Watch those Crocs!!! If your kids are like mine, they love their Crocs shoes. But please be aware on escalators - the shoes can get stuck and cause injury to your child. Designers in Japan are asking the makers to improve the design to avoid any injuries, but just to be on the safe side, please be careful with your children.

I have to say this throws me back to my own childhood in the 70’s when my mom would freak about me not getting my shoe laces caught every time we were on an escalator…now that I think about it, most little kids don’t have shoe laces anymore, do they? Geez I am old!

No child left behind. President Bush (yeah, he is still in office - not sure what he’s doing these days!) is making changes to the No Child Left Behind policy. Students need to graduate from a full time program to count (no GEDs or alternatives) and states must adhere to a standard method for counting. (Often stats are manipulated - this is called “gaming the system.”). States also need to prove that they are making best efforts to advise low-income families that tutoring is available, as too few students receive this.

OK, so I don’t know enough about this topic. Thank goodness for my friend wikipedia. They give a good summary of what’s up here. Sounds like good intent - poor execution. Apparently, there is still a reluctance on behalf of the federal government to fully fund the amounts that were set by congress. Bush’s budgets have shortchanged the NCLB budget by $70 billion since it started in 2001. The government is reluctant to pay because they aren’t sure the state reporting is accurate. I guess this falls in line with the disfunctionality that occurs any time a government has billion and billions of dollars to spend. There are always two sides to every story, and ways to present (or misrepresent) figures - but in the end we are talking about educating kids here. I guess I am just feeling a bit bummed out about the whole thing now that I read up a little bit on it. Maybe if states spent a little less effort trying to pad their stats, and the government spent less effort trying to get them to stop it, and they all spent a little more effort getting these kids educated… just sayin’….

New research supports the long-held hope that sex education does help teens avoid pregnancy — if the program is comprehensive, including information on birth control options instead of the abstinence-only approach.

Researchers found that 1 in 4 teens received abstinence-only sex ed, another two-thirds received comprehensive sex education, and almost one in ten (mostly from rural areas or very poor families) had no sex ed at all. Of these teens, the ones who received comprehensive sex ed were slightly (very slightly; the researchers termed the gap “not statistically significant”) less likely to engage in vaginal intercourse, but no group was less likely than the others to receive sexually transmitted diseases.

Also, according to research results, teens who received comprehensive sex education were 60 percent less likely to get pregnant or to get someone pregnant than those who received no sex education.

Says the study’s lead author, Pamela Kohler of the University of Washington in Seattle, “There was no evidence to suggest that abstinence-only education decreased the likelihood of ever having sex or getting pregnant.”

Is anyone surprised?

Posted by Sunshine.

Who do you save for? Your children’s college education, or your own retirement? This is a topic that is on many adults’ minds these days. It used to be that responsible parents put away money to (help) pay for their children’s continuing education. But these days some financial advisors are saying “whoa there, you need to look out for yourself in your golden years.”

The reality is, a lot of benefits you may be expecting when you become a senior citizen just night not be there. And one of them is employment subsidized healthcare. Fidelity has been doing an annual survey, and they estimate that a couple retiring this year (65 years old) will need to have $225,000 saved only to pay for health requirements during their retirement. That assumes they do not have employment subsidies and this is the amount over what Medicare will contribute.

So now a lot more parents are putting less into college savings. Many themselves did not have assistance and they figure “where there is a will there is a way” and their children can be motivated to find funding themselves if going to college is their goal.

There is nothing wrong with looking out for number one - yourself. That does not make you a bad parent. And if you can take care of yourself, it is one less thing your child will have to think about when you are getting older. So, tell them you are doing them a favor, they just don’t realize it yet.

Watch out for salt! There are many reasons why. But just to remind you - when kids eat salty snacks they get thirsty they usually reach out for sugary beverages loaded with empty calories. What you may not be aware of is that putting away the salt shaker does not help much. People get 80% of their salt from manufactured foods. It’s everywhere - not just that MSG in Chinese takeaways. Campbell’s has just announced that they are reducing the sodium content in about 50 of their soups. That is one small step in the right direction. But we all need to be aware of how much sodium we have each day.

So how much do you need per day? An adult requires 500mg per day. They should not exceed 2,400mg/day. And unfortunately, the average American consumes 4,000-5,000mg/day. I did a bit of net searching, and much to my dismay my favorite fast food meal - a McDonald;s Quarter Pounder with Cheese - is one of the worst offenders with 3,200mg of sodium. Yikes!

Stay in school to reduce Alzheimers risk. Studies indicate that people with higher levels of education may have reduced risk of contracting Alzheimers when they get older. They are not sure why, but they believe that highly educated people just might have some “reserve” brain power that they can use when memory begins to fail.

