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Gift ideas for teachers, day care providers

Posted Dec 17, 2009 by Beth Gaddis

Updated Dec 29, 2009 at 11:28 AM

Looking for gift ideas for your child’s teacher or day care provider?  Here are a few that are big hits and some other ideas you may want to skip.

$10 gift cards to Target, Walmart, Staples or Barnes & Noble: Teachers often have to spend their own money on classroom supplies, and this would allow them to defray the costs or maybe splurge and have money to buy something for themselves.

Gift cards to restaurants or Starbucks: Some Web sites like Restaurants.com are offering great deals.  Check them out and see whether you can get a little something for yourself while doing something nice for someone else.

Gift certificates to the movies: A co-worker of mine does this a lot and says it’s always a big hit.

Homemade card from your child, and a thank-you note from you: Take the time to let your child’s teachers know about the difference they’re making in your child’s life.  It will be more appreciated than anything that can come in a box.

No need to bake: A quick survey on Facebook discovered a lot of people still like to give homemade goodies, including cookies, brownies and mugs filled with candy.  But teachers replied that many of them are watching their waistlines, and while they appreciate the gesture, they’d rather have the homemade card than homemade food.

What do you like to do?  Share your thoughts here, on Twitter or on Facebook.

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Parenting ‘in a box’

Posted Dec 14, 2009 by Beth Gaddis

Updated Dec 17, 2009 at 08:52 AM

This could be a gift for you this holiday season. A new Web site has launched to help parents of young children diffuse stress and raise healthy, happy and well-balanced kids.

ParentingCounts.org takes tons of research by the Talaris Institute in Seattle and turns the information into hands-on useful tools to help parents of newborns, toddlers and preschoolers.

It just launched last month.  I talked Friday to Katie Simons, executive director of the Talaris Institute and a mother of two girls, Ella, 3, and Lilly, who was born in April.

The holidays can bring added stress for everyone, including you and your kids.  The Talaris Institute has these tips that can help your family cope with the stress now and throughout the year.

Take five.  Look for opportunities to slow down the pace.  During the holidays, when there are a lot of hustle and bustle, it’s extra important to take the time to let your children talk about their day and have quiet time with you.  But it’s a good rule to remember all the time. And don’t worry if you mess up.

“One of the videos that talks about this is morning madness,” Simons said. “In the video, the mom is rushing around the house, getting ready for work, and the daughter is moping.  The mom knows something is wrong, but she doesn’t have time to get into it.  Then she gets to work and sees her daughter’s lovey, and it’s too late to get it to her.  But she takes the time in the afternoon to talk about it and repairs it.  Research shows time and time again that it’s totally OK to make a mistake, but the important thing to is fix it as best as you can.” 

Explain the schedule. As the holidays bring changes in your regular routine, communicate what’s going to come next.  It will save you from temper tantrums.  Also, watch your child for cues, Simons said.  If your child’s tired and it’s her usual naptime or bedtime, change your schedule to accommodate the child’s.

Don’t make promises you can’t keep.  It’s better to surprise children with something unexpected than to promise and not be able to fulfill that promise, Simons said.  While we all know this, the dangers of false promises can be heightened during the holidays.

Simons told this story about a friend. “She got her kids all excited about going to see Santa and had been hyping it up all week.  But when they got there, the line was wrapped all around the building and it was freezing and raining and they couldn’t stay. And, of course, her kids were devastated.”

If you’ve ever had something like this happen to you, check out the video called “Dad’s Club” that’s about coming up with a Plan B. 

Prepare for visiting family.  Try to include children in the day’s activities in specific ways, but provide them with an “out” if all the activity and interaction becomes overwhelming. 

“There are two parts to this one.” Simons said. “One part is the upfront communication, explaining the schedule and promises.  The other piece that is different is following your child’s cues, which is a huge theme in the research.

“If the child is jumping up and down, you could say let’s read a book, or you could go with, ‘Hey, great jumping, but let’s go outside where it’s safer to jump around.’”

Although babies don’t come instruction books, ParentingCounts.org attempts to make parenting as easy as possible. “It’s parenting in a box,” Simons said. “At this point we have 140 different products for parents and educators and home visitors, who are trained professional who visit high-risk families.  It’s all about teaching strong parental behavior.”

Want to view videos for free? Click here to go to the demonstration page, scroll to the bottom and choose ‘click here.’

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Top kids’ and parents’ questions for 2009

Posted Dec 11, 2009 by Beth Gaddis

Updated Dec 11, 2009 at 10:26 AM

What was on kids’ and parents’ minds this past year?  The answers may surprise you.

Ask.com found “What is love” to be the most frequently asked question on its Askkids.com site.  The Web site caters to ages 6 to 12.  The funniest frequently asked question was No. 10: How old do you have to be to work at Blockbuster.

Top questions asked by kids on AskKids.com in 2009:
1. What is love?
2. Where can I find ideas for a science project?
3. How many inches are in a mile?
4. Is God real?
5. What happened in history on my birthday?
6. Does my crush love me?
7. Is Santa Claus real?
8. Where are tornadoes found?
9. Is there more water or land on Earth?
10. How old do you have to be to work at Blockbuster?

