GMCAA Help Me Grow Newsletter

Monday Ja nuary 6 , 2 0 1 3 Volume 7, Is sue 3

GMCAA Exe cutive Dir ector, Tom Reed GMCAA Planner/H elp M e Grow Di recto r, Te r esa Va rian parentsmartsblog.blogspot.com gallimeigscaa.webs.com

Gallia Meigs Community Action Agencys New Programs for Expectant Moms and Families
Upcoming Events
Please check for cancellations and changes Please call 992-5266 or 1-866-219-0110 to register if you will be attending any of the activities! Thanks.
Galia Meigs Community Action Agency (GMCAA) has a few new programs for expectant Mothers and families with children less than three years of age.
The Ohio Department of Health has given GMCAA the approval to administer the Help Me Grow Home Visiting Programs in Meigs and Gallia Counties. This program brings an exciting new twist to families with the addition of an evidenced based curriculum called Parents as Teachers. We bring you handy tip sheets and can show you DVDs of actual parents engaging in play with their children that can support your childs learning. We show you how to make learning toys from items in your own home and other ways to make playtime into a learning experience for your little one. We can help you connect to services you may need to help your family. We are all parents that understand how hard raising children can be and are available to answer questions, or to just listen. We are there for you. There are three categories of parents and children that we can serve in this program. You must be an expectant or first time parent of an infant who is 6 months old or younger, with a family income of not in excess of 200% of federal poverty level. developing skills such as, speech development, sitting up, rolling over, walking, not making eye contact or not keeping up with others in their age range, we can help. If your child was born with a documented delay we can help coordinate all the services available to help your child. We know mothers often report they feel that something is not quite right but sometimes find it hard to pin point when explaining this to a health professional. This is where Help Me Grow Early Intervention can help. We have a professional team of evaluators that will perform an evaluation based on your childs age and emerging play skills that can pinpoint what may be wrong.

January

Get your Taxes Done For Free and Keep your whole refund! Call GMCAA for

an appointment ! February

Meigs County Community Baby Shower

Tuesday, February 26,2013 Meigs County Library in Pomeroy. 1:00 to 3:00 Free gift bag if you register in advance.

March

Spring Fling Eggstravaganza Dave Diles Park Middleport, Ohio March 27th 2013 starting at 11:00am

Our newest program is funded by Integrating Professionals for Appalachian Children (IPAC) is the Pathways Program. This is a program is designed to help any pregnant mother who is eligible for a medical card and does not fit into the We can also serve any child under the age of Help Me Grow criteria mentioned in this article. We can help you get a medical three years that is determined to be a card, find a doctor, transportation, food, substantiated victim of child abuse or neglect or children under 3 whose parent(s) housing and make sure that you and your child stay healthy by tracking are engaged in active military duty. appointments, immunizations and find The second program is Help Me Grow Early the help you need to quit smoking. Intervention program. This program has no If you know of someone that would like income limit and is open to any family in Meigs County with a child under three years to participate in any of these programs call the Middleport Office of GMCAA @ of age with any suspected or documented 740-992-5266 or 866-219-0110 and give delay. us the name, address, current phone If you or your health care professionals are number and due date of the person you concerned about any of your childs are referring .

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GMCAA Help Me Grow Quarterly Newsletter

HEAP, WCP (Emergency HEAP), PIPP Explained

The Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) is designed to help eligible Ohioans meet the high costs of home heating. If a client is eligible for assistance, the amount of their one-time HEAP benefit depends on federal funding levels, how many people live in the household, total household income, and the primary fuel you use to heat your home. In most cases, the one-time benefit will be a credit applied to your energy bill by your utility company (or fuel vendor). A special component of HEAP is the Winter Crisis Program (WCP). The Winter Crisis Program is administered by Gallia Meigs Community Action Agency. The Program provides assistance once per heating season to eligible households that are disconnected, threatened with disconnection, or have less than a 10-day supply or less than 25 percent supply of bulk fuel in their tank. Those households, serviced by a PUCO-regulated utility, must sign up for the Percentage of Income Payment Plan Plus (PIPP Plus) or another payment plan in order to receive emergency benefits. Under PIPP Plus, if you heat with gas, you will pay 6 percent of your monthly household income to your gas company and 6 percent to your electric company. If you heat with electricity, you pay 10 percent of your monthly household income. GMCAA or the utility company will inform you of your PIPP Plus installment. Once you are enrolled in the program, you must pay the amount of the installment every month in full and on time. To be eligible for the PIPP Plus program, you must receive your heat source from a company regulated by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO), must have a total household income which is at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty level, and must apply for all energy assistance programs for which you are eligible. To make an appointment to sign up for any of these programs call Gallia Meigs Community Action Agency at 740-992-6620.. You can also go to GMCAA in person to make an appointment. HEAP will be available in all three of the GMCAA offices located in Cheshire, Middleport, and Gallipolis, however all appointments need to be made at the Cheshire office on Fridays. The Number is 740-992-6620.

