MyGreatKid.com » Don’t Miss

Red Cake/Cupcake Recipe – Red Dye #40 Free

Steve — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:46:42 +0000

Is your family (or are your kids) Red Dye #40 free (did you know that stuff is a derivative of coal)?

Here’s an interesting recipe that allows you to make Red Velvet Cake / Cupcakes and you’ll never guess how this Mom got the red naturally …… she used beets! Beets in cake? Hey, she claims they’re not only delicious but also beet taste free.

Red Velvet Cake / Cupcake Recipe That’s Red Dye #40 Free

What the heck is Red Dye #40 and why would you care about eating it?

Click Here To Share or Save

MGK Radio: Robert Siciliano & ID Theft

Steve — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:42:58 +0000

This week in our interview with Robert Siciliano we discussed the wide spread threat of Identity theft. During the interview we covered a variety of topics including :

Why Credit Cards are a safer alternative to Debt Cards
How your fax machine and copiers could be sneakily stealing your identity without your knowing it
The one – and only – piece of information an ID thief needs to become you
The two main types of identity theft
Who’s most likely to steal a child’s ID (it’s not who you’d think)
What’s the one – free – thing you can do to keep your child’s ID safe
What’s the first thing you should do if your ID is stolen

We also discussed how Ebay and Craiglist can be an ID thief’s best friend and a story that will make you reconsider ever using an ATM again.

*******

Robert Siciliano is an Identity Theft Security Expert and speaker who has presented across North America on the topics of personal security, Identity theft and safety awareness. Robert has been featured on The Today Show, CNN, MSNBC, FOX, and inUSA Today, Forbes, Cosmopolitan, New York Times, and many others. He is the author of the book Safety Minute: 01.

How Many Times Have You Wanted To Say This…

Steve — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:48:05 +0000

“Well, you’re the teacher aren’t you suppose to be able to find a way to ….. teach it to him?”

I love this clip.

I love it not only because I’ve felt this way in so many meetings but also because it’s a good portrayal of an educational culture that is, in many cases, broken.

The little chair, the quote above, the look on the teacher’s face after he says it and then the irony of the teacher pointing out Rule #1 immediately after she herself dodges it all makes this a GREAT couple of minutes of movie footage and social commentary.

It comes from a little seen movie called “The Answer Man” starring Jeff Daniels which flew under the radar but in my opinion was a pretty good, pretty enjoyable movie.

Whether you rent the movie or not …. WATCH this clip.

Click Here To Share or Save

You Missed A Show? Quick, Get Caught Up!

Steve — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:31:15 +0000

You Missed A Show?

Missed a show? How could you?

Okay, besides you have a family and the show is on early Sunday mornings.

Then here’s your chance to catch up. I’ll be posting full breakouts of all the shows we did in 2009 but in the meantime check out any of the shows that you might have missed below:

Many (and soon) all off these shows can also be downloaded at Itunes in the Podcast section under “My Great Kid”.

Thank you for listening to the show and following this blog and please let us know if there are any topics, or guests, you would like us to speak to in the future.

Click Here To Share or Save

The Muppets Are Back – On YouTube

Steve — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 20:12:23 +0000

Animal, Beaker and the Swedish Chef (along with all of the others) are back! Watch them for a good laugh and share them with your kids.

This one’s gone viral and racked up huge views all over the net already.

Click Here To Share or Save

My Great Kid Radio: Bullies, Bullied & Bystanders

Steve — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:33:42 +0000

We spoke with Barabara Coloroso about her book “The Bully, The Bullied and the Bystander”.

We first came across her in the Costco Connection magazine, believe it or not, and thought she had some good information and good approaches. Coincidentally enough in the last couple of months we’d had a couple of parents talk to us about bullying problems that their children were having and figured it would be a great topic to dive into a bit.

I have to admit that this is an interview that was a little frustrating for me. Ms. Coloroso was great and her information is definitely worthwhile but some of her approaches and thinking just conflicts with mine. Staci on the other hand loved her!

Which is the point of the show and this blog .. to explore new and different thinking and approaches and share information.

I’d be curious as to your feedback on the interview.

Bully Handout – This handout is great! I really like the idea of the Bullying Circle and how bullying can be adressed through it.
Bully Handout For Teens – Similar to above … but for teens.
The Net Neighborhood – Bullying, it’s not just for the playground any more.
Extraordinary Evil – Bullying to Hate Crimes To Genocide – Okay, here’s where we started to part ways a bit. I think our primary difference of opinion comes in the somewhat broader definition and motivation for bullying that Ms. Coloroso uses. Still, an interesting read though.
Three Characters and A Tragedy – Interesting
Teaching Caring & Human Relationships

Bullying is a very serious issue for everyone and perhaps even more so (if that’s possible) for children with special needs. What are your thoughts? ideas? success stories? approaches?

Any ideas for other resources concerning how to handle bullies?

