of planning, preparing and serving meals, she stresses, they are constantly learning not only how to eat healthy, balanced meals, but also how to create one for themselves.

4. Get a flu shot

Gellar insists that everyone in her household get a flu shot each year, at the beginning of flu season, to help her family stay flu-free throughout the year. This also helps prevent spreading the flu to anyone else who might be vulnerable.

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5. Keep kids home when they're sick

"While we want to limit the number of days out of school for children to ensure they're thriving and growing," Gellar explains, "it's important as parents to understand when to keep them home." Because colds, flu and other illnesses are easily spread, sending children to school when they're clearly under the weather will likely lead to more children in the classroom getting sick and missing school.

Following these healthy habits will help keep everyone's sick days to a minimum this year, so children can learn, grow and thrive at school.

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The Artists Who Are Challenging The Education Status Quo Children’s creativity and competence grows when they were allowed to drive their own learning while being supported by adults.

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by Kerry McDonald

On a recent weekday morning, the first floor of Tiffany Pierce’s home in Queens, New York, was abuzz with activity. Six children, ranging in age from five to 12, were making art, learning about mathematical asymmetry and digging deep into topics ranging from geography to science. Pierce runs an art-inspired, micro-learning homeschool co-op, bringing together local families who want a more personalized approach to education for their children. Together, the families hired a teacher four days a week to craft an inviting and intellectually-engaging learning environment, while Pierce volunteers her space and support.

An artist with a master’s degree in teaching and prior classroom experience, Pierce was thoughtful about her son, Liam’s, education. He went to a small, private preschool nearby, but when Pierce sent Liam to a public school for kindergarten, she realized it wasn’t a good fit for him.

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“It was a high-performing school,” Pierce recalls, “but when I visited I saw his back turned and him just looking out the window. His affect was so low, his confidence was shot, he didn’t want to play. I knew it wasn’t just kindergarten blues. This wasn’t his fit. Then he said: ‘Mommy, will you teach me at home?’’

The timing was right, as Pierce happened to be between jobs and she and Liam’s dad thought they would give homeschooling a try.

“We like the freedom of choices and options,” says Pierce. “We like to have a say in how our child operates. This person is so precious to us.” In the beginning, says Pierce, she simply replicated school at home and it became a power struggle between getting her son to do things and him resisting. She was also busy running art classes and doing graphic design work for various clients.

Artists have historically played a crucial role in challenging dominant systems and inspiring change.

Pierce knew she needed a different model and began posting to neighborhood Facebook groups about launching a co-op out of her home. The response was positive, with many parents expressing interest in alternative learning options for their children. Today, eight-year-old Liam learns with other children in the co-op, along with his mother and their teacher, Mary-Lynn Galindo, who provide structure while emphasizing self-directed learning and ample outside time. According to Pierce:

Homeschooling, micro-learning and co-teaching as a small neighborhood-based co-op allows for us to be fully involved with our kids’ learning experience and we weave it through our neighborhood, community, borough and city.

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Pierce sees hybrid homeschooling models and the larger micro-school movement as a harbinger of education innovation: “I see us moving towards education that is self-directed,” she says. “Education does not have to be seen as coming from four walls in a conventional, traditional way.” To that end, she launched a mobile arts studio and is working on purchasing an art bus, to help others to view art and education differently. Inspired by the Harlem Renaissance, and in particular the Harlem Community Arts Center that sprouted from it and nurtured African American artistic talent during the late-1930s and early 1940s, Pierce envisions her mobile studio as a modern off-shoot of the center.

It is my mission for the mobile arts studio to serve as a 21st century version of a neighborhood-based arts studio where art is mobile and meets children and adults where they are to create, express and connect she says.

In art, education and the intersection of the two, Pierce is looking to challenge longstanding conventional settings and practices and design something new.

An Art Apprenticeship Model Designing something new is also what drives Gabriel Valles, a professional artist and entrepreneur in Austin, Texas who runs an art apprenticeship studio. Like Pierce, Valles homeschools his children and works closely with other local homeschoolers, while building an innovative art education model. He also began his homeschooling journey by trying to replicate school-at-home and witnessing how coercion had a detrimental effect on his children’s learning and their family relationships. By granting his children more autonomy and opportunity for selfdirection, their learning flourished. His older son, now 15, has a passion for stop motion animation and has a successful YouTube channel with over 50,000 subscribers and almost 32 million views.

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As Valles observed how his children’s creativity and competence grew when they were allowed to drive their own learning while being supported by adults, he decided to launch an art studio, MentorWings, that would run on a self-directed apprenticeship model for aspiring young artists. “Our program is principle-based and self-directed,” says Valles.

Students come in with their particular interest, such as superheroes, anime, fantasy art or cartooning, and we meet them where they are. There is no curriculum. Instead we focus on building upon foundational art principles, such as shape, form, design and color.

