moms extraordinaire
"Every working mom needs a little me time!"
Should you say "no" to homework? As our children get older, many of us are experiencing an increase in homework. In this day and age of overachievement and competition to be the best, homework may be detracting from a child’s ability to just be a kid. Read how one mom decided “NO MORE HOMEWORK” and how her daughter continued to thrive in school. 
Coping With ADHD Without Medication
Parents and children are now in full swing with the beginning of the school year. But for the parents of children with ADHD the school year can get off to a slower start. Watch the following story and see the challenges of how this family is coping with ADHD without medication.
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Affirmative Action For Rich Students
Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Golden was awarded the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for beat reporting for a series of stories that exposed huge college admissions advantages enjoyed by some privileged white students and helped reshape the national debate on affirmative action.
Read just a few of his articles below and you will be well informed for your next affirmative action smackdown.
College Ties: Affirmative action for Rich Kids
* Article 1
* Article 2
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March is National Women’s
History Month
March 8, 1911 in
In 1978 in
The purpose of Women’s History Month is to take time to increase the awareness and knowledge of women’s history and to remember the contributions of women.
To learn more of Women’s History and the National Women’s History Project, please visit the website www.nwhp.org.
Here are some notable First’s in women’s achievement:
Ann Teresa Matthews 1715 First woman whose invention received a patent
Lucy Brewer 1812 First woman marine
Elizabeth Blackwell 1849 First woman to receive a medical degree
Harriet Tubman 1850 First woman to run underground railroad to free slaves
Susan B. Anthony 1869 Cofounder of first
Frances Elizabeth Willard 1871 First woman to become college president (
Helen Magill 1877 First woman to receive Ph.D. degree (
Mary McLeoud Bethune 1904 First women to establish 4-yr accredited college & founder of National Council of Negro Women
Blanche Scott 1910 First woman to fly an airplane
Kate Gleason 1917 First woman president of national bank
Jeanette Ranking 1971 First woman in Congress
Florence E. Allen 1920 First woman judge
Hattie Wyatt Caraway 1932 First woman elected to US Senate
Mary Clarke 1978 First woman named major general in US Army
Sandra Day O’Connor 1981 First woman justice of US Supreme Court
Penny Harrington 1985 First US police chief of major city (
Lt. Col. Eileen Collins 1995 First American woman to pilot space shuttle
Madeline K. Albright 1997 First woman Secretary of State & highest ranking woman in
Condoleezza Rice 2005 First African American woman to be appointed Secretary of State
Nancy Pelosi 2006 First woman to become Speaker of the House
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Television and Education
by Roberto Sedycias
As an adjunct education professor I am often asked, "How do I motivate students to learn?"
Motivating students to learn is a struggle that all teachers face.
Since I also teach middle school social studies it is a challenge I personally face everyday.
The truth is motivating students to learn is one of the key components of effective teaching AND classroom management.
If students are not motivated to learn then they are most likely not involved in the lesson and if they are not involved in the lesson they are much more likely to cause classroom management problems.
As the amount of time that children spend watching television increases, so does the concern for how it affects their academic ability. Children are watching on average four hours of television a day, and extensive research is being made into the effects. However, there is currently no evidence suggesting that watching television affects a child’s performance in school in a negative manner. In fact, modern research has found that there is a positive correlation between television viewing of 10 hours per week and sustained academic results.
Television can be a very useful academic tool, and has been used in the classroom for academic purposes since the 1970’s. The television programs are used to assist children in various subject areas, and are used alongside other teaching materials, to give a well rounded approach to learning materials. This has proved successful as children prefer learning visually at a young age. In the past, few programs were designed for this purpose. However, with the extent of research that has gone into television for children and the input of governing bodies such as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission, this attitude has changed.
Research into the effects television has on a child’s behavior and performance has been in place since the 1950’s. However, with the formation of the Action for Children’s Television Society in 1970, the research has been extensive and covering a variety of areas. The importance of the content of children’s television has created governing bodies on each television network to make sure they are fulfilling their public responsibility. The research is weighted against product demand, current issues and education, and aims to make sure that all characters are good role models. This includes removing stereotyping and encouraging social tolerance.
As a result, regular television now consistently shows programs of an educational nature. These programs can easily be found on channels such as National Geographic, Discovery, and the Learning Channel, as well as on general stations worldwide. It was the well known children’s television program
Research has found that repetition is central to a child’s education, and this applies to educational television viewing also. It states that reruns are useful as they create recognizable characters and situations which help children to learn about cause and effect, sequencing and also improve their understanding of people and the world around them. Children’s television programs are repeated up to four times a year to maximize the potential, though of course, this also assists with costs.
