HISTORY with Your K Ids
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FREE AUGUST 2016 Living PITTSBURGH HISTORY With Your K ids IDEASFor Cheap Summer Fun Welcome Back - To - School August 2016 • PITTSBURGH PARENT 1 what’s inside August 2016 • Volume 29 • Number 8 6 summer fun 16 45 all about August Girls of Steel cover story departments 4 Living ..... editor’s note Talking about STEM in Pittsburgh HISTORY 5 ..... family health With Your Vitamin D - What every parent should know 12 ..... teens today K ids Heartbreaking moments for mom 8 23 ..... education connection The tasks of an involved parent 45 ..... all about August features Calender of events 6 ..... Ideas for cheap summer fun community spotlight 14 ..... Distracted driving can be deadly 13 ..... New home for original, interactive 16 ..... Girls of Steel can do it! Gemini Children’s Theater 18 ..... Improve your child’s listening skills 26 ..... How to calm anxious elementary age kids special sections 31 ..... Successful school transitions Welcome 32 ..... Tips from teachers for a smart start CK TO SCHOO 34 ..... Benefits of exposing children to fine arts BA L 18-44 37 ..... Team sports vs individual sports 39 ..... Little yogis a-z – benefits for kids 40 ..... Childhood depression – more than a bad day Cover: Chad & Janelle Poshard with Charlie & Maddie Cover photo: TreyThomasImages 2 PITTSBURGH PARENT • August 2016 BACK TO SCHOOL Cover: Chad & Janelle Poshard with Charlie & Maddie Cover photo: TreyThomasImages August 2016 • PITTSBURGH PARENT 3 editor’s note e all know it is summer … but Wthere is still a lot of learning taking place in the ‘burgh. One of the big topics in camps, learning Publisher: Lynn Honeywill centers and enrichment [email protected] programs is STEM. Editor: Patricia Poshard In a conversation [email protected] recently, I asked someone Art Director: Diana Ruhe if they knew about these [email protected] STEM programs – stem all in caps. With a some- Web Director/Production Assistant: Kerri Lutz • [email protected] what puzzled expression, they answered: and youth with new opportunities to “You mean stem cells?” Looks like this develop relevant skills they’ll need to Marketing & Finance: is a topic where we all can learn a little thrive in school, college, the workforce, [email protected] and as citizens.” something! Calendar Editor: In our story, Girls of Steel CAN Do It! According to education.com: “STEM [email protected] EDUCATION is a new movement in by Ann K. Howley, she tells us: “It’s really hard to build a robot that Social Media: American Education to help teachers and [email protected] their students understand how the aca- can cross a drawbridge. demic disciplines of Science, Technology, Fox Chapel High School junior Alexa Media Specialists: Engineering and Mathematics impact their Selwood knows this because she and a Heather L. Dils world and prepare them for the workforce team of girls from 30 other Pittsburgh- [email protected] of tomorrow. STEM is multidiscipline area schools had to build one. They are Melissa Alesi based, incorporating the integration of the Girls of Steel, who meet during the [email protected] other disciplinary knowledge into a new school year at Carnegie Mellon Univer- Editorial/Social Media Intern whole. Technology helps us communi- sity to learn electronics, hand tool and Maria Castello • June - July - August machine shop skills, welding, computer cate; Math is the language; Science and Engineering are the processes for think- programming and various business skills in order to design, build and program a Founding Publisher: ing; all this leads to Innovation. Marilyn McCabe Honeywill STEM Education is more than just pre- robot to compete in the FIRST Robotics 1931 - 2013 sentation and dissemination of information Competition, a mentor-based program and cultivation of techniques. It is a pro- that inspires young people to be science Pittsburgh Parent is published and technology leaders.” cess for teaching and learning that offers 12 times a year by Honey Hill Publishing, Inc. In this case, robots are the vehicle students opportunities to make sense of P.O. Box 674, Valencia, PA 16059 to inspire the STEM learning. In another the world and take charge of their learn- 724-898-1898 • pittsburghparent.com program, it is 3-D printing of prosthetic ing, rather than learning isolated bits and Office hours: Mon - Fri, 9am-4pm. pieces of content. In the STEM environ- hands! Subscriptions: 1 year—$18 ment, there is less emphasis on activities The Carnegie Science Center Fab Lab Pittsburgh Parent is distributed monthly to over 800 is working with a group of young adults, locations in and around Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, that demonstrate science content and a Butler, Washington and Westmoreland counties. greater focus on those activities that allow ranging in age from 14-21, who are 3-D Distribution of this paper does not constitute an students to engage in real world problems printing prosthetic hands for people in endorsement of information, products, or services. The need in