Changing Standards

Kindergarten has evolved from a largely social, developmental environment to an academic one governed by state curriculum standards, educators say.  To ensure children are ready for kindergarten, preschools have been adjusting their own teaching strategies.

Kindergarten teachers now ask children entering their classrooms to have skills such as:

• Writing their own name
• Counting to 10 or higher
• Reciting the alphabet
• Sitting down and listening when instructed
• Using Scissors
• Recognizing basic shapes

Provided by:  Newport Beach Fire Department

If a fire occurred in your home, would you and your family know what to do?  Once a fire has started, there is no time to plan an escape.  The Newport Beach Fire Department would like to encourage you to take a few moments and develop and practice E.D.I.T.H., or “Exit Drills In the Home” with your family members.  Here are few tip to help you plans, and practicing them can mean the difference between life and death for you or a loved one.

Draw a Floor Plan of Your Home  Sit down with your family and draw a floor plan of your entire house, including doors, windows, stairs, halls and balconies.  Whenever possible, show two exits from every room.  You may need to include an emergency escape ladder for second story windows.

Practice Your Escape Plan   Practice your family’s escape plan at least twice a year, making sure that everyone is involved.  After a daytime practice drill is held, it’s a good idea to hold a night or lights-out drill as well.  Catching children off guard, however, will not increase the value of the drill.  Telling them there will be a drill before they go to bed can be as effective as a surprise drill.  If anyone in your household does not readily waken to the sound of the smoke alarm, or if there are infants or family members with disabilities, make sure that someone is assigned to assist them in a fire drill and in the event of an emergency.

Make Your Escape Realistic  No matter how often or how well you practice, things will be different during an actual fire.  Help prepare your family by designing a number of different scenarios.  Pretend that a room is filled with smoke or an exit is blocked by fire, then practice alternative escape routes.

Agree on a Meeting Place  Designate a place outside your home where the members of your household will gather after escaping a fire.  This will allow you to count heads and inform the fire department if anyone is missing or trapped inside the house.  As soon as possible, send a member of the family to a neighbor’s house to call 9-1-1.  This is often faster than calling on a cell phone, but if a cell phone is the only things available, call 9-1-1 on it.  Also, once outside never re-enter the burning structure, especially for material possessions.  Firefighters will arrive shortly to assist with this.

Once a fire starts, it spreads rapidly.  Normal exits, halls and stairways become filled with intense heat, poisonous gases and blinding smoke.  Because smoke and heat both rise, cleaner air will be found near the floor.  If you encounter smoke when using your primary exit, use an alternative escape route.  If you must exit through smoke, crawl on your hands and knees, keeping your head 12-24 inches above the floor.

Test Doors Before Opening Them  If you must enter or exit a room through a closed door, test the door with the back of your hand before opening it.  If it’s warm to the touch, use another escape route.  It it’s cool, open it with caution.  Put your shoulder against the door and open it slowly.  Be prepared to slam it shut if there is smoke or flames on the other side.

If You’re Trapped  If smoke, heat or flames block your exit routes, stay in the room with the door closed.  Stuff the cracks around the door to keep smoke out.  Wait at a window and signal for help with a flashlight or by waving a light-colored cloth.  If there’s a phone in the room, call 911 and report your exact location.

Finally, a key component to early fire detection is a working smoking detector.  Test your smoke detectors monthly and change your batteries semi-annually.

An estimated one in seven youths aged 10 to 17 are solicited sexually over the Internet each year, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Technology, particularly blogs and Internet social sites, has changed everything about safety training in schools.

Something your child says that is as innocent as, ‘My sister and I spend a lot of time together. I pick him up every day at 2:30 p.m. and we walk home together’ can land your children into trouble.

If there’s a sexual predator out there he knows there are two kids who will be walking home alone from school. It may not sound like much to kids, but to the predators out there, it’s a lot of information.

Many school district programs focus on middle-school students who are starting to learn about the world in more detail and need more safety tools.

All you can do is keep drilling that message over and over again into a kid’s head that there are certain things you don’t do and why you can’t do them.  Give them the knowledge, andthe kids will have some tools to work with.

But the danger isn’t just on the Internet.

An estimated 90 percent of rape victims under the age of 12 know their attacker, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. And more than 300,000 children are abducted each year by a family member.

You can weave those concepts into regular instruction so not to alarm kids or make them afraid. They have to understand that there’s danger and we don’t know where the danger is sometimes, but we have to pay attention.

SAFETY TIPS

Tips for parents

- Know your children’s friends.

- Know the parents of your children’s friends.

- Keep computers in a common room of the house and talk about safe Internet surfing. Discuss the dangers of the Internet with your children.

Tips for children/students

- Take your parents’ advice.

- Always let someone know where you are.

- Don’t go out alone.

- Listen to your conscience. Avoid situations that don’t feel right.

- Find an adult or trusted friend to talk to if you feel unsafe.

- Don’t try to confront an offender.

This a most delightful book, even if you don’t have any boys in your life!  The authors have gone and written down a handbook for children of all ages….a rough and tumble example of all the stuff that childhood use to stand for…building tree-houses, making crystals, learning to juggle, first aid, camping skills, fishing, tying knots and even skipping stones.

Hardcover and ready to stand up to being read over and over, the Dangerous Book for Boys is a great read and is captivating even for adults!  All the skills that you need to be a rough and tumble boy, it’s all here in this great book!   Check this book out soon!

Two-thirds of parents say they are uncomfortable with their children participating in online communities, and about half of them say online communities, and about half of them say online predators are a threat, according to a new study from the Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School for Communication.

The upside for most parents - 80% - is that they consider the Internet a valuable source of information and more important than television, radio, newspaper and books, according to the study. That figure is up from 66% in 2006.

Other findings include: a quarter of parents said their kids spend too much time online, a percentage that’s risen for three years in a row. And 13% of parents said their children are spending less time with friends as a result of the Internet, another figure that grew for the consecutive year.