Astronomy for Children - Teaching Children through Astronomy

Astronomy is perhaps the best science for teaching children. Astronomy-themed learning projects can help teach children not only astronomy but many subjects--reading, writing, math, history, geometry, chemistry, art, photography, etc. Almost any area of knowledge can be integrated into a children's astronomy class or workshop. Children are not only learning the fascinating subject of astronomy that has engaged children of all ages for centuries--the solar system, the planets, the stars, the nebula, the comets, the galaxies, the spaceships and space marvels, the telescopes--but astronomy can be the coordinating art and science.

There are many children's astronomy websites online and also books that include experimental projects, data research projects, telescope projects (including "make your own telescope"). Astronomy can also teach children how to think and analyze. Writing can be taught via keeping astronomy journals.

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Recommended websites for children online are:

Kids Astronomy

http://www.kidsastronomy.com

StarChild: A Learning Center for Young Astronomers
http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/StarChild.html

Other children's astronomy websites can be easily found via your favorite search engine. Astronomy-oriented toys, "space toys" and science kits are available. Also calendars, posters, prints. Children can be encouraged to design their own posters and art prints, their own "astrographics." Astronomy books and software may be found at Amazon.com and The Astronomy Store, http://www.astronomystore.zoomshare.com. There are also telescope stores that have novice telescopes for young astronomers.

As for astronomy software, there are a wide range of astronomy software which can be educational. Some of this software is especially designed for children, such as Sesame Street Ernie's Adventures in Space and Zoom Astronomy--Enchanted Learning Software. Astronomy news can also be found online.

Dover Publisher sells solar system stickers, sun, moon, and stars stickers and easy to do experiments, including "science for children" coloring books. Again, children can be encouraged to create their own stickers, coloring books, and computer graphics and astronomy and space clip art.

So when teaching children art, writing, math or any subject, think astronomy, which has engaged children of all ages for ages.

Astronomy for Children - Teaching Children through Astronomy

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Five Great Charity Fundraising Ideas For Kids

Fundraising ideas for kids are easy to do if you keep the ideas nice and simple. Some fundraisers will work well on their own. Others need to be part of a larger event such as a Summer Fete or Fundraising Fair.

Here are five great ideas

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Teddy Bears Picnic - This is a great fundraiser for younger kids. Your picnic can take place inside or at the local park. The kids will love to take their Teds along and a party tea / picnic always goes down well. Organise some Teddy fun including singing and action rhymes. Make money by charging for tickets. There can also be a Mum's raffle etc. This might not be the best money-maker in the world but it is an easy and simple way to introduce kids to charity and raise some money for a good cause.

Drawing and Crafts- This is an important stall for fetes and fairs. Kids actually love a bit of time out to do some drawing, sticking or colouring. You can either display the finished pictures on a temporary gallery board (don't forget to include the name of the proud owner who will be sure to drag family and friends over to see their art) or make something simple the kids can take home. Sock snake puppets are a great one for this. Have a selection of bits and pieces on hand and a craft minded helper on hand to supervise and inspire. Have a bucket for donations and suggest a suitable amount. Position your "art workshop" next to your refreshment stand and you will keep Mum and Dad happy too!

Sponsored Silence - A classic sponsored event that is just perfect for kids. Older kids can generally last 4-8 hours with younger ones keep it fun and stick to an hour.

Teddy Tombola - A vital addition to any school fundraising event but also great at church and charity fundraising events. Request new or nearly new teddies in advance. You will be inundated as parents clear out the unwanted stock of soft toys and cuddlies most kids seem to have these days. Either number or name them and let the children buy a ticket to win a bear or other soft toy. Tip -Names are much more fun its far better to win Silky Sadie or Bashful Barry than number 37. A Teddy Tombola can be quite lucrative. At an infant or junior school most kids will buy (or their parents will) at least one ticket and the prizes are all donated.

Penny Drives - Pennies or any other small coppers work well with kids. Find novel ways to collect them and count them. Lines of coins in the playground during the school fete are fun or even round the school. Or spell out the school's name in coppers. Give a penny to spend a penny is an idea that kids can easily relate to. Let them make a collecting box from card or a small painted box or washed out yoghurt pot then take it home and put it by the family toilet. A penny every time you go please. This works really well and kids love it.

There are lots of other fundraising ideas for kids and often normal fundraisers can be adapted to become more child friendly. Don't get hung up on the amount of money you make and celebrate the smallest amounts raised. Every little helps and getting kids interested in charity, community or helping their school is the real bonus.

Neill Wilkins

Five Great Charity Fundraising Ideas For Kids

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Kids Dance Classes - Things You Need To Know

Most parents want what's best for their child and that is why most parents want to register their kids in a dance class. However, there are a lot of things that you might want to know.

