August 2022 - Growing Up in Santa Cruz

Back in the Classroom

growingupsc — Sat, 06 Aug 2022 22:01:39 +0000

A New Kind of Classroom Safety By susan Tatsui-D’Arcy Whether we’re talking about guns on elementary, middle school, high school, or college campuses, we’re opening doors to more carnage. As teachers prepare for the new school year, besides books and class supplies, some teachers are stocking their classrooms with military-grade devices to protect their students. One Bay Area teacher purchased a metal bat and the Barracuda, a metal bar that prevents entry, for her classroom. She also plans to run drills for her elementary school students to teach them how to stay quiet and to listen to her directions when there is an intruder who can harm them.It seems to me that when our teachers need to arm themselves with active-shooter backpacks loaded with bullet-proof vests, bullet-proof plates/shields, and tourniquets, we need to rethink who we allow to have weapons and under what conditions. No teacher can realistically protect all of the students from a mentally ill person carrying an AK-15 rifle. Consider Uvalde, Texas, where 400 good guys with guns wouldn’t stop one bad guy with a gun for over an hour because they were afraid of the destructive power of a weapon of war in a classroom. 19 children and two teachers were killed. Schools in 10 states allow teachers to carry concealed weapons to deter would-be shooters. These states are Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. A teacher’s job should be to build strong academic foundations to prepare our youth to be literate, to move on to higher education, and to understand how to function in our society. Many teachers have also taken on parenting roles to feed students who go to school hungry and mentally support abused students. Providing weapons to teachers and administrators will neither protect students nor make schools safer. Instead, it will make guns more available to students and teachers who would not normally have access to them – causing opportunities for more devastating deaths. Allowing college students to carry concealed weapons on college campuses already exists in 10 states today. These states are Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin. That means that these 18-22-year-old students, whose ability to control and self-monitor their behavior is not fully developed because their frontal lobes are not completely formed, have access to guns. So when college kids party and get drunk, instead of fighting with their fists, they can pull out their guns? This sounds like a terrible idea.Whether we’re talking about guns on elementary, middle school, high school, or college campuses, we’re opening doors to more carnage. Guns, especially AK-15s, are designed to kill. In a civil society, disputes should be settled by discussions and compromises – not murder. To protect myself, I carry pepper spray and keep a bat by my bed. Both are good defensive protections, and they don’t kill.Protecting your family, home, or business should be done in a way that deters invasions. Because we can mistakenly think that an intruder is going to kill us, our actions should be to disable, not to murder. I remember the time my daughter surprised us with a visit at 2:00 AM. My husband could have shot her – thinking she was a burglar. We need solutions that allow for human error without killing. Our Founding Fathers did not have access to security cameras, alarms, pepper spray, and 9-1-1 (established by AT&T in 1968), and that’s why they used muskets to protect their homes. We no longer need to have guns to protect our families. In fact, only 13% of colonial Americans owned a gun. The muskets built in the 1770s were not accurate weapons; they’re nothing like the pistols, semi-automatic pistols, rifles (AK-15s), and shotguns that about 72 million Americans own today. Maybe we should take the Constitution literally and allow people to own muskets with lead balls instead of bullets. They would most likely miss their targets and they would only be able to shoot once every minute or so. During the past six months of 2022, about 200 children were killed, and about 500 children were wounded by gunshot. Guns make our homes less safe for our families. The press didn’t show images of the carnage from the Uvalde School massacre. The AK-15 is a weapon designed for war. The bullets fire at such velocity that they can decapitate an adult leaving the body like a grenade obliterated it. Children’s bodies were so blown away that it took parents over 6 hours to identify their children through DNA and other means. In an ideal world, guns would be available only for sport and under the careful supervision of gaming and sportsmen’s clubs. Our world is not the same as it was in the 1770s. Today, people handle pressure in different ways, and their mental health is not predictable. What we need is a more effective way of screening for mental illnesses. Some states consider family, neighbor, and fellow worker input to get a more accurate read on people who are applying for gun carrying permits.Other nations like Japan and Singapore have the lowest mortality rate (by firearms) in the world because they have strict gun-control laws. When their citizens get angry, they deal with their anger in non-lethal ways. Guns are a coward’s way out. We need to think smart and stop the carnage now. Let’s make it an inalienable right for every American to protect themselves with security cameras, pepper spray, and bats – not guns. Susan Tatsui-D’Arcy is the founder of Merit Academy (one-on-one classes) and Merit Educational Consultants (college and educational advisory). She has written books on projects, free child care, education, and parenting. Susan hosts TEDxMeritAcademy for students to present their innovative projects and solutions. In 2019, she was California Mother of the Year. meritworld.com Read More Parenting Articles

