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3 incredible advantages of raising bilingual children

Advantages of raising bilingual children

According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, “most children have the capacity and facility to learn more than one language.” Raising bilingual children may seem challenging for some, and it does require some level of determination from the family involved. But the advantages seem to surpass the challenges of raising bilingual kids. Read on and you’ll learn about some of the advantages of raising bilingual children.

Bilingual children work at a more complex level than monolingual kids

The brains in children who speak two languages can handle “higher cognitive processes.” Incultureparent.com outlines some of these:

  1. “Better ability to focus and be less distracted”
  2. “Better at multitasking”
  3. “Increased mental flexibility and creativity”
  4. “Stronger logic skills”

And, according to the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, they have better memory skills too.

Bilingual kids can have a wider range of work opportunities in the future

Consider Canada as an official bilingual country. Many may argue that learning French may not be worth the trouble as most Canadians function in English. However, according to an article by huffingtonpost.ca, there are thousands of federal government jobs that need to be filled every year.

Canadian families don’t need to speak french for their kids to be bilingual. They can choose to enrol children in the Canadian French Immersion program. So Canada will teach kids French for free. In exchange, these bilingual children may be the only ones qualified to fill up these government positions in the future.

See more from our site on this topic, as it relates to French Immersion tutoring and education:

But looking at how globalized everything has become, children who grow up speaking two or more languages will have much wider access to career opportunities than monolingual kids across the globe. It may be much easier for bilingual kids to work for international companies and abroad.

Being bilingual can help delay dementia and Alzheimer’s in old age

BBC.com says that “scientists examined almost 650 dementia patients” as part of a research that wanted to know what impact bilingualism had on dementia. The results showed that bilingual patients developed dementia a few years later than monolingual patients.

The New Yorker has a great article on bilingualism and the aging brain. They mention the research done on Alzheimer’s patients and how being bilingual has acted as a protection against the onset symptoms of the disease. The research concluded that bilingual patients developed delayed diagnosis and symptoms of the disease compared to monolingual patients.

To conclude, if your child is already bilingual, learning even more languages may be easier for them as their brains are already trained to handle such a complex task.

For families who already have bilingualism in their midst, exposing your kids to a second language can start as young as infancy. The younger, the better! Consistency and perseverance in keeping a second language is key. But taking into account the above advantages mentioned in this article, seems worthwhile!

Plus, see these related posts about language education and brain stimulation on our blog!

Teach kids about inequality using the World Cup and the Olympics

Teachiing kids about inequality using the World Cup
Photo Credit: samuelrodgers752 via Compfight cc

If there is one sport most kids around the world know about, it’s soccer. Kids like kicking balls around, don’t they? Kids may grow up playing soccer or other sports as a pastime, an after school activity, or even in advanced soccer leagues. But that doesn’t exclude the thought of being an Olympian one day. Wouldn’t that be amazing?

Regardless of whether your kid will be into sports or not, world sporting events like the World Cup and the Olympics are something kids will know about at some point in their lives.

And beyond sports events being entertaining, they can be a way to show kids how these world events affect everyone involved – not just the athletes. Major sporting events can be a way to teach kids about inequality.

Here are some ideas you can use to teach kids about inequality using the World Cup, the Olympics or other major sporting events.

Use real-world math to teach wage inequality around sports events

The World Cup and the Olympics are huge events that take place every 2-4 years. As such, they employ an enormous amount of people from all walks of life and from various countries, to do a myriad of tasks. By the time we watch these events on TV or in a stadium, countless hours of labour have gone into the preparation work. And as we see in the news, wage equality is not always practiced in the run up to major sporting events.

Based on this, you may want to show children that the fantasy of athletic pride comes with a cost for other human beings, with feelings just like them. To help make an impact on kids regarding this world inequality issue, you could research a few significant jobs within the World Cup or the Olympics, and their weekly wages as the main reference.

A website called Teaching Ideas suggests the lesson can start by having the kids brainstorm possible jobs they think can be found at the World Cup or Olympics sporting event. Pick out a few of their choices and ask them who do they think earns the most money and who earns the least. You can then give them your list of jobs and wages. Make sure kids understand what each job entails. You can then ask them to organize the wages from lowest to highest and discuss whether they think those wages are fair or not.