Another useful feature of television is that it tackles difficult questions in the areas of morality and ethics. Through the medium of television, children are exposed to ideas and made aware of cultures that they can not necessarily experience for themselves. Television also assists with topics that are tricky to approach such as bereavement and bullying. As the subject is raised outside of the child’s environment, then it can be easier for them to discuss and deliberate over these subjects, particularly if they are relevant to their own experiences. Television is a popular medium of choice for conveying such ideas in classrooms around the world.
A final point to consider is that television is a visually stimulating medium and is of interest to children. Therefore, it can be used to assist reluctant learners by creating interest and removing pressure that can accompany traditional learning techniques.
Television is a useful educational tool if used correctly and in moderation. Television can assist with academic learning and also with social and emotional development. Although more research is needed, it is the attitude towards television and its uses that creates a successful environment in which children can learn.
Roberto Sedycias
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Parenting Your High School Graduate
by: Ellen Gibran-Hesse
I am a life coach for parents with young adults who have failed to launch and for young adults navigating the early years of independence. I am also a lawyer and single mom. I have two sons and my youngest, Richard, is just about ready to finish high school. We applied to about six colleges just before Thanksgiving, a rite that I had just done four years ago with his older brother, and now are waiting to hear back for the winning selections. It is worse than Oscar night. Many friends and family tease me about the empty nest. What will I do with the “kids” gone? I reply that is a fantasy that is one of the best kept secrets. No one wants to admit that in this day and age, we have many young adults not leaving home or coming back home after failed attempts out on their own or after college. The latest number is 18 million young adults living at home and not because they want to do so. The young adult leaving home after 18 was traditional for previous generations, but it is not reality for our generation.
What is going wrong is that no one is preparing our young adults for independence. We want to believe as parents that the schools and colleges are doing that, but they aren’t. We have both parents working these days and many single parents also working. As parents, we have been lulled into thinking that somehow the schools will launch our kids into adulthood. The sad fact is that our schools are doing a worse job than they ever have. As Dr. Mel Levine says in his book, Ready or Not, Here Life Comes, our high schools have become college prep institutions. This was not the case just 30-40 years ago. The high schools then had been to prepare the student with skills to enter the adult world. There is virtually no preparation in that direction today. The focus is to create better students for college and to obtain better test scores for funding. The student is a product, not a human. But without better parenting and parental involvement at this development stage, we are going to continue to see lost dependent young adults because the fact is, schools are not going to change any time soon.
Right now, according to a Time Magazine article in 2006, about 1/3 of our high school students are dropping out. I’ve seen statistics that about 1/3 of our high school students are going to college. That leaves about 1/3 who are simply graduating and trying to find their way. If high schools have become college prep institutions, they are failing 2/3 of our students. When I went to high school, there were three “tracks” to better serve students and their families. There was the college track in which students took honors classes to prepare them for college. In addition, there was the business track for those going into office related jobs, and there was the technical track which included car repair and the like. The focus very much was on where students would be going after high school and how best to prepare them to work in the real world. The key here is the word, “work”.
In my coaching, I try to get parents to begin a dialogue with their students in high school about what do they want to do when they grow up. No one is asking teens how they see their life after high school. If you ask any junior or senior, they will say they are going to college because that is what everyone is supposed to be doing. Those who have no intention of going will say they are going to college. We used to be able to say to friends, “I’m going to get a job at such and such and maybe go to college after a few years.” You can’t say that now. Somehow work before finishing college is disgusting. Is it any wonder we have young adults returning home?
Parents still need to be involved in raising their high school student. They need to be imparting and supporting a number of skills. Teens need to start living their lives, in part, as adults. They need to wake up on their own, manage time on their own, work in areas they think they might like as a career, drive a car, manage their own money, and pay some of their own bills. Of course, a little course in cooking wouldn’t be bad. Parents look at me as if I’m nuts. Work? At a job? There’s too much homework or they have too many extracurricular activities to be involved in so that their college applications look good. But every time I have a client put their teens to work and let them manage money and pay their own gas and other bills, a miracle happens. The teen starts to mature. Work ethics don’t come with a college degree. They start in the teens or as young adults. My sons both are getting into college and both have worked. Work should accompany college plans. It is a foundation of adult life. My sons have worked at several jobs and found out which ones they don’t like and why. This is how young adults figure out where they need to go. A college major is not a job. It is too late after four years, and frequently now, five years of college and thousands of dollars to find out that you aren’t going to be working in your major.
