Dissection
Dissection kits are readily available and it’s an enjoyable and educational way to spend time with children. We purchased a complete dissection kit with nine preserved animal specimen, tool set, dissecting pan, and instructions on how to dissect. There are also videos on the internet that can be used as guidance. How fascinating it was to learn how muscles on a cow eye attached to the eyeball and at the same time how it compares with our eyes. Humans have 6 muscles attached to our eye ball, so ask the child to move their eyes in all directions and explain how it differs from a cow who only has four muscles to control their eyes. They can look up, down, left, and right. Explain to them that they cannot roll their eyes as we
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can. If you have a teenager this can be perceived as a benefit. Feel around the eye, observing that the skull and fat surrounding the eyeball to protect it if you injure yourself. Analyze the eyeball by cutting away the fat and muscle. Ask the child to check their eyes in the mirror and explain that the clear, tough surface is the cornea and it is there to protect our eyes. Cut the cow eye in half, right around the middle. The cornea will be on the front half of the eye. Request them to check the colored circle (iris) “with black around it "pupil". The pupil opens wide in the dim light, letting plenty of light in .Here is the back half of the eye. Remove the cornea and the iris in order to observe the lens. The cow 's lens is shaped as the lens of a magnifying glass, similarly to the human eye. The retina, which is attached to the back of the eye, contains light-sensitive cells that detect light. The optic nerve sends information from the retina to the brain. Behind the retina is a tapetum which is a reflective layer of the choroid and helps with night vision by reflecting light back through the retina. Humans do not have a tapetum. This is just an example on how detailed dissecting can be and what a wonderful learning tool it can be. http://www.exploratorium.edu/learning_studio/cow_eye/step13.html Mining in North Carolina Franklin’s gem and mineral mining started in the 1870 's and it is known as the "Gem Capital of the World”. We mined every summer for over 10 years. These mines are in the heart of the Smoky Mountains and one can find sapphire, ruby, amethyst, moonstone, topaz, quartz crystal, and occasionally Indian pottery. My son 's favorite mine is Rose Creek Mine, which is one of the three state licensed gem mines in Macon County, North Carolina. Dig your own dirt and wash the dirt in a flume. All these field trips and backyard exploration offer ample opportunities to explore and can accommodate all the learning styles. Auditory learners will appreciate listening to the zoo keeper talk about various animals, discuss the environment, or tell stories about the Civil and Revolutionary wars. The interactive aspects of these trips are a benefit for the kinesthetic learner. Visual learner will benefit on reading the signs. Tactile learner will love the exhibits that can be touched, whether it is a shed skin of a snake or feathers from birds. Travel opportunities People may have this unrealistic view that by homeschooling their child they will be isolated. Homeschoolers explore every opportunity outside the home. Travelling is part of the majority of homeschooler’s routine and they explore the world around them. They are unhindered by the restrictions of their schooled peers. Educational field trips, participation in competitive sports, scouts, dance, and music are just a few examples of what is available for them. Skewed view of reality Children may have a skewed view of reality; astonishingly, it was extremely disconcerting when my sons complained about his perfect and stress free life. I thought to myself, "If they only knew what an wonderful life they have”. Our major concern in raising our sons was to ensure that they were not spoiled and ungrateful. They were responsible to buy their own video and we did not buy electronics or toys, unless it was their birthday and Christmas. They were puzzled that they had to purchase their games, since they did not have money. My proposal was to provide them with a list of all the chores needed done in the house and have a dollar value associated with each task, allowing them to work and earn money at any time. Since they had to pay for the games with their own money, they no longer felt that they had to have the games as soon as they came out. They are doubled in price and they would wait until the price went down. They always correlated how many windows or baseboard they needed to clean in order to pay for a specific game. The only caveat was that they needed to complete certain chores without compensation first before they earned money. We emphasized that they were part of the family and everyone needed to contribute. Taking the garbage out, washing the dishes, setting the table for dinner, cleaning the pool and their rooms were just expected of them. I grew up poor and as every other child, I complained for not having clothes or toys that I believed I was entitled to.
