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Kids Helping Kids – Generation Cures: Zebrafish Giveaway

June 29, 2010 By 7 Comments

Every child can make a difference in the lives of others. You may not have ever heard of Generation Cures until now but I think it’s a very important website you should see and share with your children. It’s all about teaching and empowering our kids to give back. Generation Cures was founded in May 2008 by Children’s Hospital Boston, and it inspires kids to help cure other kids via hospital fundraising programs, local fundraising activities, and digital media. It empowers kids to believe they can make a difference in the lives of others and to do what they can to help find cures to the most debilitating childhood diseases. It’s also an award winning site: “Website of the Year” by Mom’s Choice Awards, “Kid Zui Seal” from leading kids’ web browser KidZui (given by a review board of 200 plus teachers and parents as well as Gold Davey Awards for creative excellence and out of the box thinking and a Parents Choice Awards in the Fall of 2009.

By visiting their website at Generation Cures you can certainly see fine examples of young people who have taken that belief and are making it a reality, changing the lives of sick children, giving hope that research they helped fund will someday find a cure.

In just visiting the site myself I learned of Rachel, a youth who at 14 was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor who is giving back in an amazing way – $10,000 to cancer research.  I learned about the Zebrafish and its importance in the study and research of disease. There are special areas set up For Kids, For Teens, For Parents and For Teachers, webisodes, online games – all in a safe online place to learn, play. For teachers there are lessons and activities that work in conjunction with the webisodes. What a wonderful resource for teachers to teacher character development, social responsibility and how to give back to the community along with math and science concepts.

Zebrafish, (published by Simon & Schuster and endorsed by the Junior Library Guild and American Library Association-for kids in middle grade) is an extension of the Generation Cures animated series Zebrafish, which as I learned is a small, transparent fish used for studying disease, and tells the story of five friends who form a rock band who use their music to make a difference in the world and encourages kids everywhere to do the same.
If you’d like more information on Generation Cures please visit their website at GenerationCures.org , like them on facebook or follow them on Twitter.

Little Hand Big Heart will be giving away a copy of Zebrafish to you, one of our readers courtesy of  Generation Cures.

To be entered to win simply leave a comment below.

Disclosure: The giveaway item will be provided free of charge for the giveaway as well as the complimentary copy I will receive. No monetary exchange took place.

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Take A Break

March 24, 2009 By 1 Comment

Rocking OutEvery mom has wanted to take a break at one time or another. “If only I could take a day off or have a minute to myself!” I know I have wanted to do that on more than one occasion, but I always felt sort of guilty taking the time to myself. As moms, we are often doing many things for others, but neglect to take some much-needed time for ourselves.

I WAS the biggest martyr – never taking time to myself – because I felt like it would not be fair to my family. I felt like taking time for me was robbing my family of the time I should be giving to them. I said WAS because I have learned my lesson in this area of my life. When I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis three years ago, I had many lesson to learn. Taking time for me was one of the most important lessons. If I do not take a break at some point each day, I am not able to have enough energy to care for my family in the evening. If I do not have some mommy-time, I cannot make dinner, clean up, get the kids in bed, or do anything else that needs to be done in the evening. So, taking time for myself – which I used to view as selfishness – is now vital to my being able to care for my family.

Although not all moms have my disorder, taking time for yourself is something that all moms can benefit from. Stress has a sneaky way of building up on us. Moms are especially at risk. It seems natural that moms, the caretakers of the family, often want to care for and help others. However, it is very easy to find yourself doing too much and the stress begins to build. The best way to rid yourself of some stress is to take a little break each day. Even fifteen minutes a day can help. A little time to yourself can give your body a chance to de-stress. My taking a little mom-break, you may find that you feel better, have more energy, and are better able to finish your day since you have had a chance to get renewed and refreshed.

About the author: Alicia H. Tucker is a homeschool mom of three, after having taught in public schools for over ten years. She has a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and a master’s degree in Education with a focus on Curriculum and Technology. She is a freelance writer and is currently working on writing her first book.