a program called “e-Nabling the publisher reserves the right to reject any advertisement and experiences through project-based, or listing which is not in keeping with the publication’s experiential learning activities that lead Future.” At the public workshop in June, standards. The entire contents of the publication are to higher level thinking. Learning in a students lead visitors through the process copyrighted and may not be reproduced or copied in any of assembling prosthetic hands and the form without permission of the publisher. Copyright Honey STEM environment compels students Hill Publishing Inc. 2016. All rights reserved. to understand issues, distill problems, technology involved. Once complete, and comprehend processes that lead to the prosthetic hands will be sent to the Distribution Audited By innovative solutions.” Prosthetic Kids Hand Challenge, a North We are fortunate in our town to have Carolina-based group, which will match Remake Learning. According to the local the hands with recipients. Sprout Fund, it is a “professional network Carnegie Science Center is dedicated of educators and innovators working to inspiring learning and curiosity by together to shape the future of teaching connecting science and technology with Winner! Winner! Winner! and learning in the Greater Pittsburgh everyday life. By making science both Region. Representing more than 250 relevant and fun, the Science Center’s New “Interactive” Website organizations, including early learning goal is to increase science literacy in the centers & schools, museums & librar- region and motivate young people to Multiple Giveaways ies, afterschool programs & community seek careers in science and technology. nonprofits, colleges & universities, ed-tech Wendy Hutchison Bea Novak startups & major employers, philanthro- Lots of good things are happening Erica Marasco Rebecca Mikula in the ‘burgh – it is a great place to raise pies & civic leaders, Remake Learning Elizabeth Jackline Tanya Brandt is a collaborative effort to inspire and kids! Lisa Weet empower a generation of lifelong learners Hillary Morgan in Pittsburgh, West Virginia, and beyond. Kim Pierce Martha Freese Through innovative approaches to Joshua Kingsbury Angela Anderson STEM, STEAM, Maker, and Digital learn- Roberta Helmstadter Casey Biser ing, we’re working to provide all children Patricia Poshard, Editor 4 PITTSBURGH PARENT • August 2016 family health Vitamin D What every parent should know! By Kristi Wees hat do you know about Vitamin D? Not much? Please read on. This vitamin Wis crucial for optimal health (as are all vita- mins), especially children’s health! Vitamin D is particularly connected with immune system health in adults and children. Vitamin D is known as the SUNSHINE vitamin “A fat-soluble vitamin occurring in several forms, especially vitamin D2 or vitamin D3, required for normal growth of teeth and bones, and produced in general by ultraviolet irradiation of sterols found in milk, fish and eggs.” (thefreedictionary.com) Vitamin D levels drop in the winter-time and drop depending where you live Since Vitamin D comes from sun- shine, this drop in the winter is due to lessened hours of daylight and thus less- ened sun exposure, with the peak vitamin D levels occurring in September (just after summer) and the dip in D levels occurring in February. (PMID: 18298852) Anyone living at a latitude above Atlanta, GA (Yup, that means Pittsburgh, PA!!), cannot make any Vitamin D (from sunlight) in the winter months (November-February). The time of day is important too! Even in the summer time, most Vitamin D produc- tion occurs between 10am-3pm.(youtu. be/1qirmKiUKVQ) Vitamin D has an impact on those with ASTHMA “Children with asthma appear to be at increased risk of vitamin D insufficiency.” (PMID: 23069123) “The frequency of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency was higher in children with asthma, continued on page 48 August 2016 • PITTSBURGH PARENT 5 Ideas for cheap summer fun By Laura Lyles Reagan ust like their childhood, your • Journal side by side in the backyard • Lay down on a blanket outside (picnic children’s summer will be here and with freshly brewed sun tea or juice style) and watch the clouds go by. gone before you know it. We can boxes. • Make up cloud stories and praise your Jsend them to camp, schedule play dates • Sing each other’s favorite songs while child’s imagination. with children of the college educated watering your yard. set so their vocabularies expand, make • Buy a new box of crayons and draw stimulating visits to educational museums portraits of each other. and take day treks to the zoo. Or perhaps • Pack a picnic lunch and go to the park we can pause and consider playing. to eat. See where the day takes you. It may seem counter intuitive to keep • Make a bird feeder and sit still outside a list of possible spontaneous activities to watch the birds feed. to cultivate, but the truth is, many of us • Tell stories to each other with the simply aren’t good at letting go and hav- listener providing the first line and ing fun.