News came this week from the Whatcom County Pediatric Obesity Taskforce about Silence Your Screen Week, June 21-28.

This isn’t the annual TV Turnoff Week, sponsored by the Center for Screen-Time Awareness, but rather a local effort tied to the Bellingham Parks & Recreation Department’s Get Movin’ progam, which encourages families to be physically active for a month.

Saturday is the kickoff event from noon to 3 p.m. at Civic Athletic Complex. For information on the Get Movin’ program, call (360) 778-7000 or point your browser to www.getmovinwhatcom.org.

According to a statement from the Pediatric Obesity Taskforce, Silence Your Screen Week encourages families to turn off all TVs, video games and computer screens, and get active as a family. The Pediatric Obesity Taskforce, Whatcom Coalition for Healthy Communities, and Bellingham Parks and Recreation Department encourage families to step away from their screens this week and attend many of the free, fun events around Bellingham.

For more information on reducing screen time, visit www.screentime.org or www.limiTV.org.

With the full moon rising at 5:30 this evening (June 18), so close to Saturday’s summer solstice, sky observers will get to see a prominent “moon illusion” — provided that clouds don’t obscure it.

Here’s a link to the NASA Web site, which explains the effect.

Thursday’s solstice moon and the start of summer are perfect times to get the kids outside for a look at the night sky, and for a discussion about the changing of the seasons, the cycles of the Earth, etc.

Why not build a bonfire (if it’s permitted where you live) or conduct some other ceremony marking the event?

The big fire in Lynden on Monday, and how officials believe it started, can offer parents a chance to discuss fire safety with their kids.

A pair of teens has been accused of setting the blaze that destroyed the historic old Lynden Department Store building, which was home to several shops.

The fire destroyed a community icon and put many people out of work. As a firefighter myself, I am grateful that no one was injured. But dozens of firefighters worked a long, hard day. And with so many firefighters working at one incident, response times for other emergencies may have suffered.

Fire-setting behavior is not something to be taken lightly. Parents should address the issue when children are young and impressionable. Don’t play with fire in front of your kids, and keep lighters and matches stored out of reach of the young’uns.

It’s estimated that half of all children have engaged in innocent fireplay, so this isn’t something to be trifled with.

Teach your kids to notify an adult if they should find a lighter or matches, or if they know someone who is experimenting with fire.

Kids set fires for many reasons. Often, it’s merely that they are curious or fascinated with fire. Sometimes, there is a deeper psychological cause, from simple anger at their parents to acting out because of sexual abuse. Parents may need to enlist the help of a medical professional, but the problem cannot be ignored.

Fire-setting behavior must be extinguished in its incipient phase, to use fire-service terminology.

A good article on the subject is at the American Psychological Association site.

There is also some good information at the Omaha Fire And Rescue site, at the Burn Institute and through the Washington State Patrol .

An Anacortes teen can be seen Thursday and Friday competing among the nation’s top spellers in the 81st annual Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Four of the 288 contestants are from Washington state, including Elysa C. Stone, a 13-year-old seventh-grader at Anacortes Middle School. Her sponsor is the Skagit Valley Herald in Mount Vernon.

The bee, which was popularized in a trio of recent movies, is sponsored by the E.W. Scripps Co., a newspaper chain and media conglomerate.

The quarterfinals air live Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. PDT on www.ESPN360.com, ESPN’s online video channel. The semifinals air live Friday on ESPN-TV from 8-11 a.m. PDT. The championship finals air live Friday on ABC, from 5-7 p.m. PDT.

ESPN and ABC have broadcast the event since interest began to pullulate several years ago.

For those of you who enjoy word games, ESPN has a doozy (scroll down).

Thinking of competing next year? Scripps offers a study guide.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced this week the voluntary recall of several products aimed at children. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

CPSC recall hot line: (800) 638-2772. CPSC online: www.cpsc.gov. Roll your cursor over the suspect item, and a picture will pop up.

Here are the recalls, with additional ontact information.

American Scientific magnets
This recall involves horseshoe, rectangular bar and U-shaped magnets sold primarily to schools for use in science classes. The magnets have red and blue paint on the surface of the magnet.
Surface paint on the magnets can contain high levels of lead, violating the federal lead paint standard.
For additional information, contact American Scientific toll-free at (866) 518-1665 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, e-mail the firm at recall@american-scientific.com, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.american-scientific.com.

Floppy Friends Horse Toys
Toy Investments Inc., doing business as Toysmith, of Auburn, Wash. For additional information, contact Toy Investments Inc. at (800) 356-0474 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. PT Monday through Friday, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.toysmith.com.

