Something Special Magazine is a lifestyle magazine for all created by a special needs parent.

This magazine brings hope, inspiration and resources for the special needs parent, while taking care of the “parent” in the special needs parent. For families that don’t directly have a special needs child in their life, chances are- they know someone that does.

By educating yourself on life with a special needs child, you are more able to teach your children about differences and disabilities.

Something Special is free both online and in print. The magazine’s advertisers keep the information coming to you.

Find one of Something Special’s 5,500 copies at over 125 locations in Georgia, or simply log on to www.somethingspecialmagazine.com .

This publication started out locally by a real “southern mama” of five children, one of whom has autism. Log on today and please enter your favorite special needs dad for Something Special’s Fabulous Father’s Day giveaway. Enter as many times as you wish! Grand prize is a family four pack of Atlanta Braves tickets for a game in July against the Pirates and VIP batting practice seats. Winners will be announced on Something Special Magazine on Facebook June 18 at 8pm.

Make sure you visit and “Like” Something Special Magazine on Facebook by clicking here for updates, places to visit, and some words of wisdom.

Below is a guest post by Jane Madison, an early childhood education expert and pre-K teacher at Saint Peter the Apostle School on Wilmington Island.

As the school year comes to an end, parents often want ideas for activities during the summer to help their child maintain the skills learned in school. It is also important for parents to know the abilities young children need to be successful in school, and what to work toward.
The goals and activities discussed here are geared toward children finishing a pre-kindergarten program, but all of the activities are useful and fun and can be adapted for younger or older children. Remember, children learn naturally through play.
Children entering kindergarten are expected to identify some letters of the alphabet by name. They should be able to recognize all of the letters in their first name, and also be able to tell you how to spell it. Many children can write their name, but have no idea what the letters are called. Some children can spell their name, but don’t recognize it in print. We want them to be able to do both. To help your child learn how to spell his name, make up a song to the tune of BINGO or Wheels on the Bus, substituting the letters of your child’s name. Then point to the written letters as you sing it.
The pre-kindergarten student at this time of year should be able to hear beginning sounds of words and identify words that start with the same sound, such as ball and bike. (Alliteration)
They should also be able to hear rhyming sounds, and tell you two or three words that rhyme together. Nonsense words DO count in this activity.
In Math, students should be able to count objects to 12 or more, recognize numerals to 10 or more, name shapes and make simple patterns.
Also it is important to help your child to work independently. He should be able to put together a puzzle without talking to you, set a place setting at the table without getting distracted, draw a picture, or write his name without constantly looking to you for approval. A child this age should be able to follow a two step direction without loosing focus. An example of this is, “Go get your bathing suit and come to my room.”

Below is a list of games and activities you can do with your child to help him continue to maintain the skills he has learned in school this year. Only play these games for 10 or 15 minutes each day. If your child wants to play longer you may do so, but you want your child to love learning and have fun while doing it!
Please, please, please read and discuss books with your child everyday, limit TV, DVD’s, and video games and play cards or board games in which people interact with each other, not a screen.

Rhyming and Alliteration
(These games can be played to pass the time when you are someplace you have to wait, or when you’re in the car.)
• Name something that rhymes with_____. , chair, desk, sign, whatever you see
• Tell me a word that starts with the same sound as ____.
• I see two things that start with “b”. Make the b sound, bat and ball
• Name people in the family who have names that start with the same sound
• I’m thinking of something that swims that starts with the “f” sound( make sound) and rhymes with wish, (fish)

 To read the rest of this post in its entirety, click here.

Are you pregnant or new mother?

Are you feeling alone, sad, overwhelmed or angry?

The Mary Telfair Women’s Hospital at St. Joseph’s/Candler and Mental Health America bring you a free line to help you deal with those feelings. Left untreated, postpartum depression can become debilitating.

Contact the Confidential Project Healthy Moms Warmline at 1-800-933-9896 ext. 234 or PHMhelp@mhageorgia.org  .

When you call or email the Project Healthy Moms Warmline, please leave a message, and an experienced registered nurse will respond as soon as possible. She will be able to provide peer support and encouragement and to suggest appropriate resources.

Read my article about local moms dealing with postpartum depression here. A big thank you to the moms who were generous enough to share their experiences with PPD.

What is postpartum depression and anxiety?

