Nowadays it is a very common practice to be glued to your phones, laptops and iPads, all through the day. Staring at the screen watching videos on YouTube, browsing through social media, and checking out shopping websites, has become a habit, distracting students from studies and robbing their time to be spent on quality bonding with family.

There are arguments on the pros and cons of the usage of technology for youngsters and the debate continues as to how much exposure is required, and where draw the line. Millennials and Generation Z are more familiar with the social media lingo, rather than being familiar with Shakespeare’s famous odes.

Though technology can sometimes go out of hand, it is also a great boon when it comes to distance learning scenario and app-based studies. Children can continue to be educated from the comfort of their homes and also playfully learn important concepts, thanks to the invention of various EdTech Apps conveniently downloadable on mobile devices.

Even in schools across Dubai and other Middle East regions such as GCC, children are introduced to technology right from preschool grade. Youngsters learn about colors, number counting, shapes, and geography, through interesting play-way methodology. TechnoKids is one such popular computer-based curriculum that provides technology-based projects to assist teachers in classrooms. TechnoKids resources are highly customizable and the innovative activities keep children engaged. So, when technology is integrated into the education system, how can one explain the perils of it to students!

What is the right age to introduce children to technology? How do you as a parent set limits? What conversation should you have with them to inform children on how to use technology responsibly? Read through the blog and get answers to these pressing questions.

When To Buy A Smartphone For Your Child

So far as the child wants to use your smartphone, tab or laptop for education purpose it is fine. However, the right age to buy your child his or her own device should not be before 10 years of age. The simple reason being, when the child uses your phone you can exercise greater vigilance by staying around and keeping a watch on whether the device is being used for educational purpose, or any other unproductive activity. Also, since it is your device, parents can set a time-limit, and ask the child to finish whatever homework, reading, or educational videos they wish to watch within an hours’ time. When your child turns 10 years of age, set some ground rules before gifting the much-awaited device. Advise them to always use it prudently, not to mishandle their phones, and restrict them from making social media accounts before they officially turn into adults at 18 years. If you reside in countries like Iran, UAE, and Qatar, WhatsApp and other social media platforms are banned by default, so there are only local social apps that you need to take care of.

Discuss The Dangers of Misuse

It is important to make children aware of the impacts of misusing technology. Here’s what you can share:

• Excessive usage causes eyestrain and puts extra stress on the muscles, causing eye dryness and early age-related macular degeneration.
• Make a rule that no phones or tabs are allowed at bedtime. Some have a habit of holding their phones in their hands and browsing until wee hours of night lying on bed. This disrupts the 8-hour sleep schedule and children wake up the next day feeling tired.
• Explain that downloading images, videos, and pdfs is only allowed for educational purpose and no other unsolicited reason.
• Browsing the web should be monitored and children mustn’t be allowed to Google content which is not age-appropriate. Make a list of what the child can browse though and what he should not.

Make use of Parental Lock and Control

There are apps that allow parents to set a bracket for screen time, after which the phone will be locked and the child will not be able to use it. Also block certain downloadable apps and websites, by using the parental control feature such that children don’t go astray and check out dating apps or any social media platform, before they become adults.

Practice Before You Preach

If you want your kids to spend less time on the phone, you do it first. Even as adults, we need to restrict ourselves from over indulgence and set time limits. The child only observes and follows their parent’s footsteps, so don’t set separate rules for them, until you learn to practice it yourself.

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Every classroom has some students who have a negative preview of math. They must have had some unpleasant experience in math class or found it extremely difficult and boring, to crack the math sums. When math as a subject has such as fearful projection, it doesn’t help if the math subject teacher is herself strict or expects students to ace the subject in one session.

On the contrary, if math is made meaningful, playful, and creative, students will be drawn towards the subject, and will look forward to attending class. Through this blog we aim to share some ideas, as to how educators or even parents, can make math fun, and keep the learners motivated.

