Sleep! Sleep! Sleep!

* this article is extracted from http://sciencepsle.wordpress.com/2010/11/02/sleep/*

Sleep

Posted on November 2, 2010 by sciencepsle

How much sleep does an 11 year old or 12 year old need? 9-11 hours is usually recommended. Many Singaporean children fall short by far.

Studies have shown that children with higher IQs usually slept longer. Studies have also shown that children who sleep longer have longer attention span.

Adolescents who suffer sleep deprivation have decreased attentiveness, decreased short-term memory, inconsistent performance and delayed response or reaction time. Some have even attributed it to affecting brain development.

Other studies have shown that people who do not get enough sleep also suffer:

• Impaired attentiveness (Fallone et al 2001)
• Impaired ability to retain new memories (Yoo et al 2007a)
• Impaired immune system (Rogers et al 2001)
• Greater emotionality (e.g., becoming more upset by disturbing images—Yoo et al 2007b)
• Increased afternoon and evening stress hormone levels (Copinschi 2005)
• Increased feelings of hunger (which may lead to overeating—Copinschi 2005)

I am sure this is not new information to most adults. Strangely though, many adults seem to think that their kids can function fine when they sleep at 11 pm and wake up at 6 am. That’s only 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep for a child. Way under what is required.

How does this apply to the primary school child? Well, ever wondered why your child cannot remember things, is restless, easily frustrated, unable to concentrate, careless, not alert. Well, this could be one small part of the answer. Sleep….ZZZzzzzz.

Dr Avi Sadeh of Tel Aviv University conducted a study on fourth and sixth graders. The first group got about half an hour more sleep than usual and the second group got half an hour less sleep than usual. After three nights, the children were tested for their neurobiological function using a test which was highly predictive of both achievement test scores and ability to concentrate in class. The findings showed “the performance gap caused by an hour’s difference in sleep was bigger than the normal gap between a fourth and sixth grader. Which is another way of saying that a slightly sleepy sixth-grader will perform in class like a mere fourth grader. A loss of one hour of sleep is equivalent to [the loss of] two years of cognitive maturation and development.” (Bronson 2007)

A study done on elementary school children my Dr Paul Suratt of the University of Virginia showed that the vocabulary test scores were reduced by seven points due to sleep problems.

At a high school level, Dr Kyla Wahlstrom of the University of Minnesota surveyed over 7000 high school students and found that teenagers who received As averaged 15 minutes more sleep than B students, who on the average had 11 minues more sleep than the C students, while the Cs had ten minutes more sleep than the D students.

A simple search on Wikipedia on Sleep will tell you that sleep is very important for memory processing. “In a study conducted by Turner, Drummond, Salamat, and Brown,^[45] working memory was shown to be affected by sleep deprivation. Working memory is important because it keeps information active for further processing and supports higher-level cognitive functions such as decision making, reasoning, and episodic memory.”

Sleep cycles can be divided into NREM (Stages N1-4) and REM. Typically, it occurs in this order of N1, N2, N3, N4 and lastly REM. The proportion of REM sleep increases later in the night and just before natural awakening.

The significance of this information is that Declarative memory (recalling facts) benefits from Slow wave sleep, which occurs in NREM Stages N3 and N4. Procedural memory (sequence, process and routines), however, is processed during REM sleep, which occurs mostly later at night and just before natural awakening. By continually disrupting REM sleep when we awak our children too early, we may infact be affecting their procedural memory.

So before you think that your child is getting by just fine with 7 hours of sleep a night, ask yourself again. Is it good enough for you that you child’s brain development is just scraping through? Is their brain development actually impaired by sleep deprivation?

For an interesting radio broadcast, click on:

http://www.onpointradio.org/2007/10/sleep-deprived-children

Good night. Sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite!

1. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/30920.php
2. http://www.onpointradio.org/2007/10/sleep-deprived-children
3. Bronson, P. 2007, Oct 7. Snooze or Lose. New York magazine.
4. Copinschi G. 2005. Metabolic and endocrine effects of sleep deprivation. Essent Psychopharmacol. 6(6): 341-347.
5. Fallone G, Acebo C, Arnedt JT, Seifer R, and Carskadon MA. 2001. Effects of acute sleep restriction on behavior, sustained attention, and response inhibition in children. Percept Mot Skills 93: 213-229.
6. Fallone G, Acebo C, Seifer R, Carskadon MA. 2005. Experimental restriction of sleep opportunity in children: Effects on teacher ratings. Sleep 28(12): 1561-1567.
7. Rogers NL, Szuba MP, Staab JP, Evans DL, and Dinges DF. 2001. Neuroimmunologic aspects of sleep and sleep loss. Semin. Clin. Neuropsychiatry 6(4): 295-307.
8. Yoo SS, Gujar N, Hu, Jolesz FA, and Walker MP. 2007a. The human emotional brain without sleep—a prefrontal amygdale disconnect. Current Biology 17(20): 877-878.
9. Yoo SS, Hu PT, Gujar N, Jolesz FA and Walker MP. 2007b. A deficit in the ability to form new human memories without sleep. Nat Neurosci 10(3): 385-392.
10. www.parentingscience.com

Footnote from me :

1) No wonder I'm losing my memory from lack of sleep
2) My brain's no longer developing
3) Give me better excuses for kids to finish their work faster and go to bed much earlier

Woah! What's word is this?

At 57 strokes, this is a really cool character that doesn’t show up in any 输入法 shū rù fǎ - character input method.

From wikipedia:

Made up of 57 strokes, the Chinese character for “biáng” is one of the most complex Chinese characters in contemporary usage, although the character is not found in modern dictionaries or even in the Kangxi dictionary.

The character is composed of 言 (speak) in the middle flanked by 幺 (tiny) on both sides. Below it, 馬 (horse) is similarly flanked by 長 (grow). This central block itself is surrounded by 月 (moon) to the left, 心 (heart) below, 刂 (knife) on the right, and 八 (eight) above. These in turn are surrounded by a second layer of characters, namely 宀 (roof) on the top and 辶 (walk) curving around the left and bottom.

Because the Chinese character for “biáng” cannot be entered into computers (the character has not been added to Unicode), phonetic substitutes like Chinese: 彪彪面; pinyin: biāo biāo miàn) or Chinese: 冰冰面; pinyin: bīng bīng miàn) are often used.

Images & text from here - read more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bi%C3%A1ngbi%C3%A1ng_noodles

Conjoined twins

Watched this on Discovery today.

I cried when young twins were brought into the OT for them to be separated. I could feel mummy Buckles' mixed emotions as she cradled the girls, not knowing if it would be the last time she'll be cradling them. And I'm so happy that everything's well for them now, not perfectly 200% well but the spirit of the family makes up to 200%.

"should we separate them"? Craniopagus conjoined twins seems to pose more risks for separations with the complex arteries, not that the other conjoined twins don't. Singaporeans felt sad when adult twins Ladan and Laleh didn't make it out from the OT. Partially due to the fact that they had remained conjoined into their adulthood (easier to operate on younger conjoined twins). If they had remained conjoined, they do face the risk of one health's failing or thriving from the other twin. Very sad so why did God create them?

Another interesting link

Battle of the Sexes

*extracted from lifestyle MSN*

I often say that I spend more time and energy on my one boy than on my three girls. Other mothers of boys are quick to say the same. Forget that old poem about snips and snails and puppy dog tails, says Sharon O'Donnell, a mom of three boys and the author of House of Testosterone. "Somehow it's been changed to boys being made of 'fights, farts, and video games,' and sometimes I'm not sure how much more I can take!"

