JAK CHAT

Now, and in the month April and throughout the year, Just Add Kids encourages all individuals and organizations to play a role in making Southeastern Wisconsin a better place for children and families. By ensuring that parents have the knowledge, skills, and resources they need to care for their children, we can help promote children’s social and emotional well-being and prevent child maltreatment within families and our communities. Consider the following five protective factors that protect families that are under stress: 1 – Social emotional competence of children Children who learn how to identify their feelings, empathize with the feelings of others, share emotions appropriately and problem solve with peers and adults are more likely to succeed in school and have friends. Give your children many opportunities to talk about feelings and discuss positive ways of coping with their feelings like listening to music, play-ing sports, drawing or writing, etc. 2 – Knowledge of child deve...

How Sweet IT Is?! Hello!  My name is Adam Haut and if you had told my younger self that someday my goal was to create the perfect baby teether I would have definitely questioned your sanity.  Well, with life being a series of twists and turns, and sometime even u-turns, here I am doing something that never in my wildest dreams would I have ever imagined. Read more... Having children alters your life dramatically and like the famous saying goes "The days are long and the years are short."  When you've got a baby who is teething you certainly know just how long those days can be. The idea for my teether came to me while my daughter was going through the teething process.  Her sprouting teeth were causing her quite a lot of pain and we felt powerless because everything we tried to do seemed to have little to no effect one way or the other.  We gave her frozen plastic rings, a rubber giraffe, and baby pain relievers but nothing helped.  That’s when I had the classic thought “...

RE-member.                Written by Just Add Kids Founder, Paula Herrmann  I have no new memories, other than the fact that I can't let this day, September 11th go by without some kind of honor to the day that changed modern day USA. As each year passes, the heavy heart that I carry seems to get lighter. Time heals, right?   Read more... Every year since I can remember that followed that fateful day, my oldest daughter  would have to relive and grieve. As a elementary school child her little safe world was threatened....she will not forget. She would make a point of watching the news documentaries that took her back to that unusual day in the life of a happy go lucky 6 year old and I'd join her in respect to not forgetting the enormity of this attack on our country.  For the first time on this anniversary, she's not home but rather away at college.  Thus, I haven't heard the narratives or walked by the video footage playing in our home. So, as I reflect and share, the...

Why Does My Child Need Chiropractic Care?      Sponsored by Sozo Chiropractic   You’ll probably never see your five or six-year-old bend over to pick up a toy and freeze in pain saying, “Oh, my back went out again.” Spinal degenerations and vertebral subluxations that cause that kind of pain will generally not appear in children - but it started there. Read more... Birth Trauma Even with a smooth labor and delivery, and no extraction methods being used, childbirth causes stress to a still developing spine. Add to this the improper lifting of the child out of a car seat or during a diaper changing; and minor spinal traumas are occurring that affect the spine and nervous system causing common newborn health complaints: Colic Unexplained crying Poor appetite Earaches or ear infections Colds Allergic reactions Even a minor spinal trauma will affect the nervous system and interfere with your child’s normal healthy function. Learning to Walk When a child first learns to stand...

#3 at age 8 A "Little" Girl Named "Pink Stink" Written by Just Add Kids, Founder Paula Herrmann   Daughter #3 brushed past me this morning in the kitchen. Yah, so? We were able to look at each other eye to eye, meaning our eyes were level with each other. Rrrgh...another one growing up.   I don't like it one bit. Another daughter on the cusp of teenhood. Please stop now!   Am I being selfish, or do you feel like this as you watch your kids grow right in front of your eyes? Read more... It's funny, it seemed as though she stayed a little girl for so long and I kinda expected her to stay that way like FOREVER . There is a 5 year gap in between her and her next older sister (#2) and 7 years in between her and #1, my oldest.  As 1 & 2 transitioned into teens and now into young adults, Pink Stink, which is one of the names we dubbed #3 at birth, seemed to get stuck. She's always been on the petite side. When the older two would cause me distress, there wo...

Oh Where, Oh Where Do the Children Play?                by Just Add Kids Founder, Paula Herrmann                                                                                                             I was able to take a short trip south for a few days this week. Ah, it was so nice to feel what summer should be feeling like, especially being that it is the end of June, right? Eighty degrees, mild humidity...perfect, in my opinion!                                                                                                            It was the tri-state area of the Ohio River Valley, an area that I've never really experienced, rather have driven through a number of times. This trip brought me through hilly, lush, neighborhoods of the surrounding communities of Cincinnati. Beautiful countryside!  Many things the same as our hometowns here in SE Wisconsin...downtowns rich in history, schools, parks, waterfront destinations, your national chain restaurants and retail stores, ...

Oh, Yes, I Did! by Just Add Kids Founder, Paula Herrmann   So you know I am on this May Mother(over)load kick.                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Too darn many balls to juggle, at least for this momma to claim sanity.                                                                                                                                                                                                                         On that note, I've decided to take a little break today, ya know, in honor of Mother's Day, of which I am one....a mom of four humans, and a puppy and a fish, to be exact.                                                                                                                                                                                                              ...

Deserving of a Blue Ribbon, Part 2 by Just Add Kids Founder, Paula Herrmann Well, April is just about wrapped up, and a couple of campaigns I'm involved with will dwindle down with the promotions. Not that the issues go away...sadly not. Last week, in JAK Chat, I described my work with the Turn the Town Blue Campaign, a Kenosha county-wide initiative to share the light on Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Month in "Deserving of a Blue Ribbon". Click the green link, in case you missed it!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Part of the focus of this campaign is not only to lace the community with blue ribbons, yet to celebrate strong families by appreciating all the...

