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5 Free Online Learning Programs for Kids to Do at Home

You don't need to create teacher-level lesson plans to make sure kids keep on learning at home. Here are a few free resources to take advantage of while creating a plan for keeping little ones learning outside of the classroom.

By Libby Ryan 

March 16, 2020

With schools and daycares closing due to safety concerns over the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), parents all over the country need to find ways to keep kids busy for the length of a school day. While you shouldn't put pressure on yourself to create teacher-level lesson plans to implement while you're balancing a new work from home schedule, you can still make some of the day educational.

Here are five free online learning resources to take advantage of while creating a plan for keeping little ones learning outside of the classroom.

• RELATED: How to Stay Busy (And Sane) While Kids Are out of School for the Coronavirus

1. Scholastic Learn at Home

Scholastic Learn at Home is a 20-day program to keep kids entertained and learning through videos, stories, and problem-solving challenges. The website is divided by age and has enough activities for each group to provide parents with three hours of content each day. That means three hours each day of online reading and activity time, all themed around a special topic area for the day. Day one for first and second graders? Spiders. Get ready for some cute spider drawings for the fridge, folks!

2. Brainly

The Brainly app aims to connect parents with other parents to help out their students, aka a virtual study group. That means you can crowdsource other families for help on concepts that you might not remember from grade and high school. For an extra fee, parents can get help with specific homework problems from experts (useful for brushing up on geometry if you don't remember the Pythagorean theorem).

• RELATED: 50 Ways to Get Through Coronavirus Cabin Fever

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3. BrainPop

BrainPop has videos and quizzes on just about every school subject a kid could need—and even has videos on how to explain the virus to children of different ages. They're offering free classes for schools that have shut down because of the coronavirus, so if your school is out for a while, you can fill out a form on the company's website to get access.

4. Twinkl

Parents can take advantage of a free month on teacher-made website Twinkl, where there are educational games, homework help, and even lesson plans on different subjects. There are also guides to break down exactly what kids learn each year for parents who need a refresher on what knowledge comes when. Users can also rate and review the games so you can pick and choose which ones to set your child up with to practice their multiplication tables.

• RELATED: The Best Educational Apps for Kids

5. Sumdog

Sumdog offers a selection of free games with the aim to make math fun for kids. You can also get a family subscription if the kids really take to it for bonus games, plus access to ways to chart kids' learning progress.

Parents, don’t forget to breathe and remember, you don’t have to do everything perfectly in order to keep your kid learning. You're never going to mimic the exact format of a classroom with the kiddos at home, so give yourself some room to experiment with what works for the whole family if you're all housebound. P.S. Don’t forget recess exists for when you need a break—send those kids out into the yard to run off some of that energy!

It might be time to skip the disinfectant wipes in favor of good old-fashioned soap and elbow grease.

By Kristi Pahr 

February 21, 2020

Like most parents, you probably have a container of disinfectant wipes stowed in pretty much every room. Next to the changing table? Yep. Under the kitchen sink? Of course. In the bathroom? Duh. There's no denying the sheer utility of them—no messy spray, just wipe and go, confident that you've done your part to defeat the spread of germs in your home. Go you!

Unfortunately, a recent report from Consumer Reports shines a light on some of the less awesome parts of the ubiquitous cleaning supply. Namely, quaternary ammonium compounds (quats for short), which as you can probably guess from the name, aren't that great for you or your kids. They're actually registered as pesticides with the EPA. Some wipes also contain bleach or hydrogen peroxide, which are also ... not great. But it's the quats that we really need to be aware of. Compounds like bleach and peroxide are familiar enough that we know to be careful when using them on surfaces our kids might touch, but quats? Who's ever even heard of those?

Turns out, inhaling quats can trigger asthmatic episodes and a 2005 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that disinfectants that contained bleach or quats were responsible for over 30 percent of pesticide-related injuries like eye, skin, and respiratory complaints in school children.

In fact, kids are at higher risk than adults from these compounds. “Kids breathe more air per pound of bodyweight than an adult does. Their exposure will be greater in terms of inhalation than an adult exposure would be,” Jerome Paulson, M.D., a pediatrician and emeritus professor at George Washington University, told Consumer Reports.