Device Attractive Math Learning Aid

Learning or teaching aids are nothing but tangible elements that make the subject more interesting. Especially for a boring subject like math, teaching aids are extremely useful, thereby adding some excitement to the topics.

Worksheets are the easiest to prepare and a range of questions can be covered, to test the child’s knowledge. Worksheets can be made colorful and interesting characters can be printed to make it fun.

Young children love to play with blocks, and when they are presented with 2D and 3D shapes, it allows them to use their sensory-motor skills to touch and feel the objects, thereby helping them to retain what was learnt.

Sometimes educators think out-of-the-box and prepare attractive art and craft projects, like making a paper pizza to teach children fractions or making two ice cream cones with pom-pom balls as scoops to teach the concept of greater than and less than.

Create Challenging Puzzles

When children are presented with a challenge, they get enthused and give their 100%. Challenging math puzzles can be formulated, where the student needs to select ‘one correct answer’ from the four options, thereby putting his skills to test.

Mathseeds is a comprehensive online math platform that offers math puzzles and activities for children between 3-9 years of age and rewards them for their achievements. Mathseeds popularity has growth in regions like Middle East, UK, US, and Australia, thereby assisting teachers to incorporate it as a part of their lesson plan. Even parents love Mathseeds, for its unique concept of presenting an interesting e-book at the end of every lesson, to reinforce concepts in a story-like manner. In Dubai, UAE and GCC Countries K-12 schools encourage young learners to practice math concepts conveniently on iPads & phones by downloading the Mathseeds app.

Organize a play day every fortnight for children in class, where they are exempt from using textbooks. Instead, divide them into teams and let them compete with their classmates to crack the math problems in the least time possible. This play-way method is extremely powerful and gives students the opportunity to interact and learn from others.

Math Songs and Stories

Thanks to e-learning platforms and EdTech apps, the internet is flooded with all kinds of creative stories and songs that include concepts of math, especially for the preschool age-group. With help of audio-visual teaching aids, simply ‘dim the lights’ of the classroom and allow children to escape into the world of fantasy, where the ‘fairy God mother’ teaches children counting by moving her wand over 10 frogs. You are also allowed to throw a party and dance around the classroom while Mr. Math sings the 12 times table song.

Math Trivia

Did you know ‘2’ is the only even prime number? Did you know the letter ‘e’ is present in every odd number when it is written in words? Or Number ‘0’ doesn’t have a Roman numeral. As interesting as it may seem to you, children find it intriguing to learn about such Math trivia. This changes their perspective about the subject, and adds more depth while learning. If you are a math teacher, we advise you to first fall in love with math yourself, if you haven’t already, and then pass on the same enthusiasm to children.

Don’t Give Readymade Answers

Math is all about discovery, and once the concept is understood, it can be applied to any math equation or problem, to derive the answer. Let children correct themselves when stuck while calculating the steps of a sum, instead of prompting them the answer directly. Efforts and practice go a long way, in sharpening math skills. Give sums which are not in the textbook, so that students don’t turn pages and find the answer, even before trying. Self-help is the best help! So, guide them, and leave the rest to be figured out.

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Accounting for leaves and attendance is an important function of the administrative team in any educational set-up. Unlike earlier times, where the records needed to be maintained in a physical register, today ‘leave management’ is a part of the school’s ERP system. Any medium sized institute would have anywhere between 70 to 100 or even more staff comprising of teachers, principal, helpers, administrative team, and other visiting faculty to conduct sessions for children. Moreover, the number of students might be around 200 to 300, and to keep a proper track record of their attendance is a big task.

Over the last 10-12 years a number of schools across the globe including Dubai in the Middle East, have adopted one or the other, ERP Leave Management software for all the right reasons. With the boom in the EdTech space in many nations, such as UAE, GCC, Americas, Europe, and even India, the automated processes is transforming the administrator’s job role and making it easy for them to manage the hardcore work, especially that of leave management.

