The PTA Parent - November 5, 2008

• Flu Fighting Tips
• Health Resources
• Video Game Safety
• Walk to School Day
• PTA Briefs
• In The News

Spanish-language Resources:

• Estilos de vida saludables de PTA: Guía para padres 
• Documento “MiPirámide para Niños” 
• Una Guía Para Padres Sobre Juegos de Video, el Control Sobre Ellos y Seguridad En Línea

PTA Movie Night Live Deadline Extended to Nov. 9
PTA Movie Night Live is now at over 3,300 schools and counting!
Is your school confirmed to participate?

Mark your calendars to attend this exciting social event at your school which includes an exclusive showing of DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda within days of its DVD release. Your attendance will help support your local PTA and will bring together friends and families for a fun-filled evening in your community.

Not sure if your local PTA is participating?

Here's what you can do:

Ask your school's PTA leadership if a date has been chosen for PTA Movie Night Live at your school.

• If no date has been determined, and if your school's schedule permits, ask your PTA leadership to register your school at PTAMovieNightLive.com. They can choose any date between November 18 and November 26 to host the event. Registration is free!
  
  
• Help spread the word by inviting friends, parents, and your community to attend the event.

Registration has been extended until November 9 at 11:59 p.m. to participate.

PTA Movie Night Live is proudly presented by PTA Video Store, your new online destination for family-friendly entertainment.

From the PTA National President: Making Healthy Habits Year-Round Habits

How do we get our kids to think about their health—and how do we get healthy habits to be year-round habits? By making it fun! I'm pleased to see that for PTA Healthy Lifestyles Month hundreds of PTAs have come up with great plans to ensure that their students are healthy and ready to learn when they get to the classroom.

Parma Park PTA in Ohio will have a year-long series of programs, including a Healthy Lifestyles Bingo game and Family Skate, Bowl, and Dance Nights. Wingland PTA in California also has a year-long program—for walking at recess, with students receiving incentives and recognition for hitting milestones. Butler Creek Elementary PTA in Oregon has planned a Nutrition Jeopardy game (including a Spanish translator!) and tasting bar full of interesting fruits and vegetables for November. You can find even more creative suggestions from local units in the PTA Great Idea Bank (PTA members only) or on the PTA Healthy Lifestyles page (open to all).

PTA Healthy Lifestyles programs will serve more than 450,000 students this year—and that's just at the events we know of! I couldn't be prouder. Good health and wellness are a critical step to success for children, and I want to thank everyone who's helping keep our kids healthy!

Jan Harp Domene
PTA National President

Flu-Fighting Tips to Keep Your Family Healthy

This fall and winter, practice these easy flu-fighting tips to help keep yourself and your family healthy:

• Sign up today to get your flu vaccination at a local PTA-sponsored clinic in your area. Go to pta.org/flushotclinics and click on "Schedule a Flu Shot Appointment” to search for clinics in your area.
• Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
• Stay home when you are sick to help prevent others from catching your illness.
• Cover your mouth or nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing.
• Clean your hands often.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth after sneezing.
• Encourage your friends and family to practice these habits to stay healthy this flu season.

Interested in learning more about the Let's Fight Flu Together! initiative? Go to www.pta.org/flushotclinics to see how your local PTA can get involved!

Valuable Health Information for Your Family

PTA Resources

• PTA Healthy Lifestyles: A Parent’s Guide offers guidance on physical activity, nutrition, grocery shopping, school wellness and more.
• How many colds are too many? Check out this article from an online edition of Our Children.
• Need help making wiser food choices? This article offers some tips for making your family's meals healthier.

Physical Activity

• The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services recently released the first-ever Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans—for ages 6 and older. In particular, take a look at Be Active Your Way: A Guide for Adults for advice on making physical activity part of your daily life, and be a role model for your kids.
• If you're interested in making a commitment to being more active, consider taking part in the President's Challenge with your family. The awards program lets you all track your progress and earn recognition.

Nutrition

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture's MyPyramid.gov website includes a Menu Planner, MyPyramid for Kids, and special information for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
• The Food Research and Action Center website is a great place to learn more about federal food programs that help families in need of financial assistance: the Food Stamp Program, the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, and others.

A Social Mixer Isn't What It Used to Be

Some teens are mixing drugs because they think it will help them get high. But abusing prescription drugs and combining them with alcohol or illicit drugs is very dangerous—and potentially deadly.

Read the Office of National Drug Control Policy's open letter to parents for tips on how to prevent this practice.

To learn more about how to keep your kids safe and drug-free, visit TheAntiDrug.com.

PTA Briefs

PTA Asks You… What Was Your Most Successful Fundraiser?
PTAs have developed interesting and creative ways to raise money to fund their unit operations and activities. Every PTA leader could use a little advice and some great ideas from their peers on how to do it better. What was your most successful fundraiser? Why did it work so well? Let us know!

If your response is selected for publication in the 2009 PTA Fundraising Essentials magazine, PTA will send you a $25 gift card. Deadline for submission: Monday, November 10, 2008.