Not so fast, say moms of girls, who point out that they have to contend with fussier fashion sense, more prickly social navigations, and a far greater capacity to hold a grudge. And as a daughter grows, a parent's concerns range from body image to math bias.

Stereotyping, or large kernels of truth? "I think parents use 'which is harder?' as an expression of whatever our frustration is at the moment," says family therapist Michael Gurian, author of Nurture the Nature. "Boys and girls are each harder in different ways."

Every child is an individual, of course. His or her innate personality helps shape how life unfolds. Environment (including us, the nurturers) plays a role, too: "There are differences in how we handle boys and girls right from birth," says David Stein, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Virginia State University in Petersburg. "We tend to talk more softly to girls and throw boys in the air."

But it's also true that each gender's brain, and growth, unfolds at a different rate, influencing behavior. Leonard Sax, M.D., author of Boys Adrift, believes parents raise girls and boys differently because girls and boys are so different from birth -- their brains aren't wired the same way.

So, can we finally answer the great parenting debate over which sex is more challenging to raise? Much depends on what you're looking at, and when:

Discipline
Who's harder? Boys
Why don't boys seem to listen? Turns out their hearing is not as good as girls' right from birth, and this difference only gets greater as kids get older. Girls' hearing is more sensitive in the frequency range critical to speech discrimination, and the verbal centers in their brains develop more quickly. That means a girl is likely to respond better to discipline strategies such as praise or warnings like "Don't do that" or "Use your words." "Boys tend to be more tactile -- they may need to be picked up and plunked in a time-out chair," Gurian says. They're also less verbal and more impulsive, he adds, which is especially evident in the toddler and preschool years.

These developmental differences contribute to the mislabeling of normal behavior as problematic, a growing number of observers say. Five boys for every one girl are diagnosed with a "disorder" (including conduct disorder, bipolar disorder, hyperactivity, attention deficit disorder, sensory integration disorder, and oppositional defiant disorder), says Stein, also the author of Unraveling the ADD/ADHD Fiasco. Some kids -- most often boys -- may simply fall on the more robust end of normal. They need more opportunities to expend energy and aggression, as well as firmer limits.

Physical safety
Who's harder? Boys
"Much after-dinner wrestling here," reports Michelle Mayr, the Davis, California, mom of four boys, ages 5 to 12. "I'm constantly fighting to keep my house a home rather than an indoor sports center. Their stuffed animals' primary function is to be added to the pile of pillows everyone is launching into from the coffee table." In general, boys are more rambunctious and aggressive, experts say. Taking risks lights up the pleasure centers of their brains. Many parents find they have to keep a closer eye on what a son is "getting into," or use more bandages.

But letting kids explore -- at the cost of a few scrapes and cuts -- builds character, self-confidence, resilience, and self-reliance, says Wendy Mogel, Ph.D., author of The Blessing of a Skinned Knee. Boys, being natural risk takers, may need encouragement to slow down a little, but maybe girls need to be encouraged to take more risks. Look for opportunities for your daughter to jump off a wall, swim in the deep end, or try the bigger slide.

Communication
Who's harder? First boys, then girls
From birth, a girl baby tends to be more interested in looking at colors and textures, like those on the human face, while a boy baby is drawn more to movement, like a whirling mobile, says Dr. Sax. (These differences play out in the way kids draw: Girls tend to use a rainbow of hues to draw nouns, while boys lean toward blue, black, and silver for their more verblike pictures of vehicles crashing and wars.) In a nutshell, girls are rigged to be people-oriented, boys to be action-oriented. Because girls study faces so intently, they're better at reading nonverbal signals, such as expression and tone of voice. Boys not only learn to talk later than girls and use more limited vocabularies, they also have more trouble connecting feelings with words.

"While most girls share their feelings and details of events, my three sons honestly don't see that as important. I spend my days asking, 'What happened then?' or 'What did he say after you said that?'" O'Donnell says.