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The End of an Era

growingupsc — Sat, 06 Aug 2022 21:31:43 +0000

Great America is Closing: What Can You Expect? By Erik Chalhoub The news of California’s Great America’s eventual closure sent shockwaves through the Bay Area and the theme park community. We haven’t experienced such a loss in our region since Santa’s Village in Scotts Valley shut down for good in 1979. So what might this mean for Great America visitors? Let’s take a look.Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, which has owned Great America since 2006 and the land it sits on since 2019, announced in late June that it had sold the land to real estate developer Prologis for $310 million, and would wind down operations of the Santa Clara park in preparation of its eventual closing within 11 years. Cedar Fair has not yet committed to a hard closure date for Great America. But a review of the lease agreement between Cedar Fair and Prologis helps us narrow down the date ever so slightly. According to the agreement, the lease has a six-year term, with an option to renew for another five years. However, Prologis can terminate the lease at any time, provided it gives a two-year notice. This means that, if Prologis gives notice today, Great America could close in 2024. The latest it could remain open is 2033. But what will Great America look like in the next year or five? It might be completely unrecognizable. Shockingly, this is not the first time Cedar Fair has shut down one of its parks, and we can look to the past to get some sense of how Great America is going to fade into the sunset. In 2004, Cedar Fair purchased the Geauga Lake theme park in Ohio, but, citing financial issues, shut down the amusement park side of Geauga Lake in 2007 but kept its recently upgraded water park operational through 2016. During the ensuing few years, Cedar Fair relocated rides to other parks in its portfolio. Ironically, the now-defunct FireFall at Great America came from Ohio.Expect to see the same situation play out at Great America. 2022 will likely be the last time the park is “whole” before rides are shipped out elsewhere. Strong rumors suggest that Psycho Mouse, the wild mouse-style coaster toward the rear of the park, will be the first to go at the end of this year, and will be relocated to Cedar Point in Ohio. Newer, more-marketable rides such as RailBlazer will likely follow suit over the next five years. It’s not completely unimaginable to see Great America’s new water park, South Bay Shores, be the last area standing, similar to Geauga Lake’s water park. Great America has already been flirting with water park-only operation this summer.Any new investment (i.e. rides) into Great America is probably a thing of the past, making Liberty Twirler, a scrambler-type carnival ride opening soon, likely the final new ride at the park. Cedar Fair, however, has committed to continuing special events at the park throughout its final years. Whatever happens, we can expect Great America’s closure and redevelopment to be a painful, long-drawn-out process that extends well into the next decade and maybe even beyond. Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor said the property is currently zoned for a theme park, and any changes must be approved by the Santa Clara City Council. Make sure you get those final rides in at Great America, because nothing can be taken for granted. Save the DatesThe Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk’s Evenings on the Colonnade continues Thursday evenings through Aug. 11. Performing in the final two weeks are Coffee Zombie Collective on Aug. 4 at 8:30pm and The Joint Chiefs on Aug. 11 at 7:30pm.Free Movies at the Beach continue on Fridays through Aug. 12. “Trolls” will be screened on Aug. 5, with “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” on Aug. 12. Showtimes are 9pm. Don’t forget to celebrate National Roller Coaster Day, this year taking place on Aug. 14. The best way to do so is to take a spin on the Giant Dipper at the Boardwalk, and the first 100 riders of the day will receive a souvenir cup.By popular demand, Gilroy Gardens is hosting Back-to-School Family Camp Night on Aug. 6-7. Attendees can experience camping overnight at the park with a dinner and a movie, with breakfast, lunch and a day at Gilroy Gardens the following morning. Read More Articles