Spring Fling Eggstravaganza

Here is your chance to win cool prizes for spring! Every time you have a visit with your Service Coordinator/Home Visitor you will receive a ticket to fill out. The more visits you have the more tickets you get! The More tickets you get the more prizes you can win! Your Service Coordinator/Home Visitor will put your tickets into the Easter Basket, located in our office at 1369 Powell Street, Middleport, Ohio. Your family must be enrolled in Early Intervention or Home Visiting. Your Family must be receiving ongoing services from Help Me Grow to win. Sweepstakes will start on January 14th 2013. The winners will be drawn from the entries at the Help Me Grow Spring Fling on March 27th at Dave Diles Park in Middleport Ohio starting at 11:00am. Prizes may include but are not limited to, gift cards, fuel cards and other assorted gifts. Call your Service Coordinator or Home Visitor for a visit today! Sorry, Visits are limited to once a week. In case of inclement weather the Spring Fling will be rescheduled. Call GMCAA Help Me Grow before leaving for the event for cancellation information 740-992-5266 or 866-219-0110.

January Activities
Get your Taxes Done For Free and Keep your whole refund! The Ohio Benefit Bank which is a program of the Ohio Association of Food Banks has granted Gallia Meigs Community Action Agency funds to do taxes for people in Gallia and Meigs County that make fewer than 60,000 dollars a year. We will do Federal and State Tax returns and file them electronically for absolutely free. You do not have to pay anything to receive your money and you will get it in 7 to 10
days or less. We can help you maximize your refund with Earned Income Tax Credits, Child Tax Credits, Educational Credits or others you may not know about. To get your taxes done for free call the Meigs County office of Gallia Meigs Community Action agency @ 740-9925266 or 1-866-219-0110 to make an appointment with Linda Nease. Your tax refund is your money keep all of it!

February Activities
Meigs County Community Baby Shower.
GMCAA Help Me Grow is sponsoring a Baby Shower for all Meigs County expectant parents and those with babies under the age of 6 months. To attend you must make less than under $37,000 a year for a family of 3. The Baby Shower will be held at the Meigs County Library meeting room in Pomeroy on Tuesday, February 26th from 1:00 to 3:00. There will be refreshments, bring your little ones in costume. door prizes and valuable information There will be snacks, stories and available to all participants.cafeteria pictures will be taken in the Expectant parents and parents of children under 6 afterwards. months old that register on or before The residents of Overbrook reallygift February 25th will receive a free enjoyYou can the children in costume bag. seeing call 740-992-5266 or 866and beingto register. out the treats 219-0110 able to hand

GMCAA Help Me Grow Quarterly Newsletter

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March Activities
Spring Fling Eggstravaganza Here is your chance to win prizes at the Spring Fling Eggstravaganza that will be held at the Spring Fling Egg Hunt. It will be held at Dave Diles Park on March 27th 2013. We will start at 11:00 with the Egg Hunt and then will draw the winners of the Spring Fling Eggstravaganza. Please call to register if you are planning on coming by Monday, March 25th. This lets us know how many children and adults are coming and allows us to plan activities and have enough refreshments for everyone. As the weather is a little iffy in March, please call us to see if we have cancelled the Spring Fling if you feel the weather is bad. Our policy is In case of inclement weather the Spring Fling will be rescheduled. Call GMCAA Help Me Grow before leaving for the event for cancellation information 740-992-5266 or 866-219-0110.