Pirates of the Caribbean Sleeping Bags, and Tinker Bell wands
For additional information, contact the Disney Store toll-free at (866) 902-2798 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. PT, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.disneystore.com.

Children’s Blankets
Douglas Co. recalls blankets because of strangulation hazard. For additional information, contact Douglas Co. at (800) 992-9002 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.douglastoys.com, or e-mail the firm at linda@douglastoys.com.

Little Rider Toys
Recalled for violating lead paint standard. For additional information, contact Master Toys & Novelties Inc. at (800) 237-5020 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. PT, Monday through Friday or visit the firm’s Web site at www.mastertoys.com.

This came this week via e-mail from the U.S. Social Security Administration, the list of most popular baby names for 2007. They are:

Girls
1. Emily
2. Isabella
3. Emma
4. Ava
5. Madison
6. Sophia
7. Olivia
8. Abigail
9. Hannah
10. Elizabeth

Boys
1. Jacob
2. Michael
3. Ethan
4. Joshua
5. Daniel
6. Christopher
7. Anthony
8. William
9. Matthew
10. Andrew

You can see the list and read accompanying research, along with lists of popular names dating to 1880 at the department’s Web site.

Also check out babyhold.com, a site that lists baby names with their meanings.

Note: time change for event.

Here’s something that sounds like fun for the family:

At 9 a.m. 2 p.m. on May 17 at Barnes and Noble, students from the Nancy Whyte School of Ballet will offer highlights from the company’s June production, “The Wizard of Oz.” The event also features performances by the Munchkins, Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tinman, Cowardly Lion and Toto. Also planned is a storytime with Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.

Why not make a day of it and read the L. Frank Baum book aloud in the afternoon, then see the movie at night.

When our daughter Leah was in kinders and Emma was 2, they both loved Dorothy so much that we bought them each a costume and often they wore them for days on end.

They were so cute in their little sparkly red slippers. We called them “The Two Dorothys.”

And “Wizard of Oz” offered so many opportunities for educational and creative play.

When Leah was 3, we had read the books and seen the movie, and we had discussions about how different the two are. We didn’t make judgments; we just talked about the differences.

Soon, Leah realized that there are witch themes throughout children’s literature. And she wanted to deconstruct all the fictional witches and compare/contrast the characters — a high school English teacher’s dream!

Some of our fondest Dorothy moments involve the shoes.

The magical ruby slippers from the movie are silver slippers in the book. When Leah grew out of her ruby reds, she used a pair of sparkly white shoes, left over from her role in a wedding party. When people would ask where her ruby slippers were, she’d say matter-of-factly that she was “Dorothy from the book.”

By age 5, she outgrew both colors of shoes and favored a pair of tiny Doc Martens boots.

“The witch won,” she would retort when people asked about the boots. Or she would sometimes say that she was Dorothy before her adventure, wearing her “sensible Kansas shoes.”

A colleague just forwarded this item from the May 10 issue of the online journal Slate.

The Mother’s Day reference is obviously out of date, but scroll down and check the links for discussion of how lower-middle-class families should emphasize college as much as the upper middle class does.

That said, there’s also a lot that a trade school education can get you.

We’re always going to need car mechanics, electricians, plumbers and HVAC people … not to mention police officers and firefighters, although a college education and military service will make those candidates much more attractive.

The other day I was at Trader Joe’s and a mid-30s professional was shopping with his son, who was probably 18 to 24 months old. The man was wearing one of those Bluetooth earphones and talking intently about some business project.

Never mind the fact that I had to listen to this blather while looking for some queso fresco or cotija. But he was completely ignoring his young son.

Nevertheless, the child was well-engaged with all the eye candy that TJ’s has to offer. And granted, I don’t know the context for this trailer of daily life: Maybe the guy is an otherwise attentive dad, just momentarily sidetracked by business.

But somehow, I don’t think so.

Which leads me to wonder: Why do we ignore our kids like this? What message are we sending to the young ones?

When my family is out and about, or in the car, we engage in conversation, listen to tunes we all enjoy or have an appropriate book on CD going. No radio news, no DVD, no cell phone, nobody hooked up to iPods, etc.

Note: time change for event.

Here’s something that sounds like fun for the family:

At 9 a.m. 2 p.m. on May 17 at Barnes and Noble, students from the Nancy Whyte School of Ballet will offer highlights from the company’s June production, “The Wizard of Oz.” The event also features performances by the Munchkins, Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tinman, Cowardly Lion and Toto. Also planned is a storytime with Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.

Why not make a day of it and read the L. Frank Baum book aloud in the afternoon, then see the movie at night.

