So Saturday October 25th is National Make a difference day! (or was rather as I write this) On Tuesday at our meeting we made some beautiful decorations for a nursing home here in Chico. Riverside Nursing home became the recipient of some of the most lovely wreaths and pilgrims/Indians I have ever seen! On Saturday Orangutan and I took over all the decorations to the nursing home and toured the place. It was filled with wonderful people eager to have some company. I talked with the nursing staff about having our kids come by and read books to the guests, and sing Christmas carols to them during the holidays. This is something I want to work on over the next few weeks.
I hope all of you went out on Saturday and found a way to make a difference!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Feast or Famine? Do you know the answer?
We played a bit of a game at this meeting! A game show to be exact... I named it Feast or Famine, because the questions were based on facts about children and life in Ethiopia. A friend of mine told me about someone who would be sending containers of food and goods over to an impoverished village in Ethiopia and asked if our club would like to help. (To get more details on this please visit the website at...
http://www.vertechengineering.com/EthiopiaRelief.html )
So me, being me, can't just tell the kids to bring bags of food, and be done with it! I wanted to make a game of it, and have them learn something in the process. I was surprised at the outcome. I think I learned more than they did!
For example to point out how different our lifestyle is here; I asked the kids how much a house cost here in the U.S, and how much a house cost there in Ethiopia. (keeping in mind their home is made of tin scraps, mud and hay...)
What I learned is that our children think our homes cost 1000.00! So a home over there must be about 50.00.
A chicken on the other hand here in the U.S must be about 50 or 60 dollars... ( do these kids go shopping with you?) It was hysterical! I was going to ask what an average monthly salary was here and there but they were so far removed from reality I moved on to some other questions... (In Ethiopia the average income is 70.00 a month!)
So we discussed some interesting facts like the favorite foods here verses favorite foods there, the rich over there eat less vegetables, where here I think it is the opposite. One sad fact is that 30% of American children are over weight and 40% of children in Ethiopia are underweight. Those numbers have another interesting statistic behind them. Both weight problems carry similar health problems. Diabetes, heart disease etc. Hopefully this is something that will change within our lifetime.
Educating kids about healthy choices and exercise now is one way to help. Here in Chico there are so many out door activities, it is easy to stay busy. Speaking of that...next Saturday, October 25th is National Make a Difference Day!
http://www.nationalserviceresources.org/node/19455
The above website is a link that might get you thinking about what you can do...
Of course I will be doing something with the kids on Tuesday that will be for Saturday.
Until next time
NinjaMom out
http://www.vertechengineering.com/EthiopiaRelief.html )
So me, being me, can't just tell the kids to bring bags of food, and be done with it! I wanted to make a game of it, and have them learn something in the process. I was surprised at the outcome. I think I learned more than they did!
For example to point out how different our lifestyle is here; I asked the kids how much a house cost here in the U.S, and how much a house cost there in Ethiopia. (keeping in mind their home is made of tin scraps, mud and hay...)
What I learned is that our children think our homes cost 1000.00! So a home over there must be about 50.00.
A chicken on the other hand here in the U.S must be about 50 or 60 dollars... ( do these kids go shopping with you?) It was hysterical! I was going to ask what an average monthly salary was here and there but they were so far removed from reality I moved on to some other questions... (In Ethiopia the average income is 70.00 a month!)
So we discussed some interesting facts like the favorite foods here verses favorite foods there, the rich over there eat less vegetables, where here I think it is the opposite. One sad fact is that 30% of American children are over weight and 40% of children in Ethiopia are underweight. Those numbers have another interesting statistic behind them. Both weight problems carry similar health problems. Diabetes, heart disease etc. Hopefully this is something that will change within our lifetime.
Educating kids about healthy choices and exercise now is one way to help. Here in Chico there are so many out door activities, it is easy to stay busy. Speaking of that...next Saturday, October 25th is National Make a Difference Day!
http://www.nationalserviceresources.org/node/19455
The above website is a link that might get you thinking about what you can do...
Of course I will be doing something with the kids on Tuesday that will be for Saturday.
Until next time
NinjaMom out
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Communicate? Sounds like jiberish to me!
Well the last of our September meetings found us waving our arms like chickens, acting like Beavers and wondering what the heck NinjaMom was doing up there making all those silly noises!
I challenged the kids to create their own language. We pretended we were Native Americans who all had a common problem. Our water supply had run dry, and we were headed to a tribal council in front of the "elders" to see if we could come up with a solution. The thing is...no one speaks the same language! Interesting... It was great fun to see the kids use their hands and quite a few giggles to convey they had no water. Only one tribe knew that it was the Beaver's who had built a dam blocking the flow of water to all the tribes. I think most of the kids were able to follow the story even if there were no words used. Since we had a few minutes left we played a few rounds of charades. That was fun too.
Communication is so important. I talked to the kids about how we can talk to each other in many ways, with our bodies, the tone of our voice, and with our silence. The Native American's were able to communicate and trade with each other even though they did not share a common language. We could learn a lot from that.
There will be no meeting on October 7th. I have to go out of town for an appointment!
Darn! We will meet again the next week. We are starting our Charity work and begin to plan some things like skits and songs for the School and Nursing homes.
Until then
NinjaMom Out!
I challenged the kids to create their own language. We pretended we were Native Americans who all had a common problem. Our water supply had run dry, and we were headed to a tribal council in front of the "elders" to see if we could come up with a solution. The thing is...no one speaks the same language! Interesting... It was great fun to see the kids use their hands and quite a few giggles to convey they had no water. Only one tribe knew that it was the Beaver's who had built a dam blocking the flow of water to all the tribes. I think most of the kids were able to follow the story even if there were no words used. Since we had a few minutes left we played a few rounds of charades. That was fun too.
Communication is so important. I talked to the kids about how we can talk to each other in many ways, with our bodies, the tone of our voice, and with our silence. The Native American's were able to communicate and trade with each other even though they did not share a common language. We could learn a lot from that.
There will be no meeting on October 7th. I have to go out of town for an appointment!
Darn! We will meet again the next week. We are starting our Charity work and begin to plan some things like skits and songs for the School and Nursing homes.
Until then
NinjaMom Out!
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