One day my mom decided to surprise us with a field trip. We put on our best outfit and were astonished when we discovered that our field trip was not an amusing day at the park or the beach, instead it was a visit the slums in Sao Paulo, which is known in Portuguese as "favelas". Sao Paulo is the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere and although is relatively prosperous, poverty is a colossal problem. Substandard housing occupies over 50% of the city. Thirty years ago favelas lacked electricity and plumbing, which is not the case today. We walked up this unpaved road to an elderly woman 's shack. My mom assisted this lady for a few years with food and other major necessities; consequently, when we complained she knew exactly where to take us. The lady had a one room shack made out of old recycled wood and corrugated metal. The dirt floor had that humid smell and there were no windows to alleviate the odor. There was one tiny bed set on the uneven dirt ground and a little table with wood chips under each leg to straighten the table, since it had a propane stove on top of it. She had lanterns to illuminate at night. The toilet was simply a hole in the ground covered with a piece of wood, which was used as a lid. This was a densely packed area with all the tiny houses made of wood, cardboard, or corrugated iron. There were houses made up of concrete blocks, unfinished and unpainted, unfortunately though the majority were half built since they could only afford a few concrete blocks every month. She wanted us to understand how fortunate we were to own a 2 bedroom and 1 bathroom house for a family of 5. She sure made her point and my sister and I never complained
again.
A couple of my teammates accompanied me and we drove to Lyari. We had to park our car outside as the roads in the city were too small for a car. As we entered the city we noticed that people lived in small homes. Homes with thatched roofs and walls made of manure and sticks. Generally, majority of the town was uneducated, without proper shelter, no electricity, no vehicles and no access to clean water. It was so moving to see how these people had so little in material things and yet they seemed to be at so much peace with their life burdens. There were young children everywhere either completely naked or just in their underwear but what stood out the most were the smiles on their faces while playing in the same dirty water used for washing clothes and showering themselves. They were completely incognizant to what was going on around them. Such an environment made us realize that all we care about in life is having fun, while those in other countries are just trying to stay alive. Me and my friends gave the little children some money and gave our jackets and shoes to those children. The young poor children considered our donation as a great act of kindness and would never forget this day. We never realize how simple things to us could mean the world to other children less fortunate. Poverty to us is when our parents are not able to buy us the latest shoes and clothes in
Many people at one time or another will face some-sort of economic hardship; however it is safe to say that many people do not really know what extreme poverty is like. The Treviño family knows first hand what it is like to work in tedious, mind-numbing jobs for a very little paycheck. The life of a migrant worker is not anything to be desired. Simple things that most would take for granted like food variety, baths, clean clothes, and beds are things that Elva learned to live with. “We couldn’t have a bath every day, since it was such a big production. But [mom] made us wash our feet every night” (125). A simple task to any normal person is a large production for a migrant family that doesn’t have any indoor plumbing. People living in poverty do not often have a large wardrobe to speak of which means that the few clothes they own often remain dirty because washing clothes is a production too. “Ama scrubbed clothes on the washboard while the rest of us bathed. She took a bath last while the rest of us rinsed and hung up the clothes she had washed. This was the only oppor...
While sitting in my dorm room watching a DVD, I looked around and suddenly realized how lucky I was. I lived in a decent sized room with lighting and air conditioning that I could adjust to make myself comfortable. Then I thought how even more lucky I was to be able to go home too yet a nicer living facility at my own house that I have to share with nobody but my immediate family. It made me begin to wonder how many people there are that do not possess this luxury. That is when I thought of Habitat for Humanity. The only thing that I knew about it was that they built homes for underprivileged families with inadequate shelter. I wanted to see though exactly how this specific organization made a difference in peoples lives. Hopefully my research will enlighten my readers of the living situations of many families around the world, maybe even convincing some to volunteer themselves.
The impoverished and the homeless live in another world compared to those of us that are fortunate enough to have stable living conditions. Families are struggling to survive with the little government assistance they receive. The quality and space in a shelter or even government provided living is atrocious and, to be frank, borderline unlivable. Quindlen describes a family of six cramped into a single bedroom, an inexcusable and terrible way to live and yet better than nothing at all (332). Children of families that have to live in situations like this grow up not knowing stability or security.