Important note: Because boys hold eye contact for shorter periods than girls, parents may worry about autism, since this can be a red flag. "It's a relief for moms to know that this is normal and comes from the way the brains are set up," Gurian says.

Self-esteem
Who's harder? Girls
Developing a healthy self-image is critical to all kids. But as the more compliant and people-oriented gender, girls tend to grow up less confident and more insecure than boys, researchers say. Famed gender researcher and psychologist Carol Gilligan, Ph.D., calls this "the tyranny of nice and kind" -- unwittingly raising girls to be people pleasers.

"This cultural pressure to put others' needs first, ignore one's own gut feelings, and avoid asking for what one wants has traditionally harmed girls," says Jenn Berman, a California family therapist who wrote The A to Z Guide to Raising Happy, Confident Kids. "Despite the fact that she enjoys the positive attention and accolades that people pleasing brings, the more a girl pushes her own needs and desires underground to please others, the more likely her own self-esteem will suffer."

"I see a natural nurturing instinct in my daughter and her friends," says Tracy Lyn Moland, a parenting consultant in Calgary, Alberta, who has a girl, 11, and a boy, 8. "I find myself saying, 'I can take care of that -- you get yourself ready,' when she's trying to mother her brother."

Make no mistake, helpfulness and nurturing are virtues for everybody. But this tendency in girls makes it smart to help her explore and strengthen her inner nature and encourage her to try new things.

Body image is a big part of self-esteem, and though there's certainly body-image dysfunction in boys and men, it remains mostly a female issue. The natural rounding out of the body that happens in puberty clashes with the unnatural slimness girls see in the culture around them.

Be aware of the messages you convey about your own body, diet, and exercise. "It's painfully obvious that girls' negative body image can come directly from seeing their moms look critically in the mirror and complain," says Berman. "Teach your daughter to listen to her body's signals of hunger and satiety. Girls who listen to their bodies tend to listen to their instincts in other areas." Sports are a great way for girls to build confidence and a healthy appreciation for their bodies.


As girls get to be 8 or so, things can get harder: The flip side of being so adept at communicating is that girls exert a lot of energy on it. There can be a great deal of drama around who's mad at whom, who said what and why, and more. Start when your daughter's a toddler to establish an open communication, so she learns she can come to you for advice.

School
Who's harder? Mostly boys
Boys and modern education are not an idyllic match. An indoor-based day and an early emphasis on academics and visual-auditory (as opposed to hands-on) learning ask a lot of a group that arrives at school less mature. In their early years, most boys lag behind girls in developing attentiveness, self-control, and language and fine motor skills.

The relatively recent acceleration of the pre-K and kindergarten curricula has occurred without awareness that the brain develops at different sequences in girls and boys, Dr. Sax says. Music, clay work, finger painting, and physical exercise -- early-ed activities that once helped lively kids acclimate to school -- are vanishing. Few teachers are trained in handling the problems that result.

One area where girls do less well in school concerns spatial learning, such as geometry. Girls may use different parts of their brains to process space perceptions. The key is for parents to present both boys and girls with plenty of no-pressure opportunities to try out the areas that are challenging.

The bottom line? On balance, the general consensus seems to be that boys are more of a handful early on, and girls more challenging beginning in the preteen years. Which means that, as the mom of daughters who are 12, 9, and 7, I have the next ten years cut out for me!

Fun!!

There's some kind of promotion now for Kidzlabs stuffs. Usually priced at $14.90, it's now selling at $9.90.
I bought Night Sky first. The eager beaver me put up the thing in the same night. It looks like chicken pox in the childrens' room. My kids glare up and go "wow.."

Eyed on the Volcano and bought it a few days later. Hmm......will experiment that with my girls one day Grab them now if you can. Though it's more suitable for age 8+ you can always expose your younger child to science early.

You sure??

