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...

i Caved. i Regret. by Just Add Kids Founder, Paula Herrmann She's no different than any other typical 11 year old girl. Caught in between being a girl liking girly things such as playing dress up, Polly Pockets, Barbie's, American Girl dolls and the interests of a teen such as make-up, music and liking boys. I shouldn't be fretting. Heck, I've been here before. I've managed to move my two others through this transition, seemingly fine. But the truth is, it is different. You'd think a lifetime has passed since my 16 year old was 11. It didn't seem that long ago when a birthday or Christmas present list was an easy thing to compile....toys, games, ahhh, and those beloved big, bulky  Little Tikes items. I ran into a problem when it came to #3 daughter's birthday this past April. Not only did she beg me endlessly..."Mom, all of my friends have a cell phone!", but I also planned Just Add Kids' big event, the EXPO! the day after her birthday....

September 11th Memory Lapse by Just Add Kids Founder, Paula Herrmann Back-to-School Coma ? I swear I live my life like a marketing campaign sometimes. (Previous campaign: End of School Year Hangover , which I think I just overcame a couple of weeks ago, right?). I don't know where my mind has been lately. Um let's see...4 kids, 4 different schools; surgery for the dog; car problems; new JAK staff, rummage sale... Well, there is more, but I think you get the picture. I'm freaking busy as all get out. I was not reminded of today's day of remembrance until late last night, something brief on the news. I didn't even have the subject on the docket for this week's blog. How in the world could I forget? In year's past, I'd approach and live through this anniversary heavy-hearted. Eerily, each year's September 11th to me, seemed to mimic the clear day that we had back on that Tuesday in 2001. Today, with all due respect, I didn't somberly tune into the n...

...Hello! Meeting Cindy, Gavin & Rusty By Just Add Kids Founder, Paula Herrmann It might sound a little creepy to say that I fell in love with a relationship. Well, I did. I bumped into the trio of mom, Cindy; son, Gavin; and therapy dog, Rusty Schultz at a special needs resource fair a few months back. I, there representing the resources Just Add Kids has to offer families, including those with special needs* children. And "team Schultz"? They were there at the table next to me, sharing the opportunities available from the support group Autism Solution Pieces , selling merchandise, and seeing and making new friends. Wasn't too hard!  The adorable, extremely well-behaved Goldendoodle is a magnet.  Read More... I spent some time learning more about the group that I had been introduced to before via a phone call from co-founder and Vice-President Cathy Wathen months earlier. By meeting the other half Cindy, President of the founding team of A.S.P., as it is commonly r...

F.B.O. Reyna! Written by Beth Bitner Reyna Moore is a local Racine girl who has recently been diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma, which is a rare form of bone and soft connective tissue cancer.  She has a tumor in her left hip and upper femur. The cancer has also spread to her lungs.  She has undergone 5 rounds of chemotherapy thus far and is starting her 6 th round on May 29 th . Reyna is 8 years old and a middle child in a family of four children. She has two older brothers, Alonzo who is 15 and Mario who is 13, as well as a younger sister Maria who is 7 and doubles as her best friend. Her mother Trudy is a hardworking single mom who is trying her hardest to provide the best life possible for her children. Reyna’s cancer was found after she had been complaining about her leg hurting for a couple of weeks, and it was pretty much written off as growing pains. At 8 years old, cancer is probably the furthest thing from a parent’s mind.  Read More... Trudy decided to take Reyna to the doctor a...

Springing Forward by Just Add Kids Founder, Paula Herrmann Allow me to be the messenger of this annual reminder.  This daylight savings time has really crept up on me. You? Once again, we need to set our clocks ahead one hour before we go to bed this Saturday night, March 9th. As a mom, trust me, losing an hour of life, sleep, in bed, does not bring me great joy.  I am sure you can relate! At the same time, READ MORE... the extension of daylight into the evening is welcomed. It's amazing the impact that one hour can have on our bodies. Yet instead of being discouraged with the change, think more about a time FOR change, new beginnings: start fresh.  Isn't that always the beautiful thing with life? You can always start afresh with a new day or a new season.  Now if the weather would continue to cooperate (it's amazing what one day of sunshine and melting snow can do). I found myself the past couple of weeks just absolutely in a funk, so I made a change. This one was suggeste...

