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NEWSBITES FOR KIDS TM

Feb 24-Mar 2 2003

Can February march?

No- but April may.

[Get it?]

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BOOKS of the month: 10 ways to cope with your mom-U.K. ; The Iraq situation for kids- France

Making consumer decisions is child's play-India

Well connected middle school kids-U.S.A.

Kids to laugh- not cry at airports-Denver, U.S.A.

Little wanderers- the poor kids in America- Boston, U.S.A.

Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood has moved- U.S.A.

Poetry in their hands- U.S.A.

"Just kiddish"? Who's being childish now? - U.S.A.

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BOOKS OF THE MONTH

I. 10 ways to cope with your Mum
By ALYCE FAYE CLEESE

LIKE MOST BIG projects, learning to manage your mother is best tackled in smaller stages. Here are what I believe are the ten best steps towards a better relationship with her. They are not necessarily surprising or revolutionary, but they have worked for many people. Try them.

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II. Novel guides children through Iraq conflict

by Toni Vorobyova

PARIS (Reuters) - A French novelist has cast two adventurous teenagers as heroes who help avert war in Iraq in an attempt to explain the Iraqi crisis to school children.

Marcel Pineau, author of "Panic in Baghdad", uses the book as a vehicle for his pro-peace stance but said the story enables him to discuss Iraq's history, its opposition movements and the views of some key international players.

"My aim is to get adults and children to react to the news and enable them to understand a bit about the conflicts," Pineau, who aims the book at nine to 13-year-olds, told Reuters.

The novel is the latest in a series of publications called "Little Rebels" which try to explain complex world conflicts to school children.

The main characters in "Panic in Baghdad" -- David, 15, and Laurianne, 16, -- manage to avert a war in Iraq by escaping from their French embassy homes there to hide in the ruins of ancient Babylon, sparking international panic and forcing the United States to promise not to attack until they are found.

The pair, who escape across the border, are never traced, Washington is forced to hold fire and Iraq is saved from a war.

"I try to show that behind a war there are people who are trying to live their lives (but) the Iraqis are not 100 percent positive either -- I have not erased the idea of the dictator or of the weapons of mass destruction," he says.

In France, home to a range of newspapers aimed at children as young as seven, a sizeable market exists for books which untangle big questions for children and one with which publisher Michalon is already familiar.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030211/od_uk_nm/oukoe_iraq_france_kids_1

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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?artid=38515187

Making consumer decisions is child's play!
Harneet Singh, TIMES NEWS NETWORK

INDIA, FEB 25, 2003- The remote control is in their hands. Advertisers need their approval for selling everything under the sun from toothpaste and jams to cars, TVs, refrigerators and washing machine. Such is their importance that even services like Life Insurance require their support to draw home the message.

From Mummy ka magic chalega kya to Doodh doodh doodh, the advertising industry is relying more and more on children to sell ideas, products and services especially in TVC�s (television commercials).

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http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/family/article/0,1651,TCP_1042_1767129,00.html

Today's well-connected (middle school) kid

By Monique Fields St. Petersburg Times

U.S.A., Feb. 24, 2003-At 12 years old, Crystal Wellhausen is a cell phone expert.

Crystal, a middle school student in Largo, has had her phone since she was 10, when her parents bought it for her so she could stay in touch at her karate tournaments. Now she regularly calls her friends, changes the ring tones and plays the game Brick Attack.
"It's silver, and it's, like, a Nokia," Crystal said. "It has a frog on the cover of it as a screen saver, and it glows when you use it."
The girls' dream of having a conventional land line phone in their bedroom is as out of date as black-and-white TV and record players. It has to be cellular. And it won't wait for high school.
Cell phones now are essential accessories in middle school. One cellular company says research shows about 25 percent of kids age 10 to 14 have a cell phone. Two of every three who don't have cell phones want one.

More and more middle school students are using cell phones to call their friends, send text messages, vote for their favorite music videos and play electronic games.
Latrice Crook, 14, of St. Petersburg, uses her phone for downloading SpongeBob Square-Pants messages and looking at music offerings on VH1 and MTV. Her phone also features a "rescue ring."
"If you're on a date and you don't want to be there, it will call and you can make up a story," said Latrice, a middle school student who doesn't date.
If she did, she'd schedule the ring to go off at a particular time, answer the phone, and report, "My mom told me to come home."