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Breastfeeding Month

Laura Maxson — Sat, 06 Aug 2022 21:27:35 +0000

Lactation: Educate & Support by Laura Maxson, LM If it’s August, we must be talking about breastfeeding/chestfeeding/providing babies with human milk. National Breastfeeding Awareness Month includes:Week 1: World Breastfeeding WeekEducate & SupportWeek 2: Indigenous Milk Medicine WeekStrengthening Our Traditions from Birth and BeyondWeek 3: Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander WeekEducate & SupportWeek 4: Black Breastfeeding WeekBBW 2022: 10 Years, A New FoundationOn Thursday, August 4, from 10 am-1 pm, families in Santa Cruz County can swing by the Watsonville Hospital parking lot for a drive-through World Breastfeeding Week event. People will learn about breastfeeding and the local support provided by event co-sponsors: Salud Para La Gente, Community Bridges WIC, Watsonville Community Hospital, and the Santa Cruz County Breastfeeding Coalition. Free goody bags will be distributed while supplies last. Everyone is welcome. Community Bridges WIC, a nutrition program for women, infants, and children, provides nutritional support for women who are pregnant, post-partum, or breastfeeding; infants; and children under age five (including foster children). Grandparents and partners are welcome, too. Nutritional support includes: Benefits of buying healthy foods like organic fruits, vegetables, and whole grain foods Personalized nutrition education Breastfeeding information and support Referrals to health care and other community services (2-1-1, The Food Bank) Farmers’ market coupons for many county families Healthy cooking instruction and demonstrations Personal Peer Counselor for breastfeeding support from pregnancy through the first year of a baby’s life Online nutrition education classes in English & Español Infant formula when it is needed instead of, or in addition to, breastmilk. This year’s infant formula shortages have given an expanded focus to the needs of families with babies in our community. WIC has expanded the infant formulas covered in their program in response to recalls and periodic shortages. As parents deal with the impact of infant formula shortages, some are also interested in relactation – to resume or initiate breastfeeding/pumping after stopping or never initiating breastfeeding. WIC also offers support and information on relactation to families interested in learning more. Breastfeeding advocates, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the World Health Organization, and many more, recognize that breastfeeding goals extend beyond the often cited “first year.” Current recommendations are that baby be fed breastmilk exclusively until complementary foods have begun in the second half of the first year, with breastfeeding continuing as mutually desired by mother and child for two years or beyond. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics’ June 27, 2022, Technical Report: Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk, “Extensive data confirm that many acute and chronic pediatric disorders, such as otitis media, acute diarrheal disease, lower respiratory illnesses, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), inflammatory bowel disease, childhood leukemia, diabetes mellitus, obesity, asthma, and atopic dermatitis, occur less frequently among children who were breastfed as infants” and “the health benefits of longer duration of breastfeeding may be most important for maternal outcomes. Studies and meta-analyses have confirmed the importance of breastfeeding >12 months on maternal health, as associated with decreasing maternal diabetes mellitus, hypertension, breast cancer, and ovarian cancer.” Lactation is enhanced by the support of our community, especially in the workplace. Businesses can be a great help to lactating parents as they strive to meet the needs of their families and employer. Later in August, employers or businesses that have supported breastfeeding or a breastfeeding employee will receive a certificate of recognition. While it might be too late to nominate an employer or business by the time you are reading this article, keep our community employers and businesses in mind throughout the year when it comes to breastfeeding support. Even more important than a certificate is a heartfelt thank you from an employee or customer. WIC – Communitybridges.org/wicWorld Breastfeeding Week – Worldbreastfeedingweek.orgIndigenous Milk Medicine Week – Facebook.com/IndigenousMilkMedicineWeekAsian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Week – Facebook.com/APIBTFBlack Breastfeeding Week – Blackbreastfeedingweek.org Read More Articles

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Morning Routines

growingupsc — Sat, 06 Aug 2022 21:06:00 +0000

Don’t Forget Your Lunch! Back-to-School Health Tips From a School Nurse By Sandra Fong, RN Nobody can get it all done and be the perfect parent. Pick one or two goals for a healthier school year and take a baby step in the right direction As the back-to-school season is in full swing, parents are busy filling backpacks and teacher wish lists and squeezing into that last spot on the after-school care roster. Among all the activities and supplies, parents should also make sure to do a quick health check-in! Fueling Your Body with foodSnacks and meals are an important part of the “fuel” children need to get through their days. For children who struggle with healthy eating, try to ensure that there are some healthy snacks and lunch options available in your home. Every parent has periods when stress from work and life carve away from healthy habits. Some mornings chips and candy may be the only things that find their way to a child’s backpack! It seems better than being hungry, right? Sleep habits for successWhile every parent certainly understands a chaotic morning, try to stock your kitchen with healthy options so that they’re easy to grab when packing school lunches. Look for snacks or meals higher in protein and fiber with low amounts of added sugar to give your child a healthier option. Have some grab-and-go fresh fruits available, such as bananas or mandarin oranges. Ask your child if they have ideas for healthy snacks to keep on hand. A helpful sleep schedule can often be the first casualty of summer activities. A parent may want to adjust their child’s sleep schedule to an early bedtime before school starts, but the last summer outing, trip, or time with friends can sometimes get in the way. If your child starts off the school year in sleep debt, that’s okay, but try to make sure they don’t stay there! Some older children who are natural night owls may stay up until the early morning hours during the summer. It can be hard to make the switch to a healthier bedtime suddenly. Help your child to set a goal of going to bed 15-20 minutes earlier every night until they get to an appropriate bedtime. Check reputable health websites such as health.clevelandclinic.org for further information about how to make sure children are getting enough sleep. mental helth is important It’s also just as important to check on a child’s mental health as they go back to school. Take time to make sure your child is adjusting to their new school year. What are they most excited about for the school year? What are they worried about? Is anything making them sad or anxious? Listen to their concerns. If your child seems persistently anxious or sad, then make an appointment to see their primary care provider. Healthcare professionals can help parents to figure out what is normal sadness or anxiety and what is problematic. Email your child’s provider before the appointment so they can make sure to address your concerns. For additional resources, some schools received increased funding during the 2020-2021 school year and are now able to offer mental health counseling to students onsite at school. Check your school’s website for details. Vaccinations to reduce illnessGet a covid vaccine or booster shot for everyone in your family five or older. The CDC recommended a booster for children in the 5-11 age group after Pfizer released data showing it caused a 36-fold increase in neutralizing antibodies. Vaccine effectiveness drops from 60.1% effective in preventing symptomatic disease to 28.9% in the two months after the second dose. The numbers are similar for teenagers. Of course, all parents wish that they could protect their children from Covid-19 with simple measures such as healthy eating, taking vitamins, or plenty of exercises. While a Cleveland Clinic study showed that losing weight helped adults avoid a severe infections, vaccines are still one of our most effective tools. Even with decreased vaccine effectiveness during the current omicron era, a New England Journal of Medicine study showed that the vaccine was still 79% effective at preventing admission to a critical care unit in teenagers. There are so many things for parents to be worried about these days! Nobody can get it all done and be the perfect parent. Pick one or two goals for a healthier school year and take a baby step in the right direction. Small changes today can snowball into a healthier tomorrow! Sandra Fong is a freelance writer, an RN, and a former school nurse. She lives in Scotts Valley with her husband and three kids. References:Funding for mental health resources in schools – lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4368#:~:text=Approved%20by%20California%20voters%20as,programs%20serving%20all%20age%20groups. Vaccine effectives drops to 28.9% in kids after 2nd shot – contagionlive.com/view/covid-19-vaccine-effectiveness-among-children-dropped-during-omicron-wave-increased-with-booster Booster increases antibody titers 36 fold – contagionlive.com/view/covid-19-vaccine-effectiveness-among-children-dropped-during-omicron-wave-increased-with-booster Covid vaccines 79% effective at preventing a critical care admission – cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2022/03/covid-vaccine-prevents-40-omicron-hospital-stays-teens-68-kids Read More Parenting Articles

