Open Your Heart this month of December will be focused on the aspect of giving rather than receiving. Turn your Holiday Party into a Toy and Clothing Drive to help those in your community that are in need.
A Mommy friend of mine has put together a Holiday Toy Drive of her own! See below!
When: December 11, 2008…10am
Where: Douglas Park, 2439 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, CA US (at the picnic tables)
With all the holiday parties coming up, I thought a nice low key get tog would be fun! I’ll be at one of the picnic benches at the park and will bring some snacks. I am asking everyone to bring a new unwrapped toy for a child age 0-14 for a boy or girl. These toys will go to the Beyond Shelter and St Josepeh’s Center. I will also be taking clothing and other used children items in good shape to go to Baby2Baby (0-4 years). Also, diapers for LA Diaper drive! Please feel free to add any of your friends to the evite. I hope that you can all make it, have some fun and help out some families! I know many of you work or have children in preschool, so if you can’t make it, but would still like to participate in donating something I can pick up your items! Thanks so much and Happy Holidays!
Look up your local toy drives here:
http://www.secretsanta.org/toysearch.aspx
More info on Baby2Baby:
Here are 6 Ways to Get Going on (Guilt-free) Giving! (Source: FamilyEducation.com)
1. Get honest. Okay, so your kids have never seen the inside of a homeless shelter, nor donated a single item for a charity toy drive. Talk about it! “You know, we really haven’t made this a priority as a family, and that was a mistake, so now we’re going to.” Done. Now move on…
2. Remember the 2 Gs: gratitude and giving. “You can’t have one without the other,” says Kendrick. “They go hand in hand.” Giving kids a chance to help others is how they learn to appreciate what they have (and children who appreciate what they have are not only happier people, they are less likely to whine and moan for every last item they see in the mall!)
3. Giving doesn’t begin and end with charity work. Kendrick remembers his grandmother making cookies for the neighbors, which he would then distribute. Jo Ann H. (profiled above) helps her children keep a bird feeder filled throughout the winter. These small acts of kindness are forms of giving that send the same message to children as a trip to a soup kitchen (“Our family cares about others.”)
4. Let kids decide how to give. You may think that helping the homeless or contributing to the fight against cancer are the most important ways to make a difference. Your five-year-old may want to donate more money to the zoo so that the lions will have a bigger supper. The type of giving matters less than the opportunity to empower kids, to let them “own” the act of giving.
5. Be concrete. Dropping coins into a collection box can indeed make a difference, but most young children, rooted in concrete thinking, can’t understand where the money goes beyond the pail. “Take as many steps into the act of giving as you can,” advises Kendrick. In other words, although it’s easier for you to write a check, it’s easier for kids to “see” what they’re doing when they buy items to donate with you, then deliver them to a food bank, and put them directly on the shelves.
6. Give non-material gifts.Making donations is a wonderful way to give, but children can make a valuable contribution just by spending time talking with an elderly neighbor. Make sure they understand the value of “gifts of time” by asking questions like, “Which do you think meant more, the groceries we delivered today or the nice time we had talking with the woman who needed the food?” As Kendrick sees it, those follow-up chats are an “emotional bookmark.” By marking the moment and talking about it with kids, he says, “you’re engraving family currency. Your kid’s picture is on the currency. And you’re giving them a chance to spend it, to give themselves away.”
How do you and your family practice the art of giving during the holiday season? Let us know if you have any suggestions or ideas on how to get your children involved!
Happy Holidays!
Here is a very helpful article for all parents to read. “This information was taken from the free e-book, “The Parent’s Guide to Calming a Crying Baby.” If you’ve just had a newborn baby, then you may less than thrilled to learn that he or she may have colic. Colic is when your baby just won’t stop crying, and can possibly cry for hours at a time.
Calm Your Newborn’s Colic and crying with the Swaddling Technique
If your baby is crying a lot, be certain that you take him or her to the doctor before automatically assuming that it’s just colic. There can be any number of things that can cause your baby to cry, so you certainly want to rule out any health-related problems.
If it is colic, rest assured that it’s not causing any permanent damage to your child. It may sound like they are in intense pain, but this is basically because they respond with loud crying for any pain they are in. Remember, if they have a blanket stuck on their foot, they will cry like the world is coming to an end. This is just what babies do.
AND, remember, IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT! You didn’t do anything wrong to cause this. Here are some tips that work for many parents.
One of the best ways to relieve the constant crying of your newborn suffering from colic is by utilizing an innovative technique known as swaddling. This basically involves wrapping your baby up tightly in a blanket; this has been proven to work quite effectively in parts of the world such as Asia and Africa. You may notice that they usually wrap their babies up tightly and may even carry them around.
Listed below is an easy step-by-step guide to swaddling:
1. Put your baby down on a blanket with his or her arms directly by his or her side.
2. Next, you should wrap your baby up very tightly as if putting him or her in a straight jacket. You need to do this in order to keep his or her arms pinned tightly to his or her sides. Just be certain that he or she is able to breathe freely, but yet still tight enough to allow this to work. Initially, your baby may try to struggle to get free but you need to make certain that he or she keep the arms his or her sides.
3. Finally, you should be certain that the blanket is secure. Do what you have to do to make certain that it is very snug. A good way to do this is with duct tape, even though you may get some funny looks if you’re out in public, but this is guaranteed to do the trick.
This may take a few minutes for your baby to get used to, so you should expect it to take a little while before your baby adjusts to this. Usually, after a very short period of time your baby will be get accustomed to his or her new situation and hopefully you’ll experience the results of swaddling by continuous quietness, rather than crying.
Al Lipper’s experience includes child psychology, teaching and professional writing. He and his wife Aurora have two boys (both of whom had colic). If you would like more information on helping your baby, feel free to download a free copy of their e-book “The parent’s guide to calming a crying baby” from http://www.ThePeacefulBaby.com.