We’ve had an incredible response to our offer of the “Holiday Social Survival Guide” for parents and kids. There’s still a chance to get your copy, if you haven’t already done so. We have now made downloadable versions of the booklets available on the website.

To download a copy of the guide that is appropriate for your child’s age, simply go to the home page at www.politechild.com and look on the right of the page where you’ll see the image of the booklet. Click on the image and simply follow directions to be taken to the download site. And, feel free to share the information about the guide with friends, family, or anyone you think can benefit! It’s our way of saying “thank you” to our friends and supporters.

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For those of you who were readers of this newsletter last year, you’ll no doubt remember our inaugural “Bah Humbug!” award winner.

For those of you new to the newsletter, we have been making note of who’s been naughty and who’s been nice among organizations out there. This year we also opened it up to nominations in our November newsletter. The eventual “winner” of this award is selected on the basis of their promoting or perpetuating those values and behaviors that we at The PoliteChild are trying to reduce or eliminate in our cause of “Putting ‘civil’ back into ‘civilization’.”

This year, it was a tough call. So tough that we actually have two co-winners. First, the award for the most “Scrooge-like” goes to all those many websites who are advertising that your child can receive a personalized letter from Santa – at a cost, of course! They range from a humble $4.95 for a personalized letter, to $13.95 for an actual phone call, and even $29.95 for a letter written on Santa’s own parchment.

There is a way to spin all this commercialism to good, however, and we wish these companies would consider it. If only these “Santa scribes” would donate their proceeds to a charity or worthy cause (other than themselves!) we think this practice would be acceptable. But, it goes completely against the grain of the spirit of Christmas to charge for a letter from Santa, regardless of how “personalized” it is. In this age of technology, how simple is that?

Rather than single any one site out – and you winners know who you are – we’ve decided to leave it to you to decide who is most deserving of this special recognition. We’ll give you a hint: type “Santa letters” in a search engine of choice. There are so very many to select from!

The next winner, in the “How can you burst a child’s bubble any more cruelly?” category, we have the folks from PETA. Lately these crusaders for animal rights have been handing out comic book-like pamphlets to kids who are going to see the Nutcracker. And, their festive message: "Mommy is killing animals for her coat. Tell her not to kill little animals!" This holiday greeting is accompanied by a heart-warming cartoon of a lady plunging a bloody knife into a rabbit on the cover.

PETA folks, we have just one thing to say: how can you fight so hard for the protection of animals, yet feel completely justified in breaking a child’s heart? At an event where the whole family looks forward to being joyful and entertained. You may feel like you’re doing the world a service, but it’s this kind of mean-spirited behavior that we could do without. How good do you feel when a little child bursts into tears because he or she visualizes someone killing a beloved pet? Childhood innocence fades too quickly these days; you don’t need to butcher it wholesale, regardless of your feelings about fur coats.

So there you have it folks! Deserving co-winners of this year’s award. I think both of these groups are the complete opposite of the kinds of things we are trying to cultivate in our world: concepts of kindness, of consideration, of respect and courtesy. It’s pretty clear neither of these groups is living by the Golden Rule – “Treat others the way you want them to treat you.” And, that’s why they are losers…er, winners.

Don’t just take our word for it. Feel free to offer them your own personal congratulations. Just, please be courteous when you do it!

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We have begun to provide information about our winter collection of classes on our website. Once again, we will be offering courses through local schools such as Woodinville Montessori, Evergreen Academy’s Bothell and Woodinville campuses, Arrowhead Elementary School in Kenmore, etc.

To check out the latest schedule information for Washington State, go to http://www.politechild.com/classes/classes_location_WA.htm.
For California classes, click on http://www.politechild.com/classes/classes_location_CA.htm.

The schedule will change as we add new classes and new locations, so be sure to check back if your school isn’t listed. Or, if you can’t find a class that fits your schedule, you can always contact us for options!

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In celebration of the Today Show appearance, we have made brand-new “got manners?” coffee mugs available through the PoliteChild store. There are two versions: a simple black ceramic mug and a top-of-the-line stainless steel, leak-proof commuter mug. Both mugs have the “got manners??” phrase on one side and the PoliteChild logo on the other.

To see the mugs or purchase one (or more?) for yourself, visit: http://www.politechild.com/store/storemain.htm

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In the past few weeks, we’ve had an increased demand from parents asking about whether The PoliteChild is scheduled to be offered at their school. While we are expanding rapidly, and beginning to grow beyond WA and CA, there are still many areas not being served by the program.

So, to parents and caregivers who want to see our courses offered in their areas, we can tell you that the best and fastest way to get us into your school is to approach your principal or counseling staff directly. Parent request is the number one way that we get into new locations, and it’s one we’d like to see more often because of the statement it makes about parents’ support of good social skills development.

If you need more ideas on how to see that PoliteChild courses are offered in your immediate area, we can also direct you to a web page specifically discussing this topic: http://www.politechild.com/rss-faqs.htm#13. We hope to see you soon in your own neighborhood or school!

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