O'Gara Publishing, which brings you the monthly niche publications Wisconsin Woman, 50 Plus Lifestyles and BusinessWatch, offers another marketing opportunity to reach the Dane County parent. Dane Count Parent magazine is a quarterly magazine covering issues from tots to teens, this magazine (also online; www.danecountyparent.com) features articles on parenting along with listings of resources for parents.
Wisconsin Reads
Little Skink ’s Tail Written by Janet Halfmann
Illustrated by Laurie Allen Klein
Winner of the 2009
Teachers’ Choice Award, a
Gold Mom’s Choice Award
and President’s Book Award,
Little Skink’s Tail by
Wisconsin author Janet
Halfmann is a delightful tale of
a missing tail. When Little
Skink is searching for yummy
ants to eat, a crow swoops
down and grabs her by the tail.
But Little Skink has a trick, her
tail breaks off and wiggles away with the crow in hot pursuit.
Little Skink is able to hide, but soon misses her colorful tail.
She imagines herself with the tails of other animals, but none are
quite right. One is too puffy-fluffy, one is too stickly-prickly and
one is stinky, stinky, stinky! One day, she notices a tail in her
shadow and realizes her tail has grown back. Her tail-dreaming
days are over.
Children will have fun pretending along with Little Skink.
The bright, bold and beautiful illustrations capture an active forest
full of animals in their natural habitats. A three-page “For
Creative Minds” at the end of the book keeps the educational
level high, with a footprint map activity and a tail-matching
activity answering the question, “Why do animals have tails?”
Recommended for ages 4-8.
Baby Your Back
By Laura Lane
While spoon-feeding his baby
daughter strained peas, Scott
Thom, a stay-at-home dad in
Madison, did a move he calls the “whirling
dervish.” He jumped up, did a complete turn
in midair and landed in front of his baby saying, “Boo!” While Emily loved her Daddy’s
antics, Thom threw his back out and reaggravated
a 10-year-old injury.
“I was trying to be super dad and that
threw it out,” he says.
Even if new moms and dads aren’t performing
the whirling dervish, daily parenting
duties such as diapering squirmy babies on
the floor, lugging infant carriers and struggling
with strollers can wreak havoc on a new
parent’s back. READ MORE
The Good, the Bad, the Ugly
Online social networking for teens
By Debra Illingworth Greene
“Get a life!” It may sound harsh,
but if your young teenager is
spending hours each day on
social networking sites like Facebook and
MySpace, it might be what he or she needs
to hear.
“Kids need to experience going outside,
playing basketball, walking in the park, taking
a bike ride,” says Nick Burrows, a guidance
director at Edgewood High School,
Madison. “Kids need some down time to get
with their friends and be creative.”
“People are spending too much time in
front of the computer social networking and
not living,” adds Colleen Stilson, the computer
tech teacher at Thomas Jefferson
Middle School, Madison. “The Internet is
fantastic but people are getting obsessive
with their personal pages.” READ MORE
Paying forCollege 101
By Rick Loerke
According to The College Board,
average annual costs for tuition,
fees, room and board range from
$14,333 for in-state public universities to
$34,132 for private universities. With college
costs increasing six percent per year, in ten
years these numbers will range from $25,668
to $61,125.
Despite the costs, financing a college education
may be more possible than you think.
Saving early, learning all you can about
financial aid and creating a financial plan can
increase your child’s options, save thousands
of dollars in interest and minimize debt.
Save early
You don’t want your child to procrastinate,
so neither should you. “The most
important thing a person has is time,” says
Shelley Moffatt, AAMS, financial advisor
with Edward Jones.
READ MORE
Help Your Children Through a DIVORCE
By Angela Mihm Nigro
If you are a parent involved in divorce
proceedings, certainly feelings of sadness,
anxiety and anger have crept into
your life. Like most parents, you want to protect
your kids from marital discord, but you
may be wondering how to make the process
amicable. After all, the marriage might be
over, but the co-parenting relationship is not.
“Mediation is a
positive way for parents
to work together
on behalf of their children,”
explains
Attorney Diane
Mader, Mader Law.
“In mediation, parents
work together to create
a new, viable coparenting
team and
the divorce becomes a
future-focused, problem-
solving process,” she continues.
A trained mediator walks divorcing parents
through decisions regarding the creation
of two homes, a placement plan and financial
plan. Mader explains, “As a neutral, supportive
problem-solver, the mediator helps parents
keep parenting so children can continue
to be children.”
READ MORE
