My name is Karyn Climans and I am the owner and creator of Tail Wags Helmet Covers. After being a stay-at-home mom with 2 special needs kids for 15 years, I wanted to find a job that allowed me the flexibility to continue looking after my children and would provide an outlet for my creative skills. I was also determined to be my own boss because I couldn’t imagine having to report to someone else after being “independent” for so long. It’s been 4 ½ years since Tail Wags was officially launched and I haven’t looked back since.
Several years ago, while skiing with my sons, I was involved in a serious accident. Fortunately, I was wearing my ski helmet and it saved my life. The passion to promote safety awareness became the impetus behind starting Tail Wags Helmet Covers Inc. Over the years I had acquired a background in teaching, children’s programming and costume design and I took all of that knowledge and created Tail Wags Helmet Covers, a company making fun, whimsical helmet covers for every type of safety helmet. I make it fun for kids and adults alike to wear their helmets for every sport they enjoy and by doing so I have found a way to help prevent unnecessary head injuries.
T
here are over 40 adorable designs of helmet covers including the Fairy Princess, Menacing Monster, Bizzy Bee, Goldie the Goldfish, and Cheeky Monkey. The entire product line can be viewed at
http://www.tail-wags.com/. People keep asking me if I’ll ever run out of ideas for new designs and I reply,
“I doubt it but if I do, then I’ll retire”. Customers often suggest new designs for Tail Wags, for example, I’ve been asked for years to create a Moose. It’s taken a while because it’s a challenge to prevent the moose’s antlers from drooping but the new moose will be ready in the next couple of weeks.
My most unique design is the new bridal helmet cover. I received a special request to create a helmet cover for a bride who was riding off in to the sunset on her Harley motorcycle. I
was so pleased with the final results that I am now offering a bridal cover for bike, ski and motorcycle helmets as part of my regular line.
Balancing work and family life is always a tough juggle. Owning my own business has been a lot more work than expected. My busiest season is September through March although summers are getting crazier ever since I launched my new lightweight lycra helmet covers, which are ideal for bike helmets. Even weekends are often booked with marketplace events. The only reason I can now devote this amount of time to Tail Wags is my sons
By: Sevensheaven.nl,
on 5/13/2010
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Stylized vector illustration with a rough edge, for an article about leaving your house safely behind during vacation.
You're invited to sevensheaven.nl for an extended impression.
This is a little visual that helped my children understand the dangers of the street when they were about 2 1/2. I thought I'd share because it worked really well.
For this story you will need two pine cones..One should be the biggest, pricklist, most hard and tough pine cone you can find. The other should be flatten out by a car, maybe you will have to drive over it yourself if you can't find one on the road (or at least hit it with a hammer until flattened).
Hand the full, tough pine cone to your child. "This pine cone grew way up on a tall branch of a beautiful pine tree. He could see for miles and miles where he sat. One day in a big windstorm he fell down, down, down to the ground with a crash. Does he look hurt? Not really, he is covered with hard scales that protect him from harm. If you fell that far you would probably be really hurt, but not this pine cone, he is tough and built to be strong. Can you feel how strong he is? Can you crush it with you hands? Not really.
After the fall, the pine cone was feeling very brave, he thought nothing could hurt him. A little boy kicked him across the yard, no problem still no injuries. He decided he was so tough he wanted to see the world. He had seen big cars driving by when he was up in the tree and wanted to see them up close. He rolled into the road...smash...(hand your child the flattened pine cone). He was squished. Even though he was so tough on the outside the car was much bigger and heavier and smashed him. You might be bigger than the pine cone but your body is even softer and less tough. It is important to stay out of the road unless you are holding my hand and we are watching for cars together. I do not want you to be squished, it would be terrible and you would be really hurt."
I feel like when it is a safety issue sometimes you have to be graphic and strict on the rule. This was an important rule to me and this visual worked really well. For months afterward the boys would point out squished pine cones on the road, "Uh, oh, wait for mommy."