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School Begins

growingupsc — Sat, 06 Aug 2022 21:02:37 +0000

Rocks By Lisa Catterall Today, I finally remembered the rocks. Then I looked at my classroom and the way I had suddenly made my messy creative space neat as a pin, and I reflected on how I’d never stressed neatness so much with my students as I had in these first few days. This world’s anguish is no different from the love we insist on holding back.-Aberjhani Getting my classroom ready It’s almost there; the posters are up and supplies organized, but there is one thing I haven’t done yet. Do you know what it is? I haven’t placed a basket of fist-sized rocks in the front by where I give my lectures and explain things on the board.Last year, my classroom hosted art studios, gaming clubs, ongoing architecture projects on enormous pieces of paper, messy microscope labs, political debates, fifth graders doing art projects with electronic components, and, occasionally, my toddler when all possible childcare fell out from under me, and I didn’t want to hand over a precious day of my curriculum to a substitute. It was a mess in hereMy geometry students, who came in after the fifth graders, got in the habit of spending five minutes sweeping and cleaning off the desks. By the end of the year, I realized I had some serious baggage over the chaos. I believe in doing just about anything to encourage creativity in kids, including putting up with really messy spaces sometimes, but I think I finally hit my limit last year. This year, when most of the kids in one of my classes showed up without any of the required supplies, I went and got matching notebooks and sketchbooks for them and labeled them in neat teacher handwriting. I made a perfectly neat storage space. I spent much more time than usual having the kids learn how to take these items out and put them back neatly. A little too much time, perhaps. Then I realized I had “mess baggage.” And perhaps some other baggageThis was the year when our safe school, our school in the mountains, did the Sandy Hook training together. This training is a wonderful resource to teach teachers everywhere to recognize the signs and symptoms of a kid who might be planning a mass shooting. In addition, we did training on what to do if a shooting were to occur on our campus. My understanding is that this has been happening for several years across the country. In fact, it has been a part of most teachers’ training at this point. In July, I was dreaming about the start of the year for myself, my children, and my students, and I had some decisions to make. Just for fun, I drew a Viking rune out of a bag I had in our game cupboard, and the message it gave me in the little rune guidebook was, “if you want to raise a phoenix from the ashes, let go of everything. No exceptions.” As we were doing the safety training and preparing to face students for whom school violence and shootings are a part of the reality of their time in history, this phrase became a mantra. “Let go of everything, no exceptions.” I had to let go of the idea that we couldn’t possibly ever need this, not here, not now, not in MY life. I had to let go of the urge to give up, and I mean really give up on everything, because what is the world coming to? I had to let go of my embarrassment about occasionally needing to shed some tears in front of colleagues. We are teachers. We are called to the profession because we want to do nothing but nurture the growth of young people. We are now suddenly asked to consider how to protect them in scenarios that seem like Hollywood horror movies. At one point, one of our instructors gestured at the open door and said bluntly, “the shooter is there at the door with a gun. What do you do?” Run directly at the person, tackle them, poke their eyes out, take them down, I thought, then I wanted to cry. The face on that shooter is a young person, too.The thought was just my first instinct, picturing the bright and hopeful faces of my students in the room, looking to me for protection and guidance. By the end of the lesson, I thought, I need some heavy things to hurl at the doorway in that scenario. I keep some things like rocks around anyways; I teach science, so why not a pretty basket of pretty rocks? No one the wiser. Just disrupt, so everyone can get away, get help, heal, and go on breathing. I forgot about this because it was all too much to wallow-in, really, over the next few days as I lovingly cleaned out old projects, hung up new maps and posters, touched every bit of curriculum I own and happily selected things that sang for me for the first semester. I couldn’t wait to see the kids and hear their happy and hopeful voices echoing off the walls. Today, I finally remembered the rocks. Then I looked at my classroom and the way I had suddenly made my messy creative space neat as a pin, and I reflected on how I’d never stressed neatness so much with my students as I had in these first few days. Neatness, I thought, or control? Either way, I sense we all need routine and neatness and some familiarity, to buoy us as we wait, wonder, protest, hope, pray, cry, and respond to the threats facing us and the reality of this moment in history. Lisa Catterall teaches STEAM, math, science, and art at Mount Madonna School and is a senior associate of the Centers for Research on Creativity. She lectures and trains teachers and administrators on innovation in education in Beijing, China. Lisa has five children and lives in Santa Cruz County. Read More Parenting Articles

