#FF Friday's Fabulous Finds: Education, Employment, Parenting, Autism & a Miraculous Rescue from Washington Mudslide

Found on teacherspayteachers.com

Thought for the Day: Here are my fabulous finds for the week. For teachers and therapists there is a game that helps children learn how to express their feelings. For the unemployed, there's some advice from James Caan on how to explain gaps on your resume. From a travel editor celebrating her first child's first birthday a wish list of things she hopes for her child to become and have in his life. Whenever new research offers a glimmer of hope to help explain the complex disorder of autism or other psychological disorders, I try to share them, the forth find is one such study. Finally, I saved the best for last with some incredible footage of the rescue of a 4 year old child from the devastating mudslide in Washington state this week. How the rescuers saw the boy is miraculous. Sadly, his father and two siblings have not been found. He was however reunited with his mother who was at work when the mudslide occurred. In the midst of tragedy, sometimes miracles happen. Have a great weekend. 

#FF Reader's Choice: #Top5 Friday's Fabulous Finds 2013 & A Contest & Sport's Psych 101 Radio

Thought for the Day: Over the last month, I have been celebrating the blog's 2nd birthday. I've posted the Reader's choices of the Top 10 posts in the various categories based on the number of page views. Today is the last of the Top Posts in #FF Friday's Fabulous Finds from 3013. Don't miss the #1 post if you did not see it before, the Stem Cell Rapper is well worth viewing! When 2014 began there were almost 80,000 page views over the course of 2 years. Today there are 85,600 page views. Thank you for reading, sharing & commenting on the blog!



I had intended to just post the Top 5 #FF Posts today, but yesterday decided to run my first Voting Contest to have you help choose the best image from this blog last year (from 20 top images). One lucky participant will win a free 1/2 hour phone consult with me and a paperback version of my best selling Kindle book, The Wake Up and Dream Challenge. Click this link to enter from now till February 12th. It is easy and will only take a couple minutes of your time.

I was also interviewed on SportsPsych101. Now you can listen to the podcast at your convenience. Ep.052 - Sports Psych 101 feat. Dr. Barbara Lavi Hear: How are sports good for children?; How parents influence their kids sports aspirations; Overbearing parents in sports; Team vs Individual sports as confidence builders for kids; How baby boomers changed physical fitness; How advertising affects our diets & how to counter those effects; How to achieve your goals in sports & life; The difference between DQ and IQ; & How Dream Positioning can help overcome roadblocks.

Here are the Top 5 #FF from 2013:

# 5 #FF Flipping Classrooms, World Mental Health Day, Childbirth & Sexuality & Bullying Prevention 10/11/13

# 4 #FF: A Beautiful Teen, Working Parents/Bickering Kids, Job Creation & Les Mis 2/1/13

# 3 #FF Why We Sleep, SleepTexting, If Your Child Is A Bully & A Mental Health Crisis 10/18/13

# 2 #FF Follow Up Friday: Humbling Insights from Recovery 

# 1 #FF: Professor Rap, Jane Fonda, Table Talk & Juggling Parenthood 2/8/13

#FF: A Beautiful Teen, Working Parents/Bickering Kids, Job Creation & Les Mis

Thought for the Day: TGIF! It's time for my Friday's Fabulous Finds. I am loving the wide array of topics I can cover in one post on Fridays & hope you like my selections, too. Today, I bring you a wonderful post by a beautiful teenager who went out of her way to try to help all the students in her school; a working mother who shares her frustration with the bickering that arises at the end of her "professsional" work day and the beginning of her private work day with her children bickering on the way home; recognition and call for support of a great nonprofit organization that helps create jobs, and the film Les Miserables. Let me know your thoughts & have a great weekend!

1) This week's first #FF Friday's Fabulous Find was written by a sixteen year old, Ashley Monroe, from Massachussetts. Her post is featured in a blog on the Huffington Post Teen. Ashley was upset last year when she kept hearing her peers put themselves down & decided to do something about it. She "wrote out 1,986 sticky notes. Each said, "You're beautiful," and (she) stuck one to every locker in (her) entire school." I applaud Ashley for taking the time to help her peers feel better about themselves, in a world filled with stories of bullying and prejudice, this post is a breath of fresh air, a innovative positive psychology experiment by a teen! Take a look & see the reactions to her efforts.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ashley-monroe/my-message-to-everyone-at_b_2563941.html

2) The 2nd Fabulous find of the week is a post from a blog called Stickers, Stars & Smiles by Helen Neale who describes her job as "professional juggling - well sort of."  She is the "mum of two minis who inspired her business, PT analyst helper, FT chaos avoider... (who) runs the printable reward charts and chore charts business from home in her *spare* time." This post describes the witching hour when tired working mothers leave work and pick up their kids who start to bicker. I commented that, "I love this post, since it is so brazenly honest." The trials & tribulations of working parents trying to transition from “work” to their second job, parenting, are also spelled out clear as day. I also like the way that the font, even on the comments has the look & feel of writing in a daily journal. If you are a working parent & want to feel understood & get some tips from parents in the same boat, take a look at Helen's blog.
http://www.stickersstarsandsmiles.com/child-behaviour/its-all-bickering-and-no-chocolate-cake-sniff/#comment-855

3) My third Fabulous Find is about an issue that our nation needs all the help it can get: job creation. The news came to me an e-mail from Martha Rollins, founder of Boaz & Ruth, a nonprofit organizations featured in my book. (I have written about & posted a video (see above) of one of the graduates of their program in previous blog posts.)  Martha told me that Boaz & Ruth, based in Richmond VA, has been noticed nationally and has been selected as a finalist  in the JobRaising Challenge, "an innovative competition to help job-creating nonprofits raise money and publicity. The Skoll Foundation, The Huffington Post, and knowledge partner McKinsey & Company have selected the most innovative, feasible, and scalable candidates of the 210 applicants representing 31 states and 110 cities across America." Boaz & Ruth has been invited to share in a national 'harvest."  The organization that raises the most will receive an additional $150,000.  I hope you will read more & help Boaz & Ruth win that prize. http://www.crowdrise.com/boazandruth-jr/fundraiser/martharollins 

4) I'm adding a fourth Fabulous Find today. Yesterday, I went to see Les Miserables.  I had seen the musical years ago and although I love to see Broadway musicals, I often do not like the movie versions. I had heard good things about Anne Hathaway's performance & like to see films that have been nominated for the Oscars before the awards are doled out. If you have been reluctant to see this film, do not miss it. The first scene was the only one that did not work well for me, from then on in, it was amazing. I have a feeling that it will not only have a long run in theaters, but will become one of the greatest classic films ever made. The acting is superb and hard to believe given that the characters are singing, not speaking. I have not seen all the nominees, but I believe there will be several Oscars given to this film.

Have a wonderful weekend! See you next week!