According to a news report, a certain private school in Washington was
recently faced with a unique problem.


A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put
it on in the bathroom.


That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick, they would press
their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints.


Every night the maintenance man would remove them and the next day the
girls would put them back.


Finally the principal decided that something had to be done. She called
all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man.


She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for
the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night.


To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked
the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required.


He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned
the mirror with it.


Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.


There are teachers.... and then there are educators.

Comment: Once again “I ate the whole thing.” Art doesn’t have to cost a lot. Drawing can be a part of a child’s life for as little as 50 cents. It’s a matter of what a teacher is willing to do. It can be made from a lot of scraps, recycled paper, shredded paper. In fact, art for a whole school can come from an office – even a school office. Music can be a part of every classroom if a teacher is willing to sing, turn on the radio, or push the desks to one side of a classroom and make music on the floor with pencils, books, and other things already there. It just takes effort, energy and the willingness to try.

The Post on Line
Athens, Ohio

Early art education can improve cognitive skills of children

Brianna Voight

From an early age, children instinctively create art by drawing on the walls and other such creative youthful endeavors. Experts say that this expression is beneficial to children in a variety of ways.

While Athens schools offer programs, Ohio University, the center of Athens’ bustling art scene, also contributes to this local education by making art accessible to students.

Crayons, creativity, and cognition

Children who are exposed to consistent and rigorous art programs excel academically compared to those who do not, according the Ohio Arts Council, a state agency that funds and supports the arts. Art benefits children because it helps strengthen their creativity, literary and social development and cognition skills.

“Another important aspect of art is that it makes school a more interesting and engaging place, thereby improving attendance and ultimately improving academic performance,” said Mary Campbell-Zopf, the deputy director for the Ohio Arts Council.

According to Americans for the Arts, a national organization that supports the arts, some of these benefits include being four times more likely to be recognized for academic performance, three times more likely to have better attendance and four times more likely to enter a math or science fair.

“Everyone is a great artist before they are a grown-up,” said Lena Lee, assistant professor of early childhood education at Ohio University. “After our childhood, that ability to see beauty in the world tends to lessen. Art is important because it allows children to be able to see the beauty in their own lives.”

Not etched in stone

Of course, crayons and scissors don’t grow on trees.

“Sadly, when there isn’t a lot of money in a budget, art programs are usually the first to go,” said Joan McMath, professor of early childhood education at OU.

Ohio schools are not required to provide any fixed amount of art education, leaving each of the 613 public school districts in Ohio to determine the actual programs offered in their respective schools.

“While we do not set mandates as to how much art education an elementary student receives in a week, we believe that students get the greatest gains when they have it every day,” Campbell-Zopf said.

While no specific guidelines are in place for the actual amount of art children are exposed to in schools, the Ohio Department of Education set a series of standards and expectations as to what students should be able to do on a grade-by-grade level. These skills include: knowing reasons for creating art, having the skills to critically analyze art and being able to understand art in a larger cultural and historical context.

Art in Athens

Because of budget restraints and the fact that no official mandates are in place, schools in the Athens City School District decide how much art education its students receive.

“I think that the arts and music are important aspects of the total educational experience for the students,” said Carl Martin, superintendent of Athens City Schools.

Specific funding is not set aside for art education in schools but is encompassed in the supply budget, said Matt Bunting, treasurer of the Athens City School District.

Each school in the district is given a supply budget based on their enrollment numbers, set at $65 per student. This budget ranges between about $14,000 and $25,000 for each school in the district and consists of funds for all supplies bought within the schools, including both art and maintenance supplies.

Parents must also pay $25 per student, which is placed into a students activities fund, used for art supplies, kindergarten classroom needs and workbooks.

Art funding decisions are determined by each of the individual schools within the district. Each elementary school in the district has an art teacher and a formal education program. The art teachers help to decide the allocation of funds used for the arts in their respective schools.

“They can decide to spend it on art or not to spend it on art, whatever they choose,” Bunting said.

It takes a village

In addition to school activities, from time to time yellow school buses will cart groups of children to OU to spend the day experiencing various art forms at college.

