Friends
Americans Need to Make More Friends!
Statistics are showing that Americans have fewer friends than they used to, according to a recent study, “Social Isolation in America,” which was published in the American Sociological Review. The authors found that the number of Americans who feel they have someone with whom they can discuss important matters dropped by nearly one-third from 1985 to 2004, and the number of people who said they had no one they could discuss such matters with tripled to nearly 25 percent of Americans. The authors suggest the cause for this decrease in intimate friendships may be longer work hours and the increased popularity of the Internet and television.
The same study also determined that the number of people who discuss important subjects with family members only increased from 57 percent to 80 percent, and those who depend solely on their spouse for such intimate discussions increased from 5 percent to 9 percent.
So what does this mean for you? It may be harder than ever to fight loneliness in society and to form intimate connections with others, but the health benefits are worth the effort to forge friendships with a large number of people.
Start visiting with friends on a regular basis and befriend their own friends, family, and acquaintances to instantly increase the number of friends you have. There are countless ways to meet people in your community as well. You can get involved in volunteer work, take local classes in subjects and hobbies you’re interested in, or start a book club at your neighborhood bookstore or café. You can also take advantage of online social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, but with the view of using these to set up real-life meetings with the friends you make online, taking the safety precautions of meeting new people in groups of people you already know and in public places, of course.
Tina Turbin
Shriners Hospital of Tampa: My Visit, Visits, Reading and Creative Time With the Kids
Last year I had the pleasure of visiting and sharing my delightful Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy children’s book with the children at Shriners Hospital of Tampa. Keep reading to hear all about this wonderful experience:
To my surprise most of these kids I visited at Shriners had flown in from all over the world for the intimate care at Shriners. Shriners caters to kids under 18, accepts no payment from parents or insurance companies and all their money is raised by donations and the hard work of the Shriners.
Half of the children I visited spoke little English and were under care to receive prosthetics or some type of surgery , due mostly to being born with a certain defect.
These kids were bright and creative as we made our own “book” to leave in their hospital library. They titled their “combined-efforts book”, Danny and Friends to go with my book, Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy.
It was an amazing day, to say the least. The knowledge I gained afterwards truly opened my eyes to the many needs and the various ways to help out in society.
Note: The little girl sitting in the wagon next to me (above photo) had no legs “yet” but she handle this with pride and in her own way. She hid an assortment of chocolate pudding, bags of candy and 3 cans of Gatorade as well as all sorts of stuffed animals tucked under her blanket covering her legs. I am smiling at her as she had taken a break from our coloring to get a bit too much pudding on her face rather than in her tummy. She was a charm and the staff were amazing with all these kids!
Enjoy!
Tina Turbin
Grammy Award Make-Up Artist helps Tina in LA
Mara Rouse has a history of exceptional credits to her resume to add another jam packed filled week of applying make-up for the celebrity pre-parties to the Grammys as well as the Grammys this year, 2010. Mara Rouse is now the make-up artist for any parties or shoots we do while in Los Angeles.
Mara specializes in Special Effects but loves it all. If it involves applying make-up she has interest. Mara moved here from Washington state to pursue her career working and apprenticing with Top people in the business. Hard work and perseverence got her to where she is now and we are very proud to have her as part of our LA team.
While in LA there are many times we need a little make-up done on the kids or me ( not Danny of course), to look just a bit better on a video or film shoot with the lighting. She has helped in the past and she has officially signed on as our “team”, unless something more important comes up- like the Grammys.
Mara Rouse is available fo hire: http://www.myspace.com/maramakeup
Thank you Mara. Tina Turbin
Library Visits with the Kids—Some Helpful Tips
There’s nothing like good, old-fashioned visits to the library to get your kids interested in reading and encouraging them to become avid readers themselves.
You can start bringing your children to the library as early as infancy—around six months of age, or when they start to become interested in looking at the pictures in books. Make sure your baby is well-fed and well-rested before your trip so he’ll be able to enjoy himself and you’ll find it easy to keep his attention on the books you’ll show him. For infants and toddlers who are still interested in putting any and all objects in their mouths, board books are thick and strong enough to sustain the chewing and saliva of your baby’s mouth. Spend some time reading to your baby in the library and walk your baby around to look at all the books.
