News
 

One counting error

The Kids Voting 2000 elections in Missouri went off a lot smoother than did this year’s national presidential election.

But, even the kids voting tabulators made a counting error. The difference was the kids vote totals were corrected in a few hours, not weeks like in the presidential election.

Sometimes Missouri kids voted like adults in their home areas but sometimes they showed a mind of their own.

Young Saint Louis.com decided to do some comparisons between adult and kids voting in the areas where Kids Voting 2000 was held. 

The Kids Voting 2000 program in Missouri includes 20 school districts with over 150,000 kids involved. Nine of those districts are in the St. Louis metro area. 

The districts are St. Louis Public Schools, Ferguson-Florissant R-2, Ritenour, University City, Parkway C-2, Clayton, Rockwood R-V1, Mehlville R-IX and Fox C-6.

There also are eight Kansas City-area districts and two in mid-Missouri and one in southwest Missouri.

Professor Tim O’Rourke of the University of Missouri-St. Louis College of Education  coordinates the Kids Voting in Missouri. “Several of our districts achieved a better than 50% turnout at the polls,” he said.

He said he was “very satisfied” in view of the special efforts kids have to make to vote. The kids don’t just vote at their school. 

“What makes our program different is kids have to go to the same polling place as their parents or guardians,” O’Rourke said. Overall kids turnout was 43%, he said. 

Some interesting comparisons between adult and kids voting in metro St. Louis include:
 

• St. Louis County kids gave George W. Bush a slight 287-vote margin while adult St. Louis County voters were giving Al Gore a 51.4% to 46.2% majority. 
• St. Louis County adults and kids agreed on Mel Carnahan for the U.S. Senate. But, while John Ashcroft got 45.1% of the adult vote, he only got 32.0% of the kids vote. 
• County adults and kids both favored Bob Holden for governor by a narrow margin. 
• In the City of St. Louis, kids and adults voted predominately Democratic. However, in the U.S. Senate and governor’s race, kids showed more interest in minor party candidates. 
• For instance, kids gave 28% of their votes for the U.S. Senate to other candidates than Carnahan or Ashcroft. They gave nearly a third of their votes for governor to other than Holden and Talent. 
• Jefferson County adults favored Al Gore for president but kids liked George W. Bush. 
• In the U.S. Senate race, adults and kids both favored the Democrat but the kids were much more likely to vote for Mel Carnahan. 

The Kids Voting 2000 leaders in Missouri did many things to make the kids vote count go smoothly. For one thing, the ballot design was similar across the state. Also, the ballot could be marked in pencil so it could be read electronically. 

Votes from different parts of the state were tabulated at four state universities, University of Missouri-St. Louis, University of Missouri-Columbia, University of Missouri-Kansas City and Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield. 

All electronic vote totals were sent to UMSL, the headquarters of Kids Voting Missouri. The one error happened when one electronic file from Jefferson City was misplaced. 

O’Rourke said, “One steering committee member from Jeff City called in the morning after election day and said he thought there were more votes from his area. We looked, found the votes and made the correction that same day.” 

You can get a school district-by-district breakdown of the presidential, senate and governor’s race reading the vote summary which accompanies this article. 

Also, if you want to see all of the kids voting in all 20 Missouri districts, you can go to the Kids Voting website at http://kidsvoting.umsl.edu.

For complete Missouri adult voting results, go to the Secretary of State’s website at http://mosl.sos.state.mo.us.

Outdoors
 

This is “orienteering” 

When you want to go to a place you’ve never been, you usually call for directions. Then, you look up the location on a map which has highway and street names and numbers. 

But, what if you lived in the St. Louis area 200 years ago and wanted to find friend’s cabin in the woods? There would be no telephones. There would be few, if any, named roads or streets and probably no building numbers. 

Bobby Sutherland and fellow scouts and leaders from Troop 739 last month got a taste of what it would be like to find their way in the wilderness.

So did a group of youngsters from the Kingdom Kids Academy for Florissant. 

They took part in a meet sponsored by the St. Louis Orienteering Club. The competition was in Babler State Park in far west St. Louis County. 

