Teens Activity Online: a Pew Report

Posted on December 13, 2011 by in New Products

Last week Pew Internet & American Life released a report on teens and social media. This may seem a bit off our beaten track but in today’s world healthy choices extend to the online world because teens are living online. According to Pew…

Fully 95% of all teens ages 12-17 are now online and 80% of those online teens are users of social media sites.

Teens are the most likely age demographic to be online –and 70 percent of those surveyed go online every day. Facebook was overwhelmingly the most popular social media web site used. But the report wasn’t just about quantity; the researchers really looked at what’s happening online.

It turns out that 88 percent of social media using teens have seen people be mean online. About 15 percent felt that they had been the target of online cruelty. The most popular reaction to witnessing online meanness was to ignore the situation (95 percent) but 84 percent reported having seen people come to the defense of the targets of meanness. The news wasn’t all bad for online activity however, according to the report…

More teens report positive personal outcomes than negative ones from interactions on social network sites: 78% report at least one good outcome and 41% report at least one negative outcome.

cyber pew 300x234 Teens Activity Online: a Pew ReportBut one question we have to ask as parents and teachers is: how are students learning to behave online? Here is the answer according to the Pew Report:

For general advice and influence, parents are still the top source for teen internet and cell phone users. However, teens receive advice from a wide array of sources.

  • 86% of online and cell phone-using teens say they have received general advice about how to use the internet responsibly and safely from their parents.
  • 70% of online and cell-using teens say they have gotten advice about internet safety from teachers or another adult at school.
  • 45% have received advice from friends or classmates, 45% have received general advice from an older relative, and 46% have received internet safety advice from a brother, sister, or cousin.
  • 58% of teen internet and cell phone users say their parents have been the biggest influence on what they think is appropriate or inappropriate when using the internet or a cell phone.
  • 18% of teens say their friends have been their biggest influence on appropriate internet or cell phone behavior.
  • 18% say “no one” has influenced them.

cyber safety Teens Activity Online: a Pew ReportDo you feel qualified to lead your teens through murky water of social media? Learning ZoneXpress has range of Internet safety products that can help, including a DVD and Activity set that may help you and your teen: Staying Safe Online: Digital Footprint DVD and Activity Packet. It helps you protect the kids in your life – whether in the classroom or at home. .

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LZX Products in Action: San Antonio’s Healthy Schools Initiative

Posted on December 12, 2011 by in Health News, USDA MyPlate

IMG 0576 300x225 LZX Products in Action: San Antonios Healthy Schools InitiativeJackson Middle School in San Antonio, Texas has been buzzing with activity. The school hosted San Antonio’s Healthy Schools Initiative and Fuel Up to Play 60 event. Caroline Roffidal-Blanco, RD, of Communities Putting Prevention to Work said the goal of the event was to, “promote NEISD (North East Independent School District) for participating in the San Antonio Healthy Schools Initiative, Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools, and Fuel Up to Play 60.” The event was a huge success!

StIMG 0554 300x225 LZX Products in Action: San Antonios Healthy Schools Initiativeudents were given the opportunity to eat at the school’s salad bar, participate in various physical activities, and listen to a variety of experts on nutrition and physical activity. Speakers at the event included a USDA representative, several health professionals, local dairy farmers, and former NFL player Priest Holmes.

Although Learning ZoneXpress could not physically attend, we were excited to participate through our nutrition education products. The importance of physical activity and healthy eating were relayed to the Jackson Middle School students through brightly colored posters and handouts.

Fuel Up to Play 60 077 300x225 LZX Products in Action: San Antonios Healthy Schools Initiative“It was easier for kids to understand the healthy messages during the nutrition education [presentations] through the Learning ZoneXpress materials,” Roffidal-Blanco said. She went on to say that she would recommend Learning ZoneXpress products to other schools for their similar events. “Learning ZoneXpress provides a variety of great products for schools. The materials can be used by teachers and staff, students, and even parents. The materials are fantastic, and Learning ZoneXpress is always adding new materials to their website.”Fuel Up to Play 60 064 300x225 LZX Products in Action: San Antonios Healthy Schools Initiative

Learning ZoneXpress extends warm congratulations to the NEISD of San Antonio for their commendable efforts in teaching students to make healthy choices now to build a healthy future for tomorrow.

Click here to view a brief video of the event.

 

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Think Healthy Thursday: Ann Cooper on School Lunches

Posted on December 8, 2011 by in Garden Heroes, Think Healthy Thursday

Yesterday I listened to a TED talk that really inspired me. Ann Cooper (The Renegade Chef) spoke about school lunches and how she has gone about making school lunches healthier. It strengthened my passion for helping kids make healthy decisions – please watch the video and see if it doesn’t inspire you too.