What Is A Kids Dance Class?

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Kids dance classes are a good way for your child to have fun and exercise. It is beneficial for health and at the same time, your child will learn basic behaviour disciplines. Kid dance lessons are offered in a wide selection of dance schools and studios in most local areas. For most children, they dance simply for fun and exercise. These dance courses have a mixture of classes that are suitable for kids like Classical ballet, Salsa, Hip hop, Jazz dance, Interpretative dance and more.

What You Should Know Before Enrolling Your Child?

If you are a concerned parent who is planning to enroll your child in a dance class, there are several things you should know.

First, you should go and check the dance studio for safety and security. If the dance studio puts a limitation on the size of the class it means, the smaller the class size, the faster the learning is and more fun! Some dance classes that are less costly often have too many students in the classroom. The dance class size for children 3 to 9 years old should be limited only to between 8 to 10 young students.

The dance staff should always be available to answer the phone or will call you if emergency occurs. The dance class is also ideal fit has an up to date and informative website that shows information you need to know such as class schedules, recital dates, announcements and etc.

In addition, also check the type of flooring used. Tile or concrete is not a good dance floor for a dance studio. Look for a suspended or cushioned dance floor.

What Are The Benefits Of A Kids Dance Class?

There are many benefits of dancing to your child, including fitness, developing balance, weight loss exercise, developing self confidence, and building expressive skills.

Dancing is the best way to get kids more active. Provided they are taught by good dance instructors who manage to make the class enjoyable, rather than pure lessons and demonstration.In addition, it improves your child's social skills. Most dance classes tend to be conducted in a group; your child can interact with other students in a spirit of camaraderie. What's more, all of these have the positive benefits of making the person more successful in the social aspect of life.

Dancing is one of the many activities that help us to feel good about our body. As a result, dancing can also boost your kid's self esteem. As we have known, people who dance well (especially people who took up dance classes in their childhood), tend to have good self esteem. Kids need physical activity and dancing helps to cause the release of "happy hormones" or the endorphins. Happiness and success levels tend to be at their best when your child is experiencing a flow of these "happy hormones" which can help with your child's everyday well being.

Kids Dance Classes - Things You Need To Know

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Workshop Plans For Your Shed Building

After you have decided to build your own shed, it may be very practical to combine workshop plans with your shed plans. When making your do-it-yourself projects, such as a shed, it is just natural that you may later want to create other wood work and carpentry items. To be able to accommodate future projects, it is convenient if you have a workshop to do all of it. So if you are one of those handy and sensible individuals, you should not only prepare your shed plans but make room for your workshop.

Creating your own shed will not only require money, you must also invest time and effort if you want to have the shed that is perfect for your requirements. So to start with, make sure you have the best plans for your projects. There are a variety of ways that you could acquire the right set of plans for your shed and workshop, such as visiting you local bookstore and stores that cater to home improvement. But why do you need to make it harder on yourself when you could get excellent quality plans over the internet. You have the opportunity to research and look over these plans much more quickly compared to physically going to stores and book shops. You can then choose the workshop plans that suit your needs and, best of all, there are free shed plans available so take advantage of these.

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Your plans should have woodworking and blue prints but there are some available that are offered as sets of plans and include plans for other projects such as outdoor furniture, garden furniture and the likes. After acquiring your workshop plans, it is recommended that you check with the authorities on building permits to make sure that you are allowed to construct the kind of workshop you want. By utilizing the plan and other pertinent details included with it, procuring your permit and other necessary paperwork should progress more smoothly.

By integrating great workshop plans into your shed plans, you can build yourself an area where you can indulge your creative instincts and build unique items with your own hands. You could use this area to make whatever projects you need for your house but are not able to do it inside your home. You could also use this space for family activities, teaching your kids and other family members how to create exciting woodworking projects.

Workshops can fit in most shed buildings so make sure when getting your shed plan to incorporate a workshop because you'll never know what other woodworking projects you may want to create in the future. Getting the right workshop plans therefore are also essential in the planning your shed if you want to have a fully equipped shed building that really caters to your needs.

Workshop Plans For Your Shed Building

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Are Intuitive Energy Healing Classes- Alternative Healing Workshops- for You?

Do you feel heat in your hands? Are you so empathetic to others that you can actually feel their pain? Do you inherently know where a person is ill? Can you smell illness? Do you have unexpected panic and anxiety attacks, or are you extremely sensitive in crowds, have heart palpitations or depressive symptoms for no apparent reasons that clear up and go away just as quickly as they appeared? Do you feel and see things that suggest that you might be "going crazy' to the normal person? Do you hear voices or tones, or have ringing ears? Do you see flashes of light, see colors, "movies", or moving objects out the side of your eye? If so, an intuitive energy healing workshop might be for you.

