Allafrica.com

Gambia: FJC Explains Why Children Are Important

The Daily Observer (Banjul)
April 25, 2006
Alhagie Jobe

Honourable Fatoumatta Jahumpa-Ceesay, a nominated member of the National Assembly and chairperson of the National Assembly Select Committee on Women and Children, has reaffirmed government’s commitment to ensure a bright future for Gambian children.

Speaking yesterday during the celebration of the Early Childhood Development week (ECD) at the National Assembly grounds on the theme: “Raising the profile of early childhood development in The Gambia”, Hon Jahumpa-Ceesay said Gambians believe that children are a gift from God and are therefore precious. She maintained that they are to be well taken care of, especially in their formative years, which is between 0-8 years.

According to her, the Gambia government through collaboration with partners has been providing nutritional programmes for children as well as immunizing them against childhood illnesses such as hepatitis B, influenza, tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus and poliomyelitis.

She said this year’s theme rightly suggests that social services provision for children between 0-8 years needs to be given greater prominence in the national agenda, noting that investing in the ECD is an opportunity that must be seized so as to achieve the Education for All goals, the Poverty Reduction Strategy Plans and the Millennium Development Goals.

Iceland Review on Line
Reykjavik

Free day care in the Reykjavík?

The parties contesting seats on the City Council of Reykjavík in the elections scheduled for May 27th have markedly different policies concerning day care, reported Fréttabladid.

The Independence Party wants to lower day care fees by 25% from next September and believes that parents should only need to pay fees for one child.

Quoting recent statistics that 70% of Icelandic parents leave their children in day care for 8 hours a day and 30% for 9 hours per day, Independence Party candidate for mayor, Vilhjámur Þ Vilhjálmsson, proposed lowering the fees for the entire day instead of for “only the first seven hours”.

At a press conference on day care issues yesterday, the Social Democrats proposed that in the fall 2008 all fees for the first seven hours of day care would be abolished.

The Left Green Party wants the same rules to apply for day care and elementary schools and also believes that the fees should be abolished.

The Progressive Party wants day care to be free after the age of 18 months while the Liberals wish to speed up development day care with the goal of being able to offer all children over one day care.

I was having lunch with Edith and ran into one of my treasured old friends and she was talking about wanting her wonderful twins to learn Chinese. Then I came across this story and thought it might be interesting to post:

WEB EXTRA: 3 Michigan Cities to Offer Chinese-immersion Preschool Programs
By ADAM LARK
The State News

Nicole Ellefson’s wristwatch alarm goes off at 7 p.m. everyday — sometimes she forgets that she set it in the first place.

“I always tell my daughters that it’s seven in the morning in Beijing,” Ellefson laughs.

Beginning next fall, both East and West will overlap in the same classroom.

A Chinese Immersion Program for Lansing, East Lansing and Bay City schools will be established for preschool-aged children. The class will be open enrollment for the fall beginning May 15.

Ellefson, who is the senior project director of the program at the MSU’s US-China Center for Research on Educational Excellence, said that students will spend the first two and a half hours of their day speaking Chinese, and the last half speaking English.

A part of a five-year, $5 million grant, the program is geared for parents with adopted children from China and parents interested in exposing their children to the Chinese culture.

“We’re excited to be starting with three new schools,” Ellefson said of the program’s “bilingual, bicultural” experience. “Ultimately we want to see this model of education expand each year a little bit further.”

Ellefson hopes that once the preschoolers move up to the next grade level, another immersion program can be formed at the kindergarten and first grade levels.

Based on Chinese teachings in reading, writing, math and science, the Eastern classroom will be taught by a Chinese bilingual instructor. Eastern arts like Chinese drawing and calligraphy will also be included.

Mandarin Chinese, currently the largest spoken language in the world with over 800 million native speakers, will be the language used in the Eastern classrooms.

In the Western classroom, the all-English teaching curriculum will be centered around the Reggio Emilia philosophy that teaches instructors to study the children’s emerging interests and ideas.

