Schooling at Home; Practical Tips for Stressed out Families

Schooling at Home; Practical Tips for Stressed out Families
Lebowitz quote

We have officially begun the first week of homeschool for our kids as many of us are homebound and practicing health and safety routines for ourselves and our communities. We at Unified Caring Association (UCA) have been receiving questions about how to set up a routine for schooling at home. With some research we have come up with a few ideas that can help grow caring children and create a thriving educational environment at home.

Two Tips for Getting Set Up

Two Tips for Getting Set Up

One of the first challenges that can occur is the task of explaining to our kids about the coronavirus pandemic. This can be a bit difficult at times because there is some uncertainty about how long each school district is closing. It is important that we practice taking a  deep breath to help us be center while calmly speaking with our kids. “The easiest rule of thumb is to try to be direct and honest and brief.” (Mathew Cruger) 

The second tip is to set up new routines and goals. These routines do not have to be perfect off the bat. An example of a good place to start isa morning routine. In the morning, everyone wakes up at a reasonable hour, eats nutritious breakfast, brushes their hair and teeth, and gets dressed for the day. Another idea is to block out time for physical activity in the day, like a mock-recess. (Bonus points for joining in on the physical activity to help reduce your stress and boost your physical health!) If you need an example, check out fitness instructor Joe Wicks video series, P.E. with Joe. Each video is a daily 30-minute workout that kids can do at home.

Also, when setting up your new daily routine, it is important to set aside quality time with your family. This time requires you to put away other responsibilities in an effort to focus on playing with members of your family. A suggestion on LiveScience for “when you need to do another task, [is to] stay nearby and tell the child to play by themselves, but to let you know if they need help.” Sometimes we can have family bonding time through doing chores. Most of us have that moment of groaning when we think about dusting and mopping, but it can become a fun family activity. Try cranking up the tunes to boogie as you clean. Or have a relay race for who can fold the most laundry in 2 minutes!

Schedules are important to help kids understand what life will look like day-to-day, reducing stress and confusion. Additionally, a routine helps with student success for kids that still have school work to turn into their teachers remotely during the school closure.

Educational Materials For Homebound Kids

Educational Materials For Homebound Kids

There are so many resources for keeping your kids’ education at its top game. Recently, many educational foundations and organizations have released tools and activities that are great for the brain while we are schooling our children at home. Some of these resources are available for free. K- 12 kids activities can be found on Kids Activities Blog where dozens of activities and educational materials.Other educational resources for schooling at home, such as audiobooks, e-books, videos, multimedia materials, are also available on the Open Culture website, like Google Learn at Home for example.

Scholastic Learn at Home has daily lessons in a variety of formats: videos, stories and prompts for drawing and writing activities. These are lessons that are great for grade levels pre-K to 6th grade and up.

“Khan Academy, a free online learning resource offering lessons, exercises and quizzes, has daily schedules for organizing at-home learning for students ages 4 to 18 years.” (LiveScience Kids Activities) On weekdays, this academy offers livestreams on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to help parents and educators best utilize the website’s tools and resources while schooling at home.

Speaking of Youtube, there is a channel called Crash Course that offers engaging educational videos on a wide range of subjects that are great for high school students.

PBS KIDS and PBS LearningMedia are showing their support as well by offering tools to help support learning at home. Some of these tools include educational videos and games from favorite series, as well as related skill-building offline activities that will help us grow caring children while running their education home. 

Virtual Museums

Virtual Museums- Penguins at Shedd Aquarioum

We are completely into this next topic; virtual field trips! Recently penguins touring Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium took Twitter by storm! Now we can join in on the fun by taking a virtual tour of more than 2,500 museums around the world. These museums have made their collections accessible online through Google Arts and Culture. Additionally, we can get an outdoors feel by accessing virtual tours of national parks in the U.S. 

If we are looking at specific museums, The American Museum of Natural History in New York City offers all ages online learning materials that are perfect for schooling at home. We took a look at their Ology science website, and it has games and activities in a range of science topics like archaeology, astronomy, and marine biology. 

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum has a tour too! The Air and Space Anywhere webpage provides virtual tours of the museum, educational podcasts, games and activities that are all about aircraft and spacecraft. This is a great way to get some STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) lessons, activities and videos on topics, like flight and space.

Science!

Craving more science in your family’s life? (Bill Nye the Science Guy would be pleased as punch!) We found out that the California Science Center is livestreaming “Stuck at Home Science”  Every weekday at 10 a.m. PDT. This is a new video series of science activities you can do at home.

Stuck at Home Science

Miami’s Frost Science Museum is helping out with remote science activities as well. Frost Science@Home helps curious and inquisitive minds plenty to do with fun science activities and DIY science experiments.

Nova Labs at PBS has sciences for teens! These virtual science educational experiences come together through multimedia experiences that combine video, animation and games to delve into fascinating scientific topics. Teens learn about hot topics like polar ecosystems, solar storms and renewable energy to get your teens brains engaged and ready to help bring more caring into our communities.

NASA also has Teachable Moments  for K-12th grade. This brings NASA to your home by connecting homes with resources for investigating the latest discoveries about our universe.  To add to this, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is another source of free online content. When visiting the website, digital educators share live videos that pair with hands-on activities. These activities use materials that can be found at almost any  home. Two examples of topics are living in space and on Mars, as well as basic rocketry.