Saw this book online (but no I'm not buying it. Gonna borrow instead). If my lil' one can really potty train in one week, I'm going to find ways to write to her and buy 10 books in support. If it doesn't work, I'm going to write a book on "WHY YOU SHOULDN'T TRY TO POTTY TRAIN YOUR KID IN ONE WEEK" - citing examples of my girl. And she has to give me free editing; free publishing; free marketing. Heehee!

*******************************************************************************


ABOUT THE BOOK
With just a little know-how potty training will be as easy as A,B,C...

Gina Ford is the queen of routine, and one area she knows from experience that can be a big, scary hurdle for parents is potty training. The good news is that it's very easy when you know all the tips and tricks and there is no need for tantrums or endless hours spent sitting with a toddler who refuses to go potty.

This very clearly organised book answers all your questions and makes potty training easy, and even fun. You will quickly learn:
- How to know when your child is really ready
- How to make potty training fun for your child
- How to reward
- How to deal with little accidents
- Why you need a potty for upstairs and for downstairs
- How to help your child get over bed-wetting
With a little know-how from one of the UK's leading parenting authors, potty training will be as easy as A,B,C...

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
Gina Ford has over twenty years' experience of looking after babies and young children. She has worked as a maternity nurse all over the world for all kinds of people, from lawyers and bankers to newspaper editors, pop stars and other high-profile media personalities. She now runs a consultancy service for parents.

"We Were The Reason"

A few days ago when I was packing the small little treats for the children, I started singing.

I had no idea what prompted me to sing. I remember singing this song in my school choir when I was Sec 1. I can't remember all the words and found the lyrics that same night.

As little children
We would dream of Christmas morn
Of all the gifts and toys
We knew we'd find
But we never realized
A baby born one blessed night
Gave us the greatest gift of our lives

We were the reason
That He gave His life
We were the reason
That He suffered and died
To a world that was lost
He gave all He could give
To show us the reason to live

As the years went by
We learned more about gifts
The giving of ourselves
And what that means
On a dark and cloudy day
A man hung crying in the rain
All because of love, all because of love

I've finally found the reason for living
It's in giving every part of my heart to Him
In all that I do every word that I say
I'll be giving my all just for Him, for Him

He is my reason to live

Can someone enlighten me, is this a Christmas song or for Holy Week??

Advent Calendar I

24 days to Christmas and the children are counting the days. I bought one box of the Advent Calendar for the 2 of them to share, so designated the odd numbered days to be opened by che-che and even numbered days - Aricia.

The boxThey are excited not knowing what to expect in each little box Day 1 - 1st Dec (boy with drumstick) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Day 2 - 2nd Dec (BBQ pit) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Day 3- 3rd Dec (small table with cup and pan) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Day 4 - 4th Dec (girl with ice-cream)
* forgot to take photos

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Day 5- 5th Dec (ice-cream cart) Ps: Day 4's little gift is this girl holding an ice-cream. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Day 6 -6th Dec (ice-cream trolley) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Day 7 - 7th Dec (policeman) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Day 8 -8th Dec (tree with a cat on top) - which made mei-mei so happy.

Caterpillars 2

Day 4 - Thursday
All caterpillars have turned upside down by the end of the day. In the morning,the sisters were so united that they positioned themselves so closely and the same time.
In the evening, noticed too - the 'me' has already moved to the top and there's white thread on the top.

Evening time, 'me' is slowly forming into pupa. I saw the struggle again, this time noticed it's pink outer shell.... within 1 hour it turned to looking like 'dried shrimp'.
The sisters' head has already dropped except for mine. Strange? Noticed the head has been moved to the netting. How is it possible? They were hanging upside down remember?

Day 5- Friday (5th September)
All caterpillars are hanging like bats now.
It's the 3rd day for Papa Caterpillar, 7 more days to go??
It's the 1st day for the three female caterpillars, 9 more days to go??

Day 6/7/8/9
I shan't waste any time blogging this now, until Papa butterfly emerges.

Meanwhile, just log on to read the excitement.

