Tagged With "Black kids"
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New Research Shows Killings by Police Hurt Grades, Graduation Rates of Nearby Black and Hispanic Schoolchildren [educationnext.org]
By Desmond Ang, EducationNext, June 4, 2020 How will the death of George Floyd affect Minneapolis schoolchildren? New research I conducted on the effects of police violence indicates that it will significantly hurt their educational and emotional well-being. Examining detailed data on more than 700,000 public high school students and over 600 officer-involved killings in a large urban county, I found that police use of force has large, negative spillovers on educational achievement and...
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Intergenerational trauma is 'pain' passed down generations, hurting Black people's health [globalnews.ca]
By Olivia Bowden, Global News, June 22, 2020 Some Black parents teach their children never to lose a receipt in case you’re accused of stealing or to keep your hands out of your pocket so they are visible to those around you. These are just some of the lessons Black people may tell their children to keep them safe from violence linked to anti-Black racism, said Myrna Lashley, an assistant professor in the department of psychology at McGill University in Montreal. But the need to constantly...
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Resources to Support Children's Emotional Well-Being Amid Anti-Black Racism, Racial Violence and Trauma [childtrends.org]
By Dominique Parris, Victor St. John, Jessica Dym Bartlett, Child Trends, June 23, 2020 Most Black children in the United States encounter racism in their daily lives. Ongoing individual and collective psychological or physical injuries due to exposure and re-exposure to race-based adversity, discrimination, and stress, referred to as racial trauma , is harmful to children’s development and well-being. Events that may cause racial trauma include threats of harm and injury, hate speech,...
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OPINION: ‘For our many Black and Brown children, the threats to their physical safety now and into the future are eating away at their insides’ [hechingerreport.org]
By Karen Gross, The Hechinger Report, June 22, 2020 Our students are traumatized. They are living with fear and confusion. They are experiencing or witnessing police violence, rioting and looting. And schools, a place where children typically process events and emotions, are shuttered. What are children to do? Who will acknowledge, understand and respond to their trauma and its accompanying symptomology? Who’s there to enable our students to understand racism and violence, and to mitigate...
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Stolen Breaths [njem.org]
By Rachel R. Hardeman, Eduardo M. Medina, and Rhea W. Boyd, New England Journal of Medicine, June 10, 2020 In Minnesota, where black Americans account for 6% of the population but 14% of Covid-19 cases and 33% of Covid-19 deaths, George Floyd died at the hands of police. “Please — I can’t breathe.” He was a black man detained on suspicion of forgery, an alleged offense that was never litigated or even charged, but for which he received an extrajudicial death sentence. “Please — I can’t...
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Resilience for Children & Families: Being Brave When Things are Hard
Building Resilience with Children During Racial Discrimination & Violence: This attached Resilience Brief for Children has been the hardest one I have written yet. I have been an active advocate for the equal treatment of people from all backgrounds, religions, ethnic heritages, orientations, and families my entire life. It is hard to see the pain present today, not only due to COVID19 but also due to the harm and anger we see daily in the news. I want to share a story about the person...
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Prioritize a trauma-sensitive approach for the 2020-21 school year [playworks.org]
Playworks believes in a trauma-sensitive approach Educators should focus on providing a trauma-sensitive approach to the reopening of school. Students are all having different experiences right now. For some students, the shutdown of schools due to COVID has provided them with a welcome reprieve from toxic situations or stressors. For others, it has created an increased chance that they’re experiencing Adverse Childhood Experiences or new stressors. “A trauma-sensitive school is one in which...
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Richmond area students talk about what they'll remember from this year of protest and Covid-19 [edsource.org]
By Valerie Echeverria, Ronishlla Maharaj, Karina Mascorro, and David Sanchez, Ed Source, July 28, 2020 Black Lives Matter and the coronavirus have etched deep memories, as well as life lessons, this year for Richmond area students. Here are reflections from students and recent graduates, based on interviews conducted by participants in the West Contra Costa Student Reporting Project. Except for graduates, their class levels indicate their status in the upcoming school year. Irene Kou, 15,...