If any of these responses are descriptive of your unexplained reactions you may be an emerging energy healer or an intuitive. You may be experiencing heightened senses of awareness beyond the usual 5 senses. The extra senses creating your sensations are called:
Clairvoyance is a noun from late 17th century French [clair (clear) & voyant (seeing)] and is defined as a "form of extra-sensory perception". Clairvoyance "is the art of 'seeing' with senses beyond the five. Clairvoyance is often called the 'sixth sense' or ESP. It is the psychic ability or power to see objects, and visions, or to gain information regardless of its distance. The visions may also be in the future, and some times in the past. Clairvoyance is an umbrella term which often refers to telepathy, spiritualism, psychic research, second sight, prophetic visions, and dreams."

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Clairaudience "is receiving messages in thought form from another frequency or realm in a normal state of consciousness. It is considered a form of channeling. It is the ability to hear things not audible within normal hearing ranges. Clairaudience may refer not to actual perception of sound, but may instead indicate impressions of the "inner mental ear" similar to the way many people think words without having auditory impressions. But it may also refer to actual perception of sounds such as voices, tones, or noises which are not apparent to other humans or to recording equipment."

Clairsentience is the ability to feel and capture information through sensations or "clear feeling."
"Clairsentients receive a lot of guidance through their intuition, gut feelings, and hunches and messages through their heart and emotions."

Claircognizance means clear knowing. A claircognizant knows, without knowing how he knows. According to Doreen Virtue that how "Divine wisdom enters our mind to serve the world."

A single trait or a combination of all of the above extra sensory talents, are usually part of a healer's repertoire of gifts.

As a practicing distance energy healer, and a medical intuitive, I am often asked:
What do I need to learn in order to amplify and intensify my natural healing abilities,
or, I think I might be a healer now what do I do
or, I've been told in a reading that I am a healer, how do I find out how to be one?

There are many courses for energy healers, Dr Judith Orloff's, intuitive healing is one of the forerunners in this field as are Barbara Brennan's and Carolyn Myss's classes, Donna Eden's Energy Medicine courses, or Soul Mind Body Medicine with Dr Sha's Power Healing. Vibrational medicine, Quantum Touch, Reiki, Therapeutic touch, Cellular cleansing, and a multitude of other methods are available to awaken the remembrance of your healing abilities.

In the workshops that I teach and in most intuitive and energy healing classes you learn the basics:

How to protect yourself from energy drains

How to protect yourself from being overly sensitive to your client's conditions

How to direct your energy as a clear conduit

Learn to connect to and trust your inner knowing for diagnosis and working with clients

Learn to heighten your intuitive abilities

No matter what methodology (books, seminars, lectures, workshops, individual lessons, etc) you use to awaken your natural gifts, don't neglect your soul's calling. Every soul contributes to humanity whether person by person or as an alternative practitioner in your chosen field (i.e. the one that resonates with you). You may try many different approaches and techniques until you determine the one that feels just right. You may have a multitude of talents, so choose which one you want to use in this incarnation.

Alternative health care and alternative medicine is combining with traditional medicine at a rapid rate and that combination is called integrative medicine. It's the new mind body connection.
So before you write off those empathetic feelings, and strange sensory sensations as being "crazy," (even though you feel in your gut that you came here to help others) I suggest that you take an intuitive or intuitive energy healing class. You'll probably meet other individuals who have felt the same way and have the same "calling." It will be a relief and give you great inner peace and satisfaction to know that you are not "crazy" and that instead, you are a highly gifted and talented soul who has come to serve mankind.

Feel free to reprint this article in its original format.

Contact Information:

Brent Atwater, Alternative Medical Specialist

Medical Intuitive, Distance Energy Healing

Workshops: http://www.brentenergywork.com/WORKSHOPS.htm

ATL, GA Phone: 404.242.9022 USA

NC Phone: 910.692.5206 USA

Website: http://www.brentatwater.com/

Email: mailto:Brent@BrentAtwater.com

Are Intuitive Energy Healing Classes- Alternative Healing Workshops- for You?

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Christmas Gifts for the Handyman

Chances are, the handyman in your home is your husband. They work hard to fix (or at least try to fix) all that breaks in your home. From replacing a ceiling fan, to fixing the gas furnace, or to help with that big school project, dads are always there to lend a hand!

Wouldn't it be great to buy him a little gift that could make his life easier when taking care of those home projects? This list of gifts for the handyman in your life is sure to put a smile on his face!

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High Tech Work Gloves

High tech work gloves are not your regular gloves. These are thick, tough leather gloves and fit like a glove, literally. They are made to fit tightly like surgical gloves so that your fingers are nimble enough to handle small items such as nails. If you have ever tried to do that with regular work gloves you know it is more than difficult.