Ellefson said the Western classroom is just like a typical American preschool.

“They are not going to be learning the language just for learning it,” Ellefson said. “But to learn it for the sake of becoming users.”

Wendy Wilmers-Longpre, assistant director of East Lansing Parks, Recreation & Arts, is looking forward to having one of the classes in the Bailey Community Center.

“If we can get a minimum enrollment of 10, I’m confident that it will a have a self-sustained funding,” she said.

Both the Lansing and East Lansing programs attempt to follow in the footsteps of the immersion schools that have been established in the Portland, Ore., public schools. While enrollment in Portland schools are decreasing, enrollment for immersion classes continues to rise.

DeWitt resident Tammy Kinney, a member of the Families with Children from China, or F.C.C., is currently in the process of deciding if the program would be best for her 3-year-old adopted daughter from China.

“I’m weighing the options right now,” Kinney said. “I don’t live in East Lansing, so it’s hard to get my child there. Otherwise it would be perfect.”

Nancy Majzel, also an F.C.C. member, noticed that her 5-year-old daughter’s preschool class is made up of a wide variety of ethnicities.

Although her daughter missed the age cutoff for the program, Majzel said the it’s perfect for parents to understand the Chinese language.

“I was just listening and reading about all the jobs being outsourced to China,” Majzel said. “I think these programs are ideal for the school system.”

When the children opened their mouths to sing, Miss Judy was stunned. They were outstanding. Every song was as good as the next. You should see the party planned for Monday. The children nearly brought the house down – their voices loud and clear. They seemed to enjoy performing a lot.

It makes a big difference when they participate with heart. It make teachers feel as if we’ve done our jobs. My favorite song was the Canticle of the Sun – because they all knew all their lines and they stood so nicely and delivered with pitch and energy.

I was especially proud of the delivery of the psalm. Congrats to Jack who did an outstanding job.

Mr Ty was as clear as a bell. He remembered not only his lines, but Yuta’s who has moved back to Japan. We miss him.

A big thanks to all the parents who brought snacks and who stayed to help clean up.

Today, Edith and I were over at school spring planning and cleaning. I am gutting my room and changing around a lot of things. We now have a brick patio and brick walls with bougainvillea and little black mice. I moved in two rather large banana trees that were graciously donated by Brian’s grandparents.

I’m still in the market for a pair of chinchillas. The corner cage has been painted and cleaned and I’m looking for chinchilla homes. Not sure what I want.

Every room should be inviting. When I look at Edith’s niche in the main room with its colorful rug and abacus and pretty things, I cringe. Kelly’s room is bright and fun as well, so now my eyesore will finally bring merit.

Edith worked on the kitchen today to make it less cluttered and more child friendly. You will love her rabbits.

May is “Do you remember” month.

Trust is a big part of children’s cooking. They have to know you won’t pull a fast one.

The children’s Chef:

A cook for a child care center knows how to please pint-sized palates
By Randi Bjornstad
The Register-Guard
Published: Wednesday, April 26, 2006

As finicky as most little kids seem to be, imagine cooking lunch for more than a hundred of them every day.

Sigrid Leppert does it – she’s the “chef” at the University of Oregon’s Child Care and Development Center at 17th Avenue and Moss Street – and even after 12 years at the task, she still loves it.

“In my early years, I worked in restaurants, and when I went to college, I majored in early childhood education,” Leppert says. “Even when I was working as a toddler teacher, which I did for eight years, I kept on working in restaurants, too. So this is sort of a great combination.”

Not surprisingly with all that experience in teaching and cooking, Leppert’s got a lot of tips for child feeding that parents of little ones might want to try.

“I cook for four age groups, and each has different needs,” Leppert says. “Of course, the babies have to have soft food because of the risk of choking. The preschoolers want everything separate – it’s a texture and taste thing. So when I serve pasta salad, I put the pasta, the olives and the vegetables all out in different bowls and let them put it together themselves. They like that.”

Older children want a bigger part in food preparation, and Leppert tries to accommodate their changing tastes.

