|
Seeking “Momism” Sayings
Two Boise writers have teamed up to publish a new book on “Momisms”—the odd and silly sayings that all mothers tell their children. The book, tentatively titled Mother Knows Best: 100 Quotes Idahoans Remember from Their Mothers, will be published in time for Mother’s Day, 2011. Proceeds from the sale of the books will be donated to the Women’s and Children’s Alliance (WCA) in honor of its 100th anniversary. The WCA provides safety, healing, and freedom to victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault.
National best-selling Idaho author Elaine Ambrose and Boise award-winning feature writer Patti Murphy hope to include at least 100 different “Momisms” from people of all ages and backgrounds throughout the state.
Ambrose encourages people to send in any saying—funny or serious—that their moms used to tell them as they were growing up. Submitting a“Momism” automatically grants the authors and publisher permission to publish the material in the upcoming book, and to use the submission in promotional materials.
For more information and to submit a “Momism,” go to mymomisms.com. Questions can be emailed to
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
. The authors have also launched a Facebook page called My Momisms, where people may post their favorite mom quotes.
Teen Read Week
As the popularity of young adult literature continues to soar and teen musical artists dominate the airwaves, thousands of teens will participate in Teen Read Week, from October 17–23, 2010. This year’s celebration theme is “Books with Beat @ Your Library.”
For more than a decade, Teen Read Week, sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), has encouraged teens to visit their public and school library and select their own materials to “Read for the Fun of It”. Research shows that teens who read for fun—not just for school assignments—score significantly higher on reading tests and achieve more success academically and in the workplace.
“Teens are interested in reading and they understand that reading goes beyond a printed page,” said YALSA President Kimberly Patton. “They just need a little direction to find the right materials. Reading is a fun, free activity that teens can engage in anytime, anywhere, and in multiple formats. Librarians are trained knowledgeable professionals who excel at matching the right book or other materials to the right teen.”
Several area libraries will be participating in Teen Read Week. Visit www.treasurevalleyteen.com and click on the Teen Planner to find scheduled library events. For a listing of area public libraries, see page 34.
Lights on After School
It’s a party! Kids are invited to join a celebration of Lights On Afterschool at a free event from 3:30–5pm Thursday, October 21 at a few local community centers. Lights On activities are open to ALL children in grades K–6. The event features fun games, prizes, and a healthy snack.
Lights On Afterschool is presented by Boise Parks & Recreation in conjunction with the Afterschool Alliance (afterschoolalliance.org), an advocacy organization focused on providing safe, healthy after-school activities for children.
Each afternoon across the U.S., 15 million children are alone and unsupervised after school, according to the JC Penny Afterschool Fund.
The Community Centers are located at these elementary schools:
• Grace Jordan, 6411 W. Fairfield Ave. (off Overland on the Bench), 854-4910
• Morley Nelson, 7701 W. Northview (between Cole and Milwaukee), 854-4917
• Whitney, 1609 S. Owyhee St. (between Overland and Nez Perce), 854-6625
For more information, contact the community center or www.cityofboise.org/parks.
Get Kids Outside
According to a new report by the National Wildlife Federation, Back to School: Back Outside, time spent outdoors both during school and at home helps children become high-performance learners and score high on standard tests.
Here are a few tips from the Federation for parents and caregivers who want more outdoor time for their kids:
• Get your kids to trade screen time for green time. Limit use of electronic media and encourage your children to just “go outside and play.” The Federation has prepared a great Outdoor Family Fun Guide especially for the fall season, full of easy ideas to squeeze fresh air and green spaces into your family’s busy routine. Find it at nwf.org/familyfun.
• Parents concerned about outdoor safety can team up with other parents to create outdoor co-ops, taking turns each week watching the kids while they play outdoors.
• Where safe, don’t be so quick to offer rides to school. Let your kids walk and encourage other parents in the neighborhood to do the same with their kids. Walking with your children is a great way for adults to get their daily exercise.