• Irrational, intrusive thoughts that seem like they are set on repeat. You may ask, ‘Why did I have that thought?’
• Anxiety is prevalent, including worries or obsession about the baby’s health
• Feeling all the time that you are doing everything wrong
• Depression, characterized by intense sadness, anxiety or despair.
• Tearfulness, insomnia, fatigue, appetite disturbance

The line is not for emergencies. It is considered a postpartum emergency if you are afraid you are going to hurt yourself or your child.

What can you expect when you call?
• The first call you will leave a message and Joanne will get back to you within 24 – 48 hours.
• A mother who has been through postpartum depression and anxiety and survived.
• To begin to understand that you are not alone and that there is help.
• Honest support about the good and the bad parts of being a parent.
• Joanne will have a resource list of local counselors should you want one.

Are you looking for a public school that provides elementary and middle school-aged children in
Chatham County with a rigorous, content-rich, educational program that develops academic potential and personal character?

Then take time to attend an information session about the newest proposed charter school in Savannah: The Savannah Classical Academy: A Challenge Foundation Academy. The information session, which is open to the public, will be 4 PM Sat. Jan. 29 at the Caraway Café, 202 E. Broughton St.

Contact: Barbara Grimm at 912-484-6581 for more details or visit the school’s website at www.sca.teamcfa.org

For more information on local schoools, including schools open houses and info on the admissions process for lottery-funded (free) pre-K, visit the SouthernMamas Savannah-Chatham School Guide by clicking here.

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is asking parents to inspect and secure TVs, furniture and appliances in child-proofing efforts. On average, one child dies every two weeks due to tipovers.

Between 2000 and 2008, CPSC staff received reports of nearly 200 tipover related deaths involving children 8 and younger. Nearly all of these fatalities (93%) involved children 5 and younger.

More than 16,000 children five years old and younger were treated in emergency rooms because of injuries associated with TVs, furniture, and appliance tipovers according to CPSC staff’s most recent estimates from 2006. To read more and to learn how to prevent tip-overs, click here.

This year, the CPSC is intensifying its outreach efforts by partnering with numerous organizations, including clinics and second-hand stores, to disseminate a two minute PSA including a powerful testimonial of a parent who lost her two-year-old in a TV tipover incident and a poster. In addition, consumers will be able to stream a 20 second version of the PSA through October 23, 2010 by texting TVFALL to 878787.

You’re invited to view a Savannah art show that addresses the experience of making art amongst the chaos of raising young children.

Works by four artist-mothers will be showcased in Four Squared, an exhibition that will be at the City of Savannah’s Gallery S.P.A.C.E. 9 W. Henry St. Sept. 17-Oct. 29, in conjunction with film screening and parent-child ceramics workshop.

The experience of being a mother is what the artists describe as “the push and pull of motherhood, domesticity and creativity.”

The exhibition showcases work by four Savannah artists – Ashley Waldvogel, Atsuko Smith, Linette Dubois and Melinda Schawel.

In conjunction with the exhibition, a special film screening of Who Does She Think She Is? will be presented on Thursday, October 28 at 7 p.m. The film raises important questions about how art is valued in our culture. A discussion with the artists will follow.

A parent-child handbuilding ceramics workshop will also be offered in conjunction with the show. The workshop will meet four consecutive Saturdays beginning October 2 from 9:30-11 AM. Cost:$50. Space is limited and advance registration is required.

S.P.A.C.E. Gallery, 9 W. Henry St. Gallery hours are 9 AM-5 PM Monday through Friday. Free off-street parking is available. For information, contact 912-651-6783 or visit www.savannahga.gov/arts.

Below is a guest post by Dana Livingston is a writer for a culinary arts website where you can browse schools and the latest trends in the culinary arena.

You’ve tried every possible activity to keep your kids and their friends entertained. They are sick of movies and bored with board games. They’ve outgrown dolls and the desire to play dress up. Even riding around on the back of your Great Dane has lost its appeal. And yet, you aren’t quite ready to send them off to the park or the mall on their own to get into who knows what kind of mischief. If you’ve run out of ideas for ways to keep your children occupied when they have play dates, then perhaps a little time in the kitchen should be on your menu. There are plenty of reasons why a cooking play date is just the thing to keep your kids occupied for the afternoon.