A study of seniors over the past decade has shown that their average level of education has increased by one year, now at 12 years and we can expect that to go even higher for the next generations. They also are wealthier, which suggests that they held more mentally stimulating jobs.

There are other things that can contribute to Alzheimers - cardiovascular disease (including high blood pressure and clogged arteries) can cause periods of time when blood does not flow properly to the brain, as well as obesity with complications such as type 2 diabetes and again those clogged arteries.

I guess the lesson is - get yourself educated, keep yourself stimulated and watch your general health. I am sure it will provide benefits beyond Alzheimers prevention!

Interesting ADHD-bullying link. Studies show that children with ADHD are four times more likely to be bullies in school. Even more interesting is that children with ADHD symptoms were ten times more likely to have been the target of bullying prior to the symptoms appearing. Problems with bullying are ever increasing in the schools, and this Swedish study only further highlights the importance of observing children’s behavior - not only the educators, but the parents involvement is critical. Some schools are making efforts to improve the situation by providing support and education to both the bullies and the bullied.

Think twice about buying your child a pet turtle. Even though they are seem to be a good pet for kids (and parents who don’t want to deal with the mess and noise of other housepets as dogs, cats, hamsters, etc), you should think twice about buying one for your child. Turtles are known to spread salmonella, and last year 103 people were infected from pet turtles. You might not be aware, but these turtles have actually been outlawed in the US since 1975, but they are still commonly found for sale in pet shops, online, and other places.

How to get rid of those dreaded stretch marks. A lot of us moms have them one place or another. Many aren’t that noticeable - but if you look closely those silver lines are there. We wear them as badges of honor celebrating the miracle of a woman’s ability to give birth. But let’s face it - if we could do something to prevent or get rid of them we would.

There are some things you can do to avoid them or lessen their appearance:

Use Retin-A cream to keep the body moisturized any time it goes through a weight change, especially hormonal (pregnancy) driven. (Editor’s note: Be sure to talk to your doctor before using, though, as the jury is still out as to whether or not Retin-A is safe during pregnancy.)

Exercise to reduce your stress level and help keep those hormones under control.

Drink your water and eat healthy to keep your body hydrated.

If all else fails, there are laser treatments currently available that will help.

White bread has nutritional value. Yeah, I meant to type white. That soft, marshmallowy, oh so yummy bread that your mom always felt guilty about making your sandwiches with because it was supposed to have no nutritional value. Well, it does. It contains folic acid. And the past decades of eating Wonderbread and all of those white hamburger and hot dog buns have one positive aspect - it has contributed to the decline in cases of Spina Bifida in America. The March of Dimes is now going to put a special label on bread containing at least 40 micrograms of folic acid. They are doing this to increase awareness of the benefits of folic acid, and are not suggesting that a woman needs to eat 10 slices of white bread per day to get the recommended daily allowance of 400mg. There are many “healthier” sources of folic acid found in other foods as well, such as leafy green vegetables, fruits, dried beans, peas and nuts.

Childhood obesity not related to poverty. It was thought by some that childhood obesity was higher in poorer areas where the families has lesser access to healthy foods. A new study that just came out challenges this idea.

Previous research has suggested that poor children weren’t getting nutritious food and instead ate junk food, such as hot dogs. Or that children may have eaten well when money was available, but would skip meals when cash was short, a cycle that could slow their metabolism and cause them to gain weight.

The new research indicated that this is not necessarily the case, and that it could be possible for the government to move ahead with possible plans to increase food assistance programs without being worried about additional obesity problems.

Top kids websites. While browsing the net, I happened on a fun little site called GeekParenting.com. They have listed their top 10 favorite kid’s web sites. Their number one site, BrainPOP, is a cool educational site that I will be showing my bigger kids tonight!

Important FDA notification out today: The FDA is expected to issue a warning telling parents not to give any cold medicines to children under two years old “because serious and potentially life-threatening side effects can occur.” We first heard about this last fall, when there was a recommendation not to give medicines to children under six, however today’s announcement is the first time the government is ruling on this, as there are fears that parents did not take the previous warning seriously enough. So please, have a look in your medicine cabinet and safely dispose of these medicines.

Girls can face prejudice in college applications. Recently, I wrote about how girls are outperforming boys in school. Well, this is turning into a negative thing when it comes to applying for college. Some colleges admit to accepting boys of lesser qualifications than their girl counterparts only to keep enrollment somewhat equal in the schools. NBC has an interesting series, The Truth About Boys & Girls, and in one of their most recent segments they speak about this. I imagine a lot of girls are not happy, and personally (from a female POV) I don’t like this and would be disappointed if someday my daughter did not get accepted to a college for this reason. Likewise, I would not want my son to be accepted if he did not have the real qualifications required.