For our kids that are ready for more and complex sciences, Physics Classroom is a great resource for beginning physics students. There are teacher toolkits for parents who are now learning how to be teachers. These toolkits supplement the site’s online lessons with videos, animations, simulations and exercises to give a full classroom experience.

Want to have a family Q&A with a scientist? Sign up at Skype a Scientist and get matched with an expert. This expert will live Skype chat with your family about real scientific research. 

With all of the remote education and being homebound, we are craving some connection! stemCONNECT is a great answer that uses video conferencing to bring together students and experts in STEM industries. Also, the site has a free video library. This library contains Florida-based STEM experts to help with your child’s understanding of practical applications of a STEM career.

Creative & Fun

Creative & Fun

We have talked a lot about sciences and logical education resources. Now we get to flip to the other side of the brain. Ready to run some fun and creative activities at home?  Creativity is a huge part of learning and having a fulfilling life adventure. Much like our Caring Coloring Contest, organizations are bringing to homes creative education as well!

Teaching the value of mindfulness to your kids can be a creative and interactive activity too! Monterey Bay Aquarium hosts “MeditOcean.” Help build your kids resiliency with a soothing guided meditation video featuring several aquarium jellyfish. 

If your children need a more hands-on activity, they can hone their artistic side with artist and writer Mo Willems. Williams is hosting Lunch Doodles video sessions weekdays at 1 pm EDT. These sessions have an activity page reflecting the doodle session. If you happen to have a 3D printer, access to blueprints of digital 3D models from NASA. It can be fun and educational to print and construct miniature models of satellites, asteroids, spacecraft, and more!

Add a little ancient history and anthropology to the schooling at home curriculum with the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada. Kids in 3rd-12th grade can learn to write their names in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs with a step-by-step guide. If they get really good they can write a whole story for you!

Is reading and storytime built into your kids’ education at home? There are  variety of videos where celebrities and professionals in multiple industries read books aloud. It can be a thrill to watch and listen to Story Time from Space. Listen to stories sent to the International Space Station (ISS). These stories are read aloud by astronauts as they orbit far above Earth.

Caring for the World

It is during this time that we come together with our families to help each other learn more. Setting up new goals and routines so that our children can do their schooling at home can be confusing. UCA is here to help and share caring resources. We are all being called to do extraordinary things for the collective caring of our families, communities and the world in response to the unique coronavirus pandemic. Whether home bound or providing critical services, everyone is stretched to adapt like never before.  All of us are in this together. Now more than ever, caring is what we need most. Caring for our self. Caring for others around us. Life is going to require new routines, resilience and compassion. We invite you to join us in creating a caring movement to respond to local needs.

Want to read more about Unified Caring Association and UCA benefits? We have other blogs on caring topics like: ‘R’ is for Reforestation, Caring Communities to Help Stop Cyberbullying, and Is My Child Resilient? Or follow us on Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, YouTube, and Twitter to receive caring updates during the week!

Hugging for Health

Hugging for Health

Someone once said, “We should have 100 hugs a day to stay healthy.” This saying is a lot like having an apple a day. We hear stories that back this adage up: people waking up when those they love hold their hand or how important it is to hold babies as they begin their life’s journey. Touch is a powerful way to communicate with others. One article found on the Good News Network is about making physical connections with each other through hugs that conveys how much each person means to one another.

Hugs are comforting and help us flourish.

People require touch with other living beings in order to feel cared for and grow into caring individuals. In the article, Science of Kindness Shows Just How Important Hugging is for Our Mental and Physical Health, by David Fryburg, MD, “The importance of physical contact was painfully observed in the orphanages of Romania: children who were provided food—but not held or hugged—had significant developmental and socio-emotional delay accompanied by smaller brains.” The lack of touch, connection, and hugs affected how these children behaved, and the development of their brains. Similar studies have shown animals have the same underdevelopment and health issues when subjected to social isolation.

On a less extreme note, touch affects our response to daily conflicts we experience. A group of researchers interviewed 404 adults for 14 days regarding their health and any conflicts. Additionally, the researchers inquired how these adults felt emotionally and whether or not they received hugs. The people who had some form of interpersonal conflict and were hugged reported feeling happier and more grounded for the day. A bonus is that the hug helps both people involved!

Keep the Doctor Away…

On another note, research has produced “evidence that hugging may favorably influence the rate of infection from a cold as well as symptoms.” Also, hugs help reduce blood pressure and relieve stress. When we hug, we get a good boost of the love hormone oxytocin.

Hugs are not the only form of touch that helps us feel better mentally and physically. Other types of touch that share the same beneficial elements are holding hands and massage. Most of us know that massage can decrease pain related to a variety of conditions, such as back pain and migraines. “[Physical touch] affects the biochemistry that mediates pain or sadness and can also lower blood pressure, reduce cortisol, improve immune responses, stimulate the vagus nerve, and change EEG (brain wave) patterns.” One example is premature babies, where light massage for 15 minutes over a week caused a significant increase in necessary weight gain. This is a complementary study to the Romanian orphans mentioned above, where massage helps babies flourish.

Overall, we can see a clear connection between hugs, our health and happiness. The physical connection not only decreases stress but also helps nourish and heal us so we can recover and grow. It is remarkable that we naturally can help care for and heal each other. If we reach out and connect with each other, we can find ourselves to be happier and healthier. 