Few things are more important than kids health – whether we’re talking about kids in Chile or in our own backyard. Like Ann Cooper, we’re not simply talking about kids feeling and looking good. We’re talking about raising kids without lifelong ailments (such as Diabetes) and helping kids get the nutrition they need to form fully working brains. It’s our future as well as their future at stake.

andi apple 300x276 Think Healthy Thursday: Ann Cooper on School LunchesAnn talks about how fast food industries have appealed to kids by making “chicken” look like something they like, such as stars. We have taken a similar marketing strategy in a different direction with our Garden Heroes. We are helping kids learn to love what’s healthy by using good marketing to promote fruits and vegetables. It’s just one step we’ve taken – but it seems apt in light of her example.

We challenge you to think about how you are using good marketing with your kids, grandkids, students or patients to promote healthy food. Need some help? Try our free downloadable game that walks kids through the process of trying new foods.

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Learning ZoneXpress donates MiPlato materials to EPES

Posted on December 8, 2011 by in LZE Team News, USDA MyPlate

melanie and linnea with EPES Nutrition team 300x225 Learning ZoneXpress donates MiPlato materials to EPES

Nutrition team after unpacking MiPlato and other Spanish products from LZX

LZX Project Manager, Linnea Duffus and I recently traveled to Chile to visit EPES. EPES is an acronym for Educacion Popular en Salud which can be translated into Popular Education for Health. It is a program that focuses on empowering shantytown women to make changes in domestic violence, tobacco control, breast cancer, HIV awareness, and more recently, nutrition education.

A good friend of mine from Owatonna, Karen Anderson, founded this program 29 years ago and is the driving force behind its success. Her passion and resilience are unmatched, and her ability to address the root of the problem and work from the bottom up is what makes EPES unlike any other organization. A great example I can share is when families in the shantytowns were experiencing a high volume of rat bites in their homes. Karen and her team didn’t just treat the rat bites. They found out exactly whythe rats were present and eliminated them all together. This is the business model for EPES: Get to the root of the problem and take action from there.

Chile 300x225 Learning ZoneXpress donates MiPlato materials to EPES

Myself and Linnea in front of a MyPlate (MiPlato) mural in Chile.

Another example is the work they completed leading up to our trip to Chile in November. The program spent 6 months evaluating eating habits in a shantytown of Santiago, Chile. The long term plan is to develop a training model for people in the community to be nutrition promoters. LZX was able to donate and bring a number of items in our Spanish product line to be used to train these nutrition promoters in Santiago.

I have never seen a program moresuccessful. EPES training impacts future generations. EPES recruits, trains, and teaches poor women to be leaders. I have had the honor of being part of this incredible organization for 15 years now, and I am thrilled to announce that EPES is now our official South American distributor for Spanish LZX materials.

EPESphoto 300x225 Learning ZoneXpress donates MiPlato materials to EPES

Chilean First Lady, Cecilia Morel, admires our poster of her U.S. counterpart, Michelle Obama

As Karen put it, “In poor communities, women are shakers and movers. They take care of everyone. Over the past 30 years hundreds of women have been empowered to find their leadership skills thanks to EPES encouragement, training and challenge. These women have role modeled for their daughters and granddaughters a new generation of leaders for advocacy for the marginalized and poor.”

What an incredible vision and mission! We are so thrilled to support EPES as it continues to change the lives of Chilean women. We take away so many great memories and empowering stories from our trip this year. We forged bonds that will help us communicate, collaborate, and go forward. Our discussions for fundraising and exciting ideas for celebrating EPES’ 30th anniversary next year have us energized for 2012.

In March of next year, there will be eventful concerts here in the U.S., and in November of 2012, we will celebrate with a week-long event in Chile. Come join us!

415106 150x150 Learning ZoneXpress donates MiPlato materials to EPES
MiPlato Poster
475124 2 150x150 Learning ZoneXpress donates MiPlato materials to EPES
MyPlate (MiPlato) Kids Spanish Tablet
475014 2 150x150 Learning ZoneXpress donates MiPlato materials to EPES
1 Gran Plato Tablet
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National Handwashing Awareness Week

Posted on December 6, 2011 by in Health News, Special Offers

Ta4136R December Downloadable e1323187845245 192x300 National Handwashing Awareness Weekke advantage of this fun observance to stress the importance of clean hands to your children.  Washing your hands often is the easiest thing you can do to stay healthy.

In honor of this great week, we have a free, downloadable “Handwashing Rap” poster to share with you. It’s perfect for your home or classroom.

Make handwashing exciting by adding a fun, musical beat. And even though we’re celebrating December 4-10 for National Handwashing Awareness week, if you keep this poster handy, you and your children can celebrate every day!

If you’re voice is warmed up, and you’re ready to rap, download it here!

Happy Handwashing!
To see other handwashing/hygiene products from LZX, click here.

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Garden Hero on the Go: Where is Adam Apricot

Posted on December 5, 2011 by in Garden Heroes

dawson 300x168 Garden Hero on the Go: Where is Adam ApricotGarden Heroes are on the go. Adam Apricot is on the road and has stopped in a small town. Guess Where in the World Adam is and WIN A FREE GARDEN HERO of your choice. Be the first to guess correctly, and choose a single character from any of the 39 Garden Heroes! (Please post guesses on Facebook – only one winner!) If you have recently won a Garden Hero, please give someone else a chance.

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MyPlate Posters and Tablets on Sale!