The Next Learning Platform (NLP) is a popular SaaS-based mixed learning platform, which is also the world’s first-of-its kind and provides its solutions to over 1,200+ schools, across 300+ cities. The tool is highly customizable and acts as a catalyst in improving the efficiency across academic and operative functions. One of its offerings also includes a sophisticated ‘Leave Management system’ that reduces paperwork and makes downloading attendance reports easy, which comes handy while calculating ‘payable salary’ at the end of the month.

Here are some advantages of an efficient Leave Management System:

Track and record staff’s leaves

The leave management program basically gives an overview to the admin about the efficiency of the staff based on their commitment to be on time, to regularly fulfill their duties, and not take too many leaves without there being any urgency. One can apply a filter and also get a function-wise understanding, as to whether the teaching staff has many ‘red marks’ or the helping staff needs a more prudent approach, by changing & re-evaluating the leave policies.

Keeping All Stakeholders Involved Notified

Every institute has a different structure of how many leaves they allocate under each of bracket; personal leave, sick leave, casual leave, maternity leave, and so on. Once these are fed into the system a reminder is sent to the recipient of any upcoming holidays and the residual leaves that he or she is eligible to receive. At the same time, a timely update is notified to the accounts team, so that they can process the pay-roll based on the actuals.

Offers affordability

Being fully automated, there is little or no human intervention required to run the Leave Management system. It works seamlessly with the existing ERP software adopted by the school. This reduces the cost of resources and cuts down on hefty expenses spent on hiring manpower. Along with costs, even a great deal of time is saved.

Safe to Use

Any school IT solution has sensitive data such as; contact details of parents, their annual income, medical history of the child, academic track records of children, personal employee information etc. Data security is of utmost importance, and most EdTech ERP systems come with advanced data encryption features that prevent unauthorized people from accessing any personal data. Also, since it is a cloud-based network, data can be accessed from any location with the aid of an Internet connection and the chances of data getting lost is minimal.

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Ever since we are born, we go through the many phases of our life’s beautiful journey. We receive extraordinary experiences and attain countless learnings. Similarly, when we as children begin to know how to write, we progress through multiple stages. It is admirable to watch youngsters, read, write, and speak fluently and carry themselves smartly. The pride and joy that their parents exude is unimaginable and the credit goes to them and early childhood educators who mould these little angels. Every child is unique and precious. We have to acknowledge the fact that each budding gem is putting their best forward to learn as guided aptly by their teacher. Some are receptive and master quickly and a few may take their time to grasp the basic skill of writing. Let us understand a child’s journey and the lovely stages that they go through from as initial as scribbling to be able to write words with confidence.

Stage 1 – Unplanned Scribbling – 15 months to 2.5 years

This stage is incredibly fun for toddlers when they begin to hold objects in their tiny hands like pencils, crayons, sketch pens, markers, paints and start drawing and scribbling their illegible best. It could be on paper, walls, floor, furniture, anywhere. You still love them for that as you truly feel happy while watching them do that. Of course, the verbal gibberish that they utter while excitedly engaging in this, takes the cute quotient to another level. At this stage, they are taking their first random steps. Scribbling is a way of writing their thoughts. They start to figure out their movements while creating art with scribbles. They feel the texture of the various objects and smell their colour. Some kids may not like it, but most kids enjoy these sensory activities and can be found scribbling whenever they want.

Stage 2 – Orderly Scribbling – 2 years to 3 years

Now when toddlers have gotten familiar with holding objects and scribbling, their second steps are towards developing greater control of their muscles and expressing themselves better. Their hand eye coordination increases and their fine motor skills are established. Their random scribbles start getting more goal or purpose oriented. They understand the meaning of what object they are holding to draw or scribble a particular straight line or a curved one. With more practice, they learn to hold the object correctly between their thumb and pointer finger.