You can also make this a group activity by making the jobs and wages into a matching card game. The lesson on the Teaching Ideas website is based on the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, but you can modify that to current times, such as the upcoming Olympics, which are also in Brazil. Using math in this way can really highlight the issue of inequality.

And this shockingly sad news video by VICE News will display the struggles of overseas low-wage workers supplying labour in Japan in the lead-up to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. When you hear what a foreign worker is willing to work for, you can’t help but feel guilty about our ‘cushy’ lives in North America. A word of caution: please discuss with your school principal and parents before showing this video to younger audiences.

Teach a human geography lesson out of inequality surrounding sports events

Moreover, teaching kids about wage inequality issue can also highlight ongoing injustices in a country where the poor have little say. Governments have been known to evict residents to be able to build stadiums, and to overspend on sports events instead of on social welfare. This is a growing problem in Brazil, and was also one during the Russian Olympics in Sochi.

Oxfam has even created an in-depth lesson plan surrounding these inequality issues during Brazil’s World Cup. The lesson is still relevant to the upcoming Olympics, as it highlights the historical nature of Brazil’s inequality issues, which are an ongoing problem in media reports related to the sports event. See this article quoting a source saying that the Rio Olympics are now affecting children’s lives too.

In fact, Oxfam has several resources to teach inequality issues of the World Cup. These are covered in many aspects, and are brought about with an educational viewpoint. Check them out here:

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/education/resources/the-world-cup-a-fair-game

And, don’t forget to highlight the issue of human migration when teaching about sports and equality. Exploring the hashtag #TeamRefugees online can be a fun way for students to see how the world is feeling about the first team without a country to compete in the Olympics. Hint: it’s mostly about inspiration, and meeting the individual team members (already a great project idea in itself!). This issue could also go together with the next lesson about equal opportunity.

Use real-world fractions to examine equal opportunity for sports teams

Oxfam Education has another great resource using math and the World Cup to teach about equal opportunity when it comes to sports teams’ chances of winning. This will not only be a great exercise showing kids that fractions can be used in real life. It will show them that there is more than just math and previous wins to consider when it comes to determining a sports team’s success.

Questions to ask students on this topic: What are the resources given to sports teams in different countries? What about the placement opportunities to compete in the World Cup for some countries versus others? How does income affect a person’s potential to be a professional sports player? What about place of birth? Does this mean the ‘best’ athletes are actually ‘the best,’ or could there be others out there who just haven’t been given the opportunity to be their best? Is this fair?

And here is another major issue surrounding the upcoming Olympics and equal opportunity: drugs in sports. Is it fair to ban athletes from competing if they have used drugs to enhance their athletic ability, or otherwise? According to the International Association of Athletics Federations, the answer is “yes.” They called to ban Russia’s track and field team from competing in Rio for drug use.

Teach kids about gender inequality in sports

In light of the recent complaint against the U.S. Soccer Federation by female soccer players, another thing to mention to your students will be the inequality of pay for women athletes versus male athletes. These same women are now threatening to boycott the upcoming Olympics in Rio.

This topic can spark an interesting class discussion (and let’s hope a mature one!) on why the students believe females get paid less than males in sports. Is it tradition? Is it economics? The facts and figures may tell a different story, which may surprise the students.

To conclude, let’s make kids more aware of what happens behind the scenes of their favourite sports events

Before we sign off, for even more learning ideas, The Guardian has an article listing a number of other great resources for teaching kids about FIFA and the World Cup. It includes some resources we’ve mentioned here, plus more. It surrounds various topics that can be turned into teachable lessons for students.

Sporting events can often bring out issues with unfairness and inequality. Their main goal is to entertain the millions of sports fans around the world, at any cost, for financial gain. And they seem to always successfully achieve their goal. If we decide to let our kids partake in such entertainment (after all, it’s hard to stop anyone from doing so), we could at least teach them do it in a more globally conscious way.

It may be good for kids to understand that not everyone involved with sporting events such as the Olympics and the World Cup are being treated fairly and equally. And supporting these events has ripple-effect consequences for others in our world.

