April, 2006

Send the Right Message: Build children's caring and sharing skills with your actions

by Slavica Bubic

Recently, a colleague brought her daughter to work to celebrate her last day of her job. After the going-away party, my coworker brought her four-year-old from office to office, explaining about each person she met. As she came to my cubicle, she said, "this is the lady that has a lot of children's books, videos, activities, and other fun things in her office." Her daughter, Stella, looked around and went straight to our bookshelf and asked if she could see some books. She handed the books to her mother and asked her to read them to her. Since we were talking, her mother politely responded to this request, "We will borrow them, and read them when we get downstairs to mom's office; and then we will return them to Slavica."

I offered Stella some stickers that I had lying around. She looked at several different sheets of stickers, peeled one off and put it on her shirt, and returned the rest of them to me with a gentle smile and a "thank you." "She took only one," I thought. From my experience working with children and adults, this is very rare; children usually like to take more than one, or ask for one more. Sometimes, it is in a child's nature to test limits and ask for more of a good thing, and sometimes a child is encouraged by his or her parents to get more for later. I was genuinely impressed by this gesture — taking only one and leaving the rest for other children. How thoughtful for a four-year-old! This showed that her mom was doing an amazing job teaching her child how to care. In today's very commercially oriented and consumer motivated society, caring skills are not just impressive, but they are needed and very inspirational. It is important for parents, educators and others to remember to show caring actions, and to teach children to care and share. They will appreciate it some day and many will benefit from it.

There are many actions and behaviors that teach kids these important skills, such as volunteer teaching, tutoring a child or an adult. How about listening, or helping someone load groceries into their car? Smile at people. Be the first one to wish a stranger a good morning. Participate in clothes and food drives.

October, 2005

Celebration of Cultures

by Slavica Bubic

During a recent visit to my sister's apartment, I asked my niece if there was anything exciting coming up. I soon found that this was the right question. She started talking about an upcoming "hula-hula" party for the residents of her apartment complex.

Several residents had planned the party, and invited other families and children to participate. The event was to be held at the beautiful park in front of the complex. While we were talking (I was mostly listening), neighboring children, who knew me as Natalie's aunt, joined to contribute to our conversation: "and there will be music from around the world and different foods, nice deserts, and my family will make this and that," and so on.

Children were explaining the details with great excitement in their voices. A mom sitting nearby at a park table joined our group and provided the details of the plan. I was quite impressed, not only by the diversity of cultures residing at the complex, but by their plan to celebrate this.

Several days passed and I was picking up my niece for our park biking activity when I asked her about the "hula-hula" party, and off she went: "there was music from this country and that country, and traditional outfits, and a lot of new foods (new to her), and shish kebabs, burgers, breads, salads, gibanica, pies, and much more." I was picturing food from around the world as she continued talking about her friends, who she says speak "Oregonian" along with Romanian, Serbian, Arabic, Spanish and more.

It made me think how a simple get-together with food and neighbors can also be a rich and extraordinary experience for children. It's a way for children to learn, to become exposed to and involved in celebrating cultures, traditions, food, music, costumes, and more by simply gathering with neighbors.

If we follow a child's way of thinking, we would learn more about the people around us; we would celebrate more, play more and appreciate more. Make an effort this fall to learn more about your neighbors and your children's classmates or friends. Get involved and teach your children to respect, appreciate and admire diverse cultures.

DragonflyTV Camp comes to OPB

The OPB studio was recently taken over by twenty-one girls in grades four through six. The girls, who were filming a simulated news debate, were participants in Saturday Academy's DragonflyTV Science Camp.

The camp aims to connect young women with science, math, engineering, and technology education. At OPB, the girls toured the studio, production and editing facilities, and even took a trip up to OPB's broadcast tower. They learned about the science and engineering behind producing a television show and operating equipment. Paired with OPB employees, some campers researched a scientific debate topic and were primed on camera appearance, while others discovered how to use video cameras, TelePrompTers, and audio and video equipment. The girls filmed the debate, successfully switching between camera angles, providing credits, incorporating music and more.

For more information about the science behind everyday life, log on to pbskids.org/dragonflytv/.

Young Writers and Illustrators Contest Results Are In

For over ten years, children in kindergarten through third grade have written, illustrated and submitted stories to the READING RAINBOW Young Writers and Illustrators Contest. Local stations judge stories and send their winning submissions to the READING RAINBOW National Contest. Each year, over 43,000 kids participate throughout the United States.

Every child who submits a story receives a certificate of achievement signed by READING RAINBOW host LeVar Burton.

This year, almost 400 kindergarten through third graders in Oregon and Southwest Washington entered OPB's READING RAINBOW Young Writers and Illustrators Contest. The creative topics and stunning illustrations we received were overwhelming. With stories about everything from monkeys to moms to monsters, judges had a hard time selecting the top submissions.

OPB celebrated the contest winners with a spectacular awards ceremony held in the OPB studio. Children were presented honors by award-winning children's author Deborah Hopkinson, who encouraged kids to explore other worlds through reading and writing. Northwest Children's Theater members performed a selection from their play, "The Stinky Cheese Man (& other fairly stoopid tales)," and Ready To Learn provided ideas and materials for parents and kids to create dolls, hats and a story board.

To see this year's winners and find out more, log on to opb.org/readingrainbow/, or check out pbs.org/readingrainbow/.