The takeaway is this: Go easy on the disinfectants that kill bacteria and viruses. If you're not in a medical or child care facility, you probably don't need to disinfect many surfaces in your home. A good, old-fashioned cleaning can do the trick. (You can take a look at the Environmental Protection Agency's list of cleaners that aren't known to trigger respiratory difficulties.)

However, there are times when you might want to disinfect your home, like when someone has a stomach bug or the flu. Read labels and use products correctly—many need to maintain contact with the contaminated surface for several minutes before disinfection is considered complete.

And be mindful of using disinfectants anywhere near kids or older adults. Make sure there's adequate ventilation and keep little hands from contacting surfaces still wet with disinfectants—let them dry completely.

Maintaining a clean home is important, but disinfecting every surface every day is overkill. Save the money you spend on wipes and maybe treat yourself instead!

Wondering if your family's fur baby is susceptible to COVID-19? Here's what we know so far about how the coronavirus affects pets.

By Maressa Brown 
March 16, 2020

As the number of people around the globe affected by the novel coronavirus and being diagnosed with COVID-19 continues to skyrocket, so too do our questions about the disease. Pet owners, in particular, are wondering if their family's fur babies are susceptible to the illness—especially because scientists say the virus initially jumped from animals to humans.

Here's what we know so far:

Can Pets Get COVID-19?

The Guardian reported that a Pomeranian in Hong Kong tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 last week. The dog's owner had tested positive for COVID-19, but the dog itself wasn't showing symptoms, according to authorities with the Hong Kong Agriculture, Fisheries, and Conservation Department. Test results suggested the dog, which has been quarantined since February 26, had "a low-level of infection, and it is likely to be a case of human-to-animal transmission."

In a press release, the department noted that they "will continue to closely monitor the dog which tested weakly positive for COVID-19 virus and repeat the test later. It will only be returned to its owner when the test result is negative."

Vanessa Barrs, who studies diseases in pets at City University of Hong Kong’s Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences, explains to Parents.com, "The results of all of the tests show that the dog has a mild infection, acquired from its owner. The dog is not sick. The tests show that the virus is replicating inside of the dog's body, but it is not very good at it, and consequently, it is only shedding small amounts of virus in its nose and mouth."

To catch COVID-19, you have to be exposed to a certain dose of the virus, she notes. But the dog is shedding just a tiny amount of it, which means it is unlikely to be contagious. Barrs says that when a virus doesn't replicate very well in an animal—as is the case here—no onward transmission occurs.

J. Scott Weese, a professor at the University of Guelph’s Ontario Veterinary College who studies zoonotic disease (disease spread between animals and people), tells Parents.com that researchers are hoping the novel coronavirus behaves like human flu in pets. "We can occasionally pass human flu to dogs," notes Weese. "They can get sick, but it's not their flu virus, so we assume they are 'dead-end' hosts, meaning they don’t pass it on any further. Hopefully, that’s the case with this virus in dogs. Cats are a bit more of a concern because they are probably a more amenable host, but we need to learn more about that."

Can Cats and Dogs Transmit Coronavirus to Humans?

Simple answer: No. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that there is no reason to think that any animals, including pets in the U.S., might be a source of infection with this new coronavirus. To date, they haven't received any reports of pets or other animals becoming sick with COVID-19, noting that "at this time, there is no evidence that companion animals including pets can spread COVID-19."

Meanwhile, a report from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) echoed that there is no evidence that dogs can spread the disease or that the disease can cause an animal to fall ill, but further studies may bring new findings. And the Society for the Protection of Animals in Hong Kong has clarified that being infected was not the same as being infectious.

In other words, pets can contract the virus, but there's no evidence that they can transmit it to humans.

Barrs told The South China Morning Post that dogs and cats also contracted low-level infections of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) during the 2003 outbreak. "Previous experience with SARS suggests that cats and dogs will not become sick or transmit the virus to humans," she said. "At that time, a small number of pets tested positive, but none became sick. Importantly, there was no evidence of viral transmission from pet dogs or cats to humans."

The bottom line: People don't get COVID-19 from pets, and pets don't get sick or pass the virus on, says Barrs. "Humans get COVID-19 from humans; they do not get it from dogs," she says.