Orienteering is from the word “orient.” That word can mean the Far East, such as Japan and China. But, it also means “to familiarize yourself with new surroundings.” 

In St. Louis, the orienteering club sets up courses in the woods. The people go into the forest with only a compass and a special map that shows hills and valleys, and maybe some prominent rocks or trees.

More experienced oriententeers take part in competitions to see who can find their destination the quickest.

Thirteen-year-old Bobby has had some previous orienteering experience. He’s already earned his scouting merit badge for orienteering. In fact, he’s only one merit badge away from qualifying as an Eagle Scout. 

“I like to learn how to find my way in the woods. I haven’t been lost yet,” he said. 

Others who participated with Bobby in the more advanced course were 12-year-old David Price, 12-year-old David Hashagen, 12-year-old Jason Williams and 15-year-old Kevin Gettemeyer. 

Price said he had gone through an intermediate course with his father. Hashagen said, “I got lost once but that was because one of the controls got knocked down.” 

Williams said he likes orienteering because he likes using maps and the compass. The orienteering maps are called “topographic maps.” That’s because they have special marking that show where there are hills and valley. 

In other words, the maps show the “topography” of the land. 

Ten-year-old Mary Elizabeth Mingo was one of the Kingdom Kids students who was going on an orienteering course for the first time. She was there with her sister, nine-year-old Ebony, and brother, seven-year-old Byron, along with 10-year-old Christopher Smith.

They were accompanied by adults Dave Mingo of Black Jack and Billie Davis of East St. Louis. Davis works at Kingdom Kids Academy, a private school in Florissant. 

Mary Elizabeth said, “I like the outdoors but I don’t like bugs.” She was in luck. Most of the bugs were gone because of the cold, windy weather in November. 

Al Bromley is president of the St. Louis Orienteering Club. He was race director for the Babler State Park competition. 

Before the participants arrived, Bromley and his helpers laid out the courses through the woods. There were beginners, intermediate and advance courses. The shortest course was 1.9 kilometers while the most advanced course was 4.5 kilometers. 

The object of the competition is to find several “controls” which are put at different parts of the course. The competitor tries to find each control spot, punch their race ticket at each spot in order and get around the course in the fastest time.

You get a feeling about the courses by reading the last instruction from Bromley. It said, “Remember, horses have the right-of-way. Run off the trail to avoid them.” 
 
 

If you want to take part in St. Louis Orienteering Club activities, there are several ways to make contact. 

You could call club president Al Bromley at (314) 592-1389. Or you can call for information or membership to Ed Schafer (314) 727-2945 or David Kuechemnmeister at (314) 388-1423. 

There is also a website at www.us.orienteering.org.
 
 

The St. Louis Orienteering Club also has an active program for school children. 

A recent program at Nipher Middle School in Kirkwood was typical. It was held in the Kirkwood City Park with about 200 children taking part. 

This program involved three days. On Tuesday, there was a 30-minute program to teach  kids about using a compass. On Wednesday, the kids worked outdoors on a short course. 

Then, on Thursday, the kids went to the city park for a competition over a longer course which ran throughout the park.

Teacher Ed Bielik said the program involved all 6th graders in the school. This year’s event was the second year for the orienteering event. He said, “We were shooting for new records this year.” 

He said the orienteering was a part of the school’s “wellness” program since it involved outside exercise. But, he added, “We also wanted to teach the children something that could be a lifetime activity.” 
 

Books
 
 

Just about anybody who listens to sports on KMOX radio knows who Jack Buck is.  He was broadcasting St. Louis Cardinal baseball games before some of your parents were even born. Because he is still active in radio and as a guest speaker at many events, children of today are still likely to know him.  Jack Buck always says, “That’s a winner!” at the end of the game when the Cardinals have won.  So when he wrote a book about his life and his many experiences in broadcasting, he called it “That’s a Winner.” 

This is a book written for grown-ups, so it’s not an easy book for a young person to read. Jack Buck is over 70 years old and has had a long career as a radio and television broadcaster.  He has met hundreds of famous people and he has a story about nearly every one of them.  He tells those stories in his book.  A young reader will know some of these figures, but many of them will be unfamiliar. 