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This wasn't the first time
Going out to buy groceries, going out for a walk, driving your kid back home from school. For most people these activities are normal, everyday things with little to no excitement, as they should be. Unfortunately, getting food, exercising, and supporting my son’s education have been a little more out of the ordinary for me. You see, I am a Mexican Indigenous man, brown skin, shaved head. My ethnicity and physical appearance are by no means unusual, especially in the part of the country...
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Beyond physical wounds, healing Black male trauma [usatoday.com]
By John Rich, USA Today, August 30, 2020 As a primary care doctor in Boston in the late 1990s and early 2000s, I saw many young Black men who were injured by violence. But one young man stands out in my mind. The first time I saw him, he was lying in a hospital bed sweating and writhing in pain. Like many young men I saw as a doctor in an urban medical center, and despite what I – and many of my colleagues – might have assumed, this young man had done nothing to provoke the attack. Rather,...
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The Health Care System Has the Black Community in a Choke Hold [chcf.org]
By Vanessa Grubbs, California Health Care Foundation, August 4, 2020 It was the Black woman’s third trip to the emergency department because she was feeling short of breath. She was starting to panic. She knew the COVID-19 death toll was climbing and that it was far worse for Black people than white people , and yet the doctors told her to go home again. But this time she pleaded, “If you all don’t admit me to the hospital, I’m going to die. I can’t breathe.” This is the story told by Sheila...
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Trauma-responsive school thinks outside-the-box to engage students during pandemic
Before the pandemic, Sara Buckley, an 8 th grade science teacher at Park Middle School in Antioch, California, could handle students who were acting out during class. Understanding that trauma lies beneath disruptive behavior, she didn’t send kids to the principal for punishment. Instead, she’d talk with them to find out what was going on at home or outside of school—and then work out a plan for how to respond differently the next time they were triggered. They could visit the school’s...
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How to Protect Your Child Against Cyberbullying
How to Protect Your Child from Cyberbullying? Cyberbullying is a colossal up-to-date problem that greatly affects the life of the young generation. Children who become victims of cyberbullying get lots of online threats that make their lives insufferable. To protect children from such violent bullying, you need to teach your kids how to act properly online and what decisions to make. Children and cyberbullying have become inseparable concepts in recent years. It has become more widespread...
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The Impact of ACEs on Black Maternal Health
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Is Your Child Suffering From Cyberbullying? Make Sure You Look Out For These Signs
Worried that your child may be secretly cyberbullied? There are signs and changes in your child’s life that can serve as a telltale. This may include subtle or not-so-subtle behavioral changes in your child’s school and social life, how they handle the use of technology, and changes in their emotions and behaviors. You’re a parent, right? You know your child like the back of your hand. Their daily behavior and routine. And even if you find it hard to keep abreast with the latest toys (read:...
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New Understanding Childhood Trauma Resource for Parents/Caregivers
Please see our new pamphlet for parents/caregivers about childhood trauma (now in eight languages), and share with friends, family and colleagues. Although designed for Massachusetts residents, the resource page can be adapted for other locations. Thank you for your help and any distribution ideas. https://www.frcma.org/about/tr...sources-and-training https://myemail.constantcontact.com/NEW-Understanding-Childhood-Trauma-Resource.html?soid=1135101415145&aid=t6mWQvwx2sA
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Join Special Guest Father Paul Abernathy for a Zoom Discussion on March 16th, at 7p.m. EST to discuss the Whole People Documentary Series and Trauma-Informed Community Development
On behalf of ACEs Connection , the CTIPP (The Campaign for Trauma -Informed Policy & Practice), and the Relentless School Nurse , we want to invite you to the streaming of parts 4 and 5 of the Whole People documentary series on the weekend o f M arch 12th through March 14th, 2021. We will stream both parts on ACEs Connection in the Transforming Trauma with ACEs Sciences Film Festival community. The documentary viewing will be followed by a discussion with special guest, Father Paul...
