Parent Talk Magazine | January 2015

1January 2015

Helpul, Healthy

HabitsBring your kids in

the kitchen - 7

parenttalk

Let s

Get FitSkip the

Resolutions- 13

January 2015

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2 Parent Talk Magazine

3January 2015

I hope you enjoy this issue of Parent Talk. If you ever have any ideas or input, please email them to [email protected]. We welcome any input from local parents looking to spread their message of raising children in South Louisiana.

Keep talking, parents!

The Toy BoxThe ABC's of Health HabitsDevelop & Thrive

Principal's List: Tina Guidry

Let's Get Fit

Healthy, Helpful Habits

Knowledge Is Power

4

5

ON THE COVER: KATIE DUPLANTIS PREPARES A FRESH AND HEALTHY MEAL. (WITH SUPERVISION)

PHOTO: JULIANA PENNISON

PublishersBen Jones Jr

Cody J. Blanchard

MANAGING EDITORKara Domangue

CONTRIBUTING WRITERMichelle Gautreaux

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNISTSJasmine Richard, Joni Bascle, Anne Marie Naquin,

Kim Thompson, Katherine Toups, Rob Bower,

Michele Bower

TO ADVERTISE985.441.7073

PHOTOGRAPHYJuliana Pennison, Brian Waitz

January 2015VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 4

Copyright © 2015 by Fathom Media, LLC.All rights reserved.

Reproduction in whole or in part withoutpermission is strictly prohibited.

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Happy New Year! I wish nothing but the best for you and your child/children in 2015. As a fresh start for the New Year, talk to your child about New Year’s Resolutions and try to enforce positive changes with the beginning of the year. Whether it’s to be more active, read more books, or practice a musical instrument more often, there are many ideas that you can help your child with when coming up with a resolution. Don’t forget to think healthy as well! Maybe you can convince your child to give up a particular soft drink or fast food. The opportunities are endless!

Dear Parents

Kara Domangue, Managing Editor

In This Issue

6

710

12

13

parenttalk

Insights From The Inside14

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The

Toy BoxJASMINE RICHARD, SOCIAL MEDIA LIBRARIAN

Free; Apple and Google DevicesHeyday is a free automatic journaling app. It keeps track of your day in photos you take and places you go, creating private collages that you can share on other media as you choose or search through later by date and place. Great for chronicling the growth of children, businesses, and anything else in your life just by having the app on your phone. Editor's Choice and Best of 2014; seen in USA Today, NBC News, and the Daily Mail.

App of the MonthHeyday Free Journaling App

Cost: $39Kids can build town fronts using this 256 piece Lego set and accompanying app. The free app is required to scan and upload the town, which then allows kids to play a Sims-like game to keep the townspeople happy and thriving.

Toy of the MonthLego Fusion Town Master Set

Level: Ages 4 - 8 yearsBased on a true story, Beth Stern brought a thin and matted anti-social cat home and through love and care helped him become a happy foster parent for the kittens she fosters. Inspiring and cute, this book will delight kids and you can keep up with the real-life Yoda and the kittens on Instagram @bethostern .

Book of the MonthYoda: The Story of a Cat and His Kittens By Beth Stern; illustrated by Devin Crane

5January 2015

Can an “apple a day keep the doctor away”?

Yes! Here’s why… — Apples have lots of Vitamin C. This vitamin is important to keep our immune systems strong and healthy! When our immune systems are healthy, we are less likely to catch a cold! — Eating apples can help strengthen your cardiovascular system. This means that they can make our hearts STRONG! — There is something in apples called antioxidants that can keep your respiratory system healthier. This means that your lungs will be healthier! It can also reduce the effects of asthma.— The vitamins in apples can make your bones strong and healthy. The skin is the part of the apple that has the most vitamins, so be sure to eat the red part!

