This is something that I’ve been saying for years and so I was so excited to see the website of this exact name - ParentInvolvementMatters.org! How amazingly cool is that? I love the whole concept of this program! Parental involvement is so very important for our children! In my opinion, it can literally make or break a child - how involved their parents are in their lives. I’ve seen some very sad and uninspired and very needy children, during all my hours volunteering at the school, whose parents just did not involve themselves in their children’s lives. Once the parents get involved, though, the changes are awesome!

There are many ways to get involved in our kids’ lives. Parent involvement in schools is a good place to start, but, really being involved in your child’s life and education means so much more than just bake sales and PTA meetings. The people from the Parent Involvement Matters website run this great program called ParentNet®, which is a parent-led program in which groups of parents of same-age children get together and support each other and help each other out in their parenting techniques and efforts. This is so cool, because so often moms will get together who have very different age and grade children - so they’re not having the same experiences. It would be so awesome to get together with parents of children the same age/grade, from our own school. The experiences would be so similar, that we could really help each other out!

This program was started in 1996 by two moms of middle schoolers. They were working together to make their children’s school better, and the program just blossomed and has helped more than thirty schools nationwide! There are lots of free resources on their website to get you started, including a community newsletter. They also have a ParentNet® starter kit for sale in their store, which contains a three-ring binder full of helpful information, a DVD that will help educate parents and staff, and sample brochures and stickers that you can use to educate the community and market the program to them. The binder contains an introductory guide for parents and trainers and educators, a ParentNet volunteer handbook, and a ParentNet® training manual. The whole program is available for free on the site, though, and you can, of course, sign up for the newsletter to learn more. I’m telling you, if we had this here, I would go to the meetings for all three of my kids! I think it would be wonderfully helpful!

Parent Involvement Matters is definitely a program that has me excited! I would have definitely tried to implement it in our schools when I was PTA president! Parenting can be so hard, but, I think when we come together as a community and help each other out, everyone benefits! The thing that really helped me to understand the program better was the video they have on the site that showcases the reactions to ParentNet by parents, educators, and students.

Oh my gosh! My son just missed a week of school. And it was a short week, since Monday was a holiday. And he has SO MUCH MAKE-UP WORK!! Which to me is really weird, since I have felt that the boys haven’t had enough homework at this school. I guess that just means that they just jam pack the school day full of work!

I have to say I honestly feel like keeping him home another day just so he can get caught up! He is still slightly feverish. He has asthmatic bronchitis. I took him to a clinic yesterday to have him checked out and get an antibiotic. I really liked the clinic. It was clean and neat and upgraded. It didn’t look like an old doctor’s office from the 60’s, like so many we’ve been to.

The doctor that saw him was really sweet and attentive, to both Shawn and me. That is definitely a plus - when the doctor can easily and comfortably converse with the parent and the child. She was really cool. She even had on sexy boots that were black and fishnets! That was a surprise to see! She had the outfit put together tastefully, it wasn’t tacky at all. It just made me feel more comfortable with her, to know there really was a ‘woman’ under that lab coat - and a cool one, at that!

I also forgot to get the doctor’s note for Shawn to have unexcused absences. If you have more than five per semester, you need a note. I’ll have to see if my husband can go by there tomorrow.

Back to this make-up work, though, oh my! I don’t know how I’ll get this kid caught up. I’m sure it just looks overwhelming on paper, and once we get to working on it, and once we talk with the teachers - everything will be alright. All of the seventh grade teachers said at the orientation that they are willing to work with the kids. Some of them come to school early and some of them stay late, and all of them are willing to give their time outside of class if a student needs it. So I’m sure as long as Shawn and I and the teachers stay in communication, we will get him caught up! Darn his asthmatic lungs, though!

The other day I learned about a frightening new development in the street drug world. The newest thing out there is being called ‘Strawberry Quik’ - like the powder we used to mix in our milk. Well, I suppose it is still on the market - I just haven’t bought it myself in years. Anyway, they are making methamphetamines with candy flavors! And the stuff is even colored pink! It closely resembles Pop Rocks candy, and kids as young as 11 are being targeted with this drug! I just had the drug talk again with my kids after learning about this stuff. I want to do everything that I can to keep them off of drugs and out of drug treatment centers! They are making this junk in more than just strawberry, too! Chocolate, and who knows what else! It is so scary! The thing that really struck me about is that it very strongly lowers the children’s awareness of the severity of the drug, you know? If an 11 year old kid sees a needle with some ugly heroin in it, that is going to look pretty freaky to them. But if they see what looks to be Pop Rocks, it doesn’t look so daunting…and the next thing you know, they’re hooked! When I told my fourteen year old about it, he said he saw on TV that they are making marijuana flavored now, too. We have all got to just keep talking to our kids! Very scary stuff!

Here is a very helpful and informative blog - it’s called Chores & Allowances, and it is written by Dave, who lives in Dallas. (And we all know living in Dallas automatically scores points with me right off the bat!) Dave offers all kinds of Parenting help and advice, often leaning on the financial side of things, like teaching our kids about work and financial responsibility.

While Dave does talk a lot about money and finances, he also addresses many other aspects of parenting. And personally, I think just the links he’s gathered in his sidebar are an invaluable resource! That is why his blog is definitely going in my sidebar here at The Bookworm Broadcast!