With so many toys on the shelves, it is hard to know which toys are the best ones for your kids. Toy safety remains a main concern for many parents, grandparents and other consumers when purchasing toys.
The Toy Industry Association's (TIA) special website www.ToyInfo.org provides consumers with detailed information on toy safety and toy buying tips. The one-stop resource includes safety tips, videos, information on the benefits of playtime, play guides, toy trends, toy suggestions and discussion boards and recall update information. Specifically designed for parents and consumers, the helpful website helps ensure safe and fun play in the home.
I found a number of helpful resources on the website. The Links/Resources section is my favorite area. This is the first time I've seen links to all the toy related websites that mention safety and toy awards (Dr. Toy, Parents’ Choice, Oppenheim and more). The related play publications list includes several informative pdf documents. I also enjoyed the videos featuring discussions with The Moms of Toy Safety. The Toy Safety Tips page offers reminders on what to look for when purchasing toys this holiday season.
The Toy Industry Association also just launched a new website for consumers that lists the best toys of this year, selected by toy industry experts. The website, www.toyawards.org, shows the top toys that have been nominated for the 2010 Toy of the Year Awards (TOTY). (The TOTY winners will be announced on Saturday, February 13, 2010.) There's even a downloadable pdf holiday toy shopping list.
Those that visit toyawards.org can vote for their favorite toys and also enter to win a prize package. I entered to win all the toys in the Outdoor Toy of the Year category, valued at $639.94! For more details, visit TOY INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION’S "AMERICA LOVES TOTY 2010" SWEEPSTAKES official rules. The promotion ends 1/12/2010.
Thanks to TIA and Team Mom for this review opportunity and for the chance to win one of three packages of toys and games. (View my full disclosure statement for more information about my reviews.)
A couple months back we profiled the alternate reality game Smokescreen, launched by British public-service broadcasting network Channel 4 to educate UK teens about online privacy.
Now that the game has officially launched, we followed up with one... Read the rest of this post
Ah, the wonders of summer: beautiful weather, outside BBQ, and nice cold beers by the pool. Can it get any better than this? On the contrary, it can actually get worse. How, you may ask? How about being viciously attacked by tiny mosquito’s all night long. Who can relax when you are on a mission to kill these little blood sucking flies.
Don’t even bother covering up or spray those commercial promising mosquito repellents. No matter what you do, they will get you.
So, if you are the sweet kind, excuse yourself and gracefully head on home. At least there you know you won’t be on the edge of your seat, waiting for your next attack.
Ah, the wonders of summer: beautiful weather, outside BBQ, and nice cold beers by the pool. Can it get any better than this? On the contrary, it can actually get worse. How, you may ask? How about being viciously attacked by tiny mosquito’s all night long. Who can relax when you are on a mission to kill these little blood sucking flies.
Don’t even bother covering up or spray those commercial promising mosquito repellents. No matter what you do, they will get you.
So, if you are the sweet kind, excuse yourself and gracefully head on home. At least there you know you won’t be on the edge of your seat, waiting for your next attack.
By: Bruce K. Hollingdrake,
on 1/4/2009
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The government thinks books are a danger to children and mandates destruction of millions of kids' books starting February 10th, 2009. It sounds like the plot form a science fiction novel, but new regulations are all too real.
By: Jessamyn West,
on 11/20/2008
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A few links that have been keeping me from inbox zero for the past few weeks.
- “…the increased popularity of the Internet in America has not been correlated with an overall increase in reported sexual offenses; overall sexual offenses against children have gone steadily down in the last 18 years” Note: this does not say “oh the internet is safe!” It just says that the internet getting more popular doesn’t correlate with sexual offenses against children. More from the Research Advisory Board of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force
- Speaking of Berkman people, I’ll be hanging out in the Boston area over the turkey weekend and likely going to this event that Saturday. Anyone in the area should consider going, it looks like fun.
- Evergreen is gaining traction as an ILS that works even for big/complicated systems. The Traverse Area just went live with their Evergreen implementation. Doesn’t that look nice? More about Michigan’s open source ILS project.
