Family Friendly Film?

My wife went to IKEA Friday which Avi thinks is great because he can play in the play area while they are there. Along with the ball pit, and giant wooden shoe is a movie viewing area. When Elizabeth went to pick him up, she asked him what he was watching. "Rat Patootie," he said. Giggling she looked over and saw what was playing: Ratatouille.

Child Development: Blocks Help Language Acquisition?

A small study reported from the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine and reported in Reuters seems to indicate that playing with blocks helps advance language learning. The study was relatively small and funded by Mega Bloks, so there's a bit of an asterisk hanging over it but it's interesting nonetheless.

I'm not sure that blocks are really key here, though. From the article:

Such play may also substitute for less stimulating activities such as watching television, [Study author Dimitri Christakis] said, adding parents ought to be skeptical of some toy-makers' claims.

"An increasing number of media-based products are making unsubstantiated claims that they can make children smarter, more literate, and more musical," Christakis wrote.

Bottom Line:
Interacting with the real world and doing physical problem-solving is much better than TV for child development. However, for language acquisition, blocks will not be enough. Interactive reading, talking and playing with your child not only do wonders for building your relationship, but also help with all manner of development including language.

Source
Playing with blocks helps with language, study finds

See Also
Kids Health: TV and Attention Problems
One More Reason to Kill Your TV

Kids' Health: Food Additives and Hyperactivity

Continuing with the theme of kids' health, here's an article reporting on a Lancet study that found a link between certain food additives and hyperactivity. The study had a relatively small sample set, but the results were compelling and warrant a larger study.

In the study, fruit drinks had food colorings and preservatives added to them and those children that had the additives exhibited increased hyperactivity. But here's the kicker:

"These findings show that adverse effects are not just seen in children with extreme hyperactivity (such as ADHD) but can also be seen in the general population and across the range of severities of hyperactivity," the researchers wrote in their study, published in the Lancet medical journal.

So, according to the study, hyperactivity was even seen in children who wouldn't normally exhibit it. What exactly were these additives? According to the article:

They included sunset yellow coloring, also known as E110; carmoisine, or E122; tartrazine, or E102; ponceau 4R, or E124; the preservative sodium benzoate, or E211; and other colors.

One of the two mixtures contained ingredients commonly drunk by young British children in popular drinks, they said. They did not specify what foods might include the additives.

Both mixtures significantly affected the older children. The 3-year-olds were most affected by the mixture that closely resembled the average intake for children that age, Stevenson's team reported.

While there are those that debate the findings, it seems that once again the precautionary principal comes into play: if it might be harmful, best avoid or limit it. Common sense would dictate that natural foods - fruits, vegetables and whole grains - are going to be better for health than process ones loaded with artificial colors, flavors and sweeteners.

Bottom Line: When buying food and drinks for your children, avoid any artificial colors or flavors. Look for 100% juice and all natural snacks (fruit and nuts are great options!) The other stuff is not only poor quality, it's potentially very harmful.

Source: Food additives may cause hyperactivity: study

Kids Health: TV and Attention Problems

One thing that has caught my eye lately are various reports regarding children's health issues. I'm going to try and post these reports when I can. My over-ambitious idea is to start a new blog and cross post, but I've decided to start small. I can always migrate when I think I've got enough to go on.

Here's a couple of studies that came out of New Zealand in September. It seems rather obvious that television viewing affects attention to some degree or another. This study preliminarily links TV to attention problems:

Watching television more than two hours a day early in life can lead to attention problems later in adolescence, according to a study released on [September 4, 2007]

Reuters: Study links attention problems to early TV viewing

It goes on to quote the study

"Those who watched more than two hours, and particularly those who watched more than three hours, of television per day during childhood had above-average symptoms of attention problems in adolescence," Carl Landhuis of the University of Otago in Dunedin wrote in his report, published in the journal Pediatrics.

Although the study didn't prove a causal connection between the two, it did seem to indicate that those with less TV experienced fewer attention problems. A second article on the report speculates about reasons for the trend:

He [Carl Erik Landhuis of the Dunedin School of Medicine at the University of Otago, the study's first author] and his colleagues suggest that kids who get used to watching lots of attention-grabbing TV may find ordinary life situations -- like the classroom -- boring. It's also possible, they add, that TV may simply crowd out time spent doing other activities that can build attention and concentration skills, such as reading and playing games.

