Kid Kazoom Open Gym Schedule for this weekend....

OPEN GYM SCHEDULE Brrrrrrrrrrrrr.  It's cold outside. No worries, come to Open Gym. CORRECTION TO OPEN GYM SCHEDULE FOR THIS WEEKEND February 19th and 20th: SATURDAY       9:30 am til 11:30 am and 2:30 til 6:00 pm SUNDAY            10:00 am til 4:00 pm WEEKDAY OPEN GYM SCHEDULE IS ALWAYS: MON - FRI 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm and 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Are the kids getting restless again.  Why not bring them by for an hour or so.  We guarantee they will sleep better after you go home.  Open Gym is $10 per hour for each child over 4 mo. old and adults are FREE!    Click Here to Forward this email to a friend (DO NOT FORWARD IN YOUR EMAIL CLIENT) and if they follow the directions below they will receive 1 FREE OPEN GYM. Forward as many as you want. IF THIS EMAIL WAS FORWARDED TO YOU BY A FRIEND YOU NEED TO CLICK THIS LINK http://eepurl.com/hlW2 or cut and paste the link into your browser's address and press enter. FILL OUT THE FORM THEN SCROLL DOWN AND CLICK ON "SUBSCRIBE."  You will then receive a confirmation email.  Click on the link or cut and paste into your web browser address box and you will ultimately get another email with your Free $10 Voucher. Print the voucher and bring it in.  Katie & Josh Goodman Please remember: Everyone entering the facility must remove their shoes. Adults must wear athletic socks or equivalent.  Socks are available for purchase if you forget to bring them.  Children may go barefoot or wear non-slip socks.  Be considerate of others. If your child is in the process of potty training and there is even a slight chance that they may have an accident please place a pull-up diaper on them. Please bring a complete change of clothes for your child as we know accidents happen but to minimize accidents please encourage your child to use the bathroom as often as you can. Glitter on hair, body, clothing or accessories is not permitted.  Child strollers may be parked in our waiting area but may not be brought into the gym or gym hallway.  Child seat may be removed from stroller and brought into gym.  No food or beverages allowed.  We provide water to drink in case you get thirsty. THE FINE PRINT: One free open gym offer per family, not email address.  Your family may use more than one email address and may receive more than one email from us.  You can use only one no matter how many are received or how many times you come in. Please use facility at your own risk.     Kidz-Kazoom 49 East Midland Ave Paramus, NJ 07652 201-225-1212 We are at the intersection of Midland Ave and From Road We are in the same tan colored building as Gold's Gym and Remax and our front doors have lots of smiley faces on them and are facing the large parking lot. The building is "L" shaped and has 6 sides.  If you don't see our doors just keep making right turns around the building til you see the smiley faces on the two glass doors.

Once agian, you received this email because you opted in with us in person. Unsubscribe comelia11@yahoo.com from this list. Our mailing address is: Kidz-Kazoom Early Learning Center Kidz-Kazoom 49 East Midland Ave Paramus, NJ 07652 Add us to your address book Copyright (C) 2011 Kidz-Kazoom Early Learning Center All rights reserved. Forward this email to a friendUpdate your profile

Bumper Bowling!!!!

Where: Montvale Lanes

When: Feb 21 at 9:30am

Cost: $10/child

Info/Registration: bowling@pascackjuniors.org

This Belly Bag is SO Stinking Cute!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of CryoCell International. All opinions are 100% mine.

If you're preggo, you've probably heard about Cord Blood Services. CryoCell International would LOVE to tell you more (and give you this really cute bag, in return).   www.Cryo-Cell.com

 

By clicking, you are not obligated, they'll simply send you information, and that's it!  It's a great little bag for the hospital stay, diaper bag,  to-and-from daycare, whatever!  Just click, and enter some contact info, and you're done! www.Cryo-Cell.net

Check it out!

What NOT to Post on Your Blog (if you wanna keep your job....)

This article (c/o Yahoo News) talks about a 30 year-old-8-month pregnant secondary ed teacher who posted some not-so-great comments about the lack of respect amongst her students, and their laziness.  

I feel that a number of questions are raised: 

1. Isn't this a freedom of speech issue?  Shouldn't she be allowed to say what she wants~ minus the posting of students names....
2. Isn't this an obvious issue in high schools today, and shouldn't she have known this before entering the field?  What will she do when her kid's a teen?
3. Rather than slap this teacher with a lawsuit, did anyone stop to think there might be a serious problem that needs tending to?

