Talking to Kids About the Economy
Sunday, February 15th, 2009![](https://www.kidsfirst.org/images/Blog/Money.jpg)
PBS KIDS (for preschool audiences)
WORDWORLD #201 (NEW)
MY FUZZY VALENTINE / LOVE, BUG
“My Fuzzy Valentine”
Bug wants to sign a valentine for his favorite WordFriend, but he doesn’t know how to write his name. With lots of encouragement from Frog, he learns that with a little practice he can write his name and give his valentine.
“Love, Bug”
When Sheep decides she wants to make a special Valentine song for her pal Bear, she has trouble finding just the right rhyme to finish her song. With the help of Fly, she discovers the perfect rhyme and makes Bear a Valentine song with real heart.
CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG’S “LOVE AT FIRST BARK” VALENTINE’S DAY SPECIAL
CLIFFORD’S PUPPY DAYS
“Valentine Schmalentine” – Clifford and Daffodil make Valentine’s Day gifts for Emily Elizabeth, and get competitive over who can make the best one. In the end, they realize Emily will love whatever they make, because she cares for them more than any present.
“Sweethearts Dance” – Emily Elizabeth’s excitement about the Valentine’s Day dance turns to anxiety when she realizes she and her Dad must dance in front of a crowd. Then Dad shares a little secret that helps Emily overcome her fears.
CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG
“T-bone, Dog About Town” – A cute poodle named Mimi vacations on Birdwell Island and T-bone develops a crush on her. He tries to impress her by pretending to be a different kind of dog, but soon learns it’s always best to be yourself.
“Mimi’s Back In Town” – T-bone is excited to hear that Mimi the poodle is coming back. T-bone really likes her but he gets embarrassed when Cleo starts teasing him. Cleo eventually realizes that teasing can make people uncomfortable.
PBS KIDS GO! (for early-elementary audiences)
ARTHUR #809
FLEA TO BE YOU AND ME / KISS AND TELL
Flea to Be You and Me – Pal is itching like crazy and the culprit is Pepe, an Italian circus flea. To save himself from being “squeeshed,” Pepe enthralls Kate, Pal, and Amigo with the story of his heartbreaking separation from brother Sale – followed by an incredible journey across four continents! Kiss and Tell – Emily returns from her summer in Paris with the amazing news that she’s been kissed – by a boy! Just like in a fairy tale! Now D.W. wants a kiss so that she can be a princess too. But where can she find her Prince Charming?
CYBERCHASE #201
HUGS & WITCHES
It’s Valentine’s Day, and Hacker captures Doctor Marbles and Lady Ada Lovelace, placing them inside a time machine invented by the mathematically-minded Lovelace. The kids and Digit must decipher a series of poems left behind by Lady L, and free them from the time machine before it time travels to the nether world of cyberspace – never to return! Will the kids get there in time, or will Valentine’s Day bring nothing but broken hearts?
MAYA & MIGUEL #153
CUPID
Miguel hates Valentine’s Day. He considers it a greeting card holiday. Maya loves Valentine’s Day. She considers it an opportunity to tell your loved ones how much you care about them. As Maya prepares herself for the best Valentine’s Day ever, Miguel is horrified to learn that he has been chosen as the official Cupid of the school this year, and must deliver valentines throughout the school, attired in cupid wings. He begs and pleads with anyone and everyone to take over his job, to no avail. He straps on the wings and begins halfheartedly delivering the valentines to thrilled students throughout the school. At the end of the day, he tosses the whole getup in the trash, eager to be done with this accursed holiday. Maya, meanwhile, thinks Miguel is lucky to be able to deliver so much happiness and joy, and gets the idea to start a free valentine delivery service for the rest of the neighborhood. Unfortunately, her helper Paco manages to stuff the wrong valentines into the wrong envelopes, and all the valentines are delivered to the wrong people, with insulting results. Soon a mob confronts Maya. Miguel, seeing the mob, digs his cupid wings out of the trash and hops into action to save his sister. In the end, the once angry neighbors are thrilled with the job Miguel does of spreading Valentine’s Day cheer… and Miguel’s heart grows a few sizes towards the holiday he once hated.
