It was a great day today! We had a great start of the day with a new novel called “Whitefoot the Wood Mouse.” It was published in 1922, and it’s about a mouse. The kids seemed to like it. David was mystified by this wonderful little timid mouse.

Weather report: a few storm clouds in the morning, and calm seas by noon. Afternoon skies clear and cloudless.

We had donuts and apples and milk indoors and then settled down for a day of making paper spiders. Halloween is just THERE!!!

Tomorrow is field trip day, and we talked about the pumpkin patch. It should be a chilly day, so the kids need to wear a light jacket or the school sweatshirt if they have it.

We started evals on children for permanent records today. They will go with children to big schools.

We had homemade bean soup, snausage, pears, apples, French bread and milk today for lunch. Lots the the kids ate bean soup for the first time and liked it. I made homemade egg rolls for the teachers, and some of the kids tasted them and liked them. They are simple to do.

The news media was in school at 2:00 to film the last of the toy test. Miss Molly and Miss Stacey were interviewed along with Ty, Yuta, Mayli. This should be airing shortly. The whole video will be available to parents in November.

Now that the media is gone, we can pull the toys out on the floor and let the kids be kids and play. We were so afraid that someone would break something before the end of the test, we kind of protected them from harm.

Looking forward to tomorrow –

Tuesday was about trying very hard to keep our medals and to acclimate to a more indoor routine. We are accustomed to playing outdoors as much as we can, so indoor play is still something we have to find. Indoor play is more thought provoking than the long stretches and runs and shouts of outdoor play. Children should have both every day, but sometimes that’s not possible.

Weather report – cloudy with some afternoon sun.

Re-discovering old toys from last year can either bore a child to death or he can discover new angles. It depends on the child and his mindscape. By mindscape, I mean his willingness to look at something about the way a mother looks at a bag of carrots and says, “Now what interesting thing can I do with these terrible little things.” And with a little ingenuity, he’s created a new “fun project.” Carrots, by the way are wonderful with chicken, bacon and red wine.

We will be finishing the new toy test today, and then they go on the shelves. The kids have been really patient about them. We have had to keep them separate from the old stuff because we are still testing. And we are still talking about pieces!

Tuesday we had sticky buns, raisins, and milk for breakfast and baked chicken, noodles, grapes, applesauce, green salad, and milk.

Thursday is field trip day. Children should wear green shirts and red sweatshirts. If your child is still lacking a red sweatshirt from school, we will order it. But for now please send him in either a sweatshirt jacket or a light jacket – no heavy coats yet, please.

Field trips are always finished by 1:00 PM. Miss Sandy has to be at her bus route shortly after.

On Monday we will have an all day Halloween Party that promptly ends at 4:00. This is to encourage parents to take children Trick or Treating early with plenty of time to really enjoy it.

Children will be pottied, freshened, and painted and ready to go after the party.

I’m not sure I’m for prescribed preschool or even a nation wide program or a universal program because in each state, or each area for that matter, people differ and children differ and needs differ and I don’t think it can be legislated from DC. I think our public schools tell us what a huge failure “big” has been. The larger a preschool gets, the more like day care it becomes. Small private schools built for the child not the backers is the way to go.

Chicago Sun Times
Preschool education seen as key for kids
October 17, 2005
BY ROSALIND ROSSI AND MAUDLYNE IHEJIRIKA Education Reporters

Two years of preschool is now the norm that kids carry into the kindergartens of the top public schools in Illinois, a Chicago Sun-Times survey of parents indicates. More than three-quarters of kindergartners had double doses of preschool before starting classes this year at a sampling of the state’s top 20 schools, the Sun-Times found.

At most Chicago public schools, kids are lucky to walk in the door with one year of preschool, one analysis indicates. That’s certainly true at Morse School, one of the lowest-scoring public schools in the city.

Among kindergartners in the Morse classroom of teacher Sally Schwab, only 19 percent had been exposed to two years of preschool, parent surveys showed.

“These children need every minute of school,” said Schwab, who teaches at Morse, one of the lowest-scoring public schools. “Obviously the playing field is not level. It’s not level at all.”