1. They’ll learn a new skill. The ability to prepare food and a basic knowledge of nutrition is essential to life. And while kids may be reticent to help around the house when they see it as a chore, turning cooking into a fun activity that they can perform with their friends will make it appear infinitely more inviting. They’re going to have to learn to cook eventually, so why not start them young by making it fun?

2. Making food is multi-functional. We all know that cooking is a way to fulfill our need for nutrition while creating the variety that we crave. However, there’s a lot more to having your kids help you cook. It is not only a way to engage idle hands and minds, it can also serve as an outlet for creativity, a way to save money (make personalized pizzas at home instead of going to a restaurant), and an avenue of success that will improve your child’s confidence in their abilities.

3. You’re there to supervise. Sure, you could let them run around the neighborhood like wild banshees or lock themselves in their bedroom with an Xbox for hours on end, but wouldn’t you rather keep an eye on them? Although allowing them access to the stove and microwave could be dangerous if they were left unattended, getting involved in teaching them new recipes will offer you a built-in excuse for close proximity.

4. It’s a positive way to interact with your kids. All parents want to feel like they are imparting useful knowledge to their children. And kids, whether they admit it or not, are eager to learn anything and everything they can. Get them involved in every step of the process, from choosing recipes to shopping at the market, measuring and mixing ingredients, and getting creative with the plating. Don’t forget to let them do it for themselves, even if they make mistakes, and encourage them try new things and make a dish their own.

5. Everyone needs friends, including you. Cooking is not only a good way for you to interact with your kids and for your kids to interact with their peers. It can also be a great way for you to get in touch with other moms. If you make it a play date for both kids and parents, you may make a new friend and squeeze in a little adult conversation on the side.

Dana Livingston is a writer for a culinary arts website where you can browse schools and the latest trends in the culinary arena.

My Monday newspaper column on moms losing the baby weight – which many SouthernMamas readers contributed to – focuses on the trend of celeb moms who quickly drop the baby weight. Then take a lot of criticism for doing so.

Bravo star Bethenny Frankel of The Real Housewives of New York recently came under fire after she lost 30 pounds of baby weight three weeks after giving birth. Read the column here. (A big thank-you to the SouthernMamas readers who shared their takes for the article)

In response, a Savannah mom emailed me about a Pregnancy & Body Image Survey her grown daughter is working as part of her doctorate in psychology at Berkeley. The study is looking at postpartum moms, body image, and exposure to postpartum celebrities in the media. It is online, anonymous, and takes about 20-30 minutes to complete. Anyone who does it can be entered in a drawing for $20 gift cards to Target. The survey is online now through July 31. Feel free to forward this to anyone who might be interested!

Any new moms who have had their FIRST child in the last 12 months can do the survey. Click here to take the survey.

Below is a guest post by Jane Madison, an early childhood education expert and pre-K teacher at Saint Peter the Apostle School on Wilmington Island:

Many parents wonder how to prepare their child for preschool. The answer is,simply, by doing anything that helps your child develop emotionally, cognitively, and physically.

Research shows there are certain times when the brain is becoming wired for specific skills at an optimum level. The development of social and emotional intelligences, motor and vision skills, thinking and reasoning skills and even the foundation skills needed for reading begin at the moment your child is born.

This article will focus on language development. Sound discrimination and vocabulary development, which are two indicators of reading success, begin developing at birth, with the optimum opportunity being 0-24 months. The greatest enhancement of these two skills occurs from 2-7years for sound discrimination and 2-5 years for vocabulary development. (To view the complete chart, go to www.pamschiller.com.

Children learn sounds by hearing them, and develop language by being spoken to. Talk to your child about everything that is going on around you all day long. When he asks questions, answer him. When he asks the same question over and over again try to rephrase your answer, so he hears different vocabulary. Turn the tables on him by saying,”You tell me what it is?” Have conversations with your child and resist the temptation to answer for him when he seems stuck. Forming the words in his mind and then saying them takes time, and letting him go through this process will seal the new vocabulary in his mind.

Also, it is important to stay on top of any infections or fluid build-up in the ears. Children who cannot hear sounds cannot learn them!
Read to your child 15 to 20 minutes every day. This can be at more than one session, but gradually build time as your child learns to sit still longer. Reading helps develop vocabulary, comprehension and gives you and your child more opportunities to converse.

Talking to and reading with your child is an easy way to help him develop some of the skills he will need for school success.

