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Zaatar Mix on Pizza Dough

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By Majida Mehana

Zaatar is a popular mix in the middle east. The main ingredient is the plant zaatar/thyme (origanum syriacum).

It is mixed with other herbs and is offered in breakfasts, brunches, and public gatherings as a snack.

It is often eaten with Lebanese bread or cooked on a dough. The mix can be bought from most middle eastern food stores or made at home. There are probably hundreds of ways to do the mix. The plant grows up in villages and every family collects the green leaves and does its own mix. Farmers also grow the plant for commercial use.

I will share the family recipe along with the dough recipe. Similarly, the dough recipe can be done in many ways.

Part 1: Dough for Zaatar pizza (It is called Mankouche)

Ingredients:

½ Kg Flour

Yeast (envelope or quantity for ½ Kg flour)

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon to 1 spoon sugar

Step 1:
Get 200 ml Water: Heat for two minutes until lukewarm.

Step 2:
Mix the flour, salt, sugar, and yeast.

Knead for 10 minutes as follows:

Don’t put all the water at once. Make a circle in the middle and add a little of water. Knead then add more water.

Keep adding water and knead for 10 minutes.

Step 3:
When done, cover and leave to rest.

If the location is warm, it takes half an hour.

In a cold location, leave for an hour.

The dough should double in size.

Step 4:

Sprinkle flour and extend the dough on a tray.

The dough can be of any size. In gatherings, the size can be a round circle and as small as a standard mug.

Put Zaatar/thyme or Cheese or both. Halloumi cheese works well with a bit of butter.

Step 5:

Cook for 20 minutes in the oven.

If the oven is hot, it might take less.

Part 2: Preparing the Zaatar Mix at home

If there is no readymade zaatar mix available, the mix can be made at home.

Ingredients:
An easy mix is the following:

2 tbs dried thyme (Zaatar).

1 1/2 (1.5) tbs sesame seeds toasted.

½ to 3/4 tbs sumac.

Sprinkle of salt.

** Ingredients can be changed to taste.

Steps:

  • Grind the thyme, sumac, and salt until the consistency is a bit coarse. They should not look like powder.
  • Toast the sumac and add them to the mix.
  • Mix with olive oil. It should be slightly runny. The consistency can be up to taste.

Enjoy!

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Early Childhood Education in United Arab Emirates: Facts in points

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  • United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a federation of seven emirates with approximately 83600 square kilometres and a population of more than 9.5 million.
  • Ten percent of the population are UAE nationals.
  • It is estimated that 90% of the population live in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah.
  • In 2014, approximately 20% (2.64 Billion USD) of the annual budget was spent on education.
  • There are more than half a million Emirati and non-Emirati children between 0 and 5 years old.
  • The majority of children under three years old do not attend childcare.
  • Most kindergarten children enrol in private schools where instruction in English is provided for a substantial time.
  • Public schools cater mostly to UAE nationals and most teachers are university graduates.
  • Instruction in the public schools is in Arabic with some instruction in English.
  • Boys as well as girls enrol in kindergartens.
  • There is no uniform national curriculum; however, the country is aiming to be leader in early childhood education through innovative practices.

Reference including in-text citations:
Mehana, M. (2018). Moving forward: Early childhood education in Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates. In J. L. Roopnarine, J. E. Johnson, S. Quinn, & M. Patte (Eds.), Handbook of international perspectives on early childhood education (pp. 85-100). New York, NY: Routledge.

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E-Safety for Young children Using the Internet

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Three to seven year old children vaguely understand the tactics used by search engines to attract followers and to promote products. More importantly, they are not able to capture the risks associated with using the internet or disclosing personal information.
Parents need to establish guidelines for internet use very early in order to counteract the risks. Below are some of the recommendations from https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents :

– Apply strict rules about time allowed on the digital device.

– Educate yourself on the characteristics of developmentally appropriate computer applications.

