One of the things we’ve been talking about at school among the faculty is something called a “standard of behavior.” A standard by which behavior can be appropriately applied to any public situation.

What we’ve noticed this summer is that some children have learned this standard of behavior, and they live by it. These children could be taken to anywhere in the world, and their behavior could be counted upon to be nearly perfect. That accounts for perhaps 50 percent of children.

Then there are the 25 percent who know what is expected; who know all the rules and decide in each situation whether it is to their advantage to maintain the standard or to overthrow it at the last moment simply because it’s more fun to do the wrong thing.

Then there are the 25 percent of children who don’t have the foggiest notion that there is anything expected of them and for the life of them couldn’t guess what the expectations could be. When they go into public places, it’s a giant personal playground built and maintained expressly for them, and all adults are servants there to cater to the child’s every whim. These children are rude, noisy, careless, treat things and others as obstacles, and are thankless or even clueless that thanks are even in order.

Where does it begin? As with any training, teaching a standard of behavior begins at home. It is imparted by the parent to the child every day and every time a child goes out into public. It is imparted because the parent has a standard of behavior he or she wants his or her child to learn. Most parents want their children to be in the the 50 percent who understand what is expected of them and comply, but this doesn’t happen magically. Parents must act, must demand and expect that this standard is maintained.

It all begins somewhere in the third year when a child becomes aware he is able to choose what he does. He is no longer in the knee-jerk behavior of the toddler; he has become aware that he can choose for himself obedience or disobedience.

As I watch my daughter, Molly, train her two year old, I remember how difficult this can be. Last week I watched the child turn off the TV and his mother told him “no” because his brother was playing a game. I watched my grandson’s face. He knew he had a choice, simply because he has fingers and can walk and can get himself to the TV, to turn off the TV again or to quit. At the same time, his mother has the choice of either making her “NO” count or letting the child have his way who decided to repeatedly turn off the TV.

I can hear the echo – “No biggie; choose your battles…” and in many homes the behavior would be ignored. But not in hers.

Molly knows like anything in life, there are other consequences and sometimes a spiraling effect on the whole family both at home and later in public. By letting the younger child turn the TV off, he is ruining his older brother’s game. Peace in the house could be destroyed. But worse, by turning away from the behavior of one child for any reason, and letting the game be ruined, the parent is choosing sides. This teaches the older child that his game doesn’t matter, and the younger brother’s disobedience doesn’t matter either. This makes the older child’s obedience questionable. What’s good for the goose… at home and again in public.

With great energy, Molly reprimanded the two year old and sent him to his room. He cried and returned to play peacefully in about two minutes. He is learning to obey.

What children are learning at two is that they really do have choices. They also should be learning that their choices have an agreeable or disagreeable impact on the people around them. Too often children learn through parents’ neglect that they have an enormous range of choices – too many – and they can’t handle all of them.

What they don’t learn is their choices either care for the people around them or they injure the people around them. They should be learning that for some things there is only one choice. This takes constant work and effort on the part of the parents.

A standard of behavior says, “Everyone in the room matters and disobedience is not welcome here.” That begins in the home and continues when children go into public places. A public place is not a self indulgent playground but a common ground for people who have chosen to go there. And parents need to be aware of this first. When parents view public places as personal playgrounds made expressly for them, the children learn that instead.

To a world that is more crowded than ever, children who are too loud, disruptive, or disrespectful or even destructive, the message sent from parents to other adults is simple: someone at home doesn’t care enough to make their child aware that he is hurtful and disruptive.

Caring about a child means teaching a child how to behave in public. A toddler is a toddler and has not yet learned, but somewhere in that third year a child should begin to be taught what is expected and he should be able to be obedient to the parent any time any place.

Learning to cooperate and mind the rules is not difficult especially if parents have a standard of behavior of their own. By evaluating one’s own thoughts about public domain, we can see what we are imparting to our children in the way of a standard of behavior.

Are public places places we need to respect and take care of right down to public toilets? Do we leave our mess behind as something for someone else to clean up? Do we expect that there is some elf squad to keep public places clean?

Do we litter? Do we leave our trash behind?

Do we allow our children to scream in public and make a scene?

Do we allow our children to race about knocking into people, to climb in no climbing zones, to run ahead of us and make their own way even in no go zones?