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Childhood friendship and problems of communication with friends
Being a parent is hard work that moms and dads do, often without special skills and training. And if you successfully manage to cope with the problems of small children that arise in the family circle, then keep your sanity and respond correctly to the child's experiences, for example, due to the lack of friends in kindergarten, on the street, or at school, sometimes might be challenging. So, for most parents, the life of their child seems successful and happy when a son or daughter is in a...
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We Didn’t Want to Co-Parent a Puppy (nytimes.com)
By Chloe Caldwell, The New York Times, Sept. 3, 2020 Getting a pandemic puppy seemed like a bad idea for a blended family. Until we did it. Even as a child, I never wanted a dog. When I was a longtime single through my 20s, a friend once asked me who I’d rather be with: a partner who had a dog or a partner who had a cat. I said, “a kid.” My stepdaughter, Louise, is 10 years old and like many girls her age, she has a nurturing and maternal streak. She’s attuned to the needs of her parents,...
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The most important thing you can do with your kids? Play with them! says Dr. Bruce Perry
“The most important thing you can do with your children is play with them!” said Dr. Bruce Perry, noted child psychiatrist and author. He was answering the question, “How do we prepare our children to go back to school next fall?” Perry, a brain expert specializing in how children are impacted by trauma, gave a presentation on his neuro-sequential model of brain development to more than 800 people at an Austin Ed Fund event Monday evening. The co-author, with Oprah Winfrey, of the new book...
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The Surviving Spirit Newsletter April 2021
Hi Folks, The latest edition of the Surviving Spirit Newsletter is posted at the website - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/index.php Once again I've tried to create a mix of articles, videos, music, books, podcasts, resources, etc, that offer Hope, Healing & Help. As the saying goes, “ Take what you like and leave the rest. ” or here's the PDF - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/pdfs/2021-04-The_Surviving_Spirit_Newsletter_April_2021.pdf To sign up for an e-mail copy, please...
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Stress Health website (www.stresshealth.org)
Research shows that the right kind of support and care can mitigate the impact of toxic stress in children and help them bounce back. The Stress Health website from the Center for Youth Wellness shares many ways that parents can support a healthy stress response: sleep, nutrition, exercise, mental health, mindfulness and healthy relationships. These things help to decrease our stress hormones and inflammation for healthier brains and bodies. Stress Health is about learning how the stress...
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How to Help Kids Open Up About Anything (nytimes.com)
By Shanicia Boswell, The New York Times, Oct. 15, 2020 Tips for creating safe spaces and developing emotional intelligence in your children. “Did you learn your lesson?” my mother asked. Those five words have been etched in my mind since I was a teenager. I was a good kid but, between boys and shenanigans with my friends, I was always pushing the boundaries. This time, I had received a speeding ticket for rushing to get home before my curfew. When I told her what had happened, my mother...
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Seeding Accounts for Kindergartners and Hoping to Grow College Graduates [nytimes.com]
By Tara Siegel Bernard, The New York Times, October 11, 2021 Kindergarten often brings a flood of notices about events, school supplies and class photos. But when Vaniqua Hudson-Figueroa’s daughter started at a public school in Queens, there was one that Ms. Hudson-Figueroa wasn’t expecting: The city had opened a college savings account in her child’s name — and it already had $100 in it. For Ms. Hudson-Figueroa, the account opens up possibilities she didn’t know she had when she was her...
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Virtual Learning Anxiety: How To Help Your Kids
Virtual work, virtual groceries; everything has turned virtual since the pandemic of 2020. People can get all their work done without having to leave the comfort of their homes. It also means that our children have to adapt to a whole new educational system; virtual learning. While virtual learning offers the feasibility of learning at home, it comes with numerous issues too. One of the commonly-experienced issues is virtual learning anxiety. Not turning off the camera, constantly staying on...
