How Can I Get My Child To Listen When We Read Aloud Together?

 

Sometimes, even when we have done everything right, like bringing letters and words into their early lives and downloading the latest reading apps and online picture books, it can still be very hard to get your child to sit still and listen when you try to read together.

It can be a good idea to get you child to connect with a favourite character, and now that many of the top reading apps for kids come with interactivity, kids can truly feel like it is the character narrating the story and not a parent.

These storytelling educational apps also often allow a brief break from the story text by going into animation sequences or interactive learning games. These breaks will help your child to absorb the words and letters they have just learned and will prevent them getting bored too easily.

Is There A Way To Get My Child To ENJOY Learning?

YES! 

Make sure they don’t realise they are actually learning. Most good educational apps for children are cleverly designed so that your kids are being entertained and stealthily educated, both at the same time.

There are free reading apps for the iPad and many top educational apps that can be purchased on the iOS store for a small fee. You will find write-ups and ratings for these, on a simple internet search for ‘top ten learning apps’, ‘best learning apps for kids’ or ‘top educational apps’.

Most of them are based on fun, interactive characters and storylines, with educational aspects cleverly entwined. Your child ay well believe that they are just having fun and being entertained by their favourite characters, when in fact they are progressing their reading skills and education with children’s learning apps.

E-Reading the Wave of the Future

eBooks are quickly becoming one of the most popular options for children and parents alike. These online books have continued to grow in popularity, making it an important consideration for parents and teachers. However, a recent study showed just how important these book formats are, and how children are interacting with them.

The study reported that half of all children aged 13 and under utilize e-readers and the like to access interactive apps and children’s books. Additionally, this same report also showed that well over 80% of these children were reading books online once a week at the minimum. What was even more surprising was the fact that parents were also understanding and agreeing with the idea that these types of children’s books are the way to go, even if they had to pay extra to allow their child to access them.

Growing Popularity
Online books of all kinds have been growing rapidly, with Amazon reporting higher ebook sales than paper ones as far back as 2011. While this fact is obviously not marking an end to the traditional book reading experience, it does show that ereading is quickly becoming a popular way of enjoying books. While some parents are concerned with the differences in reading a digital format compared to a paper book, many others have already embraced this concept.

Interactive apps for children’s books are a great option for allowing kids to engage in reading in ways that they find more enjoyable and easier to deal with. For parents, being able to choose a specific site for their children to enjoy their online time allows them to provide books in a much quicker fashion, helping to keep their children entertained during certain times. This method of reading also allows for greater flexibility, especially for parents who work late and are unable to make it to a library before they close.

Children Love Technology
Every parent knows just how much children enjoy playing with Smartphones and other gadgets. This enjoyment means that children can use these items to access storybook apps rather than other, questionable sites while mom or dad are busy. In addition, since all parents want to know that their children are reading without being forced to do so, it becomes easy to see why ereading is currently a booming pastime.

Engagement is Key
As with any type of reading, ensuring that your children are engaging with the materials they read is important. Interactive children’s books provide this engagement in many ways, including as a learning tool. Many ebooks provide services that allow children to click on words they don’t understand so that they can find out what the word means. These built in dictionaries help to further a child’s learning by helping them to learn new words, without having to ask or simply skip over it.

If you want to keep your child interested in reading, you need to take the time to find some storybook apps so that your child can continue to learn and grow while reading.

If you are concerned about what your child is accessing online, setting up pages that go directly to children’s storybooks and other educational apps will ensure that they are only visiting appropriate sites, and that they are learning in the process.

Source:
http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3752572
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/8622939/Digital-Books-for-Children.html

Education in an Interactive World

Technology has changed the way we look at many things, including educational books and materials. These technological advances have taken many schools by storm, and there are many more that are added to the number of educators using digital materials every day. In fact, using some type of technology, whether computers, laptops, iPads, or Kindles, is a natural part of nearly every student’s day.

Improved Availability
There are a number of reasons for education to take the leap to online learning and educational materials, but one of the most important is that the devices allow multiple students to access the same material at the same time. Most school libraries carry only a few copies of certain books, and this can be problematic when entire classrooms are completing the same project. When educational materials are available online, every student can access the information and books at the same time.

More Practical
Educational books are notoriously heavy and unwieldy, and for students who are taking multiple classes, transporting all the materials can become difficult. Kindles and other electronic devices can store an amazing amount of material and educational apps, which allows students to carry considerably less to and from classes and school each day.

Greener Alternatives
Internet-based books and educational apps do not require printing in mass quantities to satisfy the needs of students. This is an important consideration in both school settings and those who supplement their children’s education at home. The accessibility of these materials also reduces the amount of storage space needed, and the associated clutter that storing these materials entails.

Cutting Costs
Educational apps and children’s storybooks located online are considerably cheaper than their paper counterparts, and in many cases may even be free. Web-based materials do not have the associated costs of printing, manufacturing, and transporting, which drastically lowers the prices of these materials. Another benefit of these lower costs is that they are more readily accessible to a greater number of children, parents, and educators as their costs are not prohibitive.