Posted on December 2, 2011 by in Uncategorized

410106 300x225 MyPlate Posters and Tablets on Sale!I’m sure by now you’re all familiar with USDA’s MyPlate icon. Or are you? There are quite a few people who still reference the traditional food pyramid, so let’s quickly recap…

The USDA MyPlate encourages us to:

  • Make half our plate fruits and vegetables
  • Switch to skim or 1 percent milk
  • Make at least half our grains whole
  • Vary our protein food choices

These healthy tips compliments of the USDA help us maintain balanced diets and make the right choices when it comes to what’s on our plate! The icon has been in place for exactly six months now, and to celebrate, we are having a sale!

USDA MyPlate Posters in English and Spanish (MiPlato) are discounted from $14.95 to just $9!
USDA MyPlate Tablets in English and Spanish (MiPlato) were $9.95 and are now only $7!

Celebrate nutrition with these fun reminders. Offers are only good for the month of December, so check them out today!

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LZX in the movies again!

Posted on November 29, 2011 by in We're Famous!

We’re excited today because we’ve been contacted by another studio about using Learning ZoneXpress products on set. Here’s what they told us…

Inspired by the award winning documentary, “PLANET B-BOY,” “BATTLE OF THE YEAR” is a multicultural sports film set in the world of International Break Dancing.  After a decade of defeat and lost respect for the United States b-boy crew, a hip-hop mogul turns to his down-and-out former crewmate to train and coach an all-star team of U.S. B-Boys to compete at the Battle of the Year (BOTY) World Championships. The coach must overcome his inner demons, while the b-boy standouts struggle amongst themselves and with their new coach’s unorthodox training methods.

It won’t open until next summer but it sounds great for kids and we know they’ve got great (healthy) taste!

We have a sneak preview of the items that you might see. I think it’s fun to think up story lines based on their choices.

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Cranberry: Healthful & Delicious!

Posted on November 25, 2011 by in Garden Heroes, USDA MyPlate

clara cranberry 300x169 Cranberry: Healthful & Delicious! Still feeling full after your Thanksgiving dinner? If you included cranberries in your meal, you can feel very good about some of your choices. Raw cranberries are often called superfruits. But before we get to the nutrition, we wanted to share some history of the cranberry – one of our favorite fruits and a great addition to MyPlate healthy choices.

In The Beginning

Cranberries grow in bogs in cooler regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Located in the Northern Hemisphere, we can tell you that many communities claim to be the cranberry capital including Middleborough, Massachusetts, Bandon, Oregon, Ottawa Canada – and Warrens, Wisconsin, the location pictured here with Clara Cranberry the Garden Hero. The cranberry bogs are striking in their color. Worth a visit! The name cranberry comes from “craneberry” as early European settlers to the US thought that the cranberry flower looked like a crane. Native Americans were the first to use cranberries as food. In fact, cranberries were part of the original Thanksgiving meals.

Medicinal Benefits

Cranberries have always been recognized for their medicinal value, Native Americans used them to treat wounds. Recent research has found other healthy and nutritious uses. According to Wikipedia, cranberry juice is noted a high molecular weight non-dializable material that prevents tooth decay and may also help prevent kidney stones. Raw cranberries are a source of polyphenol antioxidants that are thought to benefit the cardiovascular system and immune system, and as anti-cancer agents. Cranberry tannins have laboratory evidence for anti-clotting properties and may prevent recurring urinary tract infections in women.

Favorite Foods

As much as 95 percent of cranberries harvested are processed into juice drinks, sauce, and sweetened dried cranberries; while 5 percent are sold fresh to consumers. According to the USDA, the forecast for the 2011 cranberry crop is 7.50 million barrels, up 10 percent from 2010. If realized, this will be the second largest production on record.

You can find recipes in main courses, muffins, snacks, cocktails – you name it, it seems almost anything can be made tastier and healthier with cranberries. You can a range of recipes (including some State Fair winners) on the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association website.

Do you have a cranberry recipe to share? Please send it our way!

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Paying it Forward

Posted on November 23, 2011 by in Garden Heroes, Uncategorized

ToysforTots 300x122 Paying it ForwardWe were thinking about how to celebrate Thanksgiving this year, and the answer came to us from a generous Facebook fan.  Just last week, Robin won a ‘Garden Hero on the Go’ contest.  We’ve been doing this for some time now and love the interaction of our Facebook fans.  We post pictures of our Garden Hero characters in various places around the world, and the fan that guesses the correct location first wins a Garden Hero. This particular response was extra special.

Robin asked if the Garden Hero she had won could be donated to Toys for Tots. We were so impressed by her thoughtfulness that we decided to start a little donation drive of our own.

For every Garden Hero Food Nutrition Kit we sell this holiday season (Regular and Deluxe), Learning ZoneXpress will donate one plush toy to Toys for Tots.  It is an incredible organization that reaches millions of children each year. We hope these fruit and vegetable characters bring a smile to their faces like Robin did to ours.

We will be using our Facebook page to update you all with our progress!

Let’s make this holiday season one to remember!

 

 

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