Raising Boyz 2 Men

Hilarious Comments On Raising Boys

noreply@blogger.com (raisingboyz2men) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 04:40:00 +0000

As a mother of a son who spends 80% of the day dressed as Batman and a toddler who prefers to be in nothing but a pull up and a superman cape, I can completely relate to today's post. This is an anonymous post from a mother in Austin, Texas about the surprises that come along with raising boys. Read and enjoy! Remember your comments are welcomed and wanted.

Raising Boys

a) For those who have children past this age, this is hilarious.

b) For those who have children this age, this is not funny.

c) For those who have children nearing this age, this is a warning.

d) For those who have not yet had children, this is birth control.

The following came from an anonymous Mother in Austin, Texas. Things I’ve learned from my Boys (honest and not kidding):

1.) A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000 sq. Ft.house 4 inches deep.

2.) If you spray hair spray on dust bunnies and run over them with roller blades, they can ignite.

3.) A 3-year old Boy’s voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.

4.) If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 42 pound Boy wearing Batman underwear and a Superman cape. It is strong enough, however, if tied to a paint can, to spread paint on all four walls of a 20×20 ft. Room.

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Preschool-k Literacy Activites for The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

noreply@blogger.com (raisingboyz2men) — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 18:21:00 +0000

During the winter weather The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats is a great book to read and uses as a bases for fun indoor activities. I created the following activities to conduct with both my preschool classroom as well as my toddlers at home. Enjoy and always remember your feed back and comments are important!

Language and Literacy Experiences

Book: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

Activities: Cotton Ball Snowman, What to Wear and Icebergs
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The messiest creatures on earth

noreply@blogger.com (raisingboyz2men) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 17:26:00 +0000

This is the smile of one of the messiest creatures on earth my two year old! It seems as if he, along with his three year old brother, can turn routine events into an absolute mess. Like eating, or coloring or bathing! Even when they try to help by emptying their plates in the trash they still manage to sling food on the floor and leave a trail of something on their way to the sink. I mop our kitchen floor daily, I am sure I have spent a small fortune in products like swifter to spot mop the floors and shout to remove stains from clothing. And at what age do they learn to aim when using the bathroom. I have asked my husband to do an intensive "point then go" training with both boys to eliminate the puddles they create. And apparently it does not stop in adulthood, because when my brother graduated and returned home from college to figure out his next move my mother complained constantly about his dirty room and bathroom lol.

The one thing I can say is that even though they are messy beyond belief I love the free spirited nature of little boys. They take everything at face value and have very little apprehensions about life as they know it. Their dare devil spirit seems to both triumph and get them in a lot trouble. It also provides for lots of laughs and boo-boo's to kiss.

Here's to enjoying parenthood
Latasha

We are back!

noreply@blogger.com (raisingboyz2men) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 05:32:00 +0000

Well after a long break we are happy to report that we are back on line and blogging. So much has happened since my last post in 2010 and I can't wait to share it all! Our primary focus this year is still boys and what we can do as parents, educators and a society to make sure they are successful at life. But we will also focus a lot on activities to be done at home and in the community. Please feel free to send me any topics you would like to discuss or submit a guest blog.

noreply@blogger.com (raisingboyz2men) — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 05:09:00 +0000

Smarty Mom: Latasha Denay Myers

By Katie M

It's my pleasure to introduce you to another great mom today: Latasha Denay Myers. I first met Latasha when she contacted TSP about her summer camp Learning & Adventures camp. As you might remember from our smarty summer camp directory, Learning & Adventures camp was created to address the unique characteristics and learning styles of young boys ages 6 - 12, and includes a special program for boys with disabilities called Bright Light Enrichment. It sounded like a great concept for a camp, and after meeting Latasha, I thought she was pretty smarty for pioneering and overseeing such a a great program, especially as a busy mom with a big family!

