What would the thoughts be that go through your mind, if you knew that your life was about to come to an end? What we can be reminded of by someone who went through this experience and lived, can help us to be aware of the preciousness of living our life and being there for others, especially family. The 3 things this man learned may be the same for you or maybe not. It does remind us though to pause and ask ourselves … “If I knew I only had a short time to live, how would I live it?” Here is my reminder – All of us have a short time to live.
Ryan R. performs leadership with art
For my service project I worked with my grandmother to design an art project from my class to complete together for the fundraising auction at our school. We designed an under the sea collage. My class divided into groups and each completed a square. Marmee and I painted the background, and my group did the treasure chest square. We named it “Shark Bottom”. The golden shark is the one I made. It was lots of fun, and here is a picture of it all finished.
“You can’t play with us” – what can you do about young girls who bully?
If you are bullied as a young child will you continue to be bullied as you go into your teen years and beyond? In 2009 there was a study done that indicates that for boys who were victims of bullying at the age between 6 and 9, they were no more likely to continue to be victims 2 -4 years later. However this was not the case for girls.
“The researchers said that girls’ “tightly knit” friendship networks could make it difficult for them to “escape the victimization role”. *
As we look at the behavior of young girls even in pre-school developing habits of excluding each other, we need to recognize the long term affects on both of them. For those who are the target of the exclusion with, “you can’t play with us”, this is a very confusing time. This type of behavior is not just a ‘rite of passage’, or ‘girls being girls’, anymore than a boy who continues to hit another boy should be allowed to do so. This sort of aggression should be taken as seriously as any other type of aggression. 
If a young girl takes on a role of ‘victim’ this may be taken into all of her relationships including into who she dates and possibly marries. So what can we do?
Parents and teachers should be aware of the formation of these close ties that exclude others and suggest that if they want a special time to play together, that can be arranged, but we are now going to play in a manner that is good for the whole group.
Teaching our young children to play together with respect is starting them off of the right foot. If we as parents take a strong stand on friendships, exclusions, and respect for the feelings of others, our children will respond to those values.
Balanced Life Skills is working on bully prevention and more important on character building in all of our students. Do you have a story about bullying that you would share with us? The more information we have on what is happening in our community, the better we can prepare our children to be better citizens.
Social network: Stop Bullies Now
Forum question: Has your child been bullied in school?
Thank you for your help and be sure to send these links to your friends as we work to build a community against bullying behavior.
*Wolke, D., Woods, S., & Samara, M. (2009). Who escapes or remains a victim of bullying in primary school? British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 27 (4), 835-851 DOI:
Are Pre-School Children Being Bullied?
The simple answer is YES! Having said that though, some of the teasing that takes place with pre-school children is not bullying in the classic sense and definition. It may be young ones just trying on their social skills and not yet having them honed yet. The definition of bullying is the intentional use of power over another person to manipulate or hurt the target physically or emotionally over a period of time. Therefore it is something that is taking place on more than one ocassion.
Increasingly though we are seeing and hearing reports of pre-school children repeatedly picking on, teasing and physically hurting other children in their class or on the playground. In an effort to understand what is happening to our children and then to offer suggestions to resolve these issues with parents and teachers I am interested in hearing the stories from you about what has happened to your child or to someone you have seen. What have you done to resolve the issues? How have teachers and administrators reacted when you have discussed the questions about bullying? For the teachers, how do you deal with this conduct when you see it in your classes or playground?
What is your story? Were you bullied as a small child? Is your son or daughter being teased on a regular basis or being bullied in another way? Tell your story here as we work on changing the culture in our communities.
Continue to check back as we work on this subject of helping our children build the character and courage to be their best.
Life Skills: Optimism – The Definition
Each month we define and discuss a word of character development and life skill with all of our students.
This month the word is Optimism and will be defined this way.
Young students: Optimism means: I look on the bright side!
Older students: Optimism means: Believing and expecting that everything will work out for the best.
Here are the worksheets for our students:
Greensboro, AL needs our help following devasting storms
Every year members of the Ultimate Black Belt Test go to Greensboro, Alabama to work with an extraordinary group of dedicated individuals to improve the lives of those in Hale County, one of the poorest in the nation. This past week the tornadoes that devastated so much of the south, also had its effect on this community.
Damage assessment:
5 people lost their lives and 42 homes were lost along with 17 that are uninhabitable.
This is a call for action for Greensboro and Hale County, where I personally know the people on the ground cleaning up the streets and helping the families that could so easily be forgotten. For the immediate needs Hero Housing has identified 31 families that have lost their homes and they are attempting to provide them with $300 cash for immediate needs.
Pam Dorr has been working in this county with Hero Housing and doing a great job of providing affordable housing and helping the community with the very basic needs of life. I put this call out to all of our friends to help this community – where we know that the money is going directly to the people in need and it will be used properly. Their website and where donations can be made is listed below. You can also send donations of clothing and other items, they can be sent directly to Hero Housing office. As of this time neither Red Cross nor FEMA has made it to their town or area and they are in need as are many towns in the south.
Finally Pam tells me that later in the summer they will need volunteers to help with construction and in other ways, and this may be a project that we here at Balanced Life Skills may want to do together. These are good people with very little resources. Every time that I have traveled there I am moved by people and their circumstances. I hope that as a school that we can be of assistance to them.
To Learn more: http://www.herohousing.org/
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hale-Empowerment-and-Revitalization-Organization-HERO/110123545679566
Address: Hero Housing 1120 main Street Greensboro, AL 36744 Phone 334-624-0842