The way you can measure a society's soul is by the way that it treats its children.
Nelson Mandela

Issue No. 46 - 27th September 2007

Welcome to Kidz Newz especially to all new subscribers.  Kidz Newz is a regular newsletter with information and teaching tips for anyone involved with young children.  You are receiving this because you have attended one of my workshops, purchased a book, or you have requested to be on the mailing list.  Thank you.  Please forward this to anyone you feel it may be of interest to.

Feedback is welcome.

New Book

The much anticipated second book in the Kidz-Fiz-Biz series has finally arrived!  It is called Kidz-Fiz-Biz MULTICULTURAL.  Subtitle is 'learning about other cultures through drama, dance and song'.  All the rhymes, fingerplays and music are in foreign languages with translation into English.  It contains loads of activities and is fully illustrated.  The music is fantastic and I'm sure teachers and children alike will find it great fun. 

For details of this and other products, please go to www.kidzfizbiz.com.

Beware the Humble Sausage Sizzle!

Everyone loves a good sausage sizzle. They are great social equalizers for end of year, end of term, school f'te or busy bee gatherings. But are they so innocent? In a recent article on children and food, Dr Peter Dingle, Associate Professor of Toxicology at Murdoch University Western Australia, was quoted as saying that sausages contain very little of nutritional value but worse still, contain nitrates and nitrites. High levels of these chemicals have been linked to health disorders including leukaemia in children. That is not to say you should rush out and ban all forthcoming sausage sizzles, but just to be aware that if children in your care are having a diet consistently high in foods of dubious nutritional value, that you run the risk of causing them health problems of varying degrees of seriousness. This is not rocket science: you eat junk - don't expect to have excellent health. The link is often not made though between diet and exercise and good health. It never ceases to amaze me when people talk about the healthy diet they and their children consume while they stand there drinking a Red Bull and eating a hamburger or similar.

The article goes on to say how the sausage is invariably wrapped in a white bread roll. Sounds delicious with all that gooey butter and sauce oozing out all over the place; half the fun of the sausage sizzle is the disgusting factor of sauce dripping down your sleeves. It reminds you of your childhood. And, of course, the kids love it. It's not so innocent, however. White bread acts as glue in your intestines, according to Dr Dingle. No need to explain the consequences of toxins remaining too long in the body instead of being eliminated.

Keeping it all in perspective, junk food in small doses is fine. Just be aware that it is 'party food' and as such, can have seriously harmful effects if consumed on a regular basis, that is, weekly or more often. How many of the children in your care often eat take-away on the way to school? Do make the parents aware of the potential harm of this practice and educate them as to healthy alternatives. It's not just high levels of fat, sugar and fillers that cause problems, but more particularly the toxic chemicals used as preservatives or colourants.

For more information on diet and health, please go to www.kidzfizbiz.com/kfbmail/index.html and click on these articles -

Issue 16 - ADD/ADHD and Chemical Overload

Issue 17 - Fat Kids

Issue 18 - Iodine Deficiency and Development

Issue 32 - Crunch and Sip

Issue 34 - Fit Kids

For more information on Dr Dingle and this topic, visit his website at www.drdingle.com.  You can purchase Dr Dingle's book, The D.E.A.L. (Diet, Exercise, Attitude, Lifestyle) on good health for kids and adults from my website at www.kidzfizbiz.com.

Collected from eight year olds by a teacher: 

'Without the Greeks, we wouldn't have history. The Greeks invented three kinds of columns - Corinthian, Doric and Ironic. They also had myths. A myth is a female moth. One myth says that the mother of Achilles dipped him in the River Stynx until he became intolerable.'

'Napoleon wanted an heir to inherit his power, but since Josephine was a baroness, she couldn't bear him any children.'

'Karl Marx became one of the Marx Brothers.'

(Taken from Dan Poynter's newsletter Publishing Poynters http://ParaPub.com)

Some comments from ASME  2007 -

'This was a great session ' inspirations for myself and yet I could quite easily pass on many of the ideas to others on my staff.'  Lyndall Kirchmajer

'Make sure you attend a session, it was excellent.'  Jude Tupman

'The presentation was fun, innovative, inclusive and dynamic.'  Sue Cox