I completely disagree with posting things about students in such a lewd way(they are kids who need guidance), but people go to these extreme measures when they are desperate.  Clearly this teacher was at her whit's end, and if she had exhausted all avenues of administrative assistance, what else was she to do with all the pent up frustration?

I have teacher-friends that say the teacher's lounge is brutal.  The only difference here is that the rest of society got the eavesdrop on their conversation. Maybe a career change is in order???? 

Pa. teacher strikes nerve with 

'lazy whiners' blog

By PATRICK WALTERS, Associated Press – 34 mins ago

FEASTERVILLE, Pa. – A high school English teacher in suburban Philadelphia who was suspended for a profanity-laced blog in which she called her young charges "disengaged, lazy whiners" is driving a sensation by daring to ask: Why are today's students unmotivated — and what's wrong with calling them out?

As she fights to keep her job at Central Bucks East High School, 30-year-old Natalie Munroe says she had no interest in becoming any sort of educational icon. The blog has been taken down, but its contents can still be found easily online.

Her comments and her suspension by the middle-class school district have clearly touched a nerve, with scores of online commenters applauding her for taking a tough love approach or excoriating her for verbal abuse. Media attention has rained down, and backers have started a Facebook group.

"My students are out of control," Munroe, who has taught 10th, 11th and 12th grades, wrote in one post. "They are rude, disengaged, lazy whiners. They curse, discuss drugs, talk back, argue for grades, complain about everything, fancy themselves entitled to whatever they desire, and are just generally annoying."

And in another post, Munroe — who is more than eight months pregnant — quotes from the musical "Bye Bye Birdie": "Kids! They are disobedient, disrespectful oafs. Noisy, crazy, sloppy, lazy LOAFERS."

She also listed some comments she wished she could post on student evaluations, including: "I hear the trash company is hiring"; "I called out sick a couple of days just to avoid your son"; and "Just as bad as his sibling. Don't you know how to raise kids?"

Munroe did not use her full name or identify her students or school in the blog, which she started in August 2009 for friends and family. Last week, she said, students brought it to the attention of the school, which suspended her with pay.

"They get angry when you ask them to think or be creative," Munroe said of her students in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday. "The students are not being held accountable."

Munroe pointed out that she also said positive things, but she acknowledges that she did write some things out of frustration — and of a feeling that many kids today are being given a free pass at school and at home.

"Parents are more trying to be their kids' friends and less trying to be their parent," Munroe said, also noting students' lack of patience. "They want everything right now. They want it yesterday."

One of Munroe's former students, who now attends McDaniel College in Westminster, Md., said he was torn by his former teacher's comments. Jeff Shoolbraid said that he thought much of what Munroe said was true and that she had a right to voice her opinion, but felt her comments were out of line for a teacher.

"Whatever influenced her to say what she did is evidence as to why she simply should not teach," Shoolbraid wrote in an e-mail to the AP. "I just thought it was completely inappropriate."

He continued: "As far as motivated high school students, she's completely correct. High school kids don't want to do anything. ... It's a teacher's job, however, to give students the motivation to learn."

A spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association declined to comment Tuesday because he said the group may represent Munroe. Messages left for the Central Bucks School District superintendent were not returned.

Sandi Jacobs, vice president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, said school districts are navigating uncharted territory when it comes to teachers' online behavior. Often, districts want teachers to have more contact with students and their families, yet give little guidance on how teachers should behave online even as students are more plugged in than they've ever been.

"This is really murky stuff," she said. "When you have a teacher using their blog to berate their students, maybe that's a little less murky. But the larger issue is, I think, districts are totally unprepared to deal with this."

Munroe has hired an attorney, who said that she had the right to post her thoughts on the blog and that it's a free speech issue. The attorney, Steven Rovner, said the district has led Munroe to believe that she will eventually lose her job.

"She could have been any person, any teacher in America writing about their lives," he said, pointing out that Munroe blogged about 85 times and that only about 15 to 20 of the posts involved her being a teacher. "It's honest and raw and a little edgy depending on your taste. ... She has a deep frustration for the educational system in America."

Rovner said that he would consider legal action if indeed Munroe loses her job.

"She did it as carefully as she could," he said about her blog. "It's so general that it applies to the problems in school districts and schools across the country."

___

3rd Annual Winter Crafts Fair

What: This is a very popular event featuring quality handmade crafts of all kinds including: jewelry, wood crafts, canned foods, jams & jellies, crocheted items, soaps, candy, candles, photography, artistic switchplates, orgami, and much more. There will also be a food vendor on site as well as a person hand dipping fruit into lucsious chocolate. This is a fundraiser to help support The American Legion activities and our soldiers serving in the military here and abroad.  Kid friendly!