If we are not able to get a physical hug, there are a variety of tools that help simulate hugs, like a weighted blanket. Also, we can get a similar effect when we see images of other people hugging or a gentle touch. “This work is consistent with Envision Kindness’ own research on how images of kindness and compassion—many of which capture caring touch or hugging—are a proven and potent way to induce joy, love, optimism, and connection. Thus, by simply looking at these images, people can experience lower levels of stress and greater joy.”

Of course, viewing images of people or animals hugging needs to be rounded out by the real thing when possible. Very few things are perfect substitutes, hugs are best from those you love and have a caring connection with. A hug is a gift to someone else and to yourself.

Would you like to read more caring blogs? We have other blogs on topics on UCA benefits: Medical Bill Negotiation, Nutrition to Help Prevent Depression, and Gut-Brain Connection! If you would like caring messages throughout the week, follow us on Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Twitter!

Caring Scholarships – A Platform for Young Voices

Caring Scholarships A Platform for Young Voices

Unified Caring Association (UCA) holds scholarship contests throughout the year. As of this month UCA has awarded over 100 scholarships to caring students. These students are all ages across the U.S. These essays are a platform for young voices to express their ideas and experiences which brings more caring into the world. UCA designed this scholarship program to both reward kids for caring while also encouraging their kind heartedness and supporting their advancement in education. 

The Essays

UCA’s nationwide and program specific scholarships are created to reward students who write short, 500-word, essays based on the prompt question provided. Some examples are:

-How do you plan to live a life that promotes peace and Unity? How will you create the journey to fulfill this purpose?

-If you were the President of the United States, what would you do to promote Peace and Unity?

-How can caring and kindness be implemented more in your personal life and in your school?

-If you were the “Caring Ambassador” at your school, what would you do to inspire other students to be more caring?

The essay entries are scored on a caring rubric that differs from a traditional academic rubric. This allows students who may not typically be awarded scholarships to be celebrated and awarded for their unique talent of caring and kindness.

Previously Awarded Scholarships

Below is a list of our previous caring scholarship topics. These topics have inspired hundreds of applicants to share their caring thoughts, actions, and creative solutions to help bring more caring into the world today.

Who Loves These Caring Scholarships?

School guidance counsellors, teachers and students warmly embrace our scholarship program. As the students write beautiful, unique essays on the topic of caring they engage their caring intelligence and are reminded of the importance of kindness. We find that our scholarship entrants touch hearts with their caring essays. It is so hard to choose the winners!

Want to read an example? Here is one of our previous winners who fills our hearts with joy!

Sarah Cline

“Genuine kindness is one of the most valuable traits a person can possess. Having real concern for those around you and caring about how they feel makes you stand out among everyone else. Nothing makes me feel better or lifts me up more than when someone goes out of their way to make me feel good and let me know they care about me. It is so important to treat people with kindness and respect, but this unfortunately is something that people forget to do all too often.

I was sixteen years old when, terrified, I was forced to move from my home in a small town in northwest Ohio to the city of Kaysville, Utah. Before this, I had rarely left the safety of the town I grew up in and leaving it for good was a rude awakening. The culture shock was brutal and my shy, quiet nature made it difficult for me to find friends in a place where I felt like an outsider. Starting over at a new high school was one of the most difficult experiences of my life. However, it eventually became one of the best because of the kindness I was shown by a few very special people. They became my friends, made me feel at home, and showed that they truly cared about me. They made me feel included, wanted, and even loved. The kindness they showed me during a really difficult time will stay with me for the rest of my life.

This experience taught me a valuable lesson. Life is hard when you are alone and don’t feel cared about. It makes everything difficult when you are struggling with feelings like these. However, even the smallest things can make a huge difference. A kind word or a simple question can change how someone feels. Caring and kindness can be incorporated more in everyone’s lives and in schools just by people making a decision to be more open, talk to someone, give them a smile, ask them how they are doing, be their friend. Be aware of who may need someone in their life or who may need to be shown some kindness and friendship.

Kindness and caring can be implemented by venturing out of cliques and going out of your way to make someone feel included. It can be implemented by inviting someone to eat lunch with you. It can be done by talking to someone new in class instead of only conversing with the friends you already have. It can be done standing up to a bully and standing up for someone in need. People need to be aware of their peers and be willing to reach out and make new friends. There were many times during that first year at my new school when just one person’s kind personality made my day better.  Kind acts, big and small, change lives. It only takes a little mindfulness and a little courage to go out of your comfort zone to be kind and show someone you care.”

Want to read more about UCA scholarship winners and get an extra dose of positivity on you news feeds? Read other caring scholarship blogs, scholarship blogs on gratitude, and or follow us on social media: Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram. We are looking forward to sharing more with you!

Building Empathy

Building Empathy

Unified Caring Association (UCA) loves sharing with our caring community. The topics that we love to share often relate back to emotional intelligence. One component that is closely relates to emotional intelligence in empathy. There is just one troubling thing. We often have a hard time describing what empathy is and how we teach it to others. In our search for more information on empathy we have come across some great examples on how to bring more empathy to the world and our caring community. Let’s start from the top…

How can we define something like empathy?