Reuter's: Too much TV ups kids' risk of attention problems

Bottom Line: Keep television viewing under 2 hours a day for those over two years old and no television for those under two. My personal preference is no television, period, although my almost-four-year-old son watches two days a week for about forty-five minutes or so, which I can live with.

Related Articles:
More TV time means worse school performance - May 8, 2007
'Genius' videos may hinder baby development: study - August 9, 2007
Kids shovel down more calories watching TV - February 22, 2007

Related Posts
One More Reason to Kill Your TV

Let's Try This Again

So I haven't posted since April. It's been a really busy year. Q3 was eaten up by work, work work - it was seriously manic. Anyway, I'm going to try a go at this writing business again.

It's not like I haven't been doing other stuff. Along with work, I've been playing lots of fiddle (well, maybe not lots, but I try to get an hour a night in, if at all possible.) Theo had his first birthday, Avi started pre-school (OK, that was just this week) and life in general has just been hectic.

I have a ton of ideas for postings and writings I need to complete (Isaiah,ahem), but I'll try to be somewhat more modest and get at least a post a week in - hopefully, more, but we'll see.

Sink Bath!

It's nice when you're small enough to take a bath in the sink. Just ask Theo!

Boy of La Mancha

Sometimes parenting is simply a struggle to keep things from going completely sideways. Last Friday Elizabeth went out for a well-deserved night out with friends, leaving me with the boys. Unfortunately, I was wiped out from the week and had no energy. Luckily - or not - Avi had enough for the both of us. The following photo essay is Avi pretending to be Don Quixote (AKA the Asparagus of La Mancha) I got to be the windmill...



It may look like I have the upper hand in this next picture, but the windmill never wins...



I am defeated.



Theo enjoyed the show.

One More Reason to Kill Your TV

Reuters: TV-less family dinners best for healthy eating

Well, duh.

But wait, there's more. It's not just that families are distracted and don't talk to one another - that wasn't the focus of the study. It's not the usual media exposure and negative physical effects of TV. No - it's that kids eat fewer fruits and veggies when watching TV at dinner.

Bottom line - if you can't bring yourself to kill your television, at least turn it off during dinner. Please.

Need help? TrashYourTV.com has some ideas.

How to Rock the Fiddle

Watch this. Alex Depue can seriously play this thing.

Theo Pics

Just sitting and playing with blocks.



Practicing his martial arts. This is a move I taught him called "Tornado Hands".

Avinoam, Chipmunk

Well, he does have a brother named Theodore...

Boxes

A picture I took with my Q (1.3 megapixels)
I think there are artistic possibilities with portable media devices but I haven't mastered this one.

Original (cropped)


Highly Stylized in Photoshop


Somewhat Stylized in Photoshop

Isaiah on Tuesday - Excuse Me?

Sometimes I'll read a passage and not understand what it's getting at, but in Isaiah 39 I don't understand Hezekiah's response to a seemingly dire prophecy.

It's a very short chapter. The summary is this: A group from Babylon shows up at Hezekiah's doorstep with letters and a gift due to Hezekiah's recovery from his illness. The king shows the emissaries all the treasures - everything in the royal palace. Isaiah says:

"Hear the word of the LORD Almighty: 6 The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD. 7 And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."

8 "The word of the LORD you have spoken is good," Hezekiah replied. For he thought, "There will be peace and security in my lifetime."

What?!? The word of the LORD you have spoken is good? It seems like there are only a few interpretations:

Hezekiah's has a material perspective
Intending to impress the emissaries from Babylon, Hezekiah shows them his great wealth and hides nothing. His self-worth, his glory is in what he owns and he wants everyone to think highly of him. Isaiah's prophecy is good because he understands the error of his ways and peace is more valuable than gold. I don't really think this interpretation follows, but there is a case to be made for it.

Hezekiah has a short term perspective
Knowing that he will be dead in fifteen years, Hezekiah is pleased to hear that whatever tragedy may befall Israel, it will occur after his death. I think this interpretation is plausible, although it does make the king sound like an uncaring short-timer.

