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Grandfather's Shower

My Grandfather’s Shower

Never underestimate the power of an eight year-old’s passion. Their dreams most often turn into the world’s next impressive event.

Some kids dream about becoming a spelling bee champion. Not me, I always dreamt about having fun. Escapism offers a restless mind the opportunity to enjoy a rich and exciting life. Daydreaming provided me the welcomed relief I needed at the time to escape from an oppressive, drab, and punitive school environment.

How to Deal with Bullies

Obnoxious teasing and bullying of children are common in neighborhoods and in schools. About 75 percent of children in the United States get bullied before they reach adulthood. When I was a child in the 1950s, people thought that kids should deal with such harassment themselves because it would toughen them up. However, few children have the social and physical skills needed to discourage bullies. For example, when I entered kindergarten, one girl made fun of me because I was very thin. She would say, “You’re so skinny that I can see right through you.” She hurt my feelings every day. After school, I would go home and cry. I did not know what to do, and I was very upset.

No More Knocking On Wood

The middle school in our town, the City of Culver City, offers its students many interesting courses on subjects that lie outside of the required curriculum. It has two different theater courses—one of which is on acting and one on a range of backstage duties. It has a computer course, one that has, during the past year, provided the students with sufficient skills for entering and placing in two of California’s technology contests. It has a fine arts course, a music course and a home arts course. One of its past offerings, however, is no longer made available to the school’s young teens and preteens.

Turtle Shell

When my little one was a preschooler he was terribly shy and had a really hard time letting go in the morning to go to school. He would say his heart hurt when
he was away from me. I would melt, but I still knew I had to do something. He would cry and cling on to me, it was a drama each and every day.

One day on the way to school I asked him, "what do you think the strongest thing in the world is?"

He said it was a turtle shell from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, of course! It was his favorite cartoon.

Okay, here's what I want you to do.

Before you get out of the car I want you to wrap your heart in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle shell, use your imagination.

This is very special way to protect your sad heart until I see you this afternoon. The turtle shell will keep sadness away and let you have fun at school.

But you have to promise me one thing, when I come pick you up you will remove the shell as we walk to the car so our hearts can feel each other again.

He came flying out of school that day, "yelling it worked, it worked-I love you Mom

Diversity in the Classroom

I was talking with a friend last week about the private school that her 2 boys attended & she informed me that she had withdrawn them at the end of last school year and they now attended public school. When I asked what brought about the change, she told me “The teachers at their previous school told them (when doing are projects) ‘We only color the people in our pictures peach.’ “ My friend, a forward thinking intelligent mom, told her children to follow the rules at school but while at home, she encouraged her children to do artwork and to color their people all different shades because as she put it “The world is full of people of all different colors.”

New Powers to Help You Perfect Your Relationships

“Since what others may do to us is not in our power to change, we need only concern ourselves with what
we do to ourselves . . . for this is in our power.”

There is always a moment before a problem starts with another human being where we realize that what we want is not going to happen. Ordinarily we'll say the other person is about to "ruin my day." But there is, for those of us who want to understand, not only a way for our day not to be ruined, but a way for
us to elevate both ourselves and the other person, or at least give
them the opportunity to change their lives as well our own.

The nature of change has nothing to do
with what another person has done to us. What the other person did presented
us with a moment of grace -- the opportunity for us to see that the
reason this happened is so that we are moved to where we can take the
next step in our life. We can use this painful moment to prove to ourselves
that not only has what we've wanted all along not worked, but there
exists something that if we change what we want, we can begin
to know ourselves at a higher level.

A self-working man or a woman, the person to whom and in whom the Truth
begins to become a living force, cannot have a bad day or a bad relationship.
It's impossible, because everything that happens to that self-working
man or woman is used for the purpose it was created, which is to help
the person discover first the condition they're actually in, and then
to be moved to read it, and to want the understanding that rests above
them.

How to Talk to Your Children About Race

At some point in the life of a parent, it becomes necessary to talk with your child about discrimination, prejudice or more simply, the things that make people different from one another. Whether its race, religion, culture or skin color, children are naturally curious and will ask questions. The important thing, if you are a parent, is to know what to say and how to answer their questions when the time comes.

Encouraging Your Child to Read

How many times do you grab a good book, pull your child or children into your lap or snuggle on the couch and read to them? So many of us are guilty of never finding the time, when reading is such an important skill for children to learn. We as parents have the greatest influence over whether or not they begin to learn or choose to learn to read. We can encourage them to learn to read by making books and reading an important part of their life from day one.

"Reading aloud with children is known to be the single most important activity for building the knowledge and skills they will eventually require for learning to read."

— Marilyn Jager Adams

Options For Introducing Healthy Meals Into Your Little Ones' Diet

Options For Introducing Healthy Meals Into Your Little Ones' Diet
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Almost everyone may remember when classroom bulletin boards displayed the food pyramid. The pyramid – there was only one. One size fit all. Everyone needed to subscribe to the same nutritional guidelines. Everyone was told to merely glance at the pyramid to figure out how many servings were needed each day.

Almost all would agree that it is a good thing that obsolete food pyramid has gone by the wayside! It may have taken a while, but the idea that not all people require the same food intake finally caught on. Nor are children expected to follow the same nutritional guidelines as the adults.

Frugal Tips by a Frugal Mom

Need advice on how to save money and use your time wisely. Give some of these tips a try from a frugal mom.

1. Dryer sheets: you know you can use them more than once, right? My idea: as soon as you get a new box, cut them all in half. That way you won’t feel bad buying the “name brand”. (I still buy the “off brand” and save so much money.)
2. S.O.S./Brillo Pads: Once again, cut them in half. They ruin anyway most of the time before you finish one.
3. Washing/Drying clothes: Only do a full load! I know it is tempting to throw that outfit in there because you want to wear it tomorrow or your teen just has to have it ready, resist the urge, save money!!!