Archive for March, 2010
Parents Universal Resource Experts – Sue Scheff: No Text is Worth Dying Over
AT&T recently launched a new campaign to raise awareness about the risks of texting and driving and remind all wireless consumers, especially youth, that text messages can – and should – wait until after driving. AT&T Kicks Off Don’t Text and Drive Campaign.
The national campaign features true stories and the text message that was sent or received before someone’s life was altered, or even ended,because of texting and driving.
Stop what you’re doing. Take out your wireless device. Read out loud the last text message you received. Would reading or responding to that text message while driving be worth causing a serious accident? When you look at it that way, there’s no text that couldn’t wait.
AT&T* has recently launched a new campaign to raise awareness about the risks of texting and driving and remind all wireless consumers, especially youth, that text messages can – and should – wait until after driving.
The national campaign features true stories (watch video below) and the text message that was sent or received before someone’s life was altered, or even ended, because of texting and driving. By featuring real stories, the campaign will demonstrate how insignificant a text message is compared to the potentially dire consequences of reading or responding while driving.
For example, in one of the television spots, the text “Where u at?” flashes on the screen and a mother says, “This is the text my daughter was reading when she drove into oncoming traffic.” The ad also includes the message “No text is worth dying over” and the campaign’s tagline, “Txtng & Drivng … It Can Wait.”
“We explored several campaign concepts but we didn’t have our ‘aha!’ moment until we asked one of our focus groups to take out their devices and read the last text they received,” said Cathy Coughlin, senior executive vice president and global marketing officer for AT&T. “When we asked if that particular message was worth the potential risk of reading while driving at 65 mph, you could have heard a pin drop. That’s when we realized the message ‘it can wait’ was effective in educating consumers about the dangers of texting while driving.”
The new campaign will span print, radio, TV and online advertising – which will be rolled out in the coming months – as well as in-store signage, collateral and online billing. In addition, parents, high school educators and, most importantly, youth, can now visit AT&T’s online resource center www.att.com/txtngcanwait . The site includes downloadable information about texting while driving such as a parent-teen pledge; a teen-teen pledge; a poster; a brochure; safety tips; and more.
AT&T also has launched a Facebook application. Friends can share this application with one another to encourage each other to take the pledge to not text and drive. AT&T will also be promoting the pledge via a “twitition” on Twitter to ask followers to rally around the cause. You can follow @ShareATT on Twitter. In addition, to honor those taking the pledge, AT&T will contribute $250,000 to one or more non-profit organizations focused on youth safety and will announce the selected non-profit organization(s) at the start of National Youth Safety Month in May.
“While our campaign is important for all drivers, we’re particularly focused on youth,” said Coughlin.
In September 2009, AT&T announced a commitment to raise awareness about the issue of texting and driving through a multifaceted initiative to educate employees, customers and the general public about using wireless devices safely while driving.
Since then, AT&T has revised its wireless and motor vehicle policies to more clearly and explicitly prohibit texting and driving, impacting its approximately 280,000 employees; incorporated a don’t-text-and-drive message on the plastic clings that protect handset screens on the majority of new devices sold in AT&T’s more than 2,200 stores; and will integrate campaign messaging in AT&T catalogs, in-store signage and collateral, bills, e-mails, newsletters and more.
Watch these impactful videos and think twice before you text or even read a text while driving.
Where u at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se1_ybhkxeQ
Where r: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRB6v3wLZXY
Yeah t: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoLSqTkZ4XE
Yeah: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ_28KLT7LE
Be an educated parent, you will have safer teens.
Read more – click here.
Parents’ Universal Resource Experts – Sue Scheff: Addiction Destroys Families
If you have a family member or friend that has an addiction, you know first hand the stress and toll this takes on the entire family as well as close friends that care about them.
Addiction is an obsession in that the addict’s entire life becomes focused on getting more of the drug. In the same way, family members of the addict become obsessed with the addict: Will he come home tonight? Will he get violent? Will he go into work? Will he lose his job? Will we lose the house?
Family members tend to adapt their personas in an attempt to handle the dysfunction that the addict has created. The caretaker or enabler, for example, makes it possible for the addict to keep functioning in addiction. He may give the addict money, provide a home and food, bail the addict out of jail and in general provide a safety that the addict can depend on no matter how violent, irresponsible or hurtful the behavior.
The caretaker role is just one example. Others include the hero, who makes sure that everything appears to be fine to outsiders, the jester who tries to make light of the situation, the ghost who never comments or makes his needs known. Family members of addicts become so focused on the addict’s problems that they often lose themselves along the way. Source: ProjectKnow.com
As the reality world of television expands, the latest addition is “Addicted” on TLC. Tune in to Addicted, a one-hour docu-series produced by Asylum Entertainment, that follows the lives of individuals struggling with addiction as they work with interventionist Kristina Wandzilak. Each episode will take viewers on the unpredictable journey of recovery and the harrowing struggle to become sober.
