Parenting Press E-zine

News for Parents — November

Dear Friends of Parenting Press,

Welcome to the November issue of our electronic newsletter for parents. Our goal is to provide you with interesting and useful information in a format that’s quick and easy to read—and FREE. We welcome your comments, both about the newsletter content and its format. To get the newsletter delivered, you can sign up for an e-mail subscription.

November 2007

IN THIS ISSUE

WHAT’S NEW?
FEATURES
POTPOURRI
COMING ATTRACTIONS
- Handmade for the Holidays
- Dollars and Sense
- Write into the New Year
- Trash into Toys

I. WHAT’S NEW?

Gifts to Make

A pine cone coated with glitter

If you celebrate any of the winter holidays, or if your children will be attending birthday parties in the next month or two, consider handcrafted or home-assembled gifts. Some your kids can make, others you may want to make for your children or for the other kids in your lives. (And some may be absolutely perfect for relatives, caregivers, teachers and other adults!)

This time of year the “News for Parents” editor’s work table is always covered with notes on project ideas, materials and projects in process. For her, a gift needs to include a personal touch. The bonus: many homemade gifts make wonderful family or parent-child projects.

One of the best gifts: time. Everyone past toddlerhood can put together an IOU for something the recipient would enjoy. Tots can promise an elderly relative hugs, second-graders can offer to weed or water someone’s plants, or you can give the holiday birthday kid a trip to the mountains for sledding. A variation: one child might offer to do another’s chores for a week.

Want to be more elaborate? Use ready-to-print artwork or your own graphics program to create books of coupons that can be exchanged for everything from a later bedtime and extra desserts for little kids to 10 gallons of gas and extra car time for your newly licensed 16-year-old.

You or your child might also wrap up a coupon with an appropriate gift: mittens and the promise of an ice-skating trip, garden gloves with the IOU for weeding, or a deck of cards with a “punch card” that entitles someone to a dozen sessions of Go, Fish, cribbage or gin rummy.

Another gift idea: “kits” assembled at home, complete with materials, equipment and instructions for a project. For example:
- Candles. Provide beeswax, wicks and instructions on rolling them into candles, or for an older child, combine wax, wicks, a mold, a how-to book (or the promise of your time as teacher) and wrap them all up in sheet music for “You Light Up My Life.”
- Cookies. Tie cookie mix, cookie cutters, tubes of frosting and a jar of decorations to a cookie sheet.
- Woodworking. Fill an inexpensive tool box with nails, screws, sandpaper, a measuring tape, and a hammer and wrap it up with boards precut for a bird- or bat-house.
- Card-making. For a kindergartner, collect postcards or note cards that you’ve cut from index stock, envelopes, stickers and markers. For those who can write, add gel pens, rubber stamps, a stamp pad, novelty scissors and return address labels for the recipient (you can print these yourself). Older kids may appreciate a template for their software program, some digital clip art or photos (including snapshots of them) and unusual printer paper.
- Bedtime stories. Everyone in the family can help record stories; wrap up the CDs with the books. (For an adult with vision problems or a long commute, have every good reader tape a chapter for a homemade “audiobook.”)
Spray a pine cone with adhesive (you can substitute white glue painted on with a tiny brush) and put it in a jar. Pour about a teaspoon of fine glitter on the cone and then screw on the jar lid and gently shake, until most of the cone is glitter-coated.

Those who decorate Christmas trees may appreciate ornaments your children have made or “kits” for ornaments their children can make. A few examples:
- Evergreen cones sprayed with gold or dipped in diluted white glue and then rolled in fine glitter
- Origami cranes made from shiny paper
- Matchboxes and other tiny boxes covered with leftover wrapping paper and mounded in doll-size baskets trimmed with narrow ribbon
- Felt precut into trees, stars or gingerbread men, ready to be decorated with sequins, buttons, ribbons or Rick Rack.
Top of page
Handling Holiday Season Excitement

The Halloween treats are still fresh and your kids are already quivering with excitement about Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza and two whole weeks of winter break from school?