Here are some after school snack ideas for you to try!— Apple slices with a spoon of peanut butter— Baked apple slices sprinkled with cinnamon — Apple slices with a few cubes of cheese — Fruit smoothie with apples, strawberries, and pineapple— Apple slices topped with granola and a drizzle of chocolate syrup

Some FUN FACTS about Apples…— It takes about 36 apples to create one gallon of apple cider— Humans have enjoyed apples since 6500 B.C.— The Pilgrims planted the first U.S. apple trees in the Massachusetts Bay Colony

Don’t forget to eat your apple today to stay strong and healthy! pt

Yoda: The Story of a Cat and His Kittens By Beth Stern; illustrated by Devin Crane

Statistics from livescience.com

The ABC’s of Healthy Habits!A is for APPLE BY KATHERINE TOUPS, THIBODAUX

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As I drive into work this morning and head towards a local daycare,

I find myself thinking about how much the educational system for our children in our small community has changed since we moved back to this area 9 years ago. Maybe it is because it is time for daycares and schools to start registration and I am seeing the look of panic on the faces of the parents in our center as they try to decide what to do for their child. This year, I feel like we can explain more options than ever.

There was a time when your only choices for educating your child were private, public, or home schooled. Larger cities like Baton Rouge (where we were moving from) had gotten a little further into the idea of special needs assistance in schools that were set aside for children with different needs but this had not gone far at that time.

Today, we have so many options in our little Bayou area that I take it for granted that I spend my day with children from almost every setting. The addition of charter schools to our area in the form of the MAX charter program for children with dyslexia and the Bayou

Develop and ThriveChanges in the Educational System

BY MICHELE R. BOWER, PT, PCS, THIBODAUX

Community Academy for families seeking academic excellence with an ethical and service-minded philosophy have become integral to our Thibodaux community. The STELLA learning center in Houma has been helping our children with Autism for the last couple of years and the Touchstone center for ABA services in Houma opened last year to provide the much requested service for children with behavioral modification needs.

eLearning in Houma and Thibodaux continue to help families make home schooling not only effective but also fun and social in a small, independently tailored setting. Last year, VAL (the Virtual Academy of Lafourche) opened in Thibodaux and has expanded to Central and South Lafourche and to the Bayou Blue area to provide a public school charter program to families wanting an individual home-schooled curriculum for their children.

The daycare systems in our area have also greatly improved the services to our younger population. The state is currently working on a program to assist all daycares who receive government assistance to

institute an age appropriate curriculum so that early learning will begin in an efficient manner. I have seen firsthand how hard these centers are working towards this goal and I am excited for this transition. Lastly, I was excited to learn a few months ago that a Pediatric Day Care Center providing nursing and health centered care for children with special medical needs is set to open in Thibodaux. These centers have been very important in larger cities and it is about time that we have one here.

I can only hope to see what the next 10 years brings for the children in our area. I enjoy seeing parents’ faces light up when they realize that they have found the best option for their child available in our community. It is also encouraging that many of these options were pushed by parents of children with a need. A few more projects are on the horizon and, in my opinion, would round out the opportunities available here. What an exciting time in the educational system for the children of the Bayou area. pt

7January 2015

Healthy eating can stabilize children’s energy, sharpen their minds, and even out their moods. While peer pressure and TV

commercials for junk food can make getting kids to eat well seem impossible, there are steps parents can take to instill healthy eating habits without turning mealtimes into a battle zone. By encouraging healthy eating habits now, you can make a huge impact on your children’s lifelong relationship with food and give them the best opportunity to grow into healthy, confident adults. As we begin 2015 and New Year’s resolutions, consider your child’s eating habits and reinforce healthy substitutes to the bad foods of 2014.

BY BEN JONES JR, THIBODAUX

BRINGING YOUR KIDS IN THE KITCHEN

Children develop a natural preference for the foods they enjoy the most, so the challenge is to make healthy choices appealing. Of course, no matter how good your intentions, it’s always going to be difficult to convince your eight-year-old that an apple is as sweet a treat as a cookie. However, you can ensure that your children’s diet is as nutritious and wholesome as possible, even while allowing for some of their favorite treats.

