The end of the stereotype

In a few years ago, it was rare for a couple to have only one child, but nowadays this is becoming more and more common. Researches show that the number of children has been falling gradually, since the 1960s. The women's option of prioritizing the career and letting pregnancy for later, the high cost of living and the little time to devote to the family are among the main causes of the reduction in the family size. But is it healthy for the kid to be an only child?

Only children are seen as individualistic, spoiled and self-centered. Yes, excessive caution can be harmful. Parents have to follow the development of their children, but without thinking everything they do is exceptional; only children don’t have to be treated as if they were crystals. It's extremely healthy for this kind of kid to be surrounded by other children. Parents have to allow the kid to interact. Cousins are crucial in this case, and this relationship has to be valued. Many people think only children feel the lack of a sibling, but it isn't true. Being an only child brings no emotional impairment, unless they don't feel inserted in a social life compatible with their age.

The connection between siblings is big and strong. A sibling is the one you can trust, is the companion, the friend, the person with whom you can share secrets. One the greatest fears of only children is to take care alone of their parents, when they are old and sick. Some of them get back to their parents' house and say they don't have no one to share this responsibility; they choose loosing freedom again.

Despite difficulties, only children have learned how to share, compete and even be alone, enjoying the benefits and lessons of their parents' choice. The large number of couples with only one child has contributed to make this fact not to be an exception, overturning the stereotype of different.

This article was based on: “Jogando com um” - Estado de Minas 01/08/10

A such special project

Last week, we read a very interesting article in our English class. It was about a project in Rio de Janeiro's slums that gives poor people opportunities to learn things that most of us take for granted. They teach kids more than using a computer, they teach how to use this new knowledge as a passport to the society.

We decided to search another Brazilian project with the same philosophy and we found a very interesting one! It is called "Projeto Inclusão Digital Muito Especial". This project aims to offer information technology courses for people with disabilities. It is important because it helps to improve the public's technology knowledge. Beyond that, they promote the integration of disabled people in employment.

PIDME offers the following courses: handling of the keyboard, mouse, operating system and internet typing, Copyeditor, Spreadsheet, Programming, Maintenance microcomputer, Website Development, Motrix and Dosvox. Students can choose any courses they want to practice and they are all free. This project also offers monitoring family through call center and psychologist, because it looks for a better advantage.

Projeto Inclusão Digital Muito Especial gives support for a possible referral of the students to the labor market, through partnerships between Instituto Muito Especial and companies that want to hire disabled people. It also gives the students the opprotunity to visit a company and become familiar with the business environment.

As you can see, there are still many people who want to make difference and do good deeds. If you want to know more about this project access:
http://www.inclusaodigital.org.br/projeto.htm

Useful web sites

Web guide


http://www.oddcast.com/home/demos/tts/tts_example.php
This is a very interesting way to practice the pronunciation in English and many other languages. You choose a word and click in "Say it", then the woman pronounces it. You can change the voice and add special effects. It's very useful!



http://www.americancorpus.org/
This web site is very cool, because you can choose a word in English and then you will see where and how many times it appears. It's a kind of dictionary, very useful for learning English. Beyond that, you can read many articles. Very funny!

http://www.portalsaofrancisco.com.br/
This web site can help you in many researches for school. It's a reliable source about many topics. It will help you to solve doubts, do homeworks and study for tests.


http://justjared.buzznet.com/
You can practice your English while read about the celebrities' world. It's a funny way to become updated, learn and distract at the same time. It's a good option when you are bored and want to do something useful and entertaining.

http://www.doepalavras.com.br/
This web site gives you the opportunity to help people. You can send affective messages to patients of Hospital Mário Penna. It gives them optimism to stay strong in the treatment.

http://www.cartacapital.com.br
Carta Capital is a excellent magazine.In this web site you can read good texts about policy,society,economy,culture etc...It`s very important know what is happening in the world, this site can help you with information.

http://www.isketch.net
This web site is amazing! It's a interesting game that you draw and try to guess what the other people are drawing, it's really fun and you can choose the idiom you want to play,so its a good way to practice idioms.

http://www.tvcultura.com.br/rodaviva
Roda Viva is a program of interviews that pass on monday on tv.That web site is really useful, you can see the whole program by video and learn a lot about diferents subjects.The last program was about electoral competition.

http://www.plenarinho.gov.br/
This is a children`s web site about citizenship.It learn a lot about how be a good citizen.There are a different design that help the kids to enjoy surf in the web page.

http://www.grammatnet.com
This is a good web site to find exercices of english.Use it to study for grammar tests!

