Be Inspired by the Story About Bethany Moultry and Her Mother Colleen Moultry, the Creators of Bethany’s Happy Bags for the Homeless

I am so inspired by the story of Bethany Moultry and her mother Colleen Moultry, the creators of Bethany’s Happy Bags for the Homeless, and wanted to share their story with you. If you and your children are thinking of helping others in need, do give this a read and also share it with others to encourage them to do good for the needy.

How It Started

It all started in December 2019 when Bethany Moultry was 5 years old and saw a homeless man in her hometown of Savannah, Georgia. She cried and wanted to go home and use the money in her piggy bank to help him. Bethany and her mom brainstormed what they could do and came up with the idea of creating care packages and giving them away to people who were homeless. They also came up with the name Bethany’s Happy Bags for the Homeless because Bethany wanted to make people happy.

When Bethany turned 6 in 2020, her mother asked her what she wanted for her birthday and Bethany said she wanted to help more people. This is when the Moultrys started "Bethany's Happy Bags for the Homeless" on Facebook, made an Amazon Wishlist, and teamed up with nearby homeless shelters including Chatham-Savannah Authority for the Homeless and Union Mission to raise money in any way she could. 

The Result of Bethany’s Happy Bags for the Homeless

They started by giving away small bags containing various items to eat and for personal hygiene such as beef sticks, first aid supplies, toiletries, masks, and Gatorade, and have now grown to include many other items, including a personal note from Bethany and blankets during cold weather. They have received considerable support and assistance from other student volunteers from her brother’s school - Matthew Reardon School for Autism - as well as many in the community who donate their time and money. Over time, they have successfully distributed over 750 Bethany’s happy bags for the homeless.

Bethany’s Plans for the Future

Bethany now would like to broaden their reach beyond the Savannah community to help children who are homeless. The two have already begun working toward this objective; thus far, they have donated at least 80 blankets to nearby shelters for needy children.

On their website, Bethany’s message is: “I want every person experiencing homelessness to know that I see you and care.” The Moultrys also say: “It is our hope that these Happy Bags and other donations will continue to touch the lives of those who receive them.” 

To learn more, please visit:

https://bethanyshappybags.com/

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/04/us/happy-bags-for-the-homeless-trnd/index.html

As the Stars of the Sky Foundation’s Mission

As the Stars of the Sky Foundation was created as a nonprofit organization to promote the importance of literacy in your child's life. This entails encouraging children to read more, including inspirational and educational books. The proceeds from the sale of our books are used toward engendering better reading skills, which in turn fight gender inequality, poverty, and poor health.  Would you like to support us and our cause? Donate your used or outdated books that are in good condition and purchase our books and other offerings.  You can also get in touch with us for further details!

Activities for Your Children to Learn More About Safety During National Safety Month This June

In 1996, the National Safety Council established the month of June as National Safety Month to highlight the importance of safety where we live, work and play. Keeping our children healthy and safe is of critical importance. How can we teach our children about safety measures that they can and should take? Below is a list of safety activities for children and much more. Importantly, please do not scare your children, and be sure to explain why planning for and taking safety measures are important!

Brainstorm Safety Rules to Follow at Home

What should be done in the event of a fire? What should be done if the electric power goes off? What should be done about inclement weather issues such as storms? What should be done in the event of a stranger coming to the house? By going through the above checklist with your children and making sure they know how to react in each situation, you are getting yourself and your family prepared for any possible harm and ensuring their safety.

Repeat Safety Rules Often

You can make it a game involving memorization skills. For example, you can ask: As soon as you walk out of the house, what do you make sure you do? Answer: Close the door. Why? Because pets can get out and run around and we want them to be safe; because insects can get into the house and bite us; and because we want to keep our home safe and secure. Also, art projects about firetrucks and firemen, police officers, and police cars are excellent tools to reinforce what they are learning. 

Think About Various Road Safety Tips to Point Out to Them

When you are driving, there are many street signs of different shapes and colors that you can explain the meaning of. For example, you could teach them the importance of the three traffic lights’ colors and how each color represents safety measures. You can also teach them about the basics of stopping and looking before crossing the road as well as using proper footpaths or safety features such as zebra crossings and overhead bridges. When you arrive home, have your children do art projects about traffic signs and lights.