If you’re wondering how you’re going to manage this anticipation-fueled energy, here are a few ideas from Elizabeth Crary’s Self-Calming Cards, a Parenting Press publication that lets you keep stress-soothing techniques as close as a deck of cards. Pull out one or more at a time and follow suggestions such as:
- Jump rope. Variations: jump back and forth across a threshold or the crack in a sidewalk, or simply up and down. For example, “I am soooo excited about Grandma coming for Thanksgiving and I know you are, too. Let’s bundle up and go out and jump on the sidewalk. I’ll use the second hand on my watch to see how many jumps we can make in two minutes.”
- Look outside. Watch the clouds, the wind, the rain or the birds. You might say to your children, “We need a time out to calm us down, but this time that’s a time looking out. So let’s sit on the couch and see what the clouds look like, and if there are any squirrels running along the power line.”
- Write a letter. Children who can’t write can look through magazines to find pictures for a rebus-style note or they can draw pictures. You might get them started by saying, “Do you think Cousin Stephanie is as excited about visiting over school vacation as we are about having her come? Let’s show her how pleased we are by writing her a letter, and showing her some of the things you want to do when she’s here.”
Looking for more ways to use these cards? See 24 Simple Self-Calming Tools, a downloadable publication by Mrs. Crary that gives you calm-down help right now.

You might also create an Advent-style “activity” jar, with dozens of projects and activities for this late autumn and early winter period. If children select one activity at random a day, they’ll have something special to look forward to each day, and they’ll be less likely to focus on one far-off event. You can fill the jar with activities chosen by you, by the kids, or by all of you together. Examples: a trip to the library, a museum, a noontime concert, or the open gym at your community center, walking the beach or riding bikes, building a snow family, going to family swim at the local pool, or baking. You could attend a local ethnic festival, watch the holiday parade of boats if you live near water, or visit neighborhoods with especially festive holiday decorations. Other possibilities: make holiday decorations and cards, create audiotape or DVD greetings for distant relatives, and research holiday traditions on the Internet or with library books.

Top of page
Sampling Our New Thinking Styles Book

Do you like the “Thought of the day” calendars? Then we bet you’ll love “Pages of the week.” That’s right, we’re presenting a new book, Solving the Parenting Puzzle: Four Thinking Styles to Unlock the Secret of Family Harmony, in several installments. Each will help you understand and work with the different thinking styles in your family. Solving the Parenting Puzzle goes far beyond “left brain” and “right brain.” Author Susie Leonard Weller explains “logical,” “practical,” “creative” and “relational” and what benefits—and challenges—each presents at home, work and school.

Read your free—and advertising-free—installment of Solving the Parenting Puzzle. To read future segments, register for an email notification. Each segment is available for at least a week. (Of course, once we’re past beta testing Mrs. Weller’s book, your favorite bookstore and our web site will have copies of a traditional printed edition.)

Top of page
When You’re Grieving

This can be a difficult season for those who are mourning. If your family or someone you know has lost a relative or friend any time this year, or if you are grieving a divorce, the diagnosis of a chronic or terminal disease, an unwanted move or similar significant loss, you may find four Parenting Press publications helpful:
- My Grandma Died: A Child’s Story about Grief and Loss, by Lory Britain, Ph.D.
- 25 Things to Do When Grandpa Passes Away, Mom and Dad Get Divorced, or the Dog Dies, by Laurie A. Kanyer, M.A.
- “Understanding Children’s Grief,” by Laurie A. Kanyer, M.A., in PEP Talk, Issue 22.
- “Helping Children Acknowledge Loss and Grief,” by Linda Carlson, in PEP Talk, Issue 26.
The authors of all of these publications point out that it’s helpful to talk about losses and to identify how we’re feeling. In My Grandma Died, Dr. Britain suggests several ways that preschoolers and toddlers can deal with grief, including drawing pictures of what they liked to do with the person who has died.

Do not expect to “get over” grief, Ms. Kanyer writes. “Grieving is a life-long process,” she says, and it teaches us to accept loss as part of our lives. She emphasizes that children may suffer disproportionately to the loss; not winning an award or not being selected for a team may cause as much grief as the death of a relative. Grief may also cause kids to break down over minor frustrations, such as a broken shoelace. Especially important points:
- Even within the same family, individuals will grieve differently; what helps one child cope may be of no comfort to another.
- Children need to be told they are not responsible for the death, divorce or other loss.
- Grief may be renewed long after the loss. The holidays often cause a new period of sorrow, even if the loss occurred early in the year and it appears to have been accepted.
- Children need physical activities to help them handle their grief.
If your child has experienced a loss, consider planning more outings to ensure that you all have large motor activities to help you work off the energy of grief. This might be a walk around the block if your children are very young or the weather is severe, a hike through the last of the autumn leaves, a swim at the local pool or stomping through snow to cut your own Christmas tree. Small motor activities—painting, using play dough or cutting out cookies—are also helpful.

