Food Fun and Facts Kid Tested Sites Links to Safe Sites for Kids

Kid Links   Kid Tested Sites
 
MAKING FRIENDS.COM
Kids Crafts, Games and Contests

Snoopy.com
Gotta Love Snoopy!

Kids Health Website
A great site for Parents, Kids and Teens

Kids Writing Tips

On-line growth charts for kids
Growth Charts for Children


Safe and Free Download Kids Games


Sam’s Game Page
Like On-Line Gaming? Good on-line games and gaming tips for older kids and teens



Need Free Glasses for your Kids?  If you are within 200% of the Federal Poverty Guideline Income, your child may qualify for free glasses!  Does your child need glasses?  Are you low income? Here is a wonderful site called Sight For Students
and it may help you become eligible for free eyecare for your children,  including teens and college age students. 

Visit Sight for Students today to help your child see better!



Making Family Time a Priority

(Family Features) - With soccer practice, piano lessons, friends, homework, tests and more, there are countless activities that compete for time on the family calendar. With thoughtful planning, you can be sure that fun family time gets penciled in, too. Karen Deerwester, family expert and author of "The Entitlement-Free Child: Raising Confident and Responsible Kids in a 'Me, Mine, Now!' Culture," highlights the importance of scheduling family time. "Unite the family in the art of fun by planning weekly activities together!" Deerwester says. "When you do, you give your family the most precious gift of all - time together to laugh, enjoy one another and stay connected." Family time can serve as an escape from the demands and deadlines of life. It is an opportunity to make memories together based on fun and laughter. Depending on schedules and ages, there are many ways to get your family started. Whether eating takeout or making a home-cooked dinner, bring your family together at mealtime. Sit at the table together and talk about the events of the day, the last vacation you shared or a favorite home video. Making meals an event at home creates an occasion for families to bond over everyday responsibilities. When in the car with your children, don't be drowned out by the radio or headphones. Keep the dial turned off and initiate conversations about school, friends, recent accomplishments or daily challenges. Your child will feel comfortable talking to you and will look forward to this special travel time together. Board games and puzzles are another way to bring together family members of all ages for moments of fun. The effort to spend merely 30 minutes playing games will be richly rewarded as playing board games together strengthens family relationships, sparks conversations and brings everyone together in silliness and laughter. For the word fans in the family, try Scrabble Flash, a new game that pits players against the clock to build as many three-to-five letter words as possible. Five tiles each display a letter and recognize formed words with WonderLink technology. It's perfect for a moment of fun and excitement. Another updated classic, Sorry! Spin, unites the family with a new way to play the game of sweet revenge. This edition features a rotating game board which makes getting "Home" more unpredictable and fun than ever before, and engages players on every move, making it anyone's game to win. "Family Game Night builds powerful family connections and creates a family identity based on fun, laughter, shared interests and individual strengths," Deerwester says. "This is the time to tell the kids that you really want to spend time with them to simply have fun!" Make sure building a relationship as a family doesn't take the backseat this school year and schedule time for your family. Your children will thank you for it. For more family time tips, visit familygamenight.com. Or, keep updated via Twitter @familygamenight and on Facebook.com/familygamenightHasbro





As today's children proceed through school and eventually into the job force, they will be required to have technology skills. Parents know that as they prepare their children for a successful future, they will increasingly need to help their children build a strong foundation in technology. Whether a techie or a tech newbie, teaching young children the technology skills they will need throughout their lives can seem like a daunting task for any parent-but it no longer has to be that way. ISTE author Holly Poteete has adapted her popular computer lab book into lessons and activities for parents to use either as a supplement to school computer lessons or in a more formal home environment. Each of the 12 chapters is made up of 10 activities that teach children a target skill such as online safety, keyboarding, Internet research, creation of multimedia presentations, use of Web 2.0 tools, and more-all in a variety of learning styles. In addition, the book includes a CD with more than 100 supplemental files including a student workbook, a grade book, and answer keys, providing parents with everything they need to effectively teach technology. Suggestions for younger children and ideas for enrichment means parents can use this resource for more than just one year and with children of many ages and ability levels. It is a must-have in any home with young children.







The Story of the Peace Crane

  Author Unknown..

 Japanese tradition holds that anyone who folds one thousand paper cranes will be blessed with health and long life. Sadako Sasaki was 2 years old when  the atom bomb exploded over Hiroshima.      Sadako was not injured then- but 10  years later, she fell ill with leukemia, the A-bomb sickness. From her hospital bed,  Sadako set out to fold 1,000 cranes. At first it was easy, but as the illness grew worse, each fold became an immense labor. When she died, she had completed only 644.

    From her bed hse held up one crane and said in a quiet voice, "I will write peace on your  wings and you will fly all over the world." The story of Sadako became widely known and others took up her unfinished task.
   
In Hiroshima’s Peac Park, stands the staue of  a young girl, a victim of the bombing. Every year on Children’s Day it is covered with  blizzards of cranes, brough by children from all over Japan. The children mourn the atom bomb’s victims and vow to join in building a world that will choose the way of peace.  "This is our cry, this is our prayer: Peace in the World."

For Parents:   Child and Baby Tips Section

Parenting Tips
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Low Cost Family Entertainment



Top five misconceptions about hearing loss:

Hearing loss is only for the elderly: Only 35 percent of people with hearing loss are older than age 64. There are over 6.5 million American children ages 12 to 19 living with some form of hearing loss.

If my child or I had hearing loss, my family doctor would have told me: Only 14 percent of physicians
routinely screen for hearing loss during a physical.


