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There are lots of wonderful kids all over the world who are making a difference by helping others and the environment. No one knows this better than an organization called Kids Are Heroes^® a non-profit that empowers, encourages and inspires children to become leaders through volunteerism and community involvement. They do this by showcasing and supporting children who are changing the world through their selfless acts of giving.

Kids Are Heroes raises awareness about the causes kids  believe in. This concept works in every corner of the globe. Kids Are Heroes’ success stems from not telling kids what projects they must perform, but helping them to uncover their passions and then supporting them. This keeps them involved for a longer period of time.

Their site is full of stories about children, even young children, making a difference. The stories make for wonderful shared reading and discussions with your child(ren).

Visit at www.kidsareheroes.org. Be sure to check out ” Meet the Heroes” and if your child is interested, explore how he or she can become a part of Kids Are Heroes.

Advocacy for barrier-free, public access for persons with disabilities is an ongoing process. Most of us  recognize that persons using wheelchairs and those who are blind and using a service dog should be able to be  accommodated in restaurants, grocery  stores, department stores, and houses of worship as well as public buildings. However, many persons whose disabilities are not visible, are being denied access when accompanied by their service animals. Who are they? They are children and adults who have any type of a disability for which their physician has recommended a service animal.

Please visit the web site of The Canadian Registry of Therapy Animals and Service Animals (CRTASA) at www.crtasa.com. They are providing persons with disabilities a way of validating their right to barrier-free public access. They are Canada’s first official centralized registration service issuing membership services and photo I.D. card registration in Canada and the United States to people with disabilities, their certified service animals, handlers of service animals in training and owners of trained therapy animals.

There are membership details for people with disabilities using certified service animals for assistance, trainers or handlers of service animals in training or owners of trained therapy animals in Canada and the US. Those who train, handle or use a service animal or own a trained therapy animal can apply for the new, official, standardized CRTASA Photo ID Card designed to offer verified CRTASA members with great membership savings on animal related purchases at participating businesses as well as enhanced barrier free access to public places across Canada and the USA by showing the official standardized CRTASA Photo ID Card when using a service animal for assistance.

CRTASA is also collaborating with businesses and service providers across Canada and the USA  to increase promotional saving discounts for their  members. If you are a business or know of a business that might be  interested in becoming one of their Corporate Accessibility Fellows please email them at: corporatesponsorship@crtasa.com

Our post today is courtesy of Denise A. Somsak, MD a pediatrician and mother with young children. Dr. Somsak (Dr_Som)blogs at
www.pensivepediatrician.com where she posts about areas of interest and concern for parents. In  this  post she speaks to  good nutrition, an area of major concern for all parents in this day of rising childhood obesity.

Pack your child’s lunch. You will learn a lot about what your kids like and correct portion sizes; you will naturally shop for healthier foods. Our two daughters attend a half day of preschool 5 days a week. We pack their lunches, which at first thought seemed like a huge inconvenience especially in the hustle bustle of the morning. Our new daycare demanded it (they have no kitchen), or we never would have tried it. We love it.

No more complaints about canned ravioli or guilt about the potential hazards of ground beef. The girls used to eat sugary canned mandarin oranges, pineapples, and peaches, along with frozen fish sticks, tater tots, and french toast sticks. No more snacks of graham crackers or gold fish crackers. Instead of the frozen white bagels topped with American cheese they were typically offered, I can pack whole grain (less sugar and more fiber) breads or organic white bread.

No more processed foods. No more high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, or trans-fat. Now they eat fruits and vegetables fresh from my refrigerator. Since the left overs come home, I know exactly what they consume. Even if my five year old says her friends tease her about her “stinky” hard boiled egg, I know see eats everything but the yolk.

Read labels and look for ingredients that you can understand. Generally, the longer the list of ingredients, the more processed the food. Many times organic food has a shorter and more understandable list of ingredients. The best food does not require a label or packaging: fresh produce. If in doubt, what comes out of the ground or off a tree is far better than something in a bag or box. Frozen or canned fruits and vegetables are OK as long as they don’t have added sugar or salt.

Know what to feed your children. The formula for feeding your children is quite simple. Offer a little protein, a little starch, and 2 fresh items (fruit and/or vegetables) 3 meals a day. Add a source of vitamin D and calcium which for most of us means fortified milk products (soy, rice or cow) and make sure there is iron, which for many of us means meat or seafood but peas, spinach, beans, dried apricots, almonds and greens work too. For snacks, lots more fresh produce. I have discussed this approach with parents of my patients, and I am amazed at how quickly they understand. They can easily apply it to good foods they serve at home.

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) developed recommendations assists the federal government in creating nutrition guidelines for daycare centers and after school programs. Use these basic IOM suggestions when you think about meal planning for your family.  If you want more specific and personalized information for your child use the USDA food pyramid calculator.

