ML Interest Tag: future-plans

Packers’ Aaron Jones Surprises Childhood Cancer Hero

by Marianella Orlando
Partner Content

The Green Bay Packers game against the Chicago Bears looked a lot brighter this NFL season. On Sunday, Dec. 12, Packers’ running back Aaron Jones wore custom-designed cleats, in partnership with the Northwestern Mutual Foundation, to support children battling childhood cancer.

The special NFL program, “My Cause, My Cleats”, raises awareness and funding for causes that are near and dear to players’ hearts. Participating athletes sport a custom cleat design that represents their passions beyond the field on game day, then auction off the cleats at the NFL auction to raise proceeds for their selected charity.

Earlier this year, kids with cancer and their family members submitted their original hand-crafted designs for Aaron’s cleats, from which he personally selected his favorite. This year marks Aaron’s second time partnering with the Northwestern Mutual Foundation for the “My Cause, My Cleats” campaign to support and raise awareness for childhood cancer.

On November 13, Ashley Herman of Marshfield, Wis. was selected as the program’s winner. The 18-year-old cancer hero was invited to visit Lambeau Field in Green Bay with her mom, dad, brother and boyfriend, where Aaron surprised her with the news that he selected her design for his cleats.

“You’re definitely strong and resilient. Never stop fighting,” Aaron shared on a virtual call. “I want you to know that I’m in your corner forever.”

Ashley was surprised and delighted to speak with Aaron about her design and thought process behind the artwork. When selecting her design, Aaron was particularly drawn to the phrase “be the change” on the cleats—a phrase that stuck with Ashley throughout her treatment. “All it takes is one person,” Aaron told Ashley. “And now when I wear those cleats, everyone will see be the change.”

To top off the victory, Ashley was not only gifted a pair of her own custom cleats but also learned she and her family would attend the Packers’ game on December 12 to see her design in action.

Cleats designed by childhood cancer heroes seem to bring a little bit of magic to Aaron’s game. He scored back-to-back touchdowns in Ashley’s cleats to help boost the Packers’ to a 45-30 victory over the Chicago Bears, while, last year, he ran for his longest career touchdown in Ethan Haley’s cleats.

Finding Hope and Courage Through Art

Both art and sports played a large role in Ashley’s everyday life growing up. When she wasn’t in school, she would spend her time painting or sketching or playing volleyball for Columbus High School.

This past winter, however, Ashley was faced with news that would change her life. On Jan. 27, 2021, the Wisconsin native was diagnosed with Stage 2 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma—cancer that affects specialized white blood cells within the body’s immune system, which hinders it from defending against bacteria, parasites, or viruses.

Despite receiving this startling news, Ashley’s perpetual positive attitude kicked in and her first words to her doctors and families were, “okay, what do we do next.” Today, her cancer is in remission.

For Ashley, “My Cause, My Cleats” campaign means more than just winning. She plans to continue to share her story with others battling cancer to help them keep pushing forward and to encourage them to share their own experiences.

Aaron also hopes his participation with the Northwestern Mutual Foundation will inspire others to make a difference. The Foundation, which launched its Childhood Cancer Program in 2012, has worked vigorously to find better treatments and cures, provide family and patient support and offer aid to children who struggle with the long-term effects of treatment. Since its inception, the foundation has contributed over $35 million towards its mission and also funded more than 455,000 hours of research.

In 2022, Northwestern Mutual Foundation’s Childhood Cancer Program is celebrating its ten-year anniversary by continuing to create moments of joy and drive connections amongst those affected by childhood cancer. Learn more about the Northwestern Mutual Foundation’s Childhood Cancer Program here.

If you’d like to hear more about Ashley’s story, watch it now!

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Considering a Pet? These Five Moms Share How They Decided It Was Time for a Furry Friend

by Kenzie Kramer
Partner Content

Growing your family is a big decision—whether you’re considering an additional child or a four-legged friend. You’ll need to think about how your new family member will affect your day-to-day routine, your big future plans, your finances and so much more, but for many, a dedicated furry companion is worth it! We teamed up with Hill’s Pet Nutrition to hear from five moms about how their families decided to bring a pet into the mix:

New pet parents have a lot of questions, and Hill’s has a lot of answers! See how Hill’s science-backed nutrition can give your best friend their best life.

 

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The Gingy Pants

Mom-of-two Heather grew up with dogs, so having a pet in her family was a must. Even though her kids are young, Heather says she thinks growing up with pets definitely helps in developing compassion, empathy, responsibility and consistency.

