FREE Parenting Workshops Offered by the City of Richmond Early Childhood Development Initiative

Click on this link for a flyer with more information...
FREE Parenting Workshops Offered by the City of Richmond Early Childhood Development Initiative 

Please Help Provide a Safe Habor for Infants

     

                 The Capital Diaper Bank of Virginia is proud to partner with Safe Harbor, a confidential shelter for abused women and children in Richmond. Since 2000, women and their children have received shelter, counseling, support, and find help with legal, medical, emotional and work needs at Safe Harbor. Capital Diaper Bank regularly provides much needed diaper assistance to the residents at Safe Harbor, but we need your help! Due to a recent increase in the number of mothers with infants at Safe Harbor, in addition to overall need in our community, our diaper supply is quickly dwindling. To give you an idea of how great the need is in our community, The Capital Diaper Bank has already distributed 27,138 diapers in the last 2 years. Please help us meet this "hidden" need for the infants in our community. There are several ways you can help;

Host a Diaper Drive
At School
A diaper drive can be a great way for students to learn about goal setting, marketing skills and organization. It is also a good tool to show children they can make a difference in their community.
• Collect pennies or dimes to be used to buy diapers or make a donation to CDB.
• Host special events, like a dance or a bake sale, with proceeds going to CDB.
• Encourage contests and challenges as a fun way between grades and classes or faculty and students to raise funds to purchase diapers.
• Throw a party or provide a special privilege for the class that collects the most diapers or funds.
At Work
• Encourage departmental competitions.
• Consider corporate fund matching — we can easily estimate the dollar value of the diapers your company collects or we would be happy to purchase diapers for you at wholesale.
• Depending on your business, have the company donate a certain amount of money for each new account opened during the drive or for each new unit of sales, etc.
• Promote the cause and the drive in your corporate newsletter or send out information with paychecks, flyers, etc.
Donate
Please consider making a monetary donation to support CDB. A diaper costs $0.25-0.30 — no amount is too small to donate to help the smallest and most vulnerable members of our community.
Checks can be made to Capital Diaper Bank and mailed to:
P.O. Box 4255
Richmond, VA 23220
For more information about how you can help, or to donate online, please visit the Capital Diaper Bank website at www.capitaldiaperbank.org

Meet the Newest Member of our Team; Nicole Lumpkin

Nicole Lumpkin is a workshop consultant for ChildrenRFirst. She has been a trainer for several schools, VAECE and the Hanover Childcare Quality Initiative. Nicole says; "I love to train….it is a thrill to see how I can motivate teachers to change their classrooms to make the environment and the interactions more meaningful for both teachers and children."

Nicole has been involved in early childhood education for 20 years. She began as a substitute with Children’s World Learning Center and remained with the center, ending up as a District Trainer for Pre-Kindergarten. After the dissolution of the company, she moved to the Goddard School where she was Assistant Director and Pre-K Lead Teacher. She mentored new teachers throughout the next 7 years. She also attended training to gain the knowledge to become qualified as a STARS mentor. Nicole completed her master’s degree in Education in 2010 and began a career as a trainer.

We are thrilled to have Nicole join our team as we continue our mission to help teachers, parents and administrators provide a unified voice for young children.
Nicole has two workshops coming up with ChildrenRFirst. Click on the links below for more information;
Parent/Teacher Communication on August 31st
Teaching RESPECT to Children  on September 28th

Children are First at Commonwealth Parenting

The mission of Commonwealth Parenting is to build a stronger community by teaching proactive parenting skills to parents and caregivers in central Virginia through quality education, communication, and support.

Founded in 1984, Commonwealth Parenting is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit education and resource organization committed to helping parents with the challenges of raising healthy, happy children from infancy to adolescence. With eleven Family Educators, they are able to address a wide variety of issues and concerns.

Over the past 25 years, Commonwealth Parenting has offered education to families in the Richmond area to enhance and strengthen parenting skills. With the guidance, encouragement and counsel of their Family Educators, communities are becoming stronger and more resilient. Commonwealth Parenting has served approximately 40,000 families since 1984 and currently average 3,200 families per year. Parents often have concerns about their children’s emotional needs, academic needs and mental health, and their family educators provide

• Parenting classes
• Speaking Engagements in the community
• One-on-one parenting consultations
• Telephone support and tip line – 545-1928
• Referrals to local community resources and specialized services

For more information about Commonwealth Parenting, visit them at www.CommonwealthParenting.org
Susan Brown, Family Educator at Commonwealth Parenting, will be presenting at our upcoming workshop "Challenging Behaviors; Fighters, Biters, Pushers, Smushers." Click here to register!