The childhood impulse to imitate is strong, so it’s important you act as a role model for your kids. It’s no good asking your child to eat fruit and vegetables while you gorge on potato chips and

PHOTO: JULIANA PENNISON

HEALTHY HELPFUL HABITS

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soda. With that, here are some fun and creative tips for persuading children to add more fruits and vegetables to their diet in 2015.

TIP #1. Top a bowl of whole grain cereal with a smiley face: banana slices for eyes, raisins for nose, peach or apple slice for mouth.

TIP #2. Create a food collage. Use broccoli florets for trees, carrots and celery for flowers, cauliflower for clouds, and a yellow squash for a sun. Then eat your masterpiece!

TIP #3. Make frozen fruit kabobs for kids using pineapple chunks, bananas, grapes, and berries.

TIP #4. Go food shopping with your children. Let them see all the different fruits and vegetables and have them pick out new ones to try.

TIP #5. Try fruit smoothies for a quick healthy breakfast or afternoon snack.

TIP #6. Add vegetables and fruits to baked goods – blueberry pancakes, zucchini bread, carrot muffins.

TIP #7. Add extra veggies to soups, stews, and sauces, grated or shredded to make them blend in.

TIP #8. Keep lots of fresh fruit and veggies washed and available as snacks. Apples, pears, bananas, grapes, figs, carrot and celery sticks are all easy to eat on the run. Add yogurt, nut butter, or tahini for extra protein.

9January 2015

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Getting a healthy meal on the table can also be a major feat in any busy family. You may be tempted to ban your kids from the kitchen so that you can cook in peace. But here’s another idea: How about enlisting your kids’ help with cooking? Invite them to pitch in, and your children will reap many benefits of helping in the kitchen.

Kids will learn to cultivate an appreciation for real ingredients. Hands-on learning is more effective at teaching anything when it comes to kids, so getting kids involved in the kitchen has great potential to influence food preferences for nutritious and delicious foods.

Having your kids help in the kitchen will also broaden their palate. Cooking together is a fun and low-pressure way to expose kids to new and healthy foods, and this can help picky eaters feel comfortable trying new foods.

Your kids will learn the value of planning. Putting a meal on the table means planning ahead. With some guidance, kids can be involved in choosing ingredients at the store and planning meals around them. They will also practice good timing. Cooking requires careful timing so that the mashed potatoes are still hot when the chicken comes out of the oven. Time management skills come in handy throughout life, and it is never too early to learn them.

Cooking with your child can build math skills. Following a recipe means learning how to measure accurately, and it illustrates fractions in a practical way. Need to double your famous chocolate chip cookie recipe? That’s going to require multiplication or addition. They will also see chemistry in action. If your child is struggling to come up with a science fair project, look no further than your own kitchen. What is the difference between baking soda and baking powder? And what happens when you mix oil and vinegar? Cooking gives kids a chance to marvel at chemistry in the real world.

Help them develop confidence in the kitchen. Keep the art of healthy cooking alive by passing it on to your children. By the time they leave home, you’ll feel good knowing that they won’t be relying on vending machines and frozen dinners. And it doesn’t hurt to remind your teen kids how much it will impress a date if they can prepare a healthy meal from scratch.

Having your child cook with you will also help them appreciate the chef. Putting a meal on the table is hard work. Being involved in meal preparation even once per week will make your kids appreciate a home-cooked healthy meal, no matter who prepares it. It also gives you some time to talk with them. In a busy world of carpools, homework, and after-school activities, cooking together can provide a welcome opportunity to chat with your kids. If the conversation turns to how potatoes are grown, where eggs come from, or safe food-handling practices, then you can seize those teachable moments as well.

