by Helen Wagner | Apr 9, 2020 | Bluebee News |
Life skills have been defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. Skills that function for well-being and aid individuals to develop into active and productive members of their communities are considered as life skills. Educators are increasingly supporting the development of life skills, in addition to academics, in order to enable students to function effectively in society. Teachers sometimes describe these skills as “learning to learn skills” which can be developed through intentional daily activities
Life skills go hand in hand with development and can help your child succeed later in life.
In the book, “Mind in the Making,” Ellen Galinsky, a leading authority on child development issues, organized the essential life skills that children need to be well-rounded, ready for school, and life.
What Are the Most Important Life Skills for Kids to Learn?
- Focus And Self Control: Children need this skill in order to achieve their goals. It involves paying attention, remembering the rules, thinking flexibly and exercising self control. Children thrive onschedules, habits, and routines, which not only create a feeling of security, but also help children learn self-control and focus.
- Perspective Taking: Perspective taking goes far beyond empathy in that it involves figuring out what others think and feel, and forms the basis of children understanding their parents’, teachers’, and friends’ intentions. Children who can take others’ perspectives are also much less likely to get involved in conflicts. Thinking about another’s point of view doesn’t come naturally to most children, but it can be developed by making observations with children about how others are feeling.
- Communication: Communicating is much more than understanding language, speaking, reading and writing – it is the skill of determining what one wants to communicate and realizing how our communications will be understood by others. Children need to build healthy social-emotional skills, including the ability to understand and communicate with others. Children need to learn how to “read” social cues and listen carefully. They must consider what they want to communicate and the most effective way to share it.
- Making Connections: Making connections is at the heart of learning—figuring out what’s the same, what’s different and sorting these things into categories. Making unusual connections is at the core of creativity. True learning occurs when we can see connections and patterns between seemingly disparate things. The more connections we make, the more sense and meaning we make of the world. Young children begin to see connections and patterns as they sort basic household items like toys and socks. Simple acts, such as choosing clothingappropriate for the weather, helps them build connections.
- Critical Thinking: Critical thinking is the ongoing search for valid and reliable knowledge to guide beliefs, decisions, and actions. We live in a complex world in which adults are required to analyze information and make decisions about myriad things every day. One of the best ways to build critical thinking is through rich, open-ended play. Make sure your child has time each day to play alone or with friends. Through play, children formulate hypotheses, take risks, try out their ideas, make mistakes, and find solutions—all essential elements in building critical thinking.
- Taking On Challenges: Life is full of stresses and challenges. Children who are willing to take on challenges instead of avoiding them or simply coping with them do better in school and in life. One of the most important traits we can develop in life is that of resilience—being able to take on challenges, bounce back from failure, and keep trying. Children learn to take on challenges when we create an environment with the right amount of structure—not so much as to be limiting, but enough to make them feel safe. Encourage your child to try new things and allow reasonable risk, such as climbing a tree or riding a bike. Offer a new challenge when she seems ready.
- Self-Directed, Engaged Learning: It is through learning that we can realize our potential. As the world changes, so can we, for as long as we live—as long as we learn. A child who loves learning becomes an adult who is rarely bored in life. To encourage a love of learning, try to limit television and encourage plenty of reading, play, and open-ended exploration.
Bluebee Pals are excellent
educational tools that can easily be incorporated in the classroom or at home to help model and build age-appropriate essential life skills. Use one-on-one or invite a Bluebee Pal into life skills learning or peer groups to practice skills. Paired with story books and educational apps, Bluebee Pals offer children a special learning friend who makes life skills practice fun…and therefore, more meaningful. By “speaking” the audio in connected apps, a Bluebee Pal adds just the right touch of warmth and humanity to motivate children. Just connect your Bluebee Pal and get started!
http://bluebeepals.com A few examples of apps that can be used to help develop essential life skills:
First Then Visual Schedule HD by Good Karma Applications, Inc allows you to create first-then boards, visual schedules, task analyses, social stories, choice boards, and video models, and even has a timer for task completion.