 

Children R First at Rainbow Station Wyndham

 

In November of last year, I read some very shocking news. According to a study conducted by Huggies®, 1 in 3 American mothers struggles with diaper need. This means that 1 in 3 infants in America is sometimes (if not regularly) suffering with painful diaper rashes, staph infections and sores on their skin that cannot heal properly because parents  are unable to afford enough diapers to keep their children’s skin dry and healthy. I thought it was interesting that when Huggies® published their study online, they did not feature pictures of these rashes. The only pictures were of very healthy looking babies wearing clean diapers with a smile on their faces. That is a wonderful goal, but for 1 in 3 infants, I had just learned that it’s not currently a reality. I wanted to fully understand that reality, so I went to Google Images and typed in “severe diaper rash.”  After glancing at the first dozen images or so, I was crying, and I had to close the screen. This is not an issue any of us, especially those of us who are mothers, want to face. It is very literally a hidden need that I can no longer say I wasn’t aware of. Now I want to make as many people as possible aware of this need so that those smiling happy babies on the Huggies® website will be the reality, not the goal.
I quickly met others in our community who want to achieve this same goal, and together we are spreading the word about The Capital Diaper Bank (CDB). Yes, Richmond has a diaper bank! Isn’t that wonderful? The founder of the CDB is Phyllis Bradley, Director of Capital Childcare in Richmond. Capital Childcare serves low-income families with quality childcare. Long before Huggies published their study, Phyllis discovered a severe diaper need for the families she serves, and she established an in-house bank in an effort to meet the diaper needs of those families. However, Phyllis knew what Huggies would soon discover; that this problem was not isolated, and other children in our community were suffering too. Phyllis began educating and reaching out to others to help her in this effort, and the CDB expanded into a community wide outreach effort last fall.  I joined the diaper drive committee for the CDB and just since December of last year, I have been amazed at the overwhelming response that individuals, businesses and organizations have had to meet our call for help.

A recent example is the Rainbow Station at Wyndham. Rainbow Station is a franchise of quality childcare and preschool programs in Virginia, North Carolina and Texas. The Rainbow Station at Wyndham recently launched a program within their preschool based on Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Erin Rice, the pre-kindergarten teacher at Rainbow Station Wyndham, explained how they incorporated the Habits into a unique teaching method for young children; “We as teachers did the Covey Training on the Habits of Highly Effective People after which we did multiple trainings on integrating the habits in “kid language” into our curriculum to help raise highly effective (and happy) kids. The idea is to get to the kids early, so they don’t ever have to retrain themselves on ways to be proactive, put first things first, etc.”

Erin and her co-Teacher Lauren Moreno heard about the Capital Diaper Bank and decided it would be the perfect fit to begin helping the children learn through this new model of teaching. Focusing on the first Habit; “Be Proactive,” Erin and Lauren encouraged the children to brainstorm about ways to help the diaper bank. The children decided to distribute coin jars and host a bake sale to collect monetary donations, as well as providing a box for parents to drop off diapers to be given to the diaper bank.
Their efforts were met by tremendous enthusiasm from the parents, staff and children.  During the process one parent stated; “I am so pleased to see my son take an interest in helping others.  He decided that he would make his bed each day to earn money to contribute. Other children in the class are also doing various chores at home to earn money.  For me it is a win-win situation, teaching him responsibility at home and building character by having a heart to help others.”

The bake sale raised $242 for the CDB, and the class won NBC12’s Acts of Kindness Award for helping babies in need! NBC12 added $300 to the children’s coin jars, and the feature will air on Tuesday May 3^rd at 5:00pm.

We are so thankful to Rainbow Station and other businesses and organizations all around our community who are helping to meet the diaper need in Richmond. If you would like to get involved, and possibly host a diaper drive at your organization or place of business, please let us know! Email me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), or visit the Capital Diaper Bank website at www.capitaldiaperbank.org for more information about how you can get involved to help us supply diapers to families in need.