Jane Madison graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in Early Childhood Education. She has been teaching pre-school in Savannah for over 20 years. In addition to teaching, she has worked as a consultant training teachers working in the Georgia State Funded Pre-Kindergarten program as well as presenting workshops at local, state and national Early Childhood conferences. Jane is currently teaching pre-kindergarten at Saint Peter the Apostle School on Wilmington Island. She is married and the mother of two grown children.

Happy Mother’s Day!!

Wondering what makes a good mom? Check out some of the comments of SouthernMamas readers’ kids in my Mother’s Day newspaper column today by clicking here. Thank you to all the moms who agreed to have their kids’ answers used in the article! Read the article here.  

A reminder: the weekly e-letter will be one day late this week as I am out of town visiting my mother. Check back Tuesday for local kid-friendly activities happening this week.

Below is a guest post by Jennifer Johnson, who writes on the topics of Nurse Practitioner Schools. She welcomes your comments at her email: j.johnson19june@gmail.com.

All moms know it can be a challenge getting their little one into bed from time to time. Waking life is just too exciting, and some children—particularly two- and three-year-olds—would rather fight to the death than go to bed. For some parents, this is a constant struggle night after night. To help eliminate the “bedtime battle,” here are some good tips and techniques for getting your little devil in bed asleep like the precious angel you know is in there somewhere!

1.) Establish a routine. Children that are toddlers and older respond very well to consistency. A consistent bedtime should be put in place so they can learn that they go to bed at, say, 8 p.m. every night—no exceptions. If one night they go to bed at 8 p.m. and the next night they go to bed at 9 p.m., they won’t learn the expectations you have for them and will begin to push to stay up later and later.
2.) Turn off all media and get quiet. Young children hate to be left out of the excitement just because they have to go to bed. If you turn off the TV and cut back on any lively chatter and laughter with your spouse, your child won’t feel like they are missing out on something when they go to bed.
3.) Give them a small bit of authority. This doesn’t mean they get to choose when they go to bed, but if your child is resisting bedtime because they want to be the boss, allow them to make small bedtime decisions, like picking out which pajamas to wear or which stuffed animal they want to snuggle.
4.) Turn on a nightlight or small lamp. Many children are afraid of being left alone in the dark. A nightlight makes things less scary. You may want to quietly leave on a kid-friendly CD.
5.) Read to them before bed. This practice not only helps lull them to sleep, but makes bedtime something to look forward to, not dread.
6.) Promise to return. If your child freaks out when you leave the room, tell them you’ll return in 10 minutes to give them an extra hug and kiss if they can lie down quietly the whole time. Many times they’ll be sawing logs before the 10 minutes are even up.
7.) Practice leaving them alone during the day. Go into another room to load the dishwasher or fold laundry, and let your child get comfortable knowing you are in the next room during the day. It will help them be more comfortable without you at night, too.
8.) Keep them active. An active toddler during the afternoon turns into a blissfully sleepy toddler after dinner. Run around with them outside or let them peddle a trike to burn off some excess energy.
9.) Adjust nap time. Children who take too long of naps or naps too late in the day may not want to go to sleep at bedtime. Keep naptime consistent, too.
10.) Encourage them. On those rare nights when bedtime is not a struggle, tell them you are proud they are going to bed on their own like a big boy or girl. Always acknowledge and reward your children during the times they choose to do the right thing.

This guest post is contributed by Jennifer Johnson, who writes on the topics of Nurse Practitioner Schools. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: j.johnson19june@gmail.com.

Katie, Lucy and Ella Marchese

With broader prenatal genetic testing, the number of children with Down syndrome could radically decrease. Earlier this month, I had the chance to talk to local parents who hope that doesn’t happen.

Molly and Joe Marchese of Springfield are parents of three beloved and beautiful daughters (pictured here), including a 4-year-old with Down syndrome, Ella, who has enriched their lives in countless ways. The Marcheses are among those families who have become Down syndrome advocates in the face of broader prenatal testing to prevent the genetic condition.

The Marcheses are the focus of my newspaper column today. Read it by clicking here.

The Marcheses, along with other members of the Lowcountry Down Syndrome Society, are working to help parents dealing with a definitive prenatal Down syndrome diagnosis and invite prospective parents of babies with Down syndrome to monthly support group meetings.