Do we take too long in line and make other people wait unnecessarily?

Do we let our children disrupt shoppers, diners, line standers, movie watchers?

What are we about when we are in public? Are we showing our children that other’s count too?

The best thing parents can offer children is a good example. It begins by being thoughtful of those we are around daily, and then by being thoughtful when we are in public. Kindness is kindness no matter when we are kind and no matter to whom we offer it.

It’s been busier than a one armed paper hanger, but it’s been fun. We are moving constantly trying to make every day count. Some of the kids are really tired; that’s why Thursdays are quiet catch up days. No stress today.

We are making great progress with our swimming. We are beginning to graduate children from the shallow end to the swimming end. This week we saw the following kids move up: Kamden, William, David, Emma, Kanin, Ian, Cole, Addie, and Bryce. These kids are learning to swim in deep water. They jump into deep water to a teacher, and they swim back to the wall. It is all very supervised and all very safe, and the kids love it and they are really swimming.

Our youngest board jumper is Alex H. He flies off the board at supper sonic speed and swims anywhere in the pool and is four. Cole is going to be our next board swimmer. He’s a fish.

In school we are moving closer to our goal of actually knitting something we can use. The kids are having trouble with the yarn and getting it twisted and knotted all over their work, so Monday was a de-tangle day. We have some new additions to our knitting things today; I think the kids will find this amusing. We have a couple of new projects to do as well. We will be sewing t-shirts and decorating flip flops in the next two weeks.

Mrs. St. Louis is teaching a lot of painting techniques to the kids twice a week. They seem to really enjoy it. They are experimenting with colors and the mix of colors. So far we have used tempera paint, finger paint and water colors.

Miss Amy is directing our reading program for the summer. She is using the idea of superhero and comic books to sustain the children’s interest. The children will invent their own superhero and design a story to go around him or her. It’s all very read-exciting!

We’ve been baking as time allows with the bigger girls. We’ve made chocolate health cake, banana cake, brownies, and something else that eludes me. The kids are learning about what makes what happen in the baked product. We are talking about healthy choices and why one ingredient is a better choice than another. Today we will talk about spices.

Last week’s trip to St. Louis was one of our best field trips. It was very long, but well orchestrated and the kids seemed to see a lot and enjoy it. We were able to see some animals we had not seen before, and one of the most enjoyable things was the hippo pen. It can be viewed from three different points. The interior point – under the cover – was the best. There was a glass partition you could see through, and the fish were viewable through the glass. Apparently, the fish love hippo poop, so the kids got a big charge out of that. The hippo swam right by us, and if it were not for the glass, we could have touched him. He was only inches away. I never realized how pink they are! This hippo seemed to love to entertain, because he swam by several times.

We got to see a baby elephant who is still nursing. The elephant was really cute.

The zoo is set up like a walk through the jungle and then by chance, you see or don’t see the animals. It’s the best zoo I’ve ever been to.

This week – Friday – we are off to see WallE. We have traded this for some of the Freedom Festival because there is so little for our little kids to do down there on Friday morning. They wait and wait and wait and see a few planes. We thought on a very hot day, WallE would be a better choice. Then we will picnic, and then go out to the air port to see the planes, provided there is something to see.

Education failure brutal to youth culture

Comment: A very strong appeal. Are we next?

By Dave Shepherd

Take a look at the pictures, in newspapers and on the television screens, of the xenophobic acts of violence. Look beyond the horrible acts, look at the faces of the perpetrators of these despicable acts – setting a person alight, locking people into their homes and then setting them alight, looting people’s belongings, all with glee and a look of ecstasy radiating from their faces and affirmed by their body language. Look beyond all that.

What do you notice about the age of the perpetrators?

Take another look and confirm with me that those who are brandishing pangas, those who are dancing with sticks and stones in their hands, those who are carrying away the spoils of looting, those standing with looks of approval, are in their twenties – many just a while away from being teenagers. Some are even in school uniform.

Ponder on that.

Fourteen years ago, when we all stood as one, in long snaking queues, to vote on April 27, 1994, these young adults were just beginning their schooling.

In place, we had the constitution with the Bill of Rights. Green Papers, White Papers, Bills and finally Acts were published. Training and Orientation of Teachers took on a frenetic urgency.