Precautions for Pet Owners

"For safety, people should avoid close contact with their pets if they are feeling sick, in case they might transmit COVID-19 to their pet," advises Barrs. "If you think you might have COVID-19, don't kiss, cuddle, or sleep with your pet during the period of your illness. You can take your dog for a walk, as long as you are taking normal safety precautions around other people, such as social distancing."

The CDC echoes this guidance, encouraging anyone who is sick to limit contact with their pet. Ideally, another member of the household will step in, but if this is not possible, the CDC urges sick pet owners to wash their hands before and after they interact with pets, avoid sharing food, and wear a face mask.

For more information regarding pet health and the pandemic, check back with the World Organization for Animal Health and the CDC, which will continue to provide updates as new information becomes available.

How to Get Kids to Stop Touching Their Faces: Coronavirus Prevention Tactics

Experts say avoiding touching your face can help quell the spread of the novel coronavirus. But how do you get kids' busy hands to stop rubbing their faces?

By Kristi Pahr 

March 05, 2020

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"Get your finger out of your nose" is a phrase muttered by parents the world over. A toddler or preschooler with their finger buried to the knuckle in their nose is a common if gross, sight and the battle to keep fingers out of noses is a common one. But with the possibility of coronavirus spreading like wildfire, it's more important than ever for kids to fight the urge to dig for nasal gold.

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Since coronavirus, officially called SARS-CoV-2 and which causes the disease called COVID-19, is spread by droplets from coughs and sneezes, it’s quite easily transmissible, making basic hygiene more important than ever. Transmission could occur as easily as touching a doorknob or handrail that someone who had been exposed to the virus touched.

While hand-washing with soap and water or using hand sanitizer is the gold-standard for avoiding transmission of the virus,  experts also recommend not touching your face, which, as any parent knows, is a hard thing to accomplish with young kids.

“One way to avoid germs is to prevent them from entering the mouth eyes, or nose. Keep kids’ hands busy so they aren’t tempted to touch their faces,” says Atlanta-based pediatrician Jennifer Shu. Here are a few ideas to curb the nose-itching (or worse).

1. Have Tissues on Hand

Providing kids with tissue for nose-blowing or even to cover their hands to scratch an itch is a great way to avoid skin contact during times of illness. “Washing or sanitize hands often so if they do touch their face, at least their hands are clean,” adds Shu.

2. Give Them Something Else to Do With Their Hands

Providing kids with fidgets, like fidget spinners or fidget cubes is a great way to keep busy hands away from faces and mouths. 

3. Keep Hair Out of Their Faces

Stray hairs tickling children’s faces is another major cause of face touching. The urge to wipe the hair away or push unruly locks back off the forehead can lead to kids touching their faces frequently. Keeping short hair trimmed or long hair pulled back so it doesn’t tickle their faces is another important step in avoiding face touching, says Dr. Shu.

4. Stay Away From Sick People

It might seem obvious but always try to stay at least six feet away from people who are coughing or sneezing. With a little extra dedication to hygiene and a little more awareness of where our kids are putting their hands, we can help keep them safe, not only from COVID-19 but from influenza and the common cold.

Here's the lowdown on hand sanitizer from Allison Aiello, Ph.D., of the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

By Michelle Crouch 

Updated September 20, 2019

PETER ARDITO

Fact 1: It works.

It can be as effective as soap and water. But soap loosens dirt and bacteria off the skin and helps wash it down the drain; sanitizers kill viruses and bacteria. So if your child has any dirt or grime on his hands, he should wash them instead.

But keep in mind, new research published in mSphere in September 2019 found ethanol-bred disinfectants don't swiftly destroy the influenza A virus. The study found it takes at least four minutes to kill it, and that’s due to the “stronger than expected” mucus surrounding the virus. Only once the mucus is completely dry will the virus die. Hand washing without soap was found to be more effective—it killed the virus within 30 seconds.

Fact 2: The dose is important.

Kids need to cover their hands entirely with a nickel or quarter-size dollop. And they should get some under their nails by scraping their palms. Don't let them wipe any off on their pants; that reduces effectiveness.

Fact 3: Ingredients matter.