Mr. Buck tells about his early life in the Great Depression and about his experiences in World War II.  It was after the war that he went to college and trained to be a radio broadcaster - especially a sports announcer.  Everything didn’t always go the way he wanted it to in his career. In spite of any problems he might have had, he makes it plain that he feels like he has been the “luckiest man in the world.” 

For that young person who wants to know more about the history of the Cardinals and Cardinal players and managers over the years, this is a book to read.  Since Jack Buck also broadcast NFL football games, he talks a lot about leading figures in that sport as well

If you have any thought that you might like to be a sports announcer, this is a book for you to read, especially.  Jack Buck is a Hall of Fame level sportscaster in both baseball and football. Any young person wanting such a career should read what he has to say. 

“That’s a Winner” is a paperback published by Sports Publishing, Inc. in 1999 and sells for $14.95 in local bookstores.  Rob Rains and Bob Broeg, two sports writers, helped write it. 
 
 

Matt Christopher has written dozens of books about sports stars. He writes his books for kids.  One of his most recent paperbacks is one called “On the Course with Tiger Woods.”  You don’t have to play golf to be fascinated with what young Tiger Woods has accomplished. This is one sports book that is about a guy who was a sports star when he was still a kid himself.

At six months of age Tiger enjoyed watching his father practice driving a golf ball into a net in the family garage.  At nine months Tiger picked up a club and drove the ball into the net just like he had seen his father do. At eighteen months, he was driving balls on the driving range along with grown-ups.  He used a club that his father had cut down in size.

At age two, Tiger competed in a local tournament for kids ten years of age or under.  He won. He enjoyed playing so much that he never had to be told to practice in order to get better.  He was such an unusually good player as a child that he was featured in newspaper articles and on television shows. 

Tiger won amateur tournaments while he was still in high school.  He was the top amateur player in the country and played golf during the two years he spent in college.  At age 20, he turned professional and began to play for money.  Soon he was the top money earner in golf and was paid millions of dollars to do commercials on television. 

This paperback book about Tiger was published in 1998 by Little, Brown and Company and sells for $4.95.  Tiger has gone on to do even bigger things since this book was written about him.  It does a good job telling us, however, about his family, his childhood, and how he grew up to become the champion he is today. 
 
 

The boxcar children books have been around for many years.  They provided popular stories for the parents of today’s children. New stories keep being written for the series. One of the latest is “The Honeybee Mystery,” with a 2000 copyright date.  It is a paperback selling for $3.95.  Published by Albert ‘Whitman and Company, it is available through Scholastic Books.

The four children in the Alden family were left without parents when they were quite young.  They lived by themselves in a boxcar home for awhile before finally going to live with their grandfather. The old boxcar is now a playhouse in the back yard. Each book in the series of over forty books is about their adventures.  They seem to be good at solving mysteries. 

“The Honeybee Mystery” begins with the kids going with their grandfather to buy some honey at a farm famous for the good honey its bees produce. They are shocked to hear that the bees for an unknown reason are not producing any honey at all.  They find out that the farmer is going to lose his honey business if he doesn’t quickly discover what is causing the problem with his bees. The “boxcar children” set out to solve the mystery. At the time of this story the four kids are fourteen, twelve, ten, and six years of age. 

There are plot twists in the story that lead the kids to focus on the wrong clues.  They finally track down and help capture the real bad guy.  Along the way are some adventures and some humorous events. Also along the way the reader learns a little about raising bees and the making of honey.
 
 

There is one series of paperback books where all the stories begin in a magic tree house. Eight-year-old Jack and his seven-year-old sister, Annie, found a tree house in the woods behind their home.  In it were lots and lots of books.  The kids found out that all they had to do was point to a picture in one of the books and wish to go there.  The tree house would spin around faster and faster and Jack and Annie would end up at the time and place in the book’s picture. 

In this story called “Revolutionary War on Wednesday,” the two kids end up among some of George Washington’s soldiers. It is the night before Washington leads his little army across the Delaware River to fight the British.  It also happens to be very cold because it is Christmas Eve.  The kids are lucky because the magic gives them warm clothes of the kind worn by people in the 1770’s, the time the Revolutionary War was fought.