Activity to Increase Physical Development

Fun Learning Songs and Finger Plays

Finger Plays and Nursery Rhymes are something you and your children can enjoy together. Children of all ages can reap more benefits from music and movement than just enjoyment. From exposure to these things children can enhance their language development, body awareness, auditory discrimination, self-esteem, muscular coordination; these areas of development are thought to be a crucial prerequisite to other, more academic activities. So go ahead, dance sing and do finger plays with your child. You are helping them with early learning skills though play.
pressure on Childs back so it isnt ticklish or unpleasant for them. You can blow a cool breeze on the back of their neck. X marks the spot with a dot and a dot, And a dash, and a dash And a big question mark! With a line going UP And a line going DOWN And a line going around and around and around! With a hug! And a squeeze! And a cool ocean breeze!

ROLLING BALLS: Materials You Will Need: Balls, laundry basket. What to Do: Children love playing with balls of all shapes and sizes. Select several balls of various sizes and place them in a laundry basket. Have your child sit across from you on the floor. Roll one ball at a time to your child and encourage your child to roll it back to you. Describe the movement of each ball, dependent on its size and shape. Skills Learned: Grasp and release, tactile stimulation, visual tracking
This originally appeared on Productive Parenting and is reprinted with permission. To receive additional daily activity suggestions based on your child's age, visit www.productiveparenting.com.

Knock Knock
Baby lying on floor facing parent) Knock, knock, knock (Parent knocks on floor) Peek in (Cover babys arms over eyes and quickly uncover them) Open the latch (Cross babys arms over chest and then extend out to side) And walk right in (Walk fingers up babys tummy) How do you do Mr. Chinny, chin, chin? (Tickle baby under chin)

Criss-Cross
Criss-cross, applesauce. (Cross mark of tummy/tap on shoulders) Fingers crawling up your tummy (Fingers crawl up body) Rain falling down. (Slide fingers down body) Now youve got the shivers! (Tickle all over)

Car Ride
This is the way the car goes, , (Bouncing on parents lap) bumpity, bumpity, bump. This is the way the car goes, Bumpity, bumpity, bump, Oh, oh, theres a whole in the road, Bumpity, bumpity, BUMP! (Child falls between parents knees)

oddlers

X Marks the Spot

This ones pretty self explanatory. Use two fingers and apply enough

Go

GMCAA Help Me Grow 1369 Powell Street P.O. Box 129 Middleport, Ohio 45760 Phone: (740 992-5266 1-866-219-0110 Fax: (740) 992-6553

Free Car Seat Safety Class

Car seat safety class will be held at the Help Me Grow offices. Please call to register and we will call you after the shipment comes in to our offices and we will tell you the date and time. We have convertible safety seats that are rated for children 5 to 50 lbs. and whose height is between 19 and 47 inches tall. This seat is designed to be rear facing until one year of age according to Ohio law or until the child reached 35 lbs. The safety seat can then be turned around to be front facing until the child reaches 50 lbs. and is no more that 47 inches tall. We do have a very limit amount of high backed booster seats. You must call and register before the class. Please call the HMG office at 992-5266 or 1-866-219-0110 to register for the free car seat safety class.

Classic Games to Play with Your Baby

Give your child a helping hand right from the start! Were on the Web!
parentsmartsblog. blogspot.com

Peekaboo
Once your baby is 4 to 5 months old, she'll be fascinated as you pop up from behind your hands. By 6 to 8 months, she'll be playing along, hiding and then giggling when she makes eye contact. Why it's so great: Your baby is learning a vital lesson in object permanence. "An infant doesn't realize that things continue to exist after they're out of sight," says Charles Nelson, PhD, professor of pediatrics at

Harvard Medical School. "She enjoys the surprise element. You disappear and reappear, which is thrilling to her and teaches her that things come back, which will help her deal with separation anxiety later on." How to make it even better: Hold a blanket between the two of you. This adds a lesson in body control--she'll have to plan to remove the blanket, reach for it, and pull it away.

GMCAA Help Me Grow 1369 Powell Street P.O. Box 129 Middleport, Ohio 45760 galliameigscaa.webs.com