There are several different brands of high tech work gloves, but Mechanix Wear and Iron Clad are rated at the top of the heap.Both companies have websites so you can purchase online, or check out your local home improvement store like Lowes. They come in different sizes and price ranges, but none are more than around . They are worth every penny and they last forever!

Laser Level

How do laser levels work? Laser levels project a beam of light that can be used as a visual chalk line when a straight and level reference point is needed. The size of the beam of light depends on the size of the diode. In this case, smaller is better -- a smaller beam of light is more precise. With a wider beam of light, the actual point of "level" can be located anywhere within the width of the beam.

Laser tools are ideal for hanging pictures or wallpaper - both of which can be tedious and time consuming. How many times have you hung a wall full of pictures, only to stand back and see that none of it is level? Frustrating, isn't it? With a laser level, you can quickly and easily hang those pictures straight as an arrow.

Laser levels are also very useful for laying tile, installing a hardwood floor, or installing a chair rails with accuracy. Their uses are endless and they make for a great time saver. No handyman should be without one in his tool box.

Magnetic Tool Bar

This is a great addition to any tool box! Heavy-duty, permanent magnets are used to hold large or small tools and metal parts securely in place. These bars come in all sizes and shapes. There are bars specifically for the handy man that works on light projects and just needs somewhere to hang his screwdrivers and wrenches.

But for those that work on large equipment where you routinely could "use an extra hand" such as an HVAC contractor who deals with large gas furnaces, these can be a lifesaver!

These are a great way to keep his tools up off the work bench and in plain site where they are easy to reach. A lot of men have peg boards in their workshop to hang their tools on, but if you buy a nice magnetic tool bar, there no longer be a need for that!

Power Drill Holster

What a great idea! Ever been on top of a ladder using a power drill and you have no where to lay the drill? If you had a power drill holster then you would simply slide the drill into it! They are very similar to a gun holster, but specifically built for a drill.

There are many makes, models and sizes, but when purchasing a drill holster, quality is everything. You don't want to risk buying a cheap one and having it slip out, fall and possibly hurt someone on the ground.

Power Welder

To me, this is the best one and it is fun! Welders are generally though of as huge power tools that are only needed when you are building something large. Not so!

There are some really cool personal power welders on the market that can be used for simple projects such as fixing that wrought iron furniture to making small crafts with the kids. In addition, these small welders can be used to teach kids the basics of welding. How fun is that?

There are so many gifts that would be great for the handyman in your life and we have listed only a few. Most handymen love to try out new tools and gadgets, so think out of the box when buying their gift. They are sure to love anything that can add to their tool box!

Christmas Gifts for the Handyman

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3 Simple Tips to Turn Your Garage Into Your Workshop

So you're tired of your hum-drum garage merely being a place to park your car and collect years of junk. Believe it or not, your garage has much more to offer than being that scary part of the house the kids are afraid to go near. You have roughly 480 square feet of space being completely unutilized. So what can you do? How about turning that valuable space into a workshop?

Creating a workshop in your garage is easier than you think. It just requires a vision and some helpful tools you might already have lying around. Here are some tips to turning your garage into the workshop of your dreams.

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Clean Sweep

Before adding more junk to an already junk filled space, your first step is to clean out the existing items cluttering the room. Get rid of all the stuff you don't need. Clear out old boxes and group miscellaneous things together so that you can put them away neatly once you get your workshop put together. After reducing the clutter, clean the garage floor. Simply start with a good sweep of all the corners and in dark areas. Next, get some heavy duty floor cleaner and mop the garage floor.

The Essentials

Now that you've got a blank canvas to work with, you can start to design your ultimate workshop. Do you need a workbench or do you have old materials lying around that you could use to make one yourself? Will you need more storage? Toolboxes? Saws? Really think about what you'll be doing in your workshop and write a list of what is essential to make it functional.

Put the Puzzle Together

Now it's time to put your room together. By now you should have purchased all of the organizational tools and storage you need like a workbench, toolboxes, shelving and racks. Arrange each item so that it's convenient to you but also out of the way. Storage items that aren't used very much should be stored overhead whereas tools and equipment should be stored on workshop walls or in toolboxes for easy use. If you purchased extra cabinetry, try using the drawers and shelves for the things you'll use often, but not as much as your tools. Stuff like rags, stencils or wood scraps are ideal for these areas.

The garage is so diverse in utility; there really is no reason to be unhappy with it. You can create any type of haven you'd like whether it be for fixing cars, for crafts with the kids or an art studio. The sky's the limit so let your imagination run wild and get busy creating your masterpiece.

3 Simple Tips to Turn Your Garage Into Your Workshop

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