Hezekiah has a political perspective
While the palace may be looted, an alliance will be formed between Israel and Babylon - or Israel will be incorporated in Babylon. I don't see how Hezekiah could see this as good, but perhaps some of his descendants serving in the court of Babylon is far better than the alternative. The alliance - forced or by choice - is politically practical in Hezekiah's mind. I'm not convinced this interpretation works, but there does seem to be a political overtone in the prophecy and his response to it.

There are probably other interpretations but one interpretation I think isn't there is that Hezekiah has an eternal perspective. It seems clear that the king erred, whether because the letters sent to him contained offers of alliance, threats of destruction, simply encouraged competitive vanity or something else. Hezekiah should not have shown all the treasures of Israel to these Babylonian emissaries.

I think in some sense the treasures were a symbol of something sacred and holy, not items to be used to glorify the king. Hezekiah abused his treasures and they would be taken from him and Israel and given to a land and a people unworthy of them. The perplexing thing to me is why Hezekiah thought this was somehow good. My gut is that his short-term perspective blinded him to the eternal and he was taking the good (short-term peace) instead of the best (God's eternal will for Israel.)

I will need to ponder this more.

Isaiah on Tuesday - The Faith of the Redeemed

After nearly 3 months off, I'm back traveling with Isaiah. I figured I really need to finish this series and it gives me some purposeful writing to do. I wish I could have been more diligent this past quarter, but were lack of content lives, grace abides all the more! I may drop the "Tuesday" part of this series and just try to get in as many posts as I can muster in a week. I have a lot of catching up to do.

OK, enough blather. We last left off with Hezekiah praying for the deliverance of Israel from Sennacherib and Sennacherib did indeed fall. Chapter 38 finds Hezekiah ill and praying for his own deliverance! While at the point of death he calls out to God and is given a 15 year reprieve from the grim reaper. Hezekiah is overwhelmed by God's grace and can't help but tell of what God did for him - he even writes a song about it:

10 I said, "In the prime of my life
must I go through the gates of death ^[a]
and be robbed of the rest of my years?"

11 I said, "I will not again see the LORD,
the LORD, in the land of the living;
no longer will I look on mankind,
or be with those who now dwell in this world. ^[b]

12 Like a shepherd's tent my house
has been pulled down and taken from me.
Like a weaver I have rolled up my life,
and he has cut me off from the loom;
day and night you made an end of me.

13 I waited patiently till dawn,
but like a lion he broke all my bones;
day and night you made an end of me.

14 I cried like a swift or thrush,
I moaned like a mourning dove.
My eyes grew weak as I looked to the heavens.
I am troubled; O Lord, come to my aid!"

15 But what can I say?
He has spoken to me, and he himself has done this.
I will walk humbly all my years
because of this anguish of my soul.

16 Lord, by such things men live;
and my spirit finds life in them too.
You restored me to health
and let me live.

17 Surely it was for my benefit
that I suffered such anguish.
In your love you kept me
from the pit of destruction;
you have put all my sins
behind your back.

18 For the grave ^[c] cannot praise you,
death cannot sing your praise;
those who go down to the pit
cannot hope for your faithfulness.

19 The living, the living—they praise you,
as I am doing today;
fathers tell their children
about your faithfulness.

20 The LORD will save me,
and we will sing with stringed instruments
all the days of our lives
in the temple of the LORD.

Sometimes it takes death or near death for us to truly recognize God's grace in our lives. As Christians we are in that place - we've been saved out of death and been given life. All to often I am guilty of taking that for granted and not recognizing God's grace in my life.

One of the meditations we're doing at church right now is on Mark 14 which is appropriate for this season. As we go through Holy Week, will we join Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane and pray and watch with Him? And as we do what do we sense God is saving us out of (what is being crucified in our lives)? What is he saving us into (what is being born/resurrected)?

I think if we really though about it, we'd be composing songs of praise as well.

Avinoam, Rock Star

Just a picture I took with my Q a while back. I don't think I've posted it before. Avi in his volatile rock star mode.

Gardening and Kipper and Stuff

Our new place has quite a large piece of land for gardening - well, large for an urban back yard. It's probably average size for the suburbs. Anyway, we've started a garden with the help of our pastor who is, among other things, a prolific gardener. We're growing two kinds of kale, broccoli, green beans, cucumbers, zucchinis, onions, potatoes, corn, peppers, tomatoes and hopefully some raspberries. We also have some cilantro in a pot and will probably do some other potted herbs and whatnot. Only the kale, broccoli and cilantro are in now, but the rest will follow as their planting time arrives.

