Month: March 2012

It’s raining, it’s pouring…

[If you already saw this video, I added 15 seconds at the end of last nights thunderstorm – 3/9/12 1:30 am]

 

Math Bingo

Leilani likes Math Bingo
She got it when she was 3, from a well-meaning parent at the Montessori Preschool she went to for a short time...
<sarcasm>I was happy to learn that the game was not meant for 3 year olds, but is labled 5+</sarcasm>
Meanwhile, another math-game, a few years old, from Austria...
For the same age group...

However, I am happy to say, Leilani is now playing with the American 5+ game (not the divisions and multiplications part), and ready to give away the Austrian 5+ game…

Homeschooling

And because the internet is still up: Homeschooling Paradise with “humorous” math. It does make Leilani beg for more math… the humor is exactly on target for the audience. I learned about the site because a teacher was fired over using the materials.

Free Math Word Problems – Challenging Singapore First Grade Math

Example? Wally the Killer Whale caught some jellyfish. He ate 5 of them and gave 7 to his daughter for acing her First Grade Math Worksheet. If Wally had 6 jellyfish in the end, how many did he catch in the beginning? (She solved that one)
Really bad example? Goomba Gorilla loved to collect bird droppings because his wife made delicious pies with them. He collected some and put them in 3 boxes. He put 4 bird droppings in box A. In Box B, he put 3 more than in Box A. And finally, he put 8 in Box C. How many bird droppings did hungry Goomba collect?
And there are worse, but I read them aloud, so I edit on the fly :-)

Update: Sadly, the owner of the website took it down because he was so distraught about the teacher getting fired. It angers me. I feel for the teacher, I oppose the system, but still, the teacher had no common sense. He used the 3rd grade worksheets, and their humor is even darker and geared to that age group. He or she should have known better, American schools want to sterilize content, (but Hollywood and Toys’R’Us produces so much worse and markets it to kids and then it’s OK) and there is always one parent who is offended…

Another update: I wrote an answer to the owner of the website.

Hi Kris,

I totally disagree with the taking down of the website. If you close it, you will be punishing 1000 kids, whose parents have been using your site in the past, plus a few new ones like me, in order to show support to the teacher. I am sorry for the teacher. I wish it was not so. If you want my ideas on how to support him/her in a more efficient way email me.

But your closing of the website will not help him/her. This teacher has made a choice – teach within the American school system. He/she should have known what the system expects, and that at least one parent is always offended (by potty humor, hunting, blood, using the name of a race, nation…). There are lots of super religious people in the US, and to them anything Harry Potter, Vampires… is of the devil. If the teacher has been teaching for a while he/she knew that. Using your worksheets is a poor choice to make, for someone working within and depending on that system. Most homeschoolers are different. I don’t care what the parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles of 35 classmates think. Your worksheets make my daughter laugh, and make her like math. That’s why I use them privately. Would I if I was teaching my friends kids? I’d show my friend first and ask. Would I if I was teaching a dozen or more kids? Absolutely not.

I just wish I had downloaded all the worksheets while I had a chance…

Anyway, however you decide, I’m grateful that you created the sheets, that the website was up for as long as it was, that I found it (and yes, I only found it because the teacher was fired) and that my daughter had 2 math lessons that were a lot more fun than her usual.

Thanks

Sonja

In other news: We did not drown when it rained 12 inches, but we caught a gallon worth of roof leak water…

Youngest Kids in Class More Apt to Get ADHD Diagnosis: Study HealthDay

By By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter | HealthDay

MONDAY, March 5 (HealthDay News) — A new Canadian study provides more evidence that too many young kids may be diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, simply because they’re younger than their peers in the same classrooms.

Researchers found that nearly 7 percent of boys aged 6 to 12 were diagnosed with ADHD overall, but the percentage ranged from 5.7 percent for those who were the oldest in their grade levels to 7.4 percent for the youngest. There was a similar gap for girls, although they’re much less likely to be diagnosed.

The findings, which are similar to those from U.S. studies, don’t prove definitively that any kids are being wrongly diagnosed with ADHD or being diagnosed purely because they’re younger than their peers.

Still, “it’s good for parents to know about this,” said study author Richard Morrow, a health research analyst at the University of British Columbia. “In general, the younger you are within your grade, the more likely you are to receive this diagnosis and get treatment.”

ADHD is a controversial developmental disorder, and there’s been debate about whether it is overdiagnosed. The researchers launched the study to determine whether a student’s age in relation to his or her peers may have something to do with the likelihood of diagnosis.

The study authors examined the records of over 930,000 kids in British Columbia who were between the ages of 6 and 12, during the time period from 1997 to 2008. They focused on differences between kids born in January (who’d typically be the oldest in their classes) and December (who’d typically be the youngest due to cut-off dates for school enrollment).

The level of ADHD diagnosis was lowest for kids born early in the year — the oldest ones in their classes — and highest for those born later in the year. Kids born in January and December had the lowest and highest rates, respectively: 5.7 percent of boys and 1.6 percent of girls for those born in January, and 7.4 percent of boys and 2.7 percent of girls among those born in December.

Boys born in December were 30 percent more likely to be diagnosed and 41 percent more likely to be treated with ADHD medications than boys born in January were, while the youngest girls were 70 percent more likely to be diagnosed and 77 percent more likely to be treated with medications than the oldest girls were, the study found.

“There is no reason for them to have this kind of difference in their diagnosis,” Morrow said. “The way we would interpret that is that there are differences in maturity that are coming into play.”

In other words, physicians and teachers may think kids have ADHD when they’re actually just younger and less mature than their peers.

Richard Milich, a professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky who studies ADHD, said the findings make sense considering that the disorder is difficult to diagnose, especially at younger ages.

When ADHD becomes an issue, Milich said, parents should be aware of this kind of research and bring it up with their pediatrician or whomever else is appropriate. However, “I hope it doesn’t get to the point that people say it’s not a valid disorder,” he said.

Kids with ADHD “do poorer in school, they’re more likely to be left behind and more likely to drop out of school early. Across the board, they are impaired,” Milich said. “Whether you want to call it a disorder or not, we know that’s what they’re at risk for.”

The study appears in the March 5 issue of the CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

More information

For more about ADHD, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Funnel Cloud on Kaua’i

Thanks Andy for writing this on your blog. Sorry for shortening it. Read the full article here.

The strange weather continues: after a week of rain off and on, Sonja spotted this small funnel cloud over Wailua on Saturday morning (March 3) around sunrise (7am):

FunnelCloud20120303_070233

With the backlight from the sunrise, you could see the hollow tube shape:

FunnelCloud20120303_070509

Here is a closeup of the funnel cloud, at its thickest:

FunnelCloud20120303_070531

I did some searching on the internet, and funnel clouds are fairly unusual in Hawaii.

The odd thing is that this happened the day after deadly tornadoes and storms hit the midwest United States, so we had storms and tornadoes on our minds. While we were fortunate to be spared such extreme weather, it was another rainy weekend with over 13 inches (330 mm) in one day at Hanalei (the bridge was closed again), and 17 inches (430 mm) at the summit of Wai’ale’ale. Here on the east side, we got over 9 inches (230 mm), and it’s again raining hard tonight.