Do you exercise enough?

What does exercise mean to me?
Why should we do it?
Don’t we stay healthy without exercise?
Did my grandparents exercised daily to keep their health in tact?

I ask these questions many times nowadays! Nobody stressed on doing exercises when I was a school kid. But now I hear many of my friends exercise or workout very hard and ask me why don’t I exercise!

When I was in school, I walked ny way to school most of the days and cycled when I grew up to high school.
We did not have lifts at our apartment where we stayed on the first floor. But we played on the terrace, on the quiet end of the road.
We skipped our way to the road end playing corner, almost like a skipping race!
And…. we never had a Television to sit in front and keep munching!
So never we had a necessity to exercise.
But what about the young kids of today?
A study carried out in Britain says most kids will be overweight by 2050!
Read here.
And tips about how simple it is to exercise!

How do YOU keep yourself fit and fine? Share it here. Sure, it will be useful to many!

Leave letter for a school girl from Obama

Read this – http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_8090000/newsid_8098700/8098788.stm
Kennedy Corpus, 10, missed school to hear President Obama speak, and needed a note to explain her absence.
When Kennedy’s dad told Mr Obama about her day off while asking a question, the president offered to write a note.
If you are away from your school to attend an important event you are interested in, do you give a leave letter mentioning the real reason? Or say you weren’t doing well?
Well, in most cases we need to say a ‘lie’ since most schools do not encourage you to skip the classes to attend another ‘useful’ event!
If the chief guest offers a note for your absence from the schools how would you feel?
Has it happened to you?

Short matches and big cup

The second Twenty20 World Cup matches have started yesterday.
England took on the Netherlands at Lord’s in London.
The matches are kicked off with 12 teams hoping to lift the World Cup on June 21.
Gone are the days when we watched test matches for 5 days with a day of break in between. If the matches happened during the holidays, we enjoyed packing our tiffin box, water bottle, towels like we do for a picnic and go to the stadium for watching the match! Remember there was no TV at that time.
Slowly, we settled down at home listening to the running commentary on the radio. Still there were the long test matches.
One day cricket came in suddenly. Less time was spent on watching matches as the TV had also come to exist by then.
And now with the world moving at a rapid speed, 20 overs are now here.
Most of you wouldn’t have seen the test matches.
But one day matches – yes!
And now what do you think about having these short matches? Are we giving the same importance for sports, fitness, the art of playing the game as we did before?
Is only the time a constraint? If not, what else made these sports get squeezed into five hours of playing from the five days matches?

Does good spelling matter?

Kavya Shivshankar, an eighth grader living in Olethe, Kansas, effortlessly spelt the word Laodicean, which means indifferent or lukewarm especially in matters of religion to become a Spelling Bee Champ.
This news flashed in every television and newspaper.
But in the days of short messaging, Internet chatting and Twittering do you think that good spelling matters?
At YOCee’s office we receive most of the mails in short forms. Of course, the reports by the student reporters are written with correct spellings.
The story in schools could be different.
Does your teacher accept short forms and bad spellings?
Is good spelling is cared for only by the English teacher? Other subject teachers do not bother much about the spellings?
Is it enough if the sentence conveys the message or the answer you want to write in your paper and do you think spellings should be given a go?
Tell us what do you think!

Walk to school week

When the school reopens after the summer vacation, the first week is generally a ‘light’ week. Knowing the new classroom, new teachers, new books and some new friends. The load on your back may not be as heavy as it is during the rest of the year. So why don’t you take a walk to the school?

This is for those who reside within a kilometer around the school and get dropped at the school by bikes and cars.
We know that the kids who take the school bus or van cannot do it.

But what does it bring to you?
A leisurely chat on way and back with your friends and parents.
A simple but energising exercise.
Save some fuel.
Save some pocket money.
And some fun observing the streets.

For the young reporters of YOCee, a lot of story ideas!

If you find this interesting, why not take a walk to the school for a week in every term?

Post your comments!

Do you own your street?

Do your own your street?
Let me put the question in another way – do you love your street?
Then what do we do to keep it clean?
There are dust bins put up by the cleaning agents of the city, Neel Metal Fanalca and Chennai Corporation almost in all the colonies.
But how much litter is found near the dust bins? May be more than what is inside!
How many of us throw the chocolate wrappers on the road while walking and through the window while travelling in car?
Imagine if the Corporation workers would just pick the litter from the bins and not from the streets.
Imagine no litter pickers pick up the plastic from the roads.
The road would be full of litter, but the bins would be clean!

So how about summer volunteering for our own streets?

Choose a car park in an apartment in your area and gather the public, children and the maids working in the colony and tell them why they should not be dropping litter on the road, but put them on to the bin.
You may not earn pocket money for this but I am sure you will earn a lot of goodwill!

In Manchester, England, as part of the Own Your Streets scheme, litter collectors won’t be cleaning up the streets on Thursdays! Read more here!

Comments

1. May 24, 2009 @ 2:11 pm, by P.S.Nandini

   Even in our school the van children used to throw chips covers and wrappers out of the window even when the van was parked outside the school. they didn’t listen when some of us told them not to.. so we requested our vice-principal to make an announcement regarding this.

2. June 20, 2009 @ 8:37 pm, by sivaraman

   We have another problem in our street that is the
   shop workers and construction labours and others use the street corners and open grounds as open toilet. It makes the streets unhygenic as well as smelly.

YOCee on Express Indulge

Here is how Reshma Iqbal of Indulge, the Friday supplement of The New Indian Express (Chennai Edition) looks at www.yocee.in

Click on the image to read from the enlarged picture.

