PARENT EDUCATION SEMINARS
We are happy to offer an exciting thought provoking two day workshop on "Helping families create healthy homes" offered through Palo Alto Mothers Club on Feb. 4th and 5th. Families can join us for one or both of the following. The Thursday evening talk from 7:00-8:30PM will focus on "Tuning into the Media and Tuning into our Children". Parents will leave with concrete ideas to implement immediately and an action plan custom made for each families individual needs relating to the media frenzy in all of our lives. Friday morning we encourage families to bring their children and test out over 15 stations of hands on activities to do together. Each family will leave with easy ideas to do at home that encourage creative play.
The Thursday evening talk still has openings and the Friday morning class is FULL.
The following is a brief outline of the 1.5 hour Thursday evening program:
1. We will discuss the current research on the effects of media in our children's lives.
2. We will share and discuss what is happening in our own families regarding the media.
3. We will learn a variety of action plans that you can implement immediately to create a safe and healthy home.
4. We will talk about age appropriate guidelines concerning the media.
5. We will learn some fun and creative alternatives to the media in our homes.
Introduction to Pam Worth:
Pamela Worth is a parent educator specializing in classes and seminars on many area of child development. Some of the topics she covers are: “Enhancing Sibling Relationships”, “Tuning into the Media, Tuning into your Child”, “Creative Alternatives to Media”, “Limit Setting”, “Play and Socialization of toddlers”, “Language and Learning” and “Creating Traditions and Rituals for Healthy Families”.
She has been an advocate for healthy family lifestyles and has modeled her programs and career around this premise. Combining her love of nature and her expertise on healthy, unplugged life styles for young children she created Tiny Treks in 1997 as a creative alternative to indoor parent participation programs. Tiny Treks is a meaningful parent participation program that gets children outside learning and exploring in natural environments. TinyTreks incorporates music, movement, story time and crafts into each weekly class. The program has grown to over 200 children in three metropolitan areas since its inception in 1996
Pam can be reached at pam@tinytreks.com.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Cold Weather and little ones
I know its hard to get the little guys to wear their hat and gloves....but if they don't they can't have fun! So make sure to bundle them up enough so they can enjoy their outdoor adventures. A preschooler with freezing hands is an unhappy kid!
Friday, January 22, 2010
Tips for Getting Screen Time Under Control
Here are a few practical tips to think about if you want your families screen time under control.
1. Have a cell phone garage you can decorate with your family and decide when do the phones need to park in the garage. If your kids are young, you can be a great role model and park the phone during dinner and family time.
If your kids are cell phone age the phone can park at designated times in the day. Decide as a family, so everyone is invested in this way of life.
2. Create some hard a fast rules that you mostly stick with such as no phones, TVs, i-pods, computers at dinner.
3. The most powerful rule with children and teens is no television Monday-Thursday(there can be some exceptions for a special show).
4. Have your children get in the habit of asking before playing a computer game, X-Box, Wii, DS etc... and they must get permission before turning on the TV. If you can kick the habit of sit on couch and push button you can literally reprogram your family.
More ideas soon.
1. Have a cell phone garage you can decorate with your family and decide when do the phones need to park in the garage. If your kids are young, you can be a great role model and park the phone during dinner and family time.
If your kids are cell phone age the phone can park at designated times in the day. Decide as a family, so everyone is invested in this way of life.
2. Create some hard a fast rules that you mostly stick with such as no phones, TVs, i-pods, computers at dinner.
3. The most powerful rule with children and teens is no television Monday-Thursday(there can be some exceptions for a special show).
4. Have your children get in the habit of asking before playing a computer game, X-Box, Wii, DS etc... and they must get permission before turning on the TV. If you can kick the habit of sit on couch and push button you can literally reprogram your family.
More ideas soon.
How old is this tree?
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Swimming in Screen Time
My passion is helping families learn how to manage, moderate and live with the deluge of media in our lives. I could not believe it yesterday when I looked on the front page of the Chicago Tribune and one of the cover stories was, "Children Swimming in Media." http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/ct-met-0120-youth-media-20100119,0,4394294.story The stats were fascinating and extremely overwhelming to me. Take a look at the article. There is also another version in the New York Times cleverly titled, "If Your Kids are Awake They are Probably Online". http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/education/20wired.html?scp=1&sq=kaiser&st=cse
The Kaiser Foundation does a great job showing us the shocking data in words, graphs, charts and pictures. It looks like in 2004 children averaged about 6 hours 21 min. of screen time a day and the researcher thought that we the reached the peak. There is simply NO MORE TIME IN THE DAY. But alas somehow children between 8-18 have found another 1 hr. 17 minutes on average, bringing the number to a staggering 7hours38 minutes per day. The articles can give you all the statistical information, but what struck me from the article I read was that title "Children Swimming In Media".