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Learning by Immersion

growingupsc — Sat, 06 Aug 2022 20:51:16 +0000

Lisset Orozco: Plants Seeds in Spanish by suki wessling She has to believe in immersion to do her job. Lisset runs Spanish Nature Club, which offers preschool, afterschool, summer, and adult programs. The concept is simple: get out in nature, speak Spanish. Teaching Spanish to children in Santa Cruz was possibly the last place Lisset Orozco thought she’d end up. With her degree in political science and work in rural Mexico on literacy, Lisset planned to go to Italy for graduate school.But then she fell in love surfing in Puerto Escondido with a man from Santa Cruz, a town she couldn’t even find on the map. When she arrived, she didn’t speak a word of English. So she learned it the old-fashioned way, by asking, “How do you say…?” “I really believe in immersion—I did it when I was 33!” Lisset laughs.She has to believe in immersion to do her job. Lisset runs Spanish Nature Club, which offers preschool, afterschool, summer, and adult programs. The concept is simple: get out in nature, speak Spanish. But getting from idea to realization of her business wasn’t quick. When Lisset first brought up the idea to her nannying clients, they told her they wanted something indoors. In fact, she says, many of them told her they thought being outdoors was too dangerous. Ironically, it was being outdoors that helped her business take off. When the pandemic hit, Lisset was faced, like many people, with the question of how to make a living. And parents suddenly considered the outdoors much safer for their kids than indoors. Lisset went from two children to a multifaceted program in a couple of years. Her approach is simple but it is based on sound learning principles that she brought from her social work background and also from raising her two daughters, now teenagers. You can learn a new language, Lisset says, “If you like it, if you are curious, and if you aren’t shy and don’t block yourself.” Being in nature allows children to transition to a quieter, more open state of curiosity. “We can spend twenty minutes observing how long it takes for a banana slug to get to the other side of a leaf!” Lisset says that the children absorb Spanish without thinking about studying a language. They’re just asking questions and talking about ideas they get now that they are away from the rush—and the technology—that dominates their everyday lives. “I feel like this society is losing the capacity to enjoy the little things.”Teenagers, Lisset says with a laugh, are another thing altogether. “Teenagers don’t want to talk!” As the mom of teens, Lisset enjoys helping her teen students relax into a nonjudgmental environment. “I like when they realize that they still have an inner child in them. They still want to climb trees.” It’s a long way from working on social justice and planning on graduate school in Italy to teaching children in Santa Cruz. But Lisset sees her work as deeply important. “I feel like I am planting a little seed, which is either curiosity for a second language, or the seed of just being able to enjoy nature as it is. I feel like I’m doing something good for humanity.” For more information: VisitSpanishNatureClub.com to learn about programs for children and adults.Listen to a podcast of this interview at Babblery.com. Read More Parenting Articles

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Growing Healthy

growingupsc — Sat, 06 Aug 2022 20:38:08 +0000

Generations: Nourished By Suki Wessling The stakes for teen foster youth are high. Once they reach eighteen, they leave the system. Unless they were lucky to be placed with families who taught them solid life skills like cooking, they enter adult life knowing little about food. “To your stations!”The children come into the room full of playground energy and loud voices. They chatter as they don their aprons and wash their hands. But as soon as they’re assigned to their stations they become as focused on their tasks as a chef in a restaurant. Because these kids are chefs Their Live Oak classroom has been turned into a kitchen where the kids wear aprons, use knives, and make healthy food together. “I was having a conversation at Live Oak with the woman who is the Director of Childhood Education and she said that their Wellness plan had no nutrition education listed in it at all,” remembers Nourishing Generations Executive Director Karen Haralson. “There’s no time set in the course of the day or in any curriculum that they teach nutrition.” That’s when the Nourishing Generations staff and volunteers joined the Live Oak afterschool program, where kids learn about nutrition through games and cooking—hands-on learning that really soaks in. With the CORE grant they just received, they are strengthening a program that children in the district look forward to year after year. Spreading the word about nutritionNourishing Generations, originally started at Bowman College by nutritionists and chefs with a sense of community, has a single purpose that it now spreads in several directions. “We invented ourselves and got our own 501(c)3, and that’s when we just started rock and rolling and started expanding beyond children,” remembers Nancy Birang, cofounder of the organization who is now the board president. “We started going to other members of our community who needed the same type of support.” Those community members now include families in low-income housing, women with cancer, and young adults who are transitioning out of foster care.