Parents Guide of Las Vegas

Back To School – Publisher’s Letter
Events Calendar
Open Auditions For “The Nutcracker”
The Difference Between a Sore Throat, Strep and Tonsillitis
Clark County School District Days Off
News from Girl Scouts of Southern Nevada
Free College Application & Scholarship Workshop Puts Teens On Track
The List
Preferred Tutors’ Listings
Daycare & Preschool Directory
ParentsGuide to Family Dining
Win a Family Four Pack to Wild Fest Nevada

For many parents in Las Vegas, Monday, August 29, 2011 was that bitter-sweet day when the kids went back to school. A new school year began. One filled with hope and relief. Hope that our students will be able to adjust to their new teachers, subjects and friends. Relief that homework, sports and school related activities will replace the free time of summer that too often seemed to end in boredom and video games.

Over the course of the upcoming school year, you can count on PGLV to continue to offer Southern Nevada parents relevant and timely information on education, family entertainment & fun, and health & safety. In addition to picking up your free copy of the magazine each month, please visit us online at ParentsGuideLV.com and sign up for our e-newsletter. You can also stay ‘in the know’ by liking us at Facebook.com/ParentsGuide.

Of course, once school starts in earnest parents deal with an entirely new set of challenges. Getting children to school, helping them with homework and then starting the routine over the next day can be a real energy drain on parents. When those frustrating times come, and they will, just remember how good it felt to have summer vacation finally end!

All the best,

Mark Sherwood
Publisher

Nevada School of Dance will hold open auditions for “The Nutcracker” Production, Saturday, September 10, 2011, from 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm at the studios located at 6072 South Durango Drive. There are openings for the parts of mice, bon-bons, angels, party children, soldiers, and Chinese dancers for children ages 5 to 10 years old with or without ballet experience.  Male and female pre-teen and teen dancers with ballet experience may audition for the snowflakes’ dance, snow princess and prince, Spanish dancers, Russian dancers, Arabian dancers, and the waltz of the flowers.  Adults are welcome to try out for the party parents’ scene. Auditions are free. If selected, a participation fee may apply. 

“The Nutcracker” Production by Nevada School of Dance is a unique opportunity to showcase talented children that have a passion for classical ballet since for the past six years young dancers have been cast for the main parts and for the entire corps de ballet in this children’s Christmas classic. Performances will be held at Faith Lutheran Jr/High School, December 16 and 17.

Nevada School of Dance is a partner in the arts with Nevada Arts Academy and is located at 6072 South Durango Dr., Las Vegas, NV 89113.  For a detailed schedule about the auditions call (702) 248-1288 or go to www.NevadaSchoolofDance.org.

The terms sore throat, strep throat, and tonsillitis often are used interchangeably, but they don’t mean the same thing. Tonsillitis refers to tonsils that are inflamed. Strep throat is an infection caused by a specific type of bacteria, Streptococcus. When your child has a strep throat, the tonsils are usually very inflamed, and the inflammation may affect the surrounding part of the throat as well. Other causes of sore throats are viruses and may only cause inflammation of the throat around the tonsils and not the tonsils themselves.

In infants, toddlers, and pre-schoolers, the most frequent cause of sore throats is a viral infection. No specific medicine is required when a virus is responsible, and the child should get better over a seven to ten day period. Often children who have sore throats due to viruses also have a cold at the same time. They may develop a mild fever, too, but generally aren’t very sick.

Strep throat is caused by a bacterium called Streptococcus pyogenes. To some extent, the symptoms of strep throat depend on the child’s age. Infants with strep infections may have only a low fever and a thickened or bloody nasal discharge. Toddlers (ages one to three) also may have a thickened or bloody nasal discharge with a fever. Such children are usually quite cranky, have no appetite, and often have swollen glands in the neck. Sometimes toddlers will complain of tummy pain instead of a sore throat. Children over three years of age with strep are often more ill; they may have an extremely painful throat, fever over 102 degrees Fahrenheit (38.9 degrees Celsius), swollen glands in the neck, and pus on the tonsils. It’s important to be able to distinguish a strep throat from a viral sore throat, because strep infections are treated with antibiotics.

Diagnosis and Treatment

If your child has a sore throat that persists (not one that goes away after her first drink in the morning), whether or not it is accompanied by fever, headache, stomachache, or extreme fatigue, you should call your pediatrician. That call should be made even more urgently if your child seems extremely ill, or if she has difficulty breathing or extreme trouble swallowing (causing her to drool).

This may indicate a more serious infection. The doctor will examine your child and may perform a throat culture to determine the nature of the infection. To do this, he will touch the back of the throat and tonsils with a cotton-tipped applicator and then smear the tip onto a special culture dish that allows strep bacteria to grow if they are present. The culture dish usually is examined twenty-four hours later for the presence of the bacteria.

Most pediatric offices perform rapid strep tests that provide findings within minutes. If the rapid strep test is negative, your doctor may confirm the result with a culture. A negative test means that the infection is presumed to be due to a virus. In that case, antibiotics (which are antibacterial) will not help and need not be prescribed.

If the test shows that your child does have strep throat, your pediatrician will prescribe an antibiotic to be taken by mouth or by injection. If your child is given the oral medication, it’s very important that she take it for the full course, as prescribed, even if the symptoms get better or go away.

Source: American Academy of Pediatrics. Article recommended by Good Night Pediatrics.

To better help you plan family vacations, child care and car pooling please be aware of the following important dates as they relate to days off of school for Clark County School District students during 2011-2012 school year;

September
Sept 5th – Labor Day (Observed Holiday)

October
Oct 27th- Professional Development Day (no school for students)
Oct 28th – Nevada Day
(Observed Holiday)

November
Nov 10th- Professional Development Day (no school for students)
Nov 11th – Veterans Day
(Observed Holiday)

December
Dec 16th – Winter Break Begins
(end of the day)

January
Jan 3rd – Classes Resume
(after Winter break)
Jan 16th – Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday (Observed)
Jan 23rd – Professional Development Day (no school for students)

February
Feb 20th – Presidents’ Day
(Observed Holiday)
Feb 21st – Professional Development Day (no school for students)

March
March 30th – Spring Break Begins
(end of the day)

April
April 9th – Classes Resume
(after Spring Break)

May
May 28th – (Observed Holiday)

June
June 7th – Last Day of School