If you need help talking to your children about a loss, see 25 Things or Issue 22 of PEP Talk for suggestions on initiating a conversation. An additional topic for conversation that’s appropriate for this season: “How do you want us to observe the holidays?” Especially if you’re all still struggling with emotional overload, ask each of your children what two or three activities are most important to them. Eliminate the others or reduce the time you spend on them; rather than go to an all-day extended family party, for example, arrive for dessert.

Top of page
New Subscribers/New Year’s Drawing

The New Year’s Eve party at Parenting Press will be virtual, but the prizes are real! Subscribe now to “News for Parents” and you’ll be entered in a drawing for a free copy of Helen F. Neville’s new Is This a Phase? Child Development & Parent Strategies, Birth to 6 Years, Elizabeth Crary’s Self-Calming Cards or any other Parenting Press publication. That’s right—your choice of any book, poster or card deck that we publish! Encourage your friends to subscribe too: as you know, there’s no cost, no advertising, no sharing of your e-mail address—just wonderful information you can use in your own home, class or child care setting or in a newsletter or blog you publish. We’ll do the drawing on Dec. 31, 2007 from all those subscribed by Dec. 22, the Winter Solstice (and the beginning of the newsletter editor’s holiday break).

Top of page

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 November are:

November 3 — Instilling Respect
November 10 — The Misuse of Praise
November 17 — Making Genuine Connections with Your Child
November 24 — Homework Help

Top of page
Family Fun Ideas — Rube Goldberg Lives Again!

As the holiday season kicks off, let’s try a project that emphasizes creativity and a little bit (depending on your family, maybe a lot!) of goofiness.

Picture Snapping Machine
Illustration © Rube Goldberg, Inc., rubegoldberg.com. Reprinted with permission.

Remember Rube Goldberg? You’ll find lots of information about this real man—a Pulitzer Prize winner, as it happens—at rubegoldberg.com, but here’s a quick summary for those who know his name only as a description for wacky inventions:

Born in 1883, Reuben Lucius Goldberg was a Berkeley engineering graduate who turned to cartooning early in his career. He drew “inventions” that showed difficult ways to achieve easy results. His cartoons included dozens of arms, wheels, gears, handles, cups, and rods that were put in motion by balls, canary cages, pails, boots, bathtubs, paddles, and live animals for simple tasks like squeezing an orange for juice or closing a window in case it should start to rain before one gets home. Because he showed absurd machines functioning in extremely complex and roundabout ways to produce a simple end result, his name has become associated with any convoluted system of achieving a basic task.

Show your kids some of Goldberg’s creations and challenge them to come up with their own, either on paper or for real, in your shop or on the kitchen table. For example, what gears could you connect to a hand-crank that might churn cream into butter or turn on a light? (If you have big kids who are really, really creative, check the Rube Goldberg web site for the 2008 machine contest deadlines.)

Top of page
Community Service: Free Fun

Our goal with this column is to suggest ways that you can model the concept of sharing and giving back to your community. There are other practical advantages to community service, too. Kids can use these projects to meet school or youth group requirements for community service and to start building resumes that they’ll use when applying for first jobs or college.

Keeping kids busy—on a budget—is the theme for this month’s community service project, and this project is one that has many different variations. The basic concept: compile a list of free fun, the places, performances and activities that don’t cost anything. What age group, what kinds of activities and how the information is shared are up to the kids gathering the information. Here’s a few suggestions:
- Research the locations and facilities at playgrounds, community centers, schools and other places open to the public.
- Find out what free or donation-only events are offered by libraries, museums, concert halls, rec centers, swimming pools, puppet theaters, schools and universities, and community festivals.
For example, in the Puget Sound area, most museums are open free one evening of the month; libraries offer programs ranging from cardmaking and story hours to reptile shows; rec centers have “open gyms,” where preschoolers can trike warm and dry; pools are free at least once a year; colleges offer free student concerts; and model train buffs put their railroads on display together each holiday season. The concert hall schedules free tours, some neighborhoods have self-guided walking tours and farmers’ markets with entertainment, and there are local festivals complete with slug races, the Milk Carton Derby and parades.