In short, empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of one or more people. We can take this definition a step further. We can add that we are then are able to express our feelings and connection with the others. This requires one thing, active listening with our whole being by using our eyes, ears, body language, minds, and more. This is because listening is a strong way to show that you care about the other person and the topic that they are passionate about. Brigette Hyacinth has a good point about listening, “The quality of our listening determines the quality of our influence…[and] listening transmits that kind of respect and builds trust.” (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/empathy-most-important-leadership-skill-needed-today-hyacinth/)  Overall, when we listen to others and understand what they are saying when they connect with us we demonstrate that we value others and have empathy for them.

Empathy and Denmark

There have been many studies about how Denmark is one of the happiest and nicest places to live. “This is according to the UN’s World Happiness Report, an important survey that since 2012 classifies the happiness of 155 countries in the world, and that for seven years has placed Denmark among the top three happiest countries on a global level.” (https://www.morningfuture.com/en/article/2019/04/26/empathy-happiness-school-denmark/601/) A big factor in this relates back to how people in Denmark seem to value and incorporate empathy in their lives. This can be seen through the prominent concept of “hygge.” Hygge is a phenomenon closely related to Danish culture; this word is both a verb and an adjective and does not have an English equivalent. “Hygge could be defined as ‘intentionally created intimacy.’ In a country where it gets dark very early in the year, it rains, it’s gray, hygge means bringing light, warmth and friendship, creating a shared, welcoming and intimate atmosphere.” (https://www.morningfuture.com/en/article/2019/04/26/empathy-happiness-school-denmark/601/) This is a fundamental Danish concept that creates a sense of well-being. Interestingly, hygge is becoming a global phenomenon! If you search for hygge on Amazon, you will get about 6,000 results, most of which are books. Instagram has more than Amazon, with #hygge racking up 5.2 million posts and counting! SO, how does a culture foster a concept like empathy so effectively? The answer: By teaching, learning and practicing from the ground up with kids.

Teaching Kids Empathy

Danish schools have a unique curriculum incorporated in their education plans. Students 6-16 years old spend about one hour a week in school dedicated to empathy. These lessons are called “Klassen tid.” This is a fundamental part of learning life skills for these students, much like learning English, science or math for U.S. students. During this hour “…students discuss their problems, either related to school or not, and the whole class, together with the teacher, tries to find a solution based on real listening and understanding. If there are no problems to discuss, children simply spent the time together relaxing and enjoying hygge.” (https://www.morningfuture.com/en/article/2019/04/26/empathy-happiness-school-denmark/601/) This time spent on exploration, problem solving and growth of emotional intelligence helps the students connect with each other through activities that build empathy. Unlike other places in the world, there is no stigma or stress connected to this emotion. The stronger the understanding of empathy the longer and more sincere the student’s relationships are. These enduring relationships correlate to the prevention of bullying and success at work. 

Empathy is a Life Skill

As we said before, empathy helps people be successful in their careers. This is because they are able to connect with their peers, are more goal oriented, and adept at team work related tasks. If we look back at Denmark, 60% of tasks in schools are teamwork based. Thus these tasks require the children to understand empathy in order to achieve good results. However, the focus of these results is not to excel over others, but to lift up your teammates that are struggling with the tasks. The success of the team is therefore the goal that everyone is striving for. It is because of the students’ skills in empathy that Denmark is often touted as one of the best places to have a career in Europe.

Empathy is then coupled with the viewpoint that competition is with yourself and not with others. Instead, Danes practice the culture of motivation to improve and the measurement is exclusively in relation to themselves. This is vastly different from the prominent mentality in the U.S. where the goal is to beat the other person and to strive for a win even if it is at the cost of your peers. “The Danes give a lot of space to children’s free play, which teaches empathy and negotiation skills. Playing in the country has been considered an educational tool since 1871.” (https://www.morningfuture.com/en/article/2019/04/26/empathy-happiness-school-denmark/601/)  Most of this is achieved through collaborative learning. This style of learning involves bringing together children with various strengths and weaknesses in different subjects. The teams of students then help each other with their studies by working together on various topics and projects. This format teaches the kids that they need each other to be successful and to connect they will need empathy. Jessica Alexander comments that, “Many studies show that when you explain something to someone…you not only learn the subject much better than you would do by memorizing it yourself, but you also build empathy skills which are further strengthened by having to be careful about the way the other person receives the information, and having to put oneself in their shoes to understand how learning works.” (https://www.morningfuture.com/en/article/2019/04/26/empathy-happiness-school-denmark/601/)

The results are echoed by Avery Konda, who recently tried to explain the concept  of empathy to kids. After trying to talk with children and pull out responses from them (which fell short of what he was looking for), he began to play with the kids. Through this play time with toys he helped the children discover deeper meanings of empathy. Konda concluded, “Students learn more from gamified activities that allow them to learn skills through application, more than they do through PowerPoints and traditional teaching…[They] take away more when they’re required to live and breathe the topic of conversation.” (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-empathy-most-important-skill-world-today-avery-konda/?trackingId=ltUkZUWiNiFJLSRQ45YbyA%3D%3D) This is fascinating for all of us who are trying to excel in our careers, and for those that are raising children. If we all strive to listen closely to conversations with others and practice our teamwork skills, we can begin to strengthen our empathy skills. Building empathy takes time and consistent practice. If we look at how Danish culture has developed, we can begin to apply more empathy to our daily lives and continue to create a more caring world.

