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Helping Kids with Cancer, James K.

Dear Mr. Joe,
My name is James K. and I’m in the 9-12 year old class on Mondays and Wednesdays at Balanced Life Skills. One of my friends in school told me about his cousin who has suffered with cancer for three years. Each year he participates in the St. Baldrick’s Foundation fundraiser. St. Baldrick’s helps children with cancer. I decided to help too, and I found out that one in five children diagnosed with cancer will not survive.
I’m trying to raise money to help stop children’s cancer, and I was wondering if anyone at Balanced Life Skills wanted to make a tax-deductible contribution of any amount. On March 12th at Fado’s Irish Pub in Annapolis, I will deliver all the money I raise and that’s when they are going to shave my head! In a show of support for children with cancer who lose their hair during treatment, fundraisers go bald. I can’t believe Mom and Dad are letting me. They said it’s for a good cause, and that my hair will, eventually, grow back.
You may also access my event webpage if you wish to make an online donation.

http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/mypage/participantid/424611

For more information here is a St. Baldrick Fact Sheet describing the Conquer Kids’ Cancer Project and The St. Baldrick’s Foundation.

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Clean up project by Cameron W.

completed job!

I picked up trash at the beach with two trash bags.  I started at the entrance in the woods, then I went to the playground, then to the rocks and thats when I found a pile that someone must have left there when they were heading to the beach.  Then I went to the beach and I found sytrafoam, milk bottles tops, plastic bottles, beer bottles, and all sorts of stuff.  I ended up with two bags full.

cleaning up
cleaning up!
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Safety Tips for Kids: Broken Glass

If we make a mistake and drop a plate or glass and there is broken glass on the floor our children need to KNOW that walking on or touching broken glass is not safe and will cause serious injury.  Even the sound of broken glass, children should be taught the following.

TEACH:  Stop, Freeze, Look to see where the broken glass is and call for help.  Do not move until help arrives!

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Using Failure as a Growing Tool

A series of post's on leadership in the familyWatching your son or daughter trying to accomplish a task that brings with it a reward that they want very badly is very hard for a parent.  In our school as a child is demonstrating their jumping rope, performing a form or some other skill, many parents have told me they have sat on the side holding their breath, hoping for success.  For all parents though just this one thought:

Success does not mean avoiding failure.

In fact, with the right attitude, failure is neither fatal or final.  It can be the springboard to success.

All of us fail.  The only way we will not fail is if we do not try anything.  The question is how will we fail?  How will we view mistakes?  If we are to be a success we must learn to fail in the forward direction.  In other words our mistakes must not get inside our head and stop us from giving it another try.

When we are teaching our children about success –  we can also teach them about the power of failure.  Learning from their mistakes, thinking about how to improve ourselves and the situation, focusing on the rewards of success will keep our children and ourselves from becoming negative in our attitude and mind.  Failure can be a great learning experience, an opportunity for growth and character building experience.

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Listening Required to be Fair

If one part of fairness means that we will not blame others for mistakes that we make, then it must also mean that we will not judge others until we listened to all sides of the story.  Frank Tyger is quoted as saying, “Listening to both sides of a story will convince you that there is more to a story than both sides.”

Being sure that we listen to everyone, allows each person to have their say from the point of view that they saw the events.   Our personal perspective is always colored by our past experiences, what we want to be true, and relationships.

Being a leader though requires us to listen carefully, ask questions, respect the views of others, in order to make all things fair.  While true for all people and situations, this is especially true for parents as we deal with siblings and friends.  Our children will have their view of what took place in a disagreement and many times we will have either pre-determined who did the bad deed,  or we feel like we do not have the time to listen to all the details and just punish everyone.

Neither is fair, and teaches our children that they do not have to listen to all sides before making a decision.  Setting this example of fairness

will help our children make better judgements of situations and people as they grow up.

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Fairness: Doing our fair share

If saying please and thank you are the first manners that parents teach their children, then sharing is very close to the top of the list also.  When we share it makes things fair for everyone involved and it is a way of developing relationships.  As our young children learn about sharing, there will be times when it is easier than other times, times when they want to and times when they would rather not.

One idea of sharing though that may be overlooked from time to time, is the idea of “doing our share”.   It is valuable for every child to feel like they are a part of the team / family.  Now if we worked on a team at school or at work and one person on the team had no responsibilities that person may not really feel that they were part of the team.  They had no role to play or actions to take.  They would be left out.

The same is true with our children.  It is important for them to be a part of the team and to share in the activities / chores that the team does.  Taking part on the team in this manner will teach them to share the responsibility for the work that needs to be done, their part in chores and a sense of belonging to something bigger than just themselves.  Doing your fair share is very important for every family member.