Hearing Loss Cannot Be Helped: With modern advances in technology, nearly 95 percent
of people with a sensorineural hearing loss - a type of hearing loss in which the root
cause lies in the inner ear - can be helped with hearing aids.


Hearing aids are large, clunky and obvious: Many modern hearing aids
are nearly invisible to the naked eye and smaller than a quarter.


Hearing loss isn’t serious enough to treat:

Hearing loss can create emotional barriers for the individuals living with it,
or the families of those it affects. Research shows that when left untreated,
hearing loss can lead to reduced earning power, disruptions in family
life and can cause a wide range of other psychological problems.




Hearing loss in teens and tweens (Family Features) - If you’re the parent of a teen or tween, chances are you’ve wondered, half-jokingly, if your child hears anything you say. The reality is that there are over 6.5 million American children ages 12 to 19 living with some form of hearing loss - and much of it is preventable.

Noise induced hearing loss

Every day, we experience sound in our environment - from television and radio, to household appliances and dreaded rush-hour traffic. Normally, we hear these sounds at safe levels that do not affect our hearing. However, when we are exposed to harmful noise, sounds that are too loud or loud sounds that last a long time, sensitive structures in our inner ear can be damaged, resulting in noise induced hearing loss (NIHL).

Noise induced hearing loss can be caused by a one-time exposure to an intense "impulse" sound, such as an explosion, or by continuous exposure to loud sounds over an extended period of time, such as a too-loud MP3 player. According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), long-term exposure to 80 to 85 decibels, or any more than 15 minutes exposure to 100 decibels, can lead to hearing loss. Music players like iPods can top 100 decibels when turned all the way up.

In fact, according to a survey conducted by Hear the World, a global initiative by leading hearing system manufacturer Phonak, exposure to high noise levels was found to not only result in gradual hearing loss, but also stress, aggression or insomnia in 73 percent of those surveyed.

MP3 players and your teen

A study released in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that 1 in 5 U.S. teens suffer from some form of hearing loss. Among other culprits named, from nutrition to environmental toxins, the use of the "earbud" style of headphones while listening to high decibel music was found to be one reason for the increase.

"It is no surprise that teens and young adults today are listening to music longer and potentially louder than years past," said Dr. Craig Kasper, Chief Audiology Officer of Audio Help Hearing Centers and Hear the World spokesperson. "Ongoing exposure to loud sounds daily, through earphones for example, can have a direct impact on your hearing early in life and not just as you age."

How loud is too loud? If an earbud headphone sounds loud to people nearby, it’s too loud.

If you suspect your child might have hearing loss, contact your local audiologist for a complete hearing screening. For more information on hearing loss and how loud is too loud, as well as an online hearing test, visit www.hear-the-world.com.

Reducing the risk

The good news is that noise induced hearing loss is 100 percent preventable.

"The impact of noise on hearing is often underestimated because the damage may take place gradually. As a result, many people do little to prevent the process of hearing loss that takes place throughout their lives due to the noise pollution around them," said Dr. Kasper.

To protect hearing, Dr. Kasper recommends these tips for teens and tweens:

  1. Be mindful of your hearing. Think about the level of noise you’re exposed to as well as the duration of time you’re in that noise.

  2. When attending concerts or loud events, wear hearing protection. Most of us would never think to sunbathe without some form of SPF protection. Using either over-the-counter earplugs or custom-molded hearing protection is like SPF for your ears.

  3. When listening to your iPod or other MP3 player, invest in a sound-isolating earphone, such as the Audéo PFE by Phonak (see sidebar). This will reduce the amount of environmental sounds and allow you to turn the volume down.

Sound waves travel through the ear canal to the inner ear, where tiny hair cells convert the sound into nerve impulses that travel to hearing centers in the brain. Excessive noise can damage those cells and cause permanent hearing loss.

Top five misconceptions about hearing loss

  1. Hearing loss is only for the elderly: Only 35 percent of people with hearing loss are older than age 64. There are over 6.5 million American children ages 12 to 19 living with some form of hearing loss.

  2. If my child or I had hearing loss, my family doctor would have told me: Only 14 percent of physicians routinely screen for hearing loss during a physical.

  3. Your hearing loss cannot be helped: With modern advances in technology, nearly 95 percent of people with a sensorineural hearing loss - a type of hearing loss in which the root cause lies in the inner ear - can be helped with hearing aids.

  4. Hearing aids are large, clunky and obvious: Many modern hearing aids are nearly invisible to the naked eye and smaller than a quarter.

  5. Hearing loss isn’t serious enough to treat: Hearing loss can create social and emotional barriers for the individuals living with it, or the families of those it affects. Research shows that when left untreated, hearing loss can lead to reduced earning power, disruptions in family life and can cause a wide range of other psychological problems.

Signs of hearing loss in your teen

  • Loss of hearing sensitivity, first to high-pitched (high-frequency) sounds, then eventually to lower pitches.
  • Difficulty hearing conversations, especially in a group setting or in a noisy environment. 
  • Temporary or permanent ringing, buzzing or fluttering in one or both ears.
  • Often asks people to repeat themselves. 
  • Needs to set the TV or radio volume louder than other people.
  • A sense of fullness in the ears.
  • Voices and other noises sound muffled and/or distorted.

    Audéo PFE Perfect Bass

    The Audéo PFE (Perfect Fit Earphones) Perfect Bass are a set of high-end, sound-isolating earphones by leading hearing systems manufacturer Phonak. The Audéo PFE provides exceptional fit with different, replaceable ear tips, great sound (even at low volume levels) without sacrificing the health of your ears, and starts below $100. The Audéo PFE Perfect Bass can be purchased online at www.audeoworld.com.

    SOURCE: