Sustainability and design philosophy- reinventing the message

Designers are a strange breed. They're true believers in the power and values of their medium. They're also pack mules for often bitsy, pedantic work which involves attention to detail and structure on a scale few other people could approach. When another concept bumps into the design philosophy, it has an uphill battle proving its credentials to people who can literally take apart ideas as they read them. Sustainability, a blanket term for a process, has been picked up by designers very quickly. They appreciate the holistic approach in sustainability as much as they appreciate good injection moulding techniques.



Sustainability is in fact a design process by nature. The concept starts where good design starts, and source, and follows through to a clearly defined end product. That's textbook design best practice, and it's making a lot of sense to designers looking at product cost factors, life cycles, and the other parts of design few people even know exist.



For a while, it seemed as if sustainability's status as a buzzword was a major turnoff to professional designers. Buzzwords mean precisely nothing to designers, particularly when they come out of the mouths of politicians, lobbyists, and spin doctors. Fortunately, the practical values of sustainability struck a real chord with the top professionals.

The instant attractions were found in the designer's version of the supply chain, the extremely demanding product costing and design cycle number crunching which makes the difference between a competitive design and a nice try. Sustainability, and the ability to show a design product with far lower overheads and savings in production processes has turned out to be a real winning combination exactly where designers need winning combinations.

The link is in materials and materials quality. Designers don't like shoddy materials, and they don't want their names on the Easy Break – Kiddies Death Trap toys or the Certain Death Toaster. They naturally prefer to source materials where they can see clear quality values, because they know what happens if they don't. Sustainable materials produce a list of specifications which is now a benchmark for design standards.

If you want design value information down to the molecule, the sustainable materials have them. Even more usefully, the sustainable concept brings with it real critics who know what they're talking about and set meaningful standards on sustainable practices. Designers, who understand the materials process better than almost anyone else, have found a sort of soul mate in sustainability's primal demand for realistic performance.

Reinventing the message

Sustainability can help designers explain basic design principles to the world. Designers have been trying for years to establish the basic principles of design efficiency and quality in a world dominated by delusive point of transaction "savings" using dismal materials.

The message misses the cash register, unless you can show strong values from the production points. Sustainable product cycles can demonstrate all these values literally from the trees and reclaimed/recycled materials, right through production, sales, and recycling. Sustainability provides a spreadsheet as much as a philosophy.

Sustainability fits design philosophy and practice like good plastic moulding. The clients who understand sustainability in practice will understand design philosophy.



How To Teach Your Children To Read

You can start teaching your child the building blocks for reading before they ever step foot in a classroom. Once your child enters school, you can work with your child and their teachers to help aid the learning process. Teaching your child to read will involve dedication and patience.


Photo: John-Morgan

Make reading an important part of your child’s life before they can even speak. Read to your child as they develop in the womb and when they are babies. When your child is ready, start to read out loud to them while they follow along by looking at the pictures. You can then start to point out words in the book to your child while you read their favorite stories.


Read your children books with rhymes as well. The rhymes are easy for your child to remember and as they grow older they can learn to recognize some of the words in their favorite rhymes.

Start to introduce your baby to the alphabet from a young age. When your baby is just a couple months old you can start singing the ABC’s song to them. Between twelve to eighteen months, your little one will start to sing parts of the song on their own. A few months after that, you can start showing them the letters of the alphabet on a chart as you sing through the tune.

Start to demonstrate the sounds made by each letter of the alphabet when your child reaches preschool age. Take your time teaching them all the sounds that the letters of the alphabet will make. After your child starts to comprehend the various sounds made my letters of the alphabet, you can start teaching some basic words. Take each letter of the alphabet and teach your child common words that start with that letter. Write out the words for your child to see. Search for these words in your child’s books to show them how the word is written. In time, your child will begin to recognize basic words. (Some examples of words you might want to start out with include: apple, bat, cat, dog and hat).

Teaching your child to write will also help to aid in the learning process for reading. Teach your child to write the letters of the alphabet first. You can buy practice books that start out by having children trace each letter before they try to write letters on their own. When your child has mastered the alphabet, they can begin learning to trace and write simple words such as: dog, cat, bat, ball and top.

When your child is ready to start trying to read a few words on their own, buy some basic books. The books should contain words that follow the basic rules of phonics. Words that deter from the average phonics rules will be difficult for your child to recognize at first until they learn to spot and identify these words.

As your child starts to work on reading and writing in school, be actively involved in the process. Help your child with their homework. If your child is struggling, talk to their teacher to learn further ways to help your child learn to read. Spend time reading with your children each night.

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About the Author
You can start teaching your child the building blocks for reading before they ever step foot in a classroom. Once your child enters school, you can work with your child and their teachers to help aid the learning process. Teaching your child to read will involve dedication and patience.

Benefits of Early Math Education

The benefits of early math education is a neglected topic. There are many initiatives in place to foster language and reading, while math has been overlooked. Part of the problem is that many of the people who go into the early education field are not fond of math themselves. The benefits of early math education are far reaching though and cannot be ignored.


Photo: Old Shoe Woman

Indicator of Future Success
Studies by the Society of Research in Child Development report that a child’s knowledge of number concepts when they enter school is a good indicator of future success. This information should encourage all parents and educators to introduce math at early ages.