Want to read more about UCA and get an extra dose of positivity on you news feeds? Read our other blogs on caringempathy, how emotions shape your heart, and follow us on social media! (Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram.) We are looking forward to sharing more with you!

Mobile Apps for Caring Children

Mobile Apps and Games

Even more than before we see kids and teens with their faces glued to their phones either texting, playing games, or any variety of things. (Ok, maybe we can include some adults in this as well.) With this technology literally at our fingertips, we at Unified Caring Association (UCA) have great news! We have sourced amazing apps and games for ages 2 and up to play on a tech device of your choice. These apps and games are in line with our caring values, and are verified with Common Sense Media, a company that reviews , monitors and rates a wide variety of apps. Check out the variety of caring and educational apps we have found for our members that are available on iTunes, Google Play, or the Amazon Appstore!

Ages 2-5 Years Old

wheels-on-the-bus

Wheels on the Bus

Do you remember the classic kids song that is often sung on field trips? This app has it in sweet and interactive ways. Parents and kids will probably giggle with delight while singing along with this newest version of “Wheels on the Bus!”  You can even record your own voice singing the very memorable tune.

crayola

Crayola Color, Draw & Sing

Take some time to fuel you artsy side by being creative with this app! Kids choose a song to listen to while they create their masterpieces. Each and every action unlocks a new instrument or feature, even scribbling or changing colors! Your young artist will have a beautiful piece of art accompanied with a song in no time flat!

Ages 4-8 Years Old

intro-to-math

Intro to Math, by Montessorium

It’s never too early to start learning new skills! This app helps teach kids an early education in math through a game. In this game the ‘student’ will manipulate objects on the screen to achieve the end goal. There are several approaches to numbers that this app presents to the kids using this app. Who knows, your child might soon be giving you advice on stocks and investments?!

Intro-to-letters

Intro to Letters, by Montessorium

This is another educational app that we have sourced to help children recognize, pronounce and write letters! This includes lowercase and capital letters as well as phonograms to help sound out new or unfamiliar words.

khan-academy

Khan Academy

Creativity and learning are connected at the hip, especially when they are paired up with interesting characters and engaging activities! With this app, there are many ways for self-expression. It covers important topics like phonics, storytelling, mathematics, problem-solving and more! Through this app parents can view and track the progress their kids are making which enables them to help their children set goals and celebrate achievements upon completion!

Ages 6-8 Years Old

Winky-think

Winky Think Logic Puzzles

Puzzles are one of the most endearing games on the market. They touch a place of nostalgia in our hearts. With Winky Think Logic Puzzles your kids will feel the joy in a new techno way! This app has 180 logic puzzles in a wide range of difficulties! Kids will mull over complex games with obstacles, mazes and multi-touch action while strengthening their minds. 

toki-tori

Toki Tori

This is an adorable family-friendly puzzle adventure requiring analytical thinking that can be fun for younger kids, teens and adults alike! Parents and kids play cooperatively to solve puzzles by talking it out to decide the best strategy to win the game!

beyond-ynth

Beyond Ynth

This app is a strategic adventure that is a unique and fun way to travel. It is challenging, by not too hard for those kids that are on the younger side of the age bracket. The game plays the role of a little bug named Kribl. Kribl must traverse harsh landscapes inside the safety of a box.

Ages 6-12 Years Old

mindful-powers

Mindful Powers

One of the most valuable skills kids can learn early on is mindfulness. This will set them up for success by giving them the ability to cope with stressful situations that pop up as they grow. This app helps learn mindfulness by providing the tools and practice with Flibbertigibbet, an animated representation of emotions that your child feels.

dexteria-dots

Dexteria Dots2

Your kids will have a grand time while improving their fine motor skills and practicing math! Each dot represents a number, players combine and divide them to solve math problems. This easy to use app is attention grabbing for all ages with fun animations and bright colors.

plants-by-tinybop

Plants by Tinybop

Virtually explore wildlife with this app. Learn about nature by crashing clouds together, or how the seasons change by speeding up time! This app has eye catching illustrations that are filled with details. With open play capabilities and every season is a new adventure, we cannot wait to see what our kids discover next!

Teenagers

magisto

Magisto Video Editor

For the older kids in our lives who enjoy video making, we have an app for you! This is a powerful and easy to use video editing app. It can add music to existing video, stitch together footage, create show stopping slide shows, and more! Let your teens’ inner filmmaker thrive and see what they create! 

vocabulary

Vocabulary.com

Your teen can explore language by choosing different categories based on their grade level. A couple of examples of the categories are: soundslike and compound words. Add on the fun by picking what challenges to do in the app. Unscramble letters to make words, practice spelling by testing, alphabetize words, or use them in a game setting! Tons of fun your your teen!

high-school-story

High School Story

Teen players set up their own version of high school. Try to win the game by surviving teendom trappings like dating, bullying and cyberbullying, self-esteem, and other social interactions that cause stress. Just like the messages in this app, learn to gear your outlook and actions to be positive, filled with your teens authenticity, kindness and more to help support digital friends. This app contains some challenging topics and quests that help instigate teens using it to think and practice caring actions. 

words-with-friends

Words With Friends

Do you and your teens like to play word games like Scrabble? This app is for you! Words With Friends is a Scrabble-look-a-like game that is more for teens and adults. It has fast match ups to challenge friends and other people online, and an open chat (which is unfiltered) to catch up with friends and family members as your play!

sims-free-play

Sims FreePlay

This is a full Sims game to build your dream house, get that highly sought after job and have your dream relationship. The Fremium version is fun, enjoyable and can be easily played without spending money on in-app purchases. How will your teen plan out their lives in this game? Maybe they will have that mansion with a pool, or that fun, fast-paced career that brings in the dough while caring for the environment! The options are endless. The sky’s the limit!

