Middle Childhood - When The Adult Brain Starts To Boot Up

via NYT: The Hormone Surge of Middle Childhood

In middle childhood, the brain is open for suggestions. What do I need to know? What do I want to know? Well, you could take up piano, chess or juggling, learn another language or how to ski.

Child Spacing

Via Freakonomics: Want Smarter Kids? Space Them (At Least) Two Years Apart

The hypothesis is the older kids get more of their parents time before the second sibling comes along. However, based on my observations I would hypothesize that the role the older child plays in teaching their younger sibling skills they already have (such as reading) is what leads to better test scores.

Minimalist Shoes For Kids

Run free kids.

The value of going shoe-free has been linked before.

NaturalRunningCenter.com has more on the topic in Get Your Kids Into Minimalist Shoes to Ensure Natural Foot Development because, as stated in the post "Kids’ shoes until recently have been marketed by the shoe companies to parents, educators, and health care professionals to prepare our kids for shoes they are marketing for adults to wear."

For a review on some minimalist shoes available from Golden Shoes in downtown TC see BRU: Merrell Barefoot Kids Review (Pace and Trail Glove)

More On The Importance Of Zero To Six

Via PsychToday: Getting Ahead: Why Preschool Benefits the Brain

Although preschool does not teach market economics or neuroscience, it provides necessary skills that are essential to getting—and keeping—a job later in life. Most important, children learn how to socialize with peers, manage stress and solve problems. At age 28, the adults who received preschool educations years before had significantly higher job prestige, earnings and socioeconomic status.

In addition to boosting the life-course prospects of the children who received preschool education, the program also saves society money. It costs around $8,000 to send a child to preschool for a half day during the school year, but the estimated benefits in terms of increased productivity and reduced cost to the criminal justice system put the savings at just over $80,000, a ten-fold return on investment.

Practicing Free Throws

I never did homework in high school but I did practice my free throws. Not that I was an excellent basketball player, I underachieved in academics and basketball, but I always liked the repetition of free throws.

However, it was only in graduate school when I learned to apply myself academically, and that was by thinking of complex math and chemistry formulas as shooting free throws.

I saw that doing these equations over and over was the only way to get better at them, and it definitely worked for me.

OvercomingBias mentions a study similar to what I found about math work: Only Do Math Homework

...we find that math homework has a large and statistically meaningful effect on math test scores throughout our sample. However, additional homework in science, English and history are shown to have little to no impact on their respective test scores.

2 Hours

If your kids have two hours of free time then spending those two hours outside can help prevent nearsightedness (NPR: Buried Indoors, Ranks Of Nearsighted Grow) or contribute to obesity if you put them in front of media (NPR: Pediatricians Recommend A Media Diet For Kids To Fight Obesity).

Parenting Advice From An Unlikely Source

Prison.

See MJ: What Parents Can Learn From Prison Guards

The article, "7 things never to say to anyone, and why", listed common statements used by prison guards and police officers and explained why they make people do the exact opposite of what they're being told to do. The seven things were:

1. "Hey you! Come here!"

2. "Calm down!"

3. "I'm not going to tell you again!"

4. "Be more reasonable!"

5. "Because those are the rules!"

6. "What's your problem?"

7. "What do you want me to do about it?"

Environmental Working Group Released Their Annual Best Sunscreens List

EWG: Best Beach & Sport Sunscreens

California Baby has four products make the list.

Cow Bell Won't Help

The best course for kids with a fever is to let it do its own thing - that's why we have the fever.

What I normally do is wait at least 24 hrs with the child having a fever then give them minimum doses of a fever reducer as needed simply to keep them comfortable. The exception was my oldest daughter who seemed to have asthma-like symptoms triggered by a high fever.

See NPR: Pediatricians Caution Parents Against 'Fever Phobia'

Speaking of body temperature, research indicates 98.6 is ideal for preventing fungal growth [SciAm].

Dirt - It Is Not Just For Boys

More hygiene hypothesis to explain why girls appear to be less healthy than boys. See NPR: Why Keeping Little Girls Squeaky Clean Could Make Them Sick

The converse of this topic was recently on the Diane Rehm Show: "Cinderella Ate My Daughter"

Crazy For You

The Freedom to Learn blog at Psych Today has this advice: How to Advise and Help Your Kids Without Driving Them (or Yourself) Crazy (see the linked article for the full list)

1. When your child asks for help or advice, give only what was asked for...
2. Before offering unsolicited help or advice count to ten...
3. Before trying to protect your child from danger, think of the potential benefits as well as the potential costs of the "dangerous" behavior...