Month: January 2019

The benefits of reading aloud

1st February is World Read Aloud Day.

Last year more than a million people participated in this event. Sounds fabulous, but actually when you come to think of how many people there actually are in this world (estimated at ~7.7 billion in November last year) that is pretty darn pathetic!

Every day should be a read aloud day.

Reading stories to children is probably one of the most beneficial things you, as a parent or older sibling, can do, apart from giving them love, food, clothing and shelter that is.

It’s not only little kids that enjoy being read to either, older kids appreciate a good story too.

Scary fact: South Africa came last in the world in a recent survey. They discovered that 8 out of 10 kids in Grade 4 cannot read for meaning – in any language. What does that terrifying sentence signify? It means that those kids can read the words, but when they have finished “reading” them, they don’t know what they just read.

It makes no sense right? Sadly it’s true, and when you don’t understand what you are reading, it strips away all the joy associated with books.

You, as a parent, have the power to instil a love of reading in your child from early on.

It’s as simple as reading a little story at bedtime. Every bedtime! It’s also a sneaky way of having one-on-one special time with your kids.

When you read with emphasis and expression, it makes the story come alive. Not only does that make it interesting, but the way you read gets your kids to understand how grammar works, without even realising. You pause at a comma and stop at the end of the sentence.

They can hear how words are being pronounced.

Being read aloud to also exposes children to new words and increases their vocabulary.

Literature is also a great way of helping kids understand something that they have not necessarily been exposed to themselves. It makes them more aware and instils empathy.

Please do leave your cell phone in another room when you are reading to your children. Possibly the most irritating thing in the world is having a story continually interrupted by pinging, ringing and a distracted storyteller.

To celebrate World Read Aloud Day we are making ‘Sibo Saves Water’ a free digi-read on the website. It’s a double celebration – the 2nd of February is World Wetlands Day.

Happy reading and listening!

Sibo

Getting Organised

Stress is a horrible thing. It often sneaks up on a person and causes all sorts of problems. There are many reasons why one gets stressed out but one of the worst causes of stress is being disorganised and finding yourself running out of time, or arriving at a place without important stuff that you need.

Like the homework you left on the dining room table or your PE clothes, or your permission slip to go on an outing.

There’s a relatively easy way to eliminate such stress.

Plan your day.

Ergh! Sibo. I hear you say… that’s so boring.

Not really—if you plan your day, you’d probably have more free time to do fun stuff.  

How many times have we all rushed around, looking for something at the last minute, panicking like crazy when we can’t find it—only to find that it’s right there, under our nose. Or even worse, having to leave the house without it.

Use a diary or planner and write down everything that you have to do the night before.

This way you won’t wake up in the middle of the night, think of something you have to do the next day and lay there worrying that you’ll have forgotten it by morning.

Part of planning, is developing a routine.

  • Try to go bed at the same time each night and get up at the same time in the morning. Set two alarms if you have a hard time waking up.
  • Have a shower, get dressed, and eat your breakfast (or the other way around if you are a messy eater).
  • Rather be ready to leave five minutes early than be running five minutes late.
  • Pack your school things the night before. Make certain all the stuff you need for the next day is in your case before you go to sleep. One less thing to worry about.
  • Create a routine for yourself as far as your homework is concerned too. Try and do it at the same time every day. Don’t leave it for after supper when you are too tired to think either.
  • Keep the space where you do your homework neat tidy so that you don’t get distracted.
  • Lastly, don’t multi-task. While you might think you’re getting loads of things done all at once, usually nothing gets done properly. Do one thing at a time and do it well.

Being organised means being in control.

Sibo

May you be in your element in 2019!

I know this is a tad late but here goes anyway… Happy 2019 Everybody! I hope it is going to be a seriously awesome one for us all.

This is the year we celebrate the ‘The International Year of the Periodic Table’.

According to the powers that be, i.e. UNESCO, the Periodic Table of Elements is “A Common Language for Science” and is one of the most significant achievements in science, capturing the essence not only of chemistry, but also of physics and biology.

The Period System was first discovered by Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869—which makes 2019 the 150th anniversary of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements.

So… what exactly is this table of elements?

In a nut shell, it’s a grid that organises and names all the elements. Elements are made out of atoms, which are made up of protons, neutrons and electrons. Each element has an atomic number and a name. Some of the elements letters are easy to understand, others not so.

It’s like the alphabet of everything that we can see, touch or smell. In fact, even those we can’t.

For instance, O (number 8) is for oxygen. We can’t see it, smell it or taste it—but it’s there, otherwise we would not be here! Oxygen is vital for all life.

Au (number 79) is for gold – but the Au comes from the Latin name for gold – aurum.

Helium (He – number 2) is the gas that gets used in those fancy floating balloons (which, by the way, are really bad for the environment because often they float away landing up in rivers and oceans causing huge amounts of damage to the environment).

Elements are like the building blocks for all the matter in the world. For example, when hydrogen and oxygen (H2O) are combined the result is water. This is called chemistry.

Fun fact: Hydrogen is the most common element found in the Universe.

We all do chemistry most days without even realising it, for example, if we bake a cake, ingredients are added together to make something new.

And yes! People are obviously made up of elements too. It does not matter where you live either–on earth or mars—the elements are still the same.

To help celebrate this year, we’re making my book “Sibo Mixes Things Up” a free digi-read on the website for January.

Chemistry is cool!

Sibo

PS Want to see how much you know about elements? Try my QUIZ