- I’ve been reading more lately. I read Cory Doctorow’s book Content (my review) and think it should be required reading for librarians or anyone else in the various digital content industries. If you’d like a copy, you can read it for free online, or if you’re a librarian or a teacher, you can request a donated copy from the website. I already gave mine away.
- FCC broadband bill passed. This might help Farmer Bob [my generic term for the people over on this side of the digital divide] get broadband.
- Pew Report “When Technology Fails” (and even really great technology sometimes does). The results will likely not surprise the librarians. “15% of tech users were unable to fix their devices” and “48% felt discouraged with the amount of effort needed to fix the problem.”
By: Anastasia Goodstein,
on 11/13/2008
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The recent rise in distraction-related car crashes among teens has inspired quite a few high-tech solutions. And while it would seem that the easiest answer would be to create a smarter teen driver rather than a smarter teen car or a smarter way for... Read the rest of this post
My 16-yer-old got her driver’s license last week. Yikes! For any of you parents out there who may be in the same boat, or anyone who is thinking about buying a car for themselves, check out the National Highway Safety website. There is so much important information here, everyone who drives should read it. For actual crash test ratings, click here. Don’t buy a new or used car without knowing what the crash test ratings are. You might be surprised to find out your dream car has high rollover rates or poor driver’s side crash test ratings.
My Mom left our daughter her used car, which is 10 years old but in in great condition. The only problem is that it does not have good crash test ratings on the driver’s side of the car. Bummer. It looks like we’ll be shopping for a safer used car this weekend.
My daughter and I were watching a cop program about Spring Breakers in Florida last year--the knifings, the alcohol abuse, armed robberies, drug abuse, fights, and we were glad we've always taken family spring breaks.
Cops on the program invariably said they wondered if parents knew how dangerous it could be for their kids. One kid was trying to break into a girl's hotel room, his jeans on backwards. When the cop asked him why he was wearing his pants backwards, the college senior---yes, I'm not talking high school students or younger here--couldn't say.
Alcohol and drugs and 35,000 spring breakers with only 35 police officers on patrol to keep them safe is a disaster waiting to happen.
Make spring break a family holiday. Keep your kids safe.
Yesterday I quoted this section from a New York Times article about the tragedy of the Jacks family in Washington, DC,
Mitchell L. Stevens, an associate professor of education and sociology at New York University, said school officials, who are required by law to report suspicion of child abuse, were society’s best watchdogs of how parents treat children.
“Home schooling removes children from a lot of that surveillance,” Mr. Stevens said ...
And this afternoon while listening to the radio and folding laundry, I discovered that the topic of today's CBC call-in show
"Cross Country Checkup" is school safety, prompted by the release the other day of the Toronto District School Board's
School Community Safety Advisory Panel report. According to a
CBC news article on the report,
A report on violence in Toronto schools says gun-sniffing dogs may be needed to combat a problem that is not restricted to troubled neighbourhoods in the northwest area of the city.
Lawyer Julian Falconer, who led a three-member school community safety advisory panel, stressed there have been scores of incidents involving guns in schools in other Toronto areas.
"Ladies and gentlemen, nothing could be further from the truth than that this is a problem involving the black kids at Jane [Street] and Finch [Avenue]," he said Thursday as the report was officially released.
"That's simply an utter, specious myth." ...
The panel was assembled by the Toronto District School Board after the shooting death of 15-year-old Jordan Manners in a hallway of C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute in May. Falconer asked for a moment of silence in the boy's memory before outlining the panel's findings.
According to the panel, Toronto's school system has become a place where violent incidents go unreported, and where there is fear among both students and staff.
The report says a "culture of fear, or culture of silence, permeates through every level of the TDSB [Toronto District School Board]."
The panel made more than 100 recommendations, one involving the creation of a website on which students could file anonymous reports of violence.
But the idea getting the most attention involves buying sniffer dogs that would seek out guns in student lockers and other hiding places.
The report says that "all potential storage areas for weapons" should be subject to "regular non-intrusive searches, including consideration being given to the random usage of TDSB-owned canine units that specialize in firearms detection."
