Randy Rolfe

FAMILY FIRST: Creative Tips for Finding Life Balance! With Sharon Weinstein

How often do we hear about the challenges modern families face with both parents working outside the home and still trying to maintain a close-knit and happy family life? Finding a balance between your roles as parent and active participant in the workplace is one of the greatest sources of everyday stress for families today. My guest this week is not only an expert on the subject but is a personal example of how to manage this balancing act. A health educator for over30 years, Sharon Weinstein is an energetic, motivating and highly skilled nurse, nurse educator and consultant specializing in workplace wellness, corporate training programs and motivational speaking presentations .Among many other roles, she also was advisor to Central Clinical Hospital, Moscow, Russia for twelve years while raising her family and oversaw the building of a western-style International Patient Department. Among her many writings, Sharon’s book B Is for Balance is all about this issue. Listen in

FAMILY FIRST: Recovering from Emotional Neglect With Dr. Jonice Webb

As a society we are concerned about the trauma of childhood abuse or spousal abuse witnessed by children, about bullying, and about parental neglect, when kids are left on their own with little direction or attention to basic needs. All of these adverse experiences impact our kids into adulthood. They require conscious effort for recovery and public awareness to reduce their occurrence. But what about when none of these things has occurred and yet a person still feels not good enough, or strangely alone and unconnected? My guest this week on Family First is Dr. Jonice Webb, who has identified and investigated this more subtle kind of abuse, which can go completely unidentified and still have profound effects. She felt compelled to draw awareness to the problem and has as her goal to bring this unseen force from childhood out of the darkness and into the light. She seeks to make people aware of it and its effects and to give them the words to talk about it and the tools to fix it.

FAMILY FIRST: The Value of Creative Arts in the Home With Helen Webber

Creative art programs are being cut in schools to save money, and kids are being sucked into digital worlds designed by someone else for their recreation. What happened to crayons and colored pencils, clay, finger paints, and yarn? How does the artistic process help young minds to develop and how can we bring it back into our homes? My guest this week is Helen Webber, a celebrated artist whose artistic works have graced huge public buildings as well as homes, always with fanciful, uplifting images, in diverse materials and a variety of themes. Webber seeks to “inspire the creative spirit in our personal and public environments, and especially in our souls. ”Webber believes that art can touch the spirit of many more people than those whose art experiences are limited to the halls and walls of museums and galleries. She is passionate about the rights of children to explore their imagination. Listen in for creative ideas for making your home an inspiring place to hang out.

FAMILY FIRST: What Parents Need to Know About ADHD With Sherry Torkos

More and more children today are being diagnosed with learning disabilities, and at earlier and earlier ages. Schools have difficulty meeting the needs of kids with learning differences, and some kids can affect the whole classroom when they become bored or confused. Parents face difficult choices when they hear ADHD: get supplemental schooling, change schools, use questionable medications, try alternative health approaches, check environmental factors, hire tutors, or try home education? My guest this week is Sherry Torkos, an award winning pharmacist, health author, and fitness expert who has researched a number of critical health issues and made the scientific information accessible to the general public through her many books on different topics. As a mother herself, she has explored many issues of child health and will share with us what we actually know about ADHD and how parents can recognize it, minimize it, or prevent it in their children through methods which really work 

FAMILY FIRST: Energizing Your Family’s Fall Season With Sherry Torkos

Does the end of summer have you feeling drained? Many parents look forward to the summer to do things with the children and be free of school and sports schedules. But then by the end of summer they are looking forward to the discipline of the school day and week, only to find the readjustment stressful and even overwhelming. This week health author, fitness expert, and award-winning pharmacist Sherry Torkos returns to Family First as our guest to share great practical tips for making that readjustment with greater ease and with confidence that you are protecting your family’s health and well-being. Sherry Torkos has researched a number of critical health issues and is gifted at making the scientific information accessible to the general public through her many books on various aspects of health. As a mother herself, she has explored many child health issues. She now will share some quick energy dos and don'ts that will get you and your children feeling energized for fall.