Jack and Annie are taken to George Washington.  He tells them to go back home because he is getting ready to fight a battle.  The kids get mixed up in the blizzard and by accident end up on the very boat that is taking General Washington across the river. Because the weather is bad, some of his men are telling the general to go back and not fight the battle.  Jack and Annie, however, tell Washington he must lead his men against the British. They tell him he must win the battle for the future kids in America. 

Washington sends the kids home so they won’t get hurt in the fighting.  They go back the way they came.  Washington, of course, goes on to surprise the British and win one of his most important battles.

These Magic Tree House books are fairly easy to read.  They are a good way to learn some things about history while enjoying a story about kids and their magical adventures. Mary Pope Osborne is the author of the books. Published by Random House, the little paperbacks cost $3.99.

Sports
 

Ice show Dec. 17

Three young St. Louis-area girls are taking different approaches to improving as ice skaters. They have different levels of skill and different goals for the future.

But, on Sunday, Dec. 17, all will be performing in the Winter Classic Ice Show at the North County Recreational Complex. The Mississippi Valley Figure Skating Club is sponsoring the show which features both solos as well as precision team skating.

The North County event will start at 7 p.m. Audience admission is free. 

Twelve-year-old Becky Cacioppo of Glen Carbon, Ill.,  wants to compete in ice skating at a future Olympics Games. She practices six days a week. Her coach is former Russian pairs skater Igor Lisovsky. 

During the school year, her practices are about one to 1 1/2 hours. But, in the summer, she’ll skate as much as five hours a day. 

Eight-year-old Mallory Simmons of South Roxanna, Ill., practices two to three times a week during the school year. She would like to be a part of a Disney on Ice show. 

Nine-year-old Heather Cook is a fourth grader at Twillman Accelerated Elementary School in Spanish Lake. She skates three times a week but is more interested in running track. She also plays soccer and softball. 

Mallory and Heather both take skating lessons from Becky Kern-Ryan. But, their coach admits she keeps her lessons “light-hearted.” She said, “I want the skaters to have lots of fun. I’m sort of gentle when it comes to coaching.” 

Regardless of their goals or their training methods, all three have found a home in U.S. Figure Skating Assn. (USFSA) clubs in the St. Louis area. Several of them skate at more than one of the indoor skating rinks in the area. 

Leta Redd is president of the Mississippi Valley Figure Skating Club. Her club buys ice time every week at the St. Louis County Parks’ North County Recreational Complex. However, if the girls want extra coaching, they have to bring their own. 

There are many opportunities to learn ice skating in the St. Louis area. And, the kids can start in programs as young as three or four years of age. 

For instance, Heather started skating at age four. She was part of the Tiny Tots program at the North County Complex. Mallory started at six and Becky Cacioppo was eight when she took up the sport. 

In the Dec. 17 show, Heather will join with five other girls to skate a team routine set to the music, “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.” 

Ms. Redd said most of the team and solo skating will be set to holiday music, in keeping with the season. However, she said, “Some of the girls who will be skating in future competitions oftentimes use that music.” 

Becky Cacioppo is a little more advanced than some of the other girls. She will be skating a three-minute solo routine set to the music, “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” Part of her routine is likely to feature double-jumps, Redd said. 

Coach Becky Kern-Ryan is 24. She started skating at age 12 in a group program at the North County Complex. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from University of Missouri-St. Louis. 

She is the assistant skating director at the U.S. Ice rink in Fairview Heights. She also teaches group classes at North County. She has a dozen private students, ranging in age from six to 50. 

She also teaches precision teams of from nine to 12 skaters. 

For St. Louis area youngsters who want to learn more about figure skating opportunities, they can go to the U.S. Figure Skating Assn. website (www.usfsa.org). There, you can call up the names of local USFSA club officials in both Missouri and Illinois.

Also, you could contact the St. Louis County Parks Department or call directly to the various ice skating rinks in the metro area. 