Caterpillars 1

Day 1 - 1st Sept
Brought home our little crawlies home. Makes my hairs stand. Eeeks........

Athena was too fearful, Aricia is not. She wants to touch the container which I'd love to. I didn't let her hold it coz' she's quite 'rough' and afraid the caterpillars might have been mishandled. Or worst still, she has been throwing things, she might suddenly throw it and the poor caterpillars will have internal injuries. Once she shook the container while I held on to it . *giddy giddy*


The caterpillars' Godma cleaned the containers for them. keke... I filmed it and half the time tell her to "hurry hurry" even before she step into the kitchen to throw away the faeces. Heehee! I was feeling so ... itchy. No wonder Athena also feels so fearful lah!
Since we have 2 pairs, we'd have them named like our family.
Noticed this 2 always stick together. We decided to name them the 2 girls. In another container, the caterpillars don't stick together that often. But I saw them head to head and moving together like courtship.
The two sisters are very hungry. I mean real hungry, they finished munching the leaves that MH put in, we put in one more they finished it fast.
The two of us' digestive system no good, no appetite to eat much. Signs of ?? aging?
Gotta tell you our caterpillars - we are breeding special and high-class butterflies, okay.........they're on top of the piano = get to enjoy lovely music. Ahem.... let me rephrase that last sentence-trash music.

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Day 2- Tuesday
The day passed with the 2 sisters eating alot.(they are always together) Really alot. When we brought home, MH put 2 leaves. Last night when Godma cleaned the container, we threw in another leaf. This morning, threw in one, they finished quickly. Threw in another. Amazing! No wonder Eric Carle wrote that book.

The caterpillars eating. Very yucky to see the eyes.
Daytime, noticed too one of the older folks have been hanging around the netting area. Did notice something white but it didn't stick to it, probably still finding a suitable fengshui spot.

In the night, the sisters are playing alongside. Serious! They kept moving together, at one point I thought they were doing syncronise swimming.(moving symmetrically and same direction).
As for the 'us', old folks not moving much. The leaf was still the previous night's. One decided to crawl up to the netting again, suspect is the same one last night.
Later, very late in the night, noticed that one moving the body in a funny way, and noticed the caterpillar trying to push out white silk or dunno what threads. Very poor thing, it's like how our body move when we're vomitting??

See the white thread.
At 2am, the caterpillar was hanging in 'J'

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Day 3- Wednesday
MH had prepared me for this, the head will drop out. So the head was on the base of container. Thank goodness last night when Godma cleaned the containers, I told her to put more leaves for both so that I won't interfere with the 'forming into pupa' caterpillar and can feed the other the same time.

In these picture, notice how the 2 sisters keep sticking together? The 3 pictures are of the pupa which has hardened-looking covering (can't get good photos) At one point, I saw the pupa shaking vigorously. Had it recorded down but will upload later.
Later in the night, noticed the 2 sisters have spun threads too. Thought they were dead but they were still moving in that 'J' position. Playing?

What happened to me? Athena says the other lazy one is me. The container have not been changed, alot of faeces but we can't interefere with movements.

Drool factor #3

Domestic goddess suddenly kicks in. Eye-ing these.... love to have them but...........Winnie the Pooh Musical Toaster by VillaWare
Toasts Pooh and Tigger's face onto each slice, and plays the Winnie the Pooh theme when the toasts pops up.

Winnie the Pooh Waffler by VillaWare
Makes two waffles with Pooh's face on one side and Tigger's face on the other side.



Mickey Single Waffler by VillaWare
Bakes a single 6" Mickey waffle.



Mickey 4 at a time Waffler by VillaWare
Bakes four 4" Mickey waffles.
Mickey 2 Slice Musical Toaster by VillaWare
Toasts Mickey's face onto each side of the bread slice and plays the Mickey Mouse Club March when the toast pops up.

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Children's rooms - wow!