If your young adult just isn’t the college sort, that’s fine. In fact, that’s more normal than not. They have not failed and neither have you! This is a great journey for them and you. Help them to get the training and the sort of jobs they think they are interested in. I know of many grown adults and young adults who don’t finish college. The bottom line is finding out what career path you want and you can only do that if you try it out. College will be more relevant and meaningful if you know where you are going and what you want to do. Research out of Stanford and
Parents are relieved when I tell them there is no path, just the illusion of one. Their job for the next 4-8 years is one of supporting and helping their young adult to find their way to independence. It is a process to be involved in and enjoyed.
About The Author
Ellen Gibran-Hesse is a solo practitioner attorney with a B.S. in psychology and a single mother of two sons ages 20 and 17. She has done extensive work in non-profit organizations with teens and young adults and helped family and friends to successfully launch their children into a successful transition into adulthood for over five years. She is currently writing a book to assist other parents and parent groups based on her research and experience.
Website: http://www.kidsoutnow.com
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Backpack Safety - What Are The Basic Rules
By: Bernardita Riza Quejano
Most kids hump backpacks to school everyday, and pediatricians, physical therapists and parents are reporting counting ordinals of schoolchildren grieving of back, neck and shoulder sadness, along with tingling or numbness in their arms and phalangess. This is being attributed to children carrying heavy scores of schoolbooks in equipments and often not following backpack safety rules and using the bag improperly.
However don’t sliver your child’s backpack and run out to buy a sling bag, or briefcase type book bag. Evidence exists that says these are even more harmful than the backpack. So what is a originator to do? Backpacks if made correctly, worn properly not over packed and mobbed correctly, are rare. A back friendly bag will have loose padded shoulder strops, a padded back, and a waist belt.
This takes care of most of the problems. The straps, on this group of bag, avoid the pinching of the shoulders by conventional unpadded straps on more backpacks. The focus belt and padded bag helping hand to reduce the bouncing of the bag on the back. This dwindles repetitive jounce bruise. Some backpacks even have a chest belt, and ancillary straps to poise the jag.
This type of backpack is obvious the better special, because it uses the back and abdominal muscles, the two strongest muscle systems in the body, properly. A fatty backpack, incorrectly worn, can pull the little doll back, so the child leans forward to reimburse for the pull. This can compress and possibly contamination the vertebrae, causing back and neck pain.
This leaning forward too tends to reason the child to roll her shoulders inward. This with the forth lean can also compress the lungs and cause problems for stertorous kids. The unequaled hefts are made of sturdy material, have padded wide shoulder straps, padded backs, waist and chest strings. These extra belts comfort to put some of the weight bearing on the legs and hips. You have the right backpack, now you have to make sure your child undergos how to use it properly.
First teach her how to pack it properly, heavier items like textbooks should be placed closet to the back, don’t over-pack, and don’t baggage anything you do not crave for institution, Now see that he lifts it properly, and that he uses both bear harnesss, the waist belt and any additional waistbands.. Before purchasing a backpack check on line for results of product testing and ratings, by reliable shopper protection groups, of any backpack you are seeing.
Be aware that price is not always an index of quality, nor does lower prices axiomatically mean a impecunious product. You must do your homework. Also look on line for wholesale dealers in packs .We found a top brand backpack that has all the proper padding all the belts and a mini frame to help support the load for scrupulous a thirty one-spots more than the average mid-range back pack.
More important than the reward is that you get the right type of backpack, and that your child uses it because the best max expensive ergonomically sound backpack in the world, is worthless if she doesn’t follow the backpack safety rules.
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Public v. Private School: An Ongoing Debate.
What is right for your family?
by: Monique Pryor
I recently had a conversation with an education professor regarding choosing the best school for my children (age 5 and 19 months). As if my career and paying taxes weren’t fighting for a space on my top ten list of “Those things that I must absolutely never forget to take care of,” I must admit that deciding on where my children are going to go to school did not make the cut until they began inching towards grade school.
Lately, deciding on their education has taken up more energy than the former mentioned categories. After our conversation, I told my friend, the educator, that in order for my children to go to one of the best public schools she recommended, I would have to move in a shack that expensive school district. She then quickly replied, “Then that’s what you have to do.” She was dead serious and the thought of compromising my lifestyle for my children’s education never crossed my mind until that moment.
Click here to read a Wall Street Journal article on the topic and visit my blog to read how your fellow me moms feel and join the discussion.
