Keeping kids engaged in "brain work" during the summer months is important to year-long success in school...

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This important information from a retiring educator and colleague of mine provides parents with helpful and useful resources designed to keep our kids engaged in "brain work" during the summer months (information is being provided to our LifelineExtensions.blog readers verbatim):

"Entertaining Educational Resources Key to Keep Kids Learning throughout the Summer"

With the school year ending, many parents are starting their annual search for fun educational resources to keep their children learning throughout the summer months.

To help, Verizon Thinkfinity (http://www.thinkfinity.org/) has added a new Summer Learning feature.  From rhyming poems and songs for the early elementary school set, to tips to help teens write a children’s picture storybook, Thinkfinity Content Partner ReadWriteThink has created a robust summer learning feature to keep kids excited about learning.

Thinkfinity also offers parents and care providers free webinars to help them make the most of all the free resources available on Verizon Thinkfinity.  Visit the Professional Development section on Thinkfinity.org for a complete list of general audience and educator webinars.

Join the new Thinkfinity Community to see what others are saying -- and what they’re doing to make the most of Thinkfinity resources all year long.

Suggested Tweets:

Summertime is almost here, how do you plan to keep your child learning?  Thinkfinity can help. http://bit.ly/amsnSw

Help stave off summer learning loss, check out the new Thinkfinity summer learning feature. http://bit.ly/amsnSw

Learning can’t end when the school year does, visit Verizon Thinkfinity for free summer learning resources. http://bit.ly/amsnSw


HAPPY SUMMER!

Sharon M. Biggs, M.A., is a wife, mother, and 21st Century educational leader & school district administrator who serves as Co-Chair & President of Lifeline Foundation, Inc.  This 24-year educator is also Founder, Editor, and Chief Writer of LifelineExtensions.blog.  View other published works at http://www.examiner.com/.  Contact Sharon directly for more information: smbiggs@mylifelinefoundation.org.

"Children are the globe's most precious commodity." (Terence H. Biggs, Jr. ~ 2009)

We cannot underestimate the power of subconscious thoughts

There may be times when we feel overcome by certain emotions and cannot explain why.

Some would argue that biologically and psychologically speaking, the subconscious level of our thought process has taken over in these instances.

One example might be after the loss of a loved one when we find ourselves in settings or situations that subconsciously trigger thoughts about that person, and before we know it, we begin feeling inexplicably weepy and deeply saddened.

It is in those times we may subconsciously be reminiscing or reflecting about how much fun we used to have with our loved one in that particular environment; and experiencing sudden reminders about the void that has been left by the loved one’s passing.

Or, if we are feeling and behaving completely positively and all things around us seem to be on the upswing; but then we instantly start to feel, look, and act negatively and sour; the strong subconscious layer of our reflections may very well be at work.

Likewise, everything around us may appear to be falling apart, yet just like "the little engine that could," we deliberately and with unwavering determination decide to think, speak, and act positively despite what is going on or being said around or about us.

This is another example of when our subconscious may once again be pressing through to take control of situations in the world around us.

Scholars such as Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, and Pierre Janet spent much of their lives studying and writing about the mind’s tiered levels and their powers.

Discussion is also offered by students of the mind who may be considered less traditional in their approaches.

Regardless of the camp of thinkers and students we choose to journey through life agreeing with, we cannot underestimate the power of our subconscious thoughts when it comes to getting out of life what we want to; or not getting out of life what we think we cannot ever attain.

Seemingly, whatever we spend our days thinking about will drive our actions, accordingly.

Moreover, opinions given by members of both groups of mind students appears to be that the subconscious level of the mind offers us a powerful tool to tap into as a resource to aid us in deciding which set of reflective lenses we will determine to wear through life:

Rose-colored positive lenses that allow us to think, see and experience the glass half-full, or gloom & doom negative lenses that tend to lead us to think, see and experience the glass half-empty.

Which lenses will our minds lead us to choose? What do you think?

Sharon M. Biggs, M.A., is a wife, mother, and 21st Century educational leader & school district administrator who serves as Co-Chair & President of Lifeline Foundation, Inc.  This 24-year educator is also Founder, Editor, and Chief Writer of LifelineExtensions.blog.  View other published works at http://www.examiner.com/.  Contact Sharon directly for more information: smbiggs@mylifelinefoundation.org.