Take a few minutes to watch the powerful video below to understand how serious addiction is and how it affects the entire family.
Resources in South Florida to help you and your family:
Parents Universal Resource Experts – Sue Scheff: Planned Parenthood
On Thursday March 25th, 2010, at 6:00pm – 8:00 pm join the discussion of Planned Parenthood’s legislative priorities, how to deal with anti-choice attacks, and how you can help advance women’s reproductive health care rights. There are several briefings coming up, so you can attend one that best fits your schedule.
This is a free event. A light dinner will be served, and your RSVP is kindly requested. For more information or to RSVP, please contact Takeata King Pang at Takeata.Pang@ppsoflo.org or (561) 472-9942.
Promoting education on teen pregnancy enhances your daughter’s awareness about STD’s, pregnancy prevention, birth control options including abstinence as well as the sensitive issue of adoption.
Planned Parenthood of South Florida also offers The Teen Time® Carrera Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program (Teen Time®) which uses a holistic approach that aims to empower youth. The program helps young people to develop personal goals and the desire for a productive future.
In addition to developing sexual literacy and educating teens about the risks associated with sexual activity, the program also emphasizes the importance of education and employment. Youths start the program at age 11 or 12 and continue past high school. They work with them five days a week, after school, and throughout the summer. There are sites in Belle Glade, Lake Worth, West Palm Beach, and Fort Pierce, in areas with high rates of teen pregnancy and low high school graduation rates.
Find out more about Teen Time – click here.
Be an educated parent, you will have safer and healthier teens. Watch video and read more.
Parents Universal Resource Experts – Sue Scheff: Hoarding Can Start in Adolescence
With the expansion of cable television, there doesn’t seem to be a topic in reality shows that is missing. From 16 and Pregnant, to Intervention, to Hoarders, people are learning more about a variety of issues. More importantly, there is now an awareness that is helping others to understand disorders, addictions, challenges others are facing and a distinct mental health problem such as hoarding.
Hoarding can start in early adolescence. If not addressed, it can get progressively worse. Some of the symptoms can be:
- Cluttered living spaces
- Inability to discard items
- Keeping stacks of newspapers, magazines or junk mail
- Moving items from one pile to another, without discarding anything
- Acquiring unneeded or seemingly useless items, including trash
- Difficulty managing daily activities, including procrastination and rouble making decisions
- Difficulty organizing items
- Perfectionism
- Excessive attachment to possessions, and discomfort letting others touch or borrow possessions
- Limited or no social interactions
It’s not clear what causes hoarding. Some researchers believe that hoarding occurs on a continuum – some people may simply be considered harmless pack rats, while others have a much more severe form of collecting that is life-threatening. The condition is more likely to affect those with a family history of hoarding, so genetics and upbringing are likely among the triggering factors.
Hoarding is currently considered a subtype of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), but this classification is under debate. Many mental health researchers argue that, while some people with OCD have hoarding behavior, hoarding is not specific to OCD. In fact, one study found that hoarding was no more likely to be associated with OCD than with other anxiety disorders. – Mayo Clinic
Some risk factors and features about hoarding that researchers have come to understand are associated with age, family history, stress factors, social isolation and perfectionism.
Help for hoarders is widespread today. Hoarding Cleanup is an nationwide service that offers resources of help. If you are in Florida, click here to find a local service near you.
Parents, start with your kid’s bedrooms – encourage them to keep their rooms organized and if you notice that their room is becoming more than “just a messy room” take steps to find out why. Another red flag could be your child’s locker at school. Check it out!
Be an educated parent, you will have safer and healthier teens.
Parents Universal Resource Experts – Sue Scheff: Free Science Games to Excite and Inspire Kids
Janet Murray recently posted a fantastic Blog that offers parents free and exciting games to inspire their children. She asked me to share it with my readers. As summer is around the corner, here are some great ideas to help your children have fun while they are learning!
60 Free Science Games to Excite & Inspire Your Kids
By this point, everyone realizes that there need not be any delineation between education and entertainment. Parents and teachers alike can supplement a student’s knowledge of biology, geology, physics, chemistry, and other scientific disciplines with literally hundreds of free games available online through a multitude of sources. The following list compiles 60 of the most popular ones, mostly involving some of the more popular subjects among children.
Funschool
1. Zoo Crew : Zoo crew teaches children interested in animals and animal behavior the proper terminology for certain groupings of species.
2. Animal Homes : In Animal Homes, kids pair up a number of different species with their appropriate habitats and learn the very basics of ecosystems and environments.
3. Wild Animals : With this interesting matching game, participants must identify animals based on their distinguishing characteristics such as horns, tails, and fur patterns.