Stage 3 – Distinct Drawings – 2.5 years to 3.5 years

At this third stage, children begin to make definite patterns with lines and curves. They understand that these patterns keep getting repeated while writing. They realize that the lines, curves, dots, and patterns they are making, have a meaning. So, while they are still unable to write actual letters properly, some partial components are seen in their writing. They will try to write something and will make an effort to explain to you what they have written or what thoughts they are trying to convey and that step is very important in the process of children learning to write.

Stage 4 – Definite Structures – 3 years to 5 years

By this stage, children will start making objects or drawing out pictures. Usually when we adults try to draw something, we have a particular image of that in mind and that helps us bring out the idea on paper. In the same way children begin to observe things around them and while drawing or writing they are thinking of the object and then with the artwork and materials that they have, they bring out their creations. It would start with simple figures progressing to slightly complex ones. It may still not be completely accurate but way more structured. Now there would be planning involved in their heads rather than random scribbling. They will slowly begin to even differentiate between pictures, letters, and words. They will also share and describe what they have been trying to attempt, whether drawn or written and our encouragement makes them feel elated

Stage 5 – Actual Letters and Words – 5 years to 6 years

This last milestone that children go through with discovering to write and draw is quite empowering for them. By now they have had enough practice with random and definite scribbles. Now their quest is to develop their writing. Their understanding of letters, symbols, patterns, and words will increase manifold. Their confidence increases as well. They will start to bring out the meaning of the text written by them rather than it just being vague letters. Now they will not scribble but proceed to writing complete words and then sentences.

‘Reading Eggs’ is a wonderful online platform where learning to read can be easy and fun. Learning to read, can also contribute in motivating the child to write. It makes it interesting and engaging for kids with online reading games and activities, and is popular in the Middle East, including Dubai. Children thoroughly enjoy and love these games and songs and feel motivated to keep exploring and learning. To know more about Reading Egg’s availability in GCC and UAE, visit our website https://knowledge-hub.com/

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President Harry S. Truman said, “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” Time and again it has been proved that successful people in business or important personnel of Government organizations who run the world, have something in common, that it their love for reading. The mastermind behind SpaceX and Tesla, CEO Elon Musk expresses that he has learnt a great deal from reading. Another business guru Warrant Buffet- chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, spends days and nights tugged into a book.

Now that we have realized just how important it is to read and want to follow our role model’s footsteps, let us learn what effective reading means and how to start right away!

Students have no option but to read, because adults & class teachers have always summoned them of how important it is to read a text book inside-out in order to score better grades in school. That means, most part of growing-up years goes in reading and remembering facts from school books, to gain marks. However, with the IB Culture picking up pace in developed nations like; UAE and GCC Countries, emphasis is now shifting to practical, hands-on knowledge based on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) curriculum.

Having an inclination towards reading and setting a goal is great. Some readers want to read as many as ’12’ books per year, so that is ‘1’ book per month, which is awesome, but is there any take-away from all these books? How much of the story or biography would you remember, if someone where to ask you about it, 6 months down the line. Ask yourself how much you read, and how much is actually retained.

Some wise people attribute their success in life to reading, because they have found a way to truly extract the meaning and learnings from the novel and apply it to their daily lives. The best leaders know how to put the words read, into action.

Where else would you discover age-old wisdom, or secrets of mother nature? It is all there documented in some text or the other, you only need to open the cover and understand the true essence of it.

So here are some tips to help you be a better reader:

What’s Motivating You to Read the Book:

Did you randomly pick up a book you spotted on the bookshelf of a book store? Or did you actually do some research and then buy a book of interest to you? The question is ‘why did you choose to read the book’. The purpose of reading will drive you to derive the meaning from the book and not just read it mindlessly. The story should be relatable to your life and motivate the reader to achieve his goals, whether it is to ‘save more money’ or ‘enhance cooking skills’. For example, if you want to expand your business and earn wealth, then books such as ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ would be your go-to. Alternatively, if you seek spiritual upliftment then books such as; ‘The Alchemist’ and ‘The Art Of Happiness’ would be most suitable.