Contact the Lowcountry Down Syndrome Society by clicking here or email jmarchese@LDSSGA.org

A big thank you to SouthernMamas readers who agreed to share their stories about their children’s imaginary friends for my newspaper column on the subject. 

You can read the column about children’s pretend playmates by clicking here. 

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it when readers are willing to be interviewed for my various freelance articles. Thanks so much!

Below is a guest post by Marsha Woelber, a Partner at Independent Investment Services, LLC/Securities Offered through LPL Financial, Member FINRA/SIPC.

Marsha does occasional posts on SouthernMamas about  becoming financially savvy.  To read her previous posts, click here.

Parents-to-be have many exciting decisions to make in preparation for their baby: nursery decor, furniture, registry, baby names and ….life insurance. Insurance confuses most new parents; the terminology, numbers, and flurry of adjectives leave them baffled, even after they purchase a life policy. Below I’ve attempted to give you a basic understanding of why you need insurance, what kinds you can buy, and what to watch out for.

Q: Why do I need life insurance?
A: Life insurance protects the family in the event of death of a key money-earner. Generally, you need one policy for each parent, regardless of whether both parents are working. The premature death of a stay at home Mom can be just as financially devastating as the death of a working father: if the Mom dies, the costs of full-time child care factors into the equation. Life insurance gets more expensive as we age – the idea is to buy your policy when you are young, and “lock-in” cheaper premiums.

Q: How much life insurance coverage do I need?
A: Start here: 5-10x salary + mortgage + other major debts + college tuition for kids. Each situation is unique; make sure you and your financial advisor are thoughtful about this number.

Q: How do I decide what type of insurance to get?
A: This is where it gets tricky. Generally, there are two types of insurance: Term and Whole.
Term insurance works like auto or homeowners coverage: If you die while the policy is active (the ‘term’), the beneficiary gets the amount for which you’re insured. Common policies provide coverage for 10-30 years. Term is useful where the need for life insurance is temporary – like until your mortgage is paid off or your children finish college. This makes sense for most young families because it covers a set period, with affordable premiums. Your term policy can carry the option to convert to a whole life policy, a wise idea for those who want lifelong coverage.
Whole insurance provides a guaranteed death benefit for a guaranteed period of time. The policy’s life is intended to be longer than the lifetime of the insured. Premiums for this type of insurance are higher.

Q: I have a life policy through work, do I need more?

To read the answer to that question and the rest of this guest post in its entirety, click here.
 
Please email/call with questions: Marsha Woelber; marsha@iissav.com, 912-650-2852.

Marsha Woelber is a Partner at Independent Investment Services, LLC/Securities Offered through LPL Financial, Member FINRA/SIPC. She can be reached @ marsha@iissav.com or 912-650-2852.
The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.

Krispy Kreme school fund raisers. School spirit night with Pizza Hut. Elementary school carts that hawk Snickers to first graders.

All done in the name of raising money for budget-strapped schools.

The school system has the difficult task of fitting school meals into caloric and fat-content guidelines, but also making those meals appeal to kids. All with a limited budget of a little more than $1 per plate.

Yet, individual elementary schools can hold a Little Caesars School Spirit Night fund raiser or sell snacks, no matter how high the fat and caloric content, to raise money.

What’s your take on fast-food partnerships in elementary schools? And school snack carts that sell candy to students? My Sunday newspaper column on the topic has generated a slew of hate mail from folks who see nothing wrong with elementary schools endorsing fast food. “Don’t blame the obesity problem on fast-food” one reader wrote. So getting kids hooked on eating a school-endorsed meal of nuggets and fries at an early age doesn’t have any effect on the obesity problem? Seriously?

There have to be better ways to raise money. St. Andrew’s, a fast-food free school on Wilmington Island, hosted a successful school benefit last year that was the opposite of fast-food fundraiser: a slow foods dinner with local (non-fast food) restaurants to raise money for an outdoor classroom that will be a place for gardening and ecology. The benefit featured foods by Brighter Day Natural Foods Market, Cha Bella, Local 11 Ten, The Sentient Bean and Thrive.

Schools have been successful in reducing or eliminating soft drinks from cafeterias: Can’t they do the same with fast-food?

You’re trying to keep your kids healthy this flu season by stuffing them with nutrient-rich meals.

But what to do with veggie-phobic tots? Convince them to take on what writer and mom Charlotte Hume calls
the World’s First Great Big Vegetable Challenge.