But some families are fighting the cell phone craze among middle school students.
Michael Bracht, 11, of St. Petersburg has been begging his parents for months to no avail. He recalled his parents' exact words: " 'When you get a job and you pay your own bills, you can have a cell phone.' " said Bracht.

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http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-denver26.html

Denver airport wants kids to laugh, not cry

U.S.A. DENVER, Colorado (AP)February 25, 2003 -- Sporting a smiley-face sticker, 3-year-old JoAnna Sandland walked toward the airport metal detector as a security screener waved a Goofy puppet to coax her along.

"Don't be scared," Teresa Johnson said. "Come give Goofy a high-five."

The props were part of a new program at Denver International Airport to make airport screening less scary for kids. Transportation Security Administration officials were on hand Tuesday to see whether the idea could work nationwide.

Since October, the Denver airport has dedicated a single security lane to families with children under 12 so they can go through together.

A fuzzy yellow duck sits atop a metal post outside a metal detector. Children receive smiley-face stickers before they start toward the detector. For younger children, screeners use puppets to encourage them.

"With all of these daunting security measures we've implemented, it can be a little disconcerting to a child," said Bill Pickle, TSA director in Denver.

The program, the only one of its kind in the nation, was launched after screeners noticed the security process sometimes caused children to cry, said screener Celeste Sanchez.

"They don't want to give up their blankie to be screened, so we exchange the blankie for a sticker. They forget about it and they get happy again," Sanchez said.

When JoAnna walked through, she triggered an alarm by rubbing her hand against the side of the detector. She went with her mother, brother and sister to a second checkpoint, where Sanchez removed JoAnna's shoes and asked her to stand on a blue mat decorated with kittens.

The girl looked amused as Sanchez waved a metal detector disguised as a caterpillar wand across her arms and legs.

JoAnna's mother, Jennifer Sandland, said the program seems to work.

"Usually they're scared and they scream," she said. "But they're very calm."

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http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/061/north/Little_wanderers+.shtml

Little wanderers

By Brenda J. Buote, Boston Globe Staff

BOSTON, USA- Mar.2 2003 -At Salisbury Elementary School, enrollment figures are monitored not by the month or the day, but by the hour.

As of 8 a.m., Wednesday, 109 new students had enrolled this school year. Ninety had left. On average, one to three students leave or enter the school each week.

''Some kids come in with a parent, others get dropped off in a cab,'' said Christine A. Kneeland, principal of the school that serves students in kindergarten through sixth grade. ''Sometimes they're here 48 hours, sometimes three weeks. We never know how long they'll stay.''

Many of the children who move in and out of the district are homeless. From October to May, they stay in the motels and trailers .

[Take] Amber, a fourth-grade student at Salisbury Elementary. A quiet child who has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, it was often difficult for Amber to sit still through class. Now, with help from special education teacher, Fran McConnell, Amber has learned to stay in her chair. As a reward for exercising self-restraint, Amber was given an art supply kit that McConnell purchased.

''The day she came home with it, she was so proud of herself,'' said Lindy Burnett, Johnson's mother. ''She couldn't stop talking about it. She was beaming.''

''Children who go home to a motel room are no different in their ability to learn than children who go home to a mansion,'' said Collins, who has been working at Salisbury Elementary since 1990. ''Where they differ is in their need for support. That's the key to our success with these kids, what we provide them.

''If they're hungry, we feed them. If they're cold, we give them a coat. If they need nurturing, we're here to give them that, too,'' Collins added. ''We can't look at their home life as a disability. No matter what their background, we expect each of our kids to succeed.''

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http://cgi.wn.com/?action=display&article=18962402&template=worldnews/index.txt&index=recent

Nation Mourns Loss of TV's 'Mr. Rogers'

PITTSBURGH (AP) � From politicians and entertainers to parents and children, the nation mourned Fred Rogers as a trusted friend who helped raise generations of Americans that tuned into ``Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.''

Rogers died Thursday after a bout with stomach cancer at his Pittsburgh home at 74.

``In real life as in the Neighborhood, Mr. Rogers was an extraordinary man,'' cellist and Neighborhood guest Yo-Yo Ma said. ``Through music and stories, his caring and wisdom transcended every barrier; his advocacy for children was truly an advocacy for the human race.''

