Ride Your Bicycle and Get the Benefits

             I think most people agree that a bicycle is one of the economical and useful vehicles. The bicycle is a vehicle that has two wheels which uses human energy to make it work by spinning bicycle’s pedals. It does not produce pollution like others motor vehicles. Nowadays, the government has been forming a habit of cycling in cities like Bandung and Jakarta. Even the mayor city of London is going to imitate the program. The mayor of Bandung city and the Governor of Jakarta lead directly to start the program. Both make an event in car-free day on Sunday morning to socialize the program. The government hopes that people in the city ride bicycle at least for going to school or to work. They have made particular road in the main street for bicycle rider in Bandung and Jakarta. The purpose is to make people more pleasant and safe when they ride their bicycle. Even though some people think that using bicycle is not practical because it takes more time and it is a tiring activity. There are three reasons why people should use bicycles due to the effects of the traffic and our financial, also the benefit for our health.               First of all, decreasing traffic jams is one of the reasons. It happens because the narrow street that never becomes wider year by year and the number of vehicles in the road are the reasons why there are so many traffic jams everywhere. When we decrease the number of motor vehicles by using bicycles on the road, we make a chance to minimize the traffic jam. Dimension of a bicycle, which is not big as other transportation can give more space in the street so, the other transportation should not queue so long and wait too long. In addition, more bicycles mean less cars or motorcycles on the road. Steadily, we decrease congestion and minimize the traffic flow. In simple words, we can ride bicycles in the morning and in the evening when the traffic jam mostly occurs. We can go to school or work with the bicycles also if we want to go anywhere which is the destination is closer from our houses. It really helps to reduce the traffic jams.

Second, riding bicycle saves much money. Bicycle does not use fuel to function. So, we should not buy the fuel when we ride bicycles. We only round the pedals with our foot that is how to ride it. In other words, bicycle uses human energy to make it work and I think it is free because we should not pay for the energy. However, if we use motor vehicles such as motorcycle or car we must consider the fuel that we should prepare every day. In addition, we must think about the tax that we should pay a year or per five years. Besides, we must consider service and treatment cost. Mostly, service and treatment for a motorcycle is expensive, even for a car is more expensive. For example, a motorcycle which usually takes a service in a garage can cost until 100.000 – 200.000 IDR per a month. Then, for a car we should pay almost 1.000.000 per four month (myfamilyaccounting.wordpress.com).

The last, using a bicycle continuously keeps our health. When we ride bicycles at the same time, we are also doing an exercise because all parts of our body are moving, especially the legs part. For people who do not have much time to do an exercise, using bicycles can be an alternative to do a simple exercise and have a healthy lifestyle. Riding bicycles also builds and forms our muscles because all of our muscles are active when we ride bicycles. For example, we spin the bicycle’s pedals the leg muscle works, then the muscles which are locate in the arms also work because when we ride the bike we hold the handlebar to keep the body balance. Gradually, it helps to strengthen almost every muscle in the body and made the muscles work better. For instance, while we ride bicycles, foots muscles spin the pedals and muscles which are located in stomach and back are function to make the body balance. In addition, the exercise helps to decrease stress because every sport that we do can relief our stress. Stress is a great worry caused by a difficult situation, or something which causes this condition.     

In conclusion, people should ride bicycles because there are so many advantages that we can get from riding bicycles. The first benefit is decreasing the traffic jam, saving our money is the second benefit, and the last benefit is reserving the health. Therefore, let us bike together at least when we are going to school or office. Start it now for our kindness, and make it as a good habit.  