Peppy Pals Family Play Bundle by Peppy Pals AB is a set of three apps featuring engaging animal friends that enables children to learn and explore emotions in an relaxing, interactive environment while developing emotional intelligence.
Peppy Pals Sammy Helps Out by Peppy Pals AB is an interactive storybook about collaboration, emotions, and friendship.
Peppy Pals Social Skills by Peppy Pals AB features gender-neutral animals in story scenarios as they take care of each other and solve problems. Helps build social emotional skills such as self-esteem, resilience, empathy, problem-solving, managing emotions, managing stress, and creating healthy relationships.
10 Ways – a Social Skills Game by Everyday Speech LLC teaches through a familiar game format with categories of questions that include conversation skills, perspective taking, asking and answering questions, friendship skills, and more.
Categories Learning Center by Smarty Ears fosters categorization skills by sorting similar and dissimilar items, placing objects in the correct category, naming members of given categories and identifying which category name a group of objects belongs in.
Thinkrolls by AVOKIDDO is an addictive, award-winning logic, brain power, and problem solving app for kids that uses mazes to master the art of thinking. Provides for penalty-free and stress-free trial and error problem solving.
Thinkrolls Space by AVOKIDDO continues in the fashion of Thinkrolls but with an outer space theme and more puzzles.
My PlayHome by PlayHome Software Ltd is an interactive doll house for boys and girls that offers free, open-ended exploration and play.
by Helen Wagner | Mar 23, 2020 | Bluebee News |
Special Needs Children Utilizing Voice Recording & Text-To-Speech Apps
Bluebee Pals are extremely versatile and effective educational assistive technology tools that can be utilized to support individualized instruction in virtually any subject area! They make great teacher’s assistants and promote active and engaged learning. They can be used one-on- one or in a small group setting. In addition to being used with any apps containing a narrative, they can also be used with voice recording and text-to-speech apps and tailored to meet specific student or classroom educational needs. http://bluebeepals.com
Voice Recording
Students can’t get enough of hearing their own (and their teacher’s) recorded voices and this is an instant attention getter! These apps allow you to record, save, and immediately playback your own recordings in your own (or a student’s) voice. Bluebee can playback adult voice recordings of a favorite book, story, or song in a child’s own regional dialect, or recordings produced by a child. Bluebee can “speak” in a student’s voice to give the student auditory feedback on how he/she sounds.https://www.bluebeepals.com/tutorials/
Voice Memos by Apple. Quickly and easily record vocabulary words for Bluebee to say and for students to practice repeating. Let your students record their words, sentences, or stories, too! Matching game: Record nouns for Bluebee and give students picture or word flashcards to choose the correct match for the word that was said. Use the recorder app to have Bluebee give instructions or ask questions. Use the recorder to have students sequence events, answer questions, or retell a story.
My Story School eBook Maker by MY STORY, LLC. Create and share ebooks and movies using your own voice, drawings, stickers, and photos!
Book Creator for iPad by Red Jumper Limited. Easily create your own books! Add music, narration, video, text! Share with family and friends.
Little Bird Tales Storytelling by Mike Klem. Create your own unique stories, podcasts, presentations and journals. Students can download lessons from their teacher and send them back when completed. There is an art pad for illustrations, and it records in your own voice and adds text to each page. Great for custom lessons, Common Core aligned lessons, writing assignments, book reports, poetry, journals, and more.
Articulation Station Pro by Little Bee Speech is an example of an app for articulation (sound production) remediation that records student responses for auditory feedback and practice.
***In addition to these, many storybook, articulation, language development and educational apps contain a recording feature. Be on the lookout for it!
Text-to-Speech
These apps let your students interact in real time with your Bluebee Pal as you type in text for your Bluebee to speak! They offer so much versatility and control of your lessons as Bluebee Pals “speak” to your students as you are working with them. You can program your Bluebee Pal to say anything you want him to say as you type in the text. Ask and answer questions or carry-on a real life conversation!