Take Your Time To Read:

In today’s digital savvy world, one liner quotes and sayings on Instagram and WhatsApp forwards are a new thing! Unlike these quick motivational starters, books need to be read from cover to cover. Don’t expect to find the meaning of the novel in the first chapter itself. Be patient, let the story unfold, find the true meaning, and absorb every bit of emotion that it eludes in you. The aim is not to check off the book from the ‘reading list’. The ultimate idea is to enjoy the book, spend time with it, learn as much as you can, and share it with your friends & family.

Throw Yourself Into Reading

Engage with the paragraphs as you read. Pause every now & then and ponder upon the thoughts by having an internal dialogue with yourself. You could even share your opining with others who have read the same book and debate over it. Make notes of important ‘sayings’ or ‘verses’ in your diary and revisit it when you need to. Highlight sentences from the book and search-up meanings of words from a dictionary, such that you can add more words to your vocabulary.

Choose The Correct Format

There are so many mediums available in the market today with e-books, kindle, audiobooks, and the ever-popular paperback versions, for readers to choose. It depends on your preference which one would you like to go for. Print books create a connection as you can feel, touch and highlight content from the chapters. You can display the physical copy of the book in your home’s showcase and serve yourself as a reminder to the learnings you gained, versus the e-books, where there is no such option. For those who are comfortable with the digital version, Highlights Library is an excellent example of an e-book reader. The brand usually caters to reading books for school going students and teenagers, and has become a popular option for many in the Middle East nations, including Dubai.

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For centuries humans have communicated through anecdotes and stories. There’s a very strong reason for this. One of the primary ones being that storytelling enables us to introduce complex concepts while still being able to keep the topics relatable. Effective storytelling is how we share information, and quite frankly, most of how humans communicate today is still in stories. It’s our native way of sharing our learnings and understandings. And therefore, it’s only natural for young learners to learn best with stories. Smithsonian Science stories harps on this very teaching method for effective learning experiences for young learners. Here’s how Smithsonian uses stories to teach young students:

Survival Stories

Learning about nature and their surroundings is pretty important and outright necessary for young students. Developing a basic understanding of how things work is primary for children in their developing stages. Survival stories are a collection of lessons and anecdotes that help the child learn easily and simply about nature, their surroundings and safety. The topics covered in the stories include, plants and botany, animals and their biology, parenting in animals, and the similar parallels drawn for parenting in humans. The students also learn about the various ways in which animals and plants defend themselves from the elements and other factors that could harm them. It is also explained in this story as to why people and animals are similar and have similar body parts that all have a role to play.

Everyday Energy

Energy is quite an abstract topic to teach children, and sometimes even to adults. This is the case because energy is not tangible like the other things children experience in their lives of limited exposure. The Everyday Energy book enables them to develop an understanding of this fundamental natural phenomena that we refer to as energy. In this book with the help of stories students learn how energy is used in homes, how power plants that produce energy works, and they also learn about the different resources used to create this energy. With a basic understanding of energy, the young students are also taught about the various roadblocks we face as a civilization to create sustainable energy and the various steps that we take to make our consumption energy efficient.

Changing Earth

Change itself is a new concept to children while also being uncomfortable to learn. Children in their lives of limited exposure learn very little about the changing world. The Changing Earth book highlights how the earth changes in slow and fast ways. With the help of stories children understand how the earth is shaped. How land and water interact with each other. The young students learn about stability and change in earth, their stories also help them learn about the role engineers and scientists play in changing the earth in very different ways. Erosion as a concept is introduced to the young students, where they also learn the very real problems created by it.

With several such diverse stories and anecdotes, students learn real usable information that sets their basics for science.

Smithsonian Science by Carolina is an online classroom platform. The platform provides an opportunity to all the students to learn and explore with ease from the comfort of their homes. Being adopted with great results in Dubai, GCC, Middle East and UAE, the Smithsonian Science Stories, set a great fundamental base for the students’ understanding of science and the world at large.

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