Libraries these days tend to allow you to check out a very large number of books. Our local library lets us check out fifty books at a time! Bring a colorful, fun bag to carry the books home with that you check out. Since many other babies have touched and put their mouths on the board books you’ve checked out, when you get home, take some organic, baby-friendly sanitizing wipes and wipe the books down. Then, read often to your baby from the selection of books you’ve bought.
As for older children, take them to the library when they’re also well-fed and well-rested so that they don’t get cranky. Show them your own favorite children’s books and let them pick out books that they’re interested in, too. You can take turns reading to them and having them read to you. Have them check out a pre-determined number of books and enjoy them with your child during story time before bed or any other time you want to read with them at home.
Each child has a different attention span. Never force a child to read or listen when they don’t want to. Oftentimes you’ll find that they’re tired or hungry, and you yourself don’t like doing things when you’re tired or hungry either, do you? Letting a child read and be read to on his own determinism helps him to have a positive association with reading.
Make sure to check out a book or two yourself, and read it between library trips and finishing it before you return it. This will set a positive example for your children to follow.
With the above tips, you’ll be on your way to raising children who are avid, proficient readers with a bright future ahead of them, while establishing a family tradition everyone will be talking about for years to come!
A Mother’s Role is a Valuable Asset to Our Society
Chances are, you have an idea of just how important you are as a mother in your household. For instance, what if you were to go out of town for a week? Who would get the kids ready for school, take them to soccer or ballet, help them with their homework? And could you imagine the state of the house after such a length of time? As helpful as your spouse or children may be, without having Mom around to spur them through their daily chores, how often would they do the dishes or remember to take out the trash? And then there’s the matter of how they would feed themselves. Clearly, Mom, if it weren’t for you, your household would probably collapse.
My experience as a mother started long ago when I married and became pregnant with the first of my three children at the age of twenty-one. Not only is this role the basis of my work as a children’s author, inspiring me to create my children’s series, Danny the Dragon, but it also serves as the foundation of my work as a researcher, writer, and humanitarian. Believe me, this mother thing is no small job. Rather, it is a fundamental job, stabilizing the family dynamic, and a great accomplishment, the gift that keeps on giving, as your own children have children of their own and perpetuate the stable home life you yourself fostered.
Studies are more than ever showing that what parents do now will affect their children’s future. There is a study which shows that what a child eats as early as before the age of two will determine his food preferences for the rest of his life. Whether he eats his vegetables or regularly goes through the drive-thru of a fast-food restaurant in his adult life is determined by what Mom chooses to feed him here and now. Of course, Dad will have his input, but if your family is anything like mine or the average family, it is Mom who’s picking out the menus for the family and cooking it up, too.
More than that, parental involvement such as staying in tight communication with teachers, participating in school or extracurricular activities, and especially reading to your child are proven ways to ensure that children end up not only literate, but also to make more likely to graduate from high school and attend college. When you look at it, the income-earning potential of your child is determined by how often you help him with his math homework, go to those PTA meetings, and read to him before bed. Now that’s a lot of responsibility.
Now that you’ve taken a look at how your role as a mother is a valuable asset in your own home, which is a fact I’m sure you have figured out all on your own, I urge you take a look at a mother’s role in society. Typically, aside from rare exceptions, it is the mother who is charged with the responsibility for rearing children. When it comes to all matters of hygiene, cleanliness, nutrition, schoolwork, etc., it is Mom who oversees these. On a collective scale, statistics of childhood illness and disease, childhood nutrition, and children’s literacy could largely be attributed to mothers everywhere just like you and the decisions they make about their own children.
Collectively, therefore, mothers contribute largely to society as a whole, to its health, its productivity, and its wealth. They influence whether their children turn to drugs, alcohol, and crime, and so they also have an impact on more serious issues in our society such as drug abuse and criminality.
At home, you get support from your spouse, your neighbors, relatives, and children, to help you with your job as a Mom. After all, you are a valuable asset in your home and deserve their support. However, with this idea in mind, I encourage you to find ways to support other moms you know and moms in your community. Clearly, moms everywhere are an asset to our society and they deserve our support, too.
Renowned Organization “Women Taking Care of Business” Features an Article About Author Tina Turbin
Prepare to be inspired and gain insight about Tina Turbin: award-winning author of the celebrated Danny the Dragon series, artist, humanitarian and researcher that many parents, community leaders, educators and others have come to know and love. Her beautiful article is featured at the “International Moxy Women” and “Women Taking Care of Business” website.
