• Safety Tips:
• Community Safety: Singing For Safety
• School Safety: Seeds of Peace
• Statistics: Mental Health & A Reader's Question
• Questions & Answers:
• One Opinion: Developing Informed & Active Young Citizens

Whether traveling in the car or spending time at home, catchy lesson-teaching songs can calm cranky kids, and sooth parents' nerves. The key to choosing quality educational recordings is to find music that does not sound like a classroom lecture, but rather combines toe-tapping instrumentals with energetic and sometimes zany vocals. In no time, children will find themselves reciting the valuable lessons embedded in these musical educational resources.

In conjunction with The Zucchini Brothers, we have used this method to bring warmth, kindness, and playfulness to the often “scary” topic of stranger safety. Our “Safe & Sound” CD makes learning our "10 Important Rules of Stranger Safety" fun and easy, while helping to open dialogue between children and parents about this sensitive topic. Both kids and parents have given us excellent feedback about our award winning CD collaboration with the Zucchini Brothers, which is available by Clicking Here.

School Safety:

As America fights the war on terrorism and faces the growing threat of war with Iraq, many wonder what the long-term impact will be on our nation’s impressionable children. Educators find it challenging to teach children about the world’s wonderful cultural, religious and geographical diversity, while television bombards them with scenes of war, terrorist attacks, and demonstrations of hatred for the United States. “Children now come into my classroom and either have fear or hatred for people from other cultures,” says Kathy, a teacher from New York. “It’s a real challenge for these kids to keep an open mind while learning about places the US is fighting against”.

For situations like these, it may be helpful for teachers to seek advice from an organization called ‘Seeds of Peace –Empowering Children of War to Break the Cycle of Violence’. Every year, kids from war-ravaged nations come together at their camp here in the United States to learn about "their enemies". While at camp, participants who grew up hating each other are taught leadership skills, how to see past the “politics of war” and often leave camp as friends. These future leaders may be able to one day use what they have learned at this camp to influence government policy and prevent future violence.

Seeds of Peace has developed a CD-Rom to help teachers deal with this topic, and upon request, they will make their newsletter available to schools. Visit http://www.seedsofpeace.org for details.

Statistics:

The following statistics are found in detail at the National Institute of Mental Health website: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/numbers.cfm

• Females are much more likely than males to develop an eating disorder. An estimated 5 to 15 percent of people with anorexia or bulimia are males.
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder can begin across the life cycle, though the risk is highest between childhood and middle age.
• Schizophrenia affects men and women with equal frequency. Schizophrenia often appears earlier in men, usually in their late teens or early 20s, where as women are generally affected in their 20s or early 30s.

Question from a Reader:

Q. Help! I am a teenager with a friend I suspect is suicidal. I am afraid and while I want him to get counseling, I don't know who is a good counselor to help him! I try to cheer him up with some jokes, but he is growing more and more depressed. Where can I turn to find out what to do?

A. Find a trusted adult to confide in (i.e. a school guidance counselor, your parent or a friend’s parent). Telling an adult will not only begin the process of helping your friend, but it will also help you deal with your own fear and anxiety. You can also obtain information at the following web site, and if you think it may help, you can share this web site with your friend: http://www.metanoia.org

This site provides immediate outreach materials, emergency contact phone numbers as well as guidance on how to select a therapist. If you do help your friend look for a therapist, it might be helpful to ask a trusted friend or teacher for a recommendation to someone they have heard is helpful.

One Opinion, Open to Discussion:

As adults, we have grown to deal with and accept our daily struggle to understand acts of terrorism, threats of war, a sluggish economy and domestic tragedies. But to a child who has not yet developed the skills to understand and process all of these threatening scenarios, it’s a struggle to comprehend what everything means.

Its natural for kids to react to these troubled times with questions, concerns and worries as they struggle to define their own personal response. We can help by listening to what’s on their mind, by discussing current events, and by offering them help to understand what’s happening around them.  It could be very helpful for parents and children to learn about and discuss current events together through the Internet, newspapers and television news programs.

By collectively gathering and discussing important issues with our children, we can strengthen their sense of understanding and belonging to a very confusing world.  In addition, we can help strengthen their sense of citizen responsibility by taking them with us when we go to vote and when we contact our elected representatives to share our views. In fact, a child that is old enough to write should be encouraged to express his or her own thoughts to elected officials, helping to reinforce the idea that America is indeed run by it’s citizens.

• To contact the President of the United States go to: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
• To find and contact your Congressmen, visit: http://www.house.gov/writerep/
• To find and contact your Senator, visit: http://www.senate.gov/

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