The BAFTA awards were announced last night and I was delighted to see some of my favorite films honored including:
Slumdog Millionaire swept the awards – For Best Film, its director, Danny Boyle for Best Director, Simon Beaufoy was honored for Best Adapted Screenplay (Slumdog is based on a novel), A.R. Rahman for Best Music, Anthony Dod Mantle for Cinematography, Chris Dickens for Editing, Glen Freemantle, Resul Pookutty, Richard Pryke Tom Sayers, Ian Tapp for Sound. This is not a kids’ film but it is absolutely awesome. Go see it.
Wall-E took Best Animated Film – How appropriate.
Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death won for Short Animation. Kudos!
For a complete list of winners and nominees go to http://www.bafta.org/awards/film/film-nominations-in-2009,657,BA.html
The DVD also features the musical “misadventures” of Blunders in Boo-Boo-Ville where Jacques (Larry the Cucumber) attempts to invent a way to bring back the boo-boo birds and discovers that taking time to do things the right way is the best way!
After the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Senate version of the bill earlier this afternoon in a 290-135 vote, President Obama wasted no time in signing into law the critical legislation. “Today’s reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program is a victory for the children of this country. With the stroke of President Obama’s pen, states now have the funds to provide insurance coverage to more than 11 million children nationwide. During uncertain economic times, the White House and Congress have come together to wisely prioritize children’s health,” says David T. Tayloe, Jr., MD, FAAP, president, American Academy of Pediatrics.
The reauthorization of CHIP means that more than $30 billion in federal funding will be available to provide health care for those currently enrolled in the program, and to enroll millions more children, the vast majority of whom are currently eligible for CHIP or Medicaid but unenrolled. The legislation also includes the Immigrant Children’s Health Improvement Act (ICHIA), which will lift the five-year ban on eligibility for legally residing children and pregnant women in force since 1996.
Read the President’s full remarks below.
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT SIGNING OF
CHILDREN’S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM LEGISLATION
East Room, The White House, February 4, 2009
THE PRESIDENT: All right. Please, everybody have a seat. This is good. This is good. (Laughter and applause.) Today, with one of the first bills that I sign — reauthorizing the Children’s Health Insurance Program — we fulfill one of the highest responsibilities that we have: to ensure the health and well-being of our nation’s children.
It’s a responsibility that’s only grown more urgent as our economic crisis deepens, as health care costs have exploded and millions of working families are unable to afford health insurance. Today in America, 8 million children are still uninsured — more than 45 million Americans altogether.
And it’s hard to overstate the toll this takes on families: the sleepless nights worrying about somebody getting hurt, or praying that a sick child gets better on her own; the decisions that no parent should ever have to make — how long to put off that doctor’s appointment, whether to fill that prescription, whether to let a child play outside, knowing that all it takes is one accident, one injury, to send your family into financial ruin.
The families joining us today know these realities firsthand. When Gregory Secrest, from Martinsville, Virginia, lost his job back in August, his kids lost their health care. When he broke the news to his family, his nine-year-old son — where are you? — that’s you, I thought so — (laughter) — handed over his piggy bank with $4 in it, and told his father, “Daddy, if you need it, you take it.”
Now, this is not who we are. We’re not a nation that leaves struggling families to fend for themselves, especially when they’ve done everything right. No child in America should be receiving his or her primary care in the emergency room in the middle of the night. No child should be falling behind at school because he can’t hear the teacher or see the blackboard. I refuse to accept that millions of our children fail to reach their full potential because we fail to meet their basic needs. In a decent society, there are certain obligations that are not subject to tradeoffs or negotiations, and health care for our children is one of those obligations.
That is why we have passed this legislation. These legislators have passed this legislation on a bipartisan basis to continue coverage for 7 million children, cover an additional 4 million children in need, and finally lift the ban on states providing insurance to legal immigrant children if they choose to do so. (Applause.)
Since it was created more than 10 years ago, the Children’s Health Insurance Program has been a lifeline for millions of children whose parents work full time and don’t qualify for Medicaid, but through no fault of their own don’t have — and can’t afford — private insurance. For millions of children who fall into that gap, CHIP has provided care when they’re sick and preventive services to help them stay well. This legislation will allow us to continue and build on these successes.
But, as I think everybody here will agree, this is only the first step. The way I see it, providing coverage to 11 million children through CHIP is a down payment on my commitment to cover every single American. (Applause.) And it is just one component of a much broader effort to finally bring our health care system into the 21st century. And that’s why the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that’s now before Congress is so important.