When we are pregnant with our precious babies all we can think of is how can we keep them safe. Often we wake up in the night worrying about the outlet we forgot to plug, or the cabinet that is easy to crawl and open, or the toilet seat someone left up. We hire safety people to child proof our house. We spend hundreds of dollars buying equipment to safety proof our homes. We all become handymen installing devices throughout our homes. We sleep a little bit easier for awhile. Then the children start to crawl or walk and a whole new set of safety features need to be added. We worry about what our kids our eating and drinking. We possibly grow our own vegatables, buy food without pesticides, milk without growth hormones and the list continues. We take our toddler to the beach on a sunny day and we discover it is closed because there is too much bacteria in the water. We are outraged and learn what we can do to clean up our beaches, so our precious children can be safe. Yet, we allow our children to literally swim in media. They are swimming with monsters, wars, guns, strangers, porn. I could list a million more things. For the most part, they are in the deep end without a lifeguard.
The informative article about this 2009 study on media usage in children is simply that, very informative. What we now have to do is figure out how to manage screen times in our families. I know that this is a media age and kids have to learn how to navigate some of it, but as parents it is our duty, our pledge for safety that we must pay closer attention to the use of media in our homes. Tomorrow we will give some practical tips on managing the media in your homes.
The Kaiser Foundation does a great job showing us the shocking data in words, graphs, charts and pictures. It looks like in 2004 children averaged about 6 hours 21 min. of screen time a day and the researcher thought that we the reached the peak. There is simply NO MORE TIME IN THE DAY. But alas somehow children between 8-18 have found another 1 hr. 17 minutes on average, bringing the number to a staggering 7hours38 minutes per day. The articles can give you all the statistical information, but what struck me from the article I read was that title "Children Swimming In Media".
When we are pregnant with our precious babies all we can think of is how can we keep them safe. Often we wake up in the night worrying about the outlet we forgot to plug, or the cabinet that is easy to crawl and open, or the toilet seat someone left up. We hire safety people to child proof our house. We spend hundreds of dollars buying equipment to safety proof our homes. We all become handymen installing devices throughout our homes. We sleep a little bit easier for awhile. Then the children start to crawl or walk and a whole new set of safety features need to be added. We worry about what our kids our eating and drinking. We possibly grow our own vegatables, buy food without pesticides, milk without growth hormones and the list continues. We take our toddler to the beach on a sunny day and we discover it is closed because there is too much bacteria in the water. We are outraged and learn what we can do to clean up our beaches, so our precious children can be safe. Yet, we allow our children to literally swim in media. They are swimming with monsters, wars, guns, strangers, porn. I could list a million more things. For the most part, they are in the deep end without a lifeguard.
The informative article about this 2009 study on media usage in children is simply that, very informative. What we now have to do is figure out how to manage screen times in our families. I know that this is a media age and kids have to learn how to navigate some of it, but as parents it is our duty, our pledge for safety that we must pay closer attention to the use of media in our homes. Tomorrow we will give some practical tips on managing the media in your homes.
Maui and a DS
I was lucky enough to be lying on the beach in Maui a few weeks ago, watching families arrive with their little ones in ruffled suits. As I lay there revisiting beach vacations when my kids were little, I watched two moms greeting each other with envy. Oh, those days of getting kids and families together for extended fun. The moms were young and attentive of their children. Then why does the four year old walk up to the beach clutching and watching a pink DS? She stumbles along with her head barely bobbing up to look at the next step. Does she see the sea ahead of her? Can she smell the tangy ocean air and hear the rush and pull of the waves? What is so compelling on that screen that she doesn't want to experience the sand between her toes?
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Word of the Month is INTERACTION
Ann in your thoughts yesterday about children at the gym on their parents cell phone, I wanted to respond with some important facts on this topic.
First, I believe the very crucial point Ann is bringing up is something the newest generation of parents may not be thinking about enough. We hear the news about screen time, we see the statistics about childhood obesity, yet we hand over the phone, the computer, videos and TV to our young children. There is so much information on this topic, but I think if we can just simplify over the next several days into some simple things to think about as parents, friends, spouses, siblings and teachers it may put this in focus. We are going to pick a word each month related to this topic and this months word is "interaction."
Here are the facts;
1. Babies need a responsive environment for healthy development.
2. The first 5 years of life are the most crucial for brain development and the best way a parent can help is simply talking, singing, reading and interacting with their young child.
3. Screen time takes away from human contact. PERIOD!
4. If you are plugged in you are not interacting.
If everyone out there can just leave our blog today with that word, "interaction" and have it in your mind with everything and everywhere you travel today how does it affect your interactions?
First, I believe the very crucial point Ann is bringing up is something the newest generation of parents may not be thinking about enough. We hear the news about screen time, we see the statistics about childhood obesity, yet we hand over the phone, the computer, videos and TV to our young children. There is so much information on this topic, but I think if we can just simplify over the next several days into some simple things to think about as parents, friends, spouses, siblings and teachers it may put this in focus. We are going to pick a word each month related to this topic and this months word is "interaction."
Here are the facts;
1. Babies need a responsive environment for healthy development.
2. The first 5 years of life are the most crucial for brain development and the best way a parent can help is simply talking, singing, reading and interacting with their young child.
3. Screen time takes away from human contact. PERIOD!
4. If you are plugged in you are not interacting.
If everyone out there can just leave our blog today with that word, "interaction" and have it in your mind with everything and everywhere you travel today how does it affect your interactions?
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