Let’s not forget that helping out feels good. With practice, your little sous chef will eventually be a big help in the kitchen. Watch his face the first time he gets to see his parents and siblings enjoy and compliment him on a dish he made by himself. He will feel a sense of accomplishment and will know that this is not empty praise.

You may be afraid that involving your kids in the kitchen will just mean more mess and more time. And you may be right, at least in the beginning. So start small. Choose one meal per week for which a child can be the kitchen helper. Find doable, age-appropriate tasks. A 3-year-old can tear lettuce for a salad, and an 8-year-old can be in charge of preparing the salad. Over time, you’ll find your rhythm together and realize that your child is making a real contribution to a healthy meal prep. pt

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What made you decide to join the school system?I had a high school English teacher that inspired me to want to

be a teacher, and my mom owned a daycare center as I was growing up until I was in 8th grade, and I used to love to read to and play with the children at the daycare center. I knew very early on that I was born to teach.

Tell me about your school.Our school is known as “the big pink school on Hwy. 308”.

It is actually a historical landmark. It was the old Raceland High School. We have approximately 350 students, and we include grades 3-5. We are 3 stories, and we are currently having Raceland Lower Elementary being built in our own back yard.

What has been your greatest joy in being a part of an elementary school?

My greatest joy in being part of an elementary school is seeing the twinkle in a student’s eye when they are learning something

Principal s ListTina Guidry, Raceland Upper Elementary

BY BEN JONES JR

new for the first time, to hear laughter in the building as the students enjoy their school experience, and to get hugs daily and told “Good morning Ms. Guidry”, “You look beautiful today”, or “You sure do smell good”. This is what makes me love my job and want to come every day to work.

What is the #1 characteristic you hope to instill in your students before they move on?

We hope to instill leadership in our students before moving on. If we can develop leadership in each student, then they are in charge and responsible for their own learning and future if they are leaders.

What was your favorite book or favorite characters as a child and why?

My favorite book was Gone with the Wind and my favorite character was Scarlett O’Hara because I loved Scarlett’s independence, and I enjoyed the romance in the story. pt

PHOTO: BRIAN WAITZ

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How did your child do in the first half of the school year? Were you pleased with his or her performance, or do you

think there is room for improvement? No matter what letters appeared on your child’s report card, January is the perfect time to help him or her get excited about going back to school and learning.

This can be accomplished by creating an atmosphere in your home that encourages learning. Sylvan Learning offers a few tips concerning how to get involved with your child’s learning process and help motivate him or her in the New Year.

— Have family reading time at least once a week. Utilize Book Adventure, a free Sylvan-created interactive, reading motivation program that can be found at www.BookAdventure.com. Students choose their own books from more than 7,500 titles, take short comprehension quizzes and redeem their accumulated points for small prizes.

— Invite your child to participate in cooking or shopping to strengthen her math skills.

Knowledge is PowerBeat the Winter Blues

BY ANNE MARIE NAQUIN, HOUMA

— Set aside a specific time for homework and studying. Take advantage of this quiet time to sit with your child and work on your paperwork. This visually demonstrates the importance of “work time” to your child.

— Create study plans. Have your child do his most challenging assignment first, while he is most focused, then have him work on easier tasks. Finish each homework session with a fun activity.

— Get your child organized inside and outside of school. By being organized, your child will have plenty of time to complete all assignments, and she will also learn the value of time management.

Talk to your child’s teachers. The second half of the year can be

more challenging than the first. Find out if your child needs extra help in a specific subject in order to keep up with the class. pt

