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In the Spotlight:
Member of the month
Well my first member of the month would have to be hmdturtle because she volunteered to write an article for the newsletter. Anyone else interested in going the extra mile e-mail me and let me know.

Idea of the month
Guess there hasn't been a whole lot of ideas submited. If you have one let me know and I will reconize you.

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Questions & Answers:
Advice From Your Peers
My son's birthday is coming up and I could use some advice on ideas and stuff.  He's going to be 1.  :(  All of his friends that will be there will be between 6 months and 5 yrs.  I'm not sure what to do as far as games and gift bags and food.  Ok....I'm just totally in need of advice in every aspect.  HELP!!
-julieson21

Your Advice
You should be able to type in your advice here. If it doesn't work then just e-mai your advice to [email protected]

Last Months Question
Since I don't have a question yet from one of my club members I will ask for help with a problem that I am having; potty training. Please, please HELP! My daughter has kind of been going for about a month, but she forgets or she doesn't want to. I have tried everything.

Answers
Well my neices doctor said to put up candy that she likes on the bathroom wall and everytime she goes that she will get it. LoL but sometimes they go all the time just for the candy so I tryed a poster put her name on it and get stickers that she likes and everytime she goes let her put a sticker on it and if she goes like 4 days in a row or something give her a treat it worked for us but its all kind of trial and error sometimes good luck. ~~VICTORIA DICKSON~~

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Members Stories:
My Halloween Story
by Emily Lamar
Ally's first Halloween that I could take her trick or treating was last Halloween. She dressed up like a lady bug and we headed to main street Columbus to go trick or treating at all the shops. All day long I had been working on getting her to say "Trick or Treat". She would say it to me but as soon as you tried to get her to say it to someone else she froze. She stood there stareing up at who ever was handing out the candy then she would just shove her bag out ready for her candy. Then she would grab my arm and pull me to the next place as fast as she could. We had gone with some friends from my work but they weren't moving fast enough for Ally, she wanted to get to every place as fast as she could. By the end of the trip she had a bigger bag then any other kid and she was one of the youngest out there. Here she was not quite 2 walking down the street with a bag full of dum dums (that is all they were handing out in the shops) as big as she was. Finally I made her quit, I couldn't walk any more. And I was afraid we would have dum dums for the next year.

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October Calendar:

For Full Calender with Birthdays & Occations:
http://www.geocities.com/smiley81_97/calendar/oct01.html

News:
Up and Running
Well the club is taking off! We now have 47 members and that number grows each day. I am trying to get as much done on the web page as I possibly can. I started a yahoo groups for us all to enjoy; make sure you go and check that out.

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Survey: Breast or Bottle?
This is a new way of taking surveys. I will see how this works. Let me know if you like it or not. This way you can see the results of the poll right away. Go to this link to take this survey and past surveys.
Breast or Bottle Survey
More Surveys:
Other Surveys
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Need Help:
Since next month is Thanksgiving I am asking members to write a short essay on what they are thankful for and why.

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Articles:
I am hoping to have a few members write monthly articles for me. If you are interested in sharing your thoughts let me know. My e-mail is all over this page.

Disipline
By Heather D.
Last week I was at my friend's house visiting with her, her husband and their 1 yr. old son. I ended up having to put Ashlee in the corner for about 5 minutes. The grown up discussion turned to discipline. I asked them how they planned on disciplining Chris. They didn't really know, but they knew they both disagreed on punishments. They didn't think putting kids in a corner was right, nor did he think spanking is right. So this leads me to my second article- A quick look at discipline methods. Ashlee very rarely gets spanked, this an after last resort for us. She probably averages a spanking once every 4 months. First she gets warned then she gets put in the corner for varying amounts of time depending on the "crime", and occasionally gets sent to her room. We tailor all these to fit the "crime". Usually just the boredom of the corner works with her. I believe that using a variety of methods works best, but of course thats my opinion. On to the facts!

METHOD ONE: SPANKING Studies show that if you were spanked as a child, you are likely to spank your kids. Makes sense huh? But is spanking teaching our kids to behave or that hurting them is ok? To a child it may seem as if its ok for bigger people to hit smaller ones, or that they should be afraid of you. Is this the messege you want to send? Here's a study I found at babycenter.com: "Toddlers who receive high levels of harsh discipline--hitting and scolding--tend to have lower IQs than those who don't, reports the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. In the new study, researchers spoke to and observed the mothers of 715 boys and girls to determine the frequency of harsh discipline. They found that girls, especially, registered lower IQ scores if they'd been physically punished--an average of 8 points below those not harshly disciplined." If I was to hazard a guess as to why this happens, it is because the kids feel afraid to do anything. If a mother freaks out because the child gets paint on thier clothes, they may be afraid to paint. Therefore stunting thier artistic ability.

