Internet Safety for Youth

Watch this video, then spend time helping your children understand the consequences of what they might think are innocent Internet activities. Protect your children. Monitor their computer and Internect activity. Know their passwords. Love your children.
 

From US-CERT (United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team), here is a great article entitled “Keeping Children Safe Online”: Children present unique security risks when they use a computer–not only do you have to keep them safe, you have to protect the data on your computer. By taking some simple steps, you can dramatically reduce the threats, click here…to read the article. and here…to visit Wired Safety, the world’s largest Internet safety, help and education resource.

Mother or Smother

By Laraine L. Thompson

In our well intentioned efforts to be good, nurturing parents do we end up smothering rather than mothering—or fathering for that matter? We have all smothered from time to time. We want our children to know that we love them. We think that the way to show them that love is to do for them—things that they can and should be doing for themselves. We launder and iron their clothes. We tidy their rooms. We prepare food at their whim. We hover over their homework, their scout advancement, their young women progress. We may even be doing some of their homework! The list could go on.

I know of one woman (and there are countless more just like her) who, in her willing and exuberant desire to be a wonderful, nurturing LDS mother, waited on her family for their every need. She even went so far as to wrap up hot meals to drive to her son’s athletic practice so as not to force him to have to reheat his dinner when he would arrive home. She washed, folded, and put away her son’s clothing. She hovered over his homework. He, along with his other siblings, was the very center of her world. She was admired by her peers for her mothering efforts.  Yet, when it came time for him to go away to college, he began to struggle. Unsure of himself, he had to return home. When it came time for his mission, he balked once again. Seeking professional help the mother learned from a counselor that she had been too “good” a mother! Instead of helping her children grow toward healthy independence, she had succeeded in making them dependent, in sapping them of important confidence to go forth into the world.

In the most recent Mormon Times, is an article entitled, “Stop Babying Your Missionary”. In it Don Aslett, a “Mormon cleaning guru” states that the best way to help prepare a young man—or woman—for a mission or for, we might add, life in general, is “…to stop doing his laundry, cooking for him, and cleaning up after him….it does missionaries no good to be babied….the worst thing you can do for them is protect them and insulate them”

He speaks from vast experience. He has spent over 50 years teaching people to clean more efficiently. He and wife served a mission together where they saw first hand the consequences of smothering as opposed to mothering. He has observed that “…those who are sloppy in their habits [having not learned or practiced important skills in the first place] tend to be sloppy in their keeping of the commandments.”

Complaining about the quality of their school lunch, our children became responsible for their own lunches from an early age. Each night they would have to make their lunches for the following day. They were always responsible for their own rooms and had other household duties as well. When they were 12, they became responsible for their own laundry—washing, folding, ironing. Of course, we showed them how to do this. You should have heard the complaints of child abuse! They took responsibility for the choice and purchase of their own clothing from age 12 as well. Babysitting, yard work, janitoring, house painting all became skills and a means to their end. For the most part college expenses became theirs as well, along with the expenses of a mission. We supplemented from time to time, but we valued their independence above our notions, or the notions of those around us, of what a good parent looked like. I even had one friend tell me, “…the way that I see it is that you are just not as nurturing a parent as I am!” Never mind that it was her daughter who called home in a panic when she got to college and realized that she didn’t have the faintest notion of how to iron her clothing. Her mother, ever nurturing, had neglected to teach her that skill.

The old dictum, “Never do for others what they can do for themselves” keeps repeating in my head.

For more tips from Don Aslett visit DonAslett.com.

Physical Activity for Youth  

From CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention): Youth gain physical and mental health benefits when they participate in regular physical activity. Schools, families, and communities can help youth be physically active and stay active throughout their lives… click here… to find out more.

How to Save Money with Coupons

Slanted Shelf Pattern for Canned Food Rotation

By Joe

Click on pictures for close-up.

Slanted shelves are a space-efficient method for both storing and rotating canned foods. Some commercial systems allow the cans to be fed and retrieved from the same end of the shelves (the cans roll toward the back of the shelf drop down to a lower slanted shelf and roll forward). The shelf pattern provided here requires access to both the front and back ends of the shelf (or left and right if you face the side of the shelf). Cans are fed from one end and roll to the other for retrieval.

The pattern provided here was adapted from a slanted shelf pattern written by Tom H.  The original design was for a shelf 48”x22”x72”. My available space was a little narrower and a little taller. I had about 5’ of space.

To allow for a foot of space to access both the front and back (or as you face the side of the shelf, the left and right), I had to modify the width in the original pattern (as you look at the shelf per the vantage in the pictures above) from 48” to 36”. I also had 78” of vertical space available and increased the shelf height by 6” from the original pattern. I also chose to increase the shelf width from 19” to 24” to provide for an additional row of cans. The final dimensions of my shelf were 36” wide x 27” deep x 78” high. The instructions below are based on my modified dimensions.

Materials List

Power Tools needed:

Power drill – bench/table saw – nail gun (optional) – dado blade with bench/table saw

To read the entire article, click here…

A Cheap & Easy Craft: Desk Organizer

By Karen Harris

Supplies 

• 3 Pringles (chip) cans
• cardstock, wrapping, construction or other paper to wrap around cans
• stickers, markers or crayons to decorate paper
• tape, twine , hot glue gun (optional)
   

Project

Measure can and cut paper big enough to fit around can, with a little overlap. Decorate paper if desired. Use glue stick on inside of paper and wrap it around each can. Overlap ends of paper and tape down. Now attach the three cans together. I used the hot glue to put a dot of glue on the ends of the cans where they fit together (make sure the taped sides are all toward the center where they won’t show). Use the  twine to tie around all three cans. This will help secure the cans and add a little decoration. Use organizer to hold pens, small papers, scissors, pencils…