Latasha and her husband Alonzo have four children: Shikeaya (9), Josiah (7), Lewis(3), and Camden-Alexander (1). She's lived in the Triad her entire life, and besides running her summer camp she also provides in-home daycare and tutoring. When she's not busy teaching and caring for children, Latasha enjoys spending time cooking, and working with youth at her church. And despite the fact that she suffers from severe fibromyalgia, she is determined to participate in the upcoming Rambling Rose Triathlon this August in Winston-Salem as a way to celebrate her weight loss and fitness goals. You go, girl!

Let's meet Latasha!

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Learning And Adventure Featured On Local News

noreply@blogger.com (raisingboyz2men) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 04:41:00 +0000

Free Summer Camp Opportunity For Boys

noreply@blogger.com (raisingboyz2men) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 08:18:00 +0000

Have an adventure packed summer on us! Bright Light Enrichment Camp is giving away a full summer's worth of tuition to our program to one lucky fella. The contest is open to boys between the ages of 6 and 12 with a learning disability. Submit to us in any format (video, story, song, poem, etc) be creative as possible, explaining why you would like to attend our program. All submissions must be completed by the camper wanting to attend the program with minimal parental assistance. Submissions are judged only on the basis the creativity of the entry. Entries must be submitted along with completed registration form. Submissions must be received by April 25th. The winner will be announced on April 30th during our Open House/Family Fun Night and participants must be present to win. Family Fun Night is free of charge and will have activities for the entire family.

Submissions can be sent to: info@learningandadventure.com

or mailed to

Learning and Adventure

5325 Lewey Lane, W-S, NC 27105

Registration forms can be mailed or faxed to 336-245-4670

Click Here to RSVP for Family fun night/Open House

For more information or questions please contact us at 336-464-5689 or

info@learningandadventure.com

Summer Camp Contest For Boys With Learning Disabilities

noreply@blogger.com (raisingboyz2men) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:27:00 +0000

Submissions can be sent to: info@learningandadventure.com

or mailed to

Learning and Adventure

5325 Lewey Lane, W-S, NC 27105

Registration forms can be mailed or faxed to 336-245-4670

Click Here to RSVP for Family fun night/Open House

Come See Us At Hanes Mall Saturday May 1st 3-6pm

In front of Belks

Science Experiments, Give A ways & More

336-464-5689

visit www.learningandadventure.com

All Male All African American Charter School Has Great Success!

noreply@blogger.com (raisingboyz2men) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:06:00 +0000

Happy News
Charter school in tough neighborhood gets all its seniors into college

Urban Prep Academy senior Keith Greer, along with his classmates, celebrates the news they will receive a free prom in Chicago because 100 percent of the graduating class was accepted into 4-year colleges or universities. (Tribune photo by Heather Charles / March 5, 2010)

The entire senior class at Chicago's only public all-male, all-African-American high school has been accepted to four-year colleges. At last count, the 107 seniors had earned spots at 72 schools across the nation.

Mayor Richard Daley and Chicago Public Schools chief Ron Huberman surprised students at an all-school assembly at Urban Prep Academy for Young Men in Englewood this morning to congratulate them. It's the first graduating class at Urban Prep since it opened its doors in 2006.

Huberman applauded the seniors for making CPS shine.

"All of you in the senior class have shown that what matters is perseverance, what matters is focus, what matters is having a dream and following that dream," Huberman said.

The school enforces a strict uniform of black blazers, khaki pants and red ties -- with one exception. After a student receives the news he was accepted into college, he swaps his red tie for a red and gold one at an assembly.

The last 13 students received their college ties today, to thunderous applause.

Ask Rayvaughn Hines what college he was accepted to and he'll answer with a question.

"Do you want me to name them all?"

For the 18-year-old from Back of the Yards, college was merely a concept--never a goal--growing up. Even within the last three years, he questioned if school, let alone college, was for him. Now, the senior is headed to the prestigious Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga. next fall.

Hines remembers the moment he put on his red and gold tie.