Falconer said the dogs would not be large or aggressive and would merely sit in front of lockers when they smelled guns inside.
In releasing the report, he highlighted the results of a survey of students at North York's Westview Centennial Secondary School. Twenty-three percent said they knew someone who brought a gun to school in the previous two years, and six per cent said they knew four people who did so.
The danger is from "disengaged, marginalized youth" who are legally required to attend school, Falconer said.
He said the board needs more funding to ensure schools are safe, but stressed that hard-nosed enforcement is not the answer.
"We miss the point if we believe that the road to health involves punishing or using enforcement methods to try to re-engage youth. It doesn't work. We suspend in droves. It fails." Falconer said.
"We as a society failed these youths. The Toronto school board is downstream and houses these youths between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. from Monday to Friday."
Among other recommendations by the panel:
* Transfers between schools should not be used as an alternative to discipline, and administrators should not urge judges or police to impose conditions that require students to be transferred from their home schools.
* School uniforms should be required except where individual school councils opt out. The uniforms should comply with the Ontario Human Rights Code and should be affordable, and the board should subsidize the cost where necessary.
* In cases of sexual assault on students under 16, school officials should report the crime to the police and, barring exceptional circumstances, notify the victim's parents.
* In cases of sexual assault on students 16 or older, the decision to file a police report and/or notify parents should be left to the student "in order to encourage victims of sexual assault to come forward and protect the school community."
* Students should be required to wear identity cards on lanyards around their necks "for the purposes of quickly identifying students and intruders."
The school board issued a statement saying it welcomes the report.
"These insights will, I am confident, guide us as we make our schools the safest and fairest learning environments they can be, for each and every one of our students," TDSB director of education said in the statement.
Doug Joliffe, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, said he outlined the problems from his members' perspective in discussions with the panel.
"I don't think it's such a culture of fear — more a culture of frustration," he told CBC News before seeing the full report.
"There is bitter frustration that has been expressed to [the OSSTF] by members, that they don't feel they get the support they need in dealing with the issues in the halls at their schools."
"There's been incidents where teachers have tried to enforce rules where they have instead been told not to do so. So the frustration happens."
And from
The Globe & Mail on the report, the article "
Teachers face mixed messages":
Educators across the country were undoubtedly rattled by the release yesterday of the School Community Safety Advisory Panel report, which suggests there may have been hundreds of incidents of violence within the Toronto District School Board that have gone unreported by teachers.
But some teachers say they are not equipped or trained to deal with the serious array of behaviours and issues being exhibited by students today, and that zero-tolerance policies often directly conflict with the pressure to keep kids -- especially those from at-risk backgrounds -- in school.
"There are kids whose behaviour is so bad that 20 years ago they'd be told to leave school -- they don't want to be there, they're not respectful, they're aggressive and quite prepared to be violent if they need to be - and yet the school system is trying to keep them in school and trying not to disaffect them by punishing them for everything," said one Toronto teacher, who asked not to be named. "So consequently, there's a bit of a mixed message." ...
But, he added, some teachers are finding that action is not always taken when they do report incidents to their superiors.
"A lot of the time, teachers' actions could be nurtured by what has happened in past similar situations," he said.
"Lets say that teacher X reported something and the administration chose not to do anything with it. If a similar situation came forward again, would that teacher be more hesitant to bring it to the administration's attention? I think that would be human nature."
Mr. Coran agreed that there is "tremendous pressure" on schools to increase graduation rates and success among students, a goal that sometimes conflicts with the reality of today's school environments.
"A lot of this stuff is really more societal problems - there's so much poverty, so much gang involvement," he said. "Teachers are grappling with some really important and complex issues and I don't think this situation is going to disappear overnight."
Morven Orr, a teacher with 30 years of experience who works with the Toronto District School Board's Beginning Teacher Coaches program, said she recommends that educators report all potential issues to their principal.
"They should have been given some advice in teacher's college. You're certainly made aware of your legal obligations," she said. "I would immediately tell them to talk to their boss."