Rogers' low-key, low-tech public television show was in sharp contrast to the louder, more animated competition. It presented Rogers as one adult in an increasingly busy world who always had time to listen to children.

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http://www.gazettenet.com/02272003/news/3829.htm

Little scholars share poems

By KRISTIN PALPINI, Staff Writer, Daily Hampshire Gazette

SOUTHAMPTON, U.S.A.-Feb. 27, 2003 - At the tender ages of 3 and 4, students at Pied Piper Nursery School use their voices and hands to recite poetry by famed New England writer Robert Frost.

These little scholars communicate "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" in sign language as part of their teacher Cheryl Elizabeth Waddell's dedication to furthering children's understanding of art and their community.

The children began memorizing "Stopping by Woods" as a birthday present to Carol Freebourn, Edwards Public Library's longtime children's librarian until her retirement last year.

Waddell said the children like to act out poems, and that sign language is a good way to practice their fine motor skills.

"I think it enriches their learning experience ... it reinforces their language as well as teaches the beauty of poetry and graceful motion," she said.

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I will truly miss him

3/2/2003 -AS A little girl, I never thought I would miss Mr. Rogers. I was a critical kid and his relentless sweetness annoyed me, so at age 5 I wrote him a blunt letter: ''You are not my favorite television show,'' I informed him. He wrote me back right away, saying he was happy I was able to express my opinions so well. That response epitomizes his genuine caring and goodness, and it stayed with me as I grew up.

Thirty years later, I just can't express how much I will miss Mr. Rogers .

MONTANA MILLER, Harvard in

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/061/letter/I_will_truly_miss_himP.shtml

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http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/061/business/Chasing_tweens_+.shtml

Chasing 'tweens'

Reebok joins the race for the $10 billion spent by Americans aged 7 through 12

By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff

U.S.A.,3/2/2003 A few months before her 9th birthday, Marjorie Smith made the switch from PBS kids shows to the Disney Channel's ''Lizzie McGuire,'' which stars a student who wants to be popular and whose official website includes fashion tips. To Marjorie, Lizzie is cool, and PBS is boring - as boring as having to wear a dress or a plaid jumper.

Her sister, Caitlin, who is about to turn 12, is equally dismissive of dresses.

''Ooh, poofy, yuck,'' she said.

To marketers using websites, e-mail, and cable TV to segment the populace into ever narrower niches, the Smith sisters of Medway are ''tweens'' - past early childhood but not yet teenagers. By one estimate, there are more than 20 million Americans who fall between the ages of 7 and 12, and their collective allowance is $10 billion.

Marketers aren't interested just in where tweens shop today. They're also interested in ''prepping kids'' to be good teen and adult consumers, said author Alissa Quart of ''Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers.''

In theory, brand choices made at age 10 can influence shopping habits for a lifetime. With magazines, websites, and cable networks aimed exclusively at them, American kids are learning about brands and being turned into consumers at a younger age.

Something else is at play, marketers said. A more consensus-style of parenting has emerged that has given tweens more buying power. ''Where do you want to go for dinner?'' a parent might ask a child. According to Livingston, a tween's input is taken into account in making $74 billion of family purchases a year

Some people are unhappy at the trend, blaming marketing by fast-food chains for contributing to child obesity. Ellen Smith, the Medway mother, now refers to the Walt Disney Co. as the ''evil empire'' for the way it has turned movies and TV shows into a showcase for materialism.

''The images are all of skinny girls in skimpy clothes wearing a lot of makeup,'' she said.

Erica Martin of Roxbury, who recently shopped with her 10-year-old daughter at South Shore Plaza in Braintree, agrees. ''Some of the clothing is too grown-up,'' she said.

According to Sharkansky, today's tweens are more likely to emulate their mothers than rebel against them...in a bid to stay young, many of today's parents look to the same pop culture ''pulse points'' as their daughters.

While parents and kids still get into arguments, they are less common, author Livingston said.

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News for Kids Editorial Team
http://www.angelfire.com/realm2/newsforkids/index.html

NEWSBITES FOR KIDS [TM] is published by the News for Kids website. It is a weekly e-newsletter for kids all over the globe. It gathers news stories about the everyday life of kids. If you would like to subscribe, please send email to [email protected] with "Subscribe" in the subject line.

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