Know how much to feed your children. Portions have become super sized everywhere even for kids. I think offering appropriate amounts per the IOM guidelines cited above is a good start. If you want to read labels and count calories, you can check the National Institute of Health website to learn how many calories your child needs in a day . If you are trying to change your dietary habits, calorie counting for a few days is an informative exercise. Write down everything your child eats and drinks each day. Read the labels to include estimates of the calories. If you need help, bring the journal to your doctor and start the discussion about nutrition.

Know what to do if they are still hungry but ate a lot. Fruits and vegetables are vital to good health. Your children could never eat enough. Challenge your kids to eat a rainbow of produce everyday. I start in the office by seeing if they can name some green fruits or yellow vegetables (corn doesn’t count which gives me a chance to explain how it and potatoes are starch). Water is free and safe from your tap. Make it available and palatable (maybe with a little lemon or ice). It can help kids fill up faster at meal and snack time.

What they drink matters just as much as what they eat. Drink sitting down and mostly at snack or meal time. For children under 5 years, cups should be about 5 ounces. It is not easy to find cups this small especially in restaurants. We use espresso, sake, or 5 ounce dixie cups depending on the situation. I don’t know why they even make sippy cups bigger than 7 ounces. If a child carries a giant sippy cup full of juice into a check up, I know I need to address obesity and tooth decay not to mention the risk of infection because the kid drops the cup on the floor at least a dozen times during the visit. Children do not need juice. If you must offer it, no more than 4-8 ounces per day. Look for fruit and vegetable juices that contain the least sugar. If you must have soda in the house, make it diet. Splenda is a better sugar substitute than the artificial sweetener, Aspartame (NutraSweet). Low fat and non-fat milk are healthier options than whole milk and no more than 24 ounces in a day.

What you eat matters.  If you want to try to make your child’s food a bit healthier, start at home.  Studies reveal that kids will not succeed unless the whole family eats healthy.

Understand and get involved. We should offer fresh and nutritiously dense foods at daycare centers and schools, but we don’t.  If you have the time and the gumption, get involved at your child’s school. Kudos to First Lady Obama for tackling this difficult problem. Check out her website for more information on health and nutrition. Helping children eat healthy may seem simple, but it is politically charged. Check out Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma or the movie Food, Inc. to see what First Lady Obama is confronting in an ever so gracious way.

Carolina Gomez-Kramer makes learning Spanish fun by using music, song, movement, puppets and other activities to engage and keep young children interested and wanting to learn a new language.

As she describes it, ” Music is a very effective tool to teach a language to any age group, especially to children. Through music, children can explore different sounds and grammatical structures, learn new vocabulary, and in some cases learn about different cultures. Music allows language to be presented in a context. When teaching young learners, music can also be a way to extend learning at home and invite parents and caregivers to become active in their children’s learning process – something that is particularly helpful to make a second language more accessible and less “foreign.”

Carolina offers programs for children 0-6 years and workshops for parents and teachers. You can learn more about her program content on her website  – 123spanishtogether.com.

Be  sure to check out No Time Like the Present: How and Why to Give the Gift of Language Learning toYour Child(ren) http://www.teachpreschool.org/2010/11/give-the-gift-of-music-and-language-learning-to-your-preschoolers/ where her he program is featured in the Blog, Teach Preschool.

Carolina’s educational background and additional published articles are in the “Teacher” section of this blog, accessible through the navigation bar.

If your school is planning a school garden or currently has one, the School Garden Weekly is an excellent resource. It is published in Los Angeles, California by George Pessin, LA County Master Gardener.

School Garden Weekly is filled with instructional “how to” videos, resources from other gardening programs and those with an interest in school gardening. In a recent post, Mr. Pessin speaks about what his initial focus was for the school gardens and how it has expanded.

School Garden Lessons, Activities and Curicula

School Garden Weekly, Posted Oct 2, 2010

When I first started working in school gardens my initial focus was on getting kids to eat healthy. To that end I would plant as many varieties as possible knowing that young gardeners love anything they plant and nurture themselves.

As school gardens got more popular however, more and more teachers were asking how to incorporate school gardens into their everyday lesson plans. Learning to eat healthy was just one of many topics that needed to be covered. Peruse the websites below and you will find activities and lesson plans that also relate to art, science, math, and social studies.  Also please note many are broken down by grade.

1) School Garden Curricula Grades K-12 from National Environmental Education Foundation

2) 15 Lessons for 1, 2 and 3 graders (72 page pdf)

3) 15 Lessons for 4 and 5 graders (61 page pdf)

4) Curriculum ideas from California School Garden Network

5) Agriculture in the Classroom – Lesson Plans from USDA

6) School Garden Lesson Plans from Virginia Tech Horticulture Department

7) Nature’s Partner’s – Pollinator, Plants, and You (Comprehensive pollinator curriculum for grades 3-6)

8) School garden activities arranged by season

9) Lesson Plans and Curricula – Garden ABCs

SGW would love to hear from you! Please send your school garden news, pictures, stories, questions and comments to sgw@schoolgardenweekly.com