You will find all kinds of information at Chores & Allowances - from back to school checklists, to protecting families against identity theft, to great websites for kids! And if you know me, you know how much I love worksheets - one of the sections in his sidebar is devoted to just worksheets! Watch out kids, mom found a new list of worksheet sites!
This is definitely a blog that I want to keep up with!

My sweet boys just had a birthday. The silly things were born on the very same day, one year apart. And they just turned 13 and 14. And for their birthday, they received from their grandma and from their grandpa, gift certificates from Amazon.com.

Well, they also received an xBox 360 from their father and I. Icky, I know. So it’s been video game crazy around here lately! And most of their cash and Amazon GC’s have been spent on video games. This evening they were doing some more shopping and they bought one game.

Then a bit later they came back to me and were begging me for five dollars to borrow, because, what they wanted to buy was five dollars more than they had. I was starting to get a little irritated and the conversation was going back and forth, when finally it came out that what they wanted was a trilogy - of BOOKS!

I said, “Books?! I’ll totally give you five dollars for that!” I was so excited to hear they were spending money on books. You know I’ve told you before that they are book-devouring monsters, but, they do love their video games. And since they got the 360, that is all I’m hearing about. So I was glad to have my little bookworms back in action!
I’ll try to remember to come back tomorrow and fill you in on the trilogy they bought - the name escapes me now.

Do you remember the other day when I talked about how even bookworms need to get moving? It’s so true! It is just so easy, and so natural, for me to just sit around - devouring book after book! But, that is not good for me, especially if I’m not getting in enough physical activity. And all of that sitting around can sure make a bookworm sore! Sometimes we need some topical pain relief to help us out!

I was quite recently introduced to Freeze It and let me tell you - I love it! I had tried some sample packets, and they were great - but, Mark just bought me the roll-on version. And I think that is going to be so handy, quick, and best of all - mess-free! Freeze It seems to work better and faster than any other product that I’ve tried. And the smell is not so overwhelming as some of the others. In fact, I don’t know how they did it, but, they made it so that the smell fades as you’re wearing it. That is a great thing, especially for me, because, a strong smell like that up on my shoulders could easily give me a migraine. I am so happy to have found Freeze It, that’s for sure!


Now ya’ll go ‘get moving‘ and then…

Oh my! Two teenagers? What am I going to do with teenagers? Teenagers are trouble, right? There are so many things I need to talk to them about now, and so many things that my husband and I have to look out for in an effort to keep them safe and healthy. And they are often so hard to talk to - they get embarassed, or bored, or just plain shut down when we want to discuss something important. I found a book, though, that might help with some of this. Actually, it is a series of books. The first one I want to get, though, is called Ten Talks Parents Must Have With Their Children About Drugs and Choices by Xenia Becher and Dominic Cappello. So many kids these days wind up in drug rehab, so I think keeping the conversation flowing is a really good idea - before your kids get into any trouble! The reviews on this book at Amazon are very promising to me, because, the people mention that their teen just would not talk to them, but, using some of the conversation starters in the book, their children actually opened up to them! That book is definitely going in my wish list!

My kids are alway begging for allowance, but, they don’t have regular chores. And I think a child that’s not ‘pulling his weight’ should not have a regular allowance, either. We keep telling them that when they can show us some more responsibility and not be told every single day, every single thing that they need to do, then, we will reconsider. But we are not going to pay for performance, when there is little to no performance being done. We also are not happy with the grumpy performance of their little bitty jobs we give them. I know, Mom, if you’re reading - I was the grumpiest one of all! Payback, and all that, right? I think I just need to set up a chart and pick chores for each of them. So far, that always winds up uneven, so I guess they’ll have to do like my brothers and I did and swap weeks for certain chores. I mean, feeding the dog or getting the mail are considerably easier than cleaning the kitchen, or vacuuming the house. And I never wind up with ‘three easy chores’ and ‘three harder chores’ - it just never works out that way! So I guess week-swapping is the way to go. I just need to find a chart and decide what all we want done by them.

We have just recently brought the computer up from the basement and hooked it up to the internet. The kids have basically done without since we moved out here to Alabama. Having them off of the internet was just one less worry - so now I am back to worrying. Luckily, the other computer is right here in the room with me, and therefore, I can keep tabs on them while they surf. The internet can be a wealth of information and learning for them, but, it can also be a very scary place for them. So except for the fact that Patrick likes to close the Blinds sometimes to block the sun, I am really glad that we put the second computer in the same room with mine. I am going to try to do everything that I can to make the internet a fun and educational place for them, but, make sure they stay safe. They are just going to have to deal with “Nosey Mom” or completely give up internet time.

OH MY GOSH! Yes, my sweet little baby boy is starting to drive! Mark told me that he was going to take him across the street to the college, so that he could drive in the parking lot. Next thing I know, I see Patrick driving down our street! Hello! Our street - lined with houses! Little children, little kittens, etc. I gave Mark holy heck for that. I know Patrick is a boy, and did seem to have the ‘controlling the wheel’ part down better than I did my whole first year of driving, but, taking his first drive on a residential street was just not cool! I just can’t believe that my little baby boy (yes, I know he’s almost 14 - you be quiet!) is driving a car! And he is on the internet so much, he may start thinking he wants to look up some radar detector reviews - no way! Listen - if you need a radar detector, you’re not driving safely enough! Especially as a teenager! You can grow up and move out of my house, and then get a radar detector! Until then, you just drive by the laws! Got it? Grrrr!

My baby’s growing up… Think I’ll make myself feel better and …

GO READ A BOOK!