Counselors
Cart
Parenting Press®Welcome to the February 2009
“News for Parents”
This electronic newsletter has dozens of ideas that we at Parenting Press hope you’ll find helpful and interesting. To suggest a story topic or to comment on article content or format, please use the link after each article; we welcome your feedback.
Want to make sure you receive every issue? Subscribe now, and “News for Parents” will be in your e-mail box the beginning of every month.
If you write for a newspaper or school, extension, or child care newsletter, you’re welcome to excerpt or reprint our information, as long as you credit us and send us a copy. Advance copies of selected stories from next month’s issue (see “Coming Attractions”) are available the last week of this month for excerpts in print publications. Email our media contact.
IN THIS ISSUE
- WHAT’S NEW?
- FEATURES
- POTPOURRI
- COMING ATTRACTIONS
- Women’s History Month
- Starring the Star-Spangled Banner
- Spring Break Suggestions
- Recognizing When Kids Come from Meth-Addicted Homes
I. WHAT’S NEW?
-
Valentine Verse
Roses are red, violets are. . .. “Boring!” say some of the kids we know, who have heard this rhyme over and over and over again. That’s why this month, as we prepare to create Valentines, is a wonderful time to explore a wide variety of ways to write poems. As a guide, ask your library for a copy of A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms, illustrated with collages by Chris Raschka and compiled by Paul B. Janeczko. It explains and provides examples of 29 different poetic forms, including sonnets, couplets, limericks, ballads, odes and acrostics.
Because rhymes are such an important pre-reading skill (and because little kids are less likely to roll their eyes at parents’ goofy efforts than are tweens and teens), listening to audiobooks of poetry or making up your own poems is an excellent activity for the commute between home and child care or preschool. It’s also a good way to use the time you spend waiting for the school bus with your primary-age children. For older kids, A Kick in the Head introduces valuable literary vocabulary and explains the rules of poetry (how many words a haiku has, for example).
Poems can be created as individual or group projects. Make sure you get everyone’s favorites written down, and use them in Valentines or as birthday cards. Your favorite verses can be lettered, illustrated and framed for your home, or for a gift for grandparents or teacher.
Here’s a few of our tries; see how much better you can do!
Couplets are two-line poems, usually rhyming: “O, Valentine/Be mine” or the familiar cheer, “Two, four, six, eight/Who do we appreciate?”
Add a third line with the same rhyme and you create a tercet: “O, Valentine/It’s divine/When you’re mine.”
A four-line poem, which either rhymes “aabb” or “abab,” is a quatrain: “Bobby has ants/In his pants/Sue has glue/In her kazoo.”
An acrostic is a descriptive poem in which the first letter of each line spells out the subject of the poem. Author Janeczko’s example is “Can’t/Avoid/Trouble” for a cat. A way to use acrostics in your Valentines is to spell out names—the recipient of your Valentine and maybe your name, too! For “Jack,” try “Jumping/Active/Corny/Kind” and for “Dee,” “Determined/Energetic/Enthusiastic.”
-
Festive Fire and Ice
If your children are like ours, few things are as special as candlelight. And when you combine candles with ice—what could be more exciting?
Creating a festive (and temporary) centerpiece for a special meal is easy, inexpensive and so glamorous. All you need is a deep pan (a loaf pan or casserole dish), a few empty soup or vegetable cans, water and votive candles. Space the cans in the pan, adding decorations such as ivy, pine branches and little pine cones. You may want to put a weight in each can and use the cans to anchor the ivy. Then fill the pan with water to within an inch of the top and freeze. When the ice is solid, remove the pan from the freezer for a few minutes until the cans come free and the ice block slips out of the pan. (If necessary, remove the weights and pour a few tablespoons of hot water in each can to loosen it.) When you’re ready to display this centerpiece, place it on a rimmed tray that will catch drips from melting ice, and put votives in the spaces left by the cans. Once you’ve lit the candles, remember that they and young children need to be monitored carefully as you all enjoy the sparkle of these natural wonders.
