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The good news is, someone on the White House Task Force for childhood obesity was listening. This week, Michelle Obama sent an email releasing their report, and among the many recommendations, was restoring recess! Recommendation 5.4: State and local educational agencies should be encouraged to promote recess for elementary students and physical activity breaks for older [...] Incredible. Inspiring. Energizing. Those are just a few words to describe the 7th Annual Consuming Kids Summit in Boston this weekend. Hosted by the unflagging Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (you may remember they were forced out of their home after taking on Disney and Baby Einstein), the success of this summit is testimony [...] Is it too much to ask that our school children eat a school lunch without being marketed to? I don’t think so. A few months ago, I wrote about Milk Media and their Milk Rocks! campaign. At that time I was upset about the Bakugan website advertised to my [...]
I am back from Boston and the MassAEYC conference and have had time to think about some of the points David Elkind made in his keynote address. Dr. Elkind is the author of many respected books, such as The Hurried Child, Miseducation: Preschoolers at Risk and most recently, The Power of Play. One [...] Today I write about two unique opportunities. Your voice can help make this country a better place for children and play. First, as I’ve written recently, the Common Core Standards are now available for public comment at www.corestandards.org (until April 2nd). The current draft for kindergarten includes: “Read with sufficient accuracy and [...] It is easy to feel small and powerless when corporations like Disney bully and try to silence watchdogs and advocates such as Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (see story in yesterday’s NY Times). The small staff at CCFC works tirelessly on a small annual budget of $250,000, protecting childhood from corporate encroachment, yet have been [...] There is some debate about where and when the term “tween” first hit the mainstream. There is also debate about the exact tween parameters. Some say tweens are the 8 to 14 year olds; others say 9 to 13 year olds; and others claim 6 to 12 year olds. And now, we even see the [...] Today I played the game “3 Foot Ninja” on the MilkRocks! website. This is the website advertised on school milk cartons in grades K-12 throughout the country. Well, I wasn’t too good at the game, and quickly died a gruesome death – with my red blood spilling out. Nice way to start the day. I urge [...] This weekend I spent time thinking about Milk Media and the Milk Rocks! campaign in schools. (See previous posts “The Brawl Begins” when Milk Media meets my son and Troublemakers and Peacemakers for background information.) According to the representative I talked with, the video games and movie previews available on the Milk Rocks! website are [...] Today I am thinking about ways to make a little trouble. I am talking about speaking up when you see something that concerns you and making noise to effect small changes. Yesterday I had a conversation with an executive at MilkMedia, the folks who brought us the Bakugan/Nintendo milk carton for schools. It was an [...] |
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