New York City is claimed to be one of the greatest cities in the world. Many are blinded by the breathtaking skyline, the endless opportunities, and the hustle and bustle of the streets. As one of the economic capitals of the world, it is surprising to hear that about 30 percent of children currently residing in New York City are living in poverty (Cheney). New York City has evolved into a city for the wealthy by eliminating inexpensive housing and jobs, forcing many families to the streets (Elliot). Many are unaware of how prevalent child poverty is. To raise awareness, the New York Times did a series of articles that followed the life of a young girl named Dasani. The article highlights the brilliance that Dasani had at such a young age and emphasizes the everyday struggles that she had to face growing up as a child in poverty. Some ways that can lower the amount of child poverty is through after school programming and through work-for-rent housing.
I always see a homeless person. Whether on the streets, an alley or even the subway. You’ll always see one every time you visit. I get to help one homeless person one time while I was staying in the city for 3 days. It was 12:30 am and I was about to head back to the hotel, but I was thirsty, so I went to a convenience store near, when I saw a girl sitting outside a convenience store. She looks young, probably a young adult. I was thinking, maybe that girl hadn’t eaten anything, and if maybe I could grab her some food. I went inside the store, the only thing I need to buy is a bottle of water, but I ended up buying sandwiches, fruits and a two bottles of water. I took 1 bottle of water out and give the rest of the bag to her. She was smiling and said “thank you”. My response is “you’re welcome” and smiled back. Helping the homeless is one of the little things that makes me happy. It might a small thing for me, but if I put it on their perspective, it is something very
The information provided by the National Homeless Coalition (2009) regarding “why are people homeless” confirmed my notion that the increasing struggles in our economy has resulted in an increase in homelessness. The surprising factor that I neglected to visualize was the impact it had on children and families. When people think about the homeless, they often envision older adults on the streets. It is too painful to imagine that children are on the streets without food, water, or shelter. One family that I had the chance to work together with was with a mother and her three children. She had two daughters, ages 11 and 9 and a boy who was 2 years old. She is currently without a job and lives with her mother temporarily. She is one of the fortunate ones that have family members supporting her, but there were other stories of families living in cars and streets because of no support.
Before moving to Pittsburgh at the age of 13, I lived the majority of my childhood in Silver Spring, MD. But to truly start at the beginning of my story we must go even further back to when I lived in Pakistan. Pakistan is a third world country. My family was living in conditions that could be considered homeless. We lived in a household of ten people. Our `house ' was the size of a town house with limited water supply that was shared between neighborhoods. The population consisted of uneducated and low income individuals. To top it off we did not receive aid from the government as people do in the USA. There was no system in place at that time that aids the needy because the needy are almost half of the population. To succeed in such an environment you needed two things: connections and education. However education was an expensive endeavor. Thus my mother and father only completed schooling up to high school. My mother was a housewife and my father was a street merchant. He sold electronic parts at the flea market. Every morning at six am he would strap his
I was born and lived in Haiti for eight years of my life. The poverty there is so high that it has been labeled the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. That is where I grew up. People had homes, but they could often be blown away by strong winds. Our materials for building homes was of very poor quality and limited. We had so little money that I often saw kids and their families sleeping on the side of every street corner. I was one of the most fortunate kids. I remember sleeping on a dirt floor in my grandmother’s little hay house when I was around six years old. At least I had a home. I was put in an orphanage where I was later adopted and brought to the United States. Almost everyday, at the orphanage, the kids and I talked of how
Children experience decreased development in the left brain when traumatic events occur (Network, n.d.). Imagine being a child and growing up with these types of events occurring. A traumatic event in a child’s life can cause a child to experience a long lasting negative effect. Life events are happening everywhere and more often in the lives of children (Understanding Child Traumatic Stress, n.d.). Trauma can cause them to do three things. First, they try to see what the danger is and how serious it is. Secondly there are strong emotional and physical reactions. Thirdly they attempt to come up with what to do that can help them with the danger. Traumatic events can cause a child to develop differently, which effects the young child stage,
Have you ever looked back over your childhood experiences and the challenges growing up in a community with many disadvantages? How you share the same space and almost everything with your siblings. Henceforth into your career profession, or earning a degree helps you understand someone who went from having a history living in poverty. Author and poet, July Westhale use her childhood as a topic of discussion in her article. Her article reminds me of my own personal experiences growing up on the south side of Chicago. My childhood disadvantages taught me important life skills such as how to make do with very little, the quality of family time, and not allowing my childhood disadvantages experiences effect my future.