For icy images that seem like fantasy—but aren’t!—sit down at your computer and click through to pictures of Sweden’s Ice Hotel, and Canada’s Hotel de Glace.
-
Black History Month
Courtesy of the Library of CongressHistory was made last month with the inauguration of Barack Obama as America’s first biracial president, which makes this February’s observance of Black History Month particularly appropriate. The National Archives Library Information Center, provides dozens of resources, so you and your children can take a quick—or detailed—look at your favorite topic. There are government, museum and historical society sites that focus on black women, on African-Americans in certain states, or wars, or branches of the military, in aviation, the performing arts, photography and journalism.
More interested in sports? See a Long Island University site, African-Americans in the Sports Arena. It points out that because blacks have been in the U.S. since 1619, they have a long and varied history in athletics.
For older kids, there’s an online “academy” hosted by the Anacostia Musuem and Center for African American History and Culture, one of the Smithsonian museums. This site explains what collectors seek, and what we can learn from historical artifacts.
-
Say “No” to Perfectionism
We’re all anxious occasionally, but some people—children and adults—are anxious almost all the time. To avoid anxiety, they usually avoid emotions, activities or thoughts, which narrows what they can comfortably do in life. One example: avoiding mistakes. As a recent book, The 10 Best-Ever Anxiety Management Techniques by Margaret Wehrenberg (W.W. Norton), points out, some people believe that the fewer mistakes they make, the less they’ll have to worry about.
That attempt to control errors becomes perfectionism. As the author notes, “It sets [people] up to review their work repeatedly, double-check for errors, work extra hours, and do work themselves rather than entrust it to others.”
In interactions with others, the perfectionist often wants control of a situation so that “it’s done right.” This, points out Wehrenberg, “affects relationships with other people, who see the perfectionist as controlling.”
She goes on, “What these perfectionists do not realize is that they are going to worry no matter how hard they work. They just find other things to worry about, and their heightened stress makes them more hypervigilant and uptight.”
It’s a vicious circle of looking for potential problems, finding them, handling them and then continuing to look for more.
How can this kind of perfectionism be alleviated? Assuming it is not a personality disorder such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, perfectionism can be addressed with anxiety management techniques—once it’s acknowledged. Most perfectionists, the author says, don’t identify themselves as such: they are more likely to describe themselves as “careful” or “detail-oriented.”
Step 1: List the negative consequences of perfectionism. One is being blamed for being controlling. Another is taking on extra work without being asked and then feeling overworked. Others include feeling exhausted, and failing to prevent anxiety.
A second important step: stop using all/never language. Quit worrying that letting down your guard will cause serious problems that others will blame all on you. Mistakes are not intolerable and they are not proof of your unworthiness.
Third, says Wehrenberg, plan for “non-perfect” performance. Decide to not take on a specific one-time job such as writing a report. The goal: to see whether the work gets done even if you don’t do it, and that if it doesn’t get done, that the world doesn’t end. She also suggests that perfectionists observe the imperfect work of others, and how people respond. Other techniques:
“Go ahead and assume some responsibility, but do not do what others are supposed to be responsible for. Observe the outcome in the attitudes of others and in your own anxiety level.”
Deliberately do not finish some work, such as typing up an elaborate agenda for a meeting. “These kinds of detail-oriented items that you formerly believed were major will turn out to be inconsequential most of the time,” says Wehrenberg.
Observe how little anyone cares whether you were perfect.
Note that when unexpected problems occur, most people (including yourself) usually cope.
Learn what makes the difference between important and inconsequential tasks, and to distinguish between what is essential and what is not.
-
Celebrating Army Nurses
Feb. 2, besides being Groundhog Day, is the anniversary of the establishment of the Army Nurse Corps, created in 1901.