Talking about myself ( By Ana Clara)

Hey! I'm Ana Clara... but that's a such long name!
Everybody calls me Ana or Aninha, so here we go again!
I'm Aninha! I'm the youngest member of this amazing group! I'm fourteen, and we are all students from the first grade in Colégio Santo Antonio!
About me...
Well, I'm a little bit shy, but it is not difficult for me to make new friends. I think that if I be comfortable in talking to someone, I can be more outgoing with him or her.
Like THOUSANDS of teenagers, I love listening to music, specially Brooke Fraser, going out with my friends and even spending time in front of TV and computer.
I love my parents, and I think that we have an amazing relationship! I have a little sister called Rachel, and even when we are complaining about something we also have fun together : )
I have lots of friends, even in other countries, like U.S.A or Portugal. It's impossible to write here all their names, but I can't forget to thank all of them for making my days MUCH better!
About this blog, we thought we need to talk about something that is impotant for all of us, so we decided to talk about our dreams for a better world!
Here, we'll write about contemporany facts and our opinions about how we can change our society, our city an even our planet!
Well, that's all for now!
God Bless!
XOXO
Aninha : )

Talking about myself (By Hanna)

Hi, I'm Hanna!
I'm a happy and calm girl.
I'm from Governador Valadares, but this year I moved to BH to study in CSA. I have a busy routine and I study a lot, so I don't have enough time to do many things I used to, such as dancing ballet and studying French. I miss my family and friends a lot, that's why sometimes I get upset. Nowadays I'm learning a lot about responsibility, independence and determination.
On my free time, I like to stay with my friends, listen to music and read books about history and philosophy.
I usually try to control myself, but it becomes difficult in a world that's facing a lot of problems.
I'm always thinking about the world!
I love to read books, magazines and newspapers but the best thing to learn about our reality it's to listen to what people says. I like the idea of writing, because I believe that's a way to start changes, and we need changes!
Well,if I had to define my personality in one word it would be thoughtful.
But the truth is I can't define myself! It's probably because I'm constantly changing my ideas.
I'm tired, today was a hectic day.
See you soon,
Kisses, Hanna.

Sweet dreams

Hey, guys!

We are fifteen and, like any other people in our age, we have many dreams about a better world! The media is always showing us negative stuff, but we believe teenagers can change this reality. We created this blog because we want to motivate some changes. We will write about many subjects and we want you to participate, too. Give your opinion! We want to construct a better world together!

Kisses,

Amanda, Ana Clara and Hanna.

Talking about the capitalist society

Everybody knows we live in a capitalist society, in which the verb TO HAVE is more important than the verb TO BE. Many people believe we are what we have. That's why they sacrifice their own dignity in order to have the most modern technologies.

When we walk on the streets, we are bombarded by lots of images that don't want to tell us something, they want to sell us something. These images don't let us space to imagine and reflect. At that time, our eyes aren't able to pay attention to the reality around us. We see people asking for money, sleeping on the streets, selling candy at the traffic signal... Then, we become indignant with this inhuman capitalist system, which is very unfair. And what do we do to change this situation? NOTHING. We just continue our walk and ignore what we don't want to see. But we can't do this. If we want to change our reality, the first thing to do is to use our indignation as a motivation. A change is moved by dissatisfaction. If you were these "invisible" people, you would want somebody to help you to fight for your rights.

Brazilians are always criticizing the political corruption. We are hopeless about the politics and we think this reality will never change. The teenagers get perplexed when the subject is POLITICS. But, if we look around, we will see the same teenagers cultivating unethical actions. If we continue to practice unethical habits, certainly the corruption will never disappear. It will cause more and more headaches among the Brazilians.

By the way, ethics is becoming an unusual word. People don't cultivate love, respect, solidarity... this society is very selfish. Guys, we are more and more under money control. The society is becoming sick and stressed. We don't see happiness in the simple things, anymore. We don't stop to appreciate the beauty of nature, the smell of the flowers, the sunrise. The capitalist society is on the way of depression.