Texas Forever Farmhouse

Even though her daughter had been asking about a pet for months, Texas-based mom Ryan didn’t plan to adopt a cat. But when her family ended up at an adoption event and met their cat Neville, they knew he was the one. Their cat has been in their home for a few years now and has become a close companion for their two kids.

The Jamie Lynn Show

Jamie Lynn knew that she wanted a dog for her family, the hard part was finding the best time to add a pup to her home. When her youngest daughter turned four and could understand how to be friendly with a big dog, she decided it was the perfect time to get her Goldendoodle Jessie!

Annmarie Bailey

Like most of us, Annmarie spent a lot more time at home in the last year. With big changes already happening, including a newborn, Annmarie decided to add another change to her family’s day-to-day by adopting a puppy, Geno! She was nervous about how her infant and dog would get along, but the two are best friends.

Nashville Wife Styles

Mom-of-two Ashley has a full house with two dogs and a cat! When they were thinking about getting their second dog, Ginger, they considered how their two daughters would be able to help out. The kids have become best friends with Ginger and take turns feeding her and taking her for walks.

New pet parents have a lot of questions, and Hill’s has a lot of answers! See how Hill’s science-backed nutrition can give your best friend their best life.
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How to Help Your Kids Build Crucial Executive Function Skills This Summer

By Caroline Maguire

Has your child been struggling with starting or completing tasks? Does your son panic when you switch routines or change the rules? Or maybe your daughter has trouble remembering what she just read, or finds it difficult to organize her thoughts. Executive function can affect kids in many different ways, and the struggle is real for kids who learn and think differently. 

Executive function is made up of a set of skills that include working memory, flexible thinking, and self-control. We use these skills every day to play with friends, learn in school, and manage our daily routines at home. When your child lacks executive function, he or she will struggle with basic tasks that many kids can easily handle. 

This doesn’t mean your child isn’t smart. It just means that he or she learns and thinks differently, and you need to help your child develop these skills. There’s no need to panic. As a parent, there are many fun activities you can do with your child to improve executive function. And summer is a great time to start!

1. Plant a Garden. This can be a great project where your entire family can work in collaboration with each other. Your child will learn to plan and follow through! When children watch and journal about things they plant, care for, watch grow, and identify ways they can be used, they learn across the curriculum. Most importantly, their “work” leads to meaningful self-efficacy development.  When your child gains these experiences, he can build an understanding of the relationship between healthy planting and eating and a healthy planet. And, who knows, maybe you as the parent can reconnect with nature as a result!    

2. Plan Something. Plan a party or a day trip. Really, plan anything from cleaning a room to working around the yard. A project, no matter what they are working on, involves the specific planning of steps, execution, and monitoring of results. This can be created for any child in elementary school through college. Putting a plan in place with details that can be followed is very helpful. It breaks down bigger, more overwhelming tasks into manageable bite-sized pieces that can be completed.  

3. Learn to Mind Mime. If your child cannot picture in her mind the day’s routine, help teach her mind miming. This skill helps the child to pre-plan and pre-stimulate future events. Think of it as a mental dress rehearsal or a movie in the mind. Mind miming helps your child to act out possible scenarios and have a mental trial and error period before the actual event takes place.  

4. Help Kids with Emotional Regulation. The key to helping your child with emotional regulation is to implement self-regulation strategies in the moment. You can do this by simulating real-life experiences. Simulation allows your child to experience and practice a scenario until she feels more comfortable. When you bring an experience to life, you help your child understand when their behavior becomes too silly or not appropriate for the situation. Maybe she was laughing at a joke, giggling and flopping around long after her peers had stopped. Help her understand that she has lost control and give her the opportunity to practice self-control in these situations.  

5. Play “How worried should I really be?” Ask your child to pick a time when she overreacted to a situation, and she felt flooded with emotions. Ask her to act out, and role-play what overreaction looks like? Some examples include: running from the room, wailing, stomping, pushing, or screaming. Talk to your child about their worries. Help her understand that when she feels a big worry, she may overreact because she feels the worry is as big as a Mack truck. Talk to her about how our worries feel inside affects us, and how we can handle our reactions.    

6. Practice Metacognition. Metacognition is to take a bird’s eye view of a situation to accurately rate your skills and abilities. It helps you recall past situations and realize how they are similar and different from each other. You can take past learnings and allow them to inform you of future plans.   