Whatever games and apps your children choose to play, we at UCA value that they are filled with C.A.R.E., and help your children grow into caring ambassadors. Have fun and enjoy the apps!

Unified Caring Association is constantly striving to help create a more caring world. We love sharing more caring information and resources on our website and through blogs that share caring in our community, activities, and reviews. We also send out caring posts on our social media accounts (Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Twitter) to give inspiration throughout the week. 

Is My Child Resilient?

resilience

Is my child resilient?

So many questions go through our minds as we think about our children. We want to make sure that our kids are able to handle all that life throws at them. Are they ready to take on life’s challenges on their own? (Or mostly on their own?) Are they able to focus on tasks? How quickly can they get back on track when they are distracted? These are a handful of questions that we ask ourselves and our children. All of these relate to one topic: is my child resilient?

Resilience

When we type in ‘resilience’ as a Google search, we come up with the definition stating: “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.”  This means that your kids know how to cope with their emotions and take action in spite of barriers, setbacks, or any other limitations that life throws at them. Resilience helps us measure and have the fortitude to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps. How much we want to achieve our goals even if we need to overcome challenges to get there. It also requires emotional strength and emotional intelligence.

Is my child resilient?

As parents, we are constantly striving to protect our children. There ever-increasing reports about stresses that kids encounter in their lives, one of which is cyberbullying. Unified Caring Association has an easy and effective way to help keep our kids safe by assessing their resilience. Building up our kids’ personal resilience. Being resilient is one of the best skills we can pass on to them.

We have developed a simple tool to check on your child’s personal resilience by answering a set of targeted key questions about them, giving each answer a value between 1 (never) and 4 (always). Some example questions are: 

-Believes in own abilities and competence? 

-Can cope well with stress to bounce back? 

-Shows empathy for others? 

This tool is applicable to all age ranges. And much like our personal assessment tool, it is best to repeat this assessment over time to check in on the top needs your child has  for building resilience.

Ready for the world filled with resilient caring.

Our children are filled with endless possibilities. With strong personal resilience, they are capable of creating a more caring world. Challenges will not shut them down, but instead help drive them to achieve their goals. We can all hope that they will continue to strengthen their emotional intelligence in an effort to help care for our communities, the world and each other. With tools like the UCA resilience assessment we can learn how to nurture ours and our children’s personal resilience, as well as learn how to pass along what it means to be resilient.

world

Would you like to read more about UCA caring resources? We have other blogs on Unified Caring Association, caring in our communities, and caring the UCA way! If your would like caring messages throughout the week, follow us on Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Twitter!

Grounding With Nature

Nature

So much of our world is filled with the hustle and bustle of work and socialization. Many of us live in cities, where in place of lush trees with dancing leaves we see gleaming towers reach into the sky. Cites often have only small pockets of greenery. These often come in the forms of a park or school yard, small trees dotting the streets, or even the occasional community garden. Our bodies and minds crave nature and greenery. We see this craving through the effects of nature on our health. Exposure to nature throughout our days helps our minds and bodies de-stress, thus making us more grounded.

How is being in nature more healthy?

For starters being outdoors usually is coupled with physical activity. Playing sports on a field, horseback riding on a trail, or hiking are all activities that are often performed outside where we see a mixture of plants and trees. Most of the time we hear that physical activity is excellent for your health. For example, “…a 160-pound adult burns between 430 and 440 calories per hour of hiking. Contrast that with 550 calories burned per hour for someone who weighs 200 pounds, and you can see that the more you weigh, the more calories you’ll ultimately burn.” (Google, Jul 23, 2018) The good exercise that comes from the physical activity is coupled with another interesting effect of nature on our well-being. We also see healing in the brain as well. “Researchers from the University of British Columbia found that aerobic exercise increases hippocampal volume — the part of the brain associated with spatial and episodic memory — in women over the age of 70.”  (2) Outdoor exercises like hiking not only prevents memory loss but improves the mind where memory loss has occurred. Researchers also discovered that it can reduce mental fatigue, boost self esteem, as well as release endorphins. Endorphins trigger positive feelings and help us feel less stressed. An example is what is often referred to as a ‘runner’s high’ or ‘hiker’s high.’ This is the feeling we feel that follows a run, hike or other workout that’s often described as euphoric. This feeling is accompanied by a positive and energizing outlook on life.