Kids can describe what’s free:
- In posters at schools, rec centers and child care centers
- In an article written for a community weekly paper, your local parenting publications, a child care or youth group newsletter or a school paper
- On a web site
Top of page
“Reader Rewards” Program Recognizes Reviewers

Tell us how you use your favorite Parenting Press publications and we’ll send you much more than a thank-you note. In fact, we’ll send you an entire book—your choice of anything Parenting Press publishes!

If you have a favorite Parenting Press publication you’d like to tell us about, please send us your comments and contact information. If we use your comment, you will receive a gift certificate redeemable on your choice of Parenting Press publication.

Please note that all submissions become the property of Parenting Press for use in promotional literature and activities and that we reserve the right to identify you by name, title and city of residence/place of business. However, you will be contacted for written permission prior to the use of your submission. All “Reader Rewards” submissions should be received by Parenting Press prior to Dec. 31, 2007.

Top of page
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. We have posted 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.

Top of page

III. POTPOURRI

Special of the month—We’re Talking Turkey!

This special has expired.

Top of page
Does the newsletter work properly?

We would like this newsletter to be interactive—a place where we can ask for your opinion on what we are doing and what information people who live or work with children would like to see from Parenting Press. We would also like you to tell us what information and books you need and want.

We welcome your comments on the format and content on the feedback form. Thank you!

Top of page
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!

Top of page
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 © 2007. 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.

