humanitarian
Pesticides Are Shown to be Linked to ADHD
As a concerned mother and a children’s author who cares very much for families and children, I found the following article to be both appalling and at the same time refreshing to know that such a critical issue is being exposed.
While it has been known that pesticides used for our food and vegetable supply pose a variety of health risks, the fact that these same pesticides are linked to so-called ADHD in children is a truth that every parent needs to know about.
Click here to read the full article. Afterwards, browse through this section of my website for MANY helpful tips, resources and information to improve your family’s and your children’s quality of life.
I hope the above information helps you.
Tina Turbin
Danny the Dragon Supports “The Cure”
A lovely response to a donation of my Danny the Dragon materials to a cause that I support dearly.
Tina
I came across a review for Tina Turbin‘s book Danny The Dragon “Meets Jimmy” on my friend’s blog. Because I have a child her son’s age and a child a bit younger, and because I trust her opinion on books that we will enjoy, I did not hesitate to order a copy of the book and audio CD for my own children. I have two kids, ages 4 and 2, who are bookophiles and I know they will love their book!
Additionally, I told Tina that I am walking in the 2010 Dallas Susan G. Komen 3-Day For The Cure and that I am hosting an event with a silent auction in order to raise the funds needed to participate – funds that will directly benefit breast cancer research. Tina was gracious and generous enough to donate a DVD, audio book and some other goodies to assist me in my efforts. I am so excited to be able to present someone with her items and spread the word about Danny the Dragon while raising awareness about breast cancer! Thank you, Tina!
Lyndsey Griffin
Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy – LIVE on ABC News 10!
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My new Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy DVD (including sign interpretation for the deaf) is quickly becoming quite popular with parents, teachers, librarians and children alike. This is a very unique video.
Sacramento’s “Moms Like Me” and Sacramento’s ABC News 10 talkshow entitled “Sacramento and Company” will feature a television segment about my DVD between the hours of 9 and 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, Friday August 16th (for those who are in the Sacramento area, please tune in to your local ABC station to watch the show live). They will air a few DVD clips and are hosting a terrific give-away to 5 lucky winners, to each receive my DVD!
Please be sure to tune in by visiting the above mentioned links for live streaming and/or by tuning in to ABC News television.
There’s a good chance you could win my Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy DVD for yourself!
Tina Turbin
Mom’s Talking About 6-Year-Old Handcuffed and Committed in School
Times have been slowly but surely changing and it is stories like this that really can hit home as to the NEED for teachers and school officials to have some of their control taken into account. As a mother of three, and American citizen and a humanitarian I can not believe acts like this can not only occur but that they are. This is a story for every parent to read and every family to understand.
When a simple call to a police official can get your pre-school or elementary school child handcuffed and placed in a mental institution, you know something is VERY wrong. What gives them the right to by-pass the parent’s authority of the child and by-pass the parent’s right of guardianship. Not that I agree with my 94 year old grandmother when she commented on this,What happened to the good old days with the simple spanking or slap on the back of the hands with a ruler” -but tell me, what has happened to our society? Can’t we expect and demand simple discipline to child where we can be confident it is safely applied? Isn’t this our right? My advice to you is “get involved”.
I deal a lot with teachers, children and moms as a children’s author and I can tell you the number of times I speak about kids and the school system is often. I welcome any radio station to have me on when it comes ot topics like this. I have a lot to share about actions like this. Please read this:
On FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2010 a young girl was sent to an adult mental institution for being unruly. This seems to be the way Port St. Lucie’s ( FL) school system has in dealing with disruptive students. This same school district allowed an autistic boy to be voted out of kindergarten class for unruly behavior.
Also, a Parkway Elementary School( FL) student was cuffed and sent to an adult mental institution earlier this month after she through a temper tantrum in the middle of class, reports TCPalm.com. The police report stated the cuffs were "for her safety and the safety of others”.The handcuffs calmed the little girl down after an hour in the tight silver handcuffs yet little did her and her family know what was ahead.
A few days later, this same girl had another “fit” and the school called the same deputy, who tossed the little girl in the back of his patrol car and transported her to the local adult mental institution. “The girl’s mother said “These people are going to the extreme”.
5-year-old Alex Barton was voted out of class two years ago for being disruptive in class. Alex Barton had a form of autism and his mother is now suing the school board. The School Board official will most likely be looking into this one!
http://www.momlogic.com/2010/02/6-year-old_student_handcuffed.php#ixzz0fkdVvS0w
As American citizens we can not let things like this happen. I welcome your feedback and any involvement or situations you have witnessed like this. We can find many groups to help violations like this. See My Favorites as a start. Leave a commnet tothis post and I will get it or you may Contact me
Tina Turbin
Children Need Good Literature
The fact that kids need good literature is not a new one. Just look at the number of awards available in the United States alone to reward authors for superb children’s literature. The long list of such awards includes the Newbery Medal, Caldecott Medal, Coretta Scott King Award, and Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal. With such an extraordinary effort made to celebrate good children’s literature, there must be something important about it.
I know how short the attention span of a child can be yet how thrilling it is to watch a child’s imagination partake in an exciting adventure story. However, why should a child read good literature rather than watch an “educational” television show or an entertaining children’s movie? The answer lies in the benefits of reading to your child.
Research continues to support that reading benefits children of all ages in a number of ways. Reading helps to build your child’s vocabulary, develop his imagination, and improve his ability to communicate. In fact, there is a direct relationship between how many words an infant hears in a day and his language skills, and even his intelligence quotient. Reading is crucial in exposing your baby or young child to a variety of words. The images and colors in children picture books and illustrated books are also stimulating of the imagination. This is part of the reason why I spent a whole year interviewing illustrators after writing the first book in my series, Danny the Dragon—I knew from reading to my own children just how much children appreciate art in children’s literature.