Make up your own stories or type in the text of books for your Bluebee Pal to read. Book discussions: Have Bluebee read a book out loud. Then, type in questions for Bluebee to ask the students. Have Bluebee help practice vocabulary and comprehension skills by typing in words or definitions, questions, or even tests for him to say aloud. With Bluebee Pals and Text-to-Speech apps, students can quickly and easily work on syntax, semantics, pragmatics, social skills, math, language, social studies, science, and other curriculum skills….anything you want!
Talk For Me: Text to Speech by Darrin Altman Not being able to speak on your own is difficult. Talk For Me – Text to Speech, designed and engineered by a person who lost the ability to speak, seeks to make your life easier. Type in the main text area or tap one of the six main custom buttons and your iOS device will talk for you. Want to set up more custom phrases? Swipe up for more pages with custom editable buttons.
Text to Speech (TTS): Converts text to speech with the best sounding voices anywhere. Simply enter any text and press ‘play’ and the app will instantly read the words. Also you can transform your text in an audio file and share it via social media. iMessage, Mail, WhatsApp, FB Messenger, etc.
Text to Speech! : Bring your text to life with Text to Speech! Text to speech produces natural sounding synthesised text from the words that you have entered in. With 82 different voices to choose from and the ability to adjust the rate and pitch, there are countless ways in which the synthesised voice can be adjusted.
iSpeech Text to Speech: Type in text and listen with the iSpeech Text to Speech Pro app. iSpeech converts text to speech with the best sounding voices anywhere in over 26 languages. Listen to your emails, favorite news articles, documents and more. Also listen to your text read out loud in iSpeech Obama and iSpeech Bush voices.
Speak4Me-Text to Speech: Let your iPhone speak for you! Train your phone to say whatever you want. You can convert your phrases to an audio file and share it with your friends via iMessage, Mail, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, etc.
by Helen Wagner | Mar 20, 2020 | Bluebee News |
Many parents and teachers are constantly looking for new ways to get children excited about reading. And for good reason. Reading is a large part of receiving a strong foundation during the early years of a child’s education. In fact, studies have often shown when a young child is read to, it improves language skills, assists in literacy development, and has a great impact on the parts of a child’s brain that are fundamental early literacy development. Trying new technology tools such a Bluebee Pal can engage a child in learning.
Bluebee Pal : Best Tool for Earlychildhood
Parents and teachers today have many tools that help spark an early love and desire in children to read and learn. The Bluebee Pal is one of them, and it may remind some of a classic talking and plush toy that made its debut in the 1980s.http://bluebeepals.com
Our Bluebee Pal, better known to my preschoolers as Leo the Lion, is providing loads of educational fun, so much so that I doubt the kiddos realize they are learning as they are playing. Leo, and all Bluebee Pals, is a plush toy that syncs with Bluetooth® enabled devices.
With its built-in speaker the Bluebee Pal reads to, sings with and engages children as they learn with their favorite apps, songs and videos. The pals also have moving mouths as they talk and sing. Typically toys like this can be a bit bulky or not as plush as they appear because of the battery pack and speaker inside the toy. The Bluebee Pal is extremely soft, lightweight and huggable, making it a great toy for kiddos of any age. These are just a few reasons why reading time is bit more exciting these days.https://www.bluebeepals.com/apps-bluebee-pals/
Bluebee Pal : Play and Learn at Home
Whether it is to learn or to catch up on their favorite shows, my preschoolers enjoy having time on the computer and tablet. As a parent I am often concerned that the girls have spent too much time looking at screens, potentially causing damage to their vision. The Bluebee Pal has helped us to eliminate long periods of looking at a screen because the focus has turned to watching its mouth move and paying closer attention to the actual story or song. This guarantees a successful and quiet learning time.
Activity Suggestion: Storytime While traveling
Take a Bluebee Pal on your next family trip. It can easily fit in a carryon or in a child’s backpack in the car. During road time or other quiet moments, your children can stay caught up on their daily reading in a way that doesn’t seem to take away from the fun being had on the trip. Bluebee Pal will occupy you child for hours reading, singing, or even playing an educational game. Let’s not forget the cuddle factor that will help during nap time with their favorite stuffed animal
6 Top Reading Apps for Home or School
1. HOOPLA Book Riot has recommended this for downloading audiobooks straight from local libraries. It also has an extensive children’s audiobook section, which will make for good bedtime reading or car listening.