In addition to figure skating, youngsters also have the opportunity to take part in a variety of hockey activities. Those activities also start early, oftentimes as early as three or four years of age.

Character
 

Savings bonds given

Three St. Louis Public School students won the top prizes in the “Increase the Peace” art competition for 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. 

Fifth-grader Chico Weber of Mullanphy ILS School was awarded the first prize of a $100 savings bond for his colored picture of how he visualizes Peace. 

Chico’s art teacher is Andrea Hodges. 

Michael Bailey, a 5th grader from Gateway Michael School, won the second prize of a $75 savings bond. The third prize of a $50 bond went to Arielle Weber of Kennard Classical Junior Academy. 

Michael’s art teacher is Thelma Keshinover. Arielle’s art teacher is Frank Moore, Jr.

Twenty-two schools in the St. Louis metro area took part in the Peace contest.

There were two levels of competition. The second level was for 3rd-5th grade students while the first level was for kindergarten through 2nd grade. Similar awards were given for the younger students also.

Each school held a local art competition. Two entries from each school moved on to the city-wide competition. 

The “Increase the Peace” art contest is part of an overall program to get students to think of ways to reduce conflict in their schools and communities. The slogan of the overall program is: “You’re the One Who Can Increase the Peace.” 

Yvonne Days was the coordinator of the art contest. She is the visual arts supervisor for the St. Louis Public Schools. 

An awards ceremony for winners and their families was held Nov. 17. The winning entries are on display in the lobby of St. Louis Children’s Hospital, which is next door to Barnes-Jewish Hospital. 

One of the attractions of the awards ceremony was the presence of Snerdlihc, who is the mascot of St. Louis Children’s Hospital. 

Students who entered the art competition were told to put in picture terms what peace means to them. They were asked to answer questions about peace with pictures, rather than words. 

Among the questions were: What is Peace? Where do we see examples of Peace around us? What things do you think of when someone talks of Peace?

In addition to the three second-level winners, 17 other students were awarded honorable mention. They received Children’s Hospital T-shirt and certificates. 

The honorable mention winners in the second level competition were: 

• Gifti Ababa of Gary Gore Elementary in the Jennings district. 
• Ashley Briscoe of East Elementary in Wentzville. 
• Danielle M. Cochran of Sigel School in the SLPS district. 
• Rachel DeNoyer of Woodward School in SLPS. 
• Tim Eschbacher of Kennerly School in the Lindbergh district. 
• Dominique George of Northview School in Jennings. 
• Rachael Gilbert of Farragut School in SLPS. 
• Ikeywia Harris of Hawthorne School in East St. Louis, Ill. 
• Edward Knew of Sherman School in SLPS. 
• Tina McClendon of Cook School in SLPS. 
• Michael McGuire of Farragut School in SLPS. 
• Dantrina Moore of Fairview School in Jennings. 
• Angie Nguyen of Froebel Elementary in SLPS. 
• Judy Nguyen of Gallaudet School in SLPS. 
• Adela Osmanovic of Oak Hills School in SLPS. 
• Jonathan Strickland of Westridge School in Rockwood District. 
• Pamela Weakly of Mann Accelerated School in SLPS.

Health
 

Sleep important to health

Most of us have heard of “jet lag.” It’s that bad feeling that comes when you travel long distances across several time zones. 

But, not many people have heard that young people can go through a “miniature jet lag” as they grow. It’s called a “delayed sleep phase.” 

Dr. Sid Nau is a sleep specialist at Forest Park Hospital in St. Louis. The hospital is across Highway 40 from the St. Louis Zoo. 

He gives both young people and adults advice on what to do when their sleep patterns are interrupted. If you go for long periods without enough sleep, it can be bad for your health. 

But, he said, children in elementary and middle school usually are good sleepers. He said, “Children in that (8-13) age group are notoriously the best sleepers at night and the most awake during the day.” 

But, once in awhile, things go wrong and normal sleep patterns may change. Nau said this can happen when something in a person’s life changes. 

Some people have sleep changes when they are under stress. Sources of stress for a child could be a broken arm or leg or if there is a divorce in the family, Nau said. 