Creative Commons License photo credit: advertisingelyse

Filed Under: Parenting, Stress Tagged With: , , ,

Baby’s First Year

December 12, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Liam Eric EdwardsCreative Commons License photo credit: johnkalad

The first year of your baby’s life can be the hardest, happiest, scariest and best year you get to experience with your child. You are going to experience so many emotions during the baby’s first year! Luckily there are baby books about every aspect of baby’s first year, and reading several books while pregnant, as well as during baby’s fist year will make you more comfortable around your little one.

Everyone is always concerned with the next milestone that their new baby is going to reach and if he or she is doing things at the same pace of their piers. In fact many new moms focus so much on what everyone says their child should be doing that they seem to lose focus on what the child is doing.

Then years later, you may look back and wonder what happened to that cute, cuddly baby you once had. While you were looking ahead, he or she was growing up and before you knew it that magical first year of their life was gone. It starts out kind of stressful, with the new parents not knowing what to expect next: from sleepless nights, colic, and spitting up to growth spurts, there is never a dull moment or a time to relax.

Before you know it those first few months are gone and your baby is sitting up, crawling and finally walking. He or she is talking or trying to and eating real food. The best advice I got when I brought my babies home was to slow down, to stop looking ahead of what comes next and to enjoy what the baby was going through at this time. You can never go back and get these moments again. So, instead of looking to what your child should be doing, could be doing or what is next, live in what is now and keep a record of it, for you and for your child. And enjoy motherhood!

Filed Under: Baby, Featured, Parenting Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Chores You Can Assign Durning The Winter

November 24, 2008 By Leave a Comment

ChoresCreative Commons License photo credit: billaday

We all do our share around the house to help mom keep the house in tip top shape.  But in the winter there are some chorus the younger children just can not handle like shoveling the snow.  Here are some great chores for those long winter months.

There are many rewards for providing your kids with chores to do.  You are teaching your children to responsibilities, you are teaching them time management, and you are helping them contribute to the running of the house.  Normally younger children are much more eager to jump right in and help.  But as they start getting older that is when they will start to complain and getting slower and slower at doing their chores and finishing them.

Young children around the age of 2 or 3 love to help Mom and Dad. So this is the perfect tiem to get them to start helping you around the house, and begin to teach them how to do chores.  You want to let them help all they want because this will not last forever. You will want to help them while they are learning how to do their chores the proper way.

Toddler winter chores:

-Place hat and gloves inside the sleeve of their coat or their pocket so they don’t loose them.
-They can dry off the pets when they come indoors from outside.

Now your preschool children are going to still be pretty eager to help. And at this age they are going to start wanting to do things for themselves.  But now that they are a little older they will not need quiet as much of your help doing chores.

Preschool winter chores:

-They can sweep the front or rear entry way
-They will be able to help carry in grocery bags from the car to the house

Grade school children are starting to get to the age where they may be as willing to help.  Also at this age there is hardly any supervision that is needed.

Grade School Winter Chores:

- Feed, water and take care of the pets
- They will be able to take the trash out and put a new trash bag into the trash can
- Sweep the sidewalk leading to the door

Pre-teens are when the kids really start testing boundaries, they are going to argue and probley do a poor job of the chore so that you will not ask them to do the chore again.

Pre-Teen Chores:

- Shovel the snow from the drive or walkway
- Take the trashcans out to the road on trash day
- Scrap the ice from the vehicle windows

Now Teens will be able to do their chores without supervision but they are going to probley all but refuse to do them

Teen Chores:

- Teens can do the shoveling around the house
- They can also help out with gather up wood as you are chopping it
- Teens can also begin to help mop and clean the floors

With cold weather right around the corner it is important to get the whole family to pitch in and help you out with chores.  It is just as important to teach your children these chores so that they will be able to run a household when they get older. And then once it is time for the spring cleaning your children will know what is expected of them.

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