Top of page

	Parents	Parent Educators Counselors	Teachers	Media	Shopping Cart
	Home	Pre-Pub Club	Book Fairs	Gift Certificates	Catalog
Books by Topic New Books NEW! Feelings Child Guidance Problem Solving Development & Issues Temperament & Values Quick Help Kids’ Personal Safety Spanish Translations Other Resources Books by Author Books by Title Instant Help NEW! Qwik Books Qwik Sheets Special Services Book Fairs Pre-Pub Club Gift Certificates Our Catalog Parenting Resources Weekly Parenting Tips Downloadable Brochures Monthly E-Zine Parenting Quizzes Professional Resources PEP Talk Activity Plans Leader’s Guides About Parenting Press FAQs Mission and History What’s New NEW! Our Authors Manuscript Submissions Advisory Group Contact Us Subscribe to Newsletter	Parenting Press® News for Parents — November Dear Friends of Parenting Press, Welcome to the November issue of our electronic newsletter for parents. Our goal is to provide you with interesting and useful information in a format that’s quick and easy to read—and FREE. We welcome your comments, both about the newsletter content and its format. To get the newsletter delivered, you can sign up for an e-mail subscription. November 2007 IN THIS ISSUE WHAT’S NEW? Gifts to Make Handling Holiday Season Excitement Sampling Our New Thinking Styles Book When You’re Grieving New Subscribers/New Year’s Drawing FEATURES Tips for the month Family fun ideas—Rube Goldberg Lives Again! Community service—Free Fun “Reader Rewards” Program Recognizes Reviewers Book Fair Materials Available Online POTPOURRI Special of the month—We’re Talking Turkey! Feedback: Does the newsletter work properly? How to receive your free subscription to this e-zine Reprinting articles in your newsletter COMING ATTRACTIONS Handmade for the Holidays Dollars and Sense Write into the New Year Trash into Toys I. WHAT’S NEW? Gifts to Make A pine cone coated with glitter If you celebrate any of the winter holidays, or if your children will be attending birthday parties in the next month or two, consider handcrafted or home-assembled gifts. Some your kids can make, others you may want to make for your children or for the other kids in your lives. (And some may be absolutely perfect for relatives, caregivers, teachers and other adults!) This time of year the “News for Parents” editor’s work table is always covered with notes on project ideas, materials and projects in process. For her, a gift needs to include a personal touch. The bonus: many homemade gifts make wonderful family or parent-child projects. One of the best gifts: time. Everyone past toddlerhood can put together an IOU for something the recipient would enjoy. Tots can promise an elderly relative hugs, second-graders can offer to weed or water someone’s plants, or you can give the holiday birthday kid a trip to the mountains for sledding. A variation: one child might offer to do another’s chores for a week. Want to be more elaborate? Use ready-to-print artwork or your own graphics program to create books of coupons that can be exchanged for everything from a later bedtime and extra desserts for little kids to 10 gallons of gas and extra car time for your newly licensed 16-year-old. You or your child might also wrap up a coupon with an appropriate gift: mittens and the promise of an ice-skating trip, garden gloves with the IOU for weeding, or a deck of cards with a “punch card” that entitles someone to a dozen sessions of Go, Fish, cribbage or gin rummy. Another gift idea: “kits” assembled at home, complete with materials, equipment and instructions for a project. For example: Candles. Provide beeswax, wicks and instructions on rolling them into candles, or for an older child, combine wax, wicks, a mold, a how-to book (or the promise of your time as teacher) and wrap them all up in sheet music for “You Light Up My Life.” Cookies. Tie cookie mix, cookie cutters, tubes of frosting and a jar of decorations to a cookie sheet. Woodworking. Fill an inexpensive tool box with nails, screws, sandpaper, a measuring tape, and a hammer and wrap it up with boards precut for a bird- or bat-house. Card-making. For a kindergartner, collect postcards or note cards that you’ve cut from index stock, envelopes, stickers and markers. For those who can write, add gel pens, rubber stamps, a stamp pad, novelty scissors and return address labels for the recipient (you can print these yourself). Older kids may appreciate a template for their software program, some digital clip art or photos (including snapshots of them) and unusual printer paper. Bedtime stories. Everyone in the family can help record stories; wrap up the CDs with the books. (For an adult with vision problems or a long commute, have every good reader tape a chapter for a homemade “audiobook.”) Spray a pine cone with adhesive (you can substitute white glue painted on with a tiny brush) and put it in a jar. Pour about a teaspoon of fine glitter on the cone and then screw on the jar lid and gently shake, until most of the cone is glitter-coated. Those who decorate Christmas trees may appreciate ornaments your children have made or “kits” for ornaments their children can make. A few examples: Evergreen cones sprayed with gold or dipped in diluted white glue and then rolled in fine glitter Origami cranes made from shiny paper Matchboxes and other tiny boxes covered with leftover wrapping paper and mounded in doll-size baskets trimmed with narrow ribbon Felt precut into trees, stars or gingerbread men, ready to be decorated with sequins, buttons, ribbons or Rick Rack. Top of page Handling Holiday Season Excitement The Halloween treats are still fresh and your kids are already quivering with excitement about Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza and two whole weeks of winter break from school? If you’re wondering how you’re going to manage this anticipation-fueled energy, here are a few ideas from Elizabeth Crary’s Self-Calming Cards, a Parenting Press publication that lets you keep stress-soothing techniques as close as a deck of cards. Pull out one or more at a time and follow suggestions such as: Jump rope. Variations: jump back and forth across a threshold or the crack in a sidewalk, or simply up and down. For example, “I am soooo excited about Grandma coming for Thanksgiving and I know you