Researcher: Your job is to find some background information related to an important idea in the reading. Search through available references such as library books, reference books such as the encyclopedia, magazines. You might even interview someone who knows about your topic. Find some websites on the Internet so that you can do your investigation online. Share an interesting tidbit related to your reading.
Please respond to one other Research entry.
6 comments:
On pages 62-63, Rivers and his mother talk about the Banana Splits Program that they attended when he was in third grade. It was a program for children of divorced parents.
“They met once a week with the school counselor to talk about divorce and stuff. At the end of the year the kids had an ice-cream party with banana splits. Mom asked me if I wanted to go, but I wasn’t sure if I should, since we didn’t know if my father was gone forever or what.” (p. 62-63)
I was very interested to learn more about the Banana Splits Program that Fletcher discussed in the book. After doing some research, I discovered some interesting information about the program.
Banana Splits is a school-based support program for children with divorced or deceased parents. The program was developed by New York social worker, Liz McGonagle in 1978. McGonagle’s belief was that a peer, school-based program would have a encouraging influence on the lives of children.
Today, Dr. Valerie Raymond runs the Banana Splits Resource Center in New York City. She helps schools around the world establish Banana Splits Programs. Dr. Raymond also offers training opportunities at the center. These training sessions give people the opportunity to learn coping, problem solving, and communication skills that can be utilized for both children and parents in the school-based support groups.
http://www.bananasplitsresourcecenter.org/index.html
That was a great idea to reserch the banana splits program. It was great that the school offered that.
I started out looking on line for information on "why dads leave?" I also looked up statics about what happens to fatherless children. Children who had no father are more likely to commit suicide, get pregnant as a teen, end up in jail or on drugs, etc. All the research shows that a father figure is very important in the development of the child.
All that information was very depressing however, so I decided to look up something else. I liked the concept of an Un-Birthday. My birthday sometimes falls on Easter, and a friend of mine has a New Years birthday. There's always a party, only its not for him. I wanted to know how to make holiday birthdays seem more special.
This is what I found on E How.com
1. Celebrate the birthday a week or 2 ahead of time.
2. Always give birthday wishes on the shared day. Begin with the happy birthday wish first.
3. Avoid combined parties.
4. Never a combined gift.
5. Decorate for a birthday.
I was very interested in the Un-Birthday that Rivers celebrated every year. My birthday is on New Years Day so I definitely understood the difficulties of having a Holiday Birthday. I thought the Un-Birthday idea in June was a great idea. We always celebrated my birthday in school after Christmas vacation. I did some research on how other people felt and dealt with Holiday Birthdays:
"I am one of those lucky people who has a birthday squashed in between Christmas and New Years...I hope there is a special place in hell for the creator of 'For Your Christmas Time Birthday' card."
(this blog was great!)-www.science-professor.blogspot.com
I also found that families from Jewish and Christian backgrounds had a very frustrating time with holiday birthdays. Most parents on www.parents.berkeley.edu. celebrated their holiday time birthdays in mid to late January or in June.
Oh my God kmore - what a coincidence - and we posted at the same time too!
I decided to do a search on single parent statistics since Rivers was raised by a single parent. I came to find out that according to Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support: 2005 released by the U.S Census Bureau in August in 2007 that there are approximately 13.6 million single parents in the United States today. These parents are responsible for raising 21.2 million children (approximately 26%of children under 21 in the U.S today). According to the U.S. Census Bureau the "average" single parent is a mother. Approximately 84% of custodial parents are mothers, and 16% of custodial parents are fathers. 79% of custodial mothers are gainfully employed. 50% work full time year round. 29% work part time or part year. http://singleparents.about.com/od/
legalissues/p/portrait.htm
After reading over the statistics I began to think that the average single parent is doing it all: work, parenting, providing for their child financially. Parenting is not an easy task and requires lots of juggling for the average typical parents. I couldn't imagine what a single mom faces having to do it all.
I also found a neat website for single parents in which single parents can come together to provide single parent tips, advice, encouragement, and support. It is also a dating site for single parents. http://www.askmeaboutmykids.com/
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