 

10 Ways To Prevent Summer Slide

Our Adoption Story

 

My husband, our 5 year old son and I have just arrived home from a 3 week trip to San Antonio, TX. We brought home a beautiful souvenir; a baby girl. Weighing 10 lbs 7 oz, our little Abby Kate (short for Abigail Katherine) arrived in our arms after growing in our hearts for over a year...
Our adoption story started like many others. My husband and I had some difficulty conceiving our son 5 years ago. We wanted to have another baby, but we decided that adoption would be a better choice for us this time. We did some research, talked about it at length, spent a lot of time praying, but had not yet begun actively working with an agency. For some reason, it just didn't feel right. So we waited....hoping that God would open a door for us, or help us find the right path. In January, I got the call that would change our lives forever. My dear friend who lives just outside of San Antonio, TX called one night in the middle of January. We stay in touch and speak regularly on the phone, so this was not unusual. This time however, she had a question for me; "Are you still interested in adopting?"  My heart leapt, wondering what was coming next, but I just calmly answered that yes, we were very interested. To give a little background, my friend works for a private children's home in Medina, TX. This home provides shelter , job training and child care to single mothers who are trying to get back on their feet after difficult life circumstances. A new young lady had recently come to the home, and she confided in one of the social workers and my friend that she was expecting her third child. Already having 2 children under the age of 4, she felt that she could not physically or emotionally handle raising a third child on her own. She also loved her unborn child and wanted her to have an opportunity to grow up in a loving family that could provide the things for her that her birth mother could not. She asked the social worker and my friend if they would help her find a family to adopt her baby. She wanted to be able to do a private adoption and meet the family, verses going through an agency. So, my friend was calling on that night to find out if we would like for her to give the young woman our contact information. This was the door opening that we had been waiting for. We were thrilled and excited, and of course we said yes! We emailed the young lady to tell her about our family, and her response was quick and positive. She was happy to find us and wanted to give us her baby. She was already 7 months into the pregnancy, so we only had 2 months to get prepared. We began the legal process immediately. I won't bore you with those details, but if you're interested in learning more about the adoption process, I now have some great resources I could recommend, and please feel free to contact me by clicking here if you would like more information.

I know that every adoption is different. The part about ours that turned out much differently than I expected, was the bond I developed with our birth mother. She was very interested in knowing about us and our family. We emailed or texted almost every day during that two months, and I grew to care about this sweet young woman who obviously loved her other two young children as well as the one she now carried. She talked excitedly about the ultrasounds and would keep me updated regularly about how her pregnancy was going. I told her about our day to day life, wanting to assure her that we would be providing a good home for her baby. We decided that I would fly down 1 week before the birth, so that we could spend some time together. When I arrived, I met her mother, and her two young children as well. I spent the week before the birth with them, and at the end of that week when my husband arrived, I was wishing I could adopt them all and take them home. My only fear was that when the baby came, the birth mother would change her mind. She would have 10 days after the birth to do so, and I knew that it would be hard for her. There were such a mixture of emotions, I could never describe them all. I cared for this young woman and her children, I wanted the baby she carried so much, but at the same time I couldn't help but feel some guilt for "taking her baby away."  She never waivered though. Throughout the pregnancy, she said she did not want to see or hold the baby after she was born, or even see pictures. She thought it would be too hard.

Abby Kate was delivered by scheduled C-Section on March 21st, 2011 at 7:28am. Our dear friend who introduced us to the birth mother at the beginning of this story was in the delivery room. She brought our baby into the nursery and showed us through the glass. It was love at first sight. I will never in all my life forget that moment. I knew then that if her birth mother changed her mind, this would be the end of the adoption road for me. This baby would live in my heart as my daughter and I would never try to adopt another. I reached out and touched the glass where her little face was and a love only a mother can feel overcame me.

They let us go in the nursery immediately. Touching her for the first time was so magical. She was a big baby! Our son weighed just under 9 lbs when he was born. This little chunky monkey came out looking like she was two months old at 10 lbs 7 oz!  As we were stroking her hair and watching the nurse work with her, my friend came back into the nursery after visiting the birth mother. I asked how she was doing. She said "good, and she would like to see you alone."  I couldn't read the expression on my friend's face and a wave of nausea overcame me. I knew this was it. This would be the moment when she would change her mind and part of my heart would be broken forever. I walked down the hallway to her room with so many mixed emotions. I walked into her room and over to her bed, trying to smile instead of cry. She also smiled bravely at me as I laid my hand on her shoulder. She asked me how the baby was. I whispered "perfect," through my tears. She reached her arms out to me and as I knelt to embrace her she cried and said "I am so very happy for you."  At that moment I understood how complete and perfect a mother's love can be. I'm not referring to my own love for Abby Kate. I'm talking about a young woman who loved her baby so much that she would give away part of her heart to make sure that it had the best life possible.