are, too. Let’s bundle up and go out and jump on the sidewalk. I’ll use the second hand on my watch to see how many jumps we can make in two minutes.” Look outside. Watch the clouds, the wind, the rain or the birds. You might say to your children, “We need a time out to calm us down, but this time that’s a time looking out. So let’s sit on the couch and see what the clouds look like, and if there are any squirrels running along the power line.” Write a letter. Children who can’t write can look through magazines to find pictures for a rebus-style note or they can draw pictures. You might get them started by saying, “Do you think Cousin Stephanie is as excited about visiting over school vacation as we are about having her come? Let’s show her how pleased we are by writing her a letter, and showing her some of the things you want to do when she’s here.” Looking for more ways to use these cards? See 24 Simple Self-Calming Tools, a downloadable publication by Mrs. Crary that gives you calm-down help right now. You might also create an Advent-style “activity” jar, with dozens of projects and activities for this late autumn and early winter period. If children select one activity at random a day, they’ll have something special to look forward to each day, and they’ll be less likely to focus on one far-off event. You can fill the jar with activities chosen by you, by the kids, or by all of you together. Examples: a trip to the library, a museum, a noontime concert, or the open gym at your community center, walking the beach or riding bikes, building a snow family, going to family swim at the local pool, or baking. You could attend a local ethnic festival, watch the holiday parade of boats if you live near water, or visit neighborhoods with especially festive holiday decorations. Other possibilities: make holiday decorations and cards, create audiotape or DVD greetings for distant relatives, and research holiday traditions on the Internet or with library books. Top of page Sampling Our New Thinking Styles Book Do you like the “Thought of the day” calendars? Then we bet you’ll love “Pages of the week.” That’s right, we’re presenting a new book, Solving the Parenting Puzzle: Four Thinking Styles to Unlock the Secret of Family Harmony, in several installments. Each will help you understand and work with the different thinking styles in your family. Solving the Parenting Puzzle goes far beyond “left brain” and “right brain.” Author Susie Leonard Weller explains “logical,” “practical,” “creative” and “relational” and what benefits—and challenges—each presents at home, work and school. Read your free—and advertising-free—installment of Solving the Parenting Puzzle. To read future segments, register for an email notification. Each segment is available for at least a week. (Of course, once we’re past beta testing Mrs. Weller’s book, your favorite bookstore and our web site will have copies of a traditional printed edition.) Top of page When You’re Grieving This can be a difficult season for those who are mourning. If your family or someone you know has lost a relative or friend any time this year, or if you are grieving a divorce, the diagnosis of a chronic or terminal disease, an unwanted move or similar significant loss, you may find four Parenting Press publications helpful: My Grandma Died: A Child’s Story about Grief and Loss, by Lory Britain, Ph.D. 25 Things to Do When Grandpa Passes Away, Mom and Dad Get Divorced, or the Dog Dies, by Laurie A. Kanyer, M.A. “Understanding Children’s Grief,” by Laurie A. Kanyer, M.A., in PEP Talk, Issue 22. “Helping Children Acknowledge Loss and Grief,” by Linda Carlson, in PEP Talk, Issue 26. The authors of all of these publications point out that it’s helpful to talk about losses and to identify how we’re feeling. In My Grandma Died, Dr. Britain suggests several ways that preschoolers and toddlers can deal with grief, including drawing pictures of what they liked to do with the person who has died. Do not expect to “get over” grief, Ms. Kanyer writes. “Grieving is a life-long process,” she says, and it teaches us to accept loss as part of our lives. She emphasizes that children may suffer disproportionately to the loss; not winning an award or not being selected for a team may cause as much grief as the death of a relative. Grief may also cause kids to break down over minor frustrations, such as a broken shoelace. Especially important points: Even within the same family, individuals will grieve differently; what helps one child cope may be of no comfort to another. Children need to be told they are not responsible for the death, divorce or other loss. Grief may be renewed long after the loss. The holidays often cause a new period of sorrow, even if the loss occurred early in the year and it appears to have been accepted. Children need physical activities to help them handle their grief. If your child has experienced a loss, consider planning more outings to ensure that you all have large motor activities to help you work off the energy of grief. This might be a walk around the block if your children are very young or the weather is severe, a hike through the last of the autumn leaves, a swim at the local pool or stomping through snow to cut your own Christmas tree. Small motor activities—painting, using play dough or cutting out cookies—are also helpful. If you need help talking to your children about a loss, see 25 Things or Issue 22 of PEP Talk for suggestions on initiating a conversation. An additional topic for conversation that’s appropriate for this season: “How do you want us to observe the holidays?” Especially if you’re all still struggling with emotional overload, ask each of your children what two or three activities are most important to them. Eliminate the others or reduce the time you spend on them; rather than go to an all-day extended family party, for example, arrive for dessert. Top of page New Subscribers/New Year’s Drawing The New Year’s Eve party at Parenting Press will be virtual, but the prizes are real! Subscribe now to “News for Parents” and you’ll be entered in a drawing for a free copy of Helen F. Neville’s new Is This a Phase? Child Development & Parent Strategies, Birth to 6 Years, Elizabeth Crary’s Self-Calming Cards or any other Parenting Press publication. That’s