Products with any less than 60 percent alcohol aren't effective and may actually encourage bacterial growth. It's best, for now, to stick with traditional alcohol-based gels.

Fact 4: Babies shouldn't use it.

Their skin is very thin and delicate, so the chance of alcohol absorption is high. Still, there are rarely major effects from exposure in kids under 6, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers.

• By Michelle Crouch

PARENTS MAGAZINE

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They're not glaring signs of mental illness, but these behaviors could be indicators that there is something going on.  

Written By Kelley King Heyworth

The words mental illness may send a little shiver down your spine, but putting a name to a group of psychological symptoms is important. Insurance reimbursement, special accommodations at school, and successful treatment all depend on it. 

If you have concerns about your child’s mental health, start by discussing them with your pediatrician. “We often talk about these worries as being ‘pink’ instead of red flags,” explains Rahil Briggs, Psy.D. national director of HealthySteps at Zero to Three, in Washington, D.C. “Although they aren’t necessarily glaring signals of a clinical disorder, they can be subtle evidence of a developing problem.” 

These are the most common behaviors to look out for:

1. Disordered sleep. Beyond babyhood, kids should be getting around ten hours of shut-eye per night. Serious concerns go far beyond the usual gripes. Children with depression sometimes seem excessively sleepy and drawn to bed at odd hours of the day. Those with anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or DMDD often take hours to fall asleep and wake up multiple times every night. Kristin Harlan’s son, who has DMDD, went almost three days with just an hour or two of sleep when he was 6. 
2. Tummy trouble. Bellyaches are a common kid complaint, but frequent stomach pains that can’t be explained by constipation or a food intolerance might have psychological roots. Research has long linked chronic GI woes in children with both anxiety and depression.
3. Obsessive thoughts or fears. In kids who may have anxiety, a thought becomes so all-consuming that it interferes with everyday life. Common obsessions, particularly in children who also have OCD, are safety and germs. A child suffering from OCD may be compelled to wash his hands several times a day, often at inconvenient times, to ease his anxieties. Fears can wreck routines too. “A typical kid who gets stung by a bee might try to avoid bees but still play normally,” says Carol Weitzman, M.D., professor of pediatrics at Yale University. “We become concerned when a child’s fear of bees keeps him inside and the whole family starts to organize their plans around that—skipping trips to the park or the pool.” 
4. Disinterest in Fun. Kids have different passions, but a depressed child doesn’t get excited about much of anything. “It’s common to see an inability to find joy, even in things that used to seem exciting,” says Joan Luby, M.D., director of the early emotional development program at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. 
5. Guilty conscience.“A child who’s prone to depression may feel absolutely terrible about small transgressions and need an unusual amount of reassurance to feel better,” says Dr. Luby. Recent brain research shows that an area of the brain called the anterior insula is smaller than average in guilt-prone children as well as in depressed adults, suggesting this character trait might be a powerful predictor of later depression.
6. Explosive anger. Daily tantrums with aggression, destructive behavior, and other signs of abnormal intensity can be symptoms of DMDD, depression, and other concerns.
7. Dark thoughts. In Dr. Luby’s research on depressed preschoolers, she found that many acted out morbid themes during imaginary play. Even small acts of self-harm can be a harbinger. At age 6, Angie Duray’s son Will, who has depression, would literally beat himself up over a tricky homework assignment. “He’d call himself a stupid idiot and say he’d never learn, and then he’d bang his head on the table. One time he stabbed his hand with a sharp pencil,” Angie remembers. 

Read more from the Parents feature "There's Something Wrong With My Child"

• What to Do If You Think Your Child Could Have a Mental Health Disorder
• I’m Raising a Son with a Mood Disorder—Here’s What Works for Us
• 3 Treatments That Help Children With Mental Illness

Read more →

The skills kids need to avoid getting fooled by fake news

BY DIANE SHIPLEY
OCT 31, 2018

Welcome to Small Humans, an ongoing series at Mashable that looks at how to take care of – and deal with – the kids in your life. Because Dr. Spock is nice and all, but it’s 2018 and we have the entire internet to contend with.

One day your kids are learning to walk and the next they're on their own sharing Russian propaganda on YouTube and Facebook.