• Be an advocate for outdoor time at your children’s school. Suggest this for a topic at a PTA meeting and let your school’s principal know how you feel.
• Volunteer to green your child’s school grounds with more trees and natural vegetation.
• Support outdoor learning programs and let school administrators know that such programs can be valuable and should be part of your child’s school experience. Speaking up can go a long way to making outdoor education a reality.
For more information about Back to School: Back Outside, visit www.nwf.org. For some great local ideas, visit www.beoutsideidaho.org.
Maximize Kitchen Time
Today’s home cooks hunger for recipes that have it all—fast, easy, delicious, and healthy. Enter Cooking Light Complete Meals in Minutes, a new cookbook that allows cooks to choose exactly how much time they want to spend in the kitchen (whether it is 15, 20, or 30 minutes) and find the right recipe in a snap.
The ring binder recipe collection is brought together by Cooking Light’s renowned Test Kitchen professionals and dietitians, with the adage that there’s no need to sacrifice taste, nutrition, or quality for speed. Brimming with over 700 recipes, including savory main dishes, appetizers and beverages, salads, soups, and sandwiches, dinnertime will never get boring.
Helping Children Learn
In The Learning Tree: Overcoming Learning Disabilities from the Ground Up, Dr. Stanley Greenspan provides an overview of the learning problems children face in early development and beyond. Applying techniques such as his trademarked Floortime, Greenspan not only identifies the symptoms of learning disabilities but the missing developmental steps that cause the symptoms. He shares the information using an overarching tree metaphor. The tree has three parts:
• The roots: a child’s sensory systems (sight, sound, etc.)
• The trunk: a child’s overall thinking ability
• The branches: problems with specific academic skills (organization, memory, reading, writing, etc.)
Appropriate for caregivers of children of all grade levels, The Learning Tree covers myriad learning difficulties. He explains their origins, offers hope, and supplies concrete solutions so that every child can flourish in school and in life.
Fun with Science
Potato Chip Science: 29 Clever Experiments is a book kit that harnesses the world’s most popular snack food to teach principles from a wide range of sciences—from physics and forensics to navigation and neuroscience, among others. The illustrated experiments use (and reuse) potato chips, potatoes, discarded chip bags, tubes, and lids. Also included are more than a dozen kid-friendly kit items: a digital clock and sound chip (both of which can be powered from a potato), a 100 percent biodegradable lab knife, googly eyes, zinc and copper electrodes, chip lids, optical stickers, and more.
As kids conduct these inventive experiments, they can learn about:
• Aerodynamics – by building a chip-bag kite.
• Forensics – by cooking up some fingerprint powder.
• Conservation of Energy – by building a chipmobile.
• Boyle’s Law – by firing off a propulsion pipe.
• Bernoulli’s Principle – by making chip cans kiss.
Skaters Take to the Ice
The Boise Figure Skating Club (BFSC) will be hosting the 2011 Northwest Pacific Regional Figure Skating Championships on October 1–5 at Idaho IceWorld in Boise. Skaters will be competing for a chance to be in the 2011 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in January. More than 300 competitors will be coming here from Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming.
The skaters’ final standing at this 2011 Northwest Pacific Regional Championship will determine eligibility for the 2011 Pacific Coast Figure Skating Championships (novice, junior, and senior singles events) and the U.S. Junior Figure Skating Championships (juvenile and intermediate singles events).
BFSC has been in existence for about 10 years, and was previously known as the Treasure Valley Figure Skating Club. The club is a nonprofit organization run by volunteers and an eight-person board elected by members. According to the club, its mission is to “foster amateur competition in figure skating and to promote the advancement of figure skating in the Boise community and surrounding areas.”
The Idaho IceWorld facility is operated by Boise Parks & Recreation and features two indoor ice rinks, a game arcade, a 5,000 square-foot meeting room and two restaurants.
For more information call 331-0044 or go to idahoiceworld.com or boisefsc.com for a schedule of events. There will be an admission fee for all events. To pre-purchase all-event tickets online, please visit www.entryeeze.com.
|