Teaching kids about the value of public art in Vancouver, and their hidden lessons

Teaching kids about the value of public art in Vancouver
Photo Credit: keepitsurreal via Compfight cc

It is really easy to take public art for granted. And that’s a shame as public art is not just to beautify a certain space in a city. It is worth teaching kids about public art so they know what was chosen to represent what a city stands for, its surroundings, history, and community.

Vancouver is a great place to start teaching kids about the value of public art. Vancouver has an immense collection of public art. There are 5 great public art displays in Vancouver with links to resources for more lesson planning (and don’t forget a field trip for each if you can!)

1. Digital Orca

This large public sculpture located next to the Vancouver Convention Centre, was built by Douglas Coupland in 2009. It signifies the prevalent connection Vancouver has between technology and nature. The orca looks as if it’s built with lego blocks because it’s supposed to be pixelated. Coupland explains that, when you look at the actual materials the orca was made with, you can get a sense of the variety of workers found laboring at the harbor.

Related lesson:

If you’d like to extend this public art lesson further, here is a great video lesson about orcas. You can also look into the history of the Vancouver harbor.

2. A-maze-ing Laughter

Laughing statues in vancouverThis art display is hard to miss! It was built by Beijing-based artist Yue Minjun for the Vancouver Biennale in 2009. (You can also teach kids about the Vancouver Biennale, the organization that exhibits great public displays in the city).

For artist Minjun, this art display should encourage those who see it, to appreciate laughter and laugh with it. Take kids to look at these various statues and encourage them to mimic them. They may have a good laugh!

The inscription behind this public display says “May this sculpture inspire laughter playfulness and joy in all who experience it.” Here is a guided tour video about this iconic Vancouver art display.

Related lesson:

You could also take the background of this piece further and teach kids about the history of Chinese immigrants in Vancouver.

3. The Inukshuk

This public art display is an iconic Canadian image that was even used as the main symbol of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. In Vancouver, you can find this public monument a 5 min walking distance from the A-maze-ing Laughter sculpture, near the sea wall.

These stone monuments were used by the Inuit to communicate and survive. So for instance, they would be used as “a navigation tool, to mark a place where fish could be found, or as a memorial for a loved one.” So the Inuit meaning is “Someone was here” or “You are on the right path.”

This piece of public art is now used as a welcome sign to all the tourists that come to Vancouver annually. The University of Washington has a lesson plan on the Inuit Inukshuk and the 2010 Olympics for your further reference when lesson planning on this piece of public art.

4. The Birds

Birds public art in olympic village vancouverAt the heart of the Olympic Village in False Creek, you won’t miss two giant sculptures of sparrows. Myfanwy Macleod’s thought behind this public art display in Vancouver, was to highlight the threat of non-native species to the local ecosystem. It was built in False Creek in particular because, prior to the Olympics, the area was an industrial wasteland. Through the Millennium Water project, the Olympic Village became the greenest neighbourhood in the world.

Related lesson:

For a hands-on lesson on invasive species in BC, check out this comprehensive resource.

Plus check out our article:

Focused Lesson — teaching kids about invasive species

5. Human Structures

Not too far from The Birds public art display, you will see a colourful public monument of steel figures holding hands and standing on each other. About the art display, Jonathan Borofsky said “we are all constantly in a process of connecting together to build our world…Humans use structures to build our world, not only architectural, but psychological and philosophical structures.”

Related lesson:

Here is a good lesson to teach kids the benefits of working together.

Vancouver and the Lower Mainland have so many more public art displays to offer. The above 5 are just a way for you to inspire kids to look at public art as a tool to learn about their community and even its connections to the world.

How to teach kids about transformations in nature

Teach kids about transformations in nature

Real-life projects can leave a long-lasting impression on kids. In this article we’ll give you three great projects you can do in your classroom to teach kids the amazing science behind transformations in nature and metamorphosis.

This lesson can be used as a follow-up, or introduction into another lesson on our blog about autumn nature changes:

Science lesson: teach students about autumn’s nature changes

A simple project such as making raisins can introduce the topic of transformations in nature

This is probably one of the easiest science experiments you can do with kids. If you show a regular group of kids a bunch of round juicy grapes and some dark, dry, and wrinkly raisins, they’ll probably tell you they look nothing alike and don’t even taste the same! So this is a great lesson to introduce kids to how nature transforms itself from one thing to something completely different.

