FAMILY BRIEFS
Show your kids benefits of soap
A simple science experiment, can help convince children that washing hands is worthwhile.
Play And Teach, a resource from the Charleston, S.C.-based Children's Educational Cooperative, suggests this project:
For materials, you'll need a clear cup, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon liquid hand-washing soap and a spoon.
Pour the water and oil into the cup; the oil will float to the top. Explain that oil and water don't mix because the bonds on the surface of the oil repel those on water molecules.
This is a prime time to explain to children that most of the dirt on their hands is bonded to the oil particles on the skin, and water alone will not wash the dirt off.
Now add the soap and mix the solution together. The solution will stay mixed because the soap creates bonds on the surface that do not repel the water.
Children will see that soap and water together is far more effective in removing dirt stuck to the skin.
Kids in workplace subject of series
Many child-rearing experts say it is a child's job to play, but there are some children out there who really do work for a living.
"Marketplace," the public-radio program focusing on business news, plans a series on child labor worldwide during the week of Jan. 20. There will be reports on child actors, kids who deliver newspapers, child labor unions, bonded labor, plantation workers, mine workers, child soldiers, and the possible dangers for children working on farms.
The program is produced by Minnesota Public Radio and distributed by Public Radio International; it is heard on 386 National Public Radio stations. In Honolulu, it's on KIPO at 6 p.m. weekdays.
Book offers lesson about responsibility
Caillou, the boy featured in a PBS Kids animated TV series of the same name, gets a taste of all the extra responsibilities that come along with the extra privileges of growing up in "Caillou Watches Rosie" (Chouette Publishing).
When Caillou's mom gets a headache, she asks the boy to be a good big brother and watch his baby sister to make sure she doesn't cause any mischief.
The book comes with a "good-habits" chart, to be colored in by your growing girl or boy, that encourages children to learn one "big-kid" task each week for a month.
The program airs locally at 10 a.m. weekdays and 8 a.m. Saturdays on KHET.
— Associated Press
