Interessante...

Estudo mostra os benefícios da creche para as crianças

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Os pais que costumam se sentir culpados por deixarem seus filhos em creches já podem respirar aliviados. Segundo um estudo americano, mandar as crianças para tais locais todos os dias pode trazer benefícios para suas vidas acadêmicas na adolescência.

As conclusões são de uma pesquisa realizada pelo governo dos Estados Unidos que associou as creches de boa qualidade ao formidável desempenho escolar e cognitivo das crianças no futuro.

Os especialistas afirmaram ainda que jovens criados com o auxílio de uma creche são mais cuidadosos ao lidar com situações de risco.

As descobertas do estudo foram publicadas no periódico Child Development.

Os pesquisadores chamam a atenção para um fato importante: o estudo não determina causas e efeitos e não prova se um determinado aspecto da experiência de cuidar da criança teve qualquer reação particular nas conclusões. Eles ainda observaram uma série de fatores não mensurados que poderiam estar envolvidos em uma pesquisa seguinte.

Experimento - O levantamento envolveu 1364 crianças de diferentes classes sociais e níveis educacionais. Deborah Lowe Vandell, diretora pedagógica da Universidade da Califórnia, foi quem liderou o estudo, iniciado em 1991.

"Creches de qualidade parecem dar um impulso para o desempenho acadêmico, talvez por favorecer a aquisição precoce de competências pedagógicas", disse James A. Griffin, deputado da NICHD Child Development & Behavior Branch.

"Esses resultados destacam a importância da interação entre crianças e suas educadoras", afirmou Vandell. "Estamos testemunhando os efeitos duradouros da interação entre crianças", ressaltou a pesquisadora.

Daqui

O que temos feito...

Acho que vou aproveitar esta ideia...

Today I'm going to show you one of our latest creations...yarn sheep...baaaa!

These are super easy and inexpensive to do...and the type of sheep are only limited by your creativity!

(I had originally seen something like this a year or so ago on the internet but so far have not been able to find it again...if I do I'll link up)

First you will need some clothes pins...the old fashioned wooden spring type. You're gonna paint them any color that floats your boat. Most of ours were either black or pink, but this one I decided to go wild and paint red!

Set your clothes pins to dry and start painting...

Pieces of cardboard that you have cut into kidney bean shapes. You can make them any size you want, mine were between 2.5 to 4 inches. Paint one end for the sheep's head.

When all is dry clip your painted clothes pins onto the appropriate spots on the sheep. Check to make sure that it can stand up. When you have them where you want go ahead and put a dab of glue between the cardboard and the clothes pin to hold it tight. While the glue was still wet I slipped the end of my yarn in there so it was held tight also...

Then the fun part...start wrapping your little guy with your chosen color of yarn!

Keep wrapping making sure to cover the springs of the clothes pins and any cardboard. Add enough layers until you sheep is as fat as you would like him. Tuck the end of the yarn into the sheep and put a dab of glue on it to hold it.

Next cut little ears out of felt, and a tail too if you like and glue them on.

These were the two I made in the morning with the girls. Later when the kids were at grandma's I noticed I still had supplies left so instead of starting dinner, doing the laundry, or even the mountain of dirty dishes, I snuck upstairs to make some more sheep!

I made this sassy little girl sheep with her ears flying in the wind...for this I flipped the cardboard bean shape around so her head is up unlike the others.

Next came our little red legged sheep with her lace collar!

I even tried one with multi-colored yarn...what fun he is...the life of the party actually!

You can embellish you sheep with ribbon, lace, or tiny little bells.

The options are endless...you could use tiny flowers or beads, those would be adorable too!

What do you do when you are all done with your sheep...well have a photo shoot of course. At least if you are easily amused by things like that, which I admit I am!

I will say that a photo shoot with these little guys is much easier than with my kids...who were still at grandma's while all of this was taking place. I would have had to share otherwise and frankly that would not been as fun!

Look at those legs...they seem to go on forever!

And oh my...what a shot! Obviously someone has been doing their squats!

You might want to see a stylist about that frizz...

OK little lambs...one final shot, then you can go play.

Thanks!

***

STOP

Just before this post went to press Sweet Girl found her sheep and insisted that she be included.

So without further ado...

Cotton Candy sheep with paint on her fur and a Sharpie drawn face...yep the options for these really are endless!

So a quick list...clothes pins, cardboard, paint, yarn, felt, glue

That's all you need for this great little craft!

Now go make yourself some sheep!

Vi AQUI

Uma ideia incrível! ;)

For The Birds

Being National Bird Feeding Month and all, the kids and I thought we'd make something special for the birds visiting our backyard. We seem to have so many more this year than we usually do.

I used a utility knife and cut out letters from cardboard to spell the word "WELCOME". I also poked holes in the top of the letters for stringing. Then, we spread peanut butter on both sides and coated it well with bird seed.





The letters are surprisingly heavy after you're finished. We strung twine through the letters to make a garland, then hung them in the trees.


It wasn't too long before the word got out!


If you want to make some similar at home, I have a couple of suggestions...

This is a very Messy project (note capital M). Protect your surface and your floor if you need to. We went through a jar of peanut butter to finish all the letters. You'll definitely get bird seed in your peanut butter jar, so, if you have any left, reserve it for later projects, not for eating ;)

I used thick cardboard cut from boxes for the letters. It needs to be thick to hold up to the peanut butter and seed.

Use a good heavy twine, light-weight rope or something similar for the garland. I thought our twine might not be strong enough to hold all the letters and the birds that would land on it, but so far, so good.

We've had a LOT of birds already, sometimes I'll look out the window and see it covered up with customers. Makes me feel like spring isn't too far away!


Vi Aqui

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