– Monitor the internet usage for all the family members and let the children know that this is happening.

– Supervise what the child is accessing online.

– Participate in online games with the children. Sharing in the child’s interest will facilitate the establishment of trust between the parent and the child and the discussion on e-safety in the long term.

– Familiarise yourself with the guides to computer applications and disable chat functions and cameras.

– Save the computer applications that are age appropriate and block the ones that are not.

– Make sure the child cannot purchase a product or service online by mistake.

– Discuss acceptable behaviours online as early as possible. Ask the children to discuss what they see online with adults especially if something is annoying, disturbing, or makes them uncomfortable.

– Disconnect devices at meal times so they are not active at the expense of socialising with the family members.

– Make sure that the devices are not used prior to bedtime and are not accessible to the child during the night.

 

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Planning activities for infants and toddlers

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Many infants and toddlers are attending childcare. It is important not to think of them as passive learners that just need to eat and sleep during the day.

The first two years of life provide the foundation for later development. Educators and parents need to make optimal use of this period.

To plan activities, Greenman, Stonehouse, and Schweikert (2008) recommend the following:

– Educators need to take into account theories on children’s development as well as the progress of individual children.
– The children’s families and background cultures need to be accounted for in the planning. Children bring different home experiences to the childcare and those experiences need to be used as starting points for planning.
– The plan should help children transition from the earlier activity, include a clear indication on how the children will start engaging with the activity, state the needed material, indicate the expectations upon engagement, and finally specify the transition to the next activity.
– Documentation of children’s learning should start prior to the plan, during the implementation, and after the completion of the activity.

By following clear guidelines, we can ensure that learning is taking place in a positive environment.

To read more, refer to:
Greenman, J., Stonehouse, A., & Schweikert, G. (2008). Prime times: A handbook for excellence in infant and toddler programs (2nd ed.). St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.

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Bilingualism 双语

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双语儿童会说两种语言。这可以是因为在家里家长是说自己的母语，也可以是因为其中的语言是孩子教育的一部分。儿童会根据不同情况语码转换。孩子们需要意识到两种语言之间的区别以及巧用单词才能成功的转换语言。

孩子同时学习两种语言时，应该经常听和接触这两种语言。以帮助孩子，成年人可以向孩子指出各种语言的同义词。儿童可能会在日常交流中混合两种语言的单词。在许多文化中，这是一种公认 的做法，有时候是一种炫耀式的练习方式。

在后期向孩子介绍第二种语言时，他们已对第一种语言培养了一定的能力。孩子们将会观察和聆听其他人所说的话并参与课堂活动。他们不一定主动开启一段对话而是会用单词和简单的词句来回应。

和学习任何技能一样，当孩犯错被羞辱或被劝阻带自己的文化遗产到教室时，孩子会失去尝试学习不同语言的自信也会觉得被排挤。学习多种语言会令生活更丰富因此应该受鼓励。

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What is the minimum of physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep expected for children under 5?

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The World Health Organization (WHO, 2019) issued guidelines for physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep for children under five years old. A summary of the information in a 24-hour day follows.

Activity Infants less than 1 year old Children/toddlers 1 to 2 years of age Children 3 to 4 years of age
Physical activity – At least 30 minutes on tummy with unrestricted movement

– Interactive floor based play

 – At least 180 minutes throughout the day including moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity – At least 180 minutes throughout the day.

– At least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity.
Restrained movement: Unable to move freely Not more than one hour at a time – Not more than one hour at a time.

– No sitting for extended periods of time.

 – Not more than one hour at a time.

– No sitting for more than one hour at a time.
Screen time: Passively watching screen-based entertainment Not recommended – 1 to 2 years: Not recommended

– 2 to 3 years: No more than one hour

 No more than one hour
Good quality sleep

(both night and daytime naps)

 – 0 to 3 months: 14-17 hours

– 4 to 11 months: 12-16 hours

 11-14 hours 10-13 hours

Reference:
World Health Organization. (2019). WHO guidelines on physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep for children under 5 years of age. Geneva: Author. Retrieved from https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/311664/9789241550536-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

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Children with temperament: When does this become an issue?

