The National Center staff celebrates YOU!

25 years of Parents as Teachers…what comes next?

Zen Mommy

ZenMommy’s virtual baby shower to benefit Parents as Teachers prenatal work couldn’t have come at a better time. According to a government report issued yesterday, premature births are the number one reason the U.S. ranked 30th in the world in infant mortality in 2005. Good prenatal care is the critical factor.

Everyone agrees: we do a good job of saving premature babies in this country, but we’re not so good at preventing them in the first place. That means, among other thing, focusing pregnant moms’ attention on social and behavioral factors that affect prematurity, such as smoking and alcohol and drug use.

That’s exactly what Parents as Teachers does.  And that’s why funding … including the donations from the lovely folks who entered the silent auction at ZenMommy’s virtual babyshower as well as the sponsors who made it possible (Kolcraft, Artistic Sensations, Viewpoints, Snap Stories, and of course My Mommy Manual) is so critical to what Parents as Teachers does.

Babies are our future. These are the folks who are ensuring they have a healthy start to a bright future. Join them.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a baby shower. But Zen Mommy is pregnant and I’m super excited about her upcoming virtual baby shower on November 3! That’s because even though I’ll be at work at the National Center for Parents as Teachers, I can tune in to http://www.ustream.tv/channel/my-mommy-manual from my desk between 11 am – 1 pm CST.

You see, My Mommy Manual and Kolcraft, along with friends at Artistic Sensations and Viewpoints are celebrating not just Zen Mommy but all pregnant women. Kolcraft and Artistic Sensations are giving 2.0 of everything in the silent auction to benefit Parents as Teachers.

Just look at some of these items up for bid:

• 2.0 Jeep Tandem Strollers ($249.99 value) Bidding starts at $25
• 2.0 crib mattresses ($259.99 value) Bidding starts at $25
• 2.0 booster seats ($39.99 value) Bidding starts at $3
• 2.0 walkers ($69.99-$99.99) Bidding starts at $6
• 2.0 Sealy mattress pads 2-pack ($99.99) Bidding starts at $9
• 2.0 Sealy mattress pads ($19.99) Bidding starts at $1
• 2.0 baby bedding from Artistic Sensations ($400 value) Bidding starts at $40

Please come. Please bid. Please wish Zen Mommy a successful pregnancy.

Resident of St. Louis County (MO) are about to vote on a smoking ban. The proposition would prohibit smoking throughout the county…with plenty of exceptions. Why is this even up for debate?!

A new study just out in the November issue of Pediatrics looks at secondhand and prenatal tobacco smoke exposure and makes a flat statement: “Secondhand tobacco smoke exposure of children and their families causes significant morbidity and mortality.”

http://www.flickr.com/photos/boroda/ / CC BY 2.0

Prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke sensitizes the fetal brain to nicotine, the study found,  resulting in a higher likelihood that a child will become addicted to tobacco at a later age when the brain is exposed to nicotine.

The evidence supporting the association of secondhand smoke exposure of children with respiratory illnesses is long:

• lower respiratory illness
• middle-ear infections
• tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy
• cough
• asthma
• hospitalizations
• sudden infant death syndrome

As Congress grapples with issues of health care, it should consider this: exposure to secondhand smoke causes asthma symptoms in 200,000 to one million children and contributes to as many as eight to 26 thousand new cases of asthma per year.

Early exposure to neurotoxins (including nicotine) can lead to lifelong learning, behavioral and development problems. Parents as Teachers helps early childhood professionals learn how to share prevention strategies with parents. Like pediatric clinics, Parents as Teachers settings offer “teachable moments” for parents, too. Smoking parents can be motivated to change their behavior for the benefit of their child’s health.

At the very least, they can vote for smokefree facilities.

On November 16, Missouri business leaders have been invited to a Business Leaders Summit at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis to learn about the return on investment they can achieve from investing in early childhood programs. Fewer than 100 have responded so far. There’s a lot at stake.

The Missouri Business Leaders Summit is co-hosted by the National Center for Parents as Teachers, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Coordinating Board for Early Childhood, and the Missouri Child Care Resource and Referral Network and is sponsored by the Partnership for America’s Economic Success which is funded in part by The Pew Charitable Trust. Additional funding by Deaconess Foundation and Missouri Children’s Trust Fund.

Grammar Girl, where are you when we need you? SPOGG (Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar), why do so few appreciate you?

Sometimes it’s the little things that matter. Individually, a misplaced comma or parathetical phrase might be overlooked. But collectively, these emissaries of style spell trouble!

Just as great designers make the end result look spontaneous and effortless, form, punctuation and grammatical style make all the difference between  ho-hum writing and a well-tended image.