METHOD TWO: TIME OUTS Well there are many forms of time out, the corner, a chair, being sent to the bedroom etc. I think this is the best way to discipline a child. They are forced to stop what they were doing and think about what they did. Even if they aren't old enough to go through the connection process they can still understand that time out is not where they want to be, its boring and therefore might remember not to throw, hit, etc. But with smaller kids, repetition is the key, so you have to put Jr. in the corner every time he does the "crime". This will aid in thier understanding that actions have consquences. Of course you can't very well send a two year old to thier room, so some adjustments do need to be made for age. We started with the corner around Ashlee's 3rd birthday, before that she had to sit on the couch, just long enough for her to realize, hey this sucks. A minute or so works for those under 3.

METHOD THREE: YELLING I'm not talking about shrieking, or screaming. I just mean that voice we us to get the point across. I just couldn't think of an alternative word (sorry). We all do it, its unaviodable, especially when our kids are freaking out. A lot of parents don't like to use the word NO or sound harsh, but from where I'm sitting that seems strange. If you don't say NO, how do the kids know its wrong? If your child is hitting his playmate, how do you not say, "no, its not not nice to hit"? If you are afraid to sound harsh, at least some times, your child will eventually think you are a push over, or that nothing they do is naughty. We get angry, and yelling is a sure fire and natural way of showing it. If your child understands that when mom or dad's vioce starts to get louder you mean business, they will be more likely to stop and not need any further discipline. But just as we expect them to listen to us, we should listen to them.

Finally I think that this is something that should be decided BEFORE your child gets old enough to need discipline. That way you can be repetitious and consistant. Even a loose punishment plan is better than none at all. I'm sure we all know at least one child who's parents don't discipline them, I for one do not want my kids to turn out like thiers!!

I visited: oxygen.com and babycenter.com to help which this article

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Club Web Page
http://www.geocities.com/smiley81_97/

Club
The club is taking off. We are starting to get members to join and everyone seems to be participating. Thank you all so much. Club agenda is the new thing in the club. Hope you enjoy this, it gives us something to do everyday even if we don't have anything to say.

Club Page
http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/teenoryoungparentsclub

Yahoo Group
I have created a yahoo group for us to use also. You can post survey, bookmarks, entire files, and more. Check it out! I would love to have all the members from the club join! I do have to approve all members (which is for your safty) so it will take a day before you can post things there.

Group Page
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/young_parents_club

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Weekly:
Quote

Useful Link
http://www.babycenter.com/
This is a great place to get information if you are pregant or if you already have a kid. They have articals on just about any question you can imagin.

More Links
http://www.geocities.com/smiley81_97/pages/links.html

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Time for mommy:
Book List
I love to read so ever month I will give a book review of one or two books that I have read recently.

The Rescue
Nicholas Sparks

Denise Holden's life is a fragile mix of luck and hard work. A single mom of a speech-delayed son, Denise makes ends meet by moving to the small town of Edenton, North Carolina, and working the late shift as a waitress. When Denise crashes her car and her son Kyle flees the accident and disappears into the storm, her only stroke of luck is the quick arrival of Taylor McAden, a volunteer fireman. Taylor's got a knack for fixing people, and he can't help wanting to be involved with Denise beyond the initial rescue of Kyle.

As Taylor helps Denise recover from the accident and get to know the town, they discover a sweet bond and a magical chemistry that pulls them closer and closer. Though Taylor fits perfectly into Denise's family, he's unable to open his heart to being loved by her. As Taylor struggles to understand his conflicting desires, Denise questions the wisdom of gambling with Kyle's and her own emotions.

My Review of the Book:
This was a great book about dealing with pain and the problems in ones life. Characters were really well developed. It also had a wonderful love story for those of you who are really into romance! A Great Read!

Movie Review

The Glass House

I recently saw the movie, "The Glass House" with a girlfriend of mine, and it was pretty good!! I must say, the storyline, as with most movies nowadays, is completely played out, so you knew when something was going to happen, although you could never be sure what. LOL. It was pretty good though! It was about a girl (Sobieski) and her brother, who get taken in by they're parents friends, the Glass', after their parents are killed in an accident. Slowly, Sobieski realizes things aren't what they seem, and their inheritance is putting their lives in danger...by the people they're supposed to trust! Out of 4 stars...I give it 2 and a half. Good acting, but, like I said...common storyline! LOL Linda
-mommycjn217

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