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The Rise of Black Homeschooling [newyorker.com]
By Casey Parks, The New Yorker, June 14, 2021 W hen Victoria Bradley was in fifth grade, she started asking her mother, Bernita, to homeschool her. Bernita wasn’t sure where the idea came from—they never saw homeschooling on TV. But something always seemed to be going wrong at school for Victoria. In second grade, a teacher lost track of her during parent pickup, and she wandered off school grounds. Bernita went to see the principal, intent on getting the teacher fired. The principal asked...
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Coloring Pages Important for Your Child
There are no children who would not like to draw. And you can hardly find parents who would not have to buy coloring books for their kids. But, unfortunately, no one or almost no one pays attention to what is hidden behind the bright cover. And oddly enough, but psychologists also do not spend a lot of their time researching colorings, or rather, what they mean. Coloring various pictures is not only interesting but also very rewarding. Painting pictures will help the child expand knowledge...
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Before Kids' Emotions Run High, Practice These Steps During Calmer Times [kqed.org]
By Deborah Farmer Kris, KQED, September 23, 2021 As children file back into America’s classrooms, they bring with them “backpacks full of emotion,” says Katie Hurley, a child psychotherapist and author of " The Happy Kid Handbook ." And they are counting on adults to “work together to help them sort it out.” During children’s early years, teachers and caregivers have a prime opportunity to focus on emotional skills that support students’ academic achievement , wellness and sense of...
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The Secret to Raising a Resilient Kid (NY Times)
By Erik Vance, NY Times, Sept. 1, 2021 The ability to bounce back is more important now than ever; here’s how to impart it. In my early teens, my dad took myself, my best friend and our neighbor on a grueling backpacking trip connecting California’s Yosemite Valley to Half Dome to nearby Clouds Rest mountain and back again. By the second day — halfway up Clouds Rest, on wobbly legs and besieged by mosquitoes — we finally mutinied. The three of us made it clear to my father that we were done.
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Pandemic parenting overwhelming you? A trio of therapists has just the free workshop you need. Register now for events starting Tuesday, April 20.
Therapist and anti-spanking advocate Robbyn Peters Bennett Three therapists have teamed up to he lp with overwhelmed, stressed parents by offering a free workshop each remaining day this week: Pandemic Parenting! Robbyn Peters Bennett from Portland, Oregon, Lori Petro from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Amy Bryant from Decatur, Georgia, organized the event to help parents who have been struggling during the pandemic. Here are the details on what they’re offering and how to attend.
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How to Help a Kid Stop Lying and Tell the Truth: 9 Steps
Being a parent comes with sacrifices, but also with challenges. As children grow up, they begin to understand the world. And so, lying can appear as a regular behavior. I have two children, aged 10 and 14. I can say that lying was a big problem in our family during their childhood. For example, they lied they brushed their teeth. And of course, you can easily say if they brushed their teeth or not. Honesty is an important quality that helps build stronger relationships and bonds between...
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Why Covid Has Broken Parents’ Sense of Risk (nytimes.com)
By Jessica Grose, The New York Times, Sept. 15, 2021 Every decision for not-yet-vaccinated kids feels like an unsolvable equation. There was a brief, shining moment in early summer when the decisions around Covid and my family felt manageable. My husband and I were vaccinated and had returned to some of our favorite indoor activities, like stand-up comedy shows and the gym. Our kids were at a mostly outdoor day camp with procedures we trusted, and the local case rate was low. But as July...
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How to raise a boy: my mission to bring up a son fit for the 21st century [theguardian.com]
By Tom Lamont, The Guardian, August 1, 2021 M y little son has a gang he roots for. All boys, dudes everywhere – they’re his gang. I figured this out, recently, when we sat down to watch the Grand National. He’d picked a horse in the family sweepstake and his choice was out in front for most of the race. When it fell back, out of contention, my son paled a bit. Possibly he’d already spent the sweepstake winnings in his head (on stickers, sweets, toy balls) but he took the disappointment...
