Dads Inc. - Cinderella Ball

Dads Inc. is thrilled to host The Cinderella Ball, a special night where every father becomes Prince Charming and every daughter is a princess! The event will be held on Friday, March 13, 2009 at the Eugene B. Glick Junior Achievement Education Center, located at 7435 N. Keystone Avenue in Indianapolis. Dads Inc. is seeking corporate partners for this event, and is excited to offer your company to show its support for the development of healthy young women through a variety of sponsorship opportunities for this event.

The Cinderella Ball is a fun-filled evening designed to help foster important family relationships between fathers and their young daughters. Our goal is to empower fathers to build a foundation of confidence, self worth, and strength of character that will help their daughters mature into strong, independent women. Additionally, the Cinderella Ball offers young ladies the opportunity to make a difference in their communities by donating to a toy to the 2009 Dads Inc. Toy Drive, in the hopes that they will continue to live a lifetime of generosity and compassion towards those less fortunate than themselves. The three-hour event will consist of a dinner, ballroom dance lessons, a horse and carriage ride, a crafts activity, a souvenir photo, a commemorative t-shirt, entertainment, and a special appearance by Cinderella and Prince Charming! The event is designed for girls between the ages of 5 and 10 years old, but slightly younger and slightly older are welcomed, too.

Tickets are $100 per father-daughter couple, and you can register online at http://www.thecinderellaball.com/. If you have questions, please contact Chris Maples at (317) 635-DADS, or by email at maples@dadsinc.org. Hurry and register - space is limited, and we will not offer this event again until 2010!

Presidential Advice- from the mouth of a Child

Dear Sir Obama,
These are the first 10 things you should do as president:
1. Make everyone read books.
2. Don’t let teachers give kids hard homework.
3. Make a law where kids only get one page of homework per week.
4. Kids can go visit you whenever they want.
5. Make volunteer tutors get paid.
6. Let the tutors do all the thinking.
7. Make universities free.
8. Make students get extra credit for everything.
9. Give teachers raises.
10. If No. 4 is approved, let kids visit the Oval Office, but don’t make it boring.

— Mireya Perez, age 8, San Francisco (The New York Times - 1/15/09)

NAEYC Resources for Preschool Teachers: In Spanish and English

NAEYC Resources for Preschool Teachers: In Spanish and English
Teaching Young Children is NAEYC’s colorful, easy-to-read magazine for busy preschool teachers. Available in English and Spanish (as Tesoros y Colores), each issue offers practical ideas you can put to use immediately in your classroom. Be sure to visit the TYC Web site to read articles, become a subscriber, and to network with other teachers through discussion boards.

Supervisors, staff development specialists, and center directors can use NEXT: The Teaching Young Children Staff Development Guide with teachers to support further learning. NEXT suggests ways to build on content while encouraging teachers to adapt and apply appropriate ideas in their own classrooms. NEXT is available in Spanish as NEXT: La Guía de Tesoros y Colores para el desarrollo professional.

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/naeyc/tyc_vol1issue1/

School Bus Information

One of the questions I ask providers when I call for our 6 month update is "What school bus picks up and drops off at your location?" The answer I hear the most is "IPS," or another township name. This is helpful, but not entirely accurate.

The information that helps us match you best with parent's needs is what SPECIFIC school's bus will pick up and drop off at or near your child care. For instance at my home, my elementary school is Heather Hills, my middle school is Brookside and the high school is Warren Central. I found out this information by calling the Warren MSD Transportation Department, I gave them my address and they told me what school buses would drop off and pick up and where the bus stops are. So please call your school district's transportation department and find out your information so we can match you with parents who are looking for providers within their child's school bus drop off and pick up zones.

Family Service Salute to Family Award

Family Service of Central Indiana, Inc. is accepting nominations for the annual Alice M. Ross "Salute to Family" Award that recognizes exemplary families from the community.

The annual award honors families who have made a difference, whether it be at home in their care for their own family or by bettering their community.

Any member of the community may nominate a family they admire, and families may nominate themselves. Families must live in Boone, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Marion or Morgan County to be eligible.

Nominated families can include: two-parent and single-parent families, stepfamilies, multigenerational, blended, traditional, non-traditional, foster or adoptive.

Nominations must be submitted online, faxed or postmarked by Feb. 28, 2009.

Read the whole posting here...

Rise in infant suffocation tied to bed sharing

Here is a great article on MSNBC from Rueters about infant bed sharing:

Rates have quadrupled in the past 20 years, government researchers find

WASHINGTON - Rates of sudden infant death from suffocation or strangulation have quadrupled in the past 20 years in the United States, most apparently from parents sleeping with their babies, government researchers reported on Monday.

Black male babies are the most affected but it is not clear why, the researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

The trend is clear despite successful campaigns to prevent sudden infant death syndrome by putting babies to sleep on their backs instead of their tummies, the CDC reported in the journal Pediatrics.

"Infant mortality rates attributable to accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed have quadrupled since 1984," the CDC's Carrie Shapiro-Mendoza and colleagues wrote.
"Prevention efforts should target those at highest risk and focus on helping parents and caregivers provide safer sleep environments."

Avoid loose beddingEvidence shows that babies should be laid to sleep alone, on a flat mattress, with no loose pillows or blankets and in a crib with bars designed to prevent entrapment.
Shapiro-Mendoza and colleagues went through national death statistics from 1984 to 2004.
"Sudden, unexpected infant death was defined as a combination of all deaths attributed to accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed, sudden infant death syndrome, and unknown causes," they wrote.

Rates of sudden infant death syndrome, also known as cot death or crib death, have plummeted in countries where health workers have counseled parents and caregivers to put infants on their backs to sleep, to avoid keeping rooms too warm and to keep loose blankets and pillows away from infants.

The data reflected this with sudden, unexpected infant deaths overall falling from 160 per 100,000 in 1984, or 5,885 total, to 92.4 in 2004 or 3,798 total.
Rates of strangulation or suffocation, however, rose by 14 percent between 1996 and 2004.
Most of the deaths that could be determined were by "overlay" — the parent rolling over onto the child.

Other causes include suffocating in soft bedding, becoming wedged between a mattress and frame or wall, or getting a head caught in something.

"To our knowledge, it is the first study to document the national trend showing a fourfold increase in accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed infant mortality in recent years," the CDC team wrote.
Copyright 2009 Reuters.

Link to the original article from MSNBC:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28857953/

YEAH TODAY IS THE DAY!

We have officially had 1,000 hits to our blog! So here is how the give away works - all providers who read the blog and respond to me via email will recieve a $5.00 training certificate. You can use this certificate for any CCA training! In order to receive your training bucks send me an email with your request and I will send your bucks! It's that easy!

• Limit one entry per person
• only emails received from 6:00am 1/26/09 through 5:59 an 1/27/09 will be eligible.
• IF you are a provider on our database - your record must have been updated within the last 6 months
• Email must include your name, complete address, and phone number