Charlotte convinced her 7-year-old son Freddie to take a vegetable journey of a lifetime, getting him to eat through the ABCs of veggies, trying each vegetable from asparagus to zucchini in alphabetical order.

Freddie had to try at least two recipes with each. His mom found recipes that she thought would appeal to her finicky eater’s appetite. The challenge resulted in Charlotte’s extremely helpful blog full of kid-friendly veggie recipes. Think
zucchini turkey burgers and a canneloni recipe with butternut squash.

Join the Great Big Veg Challenge here.

A thank-you to Urban Baby Daily Picks for letting us know about such a useful kid-friendly recipe blog.

Deciding where to send your kids to school is tough, whether you’re talking about preschool or elementary school.

Pooler MOPS (Mother of Preschoolers) is helping us figure it out by hosting a School Fair for the Savannah area.

The Feb. 17 event will include representatives from a variety of schools- preschools and elementary- public, private, religious and home school. ALL are welcome to come.

This is a great chance to get some information about the schools you’re interested in and talk to the representatives.

There is no fee for parents (or for schools who might be interested in being part of the School Fair). Pooler MOPS members recognize the challenge for parents to find the right school for their children and hope this will be a valuable planning tool.

Pooler MOPS School Fair is 9:30-11:30 AM Wed. Feb. 17 at First Presbyterian Church of Pooler
305 HWY 80SE, Pooler. Check the growing list of confirmed schools that will have representatives by clicking here.

A New York Times Science article from Monday, “To Treat Bedwetting, Healthy Doses of Patience,”  is a hot topic on mommy Web sites.

According to the article, an estimated 15 percent of five-year-olds still wet the bed at night.

Parents who worry that the bedwetting is connected with a parenting mistake can relax, writes Doctor Perri Klass in the Times:

“In other words, it is not about emotional problems, or mistakes a parent made during potty training, or laziness, which some still attribute to the bed-wetter himself. (The problem is about three times as common in boys as in girls.) Indeed, one of the worst things about bed-wetting is the stigma. Sufferers and their families have been accused of everything from poor parenting to latent criminality.”

Dr. Klass says bed-wetting is caused by the interaction of a variety of factors such as genetics, physiology, development stage, and the child’s environment. Bottom line: parents dealing with this problem are not alone.

Would love to read what SouthernMamas readers have to say on this topic.

All SouthernMamas wants for New Year’s is 2,010 Facebook fans by 2010.

Please visit the SouthernMamas Facebook page here and become a Facebook fan of SouthernMamas. Right now, we have about 1,220. Please tell your friends who also read SouthernMamas to join. It’s an easy way to keep up with all the events on SouthernMamas!

Click here to become a fan of SouthernMamas on Facebook.

Have you taken the kids to visit the Santa’s Wonderland at Bass Pro Shops at Savannah Mall?

It’s great because they have free photos with Santa on weekday evenings and on weekends, as well as fun kids games like remote control trucks, model trains, racetracks, a letter-to-Santa table, crafts etc. A little less appealing  – for this non-gun-packing-mom at least – was the toy shooting range for kids.

Toy guns and kids is the topic of my newspaper column this week entitled “You’ll Shoot Your (Or Rudolph’s) Eye Out. Read it here. Would love to know what you think of the toy shooting ranges and whether you plan to or already have allowed your kids to play with BB guns? Do you find yourself quoting Ralphie’s mom in “A Christmas Story”: “You’ll shoot your eye out?” Or do you feel BB guns are safe and moms like me are overreacting?

Creating a sensible budget is one of the hardest parts of family financial planning. Trying to spend less is difficult for those already on a tight budget; learning to spend smarter takes some time and focus, but can save you money.

Financial advisor Marsha Woelber, a Partner at Independent Investment Services, LLC/Securities Offered through LPL Financial, Member FINRA/SIPC, shares an easy trick of smart spending: the use of Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs). Check out her guest article below. She can be reached @ marsha@iissav.com or 912-650-2852.

One easy trick of smart spending is the use of Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs). Check with your (or your spouse’s) employer to see if this benefit is available to you.

An FSA allows an employee to set aside a portion of earnings before taxes to pay for certain medical or child care expenses. Money in a FSA avoids income tax and the 7.65% Social Security tax. If you are in the 15% tax bracket, you could avoid paying over 22% in taxes on that money, easily adding extra cash to your budget (Not sure of your tax bracket? Google “tax bracket” and see where you fit). There are two types of FSAs: Medical Expense and Dependent Care.