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Why Your Kid’s Bad Behavior May Be a Good Thing (nytimes.com)
By Melinda Wenner Moyer, The New York Times, Dec. 11, 2021 The safer children feel, the more they can show their true selves — warts and all — experts say. And that’s good for their development. There was a moment over Thanksgiving break when my 7-year-old bossily instructed her 76-year-old grandfather, whom she rarely sees, to “stop taking pictures and put down your camera,” and boy, I wished I could hide under the dining room table for the rest of the evening. I wondered: What kind of...
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To solve the Black maternal mortality crisis, start with upending racist practices
It’s been all over the news for months: Black women in the United States are dying from complications during their pregnancies or in childbirth at alarming rates, and those deaths are preventable. Less well explored is how systemic racism and historical trauma have been at the core of what’s driven up these rates over several decades. A March 20 conference entitled The Impact of ACEs on Black Maternal Health took an in-depth look into why Black maternal mortality and complications during...
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A Report on How Stigma Harms Youth Exposed to Parental Substance Use Disorder
A New Path Forward: A Report on How Stigma Harms Youth exposed to Parental Substance Use Disorder and Recommendations for a New Path Forward NEW REPORT: On February 3rd, Starlings Community released a FIRST of its kind report on how stigma impacts youth exposed to parental substance use disorder. Approximately 1 in 6 youth are exposed to the stress and stigma of a parent's substance use disorder. These children/youth are at double the risk for depression, triple the risk for addiction, and...
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A Childhood Emotional Neglect Christmas: Humorous & Touching Holiday Stories From The Nurturance Void
Latchkey Urchins & Friends is a podcast by me* and my co-host Anne Sherry, a therapist. We explore different topics within The Nurturance Void, the space left when we experienced childhood emotional neglect. Childhood emotional neglect happens between parents and their kids, within families, across generations, in communities, in nations, and in policies and programs. We seek to heal through humor and holding space. Each week a guest shares their childhood emotional neglect stories,...
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With Bike Buses, Kid Cyclists Dominate the Road [bloomberg.com]
By Maxwell Adler, Photo: Bryan Banducci/Bloomberg, Bloomberg City Lab, February 10, 2022 A man in a Superman costume and a child on a tricked-out tricycle, affectionately nicknamed “trek-ceratops,” stood out among the pack of cyclists riding right down the middle of JFK Drive in San Francisco on their way to school. Two parents sped ahead to the intersection at the corner of 11th and Mission to block off traffic. No police escort was present. And music blasted from the speakers on...
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Quotes from the Parent Panel Session of the Attachment Trauma Network Conference
The annual Creating Trauma Sensitive Schools Conference put on by the Attachment and Trauma Network was held online last week. This year there was a parent track for participants as well as a 90-minute parent panel hosted by Ginger Healey. While you can still access the workshops online, for those who want a few of the highlights from the parent panel, please see the quotes below. There are quotes from Healey as well as the four panelists. Anna Paravano (Panelist) Parent Empowering Other...
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Online learning, racial tensions and ‘the talk’: Black parents raising children amid multiple crises (nbcnews.com)
By Patrice Gaines, Image by Chelsea Stahl/NBC News; Getty Images, NBC News, December 30, 2021 Parents say their Black children have had to grow up faster, especially in the post-Trump era, facing issues most white children don't confront until they’re adults, if at all. This year has been full of stress, chaos and uncertainty for all parents — whether it’s adjusting to the impact of the pandemic on jobs and children’s school schedules or trying to protect them while they were ineligible for...