FAMILY FIRST: A Growing Trend – More Moms Working from Home With Julie Tara

Our country may be facing a crisis: Our children are missing out on the benefits of their parent’s time and attention because their parents are too busy working to support the family. One of the biggest changes in the last 30years is that not only the fathers, but now also most middle class mothers are in the work force .Yet it’s still a struggle with two parents working with child care expenses and no time for family life. Organizations like Moms Rising are pushing policy makers for equal pay for equal work, paid maternity leave, and flexible work hours in the job market. And many mothers are looking for opportunities to work from home, like jobs that offer telecommuting. But a third option is to start your own business at home. More and more mothers are making this choice .My guest today, Julie Tara, has done just that and has some important insights and tips about how it has impacted her and others in their efforts to build a strong family and to be there for their children.

FAMILY FIRST: : Keeping Kids’ Summertime Healthy With Dr. Felicia Stoler

As summer approaches are looking forward to freedom and the outdoors and amore easy-going lifestyle. Maybe there will be a family road trip and interesting adventures! Meanwhile parents are wondering how to keep control of activities, make sure the kids do more than laze about and text their friends or play videogames, meanwhile getting exercise, sticking with a sound diet, and avoiding putting on extra weight. My guest this week on Family First is Dr. Felicia Stoler, a registered dietician and former host of TLC’s honey, We’re Killing the Kids. She has put together some great tips on how to plan for a great summer for children and parents. She will share ideas about how to prepare, how to travel, what kinds of snacks to have on hand, how to manage the attractions of junk food, how to limit road trip restroom breaks, and how to see that no one starts to have an expanding waistline over the summer. Listen in on how to make your summer healthy and happy.

FAMILY FIRST: Be A Safety-Aware Consumer With Hon. Nancy Steorts

With all the news about car recalls, toy recalls, drug recalls, and more, it’s easy to either panic or become complacent about how to protect your family from unseen risks in our everyday lives. Many of us are doing home renovations or buying a new home with materials we don’t know much about. And what about our children, at daycare, school, playground, or college? My guest this week is the Honorable Nancy Steorts, former Chairman of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. She served also as the first Consumer Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Ms. Steorts is the nation's foremost authority on safety, especially in the home, and is author of three highly acclaimed books: Your Home Safe Home, Safe Living in a Dangerous World, and Safety and You. Ms. Steorts will share with us her best advice on how to be a safety-aware consumer of products for your home and family. She also has some fascinating stories to share about the products that fill our modern lives.

FAMILY FIRST: Helping Kids with School Struggles With Richard Selznick, PhD

When a child struggles to learn, it can snowball into a much bigger problem. Parents worry about behavior in school, social skills, math, reading, and writing problems, organizational challenges, how to interact with teachers, whether to consider medications, and more. Especially in a competitive job market, parents feel pressure even in the early childhood years to see that their children succeed at school. My gusted. Richard Selznick has many years experience helping families to resolve these problems. He is the author of the new book School Struggles: A Guide to Your Shut-Down Learner's Success, which builds on the well received information in his previous book The Shut-Down Learner: Helping Your Academically Discouraged Child. He offers practical, straightforward advice which has helped educators, school psychologists, and parents Dr. Selznick shows parents and teachers how to address the problems felt by struggling students and how to help them learn to their full ability.

FAMILY FIRST: : Positive Touch With Eva Scherer

Today’s news is filled with atrocious cases of child abuse, domestic violence, and sexual abuse. Some parents are so worried that any touch might be misinterpreted that they avoid it. And many schools are becoming so sensitive, because of incidents of corporal punishment or sexual contact, that they are not allowing any touch at all. My guest this week on Family First is Eva Scherer. Eva has been the leader of a movement in New Zealand to teach children to massage each other. She believes we are becoming a touch-deprived society, which may contribute to many of the problems kids have today. Her programs have helped kids gain self-esteem, be less aggressive, be better learners, and understand positive versus negative touch. She will share the reasons for her programs, the results they have had, and how facilitating positive touch between parent and child and between child and child can have many benefits for children of all ages and prepare them for a healthier adult life.