“Sometimes I go out and sit with the kids and ask them what they’d like to have for lunch or snacks, and they have ideas,” she says. “I try to honor that – after all, it’s for them.”

One day the older children who attend the center after their regular school day approached Leppert and asked her to provide ingredients for “smoothies,” a nutritious blender drink usually made with fresh fruit, yogurt or milk, juice and ice cubes.

“They wanted to make the smoothies themselves, so I got the supplies and they did,” she says. “They took orders, made the smoothies and served them to the other kids, too.”

Because she uses food commodities from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Leppert has to provide meals on a rotation that takes advantage of the government supplies. For example, she makes her three-cheese lasagna about once every three weeks. She also makes vegetarian and nondairy versions of all her meals for children with allergies or intolerances.

She even has a lasagna tip for parents to try at home – she substitutes cottage cheese for ricotta and purees it with tomato sauce for layering with the traditional noodles, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.

Other foods in the three-week rotation include a “cook’s choice” meal on Mondays, sandwiches, broccoli and fruit on Wednesdays, quesadillas with corn and fruit on Thursdays and turkey and Cheddar foccacia with pickles and fruit on Fridays.

Other weeks, the kids will have entrees such as macaroni and cheese, apple-tuna salad rolls, hummus dip with crackers, vegetables and fruit, and burritos. Once in a while, they even get the perennial kid favorite, hot dogs.

Much as Leppert loves her job, she admits that all that cooking takes a toll on her own meal preparations.

“I have to take an hour or so after I’m done at work before I can even think about cooking at home,” she says. “But of course, it’s completely different to cook for adults. I enjoy that, too.”

It was a glorious day. We practiced our music early after a breakfast on the patio. And then we packed up our lunch and went to the Lollipop Concert. The children lit up with the live music. I’ve never seen Taylor’s face so animated. He fell in love with the French horn. Little Jalen was stunned by the violin. I saw Jasmin trying to conduct, and even the squirrelly children were watching intently.

The musicians played four string instruments and some brass, some woodwinds and some percussion instruments. My favorite musician was the drummer. He had a lot of personality. They came down to our groups and sat on the floor and played for each small group, then they played a lot of children’s music. It is always a wonderful place for the kids.

Then we went over to Price Park and had a picnic and played on the big toy. The kids liked that a lot and seemed to like the big tornado slide. We had our usual multi sandwich lunch with chips and home made cookies, apples and carrots, and we took milk this time.

Then we came home and went outside for Popsicles, and we had lemonade a little later.

Tomorrow is Spring Sing and the big book fair. Some of the books are really quite nice. It has been suggested to parents to buy books to use as gifts throughout the year. That’s a really good idea.

The kids will enjoy the fruits of their hard work tomorrow. They have really practiced hard and they have done some difficult things this year. No matter what, I know how they can sing if they want to.

It seems so strange that the regular school year is ending and summer is on the horizon. It should be a nice summer – lots of parents’ involvement.

We would like to thank the phantom mower who left the property so beautifully shorn sometime between last night and this morning.

We’ve noticed a lot more birds this season. Lots of nest building and lots of bird visits. I put out some Kix in one of the feeders and we had a whole group of finches lite and share breakfast.

It’s been a crazy week. It all began with a late lunch with Rosemont, and today ended with a thousand books spreading over Miss Kelly’s classroom. In between there has been a sea of aches and pains, triumphs and disasters and lots of laughs.

Miss Molly is bursting at the seams – literally. She’s about ready to evict Lucky – that’s Luke’s nickname, and her mood swings could tie with my menopausal dementia. Mrs. St. Louis is holding a very stable court and Miss Kelly is too busy with the book fair to notice who’s in charge.

The kids have been super, however, and although they have racked up a lot of blue faces, they have been more interesting this week in their approach to life. We’ve been testing our skills with music, and I have to admit, they are doing a great job. We have worked in some instruments with one of our songs, and we practiced this for an hour today, and the kids didn’t lose interest once.