When that happens, it’s good to understand your regular sleep patterns so you can get them back to normal. 

Nau said everyone has an “internal clock” that tells your body when it’s time to sleep and when it’s time to get up. That “clock” usually is set by changes from daylight to darkness.

People get “jet lag” when they travel long distances and what seems like night to their body is actually daytime outside. 

For instance, consider an 8 1/2-hour flight from Lambert Field in St. Louis to Paris, France. If your TWA flight took off at 6 p.m., the sun would be going down in St. Louis. 

But, in Paris, it’s already 1 a.m. in the morning. When you arrive in Paris, it will be 9:30 a.m., Paris time. But, your “internal clock” is telling your body  it’s 2:30 a.m., St. Louis time, and you should be in bed for several more hours. 

That means you might feel sleepy while French people are awake and moving around. It may take several days before your “internal clock” has re-set for Paris time. 

Of course, when you come back to St. Louis, your “internal clock” is on Paris time. It will need to re-set itself again. Those re-setting days are when you say you’ve got “jet lag.” 

Dr. Nau said young people, when they near the teenage years, their “internal clock” may change on its own. Reasons for this change aren’t totally clear. But, it can cause trouble.

For instance, if you need nine to 10 hours of sleep, you should be going to sleep at 8 or 9 p.m. Then, you’ll be getting enough sleep before having to get up for school. 

But, your adjusted “internal clock” may say you aren’t ready for sleep. So you can’t go to sleep right away.

This “delayed sleep phase” can be one reason teenagers have trouble getting to school on time in the morning. They haven’t had enough sleep. 

But, Nau said it’s possible to “re-set” your “internal clock.” The first step is to set your bedside alarm clock to get up at the right hour, even if you haven’t had enough sleep.

After awhile, you will feel sleepy earlier in the evening. In other words, you’ll get your “internal clock” back in sync with your regular school day. 

Nau said controlling the get-up time is the best way to re-set the “internal clock.” “If you just go to bed earlier, you’ll lay awake. That’s not good,” he said. 

 When you go to sleep, it’s normal to have dreams. Nau said, “Everyone dreams every night, even if you can’t remember dreaming when you wake up in the morning.” 

Sleep runs in cycles. There are two phases of light sleep, two of heavy sleep and one when the dreams come. In the second layer of deep sleep, that’s when growth hormones are secreted in young people. So, it’s important that kids get deep sleep every night. 

The fifth sleep phase is called REM sleep. That stands for “rapid eye movement.” Most dreams happen when your eyes are shifting back and forth rapidly, Nau said. These five-step sleep cycles usually are 90 minutes each and you have several each night. 

Dr. Nau said dreams can be helpful, even if they are bad. “When you are dreaming, it seems to be a time when your mind is adjusting to life’s experiences,” he said.
 
 

The following are the five most important “foundation principles” for establishing reliable sleep patterns, recommended by the Forest Park Sleep Disorders and Research Center:
 

1. Maintain a regular time for getting up. When you get out of bed at the same time every day, it anchors the body’s 24-hour rhythm of sleep and waking. 
2. Bedtime should be fairly regular, but should also be flexible. It’s acceptable to go to bed somewhat earlier or later, depending on when you get sleepy. 
3. Naps are risky for anyone who has trouble sleeping at night. Most people should get their sleep in one long sleep period each day. 
4. During your time for sleep, avoid long periods of time lying awake. If you try too hard to get to sleep, your bed can become a negative place. 
5. Reserve your bed as a place where you only sleep. Don’t watch TV or read for long periods while in bed.

Lifestyle
 

Feeder from soda bottle

Ten-year-old Hannah Winfield and her family enjoy bird-watching every day right in the backyard of her St. Charles home. 

They insure there are always lots of birds by setting out bird-feeding stations. 

Hannah said, “We have so many birds. When we’re sitting down to dinner, we can see them in the back yard right through the sliding door.” 

Hannah and two brothers, nine-year-old Paul and seven-year-old Benjamin, last month attended a workshop on how to make bird-feeders from common things around the house. 