Naturally Curious
Children are naturally curious. They are interested in just about everything, using this trait can allow for wide strides to be made in mastering number concepts at a very young age.

Build Confidence
Understanding numbers, shapes, colors, patterns and counting at a young age builds confidence. Knowing how to manage the items in their world creates a sense of ownership with their surroundings, as does learning the lingo. Being able to decipher the language of math and relate it to themselves is an important building block.

Capable
Children are capable of learning deeper math concepts than usually assumed. Given the opportunity to learn math skills at a young age builds necessary connections in their spatial awareness. Everything in math is both concrete and abstract, learning these concepts takes time to develop and mature. Early exposure allows the mind to process the skills needed to proceed.

Easily Incorporated
Luckily introducing math at a young age isn’t difficult. Chatting about putting one sock on each foot or asking them to hand each person at the table one napkin easily introduces the concept of one to one correspondence. Learning to count is one thing, learning how numbers relate to concrete items is another stage in their development.

Helps in Language Development
Activities to develop math skills, also promotes language and literacy skills. Increasing the vocabulary needed to process math helps children discuss their world. These skills are highly necessary when they start to read. Knowing numbers, shapes, “more than” and “less than” gives them a new way of telling and understanding stories.

Progressive
Math builds on a set of knowledge, each concept relating to skills the children already have. Progressively learning at an early age, can side step failures due to gaps in knowledge. Those gaps are what makes many children give up on math in later years.

Ideas to Introduce Math at an Early Age
Many of these activities need little to no preparation. Learning happens all day for a young child. Make the most of the in-between times, errands and daily chores. Incorporating math concepts is easy, but remember to keep the conversations light hearted and matter of fact. Forcing math is a good way to turn them off to learning.

Knowing Numbers
Count everyday things while you go about your day. Learning that numbers are symbols that stand for something concrete is a huge leap in knowledge. Counting becomes more than words to song.

Let them play with number magnets. Teach them the names while they are holding them up. Eventually ask them to show you a certain number. Writing numbers at a young age is more art than math, but it’s good for their fine motor skills. Squeeze in counting during their playtime; ask how many crayons they have or how many blocks are in their tower. With enough counting experience, children learn that five blocks are five blocks no matter how they are stacked. Play a game, like asking them to hop 4 times, or see if they can take 10 baby steps. This is fun and passes the time while waiting for an appointment.

Matching
Equal and not equal are important concepts in math. Have children help match socks, or coins. Play dominos, there are lots of preschool versions out that might be more fun than the traditional set.

Have them copy your facial expression
Make a block tower and have them copy it Play an easy game of concentration, use shapes and fewer cards to start

Classifying and Sorting
While matching concentrates on what is alike, sorting focuses on what is different. Have them sort their dolls according to size, or put their cars in groups according to color or type of vehicle.

Try sorting by their rules. Give them a pile of shells or buttons to sort and see what they come up with.

Play sorting games in the bathtub. See which toys float and which ones sink.
These skills are so basic to adults that it is easy to forget that we ever learned them. Developing these fundamental skills through play will help children progress much faster in both math and literacy.

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About the Author
The benefits of early math education is a neglected topic. There are many initiatives in place to foster language and reading, while math has been overlooked. Part of the problem is that many of the people who go into the early education field are not fond of math themselves.

Learning About Preschool

You have the option of putting your child in preschool or not, and the choice is thus up to you entirely in regards to whether you do or not, however if you are unsure whether you want to or not, then you should first learn more about the matter of preschool overall so that you can understand it and so that you will thus then be able to make a knowledgeable and assured decision.


Photo: cafemama

What is Preschool?
Preschool is basically a place which provides preschool education for very young children, and it is generally considered as being an included part of early childhood education; preschool in North America is generally provided in a variety of different settings, and it is also known by many as kindergarten.


In other words, it is a beginning group or class which is for children younger than 5 years old and which is organized in order to be able to provide educational experience under professionally qualified teachers in cooperation as well with parents during the school year or the years that immediately precede kindergarten before they enter elementary school.

Typically kindergarten settings such as this will focus primarily on that of the developing of early social skills, and this includes interpersonal interaction, which is an incredibly important skill for your child to learn at an early age, so that they do not become shy and so that they will hence be outgoing and socially adept as a person overall.

Although all of these programs are relatively the same for the most part, there are certain schools which have adopted specific and specialized methods of teaching, and so if you are interested in putting your child in preschool but would rather them in one of these schools, then you should know that you have that option.

It is a good idea to enroll your child in school as early as possible, however remember that it is not necessary, and so ultimately the decision is of course up to you. However, before you make any final decisions, you will want to make sure that you understand everything about the matter as a whole, and make yourself as knowledgeable on the topic as you possibly can.

You may also want to ask around and talk to your family and friends and see what they have done with their children, so that you can get firsthand opinions and then it will be easier to make your decision in the end of things.

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About the Author
You have the option of putting your child in preschool or not, and the choice is thus up to you entirely in regards to whether you do or not, however if you are unsure whether you want to or not, then you should first learn more about the matter of preschool overall so that you can understand it