4. Animal Safari : Functioning as both a scientific and vocabulary exercise, this game is perfectly suitable for very young audiences that teaches them the proper names of various popular animals.
5. What’s My Class? : More advanced young children may enjoy What’s My Class? if they want to learn about what animals qualify as what taxonomic category.
6. Animal Spot : This very easy matching game appropriate for the preschool set asks children to look at a pair of horns, coat pattern, or tail and pick the corresponding species.
7. Space Watch : Explore the Solar System with Space Watch, an interactive odyssey with excellent artwork and information on every planet.
8. Animal Tracks : Budding outdoors enthusiasts will have quite a bit of fun with this game that asks users to match animals with their respective footprints.
9. Space Patrol : The Space Patrol needs to save Planet X229, and the only way to do so is with a basic knowledge of the universe.
10. The Heart Facts : Learn all the fundamentals of one of animal life’s most integral organs and eventually test memory retention with an informative quiz.
11. Pet Party : Responsibility, pet care, and basic biology all factor into this unique game revolving around how to properly keep an animal companion safe, happy, and healthy.
12. Birds of a Feather : Any child fascinated by the birds flitting about outside will enjoy matching a series of birds up with their appropriate habitats as well as their shadows.
13. Fun Science : The life cycle of both plants and animals comprise the content of this game, where the objective involves placing different points in development in the proper chronological order.
14. Computer Whiz! : Computer Whiz! makes for a lovely educational tool revolving around the history of computers and technology.
15. Incredible Edibles : Teach kids all the fundamentals of proper nutrition and food science with this informative game that starts them on the road to healthy lifestyle choices early.
16. Earth Day : Pollution and its negative impact on the environment inspired this game, which asks kids to find the factors that cause contamination and hurt the planet.
17. Food Groups : Another nutritious game, this one involves dragging different foods into containers identifying the 6 food groups.
18. Element Lab : Discover the Periodic Table of Elements – the very core of chemistry – by matching different substances with their respective symbols.
19. Fun in the Garden : Home economics, botany, and food science collide with Fun in the Garden, which teaches children how to differentiate between fruits and vegetables.
20. Hungry Monkey : Appropriate for preschoolers and kindergartners, Hungry Monkey illustrates the differences between different types of fruits.
Apples4theteacher.com
21. Mammal Match : Participants are asked to match up a given animal with its appropriate sound, making for an excellent introduction for children interested in how other mammals communicate with one another.
22. Space Vocabulary Memory Game : Build a kid’s vocabulary and understanding of the universe beyond Earth with this simple memory game, which asks them to match a word with its corresponding picture.
23. Hangman Game : The classic game of hangman gets a biological makeover, and children playing this updated version walk away with a greater knowledge of animal classifications.
Weather Channel Kids
24. WeatherREADY Emergency Supplies : In this extremely useful resource, users must scramble to find the appropriate emergency supplies for instances of severe weather before the clock runs out.
25. WeatherREADY Severe Weather Challenge : Another excellent scientific and safety lesson for children from the Weather Channel, this game aims for an older set and teaches them about how to react to severe, potentially dangerous conditions such as thunderstorms, tornadoes, blizzards, and other forces of nature.
Discovery Kids
26. Make a Volcano : Learn all of the fundamentals regarding one of the most awe-inspiring – yet painfully devastating – geological formations on the planet with a fantastically detailed and informative game on all the different types of volcanoes and their eruptions.
27. Darcy’s Wild Life Quiz : A quick little overview of animal life that asks some rather advanced questions of older participants fascinated by zoology.
28. Stinky Animals Quiz : Another fun, low-pressure quiz for kids to enjoy, this time focusing on some of the more pungent beasts in the biosphere.
29. Shark Quiz : Sharks enjoy quite a bit of popularity amongst the younger set due to their sheer power and dangerous, mysterious habitat. With this short quiz, they can learn more about the giant cartilaginous fish they love so much.
30. Penguin Quiz : Children also enjoy the waddling quirkiness of penguins, and they can test their knowledge of these beloved birds against a series of short multiple-choice and true-or-false questions.
31. Croc Quiz : Fans of crocodiles and other large reptiles may find a bit of fun and enjoyment with this brief quiz that challenges everything they know about the animal.
Magic School Bus
32. Gets an Earful : Alongside Mrs. Frizzle and the Magic School Bus gang, children can learn about how sound works by matching up a noise with its appropriate maker.
33. Maze Craze : This engaging and extremely fun gave requires participants to navigate through a maze, picking up plants and animals to place in their proper environments along the way.
34. Monster Bugs : Educating and nurturing creativity are the two main goals of Monster Bugs, which asks kids to identify the proper body parts for certain bugs as well as create their own unique critters.
35. Pop Quizzes : Children have 8 different fun quizzes to choose from based on their areas of scientific interest, including insects, space, and the human body.
