Green

Good Morning!

The beautiful weather is upon us. You have been hearing about so many wonderful places to go to enjoy the beautiful outdoors. Even though we are here in AZ almost synonymous with the word outside is the word green. You may have even noticed some of our formerly dark brown mountains have become adorned with velvety bumps and eye-catching curves of spectacular green.

Green

Green is definitely nature's color. It comprises the major part of nature's offerings. Green grass, bushes, and trees cover most of the earth. When you enjoy the excitement of a rare and beautiful rainbow, you notice that green is the pivotal color - you find it midway between red, orange and yellow on the bottom and blue, indigo, and violet on the top. When you shop for household products like sprays, bags or other supplies, you often find the word green on the package indicating that it is biodegradable. Recently the word has taken on a generic usage related to caring for the earth. It is characterized by the new and popular 3 R's - Re-use, Reduce and Recycle.

Protect the Earth and its Atmosphere

While the old Reading, Writing and Arithmetic used to be what we thought  of as the most important lessons we could teach our children, today teaching them ways to protect the earth and its atmosphere has surpassed the others. Today we want every child to know how important it is to lead an environmentally sound existence. Living and life are the highest of all human values.

Global Warming

Scientists tell us about global warming. They trace much of it to the non-biodegradable items that we dispose of each day. Every plastic cup, knife, spoon, fork and plastic bag that we throw away turns into chemicals that rise-up to form a mass around he earth and block our natural wastes from escaping. While openness cools, such blocking is what warms.

Teach

As you go off to our beautiful parks each day and enjoy with your children the beauty of places like the McCormick Railroad Park and the fountain in Fountain Hills, take whatever time you can to teach your children about the true meaning of the color green and all that they can do each day to re-use items like plastic bags, spoons and containers, to re-duce their quantities of paper napkins, paper towels and other disposable items, and to recycle all of their plastic cups, glass jars and tin cans that they have used. Start your toddlers off with these respectful habits and continue to reinforce and grow with them in the years to come.

Have a happy, healthy and environmentally successful day!

Dr. Sally

Comments

[Dr. Sally]

I had a wonderful visit to the Sunst Library in Chandler on Friday. Jenny Hodges conducted a BeeBo(TM) the Baby Signs(R) Bear's Birthday Party. Gathered were about 40 moms with their toddlers all enjoying this special event:

* Learning birthday signs
* Singing birthday songs
* Reading birthday stories
* Playing birthday games
* And Much More!

It was an exceptional display of quality time for parents and their young children. Even though they were all celebrating well, no one was eating anything that was not good for them; and everyone was moving around, being active, and enjoying hands-on interactive play (the best kind of all!).

There were even select vendors around the room who had high quality items displayed--all that were designed to enhance parent-child time together.

For more information about what took place, to host a similar program, or to learn more about any of the vendors, please contact me at info@drsallyparenting.com or Jenny at Jenny@babysigns.com.

Sally

[Dr. Sally]

Back to green! On Thursday February 21, 2008 I gave a presentation to a MOPS group in Gilbert. It was held at the New Hope Community Church. Talking to these moms was like finding long lost friends. They are a great group of women who enjoy a monthly morning out in the company of caring friends. At the same time they hear two speakers and learn all they can about different ways to enhance their lives as mothers.

After my workshop was a wonderful presentation by a representative from a.k.a. green, a company that sells eco-friendly, non-toxic flooring, counter tops, cabinets and more. The presenter was very upbeat and gave many tips for incorporating into daily life ways to care for your home and children in an environmentally friendly and safe manner.

What a nice morning! Thank you very much Lauren for inviting me to meet the moms and share in their enriching and fun-filled morning. For more information about this group, please contact MOPS of New Hope Community at 480-497-4101.

Sally

[Dr. Sally]

I had the honor yesterday of attending a community consortium meeting that was held at Phoenix Memorial Medical Center. It was hosted by South Phoenix Healthy Start. The room was filled with women representing various agencies and organizations that provide services for pregnant women and their babies during the early years. Healthy Start is an organization dedicated to helping women find "easy access to high quality, comprehensive prenatal care."

Did you know that march is National Nutrition Month? We learned that at the meeting. We also learned about many important healthy living practices. The highlight was hearing the guest speaker Erin Conneely from the ASU School of Nutrition and Dietetics. She made it clear that nursing, even if a little, is better than none at all. She also provided excellent guidelines for the introduction of solid food and drinking from a cup.

If you attended the meeting and have any helpful hints to share, please do so. If you have a service that you think would be helpful to moms-to-be or new moms, please let us know. We are a community of women. Caring and sharing are what we are all about.

Dr. Sally

[Shara]

I attended the MOPS meeting that Dr. Sally mentioned above and was very impressed by Sally's public speaking ability, her articulation and experience in the subjects for which she represents. I love Sally's concepts and agree wholeheartedly with her hands-on philosophy and ideas for home-made toys. If you have a small child or run a preschool, consider purchasing Dr. Sally's books to stimulate effective learning!!! A few dollars well worth spending!