Medical expense FSAs cover health expenses not paid for by insurance. Each program varies, but allowable expenses include medical copayments and items such as contact lenses, birth control pills, many OTC drugs, and even band aids. Your employer sets the maximum amount of money you may set aside. You choose to have this money taken out of your paycheck (tax-free) and then use it to pay your bills.

To read the rest of this article, click here.

Today Georgia received an “F” for its premature birth rate.

The March of Dimes issued that grade Tuesday in its Premature Birth Report Card, which grades each state’s rate of preterm birth compared to the nation’s objective of a 7.6 percent or less preterm birth rate by 2010. Georgia’s preterm birth rate was 13.6 percent.

The March of Dimes report card assesses states’ progress toward improving access to health care coverage for women of childbearing age, helping women quit smoking during pregnancy, and to preventing medically unnecessary c-sections prior to 39 weeks of pregnancy – three criteria that can reduce preterm birth rates.

One in eight babies are born prematurely in the U.S. and in Georgia 400 babies are born too early each week. Babies who survive a premature birth face the risk of serious life-long health problems including learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, blindness, hearing loss, and other chronic conditions including asthma.

Read more here.

Did your child fail to become a genius despite a steady diet of Baby Einstein DVDS and videos?

Now you can get your money back. According to this New York Times article, the Walt Disney Company is offering a $15.99 refund for Baby Einstein videos, up to four per customer. Receipts not required.

The videos have been the subject of complaints and a threatened lawsuit by the advocacy group Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood, which contended that contrary to the company’s early claims that Baby Einstein would enhance child development, watching TV is actually detrimental to children younger than 2. The American Academy of Pediatrics is against children younger than 2 watching any TV.

Here’s the link to the statement on the Baby Einstein Web site about the refund. For full details and an official mail-in certificate, click here.

I initially intended not to have my kids watch any TV until post-2, but failed miserably. However, I use DVDs to entertain while making dinner etc. and never believed Baby Einstein’s pitch that their products would land my kid in the gifted class. Did you? And if so, do you plan to take advantage of the refund and stop using Baby Einstein products?

Trying to figure out the best college savings plan for our children is overwelming. Financial advisor Marsha Woelber, a Partner at Independent Investment Services, LLC/Securities Offered through LPL Financial, Member FINRA/SIPC, offered to provide helpful information on college saving basics. Check out her guest article below. She can be reached @ marsha@iissav.com or 912-650-2852.

You want to provide your child with every opportunity in the world. Paying for a college education seems so far away, but you can make simple investment decisions today to ease the blow of increasing tuition costs.

There are many options to facilitate college savings; I’ve focused on 529 savings plans, popular due to their tax advantages and flexibility. As you can see below, paying for just one year at even a Public College can be overwhelming. You may not be able to save enough for all four years of tuition, room and board, and other expenses – but you could save enough to give your child the right start.

Common Questions about 529 Savings Plans

Q – What is a 529 Plan?
A – A 529 plan is an investment plan designed to encourage saving for a child’s college expenses. The plans are named after Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions are made in cash and invested; the money can be used to pay for “qualified” college education expenses without incurring any income tax liability on the earnings and/or appreciated value of the assets.

Q – Who can open a 529 account?
A – Anyone. Parents, grandparents, other relatives or family friends can all be account owners with the child as beneficiary. Also note that anyone can contribute to an existing 529 account, no matter who owns it.

Q – How much do I need to invest in a 529 account?
A – Many plans have low initial minimums of $500-$1,000 and can usually be arranged for automatic investments of as little as $50 or $100 a month. Many states do have an upper limit on contributions, typically $200,000 – $250,000.

Q – Who controls the investments in the account?
A – The account owner selects from investment portfolios created by a professional money manager. The most common investment option is an age-based allocation strategy in which the age of the child (# of years until college) determines the specific mix of investments.

Q – Are there tax advantages to enrolling in a 529 Plan?
A – Contributions are not federal tax deductible on your tax return, however, your investments grow tax-deferred, and distributions for “qualified expenses” are federally tax-free. Your own state may offer tax benefits such as deductions; this should be considered prior to enrolling in a 529 plan.

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