Volunteer Russ Anderson led the two-hour class on building bird-feeders. The session was sponsored by the Missouri Conservation Commission. It was held at the Busch Wildlife Area in rural St. Charles County. 

Anderson showed how to make feeders from plastic 2-liter soda bottles and gallon milk jugs. The only tools needed are scissors, wooden dowels and an ice-pick or screwdriver.

The ice-picks are used to make holes in the soda bottles to stick the dowels through the containers. These serve as perches for birds to stand on while feeding. You make bigger holes above the perches so birds can get at the food.

For a milk-jug feeder, you only have to cut bigger holes in the sides. Birds don’t need perches for this type feeder. (For complete instructions, see below.)

Anderson said you can make your feeders in such a way to attract certain types of birds. He said, if you want to attract finches, put the wooden perches above the feeding holes. 

“Finches will eat while upside down. Most birds eat standing up,” he said. 

Fall is a good time to put out birdfeeders. As winter moves into Missouri, birds find it harder to find enough food in the wild. They are always on the look out for other sources of food, Anderson said. 

He said, when kids help birds find food in the winter, they can get the birds to come right to their homes. Missouri is home to a wide variety of colorful birds. 

Among the birds common to Missouri are the evening grosbeck, American goldfinch, purple finch, dark-eyed junco, cardinal, white- and red-breasted nuthatch. There also are red-bellied, red-headed and downy woodpeckers along with blue jays, starlings, tufted titmouse and various sparrows. 

Twelve-year-old Francis Hunt said his bird-feeders attract birds such as finches and cardinals even though his family lives in the city of St. Louis. He said he’s been using a store-bought bird-feeder for about two years. 

But, he came to the workshop “so I can learn how to make my own bird-feeders.” 

Anderson told the kids to protect against unwanted competitors for the birds’ food. These include squirrels and raccoons--who want the birds’ food--and hawks and cats--who want the birds as food.

He said one way to keep squirrels and raccoons away is to build a simple, L-shaped frame that attaches to a tree. This frame has a nail on which to put a whole ear of corn. That provides an alternate source of food for squirrels and raccoons. 

To discourage the hawks, be sure to hang your bird-feeder close near thickly leafed trees and bushes that provide escape routes. “Don’t hang your feeder out in the middle of your backyard where the smaller birds can’t find escape shelter,” Anderson said. 

Bird-feeders are usually hung from a frame or a tree limb. They should be hung with a long wire that a squirrel can’t grip. Also, the bird-feeder should be high enough off the ground so an animal couldn’t jump up and grab it. 

Anderson also gave instructions on how to build a 10-foot-high frame out of PVC pipe. This has hooks along the top where a number of different feeders can be hung. Also, there’s a flat board on top where food can be sprinkled. (For a diagram, see below.)

The most popular types of bird seeds are sunflower seeds and millet, a type of wheat. 

Anderson recommended that they buy their bird feed from commercial feed stores. He said the feed is much cheaper in bulk than if you buy small packages at retail stores. 

Benjamin Winfield got a special hummingbird feeder for his birthday. He uses a sugar-water mixture for food. Hummingbird feeders don’t need perches on them. They eat while hovering near the feeder.
 
 

You will need:

• clean, dry plastic gallon milk jug
• sharp pointed scissors
• twine
• birdseed

Preparation: 

1. About two inches from bottom of milk jug, cut large holes of at least four inches in diameter. Cut one hole on each side of the jug. You want the holes big enough for birds to perch on or for them to hop inside the jug to get the bird seed. (See diagram A)
2. Poke at least six small holes in bottom of jug for rain water to drain out. 
3. For fun, you may want to decorate the outside of your feeder with paint or permanent markers. 
4. Attach twine to the milk jug in one of three steps:

a. around the handle of the milk jug
b. around the camp as shown in diagram A
c. through cap using eye bolt, washers and nuts as shown in diagram B
5. Fill bottom of jug with birdseed.
6. Hang feeder outside. (Hint: scatter a few seeds on the ground under the feeder to help attract birds for the first time.)

Diagram A
 

Follow the directions on the diagram.