You might think your great-uncle using an old desktop to "surf the internets" is the person at risk of accidentally spreading "fake news" on social networks, but kids these days aren't always faring so much better. 

A large-scale study by the Stanford Graduate School of Education found that young people at every stage from middle school to college were consistently unable to differentiate news from advertising, or false information from the truth, a state of affairs the researchers described as “bleak.” 

Compounding the problem is the way young people use the internet. Much of the news they do consume comes through intermediaries, chief among them YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, according to research from Common Sense Media. These networks often muddy the source of information or make all outlets look similar, robbing the audience of visual cues to help them differentiate reliable and less-reliable sources. It’s worth remembering that adults have trouble identifying fake news in this environment as well. 

The good news is, parents and caregivers are ideally placed to help. The same Common Sense Media study found that while children aged 10 to 18 were typically skeptical of mainstream media, 66% felt they could trust information from their families. 

So how can you teach kids to spot fake news, rather than be fooled by it?  

The ABCs of media literacy

Common Sense Media’s vice president and editor-in-chief, Jill Murphy, says it starts with basic media literacy, which can be taught from as young as five—for example, telling your child why a show isn’t appropriate for them instead of just shutting it off. Toward the end of elementary school, they can grasp the fact that journalism is a job, which you might illustrate by showing them news stories on the same topic published by different outlets. “It may go against your values to look at the other side of an issue,” says Murphy. “But it's a way for them to absorb the concept that people write to convey a specific message. Learning to question those messages is an important skill.”

However, you don’t want to make them too critical, says Peter Adams, senior vice president of education at non-profit The News Literacy Project. “One mistake a lot of people make is to give the impression that all information is created with an ulterior motive. We don't want kids to be naïve, but we don't want them to be cynical, either.” 

He thinks it’s helpful to be clear about the meaning of “fake news,” especially since the term has become politicized, used to mean anything from propaganda to a view you disagree with. “Fake news is a specific kind of misinformation that is entirely fictional but is designed to look like news, usually with an institutional-sounding name and an institutional-looking masthead.” He wouldn’t include manipulated images or conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones in this definition but sees them as part of a culture of misinformation, which he describes as “an enormous problem.”  

His organization teaches adolescents to ask a series of questions when they look at a news story, especially one that incites an emotional reaction, as fake news is designed to do. If they haven’t heard of the publication before, they should search to see if any recognizable news outlets have covered the story. “Then they can ask more nuanced questions, like: Is this fair? Does it give me everything I need to know? Could it be more objective? The goal is for those steps to become habitual so they have an internal sense of red flags.”

Psychologist David Anderson, PhD is the director of programs at the Child Mind Institute in New York. He says parents who want to talk to their children about fake news should tackle it the same way as any other potentially sensitive subject. “Think about a couple of talking points beforehand and approach the conversation calmly. Then we recommend opening it up and asking what kind of stories they’ve seen where they’ve wondered whether they were real.” He says the best way to know what media your child is consuming is to watch videos or look at social media with them and let them tell you what they like, without judgment. 

Use teenage angst for good

Adams says that teenagers are especially vulnerable to misinformation. They want to develop their own tastes, tend to distrust authority, and YouTube’s algorithms mean that they can easily be exposed to extremist views, whether they seek them out or not. If they believe any of the conspiracy theories they come across, though, he says they can usually be guided to see the truth. “Ask probing questions, like: How is this sourced? How is there no proof that this exists beyond these types of videos? They're connecting these two dots, are they really related?” Just don’t lecture them, advises Anderson. “We tend to listen to those who share our views and discount those who don’t.”

The effect of misinformation on children is hard to measure, but Adams sees equipping them to deal with it as a moral imperative. “Information is the basis of students' civic literacy, civic engagement, and civic empowerment, so to not give them the tools they need to navigate the 21st-century information landscape and make smart decisions is fundamentally disempowering.” 

Of course, adults aren’t immune, and you might need to brush up on your own media literacy alongside your kids. But the key to these conversations is a strong parent-child relationship, says Anderson. “It’s about whether or not kids feel like you have their best interests at heart and can help them think about something without forcing them into a particular perspective.” Peter Adams agrees. His top tip for talking to children about fake news? “Bring it to them. Don't wait for them to bring it to you.”