Safety drive in schools

A few schools in Kolkata join hands to maintain vigil on theie campuses through volunteer groups. The senior students of the schools will be part of the team.

A few school students, the scouts and guides helped the police regulate traffic and keep a watch on the security during the recently held temple festivals in Mylapore.
Do they volunteer to do the same in their own campuses?
Will this initiative Kolkata has shown, be followed by schools in other cities?

Which language do you speak at home?

When we Indian speak in Englishg even at home, England finds more kids speaking languages other than English in their schools.

The reason they say is more kids are from other countries. Even the Govt. is giving extra money to schools where lots of languages are spoken.

They say they don’t want kids to be at a disadvantage at school because they don’t speak English at home.

Read the story…

Design a symbol for Indian Currency

The major currencies across the world have definite symbols.
But the Indian currency is written with the prefix Rs. So why not a symbol for our currency?

The Finance Ministry of Govt. on India has announced a contest for designing the symbol for Indian Rupee.
Open to only Indian nationals.
Last date to submit the design – April 15, 2009.

Five entries shall be shortlisted for final selection. The shortlisted Designers would be required to make a presentation to the Jury and would be awarded a prize of Rs.25,000/- each.
The designer of the finally selected design will get a prize of Rs.250, 000/-
Spread the word across. Hey, you too could submit a design!

All the details of the contest is here

Summer : time for camps or jobs?

Summer vacation is India is really hot. And you difinitely need a break and rest to re-energise yourself for the next academic year.

But all play (or TV all the time?!) and no work also make you dull! So the Summer Camps are here to stay as they are preferred by parents.

You learn something new in a fun way at these summer camps. They are also cool places to link up with new friends outof your regular school circle.
But what do you do after these camps? If you had learnt an art or a craft or to make paper planes, how long do you put this knowledge to use?
I had come across two friends who conducted a painting camp for younger kids during the holidays after their 10th standard Board exams. Just for fun and enjoyment! At the end of the camp, the ’students’ presented their ‘teachers’ a lovely gift by pooling money from their savings and that was a wonderful idea I thought!

In the West, kids pick up summer jobs. There are laws on what job the kids can do and how long, etc.,
In India, the law prohibits kids below 14 years to work for money.
If not a job for money, how about an internship on stipend?
If you want to take up a job this summer, what would you like to do?

Share your thoughts with YOCee!

Perhaps the readers of YOCee have an interesting assignment for you!

Stay safe on the Internet

Are you on FaceBook or MySpace?
Do you think you surf the Net safe?
Is your email safe?
Do you give out information about yourself to online pals?
Well, chatting with your friends online can be loads of fun, but make sure you stay safe on the web.
Technologies help you study and give all new exciting ways to socialise with others. And you are always faster to use the Internet or the mobile devices than your parents.
So you need to know more on using the devises better and safer.

Countries across the world as well as many social networking websites have pledged to beat Cyber bullying, a menace for the kids who surf the Net. This bullying continues offline too, in your classroom or in your colony.
Be aware that all the information you type are read online go through many servers, Net spies and they are saved and circulated by the bullies many times.

If your parents have a watch on your surfing, feel happy that someone will be at help in case of any trouble online.
You should also be aware of copyright rules when you download information for your school projects or use in your presentations. You may be watched for ‘online copying’ too!

On the occasion of the safer Internet day 2009, http://www.saferinternet.org is organising events and competitions for kids and companies to bring about awareness of what is happening online.

Now a few tips for now to be safe on the Net.

- Never give out any personal details online.

- Never arrange to meet people that you only know online.

- Always let somebody know where you are going – tell your parents, guardians, friends.

- Block and report any abuse online.

- If someone is making your life a misery by bullying you or just being annoying, tell your parents. No one can help you unless you let them know what is going on.

Google’s Internet Bus in Tamil Nadu

The Internet major, Google India initiated its ‘Internet Bus’ concept on Feb. 3.
A mobile Internet kiosk will travel across 15 tier II and tier III cities in Tamil Nadu demonstrating the content and usage of the internet in the local language to the section of the population still averse to the same.

The Internet Bus will demonstrate content under four topics – information, communication, entertainment and education. It will also introduce its visitors to Google SMS search and channels.

“Increased awareness about, and access to Internet, especially in the local language will empower users with information and greater access to information. Even in people experience the Internet for a brief period of time and find it to be very useful, they will find ways and means to get back to it. The primary need is to sensitise the masses about the large content available in the local language,” Dr.Prasad Ram, head, R&D, Google India said during the launch of the bus.

The bus has already visited 12 towns in Tamil nadu so far. In March, it will be going to Pudukkottai. Trichy, Thanjavur, Kumbakonam, Neyveli, Cuddalore and Tiruvannamalai.

If you have friends in these towns tell them to check the bus out!

Read this for more info and the route of the bus.

You are already programmed!

I came across an interesting aticle in the Science News.

This is about how your body is programmed to feel hungry at a particular time and get tired at the right time to sleep.

Everyone’s rhythms are unique, which is why you might like to stay up late while your sister always wants to go to bed early. But overall, everyone is programmed to feel tired at night and alert during the day.

So, when your parents urges you stay awake at night and study, you can always follow your body clock and get up early next day and complete your studies!

What will happen if you forcibly change the rhythm?
The findings of a study conducted by making the day with 28 hours (!!) reveals exactly what the body clock is all about.

The studies also say -

But staying up night after night, these studies suggest, could make kids extra hungry and more likely to gain weight.

Read the entire article here.