Valles sees how young people quickly build their skills, and become highly competent, doing college or professional-level work as teenagers. “We need to give kids more credit than we’re giving them and acknowledge that they can be doing realworld work before or instead of college,” says Valles. He says that art school is too expensive and often doesn’t lead to the kind of career in-roads that can result in fulfilling work.

This work is increasingly in-demand, says Valles, as digital content development and marketing become ubiquitous and new mediums emerge. “I am trying to make it less expensive to attain professional-level competence and also build bridges into the industry,” says Valles. He has established an endorsement system for young artists based on their portfolios that can provide an alternative signaling mechanism for employers.

That endorsement versus a general degree really means a lot. It doesn’t guarantee a job, but it shows confidence in a particular student and becomes a much more powerful signal to the people who are hiring

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he says.

Artists have historically played a crucial role in challenging dominant systems and inspiring change. It’s not surprising that today some of them are building unconventional education models and imagining new possibilities for learning.

As Valles says: “My passion is experimenting and inventing things. Art is just the medium that I do that through. Creating educational structures that are a little more just for kids is the problem I am really trying to address.”

About the Author Kerry McDonald is a Senior Education Fellow at FEE and author of Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom (Chicago Review Press, 2019). She is also an adjunct scholar at The Cato Institute and a regular Forbes contributor.

Kerry's research interests include homeschooling and alternatives to school, self-directed learning, education entrepreneurship, parent empowerment, school choice, and family and child policy. Her articles have appeared at The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, NPR, Education Next, Reason Magazine, City Journal, and Entrepreneur, among others. She has a master’s degree in education policy from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Bowdoin College.

Kerry lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband and four children.

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FLOWER

Narcissus

You Need To Know

This Month

Did you Know‌ The narcissus is the December birth flower and symbolizes good wishes, faithfulness and respect. The narcissus can often be confused with the daodil, the birth flower for March, which is a type of narcissus.\ \

The December birthday flower has a rich history. As a native of the Mediterranean, the narcissus was brought over to Asia where it became widely cultivated in China. From there, the narcissus made its way into Europe via European colonists and eventually made its way into North America. Today, the narcissus is mainly cultivated in Great Britain, Holland, and The Channel Isles.

FTD by Design

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FRUIT

Squash

You Need To Know

This Month

Did you Know‌ There are two dierent types of squash: summer and winter squash. Summer squash, like zucchini or pattypan squash, have thin skins and can be eaten whole -- skin, seeds, and all. Winter squash like pumpkin and butternut squash have robust skins that aren't usually edible (though some people like to keep the skin on with thinner-skinned winter squashes like delicate squash), much harder flesh, and their seeds generally need to be removed before eating (though they can be toasted and eaten separately).

Squash is a very good source of potassium and manganese; and a good source of calcium, magnesium, Vitamin E, Thiamin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, and Folate. Squash is high in fiber. It can help give people the sensation of feeling full, without having consumed a lot of calories.

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ANIMAL EXTINCTION

Baiji Seal

Pyrenean ibex

You Need To Know

This Month

Golden Toad

Monk Seal

Bali Tiger

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Green things

YOU can do…

Human Rights Day 10 December

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Ethanol Is Terrible for Health and the Environment, but Government Keeps Backing It The US federal government still strongly pushes corn- and soy-based ethanol despite the EPA's new study showing its harmful eects.

When the elected officials and bureaucrats who run a government want to stack the deck in favor of a politically connected special interest, they have three main ways that they can go about it: 1. They can subsidize the special interest, often using taxpayer cash.

2. They can penalize the competition of the special interest, often through tariffs.

3. They can mandate that people do business with the special interest.

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Each of these actions is economically harmful as government-backed subsidies, penalties, and mandates all impose unnecessary costs on regular people. Worse, they often lead to predictable, if often unintended, consequences that do serious damage beyond what they do to personal finances.

In the case of ethanol in the United States, the federal government has employed all three measures over the years, frequently with bipartisan political support.

Its subsidies keep afloat politically connected businesses that wouldn’t otherwise be able to keep themselves in business. Its tariffs have kept consumers from being able to buy cheaper sources of ethanol on the global market. And its mandate to put an increasing amount of corn-based ethanol into fuel makes food more expensive.

As an example of an unintended-yet-predictable consequence, it turns out that those actions by the U.S. government to push ethanol production and use in the United States are doing serious damage to the environment. The Daily Caller‘s Jason Hopkins reports on a new study from the Environmental Protection Agency:

In a study titled “Biofuels and the Environment: The Second Triennial Report to Congress,” the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determined that ethanol derived from corn and soybeans is causing serious harm to the environment. Water, soil and air quality were all found to be adversely affected by biofuel mandates.

“Evidence since enactment of [the Energy Independence and Security Act] suggests an increase in acreage planted with soybeans and corn, with strong indications from observed changes in land use that some of this increase is a consequence of increased biofuel production,” read a portion of the 159-page report.

The ethanol mandate has negatively effected water quality, with greater biofuel production resulting in more harmful algae blooms and hypoxia.

