The following post is courtesy of Coach Ned Campbell.

 Hi, my name is Ned Campbell, and I am a wrestling coach in New York City. While New York City is not typically well known for its wrestling, that is starting to change. With the generous and energetic support of Beat the Streets-NYC, wrestling programs in the city have increased in number and improved in skill.

In this brief video clip taken at the Brooklyn Wrestling Club, you see young boys and girls having fun doing something that comes naturally to them: wrestling.  They are doing it in a safe and structured environment under the watchful eyes of certified coaches with years of experience.

While it is clear these kids are having fun, there are other benefits of having your child wrestle.

Wrestling develops a child’s strength, flexibility, and stamina.  It will help build positive character traits in your child which will help them make better life choices and decisions.

As a USA Wrestling coach and the head coach of Brooklyn’s James Madison high school, I can tell you from first-hand experience how great an influence the sport of wrestling has been on my teenaged athletes. 

Their development and maturation has been unmatched by participants in other sports I have coached. They became better students, more self-confident, and positive role-models for our younger wrestlers. They grew into young adults with high personal standards that made others around them better people. In short, they became leaders.

A child’s development is a priority for Beat the Streets NYC and USA Wrestling.  Under the guidance of certified coaches, your child will learn to handle challenges—both on and off the mat—leaving you amazed at their transformation.

Wrestling will:

• Improve your child’s self confidence,

• Teach them to respect themselves and others,

• Promote excellence and encourage them to set goals,

• Teach them personal accountability and responsibility.

• Develop honesty, discipline and a strong work ethic-traits that will last a lifetime,

• Expose them to positive role models.

• There is no showboating or unsportsmanlike behaviors in the sport of wrestling.  The ideals of good sportsmanship are always upheld.

Beat the Streets NYC and USA Wrestling believe strongly that today’s wrestlers will excel at whatever careers they pursue later in life.

For more information please visit:

James Madison high school in Brooklyn New York, the home of the Golden Knights wrestling team and club. http://madisongoldenknightswrestling.com/

The Brooklyn Wrestling Club, is an authorized training center and chartered club. It is located at 128-130 Brighton Beach Avenue, 2nd floor,  Brooklyn, New York 11235.  It has wrestling classes for kids of all ages and skill levels. http://wrestlingnewyork.com/

Beat the Streets-NYC is a non-profit organization dedicated to developing and expanding the sport of wrestling with youth league wrestling programs and expanded opportunities for high school wrestlers.   The Beat the Streets Manhattan Training Center is located at 145 Thompson Street, New York City 10012.http://www.beat-the-streets.org/

USA Wrestling is hosted by TheMat.com at http://www.themat.com/

How about your right to know what you are eating when you eat genetically engineered food? As of right now, the FDA does not require labeling for these foods.

According to the Environmental Working  Group (EWG), a nonprofit organization that uses public information to protect public health and the environment, these foods have been altered at the molecular level. They are appearing on supermarket shelves with increasing frequency – in fact, 94 percent of all U.S.-grown soybeans are genetically engineered!

Environmental Working Group thinks this is wrong. That’s why they have joined forces with more than 300 organizations to launch the Just Label It campaign and tell the federal Food and Drug Administration that Americans have the right to know when they’re eating genetically engineered food.

EWG cautions that the issue is not just fresh produce.

According to the Congressional Research Service, 60 to 70 percent of processed foods available in American grocery stores likely contain some genetically engineered ingredients. These ingredients are prevalent in many products you may buy every day, including breakfast cereals, cookies, chips, sweetened soda, frozen meals and more.

EWG believes that the scientific debate about the benefits and risks of genetically engineered crops will continue for a long time. In a recent email I received, they advise that an entire generation will have grown up consuming genetically engineered food. EWG believes that we should all have the right to participate – or not – in this sweeping experiment with our bodies and our environment.

Several polls and surveys have found that the vast majority of Americans want genetically engineered foods to be labeled. Many other countries including Japan, Australia, the European Union and even China require labeling of genetically engineered foods.

If you want to learn more about EWG and its 300-plus campaign partners in demanding that the FDA insist that genetically engineered foods be labeled, go to their site at www.ewg.org/actioncenter.

Yesterday’s “Can Do” Street kids blog introduces the idea that some children may have difficulties with reading and that there is nothing wrong with getting extra help.

The blog post plants the seed that needing help with reading is nothing to be ashamed of..that we all need help in one thing or another during our lives.