Gone was the segregated curriculum, school-goers were no longer called pupils but learners, the adults who manage and arrange their learning were called educators.

The new watchword was Outcomes Based Education (OBE), and the whole system became geared to deliver a new way of constructing knowledge, which we called, Curriculum 2005. Not forgetting the National Qualifications Framework with indications of articulation and transfer between the Bands (General, Further and Higher Education and Training); underpinned by the South African Qualifications Au-thority, which gave a clear indication of learning pathways to competent persons appropriately skilled, who would contribute to, and enjoy the fruits of a growing economy which competed with the best in the world.

What happened to the infinite possibilities of freedom, the environment of opportunity to become whatever you wished, ever growing, realising your potential – a learner for life?

Let me hazard an answer.

The architects of our constitution, the sculptors of our education system had a common vision of a nation made up of human beings who would live, embracing our richness of diversity, sensitively, tolerantly, acknowledging differences, and celebrating equality, the right to choices within an environment of human rights and responsibilities. A rainbow nation – ubuntu in action.

The architects and sculptors of a changed education system articulated their ideas, their ideals and ideologies on paper, in pamphlet form or in booklets and books. We were showered with posters proclaiming and extolling the paths to a better life for all.

These appeared on walls in staffrooms, classrooms, and in the corridors of state departments.

Unfortunately these great ideas, these worthy ideals, have remained just there – on the printed page, on the walls, covering dirty marks, perhaps – imprisoned in words printed on paper.

The ideas and ideals have not become part of our heads (minds) our hearts (innermost convictions), or our hands (doing).

We do not understand them enough to make them part of our psyche, we do not make them our passion and we certainly do not implement them in our daily business. They are not part of our very being.

I am persuaded that the entire education system stands accused of causing this appalling mess we find ourselves in.

This is the result of a series of acts of omission:

Here’s something new I never thought I’d be touting here on this blog. I’m not a soda drinker, but this looks interesting for people who do drink soda and who let their kids drink it. There is always a way to make something healthier and still be fun. You can see the water-soda by clicking Soda Club.

The product comes from the Soda Club.

Comment: Over the years we’ve taught just about every mix possible. We have divided the kids into boy and girl groups, and last year we had a ratio of 3 – 1 in favor of the boys. Girls do continue to learn no matter how many boys there are, but boys will opt to play instead of learn when the climate of many boys changes the mood of the room. Interesting.

Worth the cooties

By Bruce Bower” June 20th, 2008

When there are enough girls in the preschool classroom, boys get a developmental boost.

Here’s some news that preschool boys don’t want to hear: Those who attend preschool classes with a majority of girls receive an intellectual boost by the end of the school year. Conversely, preschool boys who attend majority-boy classes fall increasingly behind girls on measures of learning skills and other developmental feats.

Yet the proportion of boys and girls in preschool classes has no effect on girls’ development. These provocative but still preliminary findings come from the first large-scale investigation of how the sex ratio in preschool classes influences girls’ and boys’ mental, social and motor development.

“At the very least, the findings from this study suggest that educators should exercise caution if considering a move toward greater sex segregation in early childhood education,” says psychologist and study director Arlen Moller of Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania

Because so little is known about the influence of classroom sex ratios on preschool development, education researchers approach the new study cautiously. “This is an exciting topic, but it is too early to draw any conclusions because this area is so underexplored,” remarks psychologist Lena Malofeeva of High/Scope Educational Research Foundation in Ypsilanti Mich. She and her colleagues have also studied how preschool affects development by tracking into adulthood 119 poor, black children who attended either a high-quality preschool program or who did not attend preschool. The researchers found that preschool girls graduated from high school more often and were treated for fewer mental problems than non-preschool girls. Former preschool boys showed relatively low levels of criminal arrests and drug abuse.

But that study did not address classroom sex ratios. Moller and his colleagues analyzed data collected as part of an effort to assess classroom needs in the Rochester N.Y. public schools from fall 2003 to spring 2004. They studied 70 preschool classes hosting a total of 806 children, ages 3 ½ to 6. The student population was 57 percent black, 17 percent white, 15 percent Hispanic, 2 percent Asian and 9 percent of unreported race or ethnicity. Nearly 9 of 10 children came from families with poverty-level incomes. Class sizes ranged from eight to 21 students. Trained observers rated the quality of all classes as high in areas that included space, facilities, program structure and activities.