Nurses, male and female, have always served on battlefields, but they became official members of our country’s military medical corps more than a century ago. You can see old photos and learn more about how and where nurses have served at the Office of Medical History’s web page, Army Nurse Corps History.
Today more than 9,000 Army nurses provide care for soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen. They even serve at the White House!
II. FEATURES
-
Tips for the month
Each Saturday, Parenting Press posts a new parenting tip and the previous week’s tip is moved to the archive. The topics planned for February are:
February 7 — Getting Creative at Curtailing Bad Habits
February 14 — A Few Thoughts on Pacifiers and Thumb Sucking
February 21 — Solutions to Sibling Problems
February 28 — Three Things That Make Sibling Squabbles Worse
-
Family Fun Ideas — A Valentine Treasure Hunt
Turn February into a month of Valentine fun, with clues that lead everyone in the family to “treasure.” That doesn’t have to be gold or silver (although most of us are delighted with foil-wrapped chocolate hearts!). The treasure can be a Valentine card, a gift certificate for one-on-one time with a parent or a special privilege, a white elephant gift wrapped up in red tissue, a red-frosted cookie—or even a little gift. You can have a treasure hunt every day, once a week, or one hunt that goes on all month long! For children who don’t read, “write” the clues in rebus form or use a photo.
-
Community Service — Junk and Genes
It’s been an unusually snowy winter in many parts of the country, and that means broken car chains, fallen tree branches, and extra garbage on some streets and sidewalks. Your entire family can give back to your community by going out for a walk with trash bags in hand. If you’re not wearing work gloves, consider putting on rubber gloves for protection when you’re scooping up especially icky rubbish. In communities where the snow is just starting to melt, carry along a lightweight rake so that you can make sure storm drains are clear of leaves and trash.
Older kids can meet school and youth group community service requirements and gain valuable experience in organizing by creating a Darwin Day celebration. That’s right, this month marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. As www.darwinday.org points out, human genes were among the concepts that Darwin had to guess at when he wrote “The Origin of the Species.” Kids might organize a “Darwin bee,” with teams competing to see who knows the most about Darwin, his journeys and his book, create posters on Darwin’s work for the local library, or invite a science teacher or college student to present a public talk on Darwin and his influence.
-
Raise funds with a Parenting Press Book Fair
Would your school or group like a new fund-raiser?
For years Parenting Press has been offering its carefully written books on child guidance, problem-solving and dealing with feelings through preschool Book Fairs. Now our Book Fairs are being expanded to schools, churches, child-care programs, parenting groups—any organization that can use parenting and children’s books.
More information about our Book Fairs is posted online. You’ll find a copy of the brochure, an explanation of how much you can earn with a Book Fair, a step-by-step guide to make Book Fairs easy and fun to organize, and downloadable promotional materials.
III. POTPOURRI
-
Special of the month — Toilet Training Made Simple!
This special has expired.
-
How to receive (or send) a no-cost subscription to this e-zine.
We hope you have enjoyed PARENTING PRESS NEWS FOR PARENTS.
Subscribing: If you were referred to this newsletter by a friend or colleague, you can have it delivered by signing up for an e-mail subscription (there’s no cost). If you received the e-mail edition from Parenting Press, you are already subscribed.
If you enjoyed the newsletter, don’t hesitate to tell your friends. If they wish to continue receiving the newsletter, they will need to subscribe.
If you are a parent educator, feel free to tell your colleagues, students, or friends who might be interested.
Thank you!
-
Reprinting e-zine articles in your newsletter.
If you publish a school, preschool, day care or parenting newsletter, you are welcome to reprint articles from this e-zine. Simply include our copyright notice with a phrase such as
Reprinted with permission from Parenting Press News for Parents, copyright © 2009. For a free subscription, see www.ParentingPress.com/signup.html.And please mail a copy of your newsletter to Publicity Department, P.O. Box 75267, Seattle WA 98175-0267.
Home · Special Services · Parenting Resources · Professional Resources · Subscribe to Newsletter · Contact Us