When submitting your response to forum@pta.org, please include

• Your name,
• The name and town of your PTA,
• Your position in your PTA, and
• Your home mailing address so we can send you a gift card if your submission is published.

By sending an e-mail, you'll be granting PTA the right to publish your response, which may be edited for grammar, length, and/or clarity.

PTAs Participate in Walk to School Day

Parents and students from Tyler Elementary School, Washington DC join principal Terry Dade on October 8 to celebrate International Walk to School Day.

Tyler Elementary was just one of the schools from Washington DC's Capitol Hill neighborhood that gathered at a local park to enjoy a quick breakfast and listen to city officials talk about the benefits of finding safe ways for students to walk to school: Through the increased physical activity, student achievement also rises. The International Walk to School Day celebration was organized by the Capitol Hill Cluster School PTA. On hand to provide information to parents and students were representatives from the city's Safe Routes to School program and the Washington Area Bicyclist Association.

Help make every day a day where students can safely walk or bike to school; establish a Safe Routes to School program in your community. For more information, check out these resources:

• Tips for safer routes to school
• National Center for Safe Routes to School
• Safe Routes to School National Partnership

PTA, ESRB Produce Guide to Video Game Safety
With the holidays approaching, parents everywhere are starting on their children's gift lists, and for many, video games will be a popular choice. As with anything else, having the right information at hand can help you make the best choices for your children.

PTA teamed up with the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) to make available a booklet titled "A Parent's Guide to Video Games, Parental Controls and Online Safety.” It provides

• Information about the ESRB video game rating system;
• A step-by-step guide to setting up the parental controls available on all new video game platforms;
• Guidance on ensuring that your children have a secure experience when playing games online with other players; and
• A Family Discussion Guide that parents can use in talking to their children about the games they play.

In addition, you can order copies of the booklet at http://www.parentvideogameguide.com/.

PTA and ESRB also developed a free webcast for parents that features information on the same topics from experts like ESRB President Patricia Vance; Andrew Bub, Founder/Publisher of GamerDad; as well as remarks from PTA National President Jan Harp Domene. In addition, the webcast introduces viewers to the ESRB ratings search "widget,” a free downloadable tool that allows you to search for ratings information for more than 15,000 video games. Watch at esrb.org/webcast.

Is Your PTA an Outstanding Advocate for Children?
Learn how to honor your PTA's hard work on behalf of children.

For more than a century, PTA's members have been a powerful voice for the health and education of children. Advocacy efforts ensure that all children continue to thrive in safe and nurturing settings. In recognition of that hard work, the national PTA will present the second annual Outstanding Advocacy Awards at the March 2009 National Legislative Conference. The 2009 Outstanding Advocacy Award will be presented to PTAs that strongly advocated for a policy, regulation, or legislation to support PTA's mission and goals.

Two awards will be presented, one to a state PTA and one to a unit, council, district or region PTA. The state PTA will receive $1,000 and the unit, council, district or region chosen will receive $500 to cover direct expenses for PTA advocacy work. In addition, recipients will each receive two all-expense paid trips to the 2009 National Legislative Conference and be recognized at an awards ceremony on Capitol Hill on March 12. Criteria and application materials are available at www.pta.org/AdvocacyAward. Deadline for nominations is December 1, 2009.

To learn how you can attend the 2009 National Legislative Conference, visit pta.org/LegislativeConference.

Eucation.com Offers Resource for Researching Schools
Education.com is a website that gives parents free access to information, tools, and activities designed to help enrich their ability to participate in their children's education. It is now providing an exciting opportunity for PTA organizations to earn $1,000 in the Education.com School Reviews Contest .

Education.com has a SchoolFinder tool designed to help parents research schools. SchoolFinder supplies data such as test scores and student diversity statistics, but relies on parent reviews for a bigger, more personal picture.

You can review your child's school and encourage other parents to participate in this easy way to promote your school and raise much-needed funds for your school's PTA.

From now until December 20, the top three schools that collect the most reviews will win $1,000. The award check will be made out directly to the three schools' PTA organizations.

The content (written by the world's best universities, non-profits, and research organizations) is organized by grade, age and topic. It is constantly reviewed to make sure it's current, well-organized and easy to understand. Thousands of articles are augmented by hundreds of activities aimed to help families have fun while they learn together. The site also features discussion boards to help parents support and share advice with each other.

100 Ways to Help Your Child and School Succeed
There are many ways that you can help your child succeed! A few small activities each week will pay huge dividends over the course of the year. Here are a few that you can do this week:

• Assist school staff and educators in creating a warm and welcoming atmosphere for parents. - Ayude a los educadores y al personal de la escuela a crear una atmósfera cálida y cómoda para los padres.
• Help provide child care and/or transportation for volunteering parents. - Ayude en las tareas de cuidado de niños y/o transporte para padres voluntarios.

In the News

• Dinner for Dads: 'No Father Left Behind!'
• Live 'the Good Life' at PTA wellness fair
• CeCe Peniston Becomes Newest National PTA Ambassador