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Foster children in Anne Arundel County will have a Christmas

Last night we completed the gift wrapping for the foster children and loaded the bus.  There was no more room in the bus.  It was completely full.  While that was going on our older students and staff were working on giving each of the teens gift cards to department stores, restaurants and other stores that I am sure they are all going to enjoy.  Over 50 volunteers from Indian Creek School and Balanced Life Skills took part in this service project.

There was a great deal of joy in the room as our 9 year old students and some of their parents helped to do the wrapping, and so many parents and companies stepped up with gift cards totaling $4600.00 split among the 109 foster teens in the County at this time.  On Sunday there will be a Christmas party for all the foster children and their families at the Boys and Girls Club in Annapolis.

This is one of my personal favorite projects that we do during the year.  If anyone would like to be a part of our planning for next year please feel free to contact us.  I would like to wish everyone a Happy Holiday season this year.

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Gift Wrapping is this evening

Today we are making last minute preparations for the gift wrapping of gifts for the foster children of Anne Arundel County this evening. Ms. Adrian has separated the gift cards into categories, gotten the list of children put into order, and is ready to put that part of the program together. The students of Indian Creek School are ready to come and gift wrap the toys and clothes for the younger children.

To make it a bit more festive, we have cookies and hot chocolate for all the families wrapping this evening. It is going to be a wonderful evening and we have a lot of families and individuals to thank for the time, effort and money contributed to making the holiday the best it can be for the foster children of Anne Arundel County.

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New website for Balanced Life Skills

This is the start of a new website and way for all who are interested in making a difference in the world by starting with themselves to share what they are doing. When you sign up to be a part of Balanced Life Skills, you will be able to create your own page and keep track of all of your projects and training.

If you are a student – be sure to join the group where your curriculum is located. If you are looking for the Word of the Month worksheets – go under categories and you will see Word of the Month Definitions. On that first post for the new word will be the worksheets for each group.

I hope you enjoy this new site and if you see any way for us to improve it, send me a message on the site and we will consider if we can accomplish it on the site.

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Patience: with each other

Recently I was at a meeting with a variety of individuals with the goal of working on the bullying that takes place in schools today.  Many of the individuals there are motivated and real “rainmakers” when it comes to projects.  We would call them leaders.

At one point a new person walked in that did not fit the appearance of the rest of the group, and I noticed that many of the others simply did not recognize the person coming in and one of the leaders of the group – rolled their eyes.  I am thinking to myself,  Here we are talking about bullying and the leader of the group is in fact practicing a form of bullying.  It was but 3 weeks later that this person announced that they did not want to continue to be a part of this project.

Having patience when others are different than us is a key part of leadership.   Continue reading “Patience: with each other”

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Friendship: Definition

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

This month the word is Friendship and will be defined this way.

Young students: Friendship means: We care and share with each other!

Older students: Friendship mean:  A relationship we choose based on mutual interest, fun, respect, and trust.

Here are the worksheets for our students:

5/6 Friendship Project 7 – 12 Friendship project Teen Friendship Project

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 December .



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Patience: waiting for the right time

Being patient is not easy.  In fact for many of us, when we want something we want it right away and waiting does not see to be an option.  But as we get older we soon understand that is not the way things work in reality and waiting for the right time to do something, say something or expect things to happen is an important thing to learn.

There is a Chinese proverb that says, “One moment of patience may ward off a great disaster.  One moment of impatience may ruin a whole life.”  Judging the right time to say or do something in your life can have an impact.  From a child’s point of view playing loud music in a house when others are trying to sleep is not a wise thing to do.  From an adults point of view, waiting to speak to someone you are in a relationship with till the right time, is important if we expect to be heard the way we wish to be heard.

However we should never mistaken putting things off that require action as patience.  Teaching our children the difference will help them to have a more successful life dealing with friends, employers and personal relationships.