2. EPIC! Epic provides a plethora of children’s books for all ages. The app asks for parents or teachers to create an account, and allows for them to create four profiles for children readers. You do need to register an email and a password. The visuals and music contribute to a fun learning experience.
3. SIGHT WORDS App Store reviews from parents have expressed satisfaction with this app game that encourages reading and makes it fun for kids. It’s for ages 4 and up, with detailed animation, background music, and great visuals. There are six games at the moment, tailored by grade. Kids can create their own profile, as either people or monsters.
4. ENDLESS READER This is meant for younger readers, ages 4 and up, to teach them words by sight. It’s designed to grab attention, with fluid animation and epic music. Digital flash cards occupy the screen, with fitting animation. Kids have to assemble the words, or match them, while the game provides appropriate sound effects.
5. READING COMPREHENSION The paid version of the Peakaboo apps, there are versions for various reading levels, grades 2–8. The various bundles range from $7.99–9.99 and individual apps cost $1.99. These promise to educate children, while provoking thought with their questions about the material.
6. TEACHME This reading app comes for multiple grade levels, including Preschool, Kindergarten, First Grade, Second Grade, and Third Grade. All five apps cost $7.99 as a bundle, and the individual ones are $1.99 if a parenHomeschoolers:
HomeSchoolers Incorporate Apps into Lessons
Homeschoolers are no strangers to incorporating technology into lessons. Some days they are strategically fit into learning time. Other days technology allows us to quickly create a last minute lesson plan. Reading time, however, is rarely ever left out of the lesson plans. Having our Bluebee Pal, in addition to the variety of educational and reading apps, makes reading time both educational and entertaining.
For example, The Epic App allows parents and children to choose from more than 35,000 books, and they can read them online or offline, on the Web, or on mobile devices. Many selections are by well-known authors or from major publishers, and the collection includes Spanish/English, Chinese/English, and French/English bilingual books. Kids are able to see colorful scenes of the story on your device, as well as hear the story while it is “read” by the Bluebee Pal. Most stories in the app are not free, but the app offers a few free ones to begin.introducing phonics to beginner readers.
Introducing Phonics to Beginner Readers
The Bluebee Pal is also a great tool to use while introducing phonics to beginner readers. Words on a page may be intimidating for some, so incorporating videos from your favorite educational channels like these can assist in boosting a child’s confidence as well as introduce the necessary skills to begin reading. Kids can enjoy story time without a parent’s help, which is great for the little ones who can’t quite read and great for parents who need to buy a few moments to prepare for the next activity
Encourage Activeness by Listening to Music and Dancing
Encourage activeness by listening to music and dancing with the Bluebee Pal.Kids (and parents alike) need a time during the day to step away from the learning. Turning on music and encouraging dancing and movement is exactly what is needed to get re-energized, or in some cases, burn some energy to continue the time of productive learning. The Bluebee Pal has a quality speaker, and its volume is easily controlled by the device
Use in The Classroom
Using videos to dig a little deeper into topics is typical for homeschoolers, and it is no different for the classroom. I am visual learner, so I tend to teach my children with many visual examples. Once a week I teach a co-op class, and this past session I taught basic science concepts to 29 four and five-year-olds. During our weather week, I introduced the concept of seasons with a video and a song with the help of our Bluebee Pal.
Teachers of children of that age group know how challenging it can be to keep the kiddos quiet for long periods of time. However, the second I introduced Leo to both classes all were quiet, and their eyes were fixated on him. The class assistants could not believe their eyes. Every student was captivated, including those who are normally rambunctious.
Activity Suggestion for Teachers:
Give students a chance to earn a reward of holding the Bluebee Pal. Students will quickly become attached to the new classroom pal, so offer the privilege of holding the Bluebee Pal during reading time as a reward for good behavior throughout the day.