When our daughter Leah was in kinders and Emma was 2, they both loved Dorothy so much that we bought them each a costume and often they wore them for days on end.

They were so cute in their little sparkly red slippers. We called them “The Two Dorothys.”

And “Wizard of Oz” offered so many opportunities for educational and creative play.

When Leah was 3, we had read the books and seen the movie, and we had discussions about how different the two are. We didn’t make judgments; we just talked about the differences.

Soon, Leah realized that there are witch themes throughout children’s literature. And she wanted to deconstruct all the fictional witches and compare/contrast the characters — a high school English teacher’s dream!

Some of our fondest Dorothy moments involve the shoes.

The magical ruby slippers from the movie are silver slippers in the book. When Leah grew out of her ruby reds, she used a pair of sparkly white shoes, left over from her role in a wedding party. When people would ask where her ruby slippers were, she’d say matter-of-factly that she was “Dorothy from the book.”

By age 5, she outgrew both colors of shoes and favored a pair of tiny Doc Martens boots.

“The witch won,” she would retort when people asked about the boots. Or she would sometimes say that she was Dorothy before her adventure, wearing her “sensible Kansas shoes.”

I ran across this article on manners at Yahoo! recently and wonder what people think.

I agree totally. We keep meal time as family time. Distractions such as phones, TM and the like are wholly inappropriate.

I have to remind the girls sometimes that we don’t eat slouched down except at Passover. Sit up straight, elbows off the table, etc.

The Mittendorf-Sauter house may not be the Ritz, but we try to act as civilized people who enjoy each other’s company. …

For those of us with kids who love the American Girl series of dolls, books and films, here’s an opportunity for an evening of fun.

Barnes & Noble is hosting an American Girl reading group at 6:30 p.m. on May 20. A notice sent to The Herald says girls ages 8 and older can bring their dolls and participate in a variety of activities, including a doll-craft studio. I suppose boys could go too, but that’s a whole other discussion.

The bookstore is at 4099 Meridian St., cross of Bakerview Road. Phone: 647-7018. There’s a coffee shop in the store for parents who want to hang out.

My gals (Leah, 12, and Emma, 9) have had oodles of fun with the highly educational series of dolls, books and films. It’s done so much to get them interested in American history and culture. On a recent trip to New York City, they even gave up an opportunity to see a Broadway musical in favor of a visit to the American Girl store, one of only three in the U.S.

Even if you can’t afford the 100 bucks a pop for the dolls, the books and videos are available at the library.

Check out the American Girl site for games and other stuff.

It figures that my first post, after taking over the blog from Mary Lane Gallagher, would be about teaching our girls how to play hooky. But that’s just what we did Thursday afternoon.

One of their favorite authors, Jeanne Birdsall, was speaking at Village Books at 1 p.m. Birdsall - who won the 2005 National Book Award for “The Penderwicks” - was promoting her new book, the second in a planned five-part series about the four girls being raised by their widower dad. You know a kids’ book has to be pretty darn good to win such a high honor against all those grownup books.

I saw it as a wonderful opportunity for a field trip, even though it was in the middle of the school day. My boss here at The Herald let me take a long lunch break and I collected the girls from school.

I felt a little conspiratorial signing the kids out for an “author lecture” and not “dentist appt.” I thought I might get busted when I ran into Leah’s principal at Kulshan. But Gordon thought it was an acceptable excuse, especially because he and the office staff know how much Leah loves to read.

It reminded me of when we used to home school and how we could make an educational opportunity out of just about anything. The word “hooky,” by the way, comes from the Dutch “hoeckje,” which means “hide and seek.” See what I mean?

Anyway, I went to Birdsall’s Web site and looked her up on Wikipedia so I’d be able to tell the kids a little about her. Although I do read a lot of young adult fiction, I have not read “The Penderwicks.”

We all had a great time. There were something like 100 kids there, including a couple of classes from nearby Lowell Elementary and others whose parents brought them. Birdsall was a delight, offering anecdotes about how she named her characters, her inspiration for certain part of the book, and her passion for the fictional Penderwick family.

It was quite an educational experience, even if it was a day off from school.

The Whatcom YMCA’s Kids Night Out is coming up March 14, offering an opportunity for kids to spend the night at the Y swimming, playing games, scaling the climbing wall and working on crafts.

The monthly events for first- through fifth-graders offer a “small taste” of summer camp, said Magill Lange, the Y’s “associate adventure director.”

The kids usually get some time at the pool, Lange said, but not at this month’s Kids Night Out because the poool is being repainted.

It’s a small program now, Lange said, but she’s hoping more kids will come as word gets out.