We combined classes today and worked on several things – handwriting, story writing, drawing and some math and logic pages. The kids were first rate. I took my pile of sentences and drawings over to Miss Kelly, and we were amazed by how well they had done. Miss Faith’s sentence was clever. Faith farms.

I’m always glad when we get the party week over because we can focus in on something besides practices.

The book fair is a really neat thing. We are so pleased with the books. Miss Kelly was in awe of how it was supposed to look and how it was supposed to be put together and she’s done a magnificent job. The profits will be a big help to us.

Miss Stacey is still attacking us. Please say a prayer for her.

We are going to the Loli Pop Concert tomorrow and then we’re off to a picnic someplace. Then it’s practice practice practice.

Now back to Rosemont. She is my adorable raccoon who has lunch with me occasionally. She has two darling babies and lives in my neighbor’s tree. Rose comes over to eat cat food off my front porch, and we have an understanding – She eats and I chat. It’s such a neat thing to sit four feet from a raccoon and listen to them chomp away on a bowl of kitty kibble. She likes tuna, hamburger and fresh salmon. Next week I intend to intro her to home made cookies – she can take some home to the cubs.

Miss Molly is having a yard sale on Saturday. She’s out in Newburgh, so if you need directions, just ask her.

We have two new little girls who are just darling.

Please catch a look at my WFIE site by clicking the link on the right. There is a good series on child development. Next week it’s four year olds.

I was watching over the children as we practiced for our spring concert, and I realized just how different the children are. In the four years that a child can spend at the Garden School, he grows so much. The little tearful person, rolling around on the floor not really participating develops into the reliable actor or actress with the short study.

I asked Ty to take all Yuta’s lines because Yuta has moved back to Japan, and for the most part he’s got them. We had two little new girls yesterday — really sweet. One little one was helping the ladies her age with one of the echoes. Her sister fell asleep on the floor.

In between, there are so many ages and stages.

Yesterday in class I said, “Finish up your math paper and I’ll show you how to make a paper box.” There was a lot of discussion about the paper box. Three children took me seriously and finished and we made cool paper boxes. Three children doddled over their work and lost out and were mad. Three children didn’t know paper boxes were being made.

We worked very hard on identifying ones and tens in a two digit number, and the children did very well. Abby is still leading the class. She understands the concept. When the rest catch on, we will up the ante to 100s.

We are learning the one – ten words to add to our story making. If you write these out for the children, there are some helpers. I’ll write about those later.

The book sale is awesome. Books for a student body of 1000 have arrived. Please come to look at the books and toys. This is a good time to shop for a year of gifts. Books make wonderful gifts for birthday parties and occasional gifts when someone has done a good job, and what better place to buy them?

Tomorrow we go to the children’s philharmonic and then off to a picnic someplace – not sure where. It’s supposed to be a beautiful day.

One of the nicest places to go when you’re having a baby are resale shops. Babies are expensive and every mother wants her child to look his best and provide her child with all the toys and equipment necessary to do the job right, but the list seems to get longer and longer, and the price of new can sometimes be disheartening.

That’s why resale shops are so important to “bringing up baby.” Resale shops have absolutely everything, and it all looks new. Miss Molly’s favorite is The Baby Corner. The shop is located at 1217 N Fulton in EVV.

If you have a child like I did who outgrows his clothes on a weekly basis, it’s the place to go. And it’s the place to go frequently because there is always something new and merchandise moves quickly – especially if it’s a one of a kind.

Interesting article when you consider what children will have to face in the next generation as opposed to what young adult have to face now and what we as older adults had to face in our youth. Education is the union card. Interest in education is the gasoline. That gasoline is pumped early – at three. America’s education program and policy of stirring the interest soup will not be able to keep up until we realize that education is about learning. It’s not about control; it’s not about getting a 96 percent on a test that could stand correcting; it’s not about who can blow back the hot air delivered poorly in classrooms all over the country. It’s about who knows what and how they can use that information.