When: Sunday February 20 11-4:00pm

Where: 399 Broad Ave Leonia, NJ

Phone/Website: (201)944-0493/ www.legion.org

Cost: FREE

Cloth Diapers vs Disposable Diapers~ Pro/Con/Suggestions

This post brought to you by Boudreaux's Butt Paste. All opinions are 100% mine.

 Cloth vs Disposable Diapers~ Pro/Con.....

 Boudreaux's Butt Paste

One of the first decisions you’ll make as a new parent, is whether to use disposable or cloth diapers.

Your baby will spend around 25,000 hours in a diaper and need about 6000 diaper changes in their first years of life.
Your decision to use disposable or cloth diapers will not only have a great impact on your baby’s comfort and health; it can also impact the environment and your finances.
Of course there are pros and cons for each one, and many have strong beliefs that one is better than another. In the end, it’s a decision only you and your family can make, so being informed is very important.

The Pros & Cons of Disposable Diapers:
Disposable diapers have been around since the sixties. The actual first mention was made in 1942, but they didn’t become popular until the early sixties. Their popularity has grown in abundance over the years, and they have seen many changes.
The Pros:-

• Ease of use; disposables seem like the easier choice. They are an all-in-one product, with less fuss than cloth.

• Throw-away; disposables can be thrown away once used, unlike cloth which will need to be washed.
• Easy to travel with; disposables are the easy choice to use when traveling.
• Leak less; disposables tend to leak less than cloth. They have a tight, snug fit and are very absorbent.

The Cons:-

• More expensive; over the years you will probably spend around $1500 diapering your baby in disposables.
• Bad for the environment; it is estimated that around 5 million tons of untreated waste is deposited into landfills via disposables every year.
• Harder to potty-train; toddlers can’t feel wetness as much with disposables, so it’s harder for them to potty-train.
• More diaper-rash; according to one study, 78% of babies in disposable diapers get diaper-rash, compared to only 7% of cloth diapered babies.
• Babies health; the chemical used to make the super-absorbency of disposable diapers is Sodium polyacrylate, which has been linked to TSS (Toxic Shock Syndrome) and can cause allergic reactions.

You can take diaper rash out of the equation, however, by using a cream like Boudreaux's Butt Paste.  My girls have VERY sensitive skin, and I found that it was mild and they responded very well to it.  My pediatrician suggested using it, and I'm glad to have found it early on.  When take it everywhere (they have a travel size), and it's not gooey so it's pretty easy to put on when you have to do a quick change at the mall.  
You can get a free Boudreaux's Butt Paste sample here: 

Boudreaux's Butt Paste

The Pros and Cons of Cloth Diapers:

Cloth diapering has been around since the age of time. It has had many changes over the years, and continues to grow in popularity. Some cloth diapers now have double or triple layers and a multiply, fiber-filled strip, making them more absorbent than older styles.

The Pros:-

• It’s cheaper; cloth diapers can be expensive for the initial set-up ($250-$700), but in the long run they work out a lot cheaper than disposables, depending on what system you use.

• Less diaper-rash; cloth diapered babies tend to have less diaper-rash, because natural cotton fibers breathe more easily.
• Can be used for subsequent children; works out even cheaper because you can use for any more children you have.
• Cloth diapered children tend to potty-train earlier, because the cloth tends to hold moisture closer to baby’s skin.

The Cons:-

• Usually fastened with diaper pins, but you can now find ones with Velcro or snap fasteners.
• Some daycare centers won’t want to use them.
• Not good for traveling with; can be messy and not appropriate for travel. Most cloth-diaper users will use disposables when traveling or just being out and about.
• Can leak more than disposables; if not used properly.

Overall, making the decision to use disposable diapers or cloth diapers is a personal one. There is no one right answer for everyone. Choose what is best for you and your family and your schedule. 

Check out this Clothing Exchange~ Pretty Cool!

