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Monthly Tip for Parents: Is My Baby Developing Normally?
Blog: Greedy Little Buggers or Run of the Mill Gimmees?
Blog: No Gravity
Blog: New Teachers, New Years
Child Product Safety Links
Bits and Bytes from American School Board Journal
Parenting Q & A: "Where can we get breastfeeding help?" and "My son's hair is a mess!"
Featured Freebie:Free music downloads from Matt Clark Music
The Learning Community is sponsored by ORNAMENTS TO REMEMBER.
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Monthly Tip for Parents
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Tips for Parents: Is My Baby Developing Normally?
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Resources Added to TLC this Month
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Blog: Greedy Little Buggers Or Run Of The Mill Gimmees?
Note the fists balled up tightly and clutched to her chest, as if she already has a new gift in her possession and I am attempting to wrestle it away from her. Her eyes are large, pupils dialiated, because she anticipates she will have to physically defend her yet-to-be-received presents.
Blog: No Gravity
All that time sitting there, not catching any fish, was a great excuse to shoot the breeze. At one point, Logan asked me, "If there was no gravity, all the water and fish from the lake would just be floating around, right?" I had an Inception moment and imagined blobs of silvery water (for some reason, they resembled mercury) floating in the air, with fish randomly paddling by, and us just picking them out of the air.
Blog: Thoughts On New Teachers, New Years
One question that I see nearly every year on teachers' "getting to know you" forms never fails to trouble me: "What area/s does your student struggle with?" Or, "Do you have any concerns about your child this year?" These questions cause me to pause because I am highly aware that labels on kids become self-fulfilling prophecies and the last thing I want is my son's iffy ability to write cursive to stay foremost in a teacher's mind--over all the things he does really well.
Links to numerous toy and child product safety websites, including tips on choosing safe toys, and avoiding lead and other hazardous materials.
Bits and Bytes Spotted in American School Board Journal
- Prohibiting a la carte junkfood during school meals could reduce student obesity by almost 20%. www.marketingpower.com
- Child hunger costs the United States nearly $30 billion a year, because hungry kids perform worse in school and have increased long term health problems. www.americanprogress.org
- The final version of the Common Core State Standards are hoped to provide benchmarks for what kids are expected to learn across the nation. www.corestandards.org
- Who are teenager's most common sex partners? www.cdc.gov/nchs
- Failure to read proficiently by the end of third grade is an educational marker many low-income students reach. www.aecf.org
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TLC News
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Parenting Questions...
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To support our monthly topic, baby development, this month we're pleased to partner with Matt Clark Music to offer you free downloads of several of the songs he's written and performed about his own son's development. Called fun and hilarious by reviewers, you'll be singing these folksy tunes along with your youngster.
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Question:
My wife and newborn son have been having real difficulty with breastfeeding. We've seen a lactation specialist but are still struggling. She's incredibly frustrated and the stress is making it all harder. Where else can we go for help?
Answer:
La Leche League is the world's largest and most comprehensive source for reliable breast feeding help. You'll find a huge website of information at www.llli.org including links to local chapters for at home support, forums for tips from other moms, an online help form, and much more.
Question:
My 9 year old son is into wearing his hair in the shaggy style that a lot of young guys are right now. The problem is, he has trouble getting it all washed and we always have to nag him to comb it. We're really tempted just to take him in and get it cut really short, but he'd be furious. How do we keep him from looking so scrappy?
Answer:
This is just the beginning of the arguments you and your son will have over appearance between now and the time he graduates. Consider yourself lucky, some parents have to deal with hot pink mohawks. This issue falls into "Choosing Your Battles." In other words, how big of an issue is this, in the grand scheme of things? If his hair smells or looks really bad, chances are, kids at school will make fun of him and he'll be so embarrassed he'll start taking better care of it.
You might be able to motivate him to keep it up by telling him as long as he keeps it clean and combed, he can have it long. If he fails, you'll get it cut.
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