The questions parents posed on Ask.com were much more serious.  Here’s a look:

1. How can I help my child deal with a bully?
2. How much should my child weigh?
3. By what age should a child express happiness?
4. How do I keep my child safe on the Internet?
5. How should my child deal with peer pressure?
6. What immunizations will my child need for school?
6. Does my child have ADHD?
7. How do I deal with food allergies at school?
8. When can my child ride in the front seat?
10. When should I give my child a cell phone?

Click here to see the Ask.com top searches for other subjects, including top celebrity rumors, personal finance and beauty.

I asked Yahoo to send me its list of top searches by kids 12 and younger in 2009.  Here’s what it found:

1. RuneScape
2. Miley Cyrus
3. Michael Jackson
4. Naruto
5. Taylor Swift
6. WWE
7. Twilight
8. Hannah Montana
9. Britney Spears
10. Lady Gaga

Anything surprise you?  I hadn’t even heard of RuneScape before today.  I guess I’ve been living in the dark ages.

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The Secrets of Modern Parenting

Posted Dec 10, 2009 by Beth Gaddis

Updated Dec 11, 2009 at 08:39 AM

Story by Gayle Guyardo

In this age of sexting, texting, foul language and racy images, raising kids isn’t easy.

“Parents feel pressure,” said Karin Torsiello, a board-certified behavioral analyst who has spend more than a decade working with high-risk kids and foster children.  “Parents react and parent from the hip and don’t think before they speak.”

Torsiello, who is based in Stewart, is the co-author of “The Secrets of Modern Parenting,” a six-DVD series that gives parents step-by-step tips on how to handle common discipline issues.  Each DVD focuses on a different area: building relationships, gaining compliance, ending arguing, eliminating lying, extinguishing tantrums and ending backtalk and disrespect.

Torsiello said the most important step is opening up the lines of communication and avoiding saying that phrase parents have used for centuries: “Because I said so.”

“If a parent doesn’t have a close bond with their child, the child is not going to hear what the parent has to say.  They might sit there and nod their heads and say OK, but they’re not really taking it in and digesting it,” Torsiello said.  “The only way a parent has a good shot at getting their child to digest that information and really think about it is if they first establish a connection.”

For information about “The Secrets of Modern Parenting,” go to www.smp4kids.com.

Watch Gayle Guyardo’s interview with Karin Torsiello and learn more parenting tips

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Tampa mom’s business sense helps kids sleep snug as a bug

Posted Dec 8, 2009 by Beth Gaddis

Updated Dec 10, 2009 at 09:06 AM

It all started while sitting around a coffee table and reading the newspaper in her Davis Islands home more than a decade ago.  Amy Phillips’ husband made an off-hand comment, “If you could just create the next paper clip, we’d be all set.”  That set the wheels in motion for this mother of two to take action and turn an idea she had been mulling around in her head into a business plan.

Years earlier, Phillips had gone to pick up her daughter Leah at day care and saw her sound asleep at naptime, her arms and legs sprawled over the mat, sticking to the plastic where she had kicked off the blanket.  Thinking that might not be the most hygienic thing in the entire world, Phillips had used her imagination honed by years as a creative director at an advertising agency and her skills as a seamstress to sew a lightweight blanket/pillow/mat combination that could be rolled up into its own carrying case.

“I designed a few prototypes over a two-year period, then I started selling samples of prototypes and thinking about how can this be mass-produced,” Phillips said. The concept for the SnuggleBug NapSac was born. She found a company here in Tampa that gave her some good advice on pricing and introduced her to a company that could handle the production.

Then she had a big decision to make.  Would she give up her full-time career as an advertising executive to become a full-time entrepreneur?

She decided to keep her advertising job. “I chose that because it was more dependable and stable and it had insurance and benefits.” There was an emotional benefit as well. “I thought, ‘I’m going to see this as a hobby and not worry about making a lot of money,’ and it became a lot more fun seeing it that way.  It took a lot of pressure off to not worry about making a certain number of sales.”

Phillips didn’t give up on her invention, though.  She started selling the SnuggleBug NapSac in RightStart and Hammacher Schlemmer stores in 2001, then branched out to sell it online through eBags as well.  Four months ago, she launched her own Web site, SnugBugNap.com, which offers direct sales.  Just a few weeks ago, Staples approached her about selling the NapSacs via their stores and Web site.  It retails for $39.95 and testimonials on her Web site tout its durability and usefulness at day cares and sleepovers.

She’s also embraced social media, working with mommy bloggers, Twitter and Facebook to create contests and give-aways and spark sales and interest in her product.  She also uses Google AdWords and search engine optimization to get the word out. (Follow on Twitter and Facebook)

“It’s about branding, and that comes back home with my full-time job.  I have created and invented a brand, and I look at everything from the logo to the signature I use on my e-mails to the quality of the visuals and everything on the Web site,” she said.

It’s also about perseverance.  If there’s one piece of advice she has for other entrepreneurs, it’s this, “Before making any financial commitment, or even spending too much time, research, research, research.”

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