“It’s a great first-time-away-from-home experience,” she said. “It’s an active over-night, but at the same time, it’s not super-rowdy-rambunctious.”

The fee, $35 for Y members and $40 for others, includes a pizza dinner and a continential breakfast, Lange said. Kids are dropped off by 6:30 p.m. and picked up by 9 a.m. the next morning. They’re supervised by two YMCA staff members all night.

For more information, call Lange at 733-8630 or email her at camps@whatcomymca.org.

The number of grandparents raising their grandkids in Whatcom County nearly doubled between 2000 and 2006. That statistic got me started on a story about Whatcom County grandparents who are raising their children’s children.

Do you know someone with an interesting story to tell about raising grandkids? I’d love to talk to him or her for my article.

In the meantime, here is a Department of Social and Health Services website for families who are caring for young relatives who aren’t their biological children. Email me at mary.gallagher@bellinghamherald.com

Western Washington University has been offering the “Sleeping Over with Science and Art” program for years, but maybe some kids thought the “sleeping” part was a waste of time when there was so much cool stuff to do.

Past “Sleeping Over” topics have included exploring the science of natural disasters, learning the art of storytelling, sleuthing through simulated crime scenes and creating art with the help of animals.

But some of the kids who attended the quarterly programs, and their parents, said they would have liked more in-depth explorations of the topics, said Debbie Gibbons, youth coordinator of Western’s extended education and summer programs.

So the Saturday Odyssey of Science and Arts March 15 will give kids a full day to learn about movie making and computer animation for seventh- and eighth-graders, and star gazing and engineering for fourth- through sixth-graders.

The engineering program just filled up, Gibbons said, but the others had space available.

The programs cost $75. More information is here.

Happy Friday.

Here’s a fun interview on Babble.com with a young woman who wears the Elmo suit in “Sesame Street Live.”

Yes, Elizabeth Osborn knows what power she wields over preschoolers.

Every single show, when I come on there is just this freak-out throughout the entire audience, which is a little bit weird for me. Inside it’s just me and I’m not that great.

Read the rest of the interview here. Enjoy!

A federal panel that advises the Centers for Disease Control on immunization practices thinks so.

Kids, bless their germy little hearts (and hands), are loveable little disease incubators, as parents, teachers and day care providers know well.

Flu shots are already recommended for children age 6 months to 5 years because, like the elderly and chronically ill, influenza puts them at a higher risk of life-threatening illness.

Each year, 36,000 people die of the flu. Few of them are kids and teens age 6 to 18, but the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices hopes that keeping these older kids from getting sick would cut down on the spread of the disease to more vulnerable populations, such as the elderly.

And fewer sick-kid days would mean fewer missed work days.

Read an Associated Press story about the recommendation in The Bellingham Herald here.

I also heard an interesting piece about it on NPR this morning. Click here to listen.

What do you think? Are more flu shots for school-aged kids a sensible measure to prevent the spread of the disease?

Should daycare centers be allowed to unionize to negotiate their payments from the state?

The state Senate is considering a bill that would allow daycare center owners and employees to join a union to negotiate the rate the state pays to subsidize care for kids in low-income families.

Here’s an interesting story about the bill in Sunday’s Seattle P-I.

Kim Cook, president of SEIU Local 925, which represents education workers, including home day care workers, said state subsidy rates for day care centers are currently 60 percent of what families who pay privately are charged.

“Right now the private-pay parents are subsidizing state kids,” she said. “If you can get that rate up to an equal level, then it’s more equally balanced and the centers can afford to pay better.”

In this case of the new legislation, day care center managers and workers would both be unionized.

“It’s really about bargaining with the state, not bargain with your boss over hiring and firing and the traditional issues that unions often deal with,” she said.

Cook said the bill would not directly increase wages but rather the reimbursement rate that the state pays day care centers.

Home daycare centers won the right to collective bargaining with the state two years ago, according to the story, and negotiated a $45 million increase to their reimbursement rates.

What do you think of such a proposal? Is the expense worth it or is it time for the state to reign in spending?

Track the bill here: HB2449.

Mount Baker Planned Parenthood is offering “Beyond the Birds and the Bees,” Monday (Feb. 25), a free discussion for parents of babies and children up through grade four.

Click here to see a recent interview with Tracy Dahlstedt, Mount Baker Planned Parenthood’s education programs manager, about talking to your kids about sex.

Monday’s class, at the Fairhaven Public Library Fireplace Room from 6 to 7:30 p.m., will include discussions of typical stages of childhood sexual development, what children need to know and when, sharing family values about sexuality, tips for answering difficult questions and encouraging healthy family communication.

The class is free. Call Dahlstedt with questions at 603-7711.