                                                                                                   By : Raadhiyah Mardiyyah
                                                                                                                       Public Persuasion

Increase Children’s Development? Just Tell Them More Stories

A story is a description of how something happens which may be true or imaginary. Then, storytelling is an activity of reading a story whose purpose is to amuse a person or a group, especially children. Parents usually do it for their children before their children go to sleep. For some families the activity has become a habit. Now, most people do not consider storytelling a fun and beneficial activity.  In general, most people, especially parents, think that telling a story to their children is unimportant because it is a simple activity which only waste time. Because of development of technology, they prefer giving games in the gadget or cartoons on the television for their children. As Kylene Beers writes that external reasons-too much television, too little parental modeling, too much emphasis on a skills approach to reading-offer some insights as to why students dislike reading. In Mosaic of Thought, Keene and Zimmermann also talk of how so many students read passively, just the way they watch television (1997,36). As a result, parents can do anything else because they should not accompany their children. On the other hand, there are three effects of storytelling to children's development in terms of behaviours, knowledge and habit of reading.

            First, children will have good behaviours. Parents are responsible for their children including teaching attitude and behaviour. Most people think that it is teacher’s responsibility to educate their children about anything. In fact, parents can teach their children through storytelling. It is not common anymore directly lecturing children with a loud voice. Children mostly will ignore it. Good stories which has a moral value will be a perfect model for children, such as stories of the Prophets and stories of Walisongo. Educating kids about the attitude through a story that contains a moral value is more understandable and more acceptable for children. The children learn from examples of conditions and situations in the story; therefore, children will apprehend easily. As Gordon Wells notes that young children find it easier to assimilate new ideas when they are presented in the form of a story and that even older students look to anecdotes to help them understand new concepts and link them to their lives. (1986,206). Good parents will give the best for their children. So parents must be selective to choose good and educative stories. As Kaufman describes that children’s use of story is an effective instrument for teachers/adults to learn more about the child. What story they choose and how they choose to tell the story are indicative of what a child thinks and feels, expressed uniquely during a particular time period. The process of selecting, practicing and telling stories is a way for children to explore themselves and relationships between people (1997). The opposite will happen if parents choose stories which contain lots of bad behaviour such as stealing, lying, cheating even murdering. Furthermore, kids can learn good manner from good characters in the story because they are good examples for children. Jalongo explains that  stories and storytelling help to develop positive character traits in children by promoting a sense of shared experiences and emotions related to the characters and challenges dealt with in the stories (2004). Children prefer to choose the protagonists to the antagonists. Kids love characters who have nice attitude. Naturally, they do not like people who have bad attitude because the characters are usually annoying, cruel, criminal, bad, and causing difficulties or harm. However, protagonist characters have many good characterizations such as kind, honest, diligent, tidy, and obey. Those are appropriate if children can imitate it. Besides, children already know the bad behaviour and they try to avoid, and do not act like the bad characters in stories.    

            Second, children’s knowledge will rise. They will know various places, people, and cultures. Substantively, children can learn anything from stories as Barbara Hardy wrote "We dream in narrative, daydream in narrative, remember, anticipate, hope, despair, believe, doubt, plan, revise, criticize, construct, gossip, learn, hate, and love by narrative" (1978,13). Contents of story which has plot, characterization, and setting are knowledge for children. Setting in stories helps children to know many places even though they have never visited the places. For example, children will know other countries and its cultures. Children can differentiate many different people from characterization in stories. Besides, they also learn the cultures from the plot which the stories come from. Those are some reasons that acquaintance of children will improve because of storytelling. As Zipes writes “they are likely to improve knowledge in both broad and specific topics” (1995). In addition, children learn new vocabularies from stories. A story is a composite from lot of words. Because of children’s vocabularies are still limited, storytelling assists children to increase their vocabularies as Trostle and Hicks point out, their vocabulary and word comprehension is enhanced (1998).