The College of Fine Arts and the College of Education work in a collaborative effort with local elementary schools that have limited art resources. These programs are designed to enable students to encounter art they otherwise would not experience.

In the spring, the School of Theater and the School of Dance will present performances specifically for these students.

The School of Music does outreach through the Athens Community Music School, which provides approximately 265 students with music lessons. So far during this academic year, the school of music has provided over $2,700 to enable students with financial difficulties the opportunity to study music.

The Kennedy Museum of Art has programs designed to introduce young children to the arts. Their latest exhibit will feature African masks and over 650 area students are signed up to view them next week.

“It’s really important for us to be here because they get a chance to see artwork that they wouldn’t normally get to experience,” said Meghan Dillon, senior art education major and educational programs assistant at Kennedy Museum of Art. Dillon describes herself as a “survivor of the art education program.”

Because the art education program within the School of Art was discontinued last year, the school no longer conducts any programs in schools. Students are still finishing their degree in the program, but no new students will be admitted.

Framed pictures from local students were recently unveiled on the walls of McCracken Hall. Students and parents attended the event.

“The coming together of children and their parents and university officials to celebrate the children’s expression was just wonderful,” McMath said.

Laura Impellizzeri, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, February 15, 2007

California would have to create space for thousands more preschoolers if it is going to offer preschool to all 4-year-olds, as proposed in an initiative that state voters rejected in November, according to a study released Wednesday assessing the space available in the state’s child-care centers.

Researchers with the Advancement Project, a national public policy and civil rights group in Los Angeles, estimate that building enough space to meet the need would cost $2.16 billion. Citing benefits from preschool that have been documented in a range of studies, the researchers write that their group is “strongly in favor of expanding publicly supported preschool.”

They applied two different scenarios to determine how much space California needs to add.

If the state wants to provide free preschool for all its estimated 557,000 4-year-olds by fall 2010, it will find itself 117,000 spots short, the researchers found.

If the state wants to serve only 4-year-olds who are heading into public schools ranking in the bottom two-fifths statewide for performance, it will need 23,000 new spots, they said. The shortfall in each scenario is about 21 percent.

The study, funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, looked at preschool availability within children’s neighborhoods. It did not include licensed home-based child care, which it said accounts for about half of California’s licensed spots for 4-year-olds.

The researchers found child care space unevenly distributed across the state, with less available in newer, less densely populated and lower-income areas.

Center-based care also is more scarce in areas with higher proportions of black and Latino residents, the study found.

The greatest proportionate shortage of preschool space in the state — 43 percent — was in Riverside County. Los Angeles, the county with the largest numerical shortfall, lacks 33,000 spots under the preschool-for-all scenario and accounts for 28 percent of the spots missing statewide.

In 20 counties, there is enough space for all but 5 percent of 4-year-olds, according to the study. Several California counties, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, already are beginning to offer publicly funded preschool for all 4-year-olds.

Comment: I’m always amazed at “I ate the whole thing.” When will we learn that good things come in small packages one bite at a time?

Comment: This is an excellent little article on a food we usually shun. At school we are teaching the kids through diet that fiber is fun. There is a Kashi cereal that we use as a snack and the kids seem to like it a lot. Teaching children early makes for good habits later. Yesterday we had steamed broccoli. Usually we eat it raw, but lately the children have not eaten it, so I cooked it and got different results. Yesterday we had baked chicken, noodles, home made bread sticks, broccoli, applesauce and green grapes.

Figuring Out Fiber – Part 1

Grandma Wasn’t Whistling Dixie
— By Becky Hand, Licensed & Registered Dietitian

Grandma was right when she told you to “eat your beans and cornbread.” These foods are excellent sources of fiber. The only trouble is that fiber has long had the bad rap of tasting like cardboard. But you can learn to love fiber- not only for its benefits, but also for the easy, tasty ways you can incorporate it into your nutrition program.

What can fiber do for you?

Bulking up on fiber has many health benefits:

Weight Management
Fiber-rich foods may help you keep a trim body. Since they take longer to chew, you may eat more slowly, becoming aware sooner that you are full. Fiber also helps you feel full and slows the emptying of your stomach, which means that you fill up before you overeat. Fiber itself cannot be fattening because it isn’t digested!

