We've known for a while that music has therapeutic value. Now we know it has value as a parenting tool. What a wonderful idea. Get attuned, get calm, celebrate, move together, unwind together...there's absolutely nothing that music can't facilitate. Forget the Mozart Effect--music has the ability to enrich our lives in innumerable ways, even if it won't magically turn us into geniuses.
Authentic Parenting: Music As A Parenting Tool
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Monday, February 28, 2011
Attack on Public Unions: The Protests Continue
YouTube - 100,000 Strong
Very inspiring video of the 100,000+ protestors. Even though the national media seem to be tiring of this story, this protest continues NATIONWIDE. Every single state in the nation has had a rally of some sort. Why? An assault on public sector workers hurts all workers. If we see the demise of unions, all the gains of the previous decades will roll back. If a rising tide lifts all boats, what does a sinking/whirlpool do to all the boats? We're all in this together--don't let billionaires convince you otherwise.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Automating Motherhood - Steady Mom
So simple, it's genius. A simple list...not unlike the type that's being encouraged in hospital settings. You know what it does there? Decreases errors and improves outcomes. What it would do in the home is DECREASE STRESS and improve outcomes (by outcomes, I mean clothes picked up off the floor, homework done, that sort of thing). All good! From healthcare settings to the home--Thank you, Steady Mom!
Automating Motherhood - Steady Mom
http://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2010/02/08/gawandes-checklist-manifesto/
Automating Motherhood - Steady Mom
http://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2010/02/08/gawandes-checklist-manifesto/
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Vending Machines in Schools: The Top 5 Dangers on Campus
Vending Machines in Schools: The Top 5 Dangers on Campus
Vending machines are unsustainable. They encourage food consumption in the absence of hunger. They encourage consumption of high calorie, low nutrient foods. Thus, they contribute to the growing problem of overweight/obesity and malnutrition. They are overpriced, and therefore a poor consumer choice. They use unnecessary packaging, and are therefore bad for the environment. Any way you look at it, vending machines are a poor choice for schools--including colleges and universities. Let's create better alternatives.
Vending machines are unsustainable. They encourage food consumption in the absence of hunger. They encourage consumption of high calorie, low nutrient foods. Thus, they contribute to the growing problem of overweight/obesity and malnutrition. They are overpriced, and therefore a poor consumer choice. They use unnecessary packaging, and are therefore bad for the environment. Any way you look at it, vending machines are a poor choice for schools--including colleges and universities. Let's create better alternatives.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Fired up dispite 25 degrees and snowing
Nothing makes me happier than to see average, working Americans standing up for their rights. Hurting one group of working and middle class workers hurts all workers. We're all in this together! I especially appreciated the private unions, who would not be effected by this bill, who came out and stood in the cold weather with us in a show of true solidarity.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Time to Support Teachers' and other Public Employees' Rights!
Time to take a stand. The last thing we need to do is to pit public employees against private employees. Unions make easy scapegoats, but the reality is that unionized employees have lost wages and benefits along with everyone else over the last few decades, and the power of unions has greatly declined. Can anyone really think this is just a financial issue? Doesn't this seem to be union busting, pure and simple, with deficit reduction put forward as a convenient justification?
As long as we squabble and fight each other for meager resources, then the trend of stagnant and declining wages for the middle class will continue, while the richest will continue to get richer (and avoid taxes). Hurting public unions will not raise the wages of the average worker. It will hurt everyone--it will continue the expansion of the inequality of wages between the top and bottom earners. And, in case we need the reminder, we need teachers, police officers, fire fighters, and other public employees.
A good Family and Consumer Scientist stands on the side of what's right, rather than waiting for the right thing to become popular. Support your teachers and all the other hard working public employees. Collective bargaining is, after all, as American as apple pie, and as democratic as the ballot box.
Let's pay for the things that really matter, and fix the things that are actually broken. And to my Wisconsin brothers and sisters: overcome!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/18/wisconsin-union-protests
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/11/wage_inequality.html
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