But Ms. Orr said that being able to discern which problems require outside intervention can be extremely fraught.
"When a child presents with a problem, you have no idea what might have caused it," she said. "And although as a teacher it's important to keep the idea of abuse in your head, you can't phone someone every time a child is sad, or depressed or crying. There's a million reasons."
Mr. Coran believes that school boards simply need more bodies, and that an infusion of teachers, educational assistants and support staff would go a long way toward helping teachers deal with the problems outlined in the report, including gun incidents, robberies and sexual assaults.
"All of these things require a lot of professional attention," he said. "This behaviour needs to be corrected and not just ignored."
Ms. Orr said many teachers are also mindful of making false accusations or suggesting any interventions when none is necessary, a move that can alienate students and anger their parents."If you do phone [the authorities], the parent often knows it's come from the school and they're furious if there's no reason for it," she said. "They're often furious if there is a reason for it."
And finally, from another
Globe & Mail article on the report, "
Fears of career suicide stopped educators from reporting violence",
Teachers and school staff are too intimidated to speak out about violence in Toronto's public schools, a damning report charges.
A school safety panel revealed yesterday that employees of the Toronto District School Board told them they feared that revealing school safety issues or anything that would reflect negatively on the board would be "a career-limiting move."
As a result, hundreds of incidents that should have been reported were not. This "culture of fear" led to a failure of the system and its overseers to protect students from violence, including robberies and sexual assault, on school grounds, the report said.
"Jordan Manners died on May 23, 2007, of flat neglect, pure neglect," panel chair Julian Falconer said yesterday, referring to the 15-year-old whose shooting sparked the inquiry.
The panel's findings had officials at Canada's largest school board facing uncomfortable questions about why so many violent incidents go unreported, and why it took the death of a 15-year-old to prompt a review of school safety.
"I think that until [the Jordan Manners shooting] happened, we probably thought we had a pretty good handle on it," said John Campbell, chair of the TDSB. "And I think what that did is it really drew attention to the fact that we didn't have a very good handle on it."
Mr. Falconer said many officials within the school system are too intimidated to report violent incidents. Many of the school officials interviewed by the panel refused to go on the record for fear of reprisal.
"People are afraid and it's not just students; it's teachers," Mr. Falconer said. ...
But Mr. Falconer said there is no "quick fix" to the board's problems.
"You could fill a Home Hardware with the amount of knives kids bring to school, but we don't find them," he said. ...
At C.W. Jefferys yesterday, students didn't seem too concerned about the dire condition the report says their school is in. However, some said that students simply don't talk about violent incidents.
"The reputation going around is: when you talk, you're basically a snitch," said student Chandé Wilmot. "[People worry] that they might get beat up."
By:
Donna J. Shepherd,
on 9/23/2007
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Kevin and I have teamed up again. Guardian Angel Publishing will release No More Gunk! - an ebook for kids about taking care of teeth. Another exciting development - this book along with Ouch! Sunburn! will be released together as a print book. They both address a children's health issue. Watch for more news soon!
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OUCH! SUNBURN
Text Donna Shepherd
Illustrations Kevin Collier
ISBN 10: 1-933090-60-x
ISBN 13: 978-933090-60-3
Guardian Angel Publishing
Reviewer Carolyn R Scheidies
Sunburn is a big problem. Parents, adults and kids are out under the sun without considering the long-term consequences and they can be severe. As a kid, I seldom thought about sunscreen. Few did....
TO READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW, VISIT
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Library Feed, librarian.net. librarian.net said: §: would you recognize a hardware keylogger in your library? http://j.mp/hkVLZP [...]
Any Android smartphone can have its USB controller reconfigured to do this in theory after that proof-of-concept keystroke injection attack. With prepaid burner Android smartphones out there, this is going to potentially grow.
I just posted about this on my blog with a possible solution – Centurion software (what we use on our public machines to wipe them clean after use) offers a way to disable just some USB functions – including wireless managers, which send the data from the keyloggers to the person who installed it on your machine.