Two nights ago I got a note from my grandson who at 14 and 15 is writing his first novel. It’s splendid. It reads well; it’s interesting; it’s full of knowledge both gained and created, and he innocently gave it to a teacher who tossed it off as amateurish. Is this what public education is all about? How can I trash your dreams and make you feel as crummy as I do?

When did we stop looking for the gold and treat everyone like a bag of sawdust?

Two teachers told me that in a day care in EVV that is considered to be the top ranking childcare institution in the city the director told them that it is not appropriate to teach a child who is three, four or five. It’s not age appropriate. Readers can take the story from there.

The picture is the Monastery at Norcia where St. Benedict and St. Scholastica were born. I posted this picture because these twins are in many ways a tribute to education. The monastery still is under the direction of Prior Cassian.

Monday, April 24, 2006
Chrononline.com

Comment:

Gregoire’s Warnings on China, Education Need to be Heeded

In her address last week at a meeting of the Chehalis Rotary Club, Gov. Chris Gregoire had some words of warning about education we should heed. Gregoire is big on improving education in this state, from preschool to post-graduate. In discussing early childhood education, for which she is an ardent advocate, Gregoire told a story.

When she was a child, she said, her mother used to tell her to clean up her plate because children in China were starving (for some of us, it was starving Armenians or others). The lesson was that we shouldn’t be wasting when others were starving and by us not wasting there would be more for them. But now the focus has changed, Gregoire said. “The story today is, ‘If you don’t do your homework, that child in China will get your job,’ ” Gregoire may well be right.

China, which remains the most populous country in the world, is coming on strong as an economic competitor, its economy growing by leaps and bounds. Leveling the trading playing field with China will help create new markets for our goods there, as Gregoire was striving to achieve for this state in a recent trade mission to that country. Further opening of the Chinese market will in turn create more jobs in the United States.

But with education levels and skilled work forces increasing in China and Asia, more jobs and potential jobs in this country will flow there if we don’t bolster education in this country so that we can compete. That’s why efforts to raise education standards, including this state’s Assessment of Student Learning testing that Gregoire also strongly supports, is so important.

On another subject, the governor indicated she is well aware of the magnitude of the methamphetamine drug problem in our area and the state. She noted meth is particularly insidious and dangerous because “unlike any other drug, we do not have the ability to get people off” it.

In connection with that, she mentioned a disturbing trend in meth that many may not be aware of — an increased tendency of women to use the drug as a dietary aid. That is insanity. Once they are hooked on this highly addictive drug, the number of people who can get off it permanently is abysmally low.

SATSOP PLAN: Also when she was here last week, Gregoire embraced a plan to convert the abandoned Satsop nuclear power plant project near Elma to a job training facility that could be operated by Centralia College. Gregoire toured the college’s Center of Excellence for Energy Technology. In a presentation to the governor, Barbara Hins-Turner, executive director of the center, said the energy industry will need thousands of replacement workers as baby boomers start to retire in the next five to eight years.

Hins-Turner has been working with both industry leaders and labor representatives in the region on a plan to convert the 1,800-acre Satsop site into a training facility for future employees in the power generation field. That would be fitting.Gregoire said the plan “sounds like it has a lot of promise. … The whole region will benefit” from Satsop as a job training site.

The energy industry has been aware of the declining work force for years and “The cold, hard truth is that we’re going to suffer a tremendous brain drain,” said Steve Milistefr, a representative of the Bonneville Power Administration who was at the college with Gregoire. He also lauded the college for its efforts to provide more trained workers to fill the gap.

“Centralia College is starting to put some action behind this, and things are starting to happen.” Jim Walton, president of the college, said he hopes to have a Satsop job training facility operational in two years, including on-site dormitories. He commended Gregoire for her interest, noting that support at her level of government adds impetus to the Satsop plans.

In the end, then, it appears something positive will come out of the costly boondoggle of trying to build nuclear power plants at Satsop. Who knows, some day employees might be trained there for jobs at nuclear power plants, which this country will likely need more of at some point to become more energy independent.