Gina Ogden

gratitude in the holiday season

The Power of Gratitude this Holiday Season

By / 5 minutes of reading

Many of us are coming out of a week of gratitude, and as usual, many of us are charging full speed ahead into the holiday season. This year, it seems that we are all so excited to jump into our December holidays. After months of pandemic burdens, people are ready to celebrate something, to enjoy traditions, to put up the decorations and bring joy to their communities. In my own community, I’m seeing more holiday decorations out than ever before, and they’ve been out for a few weeks now. We’re all ready for some joy, and this visible declaration that …

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family eating together

Eat Dinner Together as a Family

By / 4 minutes of reading

Family dinners can seem like formal affairs or like something out of an old fashioned setting. In today’s modern world, it’s easy for us to get busy with work, school, and all the other activities of life. With conflicting schedules, each family member just grabs some food whenever he or she can get to it. So why should we eat dinner together as a family? It may not seem to matter whether we eat dinner together or not, as long as everyone gets fed. Recent research, however, tells us that there is measurable value to eating dinner as a family. …

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help kids learn good oral care

Help Your Kids Learn Good Oral Care

By / 4 minutes of reading

We all know that it’s important to take care of our teeth. And in the last several years, oral health has been tied to many other health issues, like diabetes and heart disease. If we help our kids learn good oral care now, they will carry those good habits with them as they grow. So, let’s look at some ways we can help our kids take good care of their teeth. We can start by learning the sign for “brush teeth.”  Pretend your pointer finger is a toothbrush, and then move it back and forth just like you’re brushing your …

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girl enjoying fall fun

Last Minute Fall Fun for Your Family

By / 3 minutes of reading

We’re well into the fall season now. Our thoughts have been on apple picking, pumpkin patches, and hay rides. And there are so many ways to incorporate signing into this season!  Let’s look at some signs and activities for fall fun! Fall Weather First, we can talk about the weather. Fall brings different weather, and as the weather changes, you can use signs to describe it.  You can use this sign when the sun is shining, or use this one when the weather is getting cold.  If there is rain, or for some of us, snow, you can learn new …

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Safe Halloween Family Fun

How to Be Safe This Halloween

By / 4 minutes of reading

Halloween is quickly approaching with its pumpkins, costumes, candy, and fun! As we plan for our fun, it’s also important to plan for our kids’ safety.  And while safety is always something we consider for Halloween activities, 2020 requires that we add an additional level of safety to our Halloween fun. Let’s look at how we can have fun and be safe this Halloween. Standard Halloween Safety Tips There are several safety tips that are always part of our Halloween activities.  We know that children should wear something bright and reflective or carry a glow stick or flashlight. Parents should …

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healthy drug free kids

Red Ribbon Week Celebrates a Healthy, Drug-Free Life

By / 3 minutes of reading

The wearing of a red ribbon can represent different causes. During October 23-31 each year, it is dedicated to awareness efforts to keep kids drug-free.   We don’t really like to think about substance abuse, especially in reference to our children. However, our discomfort with the subject does not change its reality.  Substance abuse can affect every segment of the community. It can pop up in any age group.  While it tends to be associated with only certain types of communities, the truth is that it affects all communities.  And yes, it can reach our kids. Red Ribbon Week is about …

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Smart Screen Time

Tips for Balancing Your Kids’ Screen Time

By / 4 minutes of reading

So much of our world depends on screen usage. We work on screens, use them for entertainment, and now we rely on them for much of our communication.  We know that some research tells us that our kids shouldn’t be watching so much. But research from the American Academy of Pediatrics also suggests that well designed and monitored interactions can improve cognitive, literacy, and social outcomes for children. With work and school and meetings and communication each coming through a screen, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to balance our screen time.  How do we guide our kids in balancing their screen …

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child passenger safety

Child Passenger Safety Week: Tips for Parents

By / 4 minutes of reading

September 20-26 is National Child Passenger Safety Week.  It’s common practice in our society to use car seats and seat belts, and we tend to think it’s a pretty straightforward practice.  So why do we need to talk about or have an awareness week about child passenger safety? Unfortunately, many of us do not use our safety restraint systems properly.  There is a correct way to use a seatbelt, a car seat, or a booster seat.  Incorrect usage can be fatal in a car wreck.  The National Safety Council reports that a child under 13 years of age is involved …

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kids learn the alphabet

Learn to Sign the Alphabet With My Signing Time

By / 4 minutes of reading

You may be asking, “Why do my kids need to learn to sign the alphabet if they know plenty of other signs?” or “What is the point of learning to sign the alphabet?” That’s a fair question, and we have a few reasons to offer in response. First, when signing, we still use the names of people and places. There is no possible way to create a sign for each of these names, nor would it be possible to know them all.  So we spell them.  This is called “fingerspelling”, and it is used a lot in signing.   Fingerspelling is …

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Care about childhood cancer

Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

By / 6 minutes of reading

September is a full month for awareness issues, and while we cannot possibly cover every one of them, we’re going to look at a couple of them.  One of September’s titles is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. While childhood cancer is an issue that many of us have not dealt with personally, there are many who have dealt with it quite personally.  And so, it’s an issue that we should be willing to understand in a deeper way. The first way to do this is to increase our awareness about childhood cancer.  The co-founder and executive director of The Morgan Adams …

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