Painter Print

Halloween is just as much fun for the kids as it is for the adults. Kids’ parties for Halloween can be a blast and full of fun and cheer when done right. For fun Halloween parties at home or school, you’ll need some great ideas. Here are some smashing ideas for creating an easy and fun Halloween party.

Try a pumpkin patch or scarecrow theme for a party. Use bales of hay or beautiful fall autumn leaves to bring your theme to life. You can use mini versions of pumpkins if you don’t have enough space. Place your pumpkins on a buffet table. For the pumpkin patch, use pumpkins to make your own pumpkin patch in the front yard or the backyard. Take leaves and scatter them all over the house or the yard! Go ahead and go wild with the fall fun and leaves. The kids will love it.

Make funny and cute signs like “scarecrow crossing” and make your own scarecrow to stand next to it. Find some crates for your yard. Cover them with burlap or rustic fabric. When decorating, keep fall colors and the colors of the leaves and look in mind for fabric with those colors.

Take unfinished Halloween theme crafts from the craft store and get paint for the kids to paint them and take home as their own unique souvenirs. The kids will treasure them for years to come.

Oh Please, Don’t Say Maybe!!!!

Are you often a participant in an unraveling parent-child interaction? Well you’re not alone. Interactions between parents and their children often transgress before our eyes.

All children’s first years should be filled with verbal stimulation to build language and literacy skills. Each day should be full of discovery and offer opportunities to gain new skills and learn new concepts. Talking to your children openly and honestly and encouraging verbal interaction is a critical component of healthy and successful development. Sometimes, though, a parent-child interaction spins quickly out of control and leaves the parent wondering “What happened? I thought I had this under control?”

All too often the origin of the conflict is established by the use of one simple word: “Maybe.” This one uncomplicated morsel of verbiage has the power to evoke quite a forceful reaction at times. “Why?” you may question. The answer is as absolute as your response should be to your child: You just don’t use the “maybe” word.

Raising a child is probably the most gratifying job any of us will ever have — and one of the toughest. We live in an increasingly complex world that challenges us every day with a wide range of issues that are difficult for children to understand and for adults to explain. The issues are biggies: terrorism, war, AIDs, sex, death, and a host of other sensitive topics that just didn’t exist when we were growing up.

It’s not always easy to talk to your kidsbut it’s always important. Consider this: if we don’t talk with them — and answer their questions — they’ll get their facts from someone else. And we’ll have missed an important parenting opportunity.

When responding to questions posed by your child, whether it’s a question about the tough issues or a question about attending a sleep over or eating a cookie before dinner, clarity is the name of the game. If a child asks a question, the very least we can do is answer it, and answer it precisely. The amount of uncertainty produced by “maybe” is very often the catalyst for the conflict.

Here are some essentials to assist you in becoming more accomplished in talking to your child:

- Always respond to your child

- Strive to understand your own feelings regarding their request or question

- Reply with a definite yes or no

- Clarify your reasoning

- Offer them the methods and/or means to achieve their request

- Be conscious of their reaction(s), anxiety usually precedes the outburst

Remember: We all, young and not so young alike, find relief in knowing where we stand.

Dr. Charles Sophy currently serves as Medical Director for the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), which is responsible for the health, safety and welfare of nearly 40,000 foster children. He also has a private psychiatry practice in Beverly Hills, California. Dr. Sophy has lectured extensively and is an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California Los Angeles Neuro-Psychiatric Institute. His lectures and teachings are consistently ranked as among the best by those in attendance.

Dr. Charles Sophy, author of the “Keep ‘Em Off My Couch” blog, provides real simple answers for solving life’s biggest problems. He specializes in improving the mental health of children. To contact Dr. Sophy, visit his blog at http://drsophy.com

Sitting by her Pinocchio lamp, she smiled at me as her tiny shadow puppet danced on the bedroom wall. “A bunny!” she giggled with all the jubilance of a four-year old. Her blue eyes sparkled with pride as she showed me the animated image she had created.

“Daddy, will you show me how to make a tiger?” she asked. “Sure,” I said, “and then we’ll read a story and tell your angels goodnight.” To my youngest daughter, that meant her bedtime prayer.

Today my daughter is seven, and I no longer get to read the story. She reads it to me, complete with expressive accents for the story characters.

To say I’m proud of our relationship would be an understatement. We have shared days of joy as well as tragedy. Our time together has strengthened the bond of love and special “life stuff” that is all our own.

I am richer for having nurtured the spirit of trust in this gentle little person; we have grown together spiritually, learning much from each other. The special times we spend together, like nights by a Pinocchio lamp, create memories that we will treasure for the rest of our lives.