Now, think about this — if Congress passes this recovery plan, in just one month, we will have done more to modernize our health care system than we’ve done in the past decade.
We’ll be on our way to computerizing all of America’s medical records, which won’t just — (applause) — it won’t — won’t just eliminate inefficiencies, won’t just save billions of dollars and create tens of thousands of jobs — but it will save lives by reducing deadly medical errors. We’ll have made the single largest investment in prevention and wellness in history — tacking problems like smoking and obesity, and helping people live longer, healthier lives. And we’ll have extended health insurance for the unemployed, so that workers who lose their jobs don’t lose their health care, too. (Applause.)
Now let me say this. In the past few days I’ve heard criticisms of this plan that frankly echo the very same failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis in the first place — the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems; that we can address this enormous crisis with half-steps and piecemeal measures and tinkering around the edges; that we can ignore fundamental challenges like the high cost of health care and still expect our economy and our country to thrive.
I reject these theories, and, by the way, so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change. (Applause.) So I urge members of Congress to act without delay. No plan is perfect, and all of us together, Democrats and Republicans, should work to make it stronger. But let’s not make the perfect the enemy of the essential. Let’s show people all over our country who are looking for leadership, who are desperate for leadership right now, that in difficult times we’re equal to the task. Let’s give America’s families the support they need to weather this crisis.
In the end, that’s really all that people like the Secrests are looking for — the chance to work hard, and to have that hard work translate into a good life for their children. I’m pleased to report that the Secrest story had a happy ending — it turned out that Gregory’s two sons were eligible for SCHIP, and they are now fully covered, much to his relief and his wife’s relief. I think Gregory put it best when he said: “Kids look at us and think that we will take of them.” That’s — every parent here has the experience. You look at your children and you know that they’re looking back at you and they’re saying, “You’re going to take care of me, aren’t you?” That’s our job, to keep them health — healthy and to keep them safe, and to let them dream as big as their dreams will take them.
That’s what I think about when I tuck my own girls into bed each night. And that’s what I want for every child, every family in this nation. That’s why it’s so important that Congress passes our recovery plan so we can get to work rebuilding America’s health care system.
It won’t be easy; it won’t happen all at once. But this bill that I’m about to sign, that wasn’t easy, either. (Laughter.) It didn’t happen all at once, either. And yet, here it is, waiting for me to sign. The bill I sign today is a critical first step. So I want to thank all of the state and local officials, all the advocates and ordinary Americans across this great country who fought so hard to get it passed. I want to personally thank every single member of Congress who is here — a bipartisan group who worked tirelessly — (applause) — worked tirelessly for so long that we could see this day. And I want you all to know that I am confident that if we work together, if we come together, we can finally achieve what generations of Americans have fought for and fulfill the promise of health care in our time.
So thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. (Applause.)
(The bill is signed.) (Applause.)
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States. Yet, studies show that only 21 percent of women view heart disease as their greatest health threat. To raise awareness of women and heart disease and to celebrate National Wear Red Day, Go Red For Women is scouring the nation to find women who can help spread the word. A casting call will be held at Mall of America® for women to share their stories for a chance to become a spokesperson for Go Red.
The event will also feature a Go Red Fashion show hosted by Mall of America Trend Specialist Sara Rogers. The show will showcase how women of all shapes and sizes can look their best while ‘going red.’ After the fashion show, Rogers will give mall guests personal consultations on the right way to “Go Red.” HealthEast Care System, Ways to Wellness will provide free fitness assessments and consultations. Nationally renowned jazz singer and heart disease survivor Patty Peterson will emcee the event.
Go Red For Women is the American Heart Association’s national movement to raise women’s awareness of their risk for heart disease. Activities include:
♥Mall guests wearing red to celebrate National Wear Red Day
♥The search for the next Go Red For Women spokesperson
♥ “Go Red” fashion show
♥Mall guests receiving “Go Red” wardrobe consultations from Sara Rogers
♥Performance by Patty Peterson, nationally renowned jazz singer and heart disease survivor
♥Mall guests taking charge of their health with free fitness assessments from HealthEast
WHEN: Friday, Feb. 6 at 5 p.m. – 8 p.m.
WHERE: Mall of America – Best Buy® Rotunda