I remember years back when I applied to school and I was filling out the forms where they ask a lot of personal information. I remember being frustrated that some minorities were being accepted with lower scores so that schools can meet their quotas, and I am thinking that this is not too much different than that. However, it is really disappointing to know that you had what it takes to get into your school of choice, but it didn’t work out due to reasons out of your control. If this happens to my daughters, I am going to offer up some good ole “mom advice” that everything happens for a reason and sometimes we don’t understand why, but we just need to have faith that it will all work out well in the end.”

Is there a boys education crisis? Recently, girls have been outperforming boys in school.

With girls outperforming boys these days in high school and college, educators have been sparring over whether there is a crisis in the education of boys. Some suggest the need for more single-sex schools, more male role models or new teaching techniques. Others are experimenting with physical changes in classrooms that encourage boys to move around, rather than trying to anchor them to their seats. But as they debate, high-priced tutors and college counselors have jumped into the fray by charging as much as $100 an hour and up to bring boys to heel.

A big part of this is boys lack of organization and lesser ability to multitask. Now that I read this, I can see a difference between my 11 year old son and my 9 year old daughter. This is one thing i will keep an eye on as my tween is getting bigger!

Setbacks in children’s health insurance. 2007 began with a lot of hope. Democrats proposed, and many Republicans supported, a big increase in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The idea is to provide health insurance to all children with a family income up to double the poverty level (and for some states even higher). What is the holdup? Government bickering. There are concerns that middle-income families will give up their private insurance for this public one. After a year of to-ing and fro-ing, an extension was agreed in the House last week that in effect makes each state responsible for seeking out and covering lower income families before middle income ones can benefit

The directive said that before states cover higher-income children, they must meet the following threshold: At least 95% of children eligible for Medicaid and SCHIP with incomes less than twice the poverty level must be enrolled in those programs.

Many states say meeting that threshold is nearly impossible. But that’s not all the directive said. Even if states meet that threshold, the middle-income children will have to go without private coverage for a full year before they can enroll in SCHIP, and their families will have to pay premiums or co-payments that are 5% of their income.

I am trying to remain a neutral NewsSquawker here, so I will just say that it would be an amazing day if/when all Americans have health insurance. Currently, there are 9.5 million uninsured American children.

Yay California! As of January 1, a new law was passed that makes it illegal to smoke in a cars with minor children present. There is a $100 fine if caught. California joins Arkansas and Louisiana who have already passed a similar law. Only 47 more states to go!

Sex Education - It appears to be working. A government survey shows that teens that have had some sort of sex education were more likely to wait longer before loosing their virginity. And boys surveyed who received sex ed were less likely to have started having sex at all. Also promising is that there are improvements in urban and African American respondents - areas where there are higher cases of pregnancy and STD’s.

Showing favoritism? You can’t possibly love one child more than the other… right? Well, apparently beetles can. Scientists have spent a lot of time studying these little critters and have proven that they tend to favor the eldest child. Certainly we humans are more fair than they are, right? File this one with the other “and why do they research this?” items. (via EurikAlert)

“Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat…” I have been singing that song in my head a lot the past two weeks. Ever since my husband announced he ordered one from the butchers for Christmas dinner. I have been endlessly fretting about how to cook the darn thing, and lamenting why, oh why, a goose. So, in the spirit of the season, I again went to my keyboard to discover that:

The goose is a tradition that goes back to mythological times when there were geese gods and the bird was eaten for grand occasions. From those ancient ritualistic times to more modern days (think old world), geese, with their migratory patterns, appeared and were available at the winter time of year and were eaten at ceremonial events such as Christmas and winter solstice. Even later on in North America, the turkey came to replace the goose in these events, possibly because of American Indian influence - they linked turkeys to the sun.

OK that is somewhat interesting, but still does not solve my problem of how to cook it! Suggestions?

Five shopping days left - good luck everyone!

No exploding trees, please: The Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued their warnings on hazards related to holiday decorating. Common sense recommendations include instructions for selecting a safe live tree: A fresh tree is green, needles are hard to pull from branches and do not break when bent between your fingers. The bottom of a fresh tree is sticky with resin, and when tapped on the ground, the tree should not lose many needles.

More gray matter in the brains of autistic children: a study of 25 adolescents using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) found increased gray matter in autistic children in the areas that govern social processing and learning by observation.

A preschool curriculum breakthrough? A Vancouver neuroscientist claims a preschool curriculum called Tools of the Mind (Tools) may improve academic performance, reduce diagnosis of ADHD, and close the achievement gap between rich and poor kids. The program focuses on the executive functions of the brain, which include resisting distraction, considering responses before speaking, mentally holding and using information, and mental flexibility. The Tools curriculum encourages out-loud self instruction and dramatic play and has been used in several US states.

No way: In Touch Weekly is reporting that Britney Spears is pregnant once again, this time carrying the child of music producer J.R. Rotem. Rotem is denying the rumors.