So it is with all of our relationships. The trust factor is vital for relationships to thrive. In time, our “life stuff”, different for each of us, either bonds into gold or scatters among misplaced priorities.

Think of one of your fondest memories, and you will no doubt find a remarkable relationship at its center one with a spiritual quality that shines outward from the heart.

Time together, caring acts, and unconditional love build trust. I suggest that we each spend ample time with our personal “Pinocchio lamps” those special ways that we choose to nurture our relationships.

Relationships take time to nurture and maintain. It is not always easy, but the results are priceless. “Nights by a Pinocchio lamp”, wherever those might be for you, will create enduring bonds of golden “life stuff”, spiritual gifts that no one can take away.

© Copyright by Steve Brunkhorst. Steve is a professional life success coach, motivational author, and the editor of Achieve! 60-Second Nuggets of Inspiration, a popular mini-zine bringing great stories, motivational nuggets, and inspiring thoughts to help you achieve more in your career and personal life. Get the next issue by visiting http://www.AchieveEzine.com

The method know as three dimensional ultrasound is that can be used during early pregnancy, it can provide 3d pictures of the fetus. Most of the time the ultrasound images are rapidly collected and combined and animated to produce a 4d ultrasound scan.

Three dimensional scanning works in the same way to the normal ultrasound methods except that the ultrasound pulses can be sent from many directions. The ultrasound waves are redirected back then captured to provide info to construct a 3d picture in much the same way as 3d movies. 3 dimesional ultasound scanning was devised by olaf ramm and stephen smith.

It’s important to understand that sonologists all over the world have always pictured 3d images of the body in their minds while carrying out 2d scans. However, until recently it was impossible to do this kind of reconstruction on on info using ultrasound. The advent of baby scans for the first time allowed us a peek into the mechanics of thinking of a sonologist and so allowing us see the images on the ultrasound machine.

4d ultrasound imaging should utilize ultrasound energy following the same limits as conventional 2d ultrasound to create the 3d images. While there is no information of harm due to 3d ultasound scanning, its use in non-medical situations needs to be undertaken with an understanding of the risks that exist.

Remember, save your babies umbilical cord blood cells by using a company such as futurehealth.

As thousands of students are looking forward to the launch of their next school year - new school supplies, readying that new outfit or new uniform shirt, or just getting together with friends to embark on yet another scholastic roller coaster. There are many others, however, who look upon the beginning of school with trepidation.

They are the new kids, the shy kids, the kids who would rather be anyplace else but in school. Why? The reasons take on a myriad of variations, many grounded in plain old “coming of age” angst or the “end of summer” depression, but within this group there are some kids who are in a class all by themselves. These are the kids who, as a result of embarrassment, shame, or fear, have either been, or fear that they will be harmed by their peers, or worse yet, by themselves because they believe they are alone and “the problem” is to big for them or anyone to handle.

At first blush, you may be thinking I’m talking about “in the hood” gang crime. It’s nothing that obvious. In fact, this crime happens under the roofs in what appears to be happy families. This crime is insidious, cowardly, and criminal. There’s a ground swell of it within schools across this country. It’s called “Cyber Bullying”.

Cyber bullying takes what used to be schoolyard insults, pushing, and shoving to a whole new, expansive, and very dangerous level. The cyber bully uses email, chat rooms, instant messaging, cell phones and text messaging to insult, demean, threaten, humiliate, harass, deceive, impersonate, and in many cases, posts lewd or embarrassing photographs online of their peer - while hiding behind a veil of anonymity that the Internet provides.

On the middle school level, typical insults include comments like “U R ugly, U R fat, U R a liar, Nobody likes you”, however when kids reach 13, the comments are often sexual in nature, include profanity and detail true or untrue reports of promiscuity. Photos, which are sometimes altered, and video from cell phones are posted in emails and on familiar file sharing sites such as Myspace.com, Xanga.com, LiveJournal.com, Blogger.com, and others.

Even poor childish choices such as when a student puts up a website devoted to posting pictures of the ugliest or fattest kids in school, or when a 7th grade girl in Manhattan posted a video that a boy sent her of him serenading a song to her to her because he liked her and she didn’t like him back. It just seemed like a joke to her, that is, until it ended up being laughed at all over the Net. Needless to say, this young boy was devastated.

Unlike the schoolyard bully, these attacks aren’t by some scary kid wanting to push his weight around. They can be by anyone or no one that the child knows. Tragically, it’s sometimes by someone that the child thought was a friend. And unlike the schoolyard bully, a cyber bully can be comprised of one or many kids and by the time the posting hits the Net, literally thousands, if not millions of people have seen it, if it’s been shared around the world. And unlike the schoolyard bully, the cyber bully hits their victim in the sanctity of their own home or bedroom - where they feel that they can’t escape.

