Bingo night

Please join us on May 17th from 7pm until 9pm at Grace Episcopal Church in Martinez. Back by popular demand, we will be providing Mexican Food and Margaritas. This event is open to the public so bring your spouses, partners and friends. Proceeds will go to support Contra Costa Parks to help improve children's playgrounds and to the East Bay Children's Book Project which helps build literacy by putting books into the hands of children who have little or no access to them.
$20.00 gets you 4 bingo cards. Bring a PLAYING non-member and receive an additional card for free. Payment is due at the event but please register by going to the event calendar so we can get an accurate count for Mexican Food and Margaritas.
We have prizes for everyone including family outings, children's classes, restaurants and massages. ALSO, we will be raffling the following prizes:

• Imagine That Photography - one outdoor portrait session including (3) 8x10 or (1) 11x14 photograph
• Encore Gymnastics - four Rocktopie indoor climbing day passes, 2 tumble tickets, 2 parent's time off event tickets and a jump rope
• Castle Rock Arabians - a gift certificate good for three private lessons
• Renaissance Club Sport - one weekend night stay including valet parking

Raffle tickets are $5.00 each or $20.00 for 5 tickets. Tickets can be purchased and dropped into jars representing specific prizes. If you are unable to attend the event but are interested in participating in the raffle, please e-mail Jennifer Martell. (jennifer.martell@yahoo.com)

Your generous support for Bingo last May earned Contra Costa Parents of Multiples over $800.00 which we have donated to Children's Specialty Care Center of Walnut Creek, a division of Children's Hospital of Oakland.  
The money we raised will be used towards Child Life Specialists who help bridge the gap between home, school and the hospital with age appropriate activities designed to help children understand and feel a sense of comfort while at the hospital.
This program features highly trained and certified Child Life Specialists who promote growth and awareness through therapeutic play, education and self expression.  Children's Specialty Care Center is the ONLY medical center in Contra Costa County with a dedicated staff of Child Life Specialist who use medical play to help kids prepare for surgery and other medical procedures that can be frightening and uncomfortable.  This donation will help expand their educational resources to include interactive programs on iPads.

2013 NCA Convention

Our club is hosting the 2013 NCA Convention and WE NEED YOU!
Dates: April 26-28 (tentative)               
Theme: Mission Twinpossible


It will take a lot of volunteers to make this happen so we are asking everyone to pitch in.
Areas where we will need help:
Registration, Treasurer, Speakers/Workshop Coordinators, Program Booklet, Spy Games/Activities, Decorations, Show/Tell/Share, Prizes and Welcome Gifts.
Please click on the following links for more detailed description on volunteering opportunities:


General information 
Convention meeting chairs
Treasurer 
Registration 
Speaker workshops 
Program booklet 
Decorations 
Hospitality 
Show, tell and sell 
Prize drawing/door prizes 
Goody bags/welcome gifts 


If you are interested in helping please email the event chairs Karis Coleman-Sink (karis.coleman@yahoo.com) and Heidi Johnson (c-hjohnson@sbcglobal.net).

Helping Hands

Helping Hands
Helping our Members,  Helping our Community

When new families join CCPOM, they are welcomed into a club with over 110 members who are eager to offer support and advice.  But on occasion, members need more than support and advice.  Helping Hands helps members and their family when someone becomes seriously ill or injured. 
When members suffer a major illness or injury, Helping Hands often arranges for meals to be made and delivered by members to the family in need.  Not worrying about a hot meal can be a big relief.  On other occasions, members have had difficulties covering medical expenses for a member of their family.  Helping Hands has stepped in and coordinated fundraisers to assist the family.
CCPOM also believes in helping our neighbors and our community.  Every year during the holidays, CCPOM helps raise money and collect toys for families in needs.  This year, members donated toys and almost $400 in cash to help the Bay Area Crisis Nursery.   The Bay Area Crisis Nursery helps prevent child abuse and neglect by providing support to families in crisis. 
Helping Hands also recently helped a family in our community with funds to cover travel expenses to receive necessary medical treatment.  The father is in the military and their insurance covers medical expenses.  Unfortunately, their son has a rare illness and his treatment required travel that was not covered by their insurance.  CCPOM made a donation to the family to help the boy get the care he needs.
Helping Hands is successful because of our thoughtful and generous members.  With your continued support, we are here to support those around us.
For more information regarding Helping Hands, please contact Tami Zachary at thzachary@gmail.com.