"I wanted to take my time because I was just so proud of myself," he said. "I wanted everyone to see me put it on."

The achievement might not merit a mayoral visit at one of the city's elite, selective enrollment high schools. But Urban Prep, a charter school that enrolls using a lottery in one of the city's more troubled neighborhoods, faced difficult odds. Only 4 percent of this year's senior class read at grade level as freshmen, according to Tim King, the school's CEO.

"I never had a doubt that we would achieve this goal," King said. "Every single person we hired knew from the day one that this is what we do: We get our kids into college."

College is omnipresent at the school. Before the students begin their freshman year, they take a field trip to Northwestern University. Every student is assigned a college counselor the day he steps foot in the school.

The school offers an extended day--170,000 more minutes over four years compared to its counterparts across the city--and more than double the number of English credits usually needed to graduate.

Even the school's voicemail has a student declaring "I am college bound" before it asks callers to dial an extension.

Normally, it takes senior Jerry Hinds two buses and 45 minutes to get home from school. On Dec. 11, the day University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana was to post his admission decisions online at 5 p.m., he asked a friend to drive him home.

He went into his bedroom, told his well-wishing mother this was something he had to do alone, closed the door and logged in.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" he remembers screaming. His mother, who didn't dare stray far, burst in and began crying.

That night he made more than 30 phone calls, at times shouting "I got in" on his cell phone and home phone at the same time.

"We're breaking barriers," he said. "And that feels great."

deldeib@tribune.com
Copyright © 2010, Chicago Tribune

Summer Camp in Winston-Salem, NC just for boys

noreply@blogger.com (raisingboyz2men) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:21:00 +0000

Summer Camps Just For Boys

Learning and Adventure was created to address the unique characteristics and learning style of young boys. We are currently offering two programs this summer, Camp Adventure andBright Light Enrichment. Each has been carefully constructed using creative teaching techniques to give campers an opportunity to experience learning in a non-traditional way. Look for our featured article in the April issue of Forsyth Family Magazine.

www.learningandadventure.com

Raising Boyz 2 Men

noreply@blogger.com (raisingboyz2men) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:40:00 +0000

This site was birthed out of my sincere hope of being able to change the lives of little boys every where. I have worked in education in various aspects for the last ten years, and my niche has always seemed to be working with little boys that teachers, parents, principals, and others have labeled as incorrigible. I often find that it’s not the child that needs changing but the methods in which we try to reach and teach them. Some traditional teaching methods go against the natural processes of male development (which we will explore in great detail later) and make young boys feel inferior to their female counter parts. Other "best practices" of teaching have proven not to be the best practices for engaging young males.
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Toy Guns and Violence

noreply@blogger.com (raisingboyz2men) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:44:00 +0000

I had an interesting conversation on Christmas morning with my mother-in-law and two other moms of young boys. The three of them could not believe as an educator I allowed my sons to play with Nerf guns (which they got for Christmas and absolutely love. When I asked what was wrong with getting them guns I was told it teaches them to be violent, but I beg to differ. My position is that it takes more than a toy gun to teach a child to be violent. If a child never see's a gun used in a violent manner, but only as an item of recreation and in our case learning (my sons and daughter use Nerf guns to shoot alphabet targets that I made for several language arts and literacy games) how does it teach them to be violent. It's the impressions that they get from music/music videos, video games, movies and other forms of mass media that demonstrates the use of guns as a weapon. As we were speaking about this issue one of the other children came by playing a game on a hand held game system that involved shooting, I just smiled.

The PBS documentary Raising Cain addresses the issues of gun play,violence, gender based education and the nature of boys in great detail. This is a great source of information on parenting and educating boys. As always your feedback is wanted and needed!

Below you will find a brief synopsis and video clip from the documentary:
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Gender Based Education Report From Learning Matters

noreply@blogger.com (raisingboyz2men) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:02:00 +0000

This post originally aired May 19, 2003 and re-aired March 4th, 2008.