Deserving of a Blue Ribbon by Just Add Kids Founder, Paula Herrmann I'm always looking for a good party to crash! A few years back, I ran across this group of Kenosha County peeps that rallied (and continues to do so)behind a blue ribbon campaign in recognition and support of Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Month. That being the month of April, obviously. Being a resident of Racine, though a stakeholder in the health and well-being of families in the county, I thought this would be a good fit for me personally and for my business, Just Add Kids. Thankfully, our family is strong. Mine and my husband's relationship is intact. We are resourceful and have a strong network of family, friends, and community. Becoming an active member in the Turn the Town Blue Campaign community collaborative introduced me to the front line people that work day in and day out with families that are struggling to keep it together. Read more... I could rewrite what was well written by the Kenosha New...

The EXPO! Afterglow [caption id="attachment_2469" align="alignright" width="300"] Just Add Kids EXPO! 2014[/caption] by Just Add Kids Founder, Paula Herrmann I stayed up late last night, taking waaay too long to formulate a letter of appreciation to the folks at Racine Unified School District. I sent it on to 7 recipients. I'm going to share it here with you. Please read more...     Greetings!                                                                                                                                                                                                                      On behalf of myself, the Just Add Kids team, and our community at large, I'd like to thank each and every one of you for your support and partnership with this past Saturday's Just Add Kids EXPO!. For the third year in a row, we've proven that when private and public entities work together with a common goal, great things can happen.  And bo...

For Those "In" Service...  It's We Care Packs               My name is Katie Pollock, I am a ninth grade student at Tremper High School in Kenosha, WI. I am working on a community service project. It began when I was in the seventh grade looking for a community service project for National Junior Honor Society and it has continued on since then. My mom's coworker has a son who was critically wounded while serving our country. We discussed the need to support our troops, so I decided to work on collecting items to send to the soldiers that they can use for daily life. These items are put into care packages to be sent to them in Afghanistan. They include things like: tea, books, lotion, cookies, candy, soap, dental care items, socks, etc. In order to receive these products for the packages, I reach out to companies and ask for donations. We also have had donation drives.    Read more... Once we get enough products we have a “packing party”.  At these packing parties th...

Spring Break! Staycation-Style (Updated 6/10/2014)              Written by Just Add Kids Founder, Paula Herrmann   Not on your way to Phoenix or Florida or somewhere else south where your face won't freeze? Nah, me neither. It's spring break for a great number of us, and I'm sure like some of you, traveling far far away just wasn't in the cards for me and my family. C'mon and give a big "boo hoo" with me. Well, dang it, we've got 40's in our future, and just because I'm stuck here in good 'ole Southeastern Wisconsin, doesn't mean I can't get escape the cold. Come with me as I share some options... Read more.... I'm not going to overwhelm you, or myself. I've got to work most of the next coming week, yet I am going to break away.  So, here are 3 unique ideas, I think! The first thing that pops into my mind is warmth and water....Timber Ridge Lodge & Waterpark! Located in Lake Geneva, our destination is probably an hour or...

Communication Breach By Just Add Kids Founder, Paula Herrmann Good grief, is all I can say.  I've seen the fallout of communication gone bad when the choice mode has gone from talking face-to-face or on the phone, versus communication via your fingertips (texting, emailing, messaging).  I made, perhaps, a bad decision. Last week, I spent a great deal of time addressing the real challenges we parents face with keeping our kids safe from online predators. I went to an informative presentation on the subject, I dialoged about it on Facebook with other concerned parents, I found out that my son (seemingly from everything he told me) was a target...I even wrote a blog about it:   Read more... Creeper Alert: Proceed with Caution . I have not, and probably will never move on from that subject. Peeps, it's here. It's our reality. I'm living it. My kids are living it. If you are not there, your kids are either too young, or you've decided not to open that can of worms. If y...

A Memory Crisis . . .  Avert Yours in Advance!             Sponsored by Pixologie, Inc.  It happened on December 1, last year . . . nearly two months ago. I lost my iPhone and, even today, I have the sinking feeling of sadness and dread over this. It is not because of the money I paid for the phone, or the frustration of having to figure out how to get a replacement, or the time invested into apps that I may or not even get again. I miss my family photos on it. We had a very unique and special Thanksgiving weekend (just five days before I lost the darn thing.) I was heartsick that I hadn’t uploaded the photos anywhere - including the memories of our family celebrating Thanksgiving in a new place with very special family, spending time together at a Christmas tree farm where my 12 year old daughter was able to take the reins of a four horse wagon ride, the special times working on crafts with family friends and so much more. Read more... I just knew I was going to remember some other...

[caption id="attachment_2210" align="alignright" width="203"] I caved with buying #3 a celebrity fragrance #gagme[/caption] Scentsational! by Just Add Kids Founder, Paula Herrmann Oh lucky you! I am on holiday break with my kids for the next week and a half, so brief with today's entry, I shall be. Today I started going thru the numerous photos I took during my family Christmas celebrations. In an effort to fill this space I hope you don't mind me sharing special moments with my kids, husband, siblings, inlaws and their families. As I do that, I am struck by the words I've seen circulating around on Facebook. I've seen it before, yet, never does it ring truer than as I sit back and reminisce... Read more... "You will never have this day with your children again. Tomorrow they'll be a little older then they were today. This day is a gift. Just breathe, notice, study their faces and little feet. Pay Attention. Relish the charms of t...

  Please follow this link for more kid-oriented, family-friendly activities and events: http://www.justaddkidsonline.net/Just_Add_Kids_Happenings.html