“I have found over the years that I can’t just assume that people know anything about nutrition or about cooking,” Nancy explains. “One of the best questions I ever got was from one of the transition-age foster youth. They said, ‘Do you need to eat fat?’ And it was such a great question, because there’s this taboo around fat.” The stakes for teen foster youth are high. Once they reach eighteen, they leave the system. Unless they were lucky to be placed with families who taught them solid life skills like cooking, they enter adult life knowing little about food. And food choices can make all the difference, Karen explains. Diabetes is a national epidemic, and we spend enormous amounts of healthcare money on it. But early dietary interventions are much cheaper and more effective in the long term.“These types of diet lifestyle intervention programs are not glamorous and they don’t generate profit,” Nancy points out. “They take money, but it’s been proven that it’s just as effective as taking medication.”The problem, however, is the system. Nonprofits or graduate students get short-term grants to do well-meaning work in their communities, and then the funding dries up. “You’ll go in for six weeks, do a program with a group of kids, collect some data. And then this person gets their Ph.D.” It’s the dirty work that sticks“It’s a kinesthetic mode of learning, for kids it’s best,” explains Darcy Chown, the All-Site Supervisor for Afterschool Programs in Live Oak. “Once they’ve done it, they can do it again. Whereas if you’re just telling them about it, or they’re just watching, they’re not quite sure.” Darcy says this standing over a table full of elementary school kids using knives. They use the tools carefully, seriously, and sometimes skillfully. One boy says he makes tamales with his grandma. Another struggles to choose which hand should hold the knife. It’s clear which kids cook at home, but even the kids who don’t are game to try and open to suggestions.At another table, kids are grating cheese with sharp hand graters, and at another, one girl lovingly pats her raw pizza dough over and over, delighting in its yeasty cushiness. Volunteer Alexis Underwood, a retired teacher, says the pay-off is what she hears from the parents. “Taking their mom shopping and saying, ‘Don’t buy me this. Let’s buy these vegetables and fruit’.” One of the parents reported that her child wouldn’t go to bed until she’d eaten every color of the rainbow.Supporting cancer treatment with nutrition. In collaboration with WomenCare, NG works with women on ways that they can support their return to health through nutrition. This program has also been threatened with Covid-related funding cuts, when local big spending foundations like PAMF started sending their money in other directions. But just like working with kids, the payoff for the small investment is huge. “If you have a cancer diagnosis, you go on this rollercoaster ride of treatments and side effects and you go from appointment to appointment to appointment and you feel so powerless and out of control,” Nancy says. “So what is under your control? What you eat and what you drink.” “We’re not going to get rich doing this!”In the end, the staff at Nourishing Generations—both paid and volunteer—do their work with a sense of devotion to their cause. They go out into the community and see firsthand how important their programs are to individual people. Karen will never forget a child she worked with in Watsonville. “We went in and it was pretty chaotic—there were a couple children with special needs but we were just treating them the same as every other child. The teacher came in afterwards and he says, “I’ve never seen that child focus on anything, you know this child has special needs and behavior issues.” “They just never gave him a chance.” For more information: Learn more at NourishingGenerations.org. Even if your child is not in the program, you can access their fun cooking instructional videos through their website. Suki Wessling is a local writer and mom of two young adults who love to cook. You can listen to the podcast of the interview she did with Nancy and Karen at The Babblery: Babblery.com. Read More Parenting Articles