The team found that girls displayed generally good progress over the 6 ½-month school year on teacher-rated measures of thinking skills, social abilities and motor proficiency. Girls did just as well in classes with a preponderance of boys as they did in majority-girl classes, the researchers say in a paper published online June 4 and slated to appear in Early Childhood Research Quarterly.

Boys developed more slowly than girls did on the same three measures, and especially on thinking skills, if they attended classes with a surplus of boys. In majority-girl classes, boys developed at the same rate as girls. Moller plans to examine whether boys in majority-girl preschool classes interact with female peers more often than other boys do, perhaps aiding their developmental progress. It’s also possible that teachers in classes with more boys than girls select less intellectually challenging activities for students, with especially harsh developmental consequences for boys, he notes.

Earlier investigations found that girls assist each other in learning new skills more than boys do in preschool classes. Strategies to foster greater cooperation among preschool boys, especially in majority-boy classes, are also worth exploring, Moller says.

The lack of negative effects on girls in majority-boy classes may partly stem from an already reported tendency for black and Latino girls to argue with peers of both sexes as aggressively as boys do, he suggests. These girls may feel at ease and resist intimidation in classes dominated by boys.

Evidence for same-sex education’s benefits has been mixed for grade school students and stronger for high school students, especially for girls. But any advantages of same-sex classes at later ages may not apply to preschoolers, in Moller’s view. The new study primarily examines variations in classroom sex composition rather than all-boy and all-girl classes. The proportion of boys in each class ranged from 25 percent to 100 percent.

Further research needs to examine whether behavior and inattention problems, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, get magnified in majority-boy preschool classrooms, causing teachers to spend relatively little time on learning activities, adds psychologist Jeanne Brooks-Gunn of Columbia.

My Heart on the Line
By Frank Schaeffer
The Washington Post

Before my son became a Marine, I never thought much about who was defending me. Now when I read of the war on terrorism or the coming conflict in Iraq, it cuts to my heart. When I see a picture of a member of our military who has been killed, I read his or her name very carefully. Sometimes I cry.

In 1999, when the barrel-chested Marine recruiter showed up in dress blues and bedazzled my son John, I did not stand in the way. John was headstrong, and he seemed to understand these stern, clean men with straight backs and flawless uniforms. I did not. I live in the Volvo-driving, higher education-worshiping North Shore of Boston. I write novels for a living. I have never served in the military.

It had been hard enough sending my two older children off to Georgetown and New York University. John’s enlisting was unexpected, so deeply unsettling. I did not relish the prospect of answering the question, “So where is John going to college?” from the parents who were itching to tell me all about how their son or daughter was going to Harvard. At the private high school John attended, no other students were going into the military.

“But aren’t the Marines terribly Southern?” asked one perplexed mother while standing next to me at the brunch following graduation. “What a waste, he was such a good student,” said another parent. One parent (a professor at a nearby and rather famous university) spoke up at a school meeting and suggested that the school should “carefully evaluate what went wrong.”

When John graduated from three months of boot camp on Parris Island, 3,000 parents and friends were on the parade deck stands. We parents and our Marines not only were of many races but also were representative of many economic classes. Many were poor. Some arrived crammed in the backs of pickups, others by bus. John told me that a lot of parents could not afford the trip.

We in the audience were white and Native American. We were Hispanic, Arab and African American and Asian. We were former Marines wearing the scars of battle, or at least baseball caps emblazoned with battles’ names. We were Southern whites from Nashville and skinheads from New Jersey, black kids from Cleveland wearing ghetto rags and white ex-cons with ham-hock forearms defaced by jailhouse tattoos. We would not have been mistaken for the educated and well-heeled parents gathered on the lawns of John’s private school a half-year before.

After graduation one new Marine told John, “Before I was a Marine, if I had ever seen you on my block I would’ve probably killed you just because you were standing there.” This was a serious statement from one of John’s good friends, an African American ex-gang member from Detroit who, as John said, “would die for me now, just like I’d die for him.”

My son has connected me to my country in a way that I was too selfish and insular to experience before. I feel closer to the waitress at our local diner than to some of my oldest friends. She has two sons in the Corps. They are facing the same dangers as my boy. When the guy who fixes my car asks me how John is doing, I know he means it. His younger brother is in the Navy.