This lesson ties in with teaching kids about the properties of sunlight. You can put kids into small groups. Then give each group a bag of about 10-20 grapes. Designate a spot in the classroom for each group to place their bunch of grapes, preferably a sunny one. According to planet-science.com, it can take as little as three sunny days (if you leave them outside) for grapes to transform into raisins. If you leave them in your classroom it may take longer, up to two weeks according to learnplayimagine.com.

But, while waiting, you can get your students to check the progress of this natural transformation every other day. They can make notes of the change in colour and shape. And at the end, they get to enjoy their project by eating it!

Teach kids about one of the most amazing transformations in nature by studying the butterfly life cycle

Probably one of the most known natural transformations is that of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. You can start by reading the classic book ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar.’ You can then show your classroom a short video clip documenting this natural transformation. Here are three possible clips:

Depending on the kids’ ages, you can then do a simple craft activity such as this one made with different types of pasta. Or this more elaborate one showing the actual metamorphosis.

If you would like for the kids to see first hand this incredible transformation of nature, you can raise live butterflies in the classroom! As the butterflysite.com states, you can either go find your own butterfly eggs and get the appropriate tools for rearing them. Or you can buy a butterfly kit online.

Side note: need help learning how to find educational crafts online? Check out our blog article on using Pinterest to do so:

How to find educational crafts and activities on Pinterest

Teach kids about the metamorphosis of a tadpole into a frog

The life cycle of a frog is another great way of teaching kids about metamorphosis and transformations in nature. There are a number of books that can introduce this topic to kids. ‘From Tadpole to Frog’ by Wendy Pfeffer, may be a good one to start with. Stillplayingschool.com has a great craft of a frog’s life cycle using recycled materials.  And here is a great site with a bunch of other different resources on the life cycle of frogs.

Depending on the laws where you live, your school regulations, and your own personal beliefs, it is possible to raise tadpoles in the classroom for a more hands-on approach. Exoticpets.com begins with a warning for this activity, but then outlines the different steps needed to make this a successful experience. Mum, teacher, and marine biologist Cerys from rainydaymum.co.uk, has successfully raised tadpoles with her children and outlines all the steps she’s taken on her site.

Related lessons:

A related lesson on this topic of raising tadpoles is on invasive species. Since raising tadpoles and then releasing them into the wild could pose environmental restrictions, this can be a great segway into another lesson on our blog:

Focused Lesson — teaching kids about invasive species

Also, did you know salmon go through changes when they return to their birthplace to spawn? See our other article on teaching kids about this topic:

Focused science lesson: teaching kids about salmon controversies during the B.C. salmon run

Make science lessons memorable by using these hands-on activities on natural transformations in your class!

How tutors and teachers can prepare for the BC curriculum update in 2016

BC curriculum update in 2016

In the 2015/16 school year, British Columbia introduced the draft of a researched new model of BC’s curriculum for kindergarten to grade 9. In September 2016, BC teachers will be given the choice to use the draft for grades 10 to 12. This updated curriculum will continue to be slowly introduced in the school system until the year 2018.

Learning will be more flexible and personalized

The 2016 BC curriculum has been updated to ensure that learning is more flexible and personalized for the students. There is an overall agreement among educators (not just in Canada) that “small-group instruction” and the use of technology is a great way to personalize learning.

By pairing up students or placing them in small groups for tasks and projects, the teacher is able to keep up with the large numbers of students that classrooms often have. Students can also use each other as sources of information and help. Using technology in the classroom, and the new trend towards personalized learning, helps students connect with one another and the teacher. It also gives students the chance to learn basic learning skills through a variety of methods.

If you would like to know how to use more technology in the classroom, check out our articles on these trends that also reflect the personalized learning approach:

Get students ready to use math and literacy skills in real life situations

Based on the previous 2016 BC curriculum link  there will be a greater emphasis on getting students to apply whatever they learn into real life, and tapping into students’ individual skills and interests. Math and Literacy assessments have been updated in the BC curriculum to meet that goal. Teachers and tutors can prepare for this curriculum change by looking into math and literacy activities that help students apply those skills in real world situations.

Teaching math skills for the real world

Education World has a number of great activities that teachers and tutors can use to help students apply math to real life situations. For example, students can learn about annual  expenses when working for minimum wage by preparing a budget based on the given earnings.