7. Rate Your Effort. Help your child self-evaluate his own progress and witness his own actions so he can start building social self-awareness. You can say, “On a scale of 1 to 5, how would you rate your effort on that practice? What did you learn?” Share with him what you saw him do well. Praise anything he tried that is out of his comfort zone. Ask him to recap for you what he is working on and why. Reiterate his mission for the next day’s practice or an upcoming real-life social setting.  

8. Put Things in Categories. Whether it’s picking up or just organizing stuff, we need to learn to put things into categories. Part of what builds executive function is the ability to put material into categories and then to find that material. By organizing things, objects, and even ideas, we are helping to simplify your child’s understanding of the world around him. When kids pick up toys, help take a pile of stuff to organize in a room, or set up a system for their clothing, they are learning to categorize materials. 

My new book, Why Will Nobody Play with Me? is a step-by-step guide to teach parents how to coach their child to develop social skills (new executive function skills). For more information about supporting your child, visit my website at www.carolinemaguireauthor.com. 

A personal coach, author, teacher, and speaker whose work has inspired conversations about social skills at schools and in homes all across the county, Caroline Maguire believes all children can shine. Her work is critical to parents who support children with executive function challenges struggling to show their best selves.

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Just Opened: VR World, a Virtual Reality Playground

by alina adams

VR, or Virtual Reality, is no longer the stuff of sci-fi, exclusive trade shows or your tech-obsessed friend with money to burn. It’s getting better all the time and it’s easier to find (and try) than ever before. VR World NYC just landed in midtown, and it’s where you can head with the family to give this trippy tech a try. Read on to find out what’s inside!

What is it?
VR World bills itself as “the largest VR experience center on this side of the planet,” and while it’s unclear if that’s technically true, at 16,000 square feet, it’s certainly got to be on the running. The techy center opened in late June in midtown Manhattan, just a few steps away from the Empire State Building.

What’s In It?
Ever wanted to climb a mountain, become a chef, create 3D art, mow down space aliens, jump off the roof of a 100-story building, throw a ninja star, shoot an arrow and drive a race car —  all in the same day? Then this is the place for you!

Designed to showcase VR to the mainstream at an affordable price, VR World NYC features three floors of interactive experiences. Stations showcase the full capacity of this brave new medium, offering a curated  selection of the highest quality entertainment and storytelling VR content currently available.

How Does It Work?
Dedicated to improving the user experience, VR World NYC offers over two dozen individual stations showcasing a variety of virtual experiences. Sessions of 10 to 15 minutes are overseen by trained guides from the social work and theater fields, there to help you maximize your 10-15 minutes of interaction (and to keep you from bumping into walls).

Of course, one of the main components of a VR experience is the headpiece users must wear.  We were assured that these are wiped off in between each customer, and did see packages of wet-naps at every station, plus disposable, surgical-like masks.

Once your headpiece is on, a switch is flicked, and you’re drawing with neon or hunting zombies, bringing creations to life in front of a green screen or running a convenience store.

Most of the games are designed to be played alone, but there are several multi-player and competitive options, too, for groups of up to four people.

Is It Good For Kids?
While we doubt you were contemplating taking your four-year-old here, it’s really a place for older kids — specifically, ages seven and up, and kids under 14 need to be supervised by an adult.

We visited with a 10-year-old girl who had a blast and begged to stay longer. (Her favorite was the Fruit Ninja game, where she got to swipe at virtual fruit with virtual swords. Her review: “That was a great workout! Can I do this for my school sport?”)

She also enjoyed the opportunity to try out different virtual careers. As a master chef she threw bread, tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms and eggs — with shells still on — into a blender… and forgot to put on a lid. Thankfully, the mess was also merely virtual. When she ran a convenience store at another station, she couldn’t get the cash register to open…so she kept her money in the freezer

Is it Educational?
VR World NYC is in the process of developing a program with the Department of Education which will generate discussion about the technology. They are inviting teachers to come learn how to utilize it for virtual learning in the classroom, as well as how to discuss its implications with their students. High-schoolers are also welcome for discussions about the medium’s potential creative and social service applications.

Though many of the games offered appear violent, a representative for VR World NYC stressed that all of its shooting games are not realistic. You are not killing people, just orcs and zombies and red… things. Also blenders.

Is It Good For Humanity?
In addition to destroying fantastical beings, VR World NYC wants to harness the power of virtual reality to engage, uplift and educate living ones. To that end, the mezzanine level features immersive documentaries on various pressing issues. A partnership with the United Nations allows them to evoke empathy via 360 degree content, such as one presentation which puts you in the head of someone who is legally blind.

