helping hand

It takes work to be a responsible parent, or even just a responsible adult. This month's parent magazine update focuses on magazines that give advice -- because we all need a little help now and then.

Home Education Magazine has advice for any parent who wants to be a little more involved with their child's education -- including an article on the National History Day contest, a guide to running a book club for boys, and a list of good books for teaching teens about money.

Working Mother Magazine features a list of the 100 most family-friendly companies to work for, a guide to purchasing life insurance, and an article on how to rid your home of scary chemicals often found in paint, upholstery and even toys.

American Baby Magazine provides a guide to recognizing signs of autism spectrum disorders in children and seven tips for managing tantrums.

doulas

Who uses a Doula? Thankfully, women with limited resources from all over Southeastern Michigan can have a Doula guide and support them during pregnancy and delivery. Studies show that women who use a doula in childbirth minimize both the need for medication and risk of getting postpartum depression. You can read up on the subject AND attend an event Friday November 20th at 7pm to raise funds for this worthy cause at Cobblestone Farm. Call 734-332-8070 for more information.

college

Sending your child to college can be an enormous challenge. What is it really like? Bring your questions about the process to this program at the Downtown Library on Tuesday evening at 7pm, where Community High counselor John Boshoven will moderate a panel of local mothers - all of whom have had children in college - for a frank and informative discussion.

tween

The magazines on our parent shelf are taking on the world, and they can take you along for the ride.

Parenting: School Years starts out strong with an article on how to enjoy your child's "difficult" tween years, and just keeps on swinging with a special Mom Congress report on the necessity of art education, a guide to family hapiness, and their picks for "toys of the year."

Coincidentally, Family Fun Magazine also features their Toy of the Year Awards -- number one is Klutz's "Invasion of the Bristlebots", a kit for making robots out of toothbrush heads. The magazine continues with an article on blogging as a family, a list of fun Thanksgiving activities, and five unique pie recipes for those bored with the same old pumpkin-from-a-can variety.

Gifted Child Today tackles some serious issues in their fall edition -- a guide to involving children in caring for the earth, an article by Dr. Gilman W. Whiting, director of the Scholar Identity Institute on reducing dropout rates among diverse students, and a guide to identifying signs of Asperger's syndrome-- an Autism-spectrum disorder.

If all this makes you want to roll up your sleeves and dive in, great! These great ideas and more are just a trip to the magazine rack away.

Baby

Get ready to have your heart warmed and your wallet emptied. The October edition of American Baby magazine is out -- featuring an article on adoption and the 2009 American Baby Best of the Year Awards.

In the article, three women talk about the experience of placing their children with adoptive families through open adoption, which enables the birth mother to choose the adoptive family and stay in contact with them after the adoption takes place. This year's Amby award honors such useful products as Boppy as well as the interestingly named Boudreaux's Butt Paste.

Also included in this issue are a baby naming guide to help you overcome common pitfalls, and a "cough decoder" to help you diagnose your child by sound.

single

Michigan State University Extension offers a session called Parenting On Your Own every Tuesday at Hope Center. The session is from 10:30 am to 11:30 am and is free of charge. Topics include managing stress, communication, building self esteem, discipline, parenting teenagers, and more! Call 734-484-2989 or 734-222-3943 for more information.

levar

I am so saddened to hear the news that Reading Rainbow, the PBS show that has fostered a love of reading in children for the past 26 years, has come to an end. According to the NPR story, Reading Rainbow is the third longest-running children's show in PBS history — outlasted only by Sesame Street and Mister Rogers. Fortunately, the AADL is well stocked with Reading Rainbow DVDs, as well as many of the books featured on the show, which means you can still see LeVar Burton sharing wonderful stories and hear those magic words, "Take a look, it's in a book".

Teen literature certainly has grown up since Paul Zindel's The Pigman, as Michael Harmon's 2009 novel, Brutal, proves in this vivisection of bullying and intolerance in today's high schools. Harmon's lead is Poe Holly, a displaced and self-alienated punk rock singer whose outspoken attitude against the barbie doll status quo is tested when her outcast neighbor becomes the victim of several beatings at the hands of untouchable football star, Colby Morris. The novel is as much an analysis of the social strata that the school system fosters as it is a portrait of the disenfranchised individuals that the system tramples underfoot. Here, Brutal succeeds in speaking to both the students caught up in the scheme and the adults who have been shaped by it.

learning

Washtenaw County MSU Extension is teaching Family Consumer Science Programs on useful subjects such as How to Talk So Kids Will Listen, Relax- Alternative to Anger, and Paying Down Debt. They also offer financial resources on their website. Be sure to check them out!

Holiday Gift Guide for Parents

If you are stumped about what get that young person in your life for the holidays, check out the Holiday Gift Guide from the Parents' Choice Foundation. The Foundation has been reviewing media and toys for kids since 1978. The Holiday Gift Guide can help you search by age of the child, budget, or interest! According to their website, Parents' Choice Foundation recommends "products that help kids grow – imaginatively, physically, morally and mentally—fairly priced products that are fun, safe and socially sound." They will help you give gifts you can feel good about.