Why were I and the other parents at my son’s private school so surprised by his choice? During World War II, the sons and daughters of the most powerful and educated families did their bit. If the idea of the immorality of the Vietnam War was the only reason those lucky enough to go to college dodged the draft, why did we not encourage our children to volunteer for military service once that war was done?

Have we wealthy and educated Americans all become pacifists? Is the world a safe place? Or have we just gotten used to having somebody else defend us? What is the future of our democracy when the sons and daughters of the janitors at our elite universities are far more likely to be put in harm’s way than are any of the students whose dorms their parents clean?

I feel shame because it took my son’s joining the Marine Corps to make me take notice of who is defending me. I feel hope because perhaps my son is part of a future “greatest generation.” As the storm clouds of war gather, at least I know that I can look the men and women in uniform in the eye. My son is one of them. He is the best I have to offer. He is my heart.

Choosing a Preschool is Exciting and Difficult

by Jacqueline Mroz

Comment: It’s about that time when parents start to look for preschools. This is a fairly good article to start, but I would add, visit alone for a couple of hours and get to know the staff. That way, you will understand more about the philosophy of the school.

When Amy Paterson and her husband started looking for preschools for their son, Jonah, they found the process pretty overwhelming. “I grew up here, but I was at a loss for where to start,” says Paterson, 35, who lives with her family in Portland, Ore. “Eventually I starting asking my friends and family, and we found a great school for our son. But it was confusing.”

Paterson isn’t the only one bewildered by all the choices. Shopping for preschools for your little one for the first time is exciting, but it can be difficult to know which is the best choice. The first thing you should consider, says Amita Gupta, an associate professor of early childhood education at The City College of New York, is what kind of environment you are comfortable with.

Do you want the school’s philosophy to fit in with your parenting style? If you practice attachment parenting at home, do you want your child to be nurtured in the same way at school? Do your children call your adult friends by their first names? Then a very traditional, highly structured school may not work for your preschooler, or for your whole family, for that matter. And you may not work for the school, either.

“There needs to be some harmony between the parenting and education philosophies, or there will be conflict for the child; it has to be consistent. You don’t want the teachers saying, ‘Oh no, you can’t do this’ about something you let your child do at home,” says Gupta. “Why not choose a mutually supportive school? That’s easier for the child, as well.”

Here’s what else you should look for when investigating preschool options:

Curriculum: Look at the teaching practices in the classroom, including the types of materials used and the activities that the kids take part in. Is there a good balance between the amount of structure and the amount of freedom that the children have? Also observe how boundaries are negotiated for the children. Are there many rules? What is the discipline policy? Paterson ended up choosing a Montessori school for her son, because she liked that it gave the children structure in the classroom, but a great deal of freedom within that structure.

Parent involvement: Find out what kind of parent involvement is expected. Some schools offer it as an option, while in others it is mandatory, such as in cooperative schools. If you work full time, assisting in a school may not be an option. Also, determine whether or not parents are welcome to come into the classroom. It’s also a good idea to find out if there are any hidden costs besides tuition. Are you expected to donate money to school?

Teacher qualifications and background: It’s important to find out what kind of educational background the teachers at the school have. The lead teacher should have an early childhood degree, as well as sufficient experience in the classroom. What percentage of the teachers is certified? Also, is the teacher open to communicating with parents? How many conferences do they have? It’s also worth looking at what kind of turnover there is among the teachers.

Diversity: Look for a school where there is a diverse range of backgrounds in the student population and amongst the teachers and administration. Does the school celebrate different holidays and talk about different cultures?

Policies and procedures: Find out the school’s policies on closings, holidays and illnesses. Some schools are stricter than others on these matters. Also, does it offer lunch or a snack? And will they accommodate your child if he or she is allergic to some foods? Does the school have strict late fees?

It may feel like picking a school involves a lot of homework on your end, but it’s important to remember that there’s no such thing as the right school, says Gupta. The best school is the one that works for your family and your child.

So many people asked, I thought I would post this. Jaylen’s surgery went well – no problems. He did have a hernia and not a hydrocele, which is very common for hydroceles to become full blown hernias.