The effects of nature and our emotional health…

Simply put when we interact with, see images or hear sounds from nature we feel less stressed and become more grounded. This creates a variety of positive outcomes, one of which is stress reduction. ’Nature’ experienced in any form including wilderness backpacking, gardening, viewing images of nature, restoring ecosystems, and simply having greenery outside your home has been linked to superior attention, effectiveness and outcomes of decisions. An article published by Sage Articles titled Healthy Workplaces: The Effects of Nature Contact at Work on Employee Stress and Health, the authors found that connecting with nature was beneficial even in an office setting. “Adding indoor plants, opening blinds or going outside for a work break instead of to the break room, for example, are straightforward ways to increase healthy exposures… to combat stress and promote health.” (5) This is why we see plants (real or fake) in offices, hospital rooms, restaurants, etc. 

The form of interaction with nature matters too. “The most direct nature contact—outdoor nature contact—had the strongest association with stress reduction and health.” (5) The more employees had exposure to nature at work (i.e. office plants, pictures, and or sounds on nature) the less stress symptoms they exhibited. Whereas the most direct form of contact with nature, like taking a break or lunch in the park, resulted in the most improvement in emotional fortitude.

Mental fortitude

When we mention mental fortitude, de-stressing or grounding we mean that the mind actually stops negative and or obsessive thoughts and opens up bandwidth for creative problem solving. “A recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that spending time in nature decreases these obsessive, negative thoughts by a significant margin…To conduct this study, researchers compared the reported rumination of participants who hiked through either an urban or a natural environment. They found those who walked for 90 minutes in a natural environment reported lower levels of rumination and they also had reduced neural activity in the subgenual prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain related to mental illness. Those who walked through the urban environment, however, did not report decreased rumination.” (2) In the article titled Creativity in the Wild: Improving Creative Reasoning through Immersion in Natural Settings, Ruth Ann Atchley, David L. Strayer, and Paul Atchley agree with this statement: “One suggestion is that natural environments, like the environment that we evolved in, are associated with exposure to stimuli that elicit a kind of gentle, soft fascination, and are both emotionally positive and low-arousing. It is also worth noting that with exposure to nature in decline, there is a reciprocal increase in the adoption of, use, and dependency upon technology. Thus, the effects observed here could represent either removal of the costs associated with over-connection or a benefit associated with a return to a more positive/low-arousing restorative environment.” (1)

Remember the opening imagery we talked about at the beginning of this blog? Tall buildings versus trees is different according to our brain chemistry. This makes sense since most of human existence has been in a more rural setting. So our brains recognise nature and greenery as familiar and thus is calming to our minds and bodies. The introduction of urban scenery is new. Therefore this is foreign to our ‘lizard brains,’ which causes a boost in our stress hormones like adrenaline. An article by Ian Johnston titled, Human brain hard-wired for rural tranquillity. This study of brain activity shows the struggle to process complex urban landscapes. The article talks about this mental process. “The study, which used an MRI scanner to monitor brain activity, adds to a growing body of evidence that natural environments are good for humans, affecting mental and physical health and even levels of aggression.” (3) While studying these MRI images it can be seen that areas of the brain where we see calm, meditative states lite up when subjects see pictures of rural settings. The inverse happens when images of urban environments are shown to the people, which “…resulted [sic.] in a significant delay in reaction, before a part of the brain involved in processing visual complexity swung into action as the viewer tried to work out what they were seeing.” (3) With the delay in recognition and increase in activity to resolve the dissonance we can deduce that the stress was not reduced in these people. But let’s turn back to the matter at hand. Seeing and interacting with nature is calming, healthy, and allows for the mind to be more productive.

Natural Love

A calm minds makes for a more productive mind…

Let’s take hiking as an example of connecting and being immersed in nature. While hiking, we usually don’t focus on daily tasks, future work meetings, or are fully conscious of our thoughts. This can be a form of moving meditation. This meditation allows for your mind to recover and de-stress while your body is getting a good workout as well as pumping the ‘feel good’ hormones through your system. As in other blogs we have posted, like Meditation: A Tool for Self-Care, meditation is a great tool for self-care. This tool allows for the mind to create space to solve problems creatively and with less effort. Specifically doing physical activities like hiking while disconnected from technology boosts our ability for creative problem solving. “A study conducted by psychologists Ruth Ann Atchley and David L. Strayer found that …participants in this study [who] went backpacking through nature for about 4 days, during which time they were not allowed to use any technology whatsoever… preformed better at tasks that require creative thinking and complex problem solving…by 50% for those who took part in this tech-free hiking excursion.” (2) These results could be due to the fact that most people find technology and urban noise disruptive. The beeps of our tech-savvy lives constantly demand our attention. This prevents us from focusing and can be taxing to our cognitive functions. How many times do we reach for our phones when they beep for whatever messages have arrived? This noise breaks our attention, which is already taxed as it is.

Improving attention through connecting with nature.