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Yes, your kid can change the world. Here's how [cnn.com]
By Elissa Strauss, Photo: Steve Pfost/ Newsday RM/Getty Images, CNN Health, April 22, 2022 It has become harder for children to experience childhood as a time of blissful ignorance about the state of our planet. Climate change, racism, discrimination, poverty and gun violence are affecting their daily lives, giving them plenty to be upset about it and often inspiring them to fight for change. Role models such as Greta Thunberg and Malala Yousafzai prove that sometimes when kids take action,...
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6 Kids Speak Out Against Hair Discrimination [nytimes.com]
By Charley Locke, Photo: Djeneba Aduayom/The New York Times, The New York Times, April 22, 2022 One day last spring, Jett Hawkins, 5, asked his mom to braid his hair for him. He loved the way it looked: “I was so proud and happy,” says Jett, who lives in Chicago. But when he got to school, his mother says, an administrator called her and told her that his hairstyle had broken a school policy that banned students from wearing braids, locs and twists. Jett is not the only kid who has been...
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6 things parents should know about mental health before sending a kid to college
By Allison Slater Tate, Today, March 8, 2022 (updated April 25, 2022) After student athletes Katie Meyer and Sarah Shulze died by suicide one month apart, parents have questions. This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is at risk of suicide please call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources. When news broke in March that Stanford senior and soccer star Katie Meyer,...
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Navigating Fatherhood as a Black Man [nytimes.com]
By Christina Caron, Image by Rachel Levit Ruiz, The New York Times, June 16, 2022 The editor of a new book of essays shares how Black men can attend to their mental health while growing their families. This year Father’s Day will fall on June 19, or Juneteenth, a federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved Black people in the United States after the Civil War. And for Michael D. Hannon, an associate professor of counseling at Montclair State University in Montclair, N.J., that...
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Strangers showed up to give the coolest birthday party of all time to 8-year-old girl who only got 1 RSVP (upworthy.com)
Charlotte Joy’s eighth birthday was fast approaching. Birthdays are often a source of unbridled joy for kids this age. Sadly, this wasn't the case for Charlotte. At least, not at first. The young girl from Tennessee had experienced tragedy a few months prior—losing her mother, Jenny Wren, to brain cancer. Knowing a time for celebration would be more important than ever, her older sister, Chloe Sexton, tried to organize a birthday party, sending out invitations to all her classmates. Only one...
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Are $100 sneakers a way to cut truancy? These folks think so. [washingtonpost.com]
By Petula Dvorak, Photo: Amanda Voisard/The Washington Post, The Washington Post, July 25, 2022 “It’s a whole different generation,” Barbara Mickles said out loud, to no one in particular, shaking her head and adding a grandmotherly “mmm-hmmm” to underscore the absurdity of $100 sneakers on ever-growing kid feet. Mickles, 62, was watching a swarm of kids, including a few of her 16 grandchildren, go giddy over sneakers — Nike, Adidas, Champion. All the hot brands. Back in Arkansas, Shoe...
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The 5-minute daily playtime ritual that can get your kids to listen better [npr.org]
By Becky Harlan and Summer Thomad, Photo: Meredith Rizzo/NPR, National Public Radio, October 17, 2022 Do you remember what it was like to be a kid? So much of the day was directed by adults. Wake up. Get dressed. Brush your teeth. Eat your breakfast. Get in the car. Go to school. Sometimes kids listen to the instructions — and sometimes they don't. And when they don't, that can be very frustrating for parents. So how can parents get their kids to be more apt to comply? It might sound...
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Children with special needs now have more options for Halloween costumes, and it's magnificent! (upworthy.com)
Author: To read Harmony Hobbs' article, please click here. Often, parents of children with special needs struggle to find Halloween costumes that will accommodate medical equipment or provide a proper fit. And figuring out how to make one? Yikes. When looking for the right costume, kids with unique needs have a lot of extra factors to consider: wheelchair wheels get tangled up in too-long material, feeding tubes could get twisted the wrong way, and children with sensory processing disorders...
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