Another activity consists of adjusting a basic recipe to be able to feed 150 for a dinner.

Real World Math is another great website with great resources that link math to the real world. This site even utilizes google earth for very interesting math activities.

Philtulga.com is a site that combines music with reading, math, and science. This would be a great site for teachers and tutors to find activities for students who are musically inclined and thus can learn other skills using music.

We’ve also developed real-world math skill lessons on our blog. Check them out here:

PLUS! See all our teaching resources on other subjects here.

Teaching literacy skills for the real world

Literacy assessments have also been updated in the BC curriculum to reflect a more real world approach to learning. Although geared towards ELT ( English Language Teaching) and ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) instruction, elt-resourceful has a number of great real world writing activities that BC teachers and tutors can use with their students. Some of those activities include “writing to a favourite author, writing a review for a movie, writing a short story for the internet, and writing on behalf of human rights abuse victims”, among others.

Education World, linked to above, also has great literacy activities with the same goal. For instance, students can research the Tower of Pisa, write a report of their findings, then develop and budget a class trip to see it.

The 2016 BC curriculum update has been thoroughly researched and the drafts for grades 10 to 12 are open for feedback from anyone who looks into the drafts. To see some of the other changes of the 2016 BC curriculum update, visit https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/.

The impact brands have on children

Kids are understanding brands

If you think that brands are only something teenagers and adults are concerned about, you might be surprised to know children as young as 3 can recognize brands. But what is wrong with a preschooler wanting to buy only Lego as opposed to other types of blocks? Or by choosing to have a Mcdonald’s birthday party over having one at home? As you will read in our article below, brands may have a deeper impact on young children than you may think.

Kids are understanding brands at a much younger age nowadays

In their article ‘Preschoolers know all about brands’, Slate.com points out how powerful brands can be on young children. Based on a study done by the Madison-Wisconsin and the University of Michigan, 3 year olds are already familiar with brands such as Disney, Mcdonald’s and My Little Pony. Livescience.com has also referenced the same study. In their article they have included several quotes from preschoolers, aged 3 to 6 year old.

They say that, nowadays, kids are starting to judge others based on the brands they like from a much younger age than before. What these kids have to say shows that they do make certain judgements based on the brands they recognize.

For instance, a child associated having a birthday party at Mcdonald’s with having lots of friends. Anna McAlister, a researcher in the study “Children’s Understanding of Brand Symbolism” says that this type of cognitive discernment would be expected on an 8 year old.

So why is it bad for a 3 year old to have such developed thinking? In the Livescience article linked to above, McAlister calls this type of child socially mature. She says: “Children who are able to think about the thoughts of other people are better able to dig out a toy and say ‘I’m going to take this Lego to preschool because other kids at school will like it … and think I’m cool.’”

As a solution, McAlister advises parents to have more control over their kids’ tv time. This is so they don’t get overly influenced by brands and don’t start judging other kids based on what brand advertisements are teaching them.

Brands influence what kids want to eat

Food is a huge part of a child’s development. And advertising companies know this very well. Fast food companies target children in a very particular way, offering indoor playgrounds, toys with their meals, and most important of all, yummy treats.

Slate.com points out that, “if you stick a McDonald’s label on carrots, kids will tell you that they taste better.” Slate also quotes Alison Gopnik, author of The Philosophical Baby. Gopnik links the influence brands have on kids with obesity. And it makes sense.

Take a child who watches an advertisement in which children are thoroughly enjoying some sort of junk food. The child will then go to the supermarket with mom and see this brand item displayed. Chances are this kid may beg and even throw a tantrum over wanting the treat. To keep the child happy (and calm), parents may give in and feed their kid the treat he so enjoys. The brand has won.

Children are incredibly smart. They absorb absolutely everything they see and hear. Brand companies know this and advertise their products accordingly. In the McAlister study linked to above, she says that the more a child is exposed to brands, the more socially mature and sophisticated they’ll become. And this may create:

  • Children who make distinctions based on brands.
  • Children who choose friends and peer groups based on their favourite brand of toys.
  • And children who prefer to eat unhealthy food.

So in a way, the simplicity of a child’s thinking and understanding may be taken away if they are overly influenced by brands.