Suzanne Stanford, CEO of My Internet Safety Coach (http://www.myinternetsafetycoach.com) , notes: “Often, kids are afraid to tell their parents for fear that their computer will be taken away or that their parents will make the situation worse”. What they don’t realize is that unless the bullying stops immediately, it can escalate and leave permanent psychological scars.

That’s one of the reasons Ms. Stanford recommends Children’s Educational Network’s FREE Internet Filter and Parental Control software and there TUKI Browser for kids, available at http://www.TUKI.com.

Kids need to know how to navigate safely within this environment, so they’ll know how to prevent and protect themselves from these situations. Additionally, we make it very clear to kids who might want to engage in this type of activity, that there are severe personal consequences to their behavior.

For example, we want them to consider “before” they make poor choices that whatever is posted on the Net is there forever, and as much as they may regret later that they did this to someone, the damage is done and irreversible.” Experts in the field state that victims of these crimes suffer psychological trauma requiring professional help, have had to move to other schools, their mental state has resulted in their grades dropping to such a degree that they cannot qualify for college upon high school graduation; many are afraid to form close relationships with new people; and in more severe cases, suicide or murder has resulted.

These are not just childhood pranks. These are serious crimes, and several states are enacting laws, such as Florida, making these emails felonies. In Pennsylvania, cyber bullying, harassment and stalking carry stiff jail sentences and fines for those convicted.

Cyber bullies need to realize that they may be able to hide from their victims behind screen names, but they cannot hide from law enforcement. Mark Franek, Dean of Students at the William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia, explained the process very well: “Each time the Internet is accessed, an IP (Internet Protocol) address is established. The 12 numerals punctuated by the 3 periods is the electronic fingerprint that can be accessed by the authorities to trace all electronic communications between computers and/or mobile phones. No computer or mobile phone - or its user - is really anonymous in cyberspace.”

According to a survey conducted in June of 2000 by The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on 1,500 children aged 10-17, 1 in 17 youths had been threatened or harassed over the Internet and about one-third of those found the incidents extremely distressing. A study in Britain in 2004 by NCH, a British children’s charity, found that 1 in 4 students had been bullied online.

According to a CBS 2 (television) Special Report, conducted in 2005, more than 50% of 4-8th grade students have been bullied online. A recent nationwide survey of children and pre-teens by i-Safe America found that 57% of kids in grades 4-8 said someone had said hurtful or angry things to them online, 13% “quite often”; 53% admitted to saying mean or hurtful things to others, 7% “quite often”; 35% had been threatened online, 5% “quite often”; 42% had been bullied online, 5% “quite often”; and 58% had not told their parents or another adult about receiving mean or hurtful comments. In the UK, 33% of 9-to-19-year-olds who use email, chat, IM, and/or text messaging phones at least once a week “have been sent nasty or hurtful messages, and only 4% of parents say their child’s been bullied online, according to very recent research from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

The Internet and cell phones have become, in large part, the fabric of the social lives of tweens and teens. As such, they are prime targets for this kind of attack. The first thing kids need to understand about Instant Messaging, and blogs (web logs) or live journals, is that the more personal information you give someone, the more it can be used against you by not only those whom you wanted to read it, but by others whom you didn’t. Whenever you type something online and press “send”, you have just given up your privacy. Additionally, people online will pose to be people they aren’t for purposes of deception and in many cases, to commit crimes - often stealing someone’s identity in the process.

Some helpful tips for kids and teens regarding Cyber Bullying:

• Know that there are ALWAYS people available to help you that will make cyber bullies stop. These people are law enforcement; your school teacher, school counselor, principal; your parents or a nurturing, responsible adult; Cyber crime reporting sites such as: www.cybertipline.org, www.wiredsafety.net, www.KidSafe.com and safety@worldkids.net.

• Don’t give out any personal information such as your name, your school’s name or the name of any of the sports teams in which you play, your home telephone or cellular phone number, your address– including the city where your other parent lives if they are divorced, your parent’s office address, or the address of your school.

• Don’t ever use your real name as your user or screen name.

If you find that you are a victim of cyber bullying:

• Do not respond to the harassers directly because that is exactly what they want. Don’t give them the pleasure of knowing that you’re upset by it — Stay cool.

• Save and print out all messages - DO NOT ERASE THE EMAILS.

• Report this crime to the police. If possible, report it as it is happening.

• Take notes: State the name of the harassers, if you know it, and all the details about the incident(s)

• If you are afraid to call the police, email a report of the incident(s) to cyber crime reporting sites such as: www.cybertipline.org, www.wiredsafety.org, or safety@worldkids.net.