For many children developing reading skills  is a natural process. For other children,  reading is a continuous struggle. According to the National Institutes of Health, one out of every ten children has significant problems with reading skills.

An article on readingrockets.org, states that:

• Children may struggle with reading for a variety of reasons. Good readers are phonemically aware, understand the alphabetic principle, apply these skills in a rapid and fluent manner, possess strong vocabularies and syntactical and grammatical skills, and relate reading to their own experiences.

• Learning to read begins far before children enter formal schooling. Children who have stimulating literacy experiences from birth onward have an edge in vocabulary development, in understanding the goals of reading, and in developing an awareness of print and literacy concepts.

•  Children who are most at risk for reading failure enter kindergarten and the elementary grades without these early experiences. Frequently, many poor readers have not consistently engaged in the language play that develops an awareness of sound structure and language patterns. They have limited exposure to bedtime and lap time reading.

• Children raised in poverty, those with limited proficiency in English, those from homes where the parents’ reading levels and practices are low, and those with speech, language, and hearing disabilities are at increased risk of reading failure.

The article goes on to say that:

• Many children with robust oral language experience, average to above average intelligence, and frequent early interactions with literacy activities also have difficulties learning to read. Why?

• Programmatic longitudinal research, including research supported by  the national Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD), clearly indicates that deficits in the development of phoneme awareness skills not only predict difficulties learning to read, but they also have a negative effect on reading acquisition. Whereas phoneme awareness is necessary for adequate reading development, it is not sufficient. Children must also develop phonics concepts and apply these skills fluently in text.

•  Substantial research supports the importance of phoneme awareness, phonics, and the development of speed and automaticity in reading. Unfortunately, we know less about how children develop reading comprehension strategies and semantic and syntactic knowledge. Given that some children with well developed decoding and word- recognition abilities have difficulties understanding what they read, more research in reading comprehension is crucial.

Some young children are perfectly content to sleep in their cribs or junior beds whether they are alone in a room or with siblings.

Others may go to bed in their crib or bed but wake screaming and cannot be comforted, except by getting into mommy and daddy bed and spending the rest of the night there. Still others will not even start out the night in their own bed and the only way anyone in the house is going to get a night’s sleep is if little one gets to go to sleep in mommy and daddy’s bed.

In an article written by Dr. Sears, a practicing pediatrician for over 30 years and father of eight children, he speaks to the concerns that many parents have about allowing their preschool child to sleep with them by answering a question from a reader who wrote,”Our three-year-old wakes up in the middle of the night and either demands to sleep in our bed or insists that Mommy comes sleep in her room. How can we break this habit?”

Dr. Sears answers by advising the parent that she needs to determine if  her child’s desire to sleep with her is a habit or a need. He reminds parents that nighttime can be scary for little people.

If it isn’t fear that is the cause of wanting parent contact during the night time hours, than what could be the reason? Dr. Sears suggests that the need for nighttime contact may be particularly strong if a child had little or no contact with the parent(s) during the day.

The key is to find a solution that meets both a parent’s need for privacy and sleep and a child’s need for attachment and security.

Here are some suggestions Dr. Sears made for addressing the sleep situation:

• Lie down with your child in her room and parent her to sleep with a story, a back rub, and some cuddle time.
• Put a futon or mattress at the foot of your bed and explain that if she wakes up she can come and sleep in her “special bed.” Your three-year-old needs to understand the importance of not disturbing your sleep. If she needs comfort during the night, tell her to tiptoe quietly and slip into her special bed without waking mommy or daddy.
• Above all, don’t feel you are spoiling your child or that she is psychologically disturbed because she can’t sleep on her own. Many emotionally healthy children simply enjoy the nighttime security of sleeping close to their parents.
• Remember that the time your youngster spends in your room (or in your bed) is relatively short, but it encourages a positive life-long attitude about bedtime, conveying that sleep is a pleasant – rather than fearful – state to enter.

To read more of Dr. Sears advice on children’s sleep problems go to www.askdrsears.com.

Showcases is now open in the “Can Do” Street Mall featuring unique programs, activities and services for parents and their young children.

The first three programs of many to be featured on Showcases in the months to come are:

• A Pinch of Salt -a demonstration of a dessert that parents can make with their children
• Kids Are Heroes –about kids making a difference by helping others
• Canine Companions –a service dog making a difference for a boy with a physical disability