He had trouble waking up from the anesthesia. It should have only taken about 30 minutes, and two hours later I was still trying to get him to come around. The nurses loved him and he had no problems leaving mom and dad to go with them to blow up his big red balloon, which was the anesthesia.

When he finally did wake up, he sat up groggy and said “I am hungry, get me a twizzler.” Instead he got crackers and apple juice.

His recovery has been a little harder than I anticipated. He ran a fever for most of the day today, and it got up over 102 and I called the doctor. He said that Jaylen’s lungs are probably struggling a little bit to get maximum oxygen so he wanted us to blow bubbles when his fever spiked. And to my surprise it actually worked. We sat outside today and blew bubbles three times and everytime it brought his temp down to under a 100.

I am hoping that tomorrow and Monday continue to get better. He can’t ride a bike or swim for two to three weeks, and the doctor said he shouldn’t play too roughly for awhile as well. I am so grateful for all the prayers and support.

Jay probably won’t be back to school until next Friday, but we’ll see how that goes.

Much love, Ms. Kelly

Tonight’s fare at my house is crab, scallops, shrimp and summer vegetables in a light Parmesan and vodka sauce served over whole grain angel hair pasta. Baby greens, feta cheese, walnuts and pepper salad with homemade olive oil and blue cheese dressing. Homemade coffee ice cream and blueberry-necarine pie for dessert.

Sound like a lot of work? It isn’t. I do only the easy stuff, and I try to keep it as good for you as possible and still taste like something you want to eat! Otherwise, what’s the point? Health is a huge issue and and investment in the body now (whenever now is) is a great step towards living forever, and if your life is as good as mine is, you’ll want to make that investment now.

Today I wanted to translate my new olive oil mayonnaise biscuit recipe into a pie crust recipe, so while I was shopping today, I bought the blueberries. They were $$$$, but they are very good for you, so it was a trade off. I made the dough in my Cuisinart using whole wheat Pastry flour and a heaping tablespoon of mayonnaise and cold water. It needs more mayo.

I bought “fake” crab to go with my frozen scallops and shrimp. Fish prep time – 3 minutes tops. If I use a little of each fish, it lasts a lot longer and is much more economical.

I’ll boil the pasta and make the sauce. I’ll use mushrooms and onions, crookneck and zucchini squash sauted in butter with a little chicken bouillon and add just a hint of 1/2 and 1/2. I’ll cut basil, savory and dill from the garden and add some Parmesan cheese to thicken the sauce. I’ll put the fish in at the last minute and serve over noodles – actual time? 10 minutes plus boiling time for the pasta.

Salad is made a little at a time starting with a big bowl of baby greens. The more time I have in the kitchen, the more stuff that gets thrown into the salad.

The ice cream is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I found this very proper English ice cream book, and today I followed directions to a t, and I think the coffee ice cream is going to be delicious. I want to take the idea to school. This ice cream is full of eggs and milk and a little cream, so it’s good for the kids.

Speaking of good for the kids, lots of parents have asked about our chocolate chip cookies. The healthy ones you can eat for breakfast.

I start with canola oil. Canola oil is one of those good-for-you oils.

I use about 2/3 rds to 1 cup for every batch, and normally, I make at least two batches.

For two batches of cookies, I use three eggs. For one batch, I’d use two.

I use 1.5 cups white sugar and 1.5 cups brown sugar for a double batch. Normally cookie dough has 2 cups of sugar for one batch or 4 for two, but I’ve cut the sugar, so when you weigh it all out, a child is getting 2 grams of sugar per cookie which is half a teaspoon. If a child eats two big cookies, he’s getting half the sugar he would get if he ate a container of yogurt!

I use 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon of salt per batch.

Mix this goop together and add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice per batch. Cinnamon is very very good for you.

Add 1/2 cup of bran and 1/2 cup of whole oats to each batch. 1/2 cup of freshly ground flax is good for some, but it can make your cookies a bit bitter.

Now is the fun part: I use whole wheat PASTRY flour in combination with unbleached white flour. About half and half. The more whole wheat flour you use, the better because this is an everything-is-good-food. You will need 2.5 cups of flour for each batch. Without the bran, flax and oats, you can add another .5 cup per batch.

60% cocoa chips by Gheradelli chocolate is the best chocolate available, and the dark chocolate is an antioxidant.