A prime example of reduced attention can be seen in the epidemic of diagnoses of ADHD in children. “Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most common neurobehavioral disorder of childhood. It manifests as an unusually high and chronic level of inattention, impulsivity/hyperactivity, or both, and it may affect more than 2 million school-aged children.” (4) But there is good news we would like to share with you! When it comes to grounding yourself and your kids in nature, nature helps calm the mind and allow for better focus and attention. Sara Burrows writes in her article, Study: Kids Who Grow Up Surrounded By Nature Become Happier Adults, “Children who grew up with the lowest levels of residential “green space” had up to 55% higher risk of developing a psychiatric disorder…The results were also “dosage dependent” — the more of one’s childhood spent close to greenery, the lower the risk of mental health problems.” (6) An article published by Collective Evolution echoes this when they write about how the outdoors, specifically hiking can improve ADHD in kids. “A study conducted by Frances E Kup, PhD, and Andrea Faber Taylor, PhD, found that exposing children with ADHD to “green outdoor activities” reduces symptoms significantly. The results of this study suggest nature exposure can benefit anyone who has a difficult time paying attention and/or exhibits impulsive behavior.” (2)

The article by Frances E. Kuo, PhD and Andrea Faber Taylor, PhD, reports the results of a study exploring a possible new treatment for ADHD. The findings suggest that common weekend and after-school outdoor activities in relatively natural environments may be effective in reducing ADHD symptoms. “Indeed, the symptoms of ADHD and “attention fatigue” so closely mirror each other that the Attention Deficit Disorders Evaluation Scale has been used as a measure of attention fatigue. However, unlike ADHD, attention fatigue is proposed to be a temporary condition; when the deliberate attention mechanism has an opportunity to rest, fatigue dissipates and behavior and performance improve.”  (4) We can attribute the improvement and recovery from the attention/mind fatigue to the amount of time spent in nature because the mind is engaged more effortlessly. This also “…may in part reflect a systematic restorative effect on directed attention.” (4) When researchers observe the brain in non-ADHD populations, the right prefrontal cortex is where we see both attention fatigue. This is also where the capacity to deliberately direct attention exists. Multiple studies have provided evidence of a right frontal–cortical locus of attention control, and/or that the right prefrontal cortex is subject to fatigue after sustained demands on directed attention. “Correspondingly, the right prefrontal cortex has been implicated in ADHD. The right prefrontal cortex has been found to be smaller and less active among children with ADHD than among same-aged peers, and severity of ADHD symptoms has been shown to be proportional to the degree of asymmetry between left and right prefrontal cortex regional cerebral blood flow.” (4) Here we can see that the two issues, ADHD and attention fatigue may lie in the same underlying mechanism.

brain-right frontal cortex

Studies focusing on kids professionally diagnosed with ADHD ages 7 to 12 years to date have examined the impact of exposure to nature. In one study, parents rated  leisure activities as to whether their child’s symptoms were better, worse, or no change after engaging in outdoor activities, as well as “…the general severity of their child’s symptoms and provided information on the “greenness” of the child’s typical play settings.” (4) Results from this study indicate that ADHD symptoms were less or better than usual after being outdoors. Moreover, these after-effects from green/outdoor activities were in direct proportion with the form of nature. (i.e. the greener and closer to nature, the better.) This seems to be in line results in regards to grounding and de-stressing in adults after interacting with nature. The correlation between this data precludes a strong connection between the role of nature and reducing attention deficit symptoms.

Overall, grounding while in nature is good for everyone!

We can see how good it is to surround ourselves and interacting with nature on a daily basis. We improve not only physical health, but mental and emotional health as well as our ability to focus and solve problems creatively. It is also good to know that the form and degree of closeness to nature that helps amplify these benefits. If we set more time aside to care for plants, eating lunch in the park, or go on hikes we will see increases to our health.

If you would like to read more blogs, Unified Caring Association has more blogs like ‘R’ is for Reforestation, A UCA Member’s Personal Well-Being Journey, and Starting Steps to Self-Care. Or if you would like a dose of caring and cheer in your day? Follow us on Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

Works Cited:

  1. Atchley, R. A., Strayer, D. L., & Atchley, P. (2012, December 12). Creativity in the Wild: Improving Creative Reasoning through Immersion in Natural Settings. Retrieved July 18, 2019, from https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0051474
  2. C. E. (2017, February 11). Doctors Explain How Hiking Can Actually Change Our Brains. Retrieved July 18, 2019, from https://wisemindhealthybody.com/collective-evolution/doctors-explain-hiking-can-actually-change-brains/?fbclid=IwAR2kpdtR-qECT8-fxRkY8wdB5N8QM6qZ-EGZ99FeSzZp2zaV7agPLI-lc5s
  3. I. J. (2013, December 11). Human brain hard-wired for rural tranquillity. Retrieved July 18, 2019, from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/human-brain-hard-wired-for-rural-tranquillity-8996368.html?fbclid=IwAR3DBJ-Zo1e6e2wRFTGBhN01XoH9OyTVWyx0V6_Pzf_9UzjqPrppXiAm1Fg
  4. Kuo, F. E., & Taylor, A. F. (2004, September). A potential natural treatment for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: Evidence from a national study. Retrieved July 18, 2019, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1448497/
  5. Largo-Wight, E., Chen, W. W., & Weiler, R. (2011, May 1). Healthy Workplaces: The Effects of Nature Contact at Work on Employee Stress and Health – Erin Largo-Wight, W. William Chen, Virginia Dodd, Robert Weiler, 2011. Retrieved July 18, 2019, from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00333549111260S116
  6. S. B. (2019, March 22). Study: Kids Who Grow Up Surrounded By Nature Become Happier Adults. Retrieved July 18, 2019, from https://returntonow.net/2019/03/22/study-kids-who-grow-up-surrounded-by-nature-become-happier-adults/?fbclid=IwAR2aJAtu1JXpbxe9miYzTeG6-IYpeAeJgYiFMTaviCgaYp5PVDepFAvfXok

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