More 2009 Summer Activities
Girl Talk is proud to announce its summer camp for middle school girls,“Project Inside Out” for Middle School Girls. Girl Talk is an Atlanta based national nonprofit peer-to-peer mentoring program where High school girls mentor middle school girls. This summer program will include: Group Talk Sessions, Impact Sessions, Crafts, Key Note Speakers. The Impact Sessions will include topics such as Body Image, Public Speaking, Setting Goals, Be a Leader, Stress Management, Gratitude, Cyberbullying, Being Creative, Priorities, Community Service, Self Respect, Self Health and Community Service Project.
When: July 20-24th 10am – 4pm
Where: Peachtree Presbyterian Church
3434 Roswell Road, Atlanta Georgia 30305
Drop off in back parking lot. Volunteers will be greeting in Girl Talk t-shirts.
How Much: $275 (Includes Lunches and T-shirt)
For more information, contact Erin Patterson at erin@desiretoinspire.org or visit Girl Talk on-line at www.desiretoinspire.org
EcoCamp Summer Day Camp
An enrichment and educational summer program including lessons on solar power and carnivorous plants. Download a brochure at this web site: school@state.ga.weo.us
The Tourette Syndrome Association of Georgia is sponsoring "Twitch and Shout" Adventure Week June 1st through June 5, 2009. Campers ages 7-17 may apply through their website at www.georgiatourette.org or e-mail for information to tsageorgia@bellsouth.net
There is a fee of $250 which includes all lodging, food, activities and a t-shirt. Scholarships may be available.
A Sack of Potatoes
A teacher once told each of her students to bring a clear plastic bag and a sack of potatoes to school. For every person they refuse to forgive in their life's experience, they chose a potato, wrote on it the name and date, and put it in the plastic bag. Some of their bags were quite heavy.
They were then told to carry this bag with them everywhere for one week, putting it beside their bed at night, on the car seat when they are in the car, next to their desk at school.
The hassle of lugging this sack around with them made it clear what a weight they were carrying spiritually, and how they had to pay attention to it all the time to not forget and keep leaving it in embarrassing places. Naturally, the condition of the potatoes deteriorated to a nasty smelly slime. This, in turn, made them unpleasant to be around. It didn't take long for each of the students to figure out that getting rid of the potatoes was much more important than carrying them around.
This is a great metaphor for the price we pay for keeping our pain and heavy negativity! Too often we think of forgiveness as a gift to the other person.
Forgiveness is clearly is for ourselves!
The Simpson Shuffle Run/Walk and Health Fair will be held on Friday, March 27, 4:30-6:30 PM. Registration forms for the run/walk can be found at the front office and on the Simpson web site www.cobbk12.org/~simpson. Proceeds will support the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life which raises funds to fight cancer. Please join us! Together we can make a difference.
Parents of students who will be in 9th grade next year are encouraged to attend the parent nights at Sprayberry and Lassiter High Schools. Both schools will hold their parent night on Tuesday, March 3, 2009. Sprayberry's night begins at 6:30; Lassiter's begins at 7:00.
Warm weather is just around the corner.The ads are full of sales on sports gear, specials on gym memberships and suggestions for how to get ready for that perfect "beach body". In addition, the media is more than ready to tell us what we ought to look like - everything from what we should wear to what shape our bodies ought to take. This is as true for our kids as it is for adults.
On TUESDAY, March 10, 2009, The Simpson PTSA in conjunction with the Simpson Professional School Counseling Office invites you to a program where we will consider together what challenges our children face as they think about who they are and who they want to be. This is especially critical during these formative middle school years.
• What images are our children are seeing in the media and how do they communicate/influence what is important about who we are?
• What do parents communicate (intentionally or not) about what we value - how our children look, what is "beauty", what defines us, etc.?
• How can we help our children process the various inputs they receive and navigate the way to a healthy self-image?
Alison Cross, (LPC and Co-Founder of Project Authentic Beauty) with extensive experience in both residential and personal counseling, will present our program with an opportunity for discussion following.
This program will begin at 7:00 p.m. and is for adults only. We encourage all parents/guardians to attend.
KeepGeorgiaSafe.org, whose mission is to provide powerful and realistic safety education and crime prevention training for Georgia's families, is a relatively new initiative in Georgia.
On their website at http://www.keepgeorgiasafe.org are resources related to child and adult safety issues that school support personnel can access and use. In addition, KeepGeorgiaSafe.org offers the opportunity to enroll cell numbers into their system to receive free Levi's Call (Georgia's AMBER alert for missing or abducted children), Mattie's Call (for missing or disabled elderly adults), and Kimberly's Call (when a suspect for the crime of murder or rape has not been apprehended and law enforcement personnel have determine that the suspect may be a serious threat to the public) wireless text messages.