When the opening-day bell rang for kindergarten this year, most of teacher Sally Schwab’s students weren’t around to hear it. Almost two-thirds didn’t show up for their first day of classes at Morse School, one of the lowest-scoring public schools in the city. Some had never spent a day in preschool. A few held their books upside down.

During the first two weeks of school last month, Sun-Times reporters observed two kindergartens — one at Morse and the other at Beaubien, one of the city’s 10 highest-scoring neighborhood schools. They surveyed parents about their kindergartners’ previous school experience — information the Chicago Public Schools system doesn’t track.

Survey results published Sunday showed huge gaps in predictors of school success — such as mothers’ education levels and books in the home — at Morse, a high-poverty school in West Humboldt Park, vs. Beaubien School, a far more affluent school in Jefferson Park.

The readiness gap

At Beaubien, nearly half of teacher Maureen Bryers’ kindergartners walked in the door with two years of preschool, surveys indicated. Twice as many Morse kids had no preschool whatsoever.

Bryers’ students fell easily into the swing of following directions, standing in line and listening to the teacher — the kinds of readiness skills usually honed in preschool.

But in Schwab’s classroom, some kids stood up in the middle of a lesson and strolled across the room. Forty percent, Schwab estimated, needed instructions repeated. Morse’s 19 percent two-year preschool rate is not far from the 17 percent rate calculated for the Sun-Times by the University of Chicago’s Consortium on Chicago School Research. However, the consortium’s analysis didn’t capture kids with private pre-school.

Under Mayor Daley’s watch, Chicago schools have increased preschool slots by 60 percent in the last decade, to 29,000 seats. Even so, officials say, about 5,000 at-risk kids wanted preschool last year and couldn’t get it.

Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan said the Sun-Times’ findings are one more reason to support universal preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds.

“Every study shows the extraordinary benefits of preschool,” Duncan said. “The more, the better. But while politicians give lip service to this, the bottom line is we are far behind other countries in making this a real priority.”

At Beaubien, Bryers said, it was easy, from day one, to tell which half of her class had two years of preschool. “I think the preschool experience is really important because they arrive here more independent and active in their learning,” she said.

Nationally, poor kids start kindergarten already 18 months behind other kids, said W. Steven Barnett, director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University. They have to compete against kids whose more-affluent family backgrounds give them a power burst out of the kindergarten starting gate — and beyond.

“The kids who are already ahead have more to build on,” said Barnett. “It’s like having money in the bank, and I’m earning interest. If I have more money in the bank, how are you ever going to catch up with me?”

For poor kids, high-quality preschool can change lives. One long-term study indicates poor 3-year-olds in Chicago’s child-parent centers were more likely to complete high school and less likely to be held back a grade, placed in special education or arrested for a crime as a juvenile.

At more-affluent Wiesbrook School in Wheaton this year, 89 percent of kindergartners arrived with two years of preschool. That means, said Principal Dianne Thornburg, “oftentimes they are not hearing things for the first time. They are hearing them for the second and third time.”

Preschool rates at schools like Wiesbrook are “further evidence that if your community wants to have a top-scoring school, make sure that your kids get two years of preschool to be ready for kindergarten,” said Barbara Radner, director of DePaul University’s Center for Urban Education.

“CPS has to raise the average,” Radner said. “Citywide, we have to move this number because if you move that number, you move all the others.”

Boy Embraces School — But He’s a Stranger In a Strange Land

BY Rosalin Rossi Education Reporter

During his first day of kindergarten at Morse School, Jermaine Porter was a stranger in a strange land. After a summer of playing outside, he suddenly was asked to sit at a desk — a fine instrument for banging like a drum, he quickly discovered.

When his teacher asked questions, he acted as if she were talking just to him and blurted out answers without raising his hand.

Rather than walk single-file, he preferred to move up and down a line, enjoying the view from a variety of perspectives.

Like thousands of Chicago Public Schools students, 5-year-old Jermaine tackled his first day of kindergarten Sept. 6 without any preschool under his belt.

Readiness skills often honed in preschool — raising a hand, following directions — were new challenges.

Only 3 books at home

But he greeted them eagerly. On a sunny morning, Jermaine was one of the first children in his daylong class to arrive at Morse, a stately 101-year-old public school in impoverished West Humboldt Park. Its scores are among the lowest in the city on 2004 state reading and math tests.