Click Here To Share or Save

My Great Kid Radio: Mental Math w/ Arthur Benjamin

Steve — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:01:57 +0000

This week we interviewed Dr. Arthur Benjamin – a Mathematician and Mathemagician. Now normally ….. Math would not be the kind of topic I would want to spend a lot of time talking about. So let me explain why I chose to pick this as a topic and Dr. Benjamin as our expert for the week.

Click here to listen to the interview.

Really, after about the 3rd Grade, Math and I never got along very well. While there were times when it clicked and I would find it really fun and fascinating …. those times were very rare and easily offset by the times I’d have that unpleasant academic drowning feeling. I remember swearing off Math countless times in High School as I brain strained through another seemingly pointless homework assignment or test. My main question most of the time was …. “When the heck (okay, I didn’t always say heck) am I ever going to use this stuff in real life?”. I realized at a pretty young age I wasn’t going to be an engineer or rocket scientist so I figured once you get past the basic math stuff …. why bother?

Besides I had a calculator and computers are all over so anything that I needed to have answered could probably be found somewhere. Unfortunately, my negative experiences with Math at a younger age kind of soured (or actually, it was more like my “math confidence” was smashed) to Math as I got older. Not unlike, I’m sure, a lot of you reading this right now I just figured that I “wasn’t a Math person” and figured life would go on easily enough with that reality.

The problem is of course that Math is everywhere – though it doesn’t always look the same as it did in my post lunch Algebra class. Statistics, probability, percentages and all the stuff we hear about on the news is easy to manipulate precisely because so few people understand or bother to do the Math. Once I had a child I realized that much of this stuff had a much greater importance than I had at first allowed room for years ago. I don’t like being lied to or swayed by the latest report but quickly realized when you start diving into the numbers there’s some Math education that would have been helpful. I couldn’t help but wonder why so much of my Math classes seemed to be focusing on finding “x” in problem, after monotonous problem (screw X – why does he keep getting lost) when if we would have been figuring out real stats and percentages, etc. in a real world context (can anyone same gambling?) it would have probably kept my attention longer.

So anyway, my son started having a bit of trouble with Math and I was having a hard time breaking out all of his test scores / bell curve scoring / standardized testing scores / etc. (hey my kid is 75 percentile – that’s a C, right?)

Even if you’ve sworn off Math and have no interest in EVER having

someone talk Math to you again ….. trust me, you’ll want to watch this video. IT IS AMAZING….

Arthur Benjamin does “Mathemagic”

Click Here To Share or Save

Don’t Miss Pete Wright (Wrightslaw) This Sun.

Steve — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:46:01 +0000

“Parents will always be catalysts for education reform.”

def: Catalyst: An agent that precipitates -or- accelerates fundamental change

In what is sure to be a phenomenally informative show, this Sunday on the “My Great Kid” Radio Program (Sunday 8:00am-9:00am, WAAM 1600am or online at www.waamannarbor.com; A podcast will be posted after the show) we will be interviewing Peter Wright the founder of Wrightslaw.com and one of the nation’s most influential attorneys.

If you have a child with “special needs” or if you have a child who’s having trouble in school you literally cannot afford to miss this show. If you have a friend that this applies to please tell them about the show. Mr. Wright’s advice, website, books and conferences have been a critical part of my son receiving the education that he’s entitled to under the law since his earliest days of Early Intervention.

This man is literally the guru of Special Education Law.

To learn more about Pete click here.

If you have any questions that you would like to have asked please send them to me at steve@mygreatkid.com or post them to my Twitter page @MyGreatKid or call in live during the show at 734-822-1600.

Click Here To Share or Save

Swine Flu … The Stuffed Animal!

Steve — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:01:22 +0000

The Swine Flu You Can Snuggle With

You’ve heard when life gives you lemons make lemonade. How about when life gives you E. Coli make a stuffed toy?

All right, maybe it’s just me (I know my sense of humor is a bit off) but if you’re looking for the gift I guarantee they won’t have how about these for ideas …. Giant Microbes stuffed toys. Why hide from E.Coli when you can snuggle up in bed with it! E. Coli not your style how about …..

Swine Flu
Black Death
A Brain Cell
Scum
Herpes
The Mange
Salmonella

Find them all here at Giant Microbes.com

On a serious note though they are all also great learning tools or reminders for your kids. Sometimes just putting a face on something is enough to create the visual that will stick with your child.

“Hey Bobby, remember we wash our hands after we go to the bathroom to keep away Eddie E.Coli.”

Keep Eddie away, wash those hands!

Then you hang this little fellow by the mirror in the bathroom or on the door.

-OR-

Little Suzy gets sick with the stomach flu, then give her one of these to punch, squeeze, throw or simply say mean things to …

So cute ... but so annoying!

Hilarious, educational and great for kids and adults of all ages!

Old School vs. New School

Web — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 20:49:42 +0000

The charter school that my son is at uses a Core Knowledge style structure. This article highlights the debate of the value of teaching to “modern life skills” vs “core skills”. In a modern world though shouldn’t computers, typing, etc. be considered “core”?

Should Johnny Learn Core or Skills

What do you think?

Click Here To Share or Save