Constipation, Hemorrhoids, Diverticulosis
Fiber absorbs water, helps the stool to pass through the digestive system more quickly and easily, and helps prevent constipation. As a result, you’re less likely to strain with bowel movements and therefore to develop hemorrhoids — helping you avoid two common pregnancy discomforts at the same time! Fiber is standard therapy for the treatment of diverticular disease, a painful condition that occurs when the tiny sacs in the intestinal wall become weak and infected. A high- fiber diet helps to keep these sacs from becoming inflamed.

Heart Disease
Studies have shown that people who consume a high-fiber diet are less likely to develop heart disease. Certain types of fiber may help lower LDL-cholesterol, the bad stuff. Fiber also helps bile acids that are made of cholesterol pass through the intestines as waste. Therefore the body absorbs less dietary cholesterol.

High Blood Pressure
Fiber-rich foods are also a good source of potassium and magnesium, two minerals needed to help regulate blood pressure.

Diabetes
Water-soluble fiber helps regulate blood sugar by delaying the emptying time of the stomach. It slows sugar absorption after a meal, thus reducing the amount of insulin needed.

Cancer
Following a high-fiber diet regularly may help prevent certain cancers, such as colon and rectal. Fiber absorbs excess bile acids that are associated with cancer and speeds up the time needed for waste to pass through the digestive system. This allows less time for harmful substances to come in contact with the intestinal wall. Fiber forms a bulkier stool, which helps to dilute the concentration of harmful substances.

What is fiber? Fiber is found only in plant foods, such as dried beans and peas, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. It’s a type of carbohydrate that gives plants their structure. Because it’s not digested or absorbed into your body when you eat it, you ingest no calories. There are two types of fiber, both beneficial in different ways:

Soluble fiber helps lower blood cholesterol levels, as well as delaying the absorption of glucose and helping with diabetes control. Sources include oats, seeds, beans, barley, peas, lentils, apples, citrus fruit, carrots, plums, and squash.

Insoluble fiber keeps the digestive system running smoothly, minimizing constipation, hemorrhoids, and other digestive problems. It may help prevent certain types of cancer. Sources include bran, whole grain products, the skins of fruits and vegetables, and leafy greens.

I hope parents are continuing to study the world map with children. We have a new world map at school and the kids are locating places on that map and earing flags! Hadley is trying to clear the Middle Eastern area. Islands are fun. Kids love to find islands. For your homework, find Bora Bora.

We are continuing to try new things at school. Asparagus and artichokes are our next discoveries. The artichoke has more fiber and more protein than other veggies and children love to eat them because they can do so with their hands!

Play practice has been hilarious. The intonations are hysterically funny and the kids seem to like it. We have a lot of very very littles, so we will be doing some new things this year.

Today we will be talking about Bona Operas. This is a good deed for Lent. We talked about this last week, and with the field trip and the crazy rest of the week, we didn’t follow it up. We will ask kids today about what they are doing or want to promise to do this season. It can be an outgoing promise – something they will “do” or incoming – something they “give up.” We encourage helping at home.

Thursday is field trip day, so kids should wear sweatshirts if they have them. If you know someone who does sweatshirts, let Miss Judy know. Our past maker is quite ill and had to retire.

This picture was taken during a guest visit from a friend of Jana’s who came to talk about Thailand. She brought wonderful things for the kids to see. The outfit the child is wearing is one of those things. The kids really enjoyed learning about different cultures, and have really learned. On Friday we painted maps and they were able to paint quite a few familiar countries.

Another busy week ahead!

This is the beginning of play week. We will be sending home lines for the children to learn. It’s important that they literally yell out the line and separate their words as much as possible. One of the unfortunate outcomes of doing a play with kids is that the end product is so quiet, the audience can barely hear the lines, so this year we are screeching out every line until they are comfortable with being loud. Good gravy, they are loud enough every day, they can’t tell me they can’t do it for the stage!!!

We are going to the Lollipop concert on Thursday. This is a really nice little “get acquainted with music and instruments” gig the philharmonic does every year. Parents who can take an early lunch are welcome to come sit with kids. It’s about an hour, on the east side of EVV and you can leave early because it’s informal. Think about coming!