The night before, Jermaine says, he was so excited, “I stayed up all night.” Maybe that’s why, during his first crack at nap time, he was out cold and had to be shaken awake.

Jermaine has a body built for action — small but muscular, like a pint-size middleweight fighter’s. But when teacher Sally Schwab read tales of a little girl named Goldilocks and a race between a tortoise and a hare, he was readily quiet.

He left a home with only three books — all of them “church books,” according to his mom — where he was read to once a week, to enter a wonderland of books, all geared to kids, where he is read to at least twice a day.

Jermaine is among six Schwab students who’ve had no preschool or only a few months of it. Some arrived days late to school, missing the introduction of classroom rules.

Strong in math

All, at various times, have required special attention. Half could not hold a book properly. Three cried during bouts of separation anxiety. A few earned time-outs.

Like most of his colleagues with limited school experience, Jermaine is still learning to print his first name. He needs work identifying primary colors and basic shapes. Coloring inside the lines? Not yet.

But even without preschool, Jermaine is one of the strongest math students in the class, the only child to reel off numbers past 100.

At home, Jermaine is buoyed by a supportive family. His mom, Chanita Wilson, took him to school the first day and joined him in class for a while the second. His aunt, a school breakfast room helper, checks with his teacher every morning.

But in school, he’s experiencing culture shock. Initially, he blurted out answers. Then he progressed to waving his hand — but didn’t have an answer when called on; he just got a kick out of being recognized.

Eventually, he was contributing. Within days, he was producing tipsy but somewhat recognizable letters, merrily declaring afterward, “I’m done! I’m done!”

Though school is a foreign land, Jermaine is a happy resident, smiling often to reveal two missing front teeth. He gave his first week a solid thumbs-up.

“I like being in class,” Jermaine said. “I like going everywhere [in school] — even to the bathroom.”

Wilson herself only made it to 12th grade. But this single mom wants better for Jermaine, for her four other children, and even for herself. She plans to start a licensed practical nurse program next year. And she wants her kids to go to college.

“Education is the key to life,” Wilson says. “There’s a lot of things you can find out in school.”

Classroom Setting Old Hat to Many Kids at Beaubien — and it shows

BY Maudlyne Ihejirika Staff Reporter

On the first day of school, 5-year-old Anthony Consentino walked into kindergarten already a veteran. He had logged two years of preschool and already had kindergarten friends.

One of 25 students in Maureen Bryers’ afternoon kindergarten class at 100-year-old Beaubien Elementary in middle-class Jefferson Park, Anthony was the first kid to arrive.

Despite having attended two years of tuition-based preschool at Beaubien, Anthony held tight to Mom’s leg, until he saw best buddy Alessandro Corazzino, 5, another two-year veteran.

Anthony tore toward his friend, and they roughhoused until the bell rang and Bryers threw open the schoolhouse doors.

Last year, Beaubien’s scores were among the highest among city neighborhood schools on reading and math tests.

Like little soldiers, Anthony and 23 pint-size playmates, freshly starched in first-day clothes and weighted down by cartoon-themed backpacks, marched into the building and up the stairs to Bryers’ bright, color-splashed Room 942.

Anthony was no novice to this school thing.

‘They understand directions’

After Principal Chris Kotis came in to meet the kids, Anthony announced to his classmates: “If one of us gets in trouble, we have to go to the principal’s office.”

From the first day, it was clear that school was old hat for Anthony and his classmates. When Bryers told them to go hang up their backpacks and come sit on the carpet under the chalkboard, they did. When she told them to stand on the big green circle painted on the floor in the middle of the room, they did.

Bryers’ students sat cross-legged and listened intently when told, independently chose games off a shelf at activity time — and put them back in their boxes when told to — and in an orderly fashion found seats at empty tables when it was time to do schoolwork.

“The majority of these children have gone to preschool here, many of them for two years. They understand directions,” Bryers said. “You can tell who has not had as much experience. They’re more hesitant.”

Anthony could write his first name. He could state his full name. He could count to 100. He could use a scissors and a pencil. He knew all of his colors, his phone number and his birthday. But not his address.