Games
 
 

What did the bald man say when he got a comb for Christmas?
     Thank you!  I’ll never part with it!

Who is never hungry at Christmas?
     The turkey – he is always stuffed!

Why couldn’t the skeleton go to the Christmas party?
     He had no body to go with!

How do you make a reindeer fast?
      You just don’t feed it!

What do you have in December that you won’t find in any other month?
     The letter “D”!

What did Adam say to Eve on the day before Christmas?
     It’s Christmas, Eve!

What did Cinderella say when the drugstore lost her Christmas pictures?
     Someday my prints will come!

Knock, knock.
     Who’s there?
Donut.
     Donut who?
Donut open until Christmas!
 
 

Careers

Emily Buchmeier now feels she’s much better prepared when she takes a baby-sitting job. 

After all, she’s been to class for training. And she’s got a signed certificate to prove it. 

Baby-sitting is popular way to earn money among young people who aren’t old enough to get a job in a retail store or other business. 

Emily is no different. She’s been baby-sitting in the neighborhood since she was nine. 

But, she wanted to learn more about how to keep the younger kids safe and happy. Besides, the 11-year-old said, “Parents usually want to know if I’ve taken a class.” 

This fall, she and several of her Girl Scout friends took the “Super Sitter” class offered by St. John’s and St. Luke’s Mercy hospitals in west St. Louis County. The 3-hour class is offered up to two times a week. The instructors always are registered nurses (RN). 

The classes are offered as a part of the hospitals’ maternal/child education program. 

Monica Glaser is one of the instructors at St. John’s. She said, “Health care is about prevention. For kids, that’s teaching safety.”

She said she stresses the idea that baby-sitting is an important job. “We want to offer a way that youngsters can be responsible,” Glaser said. 

And, with responsibility should come good pay. Glaser said the youngsters get suggestions on what to charge for their services. She said baby-sitters should get at least $3 per hour as a starting wage.

She said, “Kids feel they get more business when parents know they’ve taken the class. It’s definitely good for their reputation as a baby-sitter.” 

She said most of the children who attend the classes are girls. But, she added, “More boys finally are figuring out that girls have been making all this money over the years.” 

Emily said they were told to charge more when they baby-sat for more than one child at a time. “They said to ask $5 an hour for two or three children,” she said. 

She said one of the most interesting things she learned was how to help a child who is choking on food or other object in their throat. “They taught us the Heimlich Maneuver. I didn’t know how to do that,” she said.

The Heimlich Maneuver involves holding the child around the middle and suddenly squeezing. This forces air out of the lungs to push out the object in the throat.

“They even showed us how to give ourselves the Heimlich Maneuver if we start to choke,” she said. Emily said that involves pushing the edge of a table or desk quickly into your own stomach. That would use air from the lungs to clear your throat.

Emily said she also learned ways to calm kids who are having temper tantrums. The class also gave the youngsters advice on what sort of toys are best for children of different ages.

Other subjects include basic infant care such as changing diapers. Glaser said they use lifelike dolls for practice. There’s also a video with all sorts of entertainment ideas. 

Emily said, “They recommended we bring a bag of toys. Then, you tell the children they can take out one toy but can’t look inside the bag.” 

One of the children she has cared for is a four-year-old. “He likes little candies and then I bring along some toys I’ve gotten from McDonald’s,” she said. 

Emily said she probably needed the baby-sitting class more than some of her friends in Girl Scout Troop 966. “All of them had younger brothers or sisters they’d cared for. But, I’m the youngest in our family,” she said. 

Emily said she also has a plan for her baby-sitting earnings. “My mom lets me spend one-fourth of it. The rest goes in the bank. I already have a bank account.”

She said she’s saving her money and then will invest it the stock market. She said she expects to get advice on what stocks to buy from her father.

Emily’s parents are William and Barb Buchmeier. Her older sister, Katie, is 14 and her brother, Joe, is 13. Emily is a sixth grader at St. Dominic School. 

Anyone interested in learning more about the baby-sitting classes can call Casey Merryman or Debbie McCabe at St. John’s Mercy Hospital at (314) 822-PEDS.