Here's an idea: Why not share the clothes your kids don't wear or grew out of with other families in exchange for clothes your kids WILL fit into.  All you do is choose a box (of clothes) online and ship for $5.   You are then entitled to receive (free shipping) a box of clothes that you find appropriate for your little ones.  It's THAT easy!  Check it out!
http://www.thredup.com/

Eating Healthy and Your Family

'Eating for a Healthy Family'

Township of Washington – On Wednesday, Feb. 16, the YJCC will present "Eating for a Healthy Family", a complimentary class by registered dietitian Nancy Cooper.
The presentation, which will run from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m., is geared towards parents of young children and will include information on the benefits of the anti-inflammatory diet, such as disease prevention and weight control, and nutritious choices for the picky eater.
This event is free and open to all.
Nancy Cooper is with the Center for Integrative Healing at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center. The YJCC is located at 605 Pascack Road in Washington Township.
For more information contact YJCC Health and Wellness Director Isaak Gorelov at 201-666-6610 ext. 245 or igorelov@yjcc.org.

Game on!

What: Board games for kids in grades 4-8

Where: Westwood Public Library 49 Park Ave

Cost: FREE

When: Feb 16 at 3:30PM

Info: (201)664-0583

Check out the Buzz on Tumblebee!!!!

TUMBLE BEE GYMNASTICS 

of Emerson

Still time to register for our SPRING SEMESTER, call today for a FREE trial class in the month of FEBRUARY.
 Open gym times and special rates for groups of 10 or more.
Extra gym times for PRESIDENTS WEEK - February 21st thru 24th
 Camp Schedule will be available March 1st
 Special "Parents Night Out" - Friday, February 25th from 6:30 to 9:00 
for only $25  (sibling discount)
snacks and drinks included  - reservation required
Call today, space is limited
Drop off for ages 3 to 7
 After school program has a new class!  Thursdays 3:30  ages 3 to 7
 TUMBLE BEE Birthday parties have been voted top 3 in Bergen County, call today to reserve your very own private party! 
 

Call TUMBLE BEE today for details, trials, and reserve your spot for 

Parents Night Out

201-967-7188

Raising Excellent Kids in an Insane World~ Part 2

   So, what is praise and how might we use it more effectively?

THINKSTOCK

One expert called it "sunshiny, spiritual vitamins for your toddler." A nice turn of phrase perhaps, but it doesn't tell us what praise is. First, praise is a tool, which, like all tools has its place in our toolbox. Next, it's not just a word, but an activity. It seems the act of praising is one of approval, admiration, respect, gratitude and blessing. Through the activity of praising, we express a higher sense of thankfulness and a connection with something greater then ourselves.
We may want to consider using this valuable tool at certain times, in a targeted fashion. What we don't want to do is continually and unnecessarily praise, which may have as a result in our kids, a diminished ability to persist because our children aren't getting their "daily dosage of rewards" or praise.
From what I've observed, it's not a tool we should use mindlessly. It appears that the down side of praise is that it can spark a child's attachment toward something, when really accomplishment is what we're seeking - not attachment. We tend to over praise, and use it more as a way of saying good job. We also tend toward using it nonspecifically and at any old time.
Are we "praise addicts?" Hmmmm ...
So how might we all use this tool of praise - so connected in our daily life - with the activity of raising our little one's self-esteem? When our children are attempting to accomplish something and are developing strategies to attain their goals, we might want to consider praising their specific action. So, it could be targeted praise regarding listening well, concentrating effectively, using the right amount of effort, choosing the appropriate emotion (calm instead of anger), choosing patience over impatience, or making a good kick in soccer.
In other words, target the praise so it's not a general "good job" or "nice work" or "terrific." When we see that our child needs to refocus on something that is proving a little difficult, like sharing, detaching from a parent, etc. We can use targeted praise to compliment their strength or their sharing once they have accomplished the goal.
As we observe our children accomplishing their tasks, we might want to think about diminishing the praise and then having it fully subside. Once our child can accomplish the activity, praise might not be needed any more, even though the self-esteem enthusiasts might disagree.
Be specific. We might learn that our children don't need praise anywhere near as much as we feel we want to give it. I think we have to stop compensating for our anxiousness about the fragility of our children's psyche. By using praise in a targeted way and then eliminating it once our kids have shown, over a period of time true accomplishment at their goal, we may actually be helping them learn persistence. They may learn how to succeed because we aren't constantly giving them the reward of general praise in a misguided attempt to elevate their self-esteem. We are simply using the tool of praise, sparingly and in a targeted way to help stimulate them toward accomplishment.
On a final note, the blessing side to praise-where we as parents are truly grateful for the role we have been given in the healthy development of our children. Where our "words" of praise convey a more powerful sense of our humbleness. This is where the activity of praising becomes a deeper activity, one that touches on our offering of inner excellence and grace to our little ones.Let me know your thoughts on this topic by leaving a comment here.
Frank Diaz can be reached at raisingexcellentkids@gmail.com.

By FRANK DIAZ

COLUMNIST