Anthony’s stick figures were less than fully developed blobs. This did not thrill his best friend when the kids were asked to draw a classmate and get their autograph. “That’s not me!” an outraged Alessandro said. “That’s us playing soccer,” insisted Anthony.

Ready for lifetime of learning

Anthony lives with his mom and dad and 2-year-old brother. He loves to talk and is a sponge dripping with random information. Mom Nikki Consentino, 31, explained the family has “hundreds” of books in the house, and “most of them” belong to Anthony. Also, she said, Anthony is glued to the computer several times a week.

Every morning until the second week of school, Anthony got in line. Then one day in week two, he had second thoughts about this kindergarten thing.

He clung to Mom’s leg. “You have to come. I need you as my messenger today,” Bryers cajoled. It worked. “Thank you,” his relieved mother said.

Nikki Consentino, a high school graduate who had her first child at 26, picks her son up at 1:45 p.m. daily. She is sure the two years of preschool have prepared her son for a lifetime of learning.

What does she want him to be when he grows up? “Happy and successful.”

I am posting this on behalf of a lady who needs a little help. In the picture, you see a gorgeous blacklab now named “Annie.”

About three weeks ago, a family friend of mine found Annie on the side of their busy street, pregnant with 15 puppies and near death from starvation. It was obvious that someone dropped her there because they wanted her to be found.

My friend barely got Annie home before she had her puppies. Annie had fifteen beautiful lab/boxer mixed puppies. My friend already has 3 dogs, and plans to keep Annie, but can’t keep all of the puppies.

Two have already died because Annie wasn’t nourished enough to keep the puppies well nourished before and after birth. All of the puppies are adorable, as you will see!

My favor to ask is that you view the puppies in the posted pictures, and if you can’t take one, please tell a friend about this site that you think may want one.

Please send a response to this blog site comments page and someone will be in touch with you. And, thank you all for your help in finding these little guys a new home!

The city is Evansville, Indiana.

I got this note from a dear friend. She’s a nurse, and a good one. What does this have to do with children? Well, my cousin Carroll’s daughter Amy was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was just pregnant with her second child. She struggled with the pregnancy until the seventh month when they induced the baby and did radical surgery on her. She is fine today, but she was very very sick for a long time. Sometimes, like in Amy’s case, it’s a mommy and me thing. I think Amy is a hero for what she managed to go through for the sake of her little boy. So for me, it’s a once a day deal to do what Susie asked:

Every click is tripled during October!!!

Please tell ten friends to tell ten today!

The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman.

It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on “donating a mammogram” for free (pink window in the middle).

This doesn’t cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising.

Here’s the web site! Pass it along to people you know.

http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/ or HERE

AGAIN, PLEASE TELL 10 FRIENDS TO TELL 10 TODAY

People have a strange notion of children. I got an email last night that blew me out of the water. Little kids hit each other. I thought everyone knew that. And depending on the care and love of good parents and providers, children begin to see that hitting is not the answer to their problems.

As children become more verbal, they stop hitting, so the job of a good parent and a good provider is to teach children as much as they can, so that every child has alternatives.

Aggressive children come from too small an environment and too many children forced into a small environment and a shortage of goods and services. In a small crowded store with only one attendant long lines and few goods, wouldn’t most adults freak out – especially if they were forced to stay there? But we expect to leave our most cherished little people in situations like that all the time. Here’s an article:

Good news and bad news about day care
Thursday, October 20, 2005
BY PEGGY O’CROWLEY
Star-Ledger Staff

If you’re following the debate over long-term effects of day care, take out your scorecards.
The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development’s Study of Early Child Care, the largest and lengthiest look at children who spent their earliest years in daycare, has just released a report on how the subjects were doing at age 8. Born in 1991, the children are now 14 years old.

On the plus side, children who attended high-quality child care programs continued to perform better academically in language, math, and short-term memory tests through the third grade. And the much-hyped finding that 4-year-olds in day care were more aggressive and acted out more didn’t seem to hold true by the time they reached third grade.

The bad news? While they may not be bullies, the children who spent early years in child care seemed to have poorer social skills and work habits when they got to third grade compared to peers who were not in child care.