Easter egg hunt photos

Members arriving

Little kiddies area

Egg hunt and play ground fun

Yummy home made cookies was a big hit

Happy campers

more happy campers

not so happy campers

thanks Tami and all the volunteers!

Internet safety guidelines for parents

Content source:
http://www.safekids.com/child-safety-on-the-information-highway/


Set reasonable rules and guidelines for computer use by your children
By taking responsibility for your children’s online computer use, parents can greatly minimize any potential risks of being online. Make it a family rule to:

• Never give out identifying information — home address, school name, or telephone number — in a public message such as chat or newsgroups, and be sure you’re dealing with someone both you and your children know and trust before giving out this information via E-mail. Think carefully before revealing any personal information such as age, financial information, or marital status. Do not post photographs of your children in newsgroups or on web sites that are available to the public. Consider using a pseudonym, avoid listing your child’s name and E-mail address in any public directories and profiles, and find out about your ISP’s privacy policies and exercise your options for how your personal information may be used.
• Get to know the Internet and any services your child uses. If you don’t know how to log on, get your child to show you. Have your child show you what he or she does online, and become familiar with all the activities that are available online. Find out if your child has a free web-based E-mail account, such as those offered by Hotmail and Yahoo!® , and learn their user names and passwords.
• Never allow a child to arrange a face-to-face meeting with someone they “meet” on the Internet without parental permission. If a meeting is arranged, make the first one in a public place, and be sure to accompany your child.
• Never respond to messages that are suggestive, obscene, belligerent, threatening, or make you feel uncomfortable. Encourage your children to tell you if they encounter such messages. If you or your child receives a message that is harassing, of a sexual nature, or threatening, forward a copy of the message to your ISP, and ask for their assistance. Instruct your child not to click on any links that are contained in E-mail from persons they don’t know. Such links could lead to sexually explicit or otherwise inappropriate web sites or could be a computer virus. If someone sends you or your children messages or images that are filthy, indecent, lewd, or obscene with the intent to abuse, annoy, harass, or threaten you, or if you become aware of the transmission, use, or viewing of child pornography while online immediately report this to the NCMEC’s CyberTipline at 1-800-843-5678 or www.cybertipline.com. Set reasonable rules and guidelines for computer use by your children.
• Remember that people online may not be who they seem. Because you can’t see or even hear the person it would be easy for someone to misrepresent him- or herself. Thus someone indicating that “she” is a “12-year-old girl” could in reality be a 40-year-old man.
• Remember that everything you read online may not be true. Any offer that’s “too good to be true” probably is. Be careful about any offers that involve you going to a meeting, having someone visit your house, or sending money or credit-card information.
• Set reasonable rules and guidelines for computer use by your children. Discuss these rules and post them near the computer as a reminder. Remember to monitor your children’s compliance with these rules, especially when it comes to the amount of time your children spend on the computer. A child’s excessive use of online services or the Internet, especially late at night, may be a clue that there is a potential problem. Remember that personal computers and online services should not be used as electronic babysitters.
• Check out blocking, filtering, and ratings applications. Be sure to make this a family activity. Consider keeping the computer in a family room rather than the child’s bedroom. Get to know their “online friends” just as you get to know all of their other friends. If your child has a cellular telephone, talk with him or her about using it safely. The same rules that apply to computer use, also apply to cellular telephones.

Here is a link to a collection of reviews of parental monitoring software and services, edited for PCWorld.com by CCPOM member Laura Blackwell.  She has put together a collection of product review to show parents their options for monitoring their kids' interactions on Facebook, formspring, Twitter, and more. One of them even has a family GPS map!


http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/collection/11567/parental%20monitoring%20software.html