Join us for MIX: Marketing Idea Exchange

Facebook places…Foursquare…Yelp checkins….geographically-targeted marketing is increasingly important to online marketing efforts. Come and spend an hour learning more about what this means to the ‘findability’ of your business!

Join us for a lunch-and-learn event where we will network, share best practices, and explore the shifting landscape of marketing in the Web 2.0 world. Come and bring your best ideas and learn something new from other small business owners, marketing professionals, and more!

September’s topic: “Where are you?” How location and find-ability are essential to marketing your business.

Regardless of your level of knowledge, you’re sure to have a great time!

Business owners, marketers, or others will enjoy a good meal and great conversation–anyone is welcome, please share our flyer and invite your friends. It will be the most productive lunch hour you’ll spend all month!

Please RSVP by September 13 to 313-410-2343 or email  charrison@frontier3.com

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17
12 noon – 1 pm
City Kitchen
16844 Kercheval Avenue
Grosse Pointe
http://www.city-kitchen.com
$20 plus tip  (cash or check)
includes your meal and materials

A Q&A with Jennifer Kendall on Montessori Education

Q: What are the benefits of a Montessori education?

A:  Montessori programs offer children an individualized program in a full classroom setting.  The materials are introduced to all of the children by their teacher and the children then self direct themselves to choose work that is of interest to them. Maria Montessori felt that “we should not fill children with facts but rather cultivate their own natural desire to learn.” The classrooms have a Practical Life area, where children develop fine motor skills through a care for their environment, Sensorial area, where children learn color, size, texture, and weight through their work, and academic materials in language arts, math, science, and social studies.

Q: What are the differences between a play-based pre-school and Montessori pre-school?

A:  Children in Montessori classrooms are introduced to different materials throughout their Montessori years.  Each of the materials presented by the teacher has a purpose. As an example, while both play-based and Montessori classrooms have something resembling block objects in the room, a Montessori classroom has the Pink Tower of ten varying shaped block units. The tower is a Montessori material that is used to help develop coordination, set a basis for the number system and increase awareness of dimension.

Q: What are the benefits to having my child in a multi-age classroom?

A:  Maria Montessori believed that younger children would benefit from the community formed with the older children. The multi-age classroom allows younger children to learn from the older students and model their behaviors and allows the older students a chance to reinforce their own knowledge by helping the younger students.

Q: How do I know if my child is ready for school?

A: All children develop and reach milestones at different times. Signs that your child is ready for school include an interest in being independent, a desire to play with other children, and following directions. Around two and a half to three, many children exhibit these characteristics and are ready for school.

Jennifer J. Kendall will present additional information on Montessori education at The Grosse Pointe Academy on Wednesday, November 17, at 7:00 p.m. in the Early School Building on the GPA campus.  The session is free and open to the public.  For more information or to arrange for a tour, call 313-886-1221 x145.

Read what www.babygeartoday.com said about Secure Beginnings’ sleep surface

..from www.BabyGearToday.com: “There are so many different baby mattresses out there. It is often a difficult decision on which one to purchase. I have definitely seen my share between my kids, but I have never seen anything like the Heaven Sent Breathable Baby Mattress. Secure Beginnings, the company behind this revolutionary mattress was founded by a father, Kelly, whose close friend lost a child to SIDS. Wanting a safer sleep environment for his baby, he came up with a breathable sleep surface with a passive airflow technology that reduces the build up of carbon dioxide and stops the build up heat thus causing a rise in body temperature- which has been linked to a potential cause of SIDS. After partnering with Julie, who lost a niece to SIDS, Secure Beginnings LLC was born.

Passive airflow technology- ?? Well, this “sleep surface” is not a mattress- per say, but a fabric surface suspended over a wooden frame- it’s almost like your baby is floating on air! And because there is no mattress underneath this allows air to passively flow through the sleep surface. The mattress base also has cut out holes to facilitate air flow. This “breathable” mattress does more than just reduce the risk of SIDS. Because it can be taken off to wash- in the washing machine- YAY!!- it reduces the build up of harmful bacteria. For a germaphobic mom like myself, definitely “heaven sent”. We received for our review a Heaven Sent Sleep Surface and Mattress base for our review. There weren’t very many instructions to read through, but none needed. It was fairly easy to assemble, just place the sleep surface over the bars on the mattress base and zip up. Push the bars down to lock in place and you are done. I did note that I had to remove one siderail  of the crib to install the mattress base, but not a problem.”

Dawda Mann Helps With the Kalamazoo River Wildlife Cleanup

Responding to requests for donations, Brian Considine, an attorney with Dawda Mann’s Environment, Energy and Sustainability practice group, delivered a van load of supplies to a nonprofit relief organization that is assisting with the cleanup of wildlife impacted by the oil pipeline spill. The supplies included towels, sheets, blankets, rubber gloves, dishwashing detergents, vegetable oil, tyvek suits, garbage bags, water and energy bars. These items were collected and donated in a group effort that was coordinated by Dawda Mann, AKT Peerless and Albion College .

“The members of our environmental practice group are familiar with the impacts that crude oil has on natural resources when released in massive quantities like the spill near Marshall ,” Considine said. “We appreciated the local communities’ requests for assistance and wanted to help out.”

After dropping off the supplies, Considine experienced first-hand the devastation that the oil spill has had on the area.

“As soon as I opened the door of my car I was hit with a very strong odor of oil in the air. I can imagine the stress this has put on the residents near the river,” Considine said after visiting a stretch of the river a few miles downstream from the spill. “The banks of the river were coated with the thick tarry oil and there was a prominent visible sheen of oil on the surface of the water.”

Several wildlife rescue groups are still accepting donations. Information can be obtained online.

Dawda Mann is dedicated to helping businesses and the individuals who own them. Located in Bloomfield Hills, the firm has a clientele of Fortune 500 companies, financial institutions, publicly and privately owned companies of varied sizes and emerging businesses located throughout the United States .  Dawda Mann’s team of dedicated attorneys has years of specialized experience in handling environmental (including all aspects of liability and regulatory compliance) and matters in areas of banking, corporations, labor and employment relations, real estate, land use, automotive, trust and estate/tax.