The differences, however, were not that dramatic. What’s more important, according to Carolyn Booth-LaForce, a principal investigator, is the quality of early parenting, which is two to three times more influential on how kids turn out than child care arrangements.

Depending on who’s talking, the kids are all right, or they’re in trouble.

“The argument is that it’s a small effect, but the effects apply to lots of children. Are we creating a generation of children who have slightly poorer social skills and slightly poorer work habits? If you have a classroom full of these children, will teachers have to spend more time on social skills and behavior management than on academic subjects?” said Booth-LaForce, a professor at the University of Washington.

“We don’t have the evidence to say whether that’s happening, and I don’t buy it. As of now, I’d be cautiously optimistic about these findings in terms of an individual child. Parents shouldn’t be excessively worried about them,” she said.

But Jay Belsky, another investigator now at the University of London, believes these effects are cause for concern. Belsky, an American scholar who has authored many studies on the ill effects of long hours spent in child care, believes the argument that the effects are small does not take into account that these effects are seen across large numbers of the study’s 972 subjects.

“What is more important, large effects that apply to few, or small effects that apply to many? What happens when classrooms have lots of kids who spent lots of time in child care before entering school? Do teachers spend more time managing the class than teaching and do they end up teaching at a lower level?” Belsky asked, responding to questions sent via e-mail.

He also said the findings that 4-year-olds were not as aggressive at age 8 did not mean that later findings, such as less social competence and poorer academic work habits, should not be taken seriously.

“Consider a cold: Does the fact that you are no longer coughing mean all that much if you are now sneezing? If we were talking about the effects of maternal depression or growing up in poverty and we had exactly the same set of disappearing and emerging findings, would anybody be making these claims?” asked Belsky, the director of the Institute for the Study of Children, Families and Social Issues at the University of London.

So what’s a parent to do?

Belsky likens himself to the weatherman forecasting the situation; what parents do with that information is up to them, he said. Booth-LaForce said the findings indicate that parents should pay attention to how they interact with their children, since their influence is greater than the effects of child care.

She also suggested that parents pay attention to the quality of their children’s child care experiences, since quality is related to higher academic performance in later years.

The next milestone for the researchers, using the same 1,000-plus children in 10 locations across the country, will be an assessment of their skills and behaviors at the end of sixth grade. Those findings should be available in about two years, Booth-LaForce estimated. If funding holds out, they would like to keep evaluating the subjects until they reach young adulthood.
Peggy O’Crowley covers family issues. She can be reached at pocrowley@starledger.com or at (973) 392-5810.

I saw this article and watched the Doodlebops for the first time with my visiting granddaughter, Elizabeth age 2. She just loved them. It’s fun to see the behind the scenes “where do they get this stuff” information, so here goes:

CNN Matthews
New Distribution Experts
OCTOBER 19, 2005 – 15:18 ET
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

THE DOODLEBOPS TM Lions Gate To Debut Hit Television Series On DVD In 2006″Come on Doodlebops! Let’s Go!” Cookie Jar Entertainment has awarded the domestic home video distribution rights for the company’s hit live action preschool series The Doodlebops! to Lions Gate Entertainment’s Family Entertainment (LGFE), a division of Lions Gate Entertainment (NYSE and TSX: LGF).

Cookie Jar Entertainment Inc., Cookie Jar Group’s entertainment operation, is a leading, global, independent producer, marketing and brand manager of such renowned children’s properties as “Arthur,” “The Doodlebops,” “Caillou” and “Gerald McBoing Boing.” Combining globally-renowned intellectual properties with an industry-recognized management team, Cookie Jar Entertainment Inc. is a market-driven, brand building company that is committed to children first and foremost and is dedicated to the development and production of quality programming that embraces the whole child, with animated and live-action series that entertain, inspire and enlighten children and family audiences worldwide.

What a great day!

The kids played pretty well. We announced the new game of last man on the mountain, or who can keep his medal the longest, and the smart kids settled right in to a good routine. They were helpful volunteers, good citizens, careful companions, and when Faith smooshed her finger on the tire swing, Abby was in full attendance reporting every tender breath, every whine, every grueling step to the kitchen for the ice.