So the next time you’re shopping for the kids at Wal-Mart, think twice before you get them another DVD, remember the pleasure you get from curling up with a good book, and pick out some high-quality children’s literature instead.
Getting Involved in Your Child’s Education
First, make sure your child is well-rested and well-fed. A well-balanced diet, with nutritious meals at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and healthy snacks after school, has been shown to improve academic performance in children. Kids also need to be well-rested in order to focus during the day.
Next, take advantage of every opportunity to meet your child’s teachers, such as parent-teacher or open-school nights. Not only will you make sure you’re not missing vital information, such as what the teacher expects of your child’s homework assignments, but you’ll show your child and his teachers that you care about his education.
Familiarize yourself with your child’s daily routine by making a copy of his schedule. If you know gym class is on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, you can make sure your child brings his gym clothes on these days.
Check your child’s backpack and planner to make sure you see teacher’s notes, important dates, permission slips, and graded assignments and tests. You prevent your child’s embarrassment in school by making sure your child is prepared for the special events and activities you’ll find out about through your backpack inspections and can provide your child with help for anything you find he may need help with.
Stay connected with other parents. Sometimes your child’s perception of what’s occurring in the classroom may not be accurate, or perhaps your child hasn’t been mentioning some essential information. By forming connections with other parents, you can ensure that you’re not missing out on vital data.
Proceeds from Danny the Dragon CD Support Good Cause
If you’re like most Americans, you probably haven’t even heard of celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder which causes an immune reaction that can affect the entire body, causing both physical and mental problems. The cause? An allergy to gluten, a component of wheat, barley, and rye. The problem with celiac disease is that doctors don’t know much about it either. They don’t know that it affects an estimated 300 million Americans and that with a simple test, a diagnosis can be made and the easy treatment can begin—a gluten-free diet.
An estimated 300 million Americans have celiac disease and only three percent of them know it. When I’m not working on the latest installment of my Danny the Dragon series or the Danny the Dragon Cookbook, I’m working hard to change this statistic by raising awareness and support for this disease that affects more people twice as many of those who suffer from Crohn’s disease, ulceric colitis, and cystic fibrosis combined.
Proceeds from the Danny the Dragon CD will go to the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University Medical Center, one of the major research centers around studying and bringing awareness to celiac disease. It is one-hundred percent focused on studying celiac disease and carries out research connecting it with various other diseases which it is believed to lead to if left untreated. Its goal is to change the lives of celiac disease sufferers for the better around the world, a goal which it is actively achieving, little by little, every day.
Literacy Statistics Need To Be Confronted by Parents
First, the most important thing you can do to ensure the literacy of your own child is being involved. Research on the effects of parental involvement shows a consistent, positive relationship between parents’ participation in their children’s education and their children’s academic performance.
Reading to children and also homeschooling are a couple of ways for parents to increase their involvement and improve their children’s ability to read. Reading to children should be done as early as six months of age, as soon as babies develop an interest in the pictures and illustrations in books. Keep in mind that every child has a different attention span.
You can volunteer at libraries and schools, in already-established programs or programs of your own, by reading to children the books they cherish and by helping them to read these books on their own. Even just an hour or two a week of your time can go a long way in helping improve the literacy of children in your own community.
In the end, there should be a long-term solution to the literacy problem implemented in our schools, but there’s no sense in waiting on the sidelines and expecting your local schools to take care of the problem. In the meantime, be proactive and raise awareness. With your efforts and the efforts of those around you, the literacy situation will be confronted. However, without your help, this victory over illiteracy is not guaranteed.
Speaking Out about Parental Involvement
Parents often ask me how to make their own family more like Jimmy’s in Danny Meets Jimmy. One answer is being actively involved in their children’s education and lives. Research on the effects of parental involvement shows a consistent, positive relationship between parents’ participation in their children’s education and their children’s academic performance. Studies show also that parental involvement is associated with lower dropout and truancy rates. There is no question anymore that parental involvement positively impacts the education of children.
Parents often ask my how they can increase their involvement. If their children attend school outside the home, they should make sure to meet their children’s teachers and stay actively connected to them with notes to and from school. A lot of teachers use e-mail these days to stay in touch with parents as well. There are a number of creative ideas for being involved with children, for example cooking with one’s children. These are just a couple of examples of the many ways parents can become more involved in their children’s lives.
Danny the Dragon Supports Education for the Deaf
As an active literacy advocate, I do as much as I can to get kids reading to revert the literacy statistic of this country. However, it wasn’t until recently that I became aware of another alarming statistic—the literacy rate among deaf children.
The average deaf child is diagnosed at two or three years of age for hearing loss. This means that there is a good chance that his language development has been severely affected, as the child may have been missing large portions of spoken language, if not all auditory experience, that hearing children get from birth. What’s worse, the demand for academic achievement among deaf children is lower than for other children, resulting in learning and home environments which aren’t as focused on reading. With an upbringing that doesn’t emphasize language and literature, it is difficult to expect deaf children to perform at the same analytic and linguistic levels as other children.
That’s why I have created the signed reading of Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy DVD, all the profits for which are going to supporting the amazing school I visited, Blossom Montessori. Its Montessori education encourages imagination and allows for real-life applications of subjects learned in the classroom. By supporting schools such as Blossom Montessori School for the Deaf, I know I am truly contributing toward reverting the deaf literacy statistic and enriching the lives of many bright children.