"Children are the globe's most precious commodity." (Terence H. Biggs, Jr. ~ 2009)

A natural transition ~ A Teen Girl’s and Her Mom’s Perspective

                                  Photo: Copyright Sophisticatedafrican.wordpress.com

Why is the word “relaxer” used to refer to adding chemicals to hair that is in its natural state?

After adding chemicals, the hair and its owner are anything but relaxed when it comes to long-term maintenance and styling.

During the weeks, months, or years chemicals are re-added to the hair’s dwindling natural follicles; you see and feel less and less of the authentic texture and grain that was on the head from birth, and more and more of the “relaxed” version of the hair.

Weather, environmental elements and their changes, activity, and sometimes just the finicky nature of a younger or older woman’s chemically altered hair are then added to the mix and make for some extremely challenging times when a girl’s hair just will not do what a girl wants it to do.

Why then, do so many girls and women of color beg to have their naturally curly-coily-kinky hair chemically altered in an attempt to try to make it look just like the hair seen in many advertisements and various media?

The simple answer might be images.

Images that unfortunately can reflect something unnaturally created.

Images that may not mirror what we see when we look into our personal “natural mirrors.”

Images that cost thousands of dollars and just as much if not more of our time and ones that require the use of products that might not be as kind to our health and wellness as natural products can be.

However, when the day finally comes that we muster up enough self-awareness, self-capacity, self-determination, and self-love of our natural images, we eagerly rush to embrace our “natural selves” and our natural hair.

The natural transition from a stress-filled “relaxed” condition of our naturally curly-coily-kinky hair brings with it an abundance of hair versatility, illuminating healthiness, and authentic beauty that human beings are known to enjoy when we encounter the very things of nature.

That is when we can truly relax and begin to love our hair in its natural state.

Co-written by a teen girl and her mom, Danielle M. Biggs & Sharon M. Biggs, both of whom made the bodacious decision to transition from “relaxed” hair back to their natural curly-coily-kinky hair almost six months ago…and, they love every strand of it!

Sharon M. Biggs, M.A., is a wife, mother, and 21st Century educational leader & school district administrator who serves as Co-Chair & President of Lifeline Foundation, Inc.  This 24-year educator is also Founder, Editor, and Chief Writer of LifelineExtensions.blog. View other published works at http://www.examiner.com/.  Contact Sharon directly for more information: smbiggs@mylifelinefoundation.org.

"Children are the globe's most precious commodity." (Terence H. Biggs, Jr. ~ 2009)

Tough conversations and total transparency help overcome biases

The older we get the more ready we are to admit that everyone has biases of one kind or another.


The wiser we get, the more transparent we are when we discuss those biases with people with whom we strive to build sustained and secure relationships.

Neither the admission nor the discussion is necessarily easy, and both are unfortunately roads less traveled for the members of some organizations. Even today.

However, those tough conversations help build relational fortresses of trust around people who team with each other and have to rely on one another for support and encouragement during the most vulnerable times.

Moreover, an abundance of trust is needed between true teammates so they can embrace hard talks about delicate, fragile, or even controversial issues.

When the trust and the discussion are missing links in organizational relationships, the result is usually discord and disharmony.

Knowing that to be the case, what sometimes prevents strong trust from growing and honest dialogue from happening?

Some say the answer is simply DNA.

A common argument is that bias is part of everyone’s DNA; making it a factual, not fictional, part of each person’s daily reality.

Now, hair color and hair texture are DNA-embedded parts of our individual wiring and make-up.

Yet, we can think about what we want to do with our hair color and hair texture; and can change both anytime and any way we want to.

The trick to a favorable outcome with both is to expect that it will take time to get just the right hair color and hair texture we like.

If bias is part of everyone’s DNA, is it also something we can spend time reflecting about and alter whenever we decide it’s time for a shift in mindset, philosophy, and actions?

Converse to a lack of trust and honesty, when personal biases are deliberately altered by the owner to allow trust and transparency to take over…would this not be a formula for accord and harmony?

The only way to find out is to try it on for size and see what happens…we may be very pleased by the end results…but the trick is to acknowledge and accept that it will take time to get it just right…

Sharon M. Biggs, M.A., is a wife, mother, and 21st Century educational leader & school district administrator who serves as Co-Chair & President of Lifeline Foundation, Inc.  This 24-year educator is also Founder, Editor, and Chief Writer of LifelineExtensions.blog.  View other published works at http://www.examiner.com/.  Contact Sharon directly for more information: smbiggs@mylifelinefoundation.org.

"Children are the globe's most precious commodity." (Terence H. Biggs, Jr. ~ 2009)