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13January 2015

Happy New Year! Let's get 2015 started right! This year let's skip the New Year's Resolutions. Let's skip the promises to

eat all the right foods and do all the right workouts for the year. Instead, let's think past the year for ourselves and for our families. Let's think big picture - lifetime. So instead of resolutions for a year, let's make a fitness bucket list. These aren't just "I'm going to eat healthier options" or "My family will start taking walks together after dinner"...these are things like "Run a 5k race,” "Complete 5 pull-ups,” "run a marathon,” and "try snow skiing.” Think lifetime fitness achievements. Include small, easily attainable items on your bucket list, but dream big for yourself too! Share this wonderful list of fitness aspirations with your entire family and encourage your children to write their own. Do they want to make the high school basketball team when they get older? Have them put it on their list! Do they want to try out for some crazy TV show that showcases incredible athletes with impossible obstacle courses? Write it down! Do they dream of making the Olympic gymnastics team one day? Add it to their fitness bucket list! They have their entire lives ahead of them,

Let s Get FitSkip the Resolutions – Make a Bucket List!

BY JONI BASCLE, THIBODAUX

SHWEIKIMEDIA

and with hard work, anything is possible! Know what happens when you right down a dream? It becomes a goal. We are issuing a challenge to ourselves and to our families to try new things, dream big, and tackle our fitness fears with fun and exciting adventures. If lifetime lists seem a bit too scary, start a 5-year fitness bucket list. For every one thing that you and your family complete on the list, add one more challenge to it. Most importantly, get moving, get your family moving, and HAVE FUN! Here's to a happy, challenging, and fit new year! pt

Mind Workout

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Truth be told, I'm not a huge fan of New Year's resolutions. So shoot me. Resolutioners make a fervent

and steadfast commitment toward a particular positive change – weight loss, cleaner language, smoking cessation, or church service attendance, for example. They start off strong right out the gate, buying the right foods and a gym membership, putting a quarter in a jar for every swear word, wearing the patch, and reading the bible nightly. What's worse is that right before January 1, they often binge on the very things they are about to change - sugar, four-letter-words, or sin. Thus, well-intentioned changers are essentially going from their highest use of the identified "bad" behavior to a screeching halt. Such drastic change can have unanticipated mental and physical consequences that set them up for failure. Think "fad diet" - promising results but nearly impossible to sustain, leaving some with more weight and less self-esteem than before they even started.

Insight from the InsideSustainably SMART Goal Setting

BY KIM THOMPSON, THIBODAUX

What I AM a fan of is resolve and goal-setting - ANY time of year! Here are a few tips to achieve meaning-ful, sustainable change.

1. Prioritize and FocusTake it one at a time or set complementary goals. You very well may start a new business, lose weight, and improve your marital relationship all in the same year. But you are more likely to succeed if you prioritize and focus all your attention on one goal at a time. You can set sub-goals that complement one another, such as losing weight and exercising. But you might not want to set a goal of getting pregnant during that period.

2. Break It DownInstead of going full force or cold-turkey, try an operationalized approach. For example, if optimal health is a goal, YAY for you! To plan for success over the long-term, it's a smart idea to break down the

15January 2015

big picture into smaller, digestable chunks (pun intended). Steps may include:a) getting an overall baseline checkupb) reducing or eliminating fast foodsc) replace one meal with a meatless alternatived) walk, then jog, then run, etc.

3. Make your goal SMARTSpecific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time measurable. Quantify your goal and your small and large successes along the way. What health benefits do you expect to achieve and by which date? How many church services and which bible studies do you intend to attend?

4. WRITE the goal downStick it on a post-it note in your car, on the bathroom mirror, on the fridge, wherever you can as a visual reminder of the

commitment that is completely within your reach. Track your progress by documenting milestones in a journal, chart, or calendar.

5. Vizualize SuccessSpend time meditating on your goal every single day. Set aside a specific quiet time just for you and your goal. Fill your mind with a vivid picture of yourself having achieved success and sustaining that success. To create real time visions, you can even hang your ideal size pant or bathing suit at the front of your closet with your health goal pinned right on it.

Most importantly, be KIND to YOURSELF. Manage your expectations and don't include perfection as one of them. Allow yourself to be forgiven if you aren't 100 percent, 100 percent of the time. Get right back on track and be proud of yourself every step of the way! pt

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