Almost two weeks later, after she became legally ours, we brought Abby Kate home. Now as I'm typing this, I'm watching her perfect little face while she naps, and I can't help believing that in this world full of natural disasters, war and pain, there is a God above who is still sharing his love through the miracle of his children. I will do my part to embrace that love, share it with others, and bring a little bit of peace to the world. I am so thankful.

Join Our Team and Win Free Workshops for a YEAR + $200 gift certificate!

Want to win free workshops for everyone in your Early Childhood Program AND a $200 gift certificate to School Crossing Teaching Store? Here's how;

• Join our March for Babies team by clicking here; Children-R-First March for Babies Team Page  
• Use the online tools provided by the March for Babies website to raise money that will support research and programs that help moms have full-term pregnancies and babies begin healthy lives.
• Be the individual* to raise the most money on our team before the March for Babies event on May 15th, and join us along with thousands of other from the Richmond area for this wonderful family event.

The individual* to raise the most money by 12:00am on May 15th will win the following;

• Vouchers for every employee at your early childhood program (daycare, preschool, child development center, etc.) to attend Children-R-First workshops for FREE for one year....including a 4 hour customized workshop conveniently held at your program.
• $200 Gift Certificate to School Crossing Teaching Store.  

This is also a great PR opportunity as we will have team t-shirts with logos from every program that is represented on our team.

*We welcome anyone who wants to join our team. There are no limitations regarding how many can participate from each program. However the winner of this contest will be the individual who raises the most funds. If your program is interested in developing your own team, here is a link for how to do that; Richmond March for Babies Event

Don’t be late…for a very important date!

   Read Aloud Virginia  

and the

 

Concert Ballet of Virginia

 

YOU'RE    INVITED     Please join us for a storybook adaptation in ballet of                                                Alice in Wonderland   complete with TEA PARTY and PHOTOS with Alice, the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts!     Saturday, April 9, 2011 1:00 PM Maggie Walker, Governor's School 1000 N. Lombardy Street Richmond, VA  23220                                                                                                                                                                         Presented by:    The Concert Ballet of Virginia  Benefits:            The CHILDREN'S BOOK BANK of VIRGINIA     Contact:      .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)   for group and    individual ticket prices and reservation information.                                                                or  call:  804-285-0457   Donations of new and gently used books are welcome!    Sponsorship information is available upon request!                                    PHOTOS for additional fee                                       Community Partnership               The Concert Ballet of Virginia and Read Aloud Virginia   Group Pkg: $100                   Family Pkg:  $44             Single:  $12          (10 /  $10   each)               (2 Adults/2 Children)      (1 Adult/ 1 Child)

Win a Bob Books App for Your iPhone

 

 BOB books have been helping children learn to read in classrooms everywhere, and now you can experience the magic of BOB Books for your children with their new iPhone app Bob Books Reading Magic, developed by Learning Touch. This app has been tested and approved by my own five year old, and in his words; "This game helps kids like me learn how to read even faster!"  We like this app so much, we're going to give 2 away this week! To enter to win a free iPhone app from BOB Books, follow these simple directions;
1. Click here to go to our Facebook page,
2. Click on the "like" button
3. Write "BOB Books Contest" on our wall
You can enter up to once a day, and the 2 winners will be announced on our Facebook on Friday, February 11th at noon. If you can't wait until Friday to try it out, you can purchase the app at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bob-books-1-reading-magic/id403753501?mt= 

For Teachers, By Teachers

I recently had the pleasure of speaking at a local conference for preschool teachers in the Richmond area. What an enthusiastic group! There is nothing I love more than being in a room full of teachers and asking them to share their ideas with me and each other. We covered a variety of topics, and below I've provided some of the handouts from those workshops, as well as "53 Ways You Can Pretend to Use a Stick to Enhance Children's Dramatic Play," created by the teachers for teachers. So click on the links below, print, enjoy and share!

Kindergarten Readiness; Developmental Checklist

Lyrics to Herman the Worm

53 Ways You Can Pretend to Use a Stick to Enhance Children's Dramatic Play

A New Kind of Song by: Heidi Starr

   You know how sometimes you have these really random memories that you just can’t get out of your head?  Well one of my unforgettable memories is from my college class, Methods of Teaching Language.  My professor always had these great ideas about getting children interested in reading and language development.  One particular topic that she discussed with us a lot was the use of phonetics to aid in the reading process.  She said she wished there was a phonetic alphabet song.  Every time she would say this, which was often, she would start singing “Ă ă apple, b b ball, k k cat, and d d doll,” to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” Then she would abruptly stop and move on to another topic.  One day a fellow classmate asked her to sing the rest of the song.  She replied “There is no rest of the song.  That’s just an example.”  From that day on I have not been able to get that little ditty out of my head.  I’ve always vowed I would finish the song someday, and since my daughter is starting to become curious about reading, I thought now was a good time to fulfill my promise!  Maybe now I can put this memory to rest!!  Here’s hoping this will be a fun way for the children in your life to learn their letter sounds!