Greater Interaction
Many storybook apps for children are considerably more interactive than traditional ones, which allows for greater flexibility in teaching strategies and usage. Children who are able to engage with the books and materials they are reading tend to retain more information. Additionally, educational apps and resources can be linked to similar and related content, allowing students and readers to develop better interpretation and understanding of linked materials.

Digital educational and children’s books provide interesting ways for parents and children to interact with each other to facilitate the learning process. As more and more schools make the switch to interactive learning for education, younger children will also benefit from being familiar with how to navigate and operate these devices before they ever enter the school setting.

If you are concerned about what your child is accessing online, setting up pages that go directly to children’s storybooks and other educational apps will ensure that they are only visiting appropriate sites, and that they are learning in the process.

Source: http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3752572

The Real ‘Sniffer’ or Detection Dog and Our Uses for their Noses!

Believe it or not Detective Dexter Doggley is not the only mutt around with a super sniffer.

Detection dogs are specifically trained to use their sense of smell for a very wide range of things. The talents of different types of sniffer dogs include:
•    Endangered animal species (e.g., black-footed ferret,[4][5]bumblebee nests)
•    Invasive species (e.g., quagga mussel)
•    Human remains
•    Crime evidence
•    Fire accelerants (i.e., arson investigation)[6]
•    Currency
•    Drugs
•    Explosives
•    Firearms
•    Mobile phones (as contraband in prisons)[7]
•    Mold
•    Plants, animals, produce, and agricultural items (used bycustoms services)
•    Polycarbonate optical discs such as DVDs (e.g., bootleg recordings)
•    Termites
•    Bed bugs
•    Wildlife scat
•    Cancerous tumors in humans
•    Hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) emergencies in humans

Let’s have a look in a bit more detail at some of our recent Doggy heroes and just why they deserve a medal!

Soldier Angie McDonnell’s life was spared after bomb detection dog Vidar, discovered a stash of explosives while she was on patrol near Camp Bastion. Later on, 4 year old Vidar suffered with post traumatic stress disorder and Angie took him under her wing – returning the favour.

Daisy has used her extraordinary sense of smell to sniff out over 500 cases of cancer in humans. Her owner, Dr Claire Guest is an animal behavioural physiologist and she had been researching the possibility of training dogs to detect cancers. During this time Daisy saved Claire’s life by doing just that.

Charco was a sniffer dog whose job was to find people under rubble and debris after major earthquakes or other disasters. His handler Neil Powell trained him to climb on and through rubble to search for survivors and could even change his command to switch over to explosive searching. Charco died at a good old age and many have people have him to thank for their lives.

Odin the German shepherd police dog and his partner constable Bill Dodd received commendations for their roles in taking down an armed suspect. Odin used his incredible sense of smell to track down the suspect and also disarmed him by jumping up and knocking the weapon away.

 

Dexter: The main character from the Dexter and Friends children’s interactive storybooks. In the app he uses his brilliant sense of smell to find things and solve mysteries.

Meet the Real Animals Who Inspired Our Characters

Hello fellow animal and pet lovers!

Today we are going to tell you all about the REAL animals behind the Dexter and Friends characters. I bet you didn’t know that all the animal characters in our series are based on the actual pets or wildlife that inspired our writer, Tamara Forge.

Of course we must start with the star of the show, Detective Dexter Doggley…

This is Rocky, when this picture was taken Rocky was still just a puppy. Rocky’s keen sense of smell and inquisitive nature inspired the character of Dexter. 

‘Dexter the dog is a brilliant detective, he uses his nose and it’s very effective!’

Rocky is nearly 5 years old now and he still lives with our writer in his New Forest countryside home in England. He is always full of fun and everyday is an adventure.

This is Tigger, he was a very young kitten when this picture was taken in 1979! Tamara was born less than a year later and she grew up with Tigger by her side. Tigger’s fun-loving and very caring nature inspired the character of Little Puss. Tigger lived a full and happy life to the ripe old age of nearly 21, which is very old for a cat. 

This is Mrs Oakley, she also lives in the garden and surrounding woodland of Rocky’s New Forest home. She can usually be found gathering the walnuts and hazelnuts from the landlady’s neighboring trees! With her twitching nose and bushy tail she was the perfect inspiration for our nut loving character, Hazel.

This is Mr Prickles, he is a frequent visitor to our writer’s garden and can very often be found snoozing in log sheds or napping in compost heaps (this is why we must always be careful to look for sleeping wildlife before we light bonfires!) Of course this behavior inspired our lovely character Prickle, who likes to hibernate during the winter months.  The real Mr Prickles will come out on warm summer evenings to eat any yummy dog food leftovers from Rocky’s dinner.

This is Pepper, Pepper was part of a dynamic duo – Salt & Pepper! These cheeky pet mice were the inspiration for the whole mouse gang that cause endless mischief and mayhem around the McDrew household, in the Dexter and Friends series.

Now that you’ve met their real counterparts you can see the likenesses in our lovable crew, so from us, the pets, the wild animals and from Dexter and Friends – 

“We hope you enjoy the series!”