An eight or nine year old boy with dirt in his face, wearing ripped jeans, shoes and a dirty shirt doing his best to stop one of a thousand cars in order for him to wash the windshields of a car for a miserable wage. This young man was struggling to carry a large container with soap and water and a small red rug which he held with his small, left hand. His facial expression revealed fear, doubt and resignation. The inside of me wanted to cry and at the same time, I wanted to take him with me and give him a warm cup of milk. He looked as if he had not eaten anything for days. As he approached our car the other drivers would curse him and tell him to disappear from this world. With a sad glimpse, he kept his journey towards our car. His big and dark brown eyes expressed pain, dismay, and despair. Heartbreaking stories similar to this one are most commonly occurring in the urban metropolis of Mexico and Latin America. These children suffer from the abandonment of their family and the economic issues of the country; moreover they are deprived to health care, exposed to violence, drugs, and HIV through sexual promiscuity. Street kids are not choosing to live in abandoned buildings, cardboard boxes, parks or on the street itself; they are forced to take on the challenges of life that no other human being experiences in many years. Therefore, street children should be helped due to the constant marginalization.
Joyce is an eight year old girl that lives in Tanzania, one of the poorest places in the world where there is a high risk for abuse and developing aids. The amount that a man makes is about $6 a year. But if the help of Compassion, Joyce would be able to receive medical care, supplies for school, and most importantly teaching from the Bible. Poverty is an injustice that has been around for forever. Three billion people of the world's population are surviving off of only $2.50 a day. These people live without amenities that most American teenagers take for granted liking clean, running water and electricity. Not having clean water causes many disease like diarrhea. Over million children’s deaths are caused by diarrhea. Data from UNICEF shows that over 20,000 child die because of poverty each day. Much money is raised for developing countries, but every $1 received $25 go to the repayment of the country’s debt. Over the past 20 years,
I went to the grocery store and got cases of water, bags of bread, and stuff to make the sandwiches. I had finished preparing the bags and each had granola bars, fruit, ham and cheese sandwiches, water, toothpaste, and other hygiene products. My dad and I had arrived outside the homeless shelter and were ready to pass the bags out as we saw the swarm of people. Hundreds maybe even thousands of people gathered sitting in what little shade there was. I knew we had a homeless problem, but not to this extent and the bags I had made were going to make little to no difference on the vast amount of people that had been sitting outside. I was a little disappointed at first to be completely honest because I was not prepared for that many people. If I would have known there would have been so many people I would have made more bags. We drove around the block planning on what we were going to do and saw some tents set up. My dad and I were curious as to what they were, so we got out the car and saw that these people had been giving people food and I walked up to them and asked if there was any way I could help them. These people in the tents were actually an organization called Open Arms Outreach and a few girls scouts. They gladly let us help and we brought a few cases of water and the bags I had made and helped pass them out. The organization Open Arms Outreach
When I was younger poverty and homelessness seemed like such far out terms. I didn’t understand how someone didn’t live in a house with four walls and a roof over their head. When I thought about poverty, I always pictured third world countries most of the time. Especially due to the commercials of these places with the children crying, wearing scraps of cloth, and having to drink polluted water. In regard to homelessness, I had the views that usually appear in movies, disheveled people on the streets who have drug and alcohol problems. As I grew up I started to notice how each person has an important role in society, but I couldn’t see what their role could be. In school we didn’t really talk about these people either so I assumed they weren’t really apart of society. My parents combatted that with teaching us the ‘golden rule’ and treating others how you would want to be treated. There are some instances that they gave some money to these people. Since I had the views from what I saw on TV. I thought they would go spend it on drugs or alcohol. I remember asking my mom why give them money if they are going to spend it on those things. She said that that is not for me to worry about and that we do it