Learning with Leo has been both enjoyable and beneficial for my children and students. Check out more about the Bluebee Pal here and see which pal your child would most love!http://bluebeepals.com
by Helen Wagner | Mar 19, 2020 | Bluebee News, Helen's Corner |
Homeschooling and Resources for Parents
Schools are closed indefinitely across the USA and parents are now charged with helping their children continue educational activities at home. Some school systems were able to send assignments home before the closures, while others had no time to prepare for the sudden shut-down. Homeschooling is new venture for many parents and they require resources to structure learning and playtime in a home setting. We know this can be a overwhelming time and hope the below recommendations will assit in the transition from the academic institution to learning at home.
Students must continue to learn and grow, and the current situation provides lots of opportunities for fun, impactful home educational activities. This is also a PERFECT time to make memories with your children and learn things beyond “normal” math and reading. Family bonding is necessary, and mapping out time together to enjoy joint activities can be very rewarding for children and parents. Gather your Bluebee Pals and child and create a home-classroom for continued learning during this period of school closure. http://bluebeepals.com
Best Homeschooling Outcomes
- Create a designated learning space. …
- Follow a daily schedule. …
- Map out the school year ahead of time. …
- Set learning goals together. …
- Take learning beyond the classroom. …
- Make learning a family activity. …
- Collaborate with other homeschoolers. …
- Ease into school.
Ideas and Links : Assist Home Schooling
- bluebeepals.com: Bluebee Pals FREE Lesson Plans, Activity Guide and App Resources( You don’t need an actual Bluebee Pal just connect any IOS or Apple Laptop, Tablet or Mobile Phone https://www.bluebeepals.com/inclusive-curriculum/
- Scholastic Learn at Home: Day-by-day projects to keep kids reading, thinking, and growing
- Zearn.org: As a parent, you can create a free account, pick your child’s grade, and they’ll be taught the exact way that matches the standard
- sightreadingfactory.com: Sight reading and sight singing practice exercises
- readingeggs.com: Phonics and learning to read
- YouTube.com: Educational Channel
- Yoga For Kids Daily Fitness : https://apps.apple.com/us/app/yoga-for-kids-daily-fitness/id1405597264
by Helen Wagner | Jan 19, 2020 | Bluebee News |
Why is Early Math Important?
Math is an important part of learning for children in the early years because it provides vital life skills. Math helps children to develop the ability to think critically and solve problems. Both are integral to success in school and in life. “
Research suggests early math skills are a better predictor of academic success than early reading skills. The more math-oriented activities kids do before kindergarten, the better they’ll understand math in school. Early math skills foretell higher aptitude in high school math and higher rates of college enrollment.
Math is the language of logic…Math builds reasoning, which leads to comprehension. Developing a mentally organized way of thinking is critical. To make that happen we need to provide high-quality math education at an early age.”
https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/early-math-equals-future-success/.Activities to Foster Development of Early Math Skills:
Bluebee Pals:
Bluebee Pals are a great tool to use when teaching and reinforcing math skills. Use one-
on-one or invite a Bluebee Pal into peer groups to practice skills. Paired with reading, storybooks and math apps, Bluebee Pals offer children a special learning friend who makes educational skills practice fun…and therefore, more meaningful. By “speaking and singing” the audio in connected apps, a Bluebee Pal adds just the right touch of warmth and humanity to motivate children. Just connect your Bluebee Pal and get started!
Reading books,
telling stories, and using “math talk” are easy, effective ways to integrate and promote the development of early math and early literacy skills. Using children’s book and math apps provide many ways to teach and reinforce foundational math skills.
http://bluebeepals.comBook App Examples
Math Games and Activities:
A great way to “mathematize” children is to use math in the routines of daily life, either as games or as entertaining ways to solve problems. “Make math fun! “Young children work very hard when they’re playing. Play is the perfect learning environment.” https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/early-math-equals-future-success/
- Use puzzles, building blocks for stacking and manipulating, board games, and card games. Chutes and Ladders, Pop the Pig, Hi Ho Cherry-O and Candyland are great beginning games. Games with dice and number spinners reinforce counting.
- Use shape-sorters. Talk about each shape—count the sides, describe the colors.