While most algae is harmless to water, some forms—such as the kind produced in Lake Erie from biofuel feedstock—has emitted toxic chemicals into the water. This harmful algae can consume the oxygen in the water, a process known as hypoxia, killing other wildlife.

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Increased irrigation—fueled by growing demand for ethanol—has also taken a toll on the ground, with the report finding “grassland-to-annualcrop conversion negatively impacts soil quality because it increases erosion and the loss of soil nutrients.”

Essentially, the study found that biofuel mandates are boosting production of corn and soybeans. Large-scale production of these crops is causing environmental degradation. The EPA also found that —at least in some instances—using ethanol in lieu of gasoline resulted in worse air emissions.

This is a case where stopping the government from doing stupid things would provide significant benefits to both regular Americans and to the world. That it would also reduce federal spending and the bipartisan abuse of power in propping up the ethanol industrial-government complex is a windfall bonus.

Craig Eyermann Craig Eyermann is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute.

Reprinted from the Independent Institute.

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What you surround yourself with should bring you peace of mind peace of spirit. ~Stacy London

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Presents with purpose: Gift ideas that make an impact

- This holiday season, what if you could give loved ones a present that makes a meaningful impact on the world? Nothing evokes the holiday spirit more than giving gifts that help others in a direct, eective way. Both you and the gift recipient will know you're making a dierence in the lives of people who really need it.

(BPT)

Here are a few ways you can give a gift this year that truly makes someone's life better:

Feed a family - and nourish a community Several global charities have developed unique opportunities for Americans to make a dramatic impact on the lives of families throughout developing countries through year-end gift giving. For example, donors can direct contributions that pay for a farm animal to support a family or a clean water well installation to benefit an entire community.

In World Vision's Annual Holiday Gift Catalog, a gift of a goat and two chickens provides a steady supply of eggs, milk and protein that can feed two or more struggling families. Your loved one will receive a card to tell them you're making this life-changing donation on their behalf.

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Provide vital medical supplies Numerous organizations also help struggling families in developing countries gain access to life-saving medicine, vitamins and nutritional support. Donating these types of gifts on behalf of a loved one who has struggled with his or her own health concerns can be an especially meaningful way to show you care at the holidays.

A monthly or yearly donation to World Vision in the name of your loved one is a great way to provide access to vital pharmaceuticals and medical supplies such as antibiotics, anti-fungals, anti-parasitic drugs, deworming medications, disposable syringes, gastrointestinal drugs, painkillers or surgical supplies to communities that desperately need them. Your gift will multiply five times in terms of its impact to help ship and distribute necessary medicine and supplies.

Support community artisans If your loved one is passionate about artistic and beautiful things from around the world, you can support local artisans and craftspeople as well. Your support enables artisans to access "microloans" that help them fund their businesses.

You can also directly purchase their hand-crafted items, which supports their business and enables you or your gift recipient to enjoy unique and beautiful works of art. Look for organizations that partner with fair trade organizations when you shop for international goods to maximize the impact of your gift.

Browse through World Vision's 2019 Gift Catalog to see a wide variety of unique handcrafted gifts ranging from jewelry and housewares to decorative items. A portion of your purchase will be used to support specific, urgent needs for children, families or communities around the world, benefiting local artisans, along with the individual for whom you selected a gift.

A $75 or greater donation enables you to select a gift from the Opportunity Collection of home decor items, the Grace Collection of jewelry and accessories or the Hope Bracelet. These items were exclusively designed by Emmy-Awardwinning actress Patricia Heaton. They were created by fair trade artisans in India in partnership with Gifts with a Cause, a fair-trade organization that provides a sustainable income to artists in developing countries. This business opportunity helps empower people to thrive, improving the lives of their families and communities. To celebrate this year's season of giving and make a real dierence, consider making a donation that expresses how much you care. Your gift will truly have an impact on making the lives of others better - long after the holidays are over.

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Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. ~Calvin Coolidge

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The Month of November found Go Green Kids Worldwide, Inc.’s CEO and publisher of Go Green Kids & Parents Magazine, Charlene Alvarez at South Broward High School. She is mentoring the DECA and Junior Achievement students of South Florida in building a green business model with a plural purpose. She creates art with a purpose, and a business platform in the dream of building a new generation of green stewards of purpose.

Charlene with the students, collaborated for the month of November to give birth to “4uKITZ for teens to alleviate stress. The kit Good contains all the goodies that are stress Works relievers by word, works, and art. Each kit www.gogreenkp.com contains a book of thoughts, a greeting card constructed with recycled paper, and a band-aid to cover the Go Green Kids wounds of worry with poetry & prose, and a prescription bottle Worldwide, Inc. of inspirational quotes. All the creations were from the minds of On a mission to teens to work on the 21st century woes of the world into make the world becoming the art for the world.

a little bit more Go Green Kids Worldwide, Inc.’s mission and goal is to educate green-er with and enlighten students in the awareness of the world in which purpose.

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they share. To promote stewardship, through diversity, and cultures, while intertwining customs in creating solutions for a green generation globally.

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