right—your choice of any book, poster or card deck that we publish! Encourage your friends to subscribe too: as you know, there’s no cost, no advertising, no sharing of your e-mail address—just wonderful information you can use in your own home, class or child care setting or in a newsletter or blog you publish. We’ll do the drawing on Dec. 31, 2007 from all those subscribed by Dec. 22, the Winter Solstice (and the beginning of the newsletter editor’s holiday break). Top of page 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 November are: November 3 — Instilling Respect November 10 — The Misuse of Praise November 17 — Making Genuine Connections with Your Child November 24 — Homework Help Top of page Family Fun Ideas — Rube Goldberg Lives Again! As the holiday season kicks off, let’s try a project that emphasizes creativity and a little bit (depending on your family, maybe a lot!) of goofiness. Picture Snapping Machine Illustration © Rube Goldberg, Inc., rubegoldberg.com. Reprinted with permission. Remember Rube Goldberg? You’ll find lots of information about this real man—a Pulitzer Prize winner, as it happens—at rubegoldberg.com, but here’s a quick summary for those who know his name only as a description for wacky inventions: Born in 1883, Reuben Lucius Goldberg was a Berkeley engineering graduate who turned to cartooning early in his career. He drew “inventions” that showed difficult ways to achieve easy results. His cartoons included dozens of arms, wheels, gears, handles, cups, and rods that were put in motion by balls, canary cages, pails, boots, bathtubs, paddles, and live animals for simple tasks like squeezing an orange for juice or closing a window in case it should start to rain before one gets home. Because he showed absurd machines functioning in extremely complex and roundabout ways to produce a simple end result, his name has become associated with any convoluted system of achieving a basic task. Show your kids some of Goldberg’s creations and challenge them to come up with their own, either on paper or for real, in your shop or on the kitchen table. For example, what gears could you connect to a hand-crank that might churn cream into butter or turn on a light? (If you have big kids who are really, really creative, check the Rube Goldberg web site for the 2008 machine contest deadlines.) Top of page Community Service: Free Fun Our goal with this column is to suggest ways that you can model the concept of sharing and giving back to your community. There are other practical advantages to community service, too. Kids can use these projects to meet school or youth group requirements for community service and to start building resumes that they’ll use when applying for first jobs or college. Keeping kids busy—on a budget—is the theme for this month’s community service project, and this project is one that has many different variations. The basic concept: compile a list of free fun, the places, performances and activities that don’t cost anything. What age group, what kinds of activities and how the information is shared are up to the kids gathering the information. Here’s a few suggestions: Research the locations and facilities at playgrounds, community centers, schools and other places open to the public. Find out what free or donation-only events are offered by libraries, museums, concert halls, rec centers, swimming pools, puppet theaters, schools and universities, and community festivals. For example, in the Puget Sound area, most museums are open free one evening of the month; libraries offer programs ranging from cardmaking and story hours to reptile shows; rec centers have “open gyms,” where preschoolers can trike warm and dry; pools are free at least once a year; colleges offer free student concerts; and model train buffs put their railroads on display together each holiday season. The concert hall schedules free tours, some neighborhoods have self-guided walking tours and farmers’ markets with entertainment, and there are local festivals complete with slug races, the Milk Carton Derby and parades. Kids can describe what’s free: In posters at schools, rec centers and child care centers In an article written for a community weekly paper, your local parenting publications, a child care or youth group newsletter or a school paper On a web site Top of page “Reader Rewards” Program Recognizes Reviewers Tell us how you use your favorite Parenting Press publications and we’ll send you much more than a thank-you note. In fact, we’ll send you an entire book—your choice of anything Parenting Press publishes! If you have a favorite Parenting Press publication you’d like to tell us about, please send us your comments and contact information. If we use your comment, you will receive a gift certificate redeemable on your choice of Parenting Press publication. Please note that all submissions become the property of Parenting Press for use in promotional literature and activities and that we reserve the right to identify you by name, title and city of residence/place of business. However, you will be contacted for written permission prior to the use of your submission. All “Reader Rewards” submissions should be received by Parenting Press prior to Dec. 31, 2007. Top of page 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. We have posted 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. Top of page III. POTPOURRI Special of the month—We’re Talking Turkey! This special has expired. Top of page Does the newsletter work properly? We would like this newsletter to be interactive—a place where we can ask for your opinion on what we are doing and what information people who live or work with children would like to see from Parenting Press. We would also like you to tell us what information and books you need and want. We welcome your comments on the format and content on the feedback form. Thank you! Top of page 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! Top of page 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 © 2007. 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. Top of page E-mail this page to a friend Visit our web site Browse our CATALOG on-line or order a copy.
Home · Special Services · Parenting Resources · Professional Resources · Subscribe to Newsletter · Contact Us