We are still doing the nutrition thing. I’ve been reading about vitamins and what kids need and should have. We’re on the right track. I’m giving a workshop at the Spring Conference for Childcare coming up in March.

We still need five more children. We could lower tuition with five more kids!

Strategies for Salad Bar Survival

About The Author

Becky Hand Becky Hand is a registered and licensed dietician with almost 20 years experience. She teaches pre-natal classes and counsels individuals, helping women eat right and stay fit before, during and after their pregnancies.

The infamous salad bar, available everywhere from work cafeterias to family restaurants, can round out a meal with a wholesome side dish, or be a meal all by itself. What could be more healthy and nutritious? Those vegetables and fruits can be loaded with a variety of nutrients, including beta-carotene, vitamins A and C, potassium, folic acid and fiber.

However, the salad bar can also be filled with dangerous landmines, ready to blow your calorie intake to smithereens! In fact, if you’re not careful, you can innocently fill that salad plate with items that add up to over 1,000 calories—more than a burger and fries or a steak and potato dinner!

Whether you’re pregnant (and need about 300 additional calories per day), breastfeeding (which increases your daily caloric need by about 500), or trying to shed those post-pregnancy pounds, you should monitor your caloric intake while striving to eat the most nutritious foods.

Take the safe path and apply these strategies to avoid salad bar traps:

• Use a smaller plate; limit the number of trips you make.
• Start with the nutrient-rich dark green, leafy vegetables, such as spinach, romaine, and endive.
• Fill up your plate with vegetables like lettuce, cucumbers, peppers, broccoli and tomatoes.
• Power on the protein with legumes, beans, lean meat, turkey, and crabmeat.
• Take only a small taste of the high-fat food items such as pasta salad, potato salad, macaroni salad, and coleslaw.
• Go easy on extras like croutons, chow mein noodles, crackers, nuts, seeds, crumbled bacon, and shredded cheeses.
• Dress your salad for success with 2 tablespoons of a low-calorie or light salad dressing, OR only 1 tablespoon of regular salad dressing. For a new taste twist try a splash of flavored vinegar.
• If the salad bar contains soups, go for a broth-based version over a cream-style selection.
• Allow only a small taste of the whipped topping-jello-fruit combinations.
• For dessert, return to the salad bar for a small plate of fruit topped with a little yogurt or cottage cheese.

Use the following guide to chart your course while maneuvering through your next salad bar excursion:

Before I was a Mom… I slept as late as I wanted and never worried about how late I got into bed.
I brushed my hair and my teeth everyday.

Before I was a Mom…
I cleaned my house each day.
I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn’t worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom…I had never been puked on.
Pooped on. Spit on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom…
I never held down a screaming child so that doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.
Before I was a Mom…
I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn’t want to put it down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn’t stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom…
I didn’t know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.
I didn’t know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.
I didn’t know that bond between a mother and her child.
I didn’t know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom…
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn’t know I was capable of feeling so much before I was a Mom.

And before I was a Grandma…
I didn’t know that all those “Mom” feelings more than doubled!
Send this to someone who you think is a special Mom or Grandma.

I just did.

Comment: Thanks Molly, and thanks again for sharing your children with someone I think is pretty special too! Robbie just loves to sleep on Edith!

From Baby Fit

Calcium Foods and Supplements

How Much Do You Really Need?
— By Becky Hand, Licensed and Registered Dietician

Comment: I really like these articles. Although they are for pregnancy, they also work in non pregnant women for general health. The more reading I do for my workshop in March, the more I see that food will either kill you or make you well. The picture is one we took for the lollipop melt-down. It was fun. The child with the last bit of pop on his stick won. It was, of course, a science project!

Good Morning!

Ice skating today! We’ll leave about 9:45. It’s cold on the rink, so please dress children warmly. Please remember hats and mittens.

It should be a great day!

Flu is here to stay. Sharon School reports a lot of cases. If your child comes down with flu symptoms, please have him seen by his doctor. The flu can kill you. We are not talking about a little vomiting and diarrhea; we are talking about a life threatening all over body illness that can dehydrate a child in hours. Please keep your child home. Over the counter meds will not allow your child to come to school.