Mix the flour into the goop a little at a time. Add the chocolate chips last. Pull chunks of dough out of the bowl with an ice cream scoop. The dough will not be elastic like most cookie dough because of the oil, so you have to form large one scoop cookie balls.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes until top has crackled and there is a faint light brown ring around each cookie.

I’m going to make up recipe cards for parents and leave them at the front of the school to take home. Might take me a week or so.

Next time: the new biscuit – a lively thing of wonder that can be used for breakfast, as a bun for hamburgers, and a soup floater while it’s actually good for you.

And don’t let me forget the ginger cookie recipe either!

One of the things I miss these days is writing about kids. I’m beginning to think writing is more of a winter thing instead of a spring and summer thing, and I’m beginning to think the culprit is the tremendous task of planning and providing field trips. There is simply little if any time to write.

But field trips are probably the best thing we do at the Garden School, so it’s a toss up. Every teacher looks forward to taking the children here there and everywhere, and it’s a collective pride and excitement that makes us do this year after year.

If you tell a person removed from the early childhood experience that you have just taken fifty very young children on a six hour bus trip to another city to visit the zoo, they gasp. And “I don’t know how you do it,” is the usual response of people right in the heart of the early childhood experience. We are the only school in our city that does this. The question is why?

When you look at the whole picture of field trips and their importance, you have to first examine your group. Who are the children in your care and what do they need individually from the teachers who care for them? Most children need affirmation. They need someone to simply watch them experience new things. Add the next thing: they need to grow, to expand inside and out as human beings. They need more than a classroom to grow. They need experiences that many families just cannot provide. They need to go, to see, to do something out of the ordinary, to spend their summer outside.

Then there are the deeper reasons, and those reasons to travel begin with trust. The student teacher bond is a crucial part of teaching. Trust between two or three or even four generations is like the trust between a grandmother and grandchild. Trust encourages the inner development of the child. It encourages him to see beyond himself and his own needs. It helps him reach into parts of his own emotional life and experience and grow. He takes a teacher’s hand, he smiles at her, he talks to her and tells her what he thinks and is beginning to believe. He is not afraid. The teacher who is experienced listens and brings out the best in the child. She or he has time to listen, to re-affirm the child as the child sees something new or interesting or handles a problem he has never handled before.

Field trips give everyone new experiences, and much needed leisure hours to explore, to discover new things, to see new things, and the bond of teacher student grows into a solid trust. This trust, this friendship, this attachment built by experiences like field trips and swimming, helps a teacher to teach nearly anything to a child. Not only is it an investment in the development of the child, it is an investment in the coming school year.

When you look at the whole picture of providing field trips to a large group of children, you have to evaluate your staff. If your school or day care is a revolving door of newbie teachers, it won’t work. The staff has to be a cohesive group that knows when and how to rely on one another. There can be no weak spots in the program. A teacher who holds back, won’t manage, won’t participate, won’t volunteer without being told is a liability. Teachers create a team and are constantly in motion to provide for the children and the children are watching! On the other hand, a teacher who is constantly looking at what needs to be done next and volunteering to do it makes any excursion easier.

When you look at the whole picture of providing field trips for the first time, the question of where to go is always a difficult one because the unknown can be a liability once you get there if this is not something familiar. The idea of taking 50 children for a two mile deep cave tour is probably won’t be the first trip. But after a school has taken several shorter trips, the cave tour actually becomes one of the easy ones.

When we first started to think about it, we began to examine what was available to do in our area. We have the Abraham Lincoln spots, we have a Utopian community, an Archabby, we have some play parks, we have various forests, we have a great natural lake for swimming not too far away, we have the largest cave in the world, we have three other cities in three other states with zoos within a three hour ride. So you decide what of those things is doable and if the children would like to see those things. You begin with the closest and see how everybody responds.

Planning takes a long time and a lot of thought and talk among teachers. This can’t be an administrative only job. You can’t tell a group of teachers to take a group of children over to a park and expect that it will be successful. It has to be a focus of everyone on staff.

Planning begins with the accommodations like a driver. Finding a driver is not always easy. Finding a driver who is on your wavelength is crucial, because you will want to explore many places if this works for your group, and your driver will get you there and work out the difficulties for you. We have had the same driver for over 11 years, and she is more than a part of our summer life at school, she is a part of our whole program. Drivers are excellent about knowing where to stop, how to get there, how to provide the best on the road care and will have your lunch when you need it!