Part of my job is maintaining the brand or image of Parents as Teachers. The way we present ourselves, right down to the capital letters and periods may be nuances to some but to others their misuse stands out like overused clichés.

I do my share of proofreading so when I recently corrected some improper capitalization and punctuation on a document sent to me for editing I was taken aback to hear a colleague tell me, “That came from the company’s Web site. I’m not changing it because that’s the way the company wants to present itself.”

Wow. Made me wonder how others perceive Parents as Teachers. How do the little things like grammar, punctuation and writing style contribute to your company’s image? Does anybody care?

“What should you worry about?” screamed the headline of an article in this week’s Parade Magazine.How good are you at assessing risk? Do you panic about the wrong things and as a result misjudge the potential of others? It’s a complex world; how do you know the problems you’re focused on are the ones that really need solving?

These are some of the questions the National Center for Parents as Teachers grappled with over the past few months as it drafted a new strategic plan. It wasn’t easy. Skilled facilitators helped us see that limited resources (both financial and human) meant we had to make tough decisions about where to focus our efforts.

Read Strategy and the Fat Smoker, Melissa advised our strategic planning group. Just like a fat smoker, we know what we have to do and why we have to do it to achieve our goals. We know we need to change our habits to achieve results. So why is it so hard to do what’s good for us? It’s uncomfortable and takes discipline, that’s why!

Gina is a member of our Weight Watchers at work group. She’s lost 91 pounds this year and last week shared a secret. “Sometimes I play mind games with myself,” she said. “I’ll tell myself I’ll just walk 10 minutes on the treadmill but after 10 minutes I’ll say ‘Just 5 minutes more’ and before you know it it’s been 45 minutes.” Her mind games helped her meet her weight loss goal.

What kind of mind games can organizations play to achieve their goals?

Parents are their children’s first best teachers. It’s been the mantra for the nonprofit parent education organization Parents as Teachers for 25 years now. The premise is simple: right from birth, parents are a child’s role models. Everything parents do, say and believe is noticed by their children. During those crucial early years of life, who has more influence over child than parents?

Few parents realize at the time just how much of an impact they are having on their children. Perhaps it’s when their little one utters a sudden inappropriate word or phrase. Perhaps it’s when, as in this video, the adults watch and laugh as their child imitates adult behavior.

What do you think: funny? Age-appropriate?

Kids are not little adults. They’re like sponges, soaking up every bit of influence the adults in their lives offer. And ultimately, when they become parents the parenting practices they will bring with them are those they experienced themselves.

Why not get parents off to a good start? Parents as Teachers does that!

That’s the assessment of Arne Duncan, secretary of education, after seeing disappointing scores of 300,000 students who took the National Assessment of Educational Progress test, a national “report card” of the education system. Overall, eighth grade math scores increased, but only marginally; fourth graders did not improve at all. More than 60% of fourth graders and 66% of eighth graders are not proficient in math.

Is it any surprise then that a new report from the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council calls for the expansion of K-12 engineering education? Early exposure to engineering not only boosts students’ technological literacy, it also promotes problem solving, systems thinking and teamwork, the report says.

The Academy called for philantrohopic foundations or federal agencies with an interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education and school reform to identify ways to incorporate engineering education for different American school systems.

Here’s a suggestion: look at BLOCK Fest, an interactive exhibit for kids 8-months to 8-years old that combines math and science learning with social, emotional, language, motor and cognitive skill development. BLOCK Fest gives parents the opportunity to help their children become math and science thinkers.

They may be navigating their way through a high tech world with ease, but today’s young people don’t have the skills to make basic financial decisions. At the same time, they’re coping with increasingly complex money matters: student loans, credit and debit cards, 401(k) and cafeteria plans.

Researchers at the University of Michigan Retirement Research Center looked at financial literacy among  young people and found that fewer than one-third have basic knowledge of interest rates, inflation and risk diversification.

• The average loan debt for college graduates rose six percent between 2006 and 2007.
• The median credit card debt among college students rose by 74%  between 2004 and 2009.
• The fastest-growing group of bankruptcy filers is those age 25 and younger.

It’s a staggering debt load that’s influencing major labor decisions, say the researchers.

Financial literacy is strongly influenced by family background the researchers found, and it can easily be passed on from parents to children. That’s where Parents as Teachers comes in, helping young parents create and manage a spending plan, decipher paycheck stubs and balance checkbooks…all with the help of Money Matters, a young parent’s workbook for finances and the future.

Do you think you’re smarter than the 20-somethings in this study?

*Questions used in Financial Literacy among the Young survey by Annamaria Lusardi, Olivia S. Mitchell and Vilsa Curto