- Count and sort. Gather together a basket of small toys, shells, pebbles or buttons. Count them and sort them based on size, color, or what they do (i.e., all the cars in one pile, all the animals in another).
- What size is it? Notice the sizes of objects in the world around you: That pink pocketbook is the biggest. The blue pocketbook is the smallest. Ask your child to think about his own size relative to other objects (“Do you fit under the table? Under the chair?”).
- You’re cookin’ now! Even young children can help fill, stir, and pour. Through these activities, children learn, quite naturally, to count, measure, add, and estimate.
- Sing songs that rhyme, repeat, or have numbers in them. Songs reinforce patterns (which is a math skill as well). They also are fun ways to practice language and foster social skills like cooperation.
- Use a calendar to talk about the date, the day of the week, and the weather. Calendars reinforce counting, sequences, and patterns.
- The long and the short of it. Cut a few (3–5) pieces of ribbon, yarn or paper in different lengths. Talk about ideas like long and short. With your child, put in order of longest to shortest.
- Pattern play. Have fun with patterns by letting children arrange dry macaroni, chunky beads, different types of dry cereal, or pieces of paper in different patterns or designs.
- Graphing games. As your child nears three and beyond, make a chart where your child can put a sticker each time it rains or each time it is sunny. At the end of a week, you can estimate together which column has more or less stickers, and count how many to be sure. https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/299-help-your-child-develop-early-math-skills
by Helen Wagner | Nov 26, 2019 | Bluebee News |
It’s the season for holiday gifting! It can be especially difficult to select quality gifts for young children, and even more difficult to find gifts with excellent educational value that also have that “fun” factor! Look no further…Bluebee Pals are the perfect gift choice for children! They are uniquely suited to engage the interest of little learners, they easily support reading and educational activities, and they make charming friends! Bluebee Pals make stories come to life, encourage listening, speaking, language development, good social skills, and more! They work with any tablet or smartphone, to deliver not only hours, but also years of enjoyment. If the child on your list is also receiving a tablet for the holidays, or already has access to a tablet, a Bluebee Pal gift would be a perfect match!
Bluebee Pals Make Perfect Reading and Learning Companions!
Bluebee Pals are softly huggable, lovable, plush interactive learning tools/toys that connect via Bluetooth to all iOS and Android devices. They wirelessly pair with all apps with a narrative, which provides endless educational opportunities and entertainment for children of all ability levels. Bluebee’s mouth and head realistically move while speaking, making reading, educational apps, games, and activities so much fun! Which Bluebee Pal will you choose? Hudson the dog, Riley the zebra, Leo the Lion, Lily the lamb, Sammy the bear, or Parker the monkey?
Benefits:
- Bluebee is compatible with ALL apps with a narrative.
- Bluebee inspires learning with educational apps.
- Bluebee makes storybook apps come to life!
- Bluebee is compatible with text-to-speech apps
- Bluebee teaches language and AAC (alternative augmentative communication).
- Bluebee sings with your favorite music apps.
- Bluebee acts as an educational tool with voice recording apps.
- With Bluebee, children become immediately more engaged and attentive, and eagerly look forward to focused learning opportunities!
Bluebee Pals comes with a FREE companion app!
The Bluebee Pals app is a fun and easy way to begin learning through play.In the Bluebee Pals app there are
5 colorful and interactive rooms to explore with your child:
Bedroom, Bathroom, Kitchen
, Living room
and Playroom. By talking about, asking questions, playing mini-games and encouraging free play, you can focus on and reinforce many early learning, educational, and life skills.
https://www.bluebeepals.com/bluebee-pals-app/
Additional Suggested Apps:
Reading: Epic! – Kids’ Books and Videos by Epic! Creations Inc
Voice Recording: Voice Memos by Apple. Quickly and easily record vocabulary words to practice spelling, play matching games by matching words to pictures, use the recorder to have Bluebee give instructions or ask questions, or use the recorder to sequence or retell a story.
Book Creator for iPad by Red Jumper Limited. Easily create your own books! Add music, narration, video, text! Share with family and friends.