Then there is the matter of feeding young children every four hours. Food must be brought, and individual lunch boxes won’t work because children won’t carry their lunches far, won’t know it belongs to them, and you don’t know what mother has packed; it could be a box of candy bars for a hot day.

So what is dream mode? A freshly made on the spot lunch for 50 in ten minutes? Why not?

Over the years our school has developed a way of carrying the makings for an outstanding lunch that is preparable in ten minutes and feeds 50. It is absolutely in step with the USDA Child Care Food Program guidelines. It takes a lot of planning and thought at first and is liable to keep the food provider up at night wondering if it will work, but it works even three hours away from home and rarely are there leftovers!

The idea is to find a protein source and bread the children really like and enough variety that they all want to eat it. We have tried every kind of bread, roll, bun, tortilla cut every kind of way, and the easiest and most desired bread is French bread. We take 10 to 12 soft whole wheat loaves in a reusable grocery bag and a knife and cutting board and tray to cut open the bread length-wise, fill it on the spot and then cut wedges for the children who line up and ask pleasantly for their favorite. They are given a cup of milk and sit down to eat their sandwich peacefully.

Pampered Chef carries a group of pre-freezable take-a-longs called Chillzane that we use to keep our salads fresh until lunch. We take farm fresh egg salad, albacore tuna salad, bologna, salami, ham, turkey, cheese, peanut butter, honey, and jam. A child can have whatever he or she wants.

We take carrots and dip, pickles, olives, Pringles because they pack nicely with the bread. We take a big bag of washed apples, and sometimes a watermelon, and last but not least homemade chocolate chips cookies – because it is a picnic!

We take two gallons plus milk in one cooler and lemon water in another because lemons will fortify children.

We also take teacher food like chicken salad, pasta salad, condiments, crab and shrimp salad. But most of our parents simply want to open the cookies!

The secret is to find separate very good containers that don’t open and will square off in your cooler.

Making a permanent list of what you need helps keep the job simple. Finding cutting boards that collapse from Brylane Home, knives, spreaders, wash cloths, re-closeable bags, utensils, cups openers, etc will you need makes the work load half.

Before taking children anywhere there are teacher jobs which must be managed before you go. One teacher must be in charge of having an official roster of names. The roll must be called before leaving the school. Children must be counted and the numbers must agree on paper and in real life. One of our nice features is Miss Kelly has an eye for who was seated where with whom, so she instantly knows who is not where they are supposed to be.

We call the older children to get on the bus first; the youngest sit in the front. Nobody leaves their seat unless directed by a teacher. Some games are brought for longer trips. We count children before we leave school and every time we assemble. Lines are something we teach at school. Lines are quiet places. There is a discipline to lines that must be enforced by every single teacher and parent on a field trip. Children make lines for safety, for order and for public places.

When you arrive at your destination, teachers must be able to handle the children easily. There should always be one teacher to help children get off the bus. Children do lose their footing and would have fallen from the bus if a helpful adult had not caught the faller and prevented a serious injury. Two teachers need to control lines, one for the boys and one for the girls. This distinction helps shorten lines. One teacher needs to make contact with the people who are at the site.

Having a uniform shirt helps identify children. It is impossible to keep track of 50 children unless they are all wearing the same thing. Uniform shirts allows more freedom and more space to explore. There should be a teacher in the front of the line, several teachers along the way and a teacher must ALWAYS bring up the rear.

Breaking into ability groups helps. Every teacher should be assigned a group of children that are listed in print on an itinerary that he or she receives before the trip starts. Mini rosters help teachers feel secure about their charge. It’s helpful if teachers go to the internet to explore a field trip site so they are familiar with what there is to do at any site. Keeping a schedule is important if you want your group to see everything and still get home on time to waiting parents. Trying to eliminate the problems before they arise is the best way of handling most field trip issues.

It’s all very doable when you start small.

The basics are: a place to go; a good staff to take the children; a great driver; a plan for doing, eating, and counting kids, and the will and desire to do something that will bond teachers to children. And how do you know it’s a success? When children come back to your school year after year after they have gone on to public schools for the summer program you provide, you know you are doing something right.