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Vaccinations

growingupsc — Sun, 31 Jul 2022 14:53:15 +0000

COVID Vaccines for Our Youngest Kids by Nicole M. Young, MSW Last month, COVID vaccines were approved for children between 6 months and 5 years of age. For some parents, this was a long-awaited moment, when their youngest family members could also be more protected against COVID. Others are feeling cautious and want to wait and see. And there are many strong opinions about whether COVID (and other) vaccines are helpful or harmful, leaving many families wondering what to do. This month, I’m sharing information I’ve learned from local pediatricians, pediatric nurse practitioners, and public health leaders (many of whom have young children) about the COVID vaccines for this age group. This monthly column provides tips for anyone who is helping raise children, based on the world-renowned Triple P – Positive Parenting Program, available to families in Santa Cruz County. If you have a question or idea for a future column, email me at triplep@first5scc.org. Dear Nicole,Everyone in our family has been vaccinated against COVID, except our toddler. We’ve been worried about them getting COVID and exposing their grandparents, who have health issues. But now I’m more hesitant about the COVID vaccine for them than I was for ourselves and our older kids. I’ve heard many different, confusing opinions from friends, family, and on social media! It’s hard to know who or what to believe. Help!– Anne Dear Anne,It’s natural to ask questions about these vaccines, just like you would about any other health issue affecting your child. That’s part of your role as a parent — weighing the pros and cons of different choices so you can decide what’s right for your family. It’s also understandable that you might feel differently about vaccines for young children than you did for older people. I encourage you to talk to your pediatric care team about any specific concerns. In the meantime, here are some answers to common questions parents often ask. Are the vaccines safe? Both the Pfizer vaccine (3 doses, for children 6 months – 4 years) and Moderna vaccine (2 doses, for children 6 months – 5 years) were tested in clinical trials that involved 10,800 children and were reviewed by independent scientists and medical experts, who unanimously approved them. The shots have smaller doses than the vaccines for adults, and researchers wanted to make sure they were both safe and effective. That’s why it took longer for these vaccines to be available. What about side effects?During the clinical trials, the reported side effects were mild and temporary. They varied by age group; for children under 2, they included crankiness and drowsiness, and for children ages 2-5, some pain at the injection site, low fever, and feeling tired. There were no reported cases of myocarditis (heart inflammation) during the clinical trials for this age group. Are the vaccines effective?In the clinical trials, the levels of antibodies (the way our bodies learn to fight a specific virus) were as high or higher than adults, which suggests they are very effective in preventing severe disease and death (like the adult vaccine). Isn’t COVID less serious among kids? Do they need to be vaccinated? It’s true that most kids who get COVID experience milder symptoms than adults, but they could still transmit it to others. This can be very disruptive, causing household members to miss school or work to avoid infecting others or to care for someone who’s sick. We’re also still learning a lot about the long-term effects of COVID in both children and adults. And over 440 children aged 0-4 have died from COVID, making it a top 10 leading cause of death in this age group. Vaccines are one tool we can use to minimize the risk of infection, severe illness, and death. What if my child already had COVID? Are they protected against future infections?Recovering from an infection provides some temporary protection, but vaccination produces a stronger immune system response. The post-infection protection doesn’t last as long, and the COVID virus keeps mutating – so the strongest, longest-lasting protection for all age groups is keeping up-to-date on vaccinations and boosters as they’re developed. FINAL THOUGHTSUnfortunately, COVID is still a serious health concern. Our children rely on us to keep them safe from health threats like this. Asking good questions and listening to answers from trusted sources, like pediatricians, is one of the most important ways we can keep our children, families, and communities as healthy as possible and model healthy habits for our kids. To learn more or to schedule an appointment, contact your pediatrician’s office or visit myturn.ca.gov. Nicole Young is the mother of two children, ages 18 and 22, who also manages Santa Cruz County’s Triple P – Positive Parenting Program, the world’s leading positive parenting program. Scientifically proven, Triple P is made available locally by First 5 Santa Cruz County, the Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency (Mental Health Services Act) and the Santa Cruz County Human Services Department. To find a Triple P parenting class or practitioner, visit http://triplep.first5scc.org, http://facebook.com/triplepscc or contact First 5 Santa Cruz County at 465-2217 or triplep@first5scc.org. Read More Articles

The post Vaccinations first appeared on Growing Up in Santa Cruz.

Missing Van

growingupsc — Sun, 31 Jul 2022 14:39:15 +0000

Editor’s Note By Brad Kava The school year is starting out sadly at Watsonville’s Pajaro Valley High School. The school’s only van—a beloved seven-passenger Ford, nicknamed “Grizzly Van” — was stolen from the campus in July.he white van was a fixture for the 1,650-student school, transporting classes, special ed students and athletes to events. It was last used on a Saturday to take members of the football team to Monterey for training. The next day it was gone. “At first I felt disbelief,” says Athletic Director Joe Manfre. “Nobody is going to steal a van from a high school. We’re across the freeway from most people and you have to go out of your way to come up here. Someone had to have this premeditated. I was shocked.”The 2007 van is like an advertising billboard for the school, with logos on the sides and a big grizzly in front. The school’s logo is a Grizzly and its teams are the Grizzlies. “No one is going to ride that around town,” says Manfre. “I assume they took it to a shop and were stripping it down.” Pajaro Valley, the newest high school in the county, which opened in 2004 and serves many low-income students, doesn’t have a strong alumni network yet and has had to struggle for the things that have come naturally for other schools. Watsonville High, for example, has 10 vans. Manfre says things were looking up before the theft. Watsonville GMC donated $10,000 to the school to buy another van and the district was working on getting funds for another. He thought they’d have three this year. Instead, there are none.“We aren’t where we need to be, especially with the price of cars,” says Manfre.What can we do? This would sure be a great time for a car dealer to pitch in some more or come up with a van. It would also be great for people to donate to help the kids get to where they need to be for off-campus education and games.You can reach the Athletic Director at joseph_manfre@pvusd.net and maybe give the school some good news before its August opening. Growing Up in Santa Cruz will publicize every donation, which would be like a free ad for you. Speaking of starting school in August…whatever happened to starting school after Labor Day? We know this enables a long winter vacation so people can visit families then, but starting in the heat of the summer just feels wrong to us. Do you agree? Send your comments to editor@growingupsc.com Thanks for reading!Brad Kava Read More Articles

The post Missing Van first appeared on Growing Up in Santa Cruz.