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Children & hot cars do not mix

Excerpt from Parenting.com  that is an important reminder.

Sadly, since the beginning of this year, 18 kids have died from hyperthermia (heatstroke) in unattended cars– a record high since record keeping began in 1998. And summer has only just begun.
please take a look at these safety tips from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA):


  • Never leave a child unattended in a vehicle.
  • Never leave infants or children in a parked vehicle, even if the windows are partially open or with the engine running and the air conditioning on.
  • Make a habit of looking in the vehicle — front and back — before locking the door and walking away.
  • If you are bringing your child to daycare, and normally it’s your spouse or partner who brings them, have your spouse or partner call you to make sure everything went according to plan.
  • Ask your childcare provider to call you if your child does not show up for childcare.


Do things to remind yourself that a child is in the vehicle, such as:

  • Writing yourself a note and putting the note where you will see it when you leave the vehicle;
  • Placing your purse, briefcase or something else you need in the back seat so that you will have to check the back seat when you leave the vehicle; or
  • Keeping an object in the car seat, such as a stuffed toy. When the child is buckled in, place the object where the driver will notice it when he or she is leaving the vehicle.
  • If you see a child alone in a hot vehicle, call the police. If they are in distress due to heat, get them out as quickly as possible. Warning signs may include: red, hot, and moist or dry skin, no sweating, a strong rapid pulse or a slow weak pulse, nausea or acting strangely. Cool the child rapidly. Call 911 or your local emergency number immediately.


For more ideas on how you can insure that this will not happen to you check out this Parenting Website for more information.


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What is Bully Kindness?

The Buddhist Answer to Bullies

Published in Psychology Today this article list 5 steps in stopping bullying.

  1. See the suffering
  2. Protect yourself
  3. Use Mantra’s
  4. Apply Kindness
  5. Cut-off 

 

If you would like to see the full article here is the link. The Buddhist Answer to Bullies

I found this article interesting, though I must say that we must be careful in all of our suggestions to our children or ourselves about bullying that we do not leave the victim feeling “less than”.  This leads to a life time of issues that will only need to be dealt with later in life. 

I am looking forward to teaching a Verbal Self Defense this fall that has been taught to and used by police officers all over the world.  It is called Verbal Judo.  I recently completed a college course for this and am preparing to bring it to our community this fall.  Verbal Judo is excellent in that it allows all parties to not lose face and stay strong themselves, especially the victim of the attack.

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Jump ropes for Kenya students

This past week Balanced Life Skills students made 117 jump ropes for children in Kenya who live at an orphanage.  Next week I will be spending the week at the orphanage seeing what we can do to help and provide hope to the students there.  The group will be traveling with martials artists from across the nation and will include singer / songwriters, artists and a full film crew as we will be filming a documentary, “Roots of Happiness”.

The trip was put together by Brian Williams and his Think Kindness organization.  The documentary and our goal is to determine what it is that makes these children so happy when they have so little from an American point of view.  When the film is completed, we will show it to high school students here in America to inspire them to find ways of serving others.

The film you see here is our jump rope making day at Balanced Life Skills.  If you would like to help fund the supply of school supplies, teacher supplies and the shipping of the jump ropes you can by going to http://rootsofhappiness.com/joe

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Attitude: Definition

Each month we define and discuss a word of character development with all of our students. 

This month the word is Attitude.  It will be defined this way.

 

 

Young students: Attitude means “How I feel, how I think and how I act.”

Older students: Attitude means:  How you feel, think and act in the face of everyday events and obstacles.

If you would like to see how we will deal with this subject with our students please follow our discussions here during the month of July.