It's pretty exciting for Avi since he not only gets to garden (he's quite enjoyed stomping about in the mud as well as planting the kale), but grow his own toys. He's enjoyed playing with cucumbers and zucchinis for a while now, but this should save us some money.

Avi hasn't been into the VeggieTales as much since we moved, though. That's in part to his toys being less accessible and also because we're only allowing faster-paced videos a couple times a week. As a consequence, he's been watching the much slower Kipper the Dog. I'm no longer Archibald Asparagus, he now calls me Tiger (a dog). Elizabeth is Jake (a dog) and Theodore is Arnold (a baby pig). Other characters get foisted upon people as context allowed. If you ever visit and Avi says "You're Pig!", don't take offense. You've been honored as a character in Avi's world.

Hive: A Very Fun Game

So remember that post about Mike Doyle? Well, he has a widget that displays his most recently played games and I click on them just to find out what kind of fun I'm not having right now (life's been a bit hectic for gaming...) One of those games was Hive. I looked at the entry at BoardGameGeek and it looked like a cool game.

It's chess-like, for two players and played with tiles but no board. What's more there's an online version at hivemania.com, so I've played a few games and I can say that this is a great game, highly addictive and worth getting. I'll play the digital version for now, but it's on my ever-growing list.

Family as Parable

Do you believe that God is present in the smile of a child, in the tears of a parent's grief over a suffering adolescent, in the sudden breakthrough of understading between quarreling spouses? Eternal truths can be learned by observing the most common elements of life: nursing an infant may be a window into God's nurturing care for each of us; bandaging a cut can help us know the healing desire of God; playing games may speak of the divine playfulness that knows our need for recreation; tending a garden may teach us the dynamics of growth. Families learn that they are sacred communities when they begin to name and claim the many forms of God's grace in their daily life.

- Marjorie J. Thompson
from "Family: The Forming Center"*

I think Ms. Thompson is on to something here and I quite agree with her. God has put us in community because He is a communal person. We learn about God by observing one another which only makes sense given that we are created in His image and likeness. This is especially true of families and for me as a parent. I understand now more than ever the father heart of God because I, myself, am a father. I understand myself as a son of God by observing my own sons - how do they see me? How do they want or need me to respond to them? What is child-likeness?

God is the great teacher and He knows we learn much more by personal experience than any other method. Suddenly, I now have the text-to-self connection I need to understand what the Bible is saying about various topics. Could I understand it without these? Yes, but now I understand it on a deeper level. It is God's grace in my life that allows me to be a continual learner - to know Him better and more. It's something I need and yet one more thing for which to be thankful.


* Quote provided from Sojourners "Verse and Voice" - Subscribe

Mike Doyle's Art Play

As a gamer and one who appreciates art and design, I found this blog to be well worth a look, especially if you're into Eurogames. Even if you're not, you might like the pretty pictures.

Mike Doyle's Art Play

Quote of the Day

It is not scientific doubt, not atheism, not pantheism, not agnosticism, that in our day and in this land is likely to quench the light of the gospel. It is a proud, sensuous, selfish, luxurious, church-going, hollow-hearted prosperity.

- Frederic D. Huntington
Forum magazine, 1890

I'm Not Dead

Yet.

But my writing sure has been comatose. I think I may be waking a bit, though, and this post is at least a heartbeat. Yes, I can still fog a mirror, at least in the literary sense.

So what's up with me? Avi turned 3, Theo is 7 months old, we bought a house and moved last week, I've finished most of my big projects at work and am starting on the next ones and I'm still playing the violin.

That's a lot and it has definitely been a distraction from writing. There will be more to tell, but these fingers are out of practice and I need to take it slowly - I don't need a keyboard injury to lay me up for a few weeks. So yeah, I'm back and we'll just see where that takes me.

Too Cool Not to Share: Breakdance to Classical Music

Yes, I'm still alive, just very, very, very busy. This was worth sharing though.

Popping and Breakdancing to Classical Music VideoSift


Via: VideoSift