Snow Day: Little Man by Just Add Kids Founder, Paula Herrmann He's my son. He's my youngest child. And he's alive and healthy...thank God!  I can attribute the fact that he was able to snuggle up on the couch with our puppy on Wednesday's snow day to his bus driver. Only a week ago, his life was nearly wiped out  Read More...  by a driver who flew through our bus stop, apparently completely oblivious to the fact that there was a big yellow vehicle stopped with flashing lights and stop sign, and a group of little people enroute to board, like any other school day at 8:30am. I remember I was a bit miffed at my 10 year old daughter for her deliquency in turning in a project and I was chatting with another parent who was sitting in her van discussing that fact (her son is in the same grade/had the same project).  I saw the bus approach with lights triggered prior to the bus making the full stop and I acknowledged to the kids that it was time to move toward the bus. Casually...

April is Prevent Child Abuse Awareness Month But we've got problems now. This minute. Today. Last week a  JAK-ie  (one of  Just Add Kids  friends, followers, mom) contacted me in a frantic, helpless state.  A young neighbor girl had been sexually assaulted and her own children witnessed the assault.  On top of that, the accused and admitted violator was released back into his home, right next door to his victim. Oh my gosh, what do you do? And you may have heard of this one...a high school gym teacher is charged with child enticement.  This is just what we know in one week in our community. READ MORE... Nothing happens by chance. This past Monday, I got together with the committee behind the Turn the Town Blue Campaign , Kenosha County's collaborative initiative to bring awareness to preventing child abuse and keeping kids safe in conjunction with National Child Abuse Prevention Month .  As we build toward April and the culmination of activities, information and events that wi...

Sponsored by Sonnenberg Consultants What is the missing piece to the puzzle of Autism?  No one really quite knows. Autism now affects 1 in 88 children and 1 in 54 boys *Autism prevalence figures are growing * More children will be diagnosed with autism this year than with AIDS, diabetes & cancer combined * Autism is the fastest-growing serious developmental disability in the U.S. * Autism costs the nation $137 billion per year * Autism receives less than 5% of the research funding of many less prevalent childhood diseases *Boys are four times more likely than girls to have autism *There is no medical detection or cure for autism ( Autism Speaks ) We have a solution.  We can help find that missing piece. We are  Sonnenberg Consultants . Read more... We are a company that focuses on the needs of the family and the children. We offer intensive services for families in Wisconsin and Illinois and other services outside of these states. Our program molds around family life and what is b...

A Mom's Life It's May!  Need I say more? Well, let's see...it's about 9:15pm and tonight was Art Fair night.  Where were you?  School's ice cream social? Band concert? The sports banquet? It's a phenomenon that occurs every spring.  It's called the month of May, or as I have been accustomed to calling it May-hem. Describe your life too? I guess it's no coincidence that Mother's Day is scheduled this month.  We have to all stop, celebrate, and salute moms, right in the middle of her most craziest month out of the whole year (it might be in a dead tie with September).  Now for those of you with preschool children you are probably wondering, what the heck is all of the fuss?  Let me forewarn you... Got kids? May will hit you like a ton of bricks when they are in school, in sports, in extra-curriculars. Looking and chatting  with a lot of moms tonight, most of us are in a daze. Some had multiple events to attend tonight. And some families had to split.  ...

The Wheel Deal by JAK 's guest mom blogger from Kenosha, Wendy Woods It was the morning of August 2009, and my 2 1/2 year old son and I were waiting for his physical therapist and the medical equipment company. My son was going to try out a powered wheelchair for the first time. Yes, I said powered wheelchair. I was dreading this day and here it was. READ MORE... I've known for a while that my son was going to have difficulty walking on his own but I had always hoped and prayed that with a lot of physical therapy he would eventually walk. I remembered waking up and thinking that I had failed him somehow. That I was letting him down. If only he had been diagnosed earlier and started physical therapy earlier, we wouldn't be here waiting for a powered wheelchair trial. What I thought was going to be the worst day of my life turned out to be the best. When Nicholas got in the chair, he grabbed the joystick and moved about a foot, his face lit up. He couldn't believe he move...