            Third, children will like reading. Actually the key of children’s tendency to like reading is the parents. If the parents addict to reading, children will also like reading. The Common Sense Media report agrees that “Parents can encourage reading,” they explain, “by keeping print books in the home, reading themselves, and setting aside time daily for their children to read.” Besides that, introducing activity of reading to children is not easy. Parents or the storytellers must be creative and interactive while they are telling stories. According to Sima and Cordi write that the storyteller learns to work not only with the language of the story but also with its structure and how to adapt their work based on the response of their audience (2003). The storytellers must consider several things such as intonation, gestures, expression of face, and different voices for different characters because the way storytellers deriver stories will effect to children. If the storytellers are flat while reading the stories, children will feel bored and are not interested to read a story even a book because they think that reading is boring. As Kaufman notes that Storytelling is an excellent vehicle for relaying information and making it more memorable for both the teller and the audience. It can increase the confidence of the child who has difficulty in reading and make them more likely to try to read or write or even to read aloud (1997). Nonetheless, if the storytellers are interactive with the children during storytelling, children will enjoy the activity. Children who involve into stories can feel the stories and get the idea of the stories. No longer, they will like to read. Then, interesting stories that have good plot will attract children. They will more enjoy the stories that have pre-climax, climax, and anti-climax. It is because the story is systematic, understandable, and clear. Moreover, pictures as a media to deliver story will be adored by children. Something which is colourful is always loved by children. As a result, most of books for children are full of colour. The pictures in stories also help children to understand more the stories. According to Judy and Judy (1979) explain that some readers need materials with illustrations to help them bridge the gap between printing and meaning. Pictures in stories or book will help children to imagine and to visualize the situation and condition in the stories. Keene and Zimmermann write that images from a reader’s personal experience frequantly become part of his or her comprehension (1997,141). Children also can match between the story and the pictures. Harvey and Goudvis say that students who are conditioned to pay attention only to the literal interpretation of text and the susface of structure aspects of language, such as sounding out words, will remain disengaged. But when students create pictures in their minds while reading, their level of engagement increases because of the book becomes more personalized (2000).

            In summary, impacts of storytelling to children’s advancement, including three aspects such as politeness, improving knowledge, and reading tendency. Teaching attitude through storytelling is more pleasant for parents and children because the activity itself is fun. Most of the people, especially children, are fond of storytelling. So, it is the best method to tutor children’s behaviour through storytelling. As a result, it is essential for parents to do storytelling for their children because it also helps to raise children’s development.

References:

• Hamilton, M. and Weiss, M. 2005. The Power of Storytelling in the Classroom.
• Beers, K. Choosing Not to Read: Understanding Why Some Middle Schoolers Just Say No.
• http://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanshapiro/2014/05/13/kids-dont-read-books-because-parents-dont-read-books/
• http://ccb.lis.illinois.edu/Projects/storytelling/lis506a_lbp/litreview.html

                                                                                                   By : Raadhiyah Mardiyyah

Healthy and Simple Diet? As Simple As You Drink More Mineral Water

            Water is one of requirements for everyone who is alive, not only humans but also animals and plants need water. Importantly 75 % human body contains water that keeps our health. It helps human being to survive and keep the parts of body work. Water that absorbs by our body will manage the temperature because it keeps our body. Water also contains mineral which is required for the body. Mineral water has element such as iron, calcium, magnesium, and potassium. Those are really useful for the body. In fact, most people do not consider about it. They think that drinking mineral water is a simple activity that has no big impact. They only drink when they are thirsty or after they finish eating. People prefer to drink more coffee, tea or even soft drink. They do not realize that mineral water has many benefits. Even people who doing diet never think about drinking mineral water as a diet method. Most of them do tight diets which are harmful and difficult to do like Paleolithic diet, baby food diet, cookie diet, and cigarette diet. On the other hand, there are three causes that make drinking mineral water as a healthy and simple diet.

            First of all, drinking mineral water helps to reduce toxic in the human body. There are some toxic in the human body. For example, monosodium glutamate (MSG), aspartame and dangerous food coloring which are exist in some food. Then, caffeine which is part of coffee and tea. It might be a result of unhealthy lifestyle such as eat junk food, drink alcohol, tea or coffee too much, also lack of exercises. Actually, it is usual for people drinking mineral water at least 8 glasses or 1, 5 liter a day. Because of drinking mineral water regularly helps our intestines clean from many dirt and toxic. The mineral water bring all the dirt and the toxic in the intestines and throw it away becomes sweat, urination or excretion. If we urinate and excrete frequently our digestion will get better. Because what we eat and what we throw is in balance. 

