‘The King’s Speech’ is generating unprecedented awareness of stuttering

By Lindy Washburn, McClatchy-Tribune

Colin Firth’s performance as the stuttering prince who ascended to England’s throne in 1936 and overcame his handicap to address the British people on live radio during World War II has generated talk of an Academy Award or two for “The King’s Speech.”

But the movie’s portrayal of the man who would become King George VI’s relationship with his Australian speech therapist, Lionel Logue, has also generated unprecedented awareness of stuttering and the therapists who treat it.

“This movie has done in one fell swoop what we’ve been working on for 64 years,” said Jane Fraser, president of The Stuttering Foundation, founded by her father in...

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Top 10 kid favorites of 2010

By Aisha Sultan, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Some kid crazes are unexpected, like cheap, colored rubber bands worn on the wrist. Some are predictable, like cashing in on a fictional character’s popularity or cute baby animals. And, others are simply a product of undeveloped taste, a la anything Justin Bieber.

Here are the top things that captivated our children in 2010:

1. Harry Potter — With the opening of a theme park within Universal Studios in Orlando, the release of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” and a new Legos video game, it was an exceptional year for one particular wizard in training and his very, very wealthy creator.
2. Spas for tweens — Apparently, you’re never too young for a mani-pedi. Even more beauty...

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Sleep sacks are made from organic fabrics and safe for infants

By Emilie Le Beau, McClatchy-Tribune

For new parents, it feels weird to put a baby in a crib without a blanket. It looks so empty in there — won’t the little one get cold?

It may be tempting to give an infant a blankey, but the Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends that parents keep soft items such as pillows, blankets, and toys out of the crib of babies 12 months and younger.

The safety commission encourages parents to use a sleeper as an alternative to blankets. Babies can sleep in these sleepers until they are old enough for blankets.

Violet’s Peapod has sleep sacks made from all-natural fabrics. The company was founded by a San Francisco mother of two who learned of sleepers when living in Germany.

Violet’s...

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Make your own plastic-tub light table

Disney FamilyFun magazine

Professional artsy types use light tables for all sorts of creative tasks, but you rarely see these pricey pieces of equipment designed for home use. In yet another stroke of mom genius, Lindsey Boardman, who blogs about her kid-pleasing projects at filthwizardry.com, fashioned a kid-friendly light table to use for tracing, sand painting, and more.

To make a simple light table, invert a transparent plastic storage tub (ours is a 41-quart size) over a stay-cool fluorescent light fixture ($10 at Home Depot). For easier tracing, use painter’s tape to secure your original artwork and tracing paper. To try a very different type of art, pour a bag of colored sand (available in craft stores) onto...

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Top 10 tips for making the high school team

By Jack Perconte, McClatchy-Tribune

Competition for making the high school team can be very intense, especially at large schools. The obvious answer to the question of “How to make the high school team?” is to have better skills than the other players. There is no substitute for players working at their skills from a young age.

Many parents, though, get a rude awakening when their kids do not make the team because of reasons that have nothing to do with their skills. Often, many players show similar skills in a tryout and it is some intangible that makes a coach choose one player over another.

Here are tips that parents should pass on to players to “cover all their bases,” so they do not “dribble” away their opportunity...

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Connecting quickly with long-distance family members

By Priscilla J. Dunstan, McClatchy-Tribune

I have 20 nieces and nephews, and that’s not even counting the children of my half-brother and sister!

Since I live overseas, it’s important that I make a meaningful connection with them quickly, as we don’t have much time together. With such a large family, it’s impractical to buy expensive gifts for everyone, and nearly impossible to remember every detail about their lives since last we met. But, I do know the dominant sense of each of my nieces and nephews. Using this information has really helped to create bonding experiences that hopefully will transcend the ocean between us.

With my tactile nieces and nephews, I go to the park, or do some sort of physical activity. We have a tradition...

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New year-inspired baby names

nameberry.com

The ringing in of a new year brings with it a sense of fresh beginnings, a new dawn dawning, and bright hopes for the future. And so with that in mind, and with our warmest wishes to all of you for a great year, we once again offer some names drawn from a variety of cultures that suggest those very things — and all of them appropriate for a New Year’s baby. …

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The best children’s books of 2010

By Sue Corbett, McClatchy Newspapers

With the advent of e-readers, the struggle of independent bookstores against online retailers, and the growing amount of leisure time spent online, publishing is in a bit of turmoil. Of the thousands of books that crossed my desk this year, the one that had the most resonance was the one that spoke to this precipice: Lane Smith’s “It’s a Book.”

This is a picture book about … the end of picture books? Will our kids read everything on a screen? Will the tactile pleasures of a book be replaced by the snazzier features of an app? I shudder at the thought. Smith’s book has generated a bit of controversy over his use of the word “jackass” in a book aimed at elementary school readers...

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Some parenting advice is worth repeating for the new year

By Niesha Lofing, McClatchy Newspapers

It’s a new year, but that doesn’t mean we should leave behind some of the best lessons of 2010.

Over the course of the past year, I have explored everything from marital stress to mischievous children, and local and national experts have imparted some sage advice along the way.

So as we start 2011, let’s take a moment to remember some of the best advice of this past year. I’ve learned much — and plan to carry these suggestions with me into the future.

Parenting 101

Want happier children and teens? Consider adopting some of Christine Carter’s approaches to parenting: Rather than expecting perfection, expect children to make an effort and enjoy their...

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Shining a spotlight on gender bias in movies

By Heidi Stevens, Chicago Tribune

No parent who has tried to reconcile the sweet storyline of “The Little Mermaid” with Ariel’s skimpy attire will be surprised at a new study that reveals family films often portray female characters as eye candy.

The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, founded by the “Thelma and Louise” actress in 2004 to improve images of girls in television and films, recently commissioned a study that examined 122 top-grossing domestic family films rated G, PG and PG-13 from 2006 to 2009. The findings: Of 5,554 speaking characters studied, 71 percent were male, 29 percent female, and 24 percent of females were depicted in sexualized attire, as opposed to 4 percent of males.

We talked to Madeline...

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