I'm a full-time mummy

I had previously written about how we make use of technologies to parent, educate and learn together as a family, shared our family's guidelines on technology usage for our children and also recommended some favourite Windows apps and utilities and games for the family. With an Intel® Core™ M processor in our Acer Switch 12 device, it means we get the best of both worlds - a laptop and an ultra-fast tablet useful for our family. I'm very blessed with the magic it does in our everyday lives so as parents, it is our duty to make full use of the wonders and technologies around us in our parenting journey.

For today's post, I will share with you on how we can make use of Microsoft Edge as a teaching tool for our children. Before we begin, let's learn a bit of history first. Do you know that for years, Microsoft’s built-in option for browsing websites was Internet Explorer?

Now with the introduction of Windows 10, we have a new built-in browser option which is Microsoft Edge to peruse all our favourite web contents! It is a new generation of web browser aimed to make the Internet safer and more functional than ever before. It's revolutionary layout engine makes it adaptable to new and updated Web standards and interacts well with Cortana, the Microsoft virtual personal assistant and gives users a way to annotate Web pages.

Now with our Acer Switch 12 device, how do we make use of Microsoft Edge as a teaching tool for our children?

Microsoft Edge's Web Note

The Web Note feature in Microsoft Edge browser lets you take notes, write, doodle, and highlight directly on webpages. Yes! Scribble all you want on the web page itself! What's more cool is you can save and share your doodle and writing in all the usual ways. With the web page as your canvas, the sky is the limit, you can write notes on it to remind yourself or draw funny doodles on images and more!

As for me, I used this feature to highlight and also put in remarks on what I should explain to our kiddos for our bedtime news articles reading routine and also doodle on images when I want to highlight something prior to teaching our kiddos.

Can you think of the endless possibilities to teach your children with this feature? Get them to read news articles or books or any reading materials on the Edge browser, highlight words or sentences that they do not understand (so that you can keep track of it) or draw on the web page if your child wanted to know more... lots and lots of teaching and learning moments parents!!!!

 
Microsoft Edge's Reading View

Another cool feature with Microsoft Edge is the ability to turn on / off the reading view. You know how sometimes it gets annoying with all the adverts popping up and distracting you as you were browsing? With this feature, you eliminate all the ads, links, and other distracting content typically displayed around the news and articles! Awesome possum!

For example, a typical web page will look like below, with links, banners and adverts all around to distract and tempt you away (what more with young children who are so easily distracted with colour animated images)

To activate the Reading View, you just click on the book icon at the right end of the address bar. (*Note: In the event that the book icon is greyed out, then reading mode is not available for the page that you are on) If you can successfully click on the book icon, your webpage in reading view will look like below. Just text with the article's accompanying images. No ads, links, pop-ups etc. The web page is centred on the page, and the text is in a different, clearer font, larger size, and wider spacing, all optimised for better reading. In terms of teaching tool, this feature helps in removing these distractions to keep your children focused on the information they need to read or learn.

The above are some of the main features that I love when using Microsoft Edge as a teaching tool! Of course there are other features such as the Reading List, ability to Favourite (bookmark) the webpage and more. I hope my sharing is helpful to you guys!

Btw, Microsoft & Intel are currently running a contest where users who purchase a brand new participating 2 in 1 PC can stand a chance to win RM500 shopping vouchers! You can find out more about the promo at: http://www.makemagic.my/500promo

In the meantime, you can learn more at the Make Magic website. 

Make magic. Every day.

#makemagiceveryday

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

I was just reading an article recently stating that many parents can't remember if their children were tested for hearing loss at birth. In fact, for our case, only our 3rd child had gone through the hearing test.

I can confirmed our older 2 kiddos did not require any hearing tests at the time of their birth. Maybe the policies changed since then but before 2013, our kiddos did not go through any hearing screenings. Also, I can remember this happening to our 3rd child as she had to go through the tests twice as the first one done a day after her birth produced weak results (suspected weak results due to amniotic fluid in one of her ears) and we were given a later date (I think when she was 1 or 2 months old) to come to the hospital for subsequent test just to make sure everything was fine.

I remembered our baby lying down on the bed with a headphone and the nurse looking at the computer and I could see some graph lines shooting up and down as she pressed some buttons at interval times. Thank God she passed the test at the second round!

Diagnosis and treatment of hearing loss at birth is critical to lowering the risk of impaired speech, language and literacy later in life, write the researchers in JAMA Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery. "When babies are born, parents are accustomed to counting fingers and toes and asking about vaccinations, but they also need to be educated to ask if their baby passed the hearing test," said Dr. Melissa Pynnonen, the study's lead author from the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor.

Hearing loss is the most common health condition at birth in the U.S. Each year about three of every 1,000 children are born with moderate to profound hearing loss, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

The most intense period of speech and language development occurs during the first three years of life, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Also, the brain builds the needed pathways to understand sound during that time. 

Among parents with children at high risk for hearing loss due to jaundice, being premature, using antibiotics for infection or being admitted to the intensive care unit, only about 69 percent remembered hearing screenings. Parents should know that most babies who fail their hearing screenings will go on to have normal hearing. "So don’t panic just yet if you get an abnormal result, but make sure you follow up," she said.
 

What about your child? Do they have any hearing screenings after birth?

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

Few days ago, I printed some free handwriting practise worksheet template which I found online and started letting our girl write on it.

It was so frustrating to me to see her trying to grasp the concept of writing in between the 2 lines. So, that day, I had to crack my brain and think of how to get our kiddos to learn and remember better. And today I'm sharing my personal DIY trick in getting our 4 year old girl to write in between the lines. I used the empty side of a postcard and made 2 boxes. One square box and one slim rectangular box like below. Then I use a loytape to tape all around the edge of the boxes.

I then let our girl used it. Works so much better and easier! I love it!

The close up of her written work for the day!

Of course there are so many other ways online if you googled for it, but the above is my personal DIY trick which is working for now. I will keep my options open for other tricks as well if this trick stop working hahahaha but until then, I am loving what I'm seeing!

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.