Second, blood pressure can decrease by consuming the mineral water. Magnesium in mineral water is an important element to maintain normal blood pressure. It happens because mineral water is rich of magnesium. Besides that, cholesterol which causes high blood pressure can be minimized by the mineral water too. Drinking mineral water regularly also reduce the risks of heart diseases because potassium and magnesium which are exist in mineral water support the heart function. As a result, it impacts to lower the cholesterol. Mineral water will brought lipid that is a substance of fat in the body and change it become urine or sweat because we drink more the mineral water. Thus, slowly but sure the cholesterol will be reduce and the blood pressure is going normal.

            The last, mineral water keeps the weight of body. The mineral water not contain fat, sugar, and calories so, mineral water is suitable for diet. People who drink mineral water do not add more fat and more calories into the body. On the other hand, if we drinking the other beverages such as coffee, tea, juice, wine, beer, and soft drink will increase the fat and the calories into the body. Therefore, we can minimize the beverages that contain calories and lots of sugar. More importantly, drinking mineral water before eating make smaller the portion of food. After we drink the mineral water we will feel a bit full so, the portion of food will get smaller than usual. As a result we do not add more fat into the body because the portion of food that we eat is small.

                 One of all, people who consume mineral water regularly will get many advantages. For the first is minimize the toxic in human body, the second is decimate the high pressure blood, and the last, mineral water is the best drink for dieters. It is recommended that people who want to keep health and do diet to consume mineral water than habitual, at least 1.5 liter a day.

                                                                                                 By : Raadhiyah Mardiyyah
                                                                                                                     Midterm Test

Get Healthy Life with AQUA

            There are many brands of mineral water in Indonesia, for example Aqua, Club, Cleo, Aquades, etc. however if you want to be healthy, choose Aqua! Why? Because Aqua is the best brand of mineral water, it is pure from the elected spring, trustworthy, and also by choosing Aqua, it means that we contribute to nature conservation.

The first reason why we must choose aqua if we want to be healthy is the purity of aqua which is from the elected springs. Each mountain spring must fulfill the 9-point criteria then passes through 5 stages of a rigorous selection process for approximately one year before can be a wellspring of AQUA. It has a high operational standards, the raw water that used comes from the mountain springs that contain essential and balance mineral. In addition, every drop Aqua through 27 step of pro Hydro system to ensure its purity. No wonder if the quality of Aqua is the best.

The second reason is trustworthy. AQUA is a beverage brand that has been trusted for decades as the best brand. AQUA has become part of Indonesian healthy families for more than 30 years. As a pioneer of bottled water since it was founded in 1973, now AQUA become an integral part of a healthy lifestyle in Indonesian society. AQUA has received numerous awards as a form of trust and customer satisfaction, such as: Indonesian Best Brand Award (award for the best brand Indonesia) from 2003-2004, Indonesian Customer Satisfaction Award (award for brands that provide the highest satisfaction to their customers) from 2003 and Indonesian Golden Brand Award in 2005-2007.

The third reason is by using Aqua, we contribute to the nature conservation. After it was discovered, the fountain and the surrounding areas are always maintained and protected its conservation. In addition, AQUA is committed to preserving water sources by not taking more than what is given by nature. This is done to ensure that all Natural Goodness is maintained in every drop of AQUA. AQUA actively conduct various programs to nourish consumers in Indonesia, including ACTION of ‘AQUA for Indonesian Healthy Families and AuAI (AQUA for Indonesian Children).

Aqua can help us to become healthy because first, Aqua is pure from the elected springs processed with integrated process system which ensures that none of the essential minerals from nature is wasted. Second, Aqua is a beverage brand that has been trusted for decades and has received a numerous awards as form of trust and customer satisfaction. Third, AQUA is committed to preserving water sources by not taking more than what is given by nature. It means that by using AQUA we contribute to the nature conservation. So, if you want to be healthy and care with nature conservation, do not use other brand except aqua!

By : Muhammad Ruby Ernawa