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According to Thomas and Chess (1977), children’s temperament can be categorised into three types: Easy, slow to warm up, and difficult children.

The easy child smiles frequently and approaches new toys, situations, faces with a willingness to experiment.

The slow to warm up child looks at new people, toys, and events around and instead of approaching immediately hangs on to an adult and observes the full situation prior to engaging in play or in conversation.

The difficult child looks at any change in routines with caution and is wary of strangers. He/she cries easily and is willing to show a lot of resistance or “stubbornness” when faced with new material, adults, settings, or even small changes in the immediate environment.

The same interface applies to food intake and children’s experimentation with new types of food.

Children display those types unconsciously. However, this could become an issue depending on how the adults react to the child. The caregiver needs to be willing to work with children and to give them the space and time needed to become familiar with new situations and new environments.

Even the easy child could have issues with an overly cautious adult. If scolded for being open, the child will learn to doubt himself or herself.

When children grow up in an understanding environment, they will learn to experiment and to trust themselves and the future.

For further reading, refer to:
Thomas, A., & Chess, S. (1977). Temperament and development. New York, NY: Brunner/Mazel.

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Is it too early to talk “success” with children?

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Every time,
We listen to a child,
We encourage a child to carry out an activity,
We comfort a crying child,
We let a child make a choice and carry out that responsibility,
We watch a child experiment with materials,
We respect a child’s failure,
We help a child apologise for mistakes,
We discuss different points of view with a child,
We set agreed upon rules,
We accept a child’s fears and need for time to calm down,
We show pride in what a child offers to self and others,
We share fun as well as sad stories,
We show our love,

Guess what, every time,
We are talking “success” with the child.

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Helping children with money literacy so they grow up financially secure

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With the economic fluctuations, teaching children about financial literacy has never been more important.

Developing number sense is essential to learning about money. To do so, children need to learn about fractions, multiplication, addition, …

More important, children need to learn the value of money. One example is engaging the children in a school project where they have to plan material and budget, prepare, and implement the selling scheme. Buyers would have the option to buy using money or services. They could volunteer or bring items from home in return. So, setting the price is going to engage children in discussions on pricing, labour, and the value of money.

There are also actions that parents can do with the kids at the market. They can point out different prices for the same item. Other ideas involve asking the child to save towards a purchase, engaging the child in some home help in exchange for money, and involving children in discussions about gifts.

More information is available at https://www.moneysmart.gov.au/

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Are we holding gifted and talented children back?

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We want children to be gifted and talented and yet parents and teachers find themselves not knowing what to do or what to say to those children.
Sometimes it looks as if the learning method of the gifted and talented children is not conforming to the teachers’ expectations. They might not enjoy groups and prefer to work alone. As a consequence, the behaviour could be seen as uncooperative.
It is important for parents and teachers to assess the child to check her/his capabilities. Children could also engage in self-assessment as they might know their strengths and needs better than other people around them. As a result, the curriculum needs to be differentiated to extend their learning.
It is important to note that gifted and talented children could at the same time have strengths in on area and needs in another. So, a child could be a fast learner and hyperactive at the same time. Any action plan needs to account for both characteristics.
The parents and school need to partner together to support the child.
Gifted children are at a risk of dropping out of school given the inability of schools to nurture them. Teachers need to be able to provide an inclusive curriculum that scaffolds children to the maximum level that they could reach.
An example of a very successful program in reaching to all children is the Renzulli Learning System. More information is available at https://gifted.uconn.edu/# . The “Schoolwide Enrichment Model” provides opportunities to engage all students including the talented and the gifted by enriching the program. Social and emotional challenges are also addressed.

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