Phonetic Alphabet Song

(Tune: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star) 

 

ă ă- apple, b b –ball, k k – cat and d d – doll

 

ĕ ĕ – elephant,  f f – fan, g g – grapes and  h h – hand

 

ĭ ĭ– igloo, j j –jam, k k- kite and l l –lamp

 

m m –mushroom, n n –nest, ŏ ŏ –octopus, p p –pants

 

kw kw –queen, and r r –rock, s s –sun, and t t –talk

 

ŭ ŭ –umbrella, v v –van, w w –wagon, ks-ray man

 

y y –yo-yo, z z –zoo, That’s the end, and now we’re through!

 

To go along with the song, here are flashcards you can print off on 3x5 index cards to help reinforce the song with words, letters and pictures.  You can also add holes to the top of the index cards and place them on rings to turn it into a little book!

March for Babies with Children-R-First!

Every child is a miracle, and we all have a miraculous story. Whether you're a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, or friend...whether your story is full of joy or tragedy...we all have a child who lives in our heart. Our story is an adoption story. We were already so blessed to have a son of our own who has been the light of our lives for almost 6 years. On March 21st of this year, we welcomed Abby Kate into our lives and our hearts as well. . To read more about our adoption story, click here. EVERY baby is a blessing, but unfortunately not every baby is born as healthy as our little Abby Kate. Every day, thousands of babies are born too soon, too small and often very sick. We are walking in March for Babies because we want to do something about this. I know you care, too. That's why I'm asking you to join us. It's easy: just click on the link below to join our team or donate as little as $1. If you work for a preschool or daycare, you can win free workshops for a year if you march with us! Click here to find out more. Thank you for helping us give all babies a healthy start!

Visit our team Web page at
http://www.marchforbabies.org/team/t1515983
 
The mission of March of Dimes is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality.

Dramatic Play; A Dress Rehearsal for Real Life

We had another great workshop at our "Celebrating Our Children" workshop series on Tuesday, January 4th at Rainbow Station Mechanicsville. Our guest speakers, Georgia Blair and Monica Moehring, were full of enthusiasm and knowledge as they shared ideas for using dramatic play as a teaching tool in the early childhood classroom.  Monica Moehring has generously allowed us to share her handouts in electronic format. Please click here to see her handouts.  Mark your calendars for our next workshop in this series on March 1st; "Beyond ABCs and 123s; Kindergarten Readiness."  For online registration and more information about this workshop please click here.

   
 
 

Thanks to our sponsors for filling up our goody bags at these events as well!

Glitz & Glamour Fitness Boutique       

Capital Diaper Bank

I was shocked. I was appalled. I was heartbroken....
I recently received an email from a colleague that opened my eyes to an issue in our community (in our nation even), that I wonder if many of you have considered (I know  I hadn't). The email was in regards to an initiative that Huggies® is leading to build awareness about diaper needs. A study commissioned by Huggies revealed that 1 in 3 American mothers struggle to provide diapers for their babies. These mothers have had to cut back on basics such as food, utilities, or even child care in order to provide enough diapers. Even more heartbreaking than this, after doing some research of my own, I found that the need is so desperate for some of our local children, they are being forced to use the same diaper for many hours and sometimes days at a time, causing serious and painful skin infections.
Thankfully, there are things we can do as a community to save these children from their suffering. We can make monetary or diaper donations to diaper banks, host diaper drives, and educate others in the community about this cause. Children-R-First will be working with the local March of Dimes chapter and the Central VA Food Bank over the next 4-6 months to raise awareness and host a community diaper drive to benefit our own local diaper bank, The Capital Diaper Bank, based out of Richmond. We will be hosting a diaper drive at the upcoming School Readiness workshop "Beyond ABCs and 123s" on March 1st. To learn more about that event, please click here. If you would like to host a diaper drive at your place of business, church or social gathering, please contact us; .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) 
NEW!! Click here to check out the Capital Diaper Bank Facebook page.