Today is the 40th Anniversary of Sesame Street!
Wow, it’s hard to believe that Sesame Street has really been around for 40 years! There aren’t very many children’s brands/themes that are able to withstand the progression of the generations, but looks like Sesame Street has indeed passed the test.
It was fitting that the highly praised Sesame Street Halloween Concert, which Danny the Dragon and I had the pleasure of participating in, (see blog entry from 10/27/09) nearly coincided with this special anniversary. We even had a visit from the Count!
Enjoy your day and don’t forget to take a moment to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street with a story to your child or perhaps re-capturing a favorite episode! Or how about playing a game with your child in which you introduce Danny the Dragon to a favorite Sesame character…?
Tina’s Florida Cupcake Party – A Warm Thank you
This is a lovely “thank you” card sent to me from a child that had attended one of my fun and exciting monthly Gluten-Free Cup Cake Parties, generously sponsored by Pamela’s Products and Nature’s Food Patch in Clearwater.
And an equally lovely note from his mother. Enjoy!
Dear Tina,
Thank you so much for including us in your cupcake party Saturday! It was really cute, when we got home from your place, Bodhi (my 4-yr old, who you met at Spring Valley School) was actually reading Danny the Dragon! So Tristan picked up the book and got to the part where they are all eating dinner together, and he said, all matter-of-factly, “Danny the Dragon eats healthy.” I responded with, “yes, and his author, Tina Turbin, eats gluten-free!”, and just as matter-of-factly and straight-faced, he responded, ‘yes, true’. You could not have planned it better!
Then Sunday night I was telling Shane and Tristan that Monday was a holiday (their school started today, Tuesday), and that the four of us (Shane, Tristan, Bodhi and I) would have the day to play, so I asked them to think of some fun things to do on Monday. Shane got all bright-eyed and exclaimed, “I know, we can write Tina Turbin a card thanking her for Saturday!”. Oh Tina, just what every mom wants to hear, an un-prompted desire to write a thank you card! And that’s what fun thing he wanted to do on our day off! So I am enclosing that card – it looks like both boys drew you scenes of a Pokemon battle – quite an esteemed gift from their point of view!
It was wonderful to see you, and thank you again for including us. I went to a dinner party Saturday night and must have told about 15-20 people about it, and gluten, and did the same today when I returned to work, so I am defnitely spreading the word. Even Allen (my hubby) was telling people about it at his office yesterday, and he wasn’t even there!
Love,
Lael
Tina Turbin Speaks Out – How to Get Organized
Let’s pick up where I left off about my schedule and how I get so much done. To be organized is a good thing and to have a schedule of some sort is always helpful. Sometimes SO MUCH is happening and I have so many deadlines that I think I am going around in little circles. Piles of papers, files, the computers and computer screens. I research and write about companies regarding kids and their health, gluten-free and family issues as this all also aligns with my personal goals to help improve the quality of life and health of others. I write for other publications and sites and it can get a bit overwhelming to keep up with all that is required and to also keep on top of the Danny the Dragon series, tours and my humanitarian interests. This is my what I do: keep a large calendar and I mean LARGE. Write out the appts. and deadlines. Or if you are an aspiring author, set goals. I have found that e-mails are the black hole. I use discipline and do not allow myself to get into them unless I have done what is really important. I also do not at all bother with answering all my e mails as I only reply to those that are important. Some can wait until the week-end or even the next month if you are truly too busy. I do not use my phone or computer for my MAIN calendar. It just does not work for me. To have one BIG calendar up for me to see at all times keeps me focused and organized. Good help is another factor as we all know.
Author – Tina Turbin’s Schedule
Many people ask me how I get so much done, what my schedule is like and do I ever sleep. First of all, yes I do get sleep. As a children’s author, writer and researcher I am very creative and the urge I feel to create is truly unlimited, has no bounds at all.
If I am tired it can slow me down a bit but not totally, to be honest. I am constantly creating new things for the moment and the future in my writing and things all around me continuously inspire me towards new ideas. I am also surrounded by lovely and positive people and anyone not into what I am doing; well sorry but “good-bye”. I just do not have time for anyone to slow me down and will not. So in a nutshell, this is how I get so much done. About my schedule, well I will fill you in next time. My husband, beautiful daughter and 2 creative boys (www.canontheband.com) are also an inspiration and support me beyond belief. We are a team and a strong wonderful family.