Discuss Strangers Approaching Them and What They Should Do

Include scenarios of different venues, such as the park, after school, at a store, and at home. Set some guidelines that they should follow including never accepting sweets or meals from strangers, never letting a stranger inside your home, never entering a stranger's home or vehicle, and running away, shouting, and locating a responsible adult whom your children can tell what happened if a stranger makes them uneasy.

Please take the time to discuss these and other topics with your children and intentionally plan for their safety.

For more information, please visit:

https://empoweredparents.co/safety-activities-for-preschoolers/

https://www.childfun.com/themes/misc/safety/

https://nationaltoday.com/national-safety-month/

As the Stars of the Sky Foundation’s Mission

As the Stars of the Sky Foundation was created as a nonprofit organization to promote the importance of literacy in your child's life. This entails encouraging children to read more, including inspirational and educational books. The proceeds from the sale of our books are used toward engendering better reading skills, which in turn fight gender inequality, poverty, and poor health.  Would you like to support us and our cause? Donate your used or outdated books that are in good condition and purchase our books and other offerings.  You can also get in touch with us for further details!

Fun Facts to Share with Your Children About Our American Flag on Flag Day

In 1949, President Harry Truman designated June 14 as Flag Day in the US, requesting that all Americans celebrate and honor our flag. How did our flag originate and what has transpired with it over all these years? If you are as curious as we are, here are some fun facts about our American flag that you and your children should know.

History of Our American Flag

The Smithsonian Institute has quite a bit of information about our American flag on its website. The beginning of the American flag, as we know it today, started when the Continental Congress adopted a resolution in 1777 that the flag of the United States will be made of thirteen stripes that will be alternately red and white with the Union being thirteen stars with white in a blue field to represent a new constellation.

Before 1912, there was no prescribed order for the stars and stripes so many different designs for our American flag existed. An Act of Congress in 1818 provided for: “13 stripes, representing the original 13 colonies, and one star for each state, to be added to the flag on the 4th of July following the admission of each new state.”

About the Star-Spangled Banner

The original “Star-Spangled Banner” that inspired Francis Scott Key to write our national anthem still exists and is at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. It was commissioned by Major George Armistead, Commander at Fort McHenry, and made by flag maker Mary Pickersgill in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1813. The original size of the Star-Spangled Banner American flag was 30 feet by 42 feet which was larger than the normal 20 by 38-foot garrison flags used by the United States Army and had fifteen stars and fifteen stripes. Major Armistead had it raised over the fort in September 1814 to signal the Americans’ defeat of the British in the Battle of Baltimore. When Key saw the flag raised, he wrote the patriotic song.

After the 49th and 50th states were admitted to the Union, the flag had to be redesigned. In 1959, President Eisenhower signed an Executive Order in which the flag was to be designed with the stars arranged in nine rows, staggered horizontally, and eleven rows, spaced vertically, with thirteen stripes.

The Origin of Flag Day

Flag Day actually originated in Waukeba, Wisconsin in 1885 when a schoolteacher named Bernard J. Cigrand started having his students reflect on the meaning of the flag and write essays about what the flag meant to them. Over a century later, in 2004, the 108th U.S. Congress passed H.R. 662, stating that Waubeka, Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, was the birthplace of Flag Day.

For more information, please visit:

https://www.si.edu/spotlight/flag-day/banner-facts

http://www.nationalflagday.com/history

As the Stars of the Sky Foundation’s Mission

As the Stars of the Sky Foundation was created as a nonprofit organization to promote the importance of literacy in your child's life. This entails encouraging children to read more, including inspirational and educational books. The proceeds from the sale of our books are used toward engendering better reading skills, which in turn fight gender inequality, poverty, and poor health.  Would you like to support us and our cause? Donate your used or outdated books that are in good condition and purchase our books and other offerings.  You can also get in touch with us for further details!

Inspire Your Children with the Story of Jack Dalton “Kid Conservationist” and Author

I love writing about children who are movers and shakers at such a young age. Not only are they inspirational, but also their parents who are behind and supporting them. In today’s blog post, I am sharing information about Jack Dalton who is known as the “Kid Conservationist” and is already a published author.

How It Started

Jack is passionate about saving orangutans. It all started when he was 8 years old and met a baby orangutan at the Memphis Zoo. Something clicked then and there for Jack! He started reading and learning about orangutans and realized that they were on the endangered species list. He began a fight to get them off that list and uses educating the public as his primary weapon in this fight. When asked what motivates him, Jack said: “I’ve discovered that if you want something to change, you need to do something about it.”