REMEMBER: YOU ARE IN CONTROL OF YOUR ONLINE EXPERIENCE. IT IS UNACCEPTABLE FOR YOU TO BE VERBALLY ABUSED OR THREATENED

If you want to BLOCK USERS from contacting you via email, do the following:

• Look for the “Block” button. Sometimes it is in your Inbox.

• You block someone by highlighting or checking the box next to their email and then clicking on the Block button. When you do this, all the emails form the address you blocked will not go through to your Inbox.
In Outlook Express, you go to a “Blocked Senders List”. To do this, do the following:
Click on:
• “Tools”

• “Message Rules”

• “Blocked Senders List”
• Click on “Add”
• Type in the persons email address in the box, or right click on the name of the person in your contact list.
• Click either “Mail Messages” to block only emails; “News Messages”, if you want to block communication from a news group or someone in a newsgroup; or “Mail and News Messages”, to block the persons personal email and communication via the news group.

If you’re still getting messages from someone who is harassing you online, after you do the above, change your email address.

It’s an unsettling thought for any parent to think that their child may be a victim of a Cyber Bully, or be one. As difficult as it may be to consider, parents and teachers alike need to talk about this subject at home and in the classroom. We need to raise awareness of this issue and be pro-active. At present, lawmakers are drafting laws to prevent and prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes. Education, Vigilance, and strict laws are key in disarming bullies.

Greg Writer is currently the CEO and Founder of Children’s Educational Network, a company dedicated to protecting children online and is a dynamic speaker, author, teacher and coach with over 23 years experience in executive level management. More information at http://www.tuki.com and http://www.gregwriter.com.

Introduction

No doubt that at some part of your life so far you have had a crush on someone, maybe that is why you are here now.

You might also be here to find out how to tell what true love is or how to tell if he/she is the “perfect” match for you, well to be totally honest, noone can tell you who mr/mrs perfect is, and noone can tell you what true love is, because “true love” and “perfect” both mean different things for different people.

There is also two different types of love, I got taught these by an ex-girlfriend and didn’t really understand them at the time.

Type one is “loving” someone, anyone can love someone, but love is just a word, and i love my mates/mum/sister/etc but it dosn’t mean they are my perfect partner.

Type two is “being in love” with someone, the main difference with this one is that its not just a word, its a feeling, a feeling that you feel for a certain person. Being in love is the one that makes your heart jump into your mouth, the one that gets you excited everytime you see them, and being in love is the most important thing in a relationship, if you have two people that are totally “in love” with each other then the chances are they will have a long, strong and happy relationship.

Teen Dating PT2 - Whats What

As if life is not already confusing enough, and now we are gonna chuck in some love. Once you reach your teenage years you will no doubt start experimenting with the opposite sex, one of the things you might experiment with is dating.

Dating is a great experience, it can teach you many things, some are useless, but some things can change you for the rest of your life, because that person that has asked you on the date could be the person you spend the rest of you life with, it is a scary thought but there really aint much that you should be scared of, because its all part of the fun.

If you are ever asked out on a date here are a few bits of advice;

* Do you like the person that has asked you?

Dating is meant to be a fun experience, if your not interested in the person that has asked you, do the smart thing and say no, if you are interested in the person then great what you waiting for.

* Does this person pressure you?

If the person that has asked you tries to put pressure on you to do things that you do not want to do say no, you could still date but do not let them pressure you into things you do not want to do.

* Does this person make you feel safe?

The best thing about love is knowing that the other person makes you feel safe, if you are afraid of the person, or scared he might do something you dont want to do, its probally a good idea to skip the date.

* Do you share interest/hobbies?

If you both share similar interest/hobbies it makes dates a whole lot easier since it means that you will have something to talk about that the other person will be interested in listening to.

Teen Dating PT 3 - Further Down the Line

Once you start dating the same person for a while and the dating turns more into a relationship, you might start to feel pressurised to do more intimate things such as sex, your friends will also start asking questions such as “How far have you gone”, or “have you shagged him/her yet”, but you should not give into this pressure unless you really feel that you are ready.

If you do feel that you are ready to start having a sexual relationship, remember to take pre-cautions and have safe sex by using a condom and other forms of contraception, and girls don’t think that its a boys job to remember a condom, it dosn’t hurt you to have a couple spare. If you fail to have safe sex then you are exposing yourself to STIs and un-planned pregnancies.

My name is Mark and I am a 19 year old youth worker who runs http://just-4-teens.com/, feel free to stop by if your looking for advice, fun, chat or just wanna hang.