36. Space Chase : Mrs. Frizzle sends out clues regarding her location, and participants need to pick the planet based on her hints.
37. The Great Habitat Match-Up : Another game revolving around placing animals in their corresponding habitats.
38. The Adventures of Weatherlizard : Venerable Magic School Bus mascot Liz asks a series of questions regarding tornadoes, thunderstorms, and blizzards.
Energy Quest
39. Watt’s That?! : Host Flip Switch offers up a game show-style quiz asking questions about electricity, energy, and how to conserve them.
40. Watt’s That?! Jr. : With 6 different styles to choose from, a younger audience has another opportunity to learn about how power is generated and how it may be best preserved.
41. Test Your Energy IQ : Through California Energy Commission’s official website, the U.S. Department of Energy offers up two brief quizzes on conservation and generation.
KS2 Bitesize
42. Changing state : The BBC hosts a slew of games on its KS2 Bitesize site, and this one focuses on how matter can shift from a liquid to a solid to a gas – and back again.
43. Characteristics of Materials : Receive a quick overview of the different properties of some common materials such as glass and metal with this interesting little game.
44. Gases, liquids and solids : Another interactive activity regarding the different properties of matter, this time asking for participants to correctly categorize items as a solid, a liquid, or a gas.
45. Keeping warm : Children learn all the basics of heat transfer and warmth with this informative resource that asks them to find the best possible insulator in different situations.
46. Different changes : Receive a brief education in chemical and physical changes by trying to differentiate between the two with a series of varying scenarios.
47. Rocks and soils : Budding geologists get a chance to play with virtual rocks and understand their properties and categorizations.
48. Solids and liquids : Discover the very fundamental physics of hot and cold by achieving an objective demanding participants to find the freezing and melting point of various substances.
49. Living Things : These 10 mini-games cover everything from basic biology to health-related issues, with something to offer almost any interest.
50. Physical Processes : With 10 more games, participants can receive an education in the fundamental principles that drive the physical world.
Miscellaneous
51. Why Gravity Causes Things to Fall : Physics factors into this painless, easy game that has users drop balls from different famous landmarks and generates a real-time approximation of the event.
52. 4th Grade Magnetism and Electricity Review : Aimed at 4th graders, the Magnetism and Electricity Review allows at least 2 players to compete in related trivia.
53. Chemical and Physical Change Lab : Offered through Ohio University, the Chemical and Physical Change Lab helps participants learn how to tell the two different matter transitions apart.
54. Ocean Trivia Machine : This enjoyable little game generates a series of questions regarding oceanography for up to 2 players.
55. The Incredible Megacell : Kids who love biology will find plenty to love about this interactive activity, which educates them on all the different parts of a cell.
56. Who Wants to Win $1,000,000? – The Science Game : Compete against other students with a series of questions regarding all different areas of science – not for real money, however.
57. Lights Out! : Replace incandescent light bulbs with CFLs in a harried race against a burning house that also serves as a lesson in conserving energy.
58. Hot Stuff : Play 3 quick, traditional true-false, word scramble, and matching games relating to geothermal energy. All of the answers can be found elsewhere on the website.
59. Quiz Your Noodle: Astounding Animals : National Geographic offers up a great little quiz game feature facts about some of the most popular animals on the planet.
60. Cloud Matching Game : This simple matching game asks kids to pair up pictures of clouds with their respective labels in a quick meteorological lesson.
With these 60 games – and the myriad others available free of charge over the internet – both educators and parents alike can illustrate the basic principles of many areas of scientific studies in a way that engages children without talking down to or completely boring them. Whether they enjoy or need a leg up in geology, physics, chemistry, biology, or other studies, there is a game out there to help guide them through all the necessary fundamentals.
Source: MRI Technician Schools by Janet Murray janet.murray83@gmail.com
Parents Universal Resource Experts – Sue Scheff: Gap Year – Does Your Teen Want to Take a Year Off?
Is your teen struggling about going to college? Talking about taking a year off? We have heard pros and cons about what is considered a “gap year.” Is it right for your child? What exactly are the options?
What is a gap year? An opportunity for self-exploration and personal growth, leading to clearer direction and motivation for your life.
GapSmart offers fantastic information that can help guide you and your teenager in a productive direction. GapSmart! is ready to help your student find the program that best fits their personality, goals, needs, and budget. GapSmart! work closely with families to ensure that every aspect of the “time on” of a gap year is well spent and thoroughly meets the parents’ and student’s expectations.
A gap year is a pivotal time in a students life and through reflection exercises, the student is better able to understand the scope of their time and the impact it had on their life. Additionally, the gap year experience is woven into resumes, cover letters, and college applications.
If your teen is thinking about taking a year off, think about GapSmart! and find a positive way to spend that year. Let it be a year you can build your future on.
Be an educated parent, you will have successful teens!