Is It Good For Parties?
But it’s not just all do-gooding all the time! The mezzanine level also allows you to insert yourself on stage at a concert, and the whole space can be used for theme parties, corporate events, panels, and more.

Future plans include a monthly serial, through which real people will mix with virtual elements to solve a mystery or participate in an ongoing adventure. The wrist-bands issued at the beginning of the multi-session journey will keep track of where you last left off, like a very high-tech bookmark.

Good To Know Before You Go:
Food and drinks — including alcohol — are available for purchase, and the $39 per person admission buys you the entire day, as well as coming and going privileges.

Even Better To Know Before You Go:
The headsets can accommodate glasses, but ours got kind of sweaty, if contacts are an option, wear them. In addition, if you are prone to motion sickness, beware of some games, especially the race car. If your kids might get sick, remind them that they can close their eyes, or even pull off the headset at any moment.

VR World NYC
Tues. -Thurs., Noon – 10p.m.; Fri. & Sat., Noon – 11 p.m., Sun., Noon – 8 p.m.
$39/person with all day access
4 E. 34th St.
Midtown East
347-915-5802
Online: vrworldnyc.com

Have your tried VR with your kids? Tell us in the comments below!

— Alina Adams

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Culture Club: A New Program For Exploring Art with Kids

by Yuliya Geikhman

You know New York is home to some of the best art in the world, from old masters to the most contemporary cutting-edge works. You also know you’d love to introduce your kid to all the NYC art scene has to offer — the problem is, how?  Mismatched Socks, a new program devoted to bringing the city’s rich art offerings and families together in myriad and sometimes unconventional ways, is here to help.

 photo: Mismatched Socks NY

The Big Picture

Founded by the two-woman team of Asya Gribov and Sasha Dashevsky, Mismatched Socks is dedicated to helping families discover and enjoy New York City’s vast art offerings of all types and mediums. The pair bring backgrounds in education and teaching, psychology, and event organizing to the venture.

The company conducts events such as catered tours of museum exhibits, excursions to parks and art installations, and even the occasional puppet show.  In addition to providing insight during these outings, Gribov and Dashevsky also aim to provide parents with the tools they need to help young ones see art in every day surroundings as well.

Outings typically last about an hour or two and each tour is concluded with an invitation to continue exploring on your own. Attendees are given a postcard with information on nearby things to check out, places to see, and shops to peruse.

Beyond Bright Colors and Shapes

MisMatched Socks’ founders believe that art doesn’t have to be dubbed “kid-friendly” for little ones to like it and learn from it, which is why the program’s exhibit or tour choices don’t necessarily scream, “the child will flip for this.” For example, one upcoming outing will visit the Guggenheim’s ZERO Countdown to Tomorrow exhibition, which is not noted for lots of bright colors and moving shapes. For the most part it’s black, white, and gray, and might be overlooked as something kids will enjoy, but the Mismatched Socks team uses it as an opportunity to explore abstract concepts in a fun way for both kids and adults.

The group has also toured the galleries of Chelsea and ventured into Alphabet City’s sculpture garden — events that will both be part of the Spring and Summer 2015 schedule.

photo: MisMatched Socks NY

Finding Art Everywhere

Tours are not limited to museums and galleries — just about anything turns into an art exhibit at the hands of Mismatched Socks. One outing leads little adventurers on a sound scavenger hunt of Grand Central Station, while another finds kids climbing the hands-on Light Over Time exhibition at Metro Tech Commons in Brooklyn.

The program also offers classes and workshops that tap into everyone’s little inner artist (yes, even the parents’). Upcoming class topics include learning how to wrap gifts with magnets, discovering the process that goes into making pottery, and creating electric art.

photo: Mismatched Socks NY

Future plans

In addition to more cultural excursions and experiences in the coming months,  Mismatched Socks will hold several Russian-speaking events which will focus on developing Russian language skills while still exploring the art around us. The founders plan to eventually branch out to other languages including ASL.  An Art Series program, which will run for several weeks (as opposed to a one-off tour) is also in the works.

For the latest scoop on Mismatched Socks happenings, head to the program’s website or Facebook page.

Mismatched Socks NY
347-740-2246 Asya
646- 404-1460 Sasha
Online: mismatchedsocksny.com

How do you introduce your kid to art around New York City? Tell us in the comments below!

—Yuliya Geikhman

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