potluck site
"The heirs of Walt Disney, angered by negative portrayals of him over the years, are preparing to unveil their response: a $112 million museum focused on his happy home life and artistic achievements. The Walt Disney Family Museum, to be run by the former deputy director of the Harvard University Art Museums, Richard Benefield, will open in October in San Francisco. On Wednesday the institution will introduce its exhibition plans and holdings, which range from personal items (home movies never shown before) to “Steamboat Willie” animation cels..."
read entire article
Source: The New York Times
School Family Nights - Kits Available
PTO Today has several kits to make it easy for your school to put together a Family School Night...there are kits available for:
Family Reading Night
Family Movie Night
Get Movin' Night
Family Arts & Crafts Night
Family Game Night
"Get parents engaged, excited and involved! What’s the best way to get more parents involved in your school? Host a School Family Night! Our School Family Nights program is a great way to bring more parents into your school and connect with your school’s families. Once parents see what a great time they can have with their kids at your school events… they’ll be ready to sign up for more..."
Source: PTO Today
The Pencil Project
"The Pencil Project was born from a simple idea. On a trip to Africa in 1998, my mother snapped a photo of a lively group of second graders...102 to be exact...with only one teacher. One little boy in particular stood out. He was clutching a small broken pencil. It was all he had and was his most prized possession.
As a writer and someone who lived in Africa as a child, something struck me about that photo. It symbolized everything about the value of education and how important it is that all the world's children have access to the tools they need.
For less than a soft drink, a pack of one dozen pencils can be purchased which would in turn help 12 children. It seemed too easy!
With your support, we can make a mighty difference in the world...one pencil at a time.
Whether you are a group that wants to take on a fantastic service project or a school that desperately needs our help, we are here to help you meet your goals!"
Source: The Pencil Project
Stranger Safety with The Safe Side
Come on over to The Safe Side!
"Kid safety is an important, yet often difficult topic of discussion between parents and children. The Safe Side's "Safe Side Super-Chick" is a decidedly zany host who successfully combines slapstick humor with serious, practical safety tips for kids. "Safe Side Super-Chick" breaks the population down into three quickly discernable categories: "Safe Side Adults" that kids know well and can always trust to keep them safe, "Don't Knows" like the mail carrier or the lady at the park and "Sorta Knows" like a coach or a schoolmate's parent. As "Safe Side Super-Chick" interacts with "Don't Knows" and "Sorta Knows", she offers seven specific safety tips to keep kids safe and, with the help of real kids, details simple, concrete actions and phrases that empower kids in a variety of potentially dangerous situations. Best of all, the presentation is never scary, but always extremely funny--that means that kids ages 2 to 10 will actually enjoy learning about safety. Kudos to Julie Clark (creator of Baby Einstein) and John Walsh (host of America's Most Wanted) for creating a safety video that's highly entertaining, informative, and practical..."
Source: Tami Horiuchi Amazon.com
Product Description
"A message from John Walsh: I'm the host of a television show that I wish wasn't needed. But it is. Thankfully, 38 missing children have been recovered by our work at "America's Most Wanted." In 1981, the lives of my wife Reve and I were changed forever. Our beautiful son Adam was abducted from a mall in a nice area of South Florida. Sadly, two weeks into the biggest search for a child ever in Florida, our son was found murdered. In my quest to find justice and fight back for victims, I lobbied Congress to change the laws and to change how police search for missing children. I'm proud to say that the movement I started is still going strong. There's a national organization dedicated to helping children (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children) and now this country and its media are beginning to understand that our children need to be informed about how to stay safe. In 1981 not much was known about child abduction and exploitation. Parents knew very little and, tragically, children knew even less. Today we're proud of the awareness that children have about the dangers that face them. Children see images everywhere of kidnappings and exploitation. We only need to think about what we've seen in the past year--pedophiles in the clergy, Internet predators, and others who are in positions to take advantage of children's trust in them--to know that kids are still being victimized at an alarming rate. I hope that's about to change. As a crime fighter and host of a popular TV program that has saved lives, I'm proud to be teaming up with a woman who knows how to teach children. Kids want to know what to do, and parents need to be prepared. Like me, Julie Clark is a parent who cares. She has a proven track record of teaching kids. Her passion and experience make this series of safety videos for children something that parents and kids will want to watch. Now parents and kids will do what I've been doing for more than 23 years--they'll fight back..."
Source: Amazon.com
What Price, Privilege?
The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids |
Has our overinvolved parenting style created a generation of kids with an impaired sense of self? If so, how can we work to get it back?
"It was 6:15 p.m. Friday when I closed the door behind my last unhappy teenage patient of the week. I slumped into my well-worn chair feeling depleted and surprisingly close to tears. The 15-year-old girl who had just left my office was bright, personable, highly pressured by her adoring, but frequently preoccupied, affluent parents, and very angry. She had used a razor to incise the word EMPTY on her left forearm, showing it to me when I commented on her typical cutter disguise -- a long-sleeve T-shirt pulled halfway over her hand, with an opening torn in the cuff for her thumb. I tried to imagine how intensely unhappy my young patient must have felt to cut her distress into her flesh..."
read entire article
Source: Madeline Levine | SFGate.com
Recent Posts
- Pennies for Peace
- (video) The Contraption II: Amazing Rube Goldberg Machine from Baynham Tyers
- Fun With Pancakes @evite_la
- Walt Disney Family Museum to Open in October 2009
- 100 Fun, Healthy and (Mostly) Free Family Activities
- Kitchen Oil Fire - Fire Safety
- School Family Nights - Kits Available
- Save a Tree or Two with Catalog Choice
- The Pencil Project
- Internet Safety - Online Resources
Visit: catalogchoice.org
"Catalog Choice is a sponsored project of the Ecology Center. It is endorsed by the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Resources Defense Council, and funded by the Overbrook Foundation, the Merck Family Fund, and the Kendeda Fund.
Our mission The mission of Catalog Choice is to reduce the number of repeat and unwanted catalog mailings, and to promote the adoption of sustainable industry best practices. We aim to accomplish this by freely providing the Catalog Choice services to both consumers and businesses. Consumers can indicate which catalogs they no longer wish to receive, and businesses can receive a list of consumers no longer wanting to receive their catalogs..."