Portland Parents

For those of us who want a gps solution, to always know where our kids are, I used to recommend the GPS bracelet you can get. But now I’ve discovered Loopt. It’s a service where you can, using a gps-enabled cell phone, let your friends know where you are. And then they can keep track of you. However, if you look at it from the other direction, it’d enable parents to keep tabs on their kids.

What do you folks think? Too intrusive?

Nike is sponsoring a 5K walk/run that gets money for our local schools physical education programs. It’s June 7th and the entry fee is $20 ( until May 28 ). Fifteen of this goes to your chosen school and the other five is a tee-shirt fee. There’s also a 1K walk option recommended for kids under 12. All kids will get a participation medal and a gift bag.

Sounds like a great way to get some exercise and to support our schools’ physical education programs?

More information and signup.

In celebration of the newly released parenting book Child of Wonder: Nurturing Creative and Naturally Curious Children by Ginger Carlson, MA Ed.

Presentation and book signing by the author Twenty-Third Ave. Books, 1015 NW 23rd Avenue Portland May 15th, 7PM need more info

… and a Child Safety Seat Check-Up! This Saturday!

We’ll take any unwanted car safety seat. The car seats are destroyed and the materials recycled, keeping them out of landfills. This is the information for the upcoming event on May 24, 2008.

Where: Portland Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital & Medical Center.
1015 NW 22nd St. Portland, OR 97210
When: Saturday May 24, 2008 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

Recycling: The recycling truck will be parked across the street from the NW Northrup Ave. entrance in the Green Gables commuter lot. No appointment necessary, just drop off during event hours.

Safety Seat Check-Up: Located in Parking Structure #3 Level C. Use NW Northrup Ave. entrance. For a campus map of Legacy Good Samaritan, visit www.legacyhealth.org. Please read vehicle owners manual and car seat instructions prior to attending. A certified technician will be available to work one on one with parents and caregivers to ensure that they can install their child restraints properly. Each seat check takes 20-30 minutes. No appointment necessary.

At the start of the ‘07 school year, Ainsworth PTA in Portland, OR, set out to revamp the way it reaches the parents of nearly 500 elementary students.
Not unlike most PTAs, the majority of Ainsworth’s communication had been rooted in print. The PTA directory, back-to-school packets and weekly newsletters sufficed as one-way dialogues that were time-consuming and expensive to produce.

Today 300 PTA members, every teacher and staff member, plus a staggering 96 percent of the school’s parent base, are communicating online via a free, secure and private web-based platform for volunteer-powered organizations from Big Tent Design Inc. Back-to-school packets which had been shuffled through the hands of school officials, copied and collated by teams of volunteers and eventually given to parents are now simply uploaded to the school’s site, where accessing and completing them takes minutes.

What’s more, parents and teachers alike can join forces to discuss key issues on a daily basis—from school improvement projects and curriculum enhancement to increasing safety around morning student drop-offs.

Taking Ainsworth online has also enabled the noteworthy elimination of its weekly hardcopy newsletter. Not only was creating five-page “News Notes” highly labor-intensive and expensive, it funnelled redundant copies to parents with more than one child in the school system. Parent feedback indicates a strong preference for the new online version, which fosters more two-way
dialogue and helps the school “go green” by saving up to 90,000 pieces of paper annually.

With lines of communication wide open for Ainsworth parents to reach all teachers and fellow parents of students, the PTA’s innovation has sparked a renewed appreciation for narrowed communication. Online sub-groups have been designed for every classroom—21 in all—making volunteer coordination and communication about specific room events more efficient, relevant, and personal for parents. An online, integrated calendar provides event alerts and allows
parents to RSVP and an automatic “news feed” each week summarizes important information, events and updates in just one email.

Through the right mix of technology and foresight, the group has fostered dynamic, personalized and meaningful communication—all for the good of the students.

About Big Tent
Big Tent Design, Inc. is where trusted groups connect online. Designed with security and privacy at the core of its platform, Big Tent strengthens group involvement and simplifies group management. By combining the best of today’s social networking features with free group management tools, Big Tent helps real-world communities share, communicate and organize online and in-person. Founded in 2006, the company is headquartered in San Francisco
and currently hosts parents groups, PTAs, preschools, alumni associations, professional organizations and other clubs and community groups nationwide. For more information about Big Tent, please visit: www.bigtent.com.

Bring your old bike helmets to recycle, and come purchase discounted helmets provided by grants from Legacy Foundation, Legacy Portland Hospitals Medical Staff and Trauma Nurses Talk Tough!

You can get the inexpensive helmets at:

Saturday June 7, 2008, 9-1: Sunset Community Bike Safety Fair, 14986 NW Cornell Rd, Portland
Saturday June 17, 2008, 10-2: Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center Healthy Kids Fair, 2211 NE 139th St, Vancouver
Thursdays June 26, July 17, Aug 14 2008, 3-5: Legacy Emanuel Hospital Atrium, 2801 N Gantenbein Ave, Portland OR

Your brain’s worth way more than two lattes! Get your brain bucket!

Wow, what a “No Crap There I Was” story… “No crap, there I was, innocently trying to eat my roasted corn, when BAMMO a peacock attacked my face!”

A young boy, all of four, was attacked by a peacock today at the Oregon Zoo. His parents say he didn’t taunt it or tease it, but it was an unprovoked attack. The bird landed on his head and scratched his face beneath his eye.

The peacock involved in the most recent peacock attack was retired to the country; he went after another young kid who was reaching for the same piece of candy that the peacock wanted. Maybe the birds get stressed out or something. I hope this bird either is released or is also “retired.”

The peacocks wander around the zoo. They’re not caged. They’re not tame, either. But they’re not dangerous, not like a free-roaming cougar. The parents of the kid hurt today think there should be more notices about the birds; perhaps “beware of vicious peacocks.”

I hope the administration doesn’t decide to cage the peacocks. I think they’re generally fine to have wander around the zoo. They greatly increase the ambiance.