BULLETIN NUMBER 547 - This week (May 16, 2012) it´s in the news...

The thirteenth edition of the State of the World's Mothers analyzes the best and worst countries to be a mother based on factors such as educational status, economic, and political health of mothers and the basic welfare of their children. Eight of the ten countries that top the rankings are in Europe, while eight of the ten worst countries to be a mother are in sub-Saharan Africa. Spain occupies the sixteenth lugfar and the best country, according to this classification returns to Norway. Niger is ranked the worst. To see the review and download the report, use this link.

It is easy to find stereotypes as to what a Spanish speaker is supposed to look like. The erroneous belief seems to be that only people with dark hair, dark eyes and tan skin speak Spanish. So when we find blond, blue eyed or oriental looking "native" speakers, people can be surprised. The Spanglish Baby website offers a very interesting text on this topic. We can read it at this link.

The New York Times wrote recently about the strange social phenomenon of elaborate goody bags. In most places, they consist of a menagerie of plastic trinkets that inevitably gets foisted upon celebrants as the party draws to a close. Parents prepping for their kids’ parties may drop an average of $15 per goody bag; that could potentially be more than invitees spend on gifts...to read more, click  here.

The media constantly portrays the perfect woman as a slim and beautiful size 6, yet statistics show that the average woman is between sizes 11 and 14. As a result there is an increase in cases of eating disorders primarily among women. A survey completed by Exeter University in Great Britain reported that over half of the 37,500 teenage girls surveyed reported that their appearance was the biggest concern in their lives. They also found that 59% of girls who suffered from low self-esteem ages twelve to thirteen were dieting. Sadly about three percent of these girls will go to far and become anorexic or bulimic. To read more, click here.

Serotonin is a brain chemical that carries signals across the synapse, or gap between nerve cells. The supply of serotonin is regulated by the serotonin transporter (SERT). A team of researchers from Vanderbilt University led by Randy Blakely and James Sutcliffe identified rare genetic variations in children with ASD that disrupt SERT function. To read more, use this link.

A series of scans conducted while second- and third-grade students did addition and subtraction revealed that those who feel panicky about doing math had increased activity in brain regions associated with fear, which caused decreased activity in parts of the brain involved in problem-solving. "The same part of the brain that responds to fearful situations, such as seeing a spider or snake, also shows a heightened response in children with high math anxiety," said Vinod Menon, PhD, the Stanford professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences who led the research. To read more, click here.

It's normal for toddlers to be fearful. After all, anxiety is a natural condition that helps us cope with new experiences and protects us from danger. Some toddlers are frightened of very specific things: bugs, dogs, the dark, or loud noises, like the vacuum cleaner. Others are afraid of new situations or meeting new people. Most of the toddlers' fears will fade as they become more secure in themselves and their environment. To read more, click here.

Students with Asperger's syndrome (commonly referred to as a type of high-functioning autism) suffer terribly every single day of their lives in K-12 schools trying to cope with the academic and social demands placed on them. To read more, click here.

We can make an interesting experiment with our children. All we need are some white flowers and some food coloring. The results we can obtain are quite striking! To view the instructions, click here.

Picky eaters make parent's lives very difficult. Refusing to eat what has been prepared for them can frustrate any parent. So, these 13 tips for dealing with picky eaters can be quite useful. To view them, click here.

With some green construction paper, a few other simple materials and a lot of creativit, we can make a turtle! The idea is simple and to view the instructions, use this link.

The Kids learning station website offers printable resources for many different activities. For example, these worksheets to teach the numbers. They also have coloring projects and color by number activities. To view them, use this link

We can make a tabletop Zen rock garden. It is a simple, beautiful project that lets kids display a collection of souvenirs from their travels. To view the instructions, click here.

Playgrounds and outdoor play equipment offer kids fresh air, friends, and exercise. So it's important for parents to make sure that faulty equipment, improper surfaces, and careless behavior don't ruin the fun. Each year, more than 200,000 kids are treated in hospital ERs for playground-related injuries. Many of these could have been prevented with the proper supervision. For some safety tips about the proper use of playgrounds, click here.

Our International Summer School is having a fantastic response. This year it offers teachers and educators guidelines, new strategies, experiences or games to carry out a true psychomotor education in an atmosphere of affection and trust, turn to enhance self-esteem and social integration under the direction of a teaching team exceptional. To view the full schedule and reserve a place, use this link.

How to talk to children about the existence of different religions? What are the most common mistakes committed by early childhood educators? These are just some of the questions we receive from our friends and readers. To address them, we created a special channel on YouTube: Channel AMEI.Responde. Of course, you can send all questions and suggestions you want to be heeded. Since the videos are in Spanish they may be useful for teachers working in bilingual settings. Visit the channel at this link.

As you can see, we have changed the look of our weekly newsbulltin to make it even more attractive and easy to read but without losing our goal of informing our readers. Tell us if you like it! Send a message to comunicacion@waecemail.org

The report The New Coviewing: Designing for Learning through Joint Media Engagement, from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and the LIFE Center at the University of Washington contains case studies on families engaging in multi-generational conversations and learning around media, with an eye on newer digital products. For more information and download, click here.

The Early Childhood News website offers "Music for Learning" featuring this month the song "You are Super the Way you Are". You'll find downloadable MP3 files from award-winning Miss Jackie Silberg. Lyrics included! And correlating activities at this link.

We can use violet petals in a scientific experiment with our children and we can aslo make jelly with them! To view the instructions for this experiment and recipe, click here.

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