Triston was in rare form. He created a spider with forty legs. “Extras,” he said and turned in his drawing.

Jasmine finally got her medal. She’s been on planet nine, so we gave her an extra week of grace.

Speaking of an extra week of grace, we were told on Sunday that the toy test is over and we need to turn in our evals. Thanks to Rachel, the evals are about done. I loved participating in this wonderful contest, but one of the things we did not get and need desperately are girls toys. We are looking for the little littles I believe are called Polly Pocket.

We had breakfast inside today. It was a new experience for some of the kids – hot oatmeal. You wouldn’t believe the comments: “I usually eat this cold.” “I only want the brown part.” “What IS this?” Proper hot cereal is oatmeal sans lumps, melted butter, lots of brown sugar and milk if desirable. Actually, oatmeal is a great winter ice cream-like treat that is a great base for a lot of really interesting additions like coconut, nuts, chocolate chips, cold cereal, dried fruit, trail mix, spices, syrups, raisins, and a host of other daring delights like fresh fruit and peanut butter.

Some of our more behaviorally challenged kids tried their luck at unfriendly bold play and eyed us with that, “She doesn’t REALLY mean that she’d take our medals,” and as luck would have it on a Monday, they lost. We had a throw our milk on the floor because we didn’t like our cereal behavior edition, throwing rocks at cars for fun and profit, Tarzan of the bathroom sings, loop de loop and oop de oops, tumbling time in circle time, rudeness refusal, which is a combination “Go to _ I don’t want to.” And your usual “Deck the bowels of someone smaller, fa, la, la, la, la….”

There is a chart on the kitchen door. Winners will be posted.

Lunch was a combination American extravaganza. We had tacos with cheese, rice, corn, salad, bananas, applesauce, and pumpkin pie and milk. Triston ate three tacos, rice, corn, three helpings of applesauce, two bananas and 5 pieces of pumpkin pie. He’s our smallest child.

This afternoon, I told ghost stories. I live in the only actively haunted house in Newburgh. I’ve seen or heard eight ghosts on a number of occasions. One would naturally think I was NUTS, but my husband has been awakened over the years with children’s play on the hallway steps. My house was built in 1830. We have lived here thirty years. I tell the children that since all life comes from God, there is nothing to be frightened of. They are there, and so am I, and we get along fine. All our ghost stories are friendly and fun. The kids love these tales. They are all true.

We finished the day with the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Must be nice. When the Garden School gets old, correct that – we maintain the grounds and building by adding new things, painting, and rearranging all the time. Care is upkeep. If something needs an extreme makeover, I wonder if….

Volunteers sought for extreme makeovers’ of child-care homes

More help is needed for the “extreme makeovers” planned for 14 licensed family child care homes in San Bernardino County as part of Make a Difference Day.

Concrete is needed to fill a 24-by-24-foot space, a room or garage addition is needed for another project and 30 volunteers are still needed for a project in Phelan.

Much of the work is being done Saturday, but contractors offering their services are needed anytime, said coordinator Jennifer Celise-Reyes.

“It’s getting down to the wire, and a lot of us are reaching down into our pockets to pay for things,” she said.

For more information or to volunteer, call First 5 San Bernardino at (909) 386-7706.

Children love going out to the farm. They see so many things, and those things create teachable moments. We are beginning to be removed from our roots of farming, and taking kids out to the farm is a priceless adventure and builds a lot of references.

Idahostatejournal.com
Pumpkin patch popular with kids
Chubbuck, Idaho

Baby Button got loose just as the children from Wee Care Preschool left the corn maze, but they had nothing to fear from the goat. Baby Button was born with no ears, no horns and no top teeth. What could he do, nudge them to death?But the goat wasn’t the only attraction at Swore Farms Wednesday morning.

If you go:
From 4-7 p.m. today and 1-6 p.m. Saturday, Swore Farm will be open to the public. Cost is $2.50 for children, parents and babies get in free. Kids are invited to come find the not-so-scary spooks in the corn maze and buy a pumpkin.To get there, go north on Yellowstone four miles past the Smith’s Food Market in Chubbuck. Turn left on Ballard and look for a green painted Swore Farms sign on your right. Call 238-7466 for more information.