He wrote a book titled Kawan the Orangutan, Lost in the Rainforest in April 2021. As to why he wrote the book, Jack said: “I wanted to get children to care about these incredible creatures and to inspire the next generation of conservationists.” 

The Result of Jack Dalton’s Hard Work

After his extensive research and hard work in writing Kawan the Orangutan, he sold 2,000 copies of the book and raised over $12,000 to assist environmental initiatives, orangutan rehabilitation, and replanting of the rainforests by planting a tree for each book sold! He also loves to speak at different events to educate and inspire individuals alike. According to his website, “presentations include speaking about orangutans, endangered species, protecting our environment, Kawan the Orangutan book readings, and empowering kids to use their voice for change.”

In addition to all that, Jack has launched his own YouTube channel that offers all sorts of information, including entertaining educational films with conservationists, book readings, simple ways we can all improve the environment, and much more, with the hope that others will use his channel to learn about and support a variety of important causes.

Jack has excelled at representing orangutans. Now, he speaks at schools, museums, and zoos all around the world in addition to conducting interviews with specialists in the subject, including wildlife photographers, biologists, and other conservationists. His work has received praise from several organizations across the world, and he is one of the top 20 finalists for TIME Kid of the Year.

Jack's work has expanded to include attempts to conserve a variety of animals. It turns out that by maintaining the orangutan's habitat, you are also protecting a large number of other species that share the same geographical range.

Find Out More About Jack Dalton and His Work

Interested in learning more about Jack Dalton and his work? You can learn more by visiting:

https://www.kidconservationist.com/

https://www.passiton.com/passiton-blog/182-boy-nicknamed-the-kid-conservationist-is-on?utm_source=20230418_passiton_social_media&utm_medium=passiton_email&utm_campaign=20230418_passiton_social_media

As the Stars of the Sky Foundation’s Mission

As the Stars of the Sky Foundation was created as a nonprofit organization to promote the importance of literacy in your child's life. This entails encouraging children to read more, including inspirational and educational books. The proceeds from the sale of our books are used toward engendering better reading skills, which in turn fight gender inequality, poverty, and poor health.  Would you like to support us and our cause? Donate your used or outdated books that are in good condition and purchase our books and other offerings.  You can also get in touch with us for further details!

6 Tips to Your Children Having an Extraordinary Summer

How can your children have an extraordinary summer with lots of wonderful memories?  Here are 6 helpful tips.

• Plan, plan, and then plan some more.  Planning cannot be overstated.  Of course, you want your children to enjoy their time, but you should also want them to have structure and learn.  Planning is the key.  Be sure to include your children in the planning process.

• Have a schedule.  Children often believe that the summer months should include doing whatever fun thing they may want to do, including staying up late at night and watching television or playing computer games for hours on end.  However, having structure is important as there should be time for sleeping, playing, and learning.  Those activities are not mutually exclusive.

• Avoid the summer slide.  Just what is the summer slide?  It is a period of time when your children lose some of the knowledge, they learned during the previous school year.  According to Scholastic.com, a recent survey showed that children can lose up to 20% in reading skills and 27% in math skills during the summer break.  Some of the things that parents can do is encourage reading books and playing games and working with puzzles that involve reading and math skills. 

During the summer months, for example, many public libraries have programs for children to continue reading and learning in fun and interesting ways. 

• Get outside.  Whether it is playing in a park, visiting a historical site, participating in a summer camp – whatever the outdoor activity – your children will learn and get plenty of exercise, which is important for their physical and brain growth.

• Find support from family and friends.  Often, it is challenging for parents to both work and ensure that their children have a fun summer routine.  Assistance from family and friends can be very helpful, especially from those who have children.  How can you involve them in your children’s summer plans to not only help but also ensure that your children continue to socialize?   

• Be sure to include activities that your children are interested in. By including them in planning out the summer months, they will feel encouraged as you balance their interests with yours as a parent.  Be prepared for some negotiations as most children will view continued reading, or brushing up on math skills, or any form of learning as “schoolwork” and may not be too interested in including those types of activities in their summer plans.   

Be creative. Are your children interested in trains or planes or dinosaurs?  Perhaps there is a museum in your area or one you can travel to visit as a family that involve some of your children’s favorite things. 

For more information, please visit:

https://childmind.org/article/strategies-for-a-successful-summer-break/

https://www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/raise-a-reader-blog/summer-slide.html