As more and more preschools get away from the day care mentality and begin to write curricula for real education, more and more places like this and the GS will be available to parents. It’s a good sign.

New preschool stresses the arts
Terra Nichol Academy

ENGLEWOOD — Children learn in many different ways, and each child deserves an educational structure that best suits his or her needs.

That’s the premise behind the new Terra Nichol Academy of the Arts preschool and after-school care programs.

Parents are welcome to check out the learning center 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today, Wednesday and Thursday at 1362 Manasota Beach Road, just off State Road 776.

Owner Terra Nichol Tominelli, who has more than 15 years of experience teaching in preschools in the area, said she takes Howard Gardner’s approach to education. Gardner is a professor of education at Harvard Graduate School of Education, and he is best known in educational circles for his theory of multiple intelligences.

According to Tominelli, Gardner identifies many ways children learn: by doing, by playing, by being interested, through the senses, through language, by moving, through success, through repetition, through experimentation, through interacting with peers by using real materials, by pretending and by constructing their own knowledge.

“The curriculum is designed for each individual,” Tominelli said. “Each child learns in a different way.”

Tominelli said that everyone thinks predominantly in four different ways, but everyone has the ability to improve skills in the other cognitive learning processes.

Tominelli said in addition to academics, the children at her preschool will get a taste of different forms of the arts.
“My background is the arts,” she said. “I used to teach drama and yoga at local preschools. I think it’s a great outlet for children. They’re under a lot of stress these days.

“Children naturally respond to dance and music and drama, and this is the time you want to expose them to those many experiences,” she continued. “They’re like little sponges. They just soak it all up.”

Studies have shown that exposing children to the arts increases self-confidence, develops critical thinking skills, aids brain development and improves excellence in reading, math and science, Tominelli said.

“Teachers recognize that performing arts are an essential part of learning,” she said.
Tominelli said Terra Nichol is in the process of getting accredited with Gold Seal, through the YMCA, a program subsidized and encouraged by the state.

The school also participates in Florida’s voluntary prekindergarten program.

She is hopeful her academy will open Aug. 7. It accepts preschool children ages 2-5 and after-school children in kindergarten through grade 5.

There is transportation from both Taylor and Englewood elementary schools.

“There’s a bus stop right in front of our school,” she said.
Tominelli is offering “mommy and me” classes 9 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. Monday through Friday. The classes include “play-away-baby beats” and “baby boot camp,” she said.

Classes will be taught in music, dance and drama, photography, art appreciation, pottery and scrap-booking. The physical education will be yoga and gymnastics, karate and gardening, she said.

Tominelli is teaching computers and cooking, as well.

Part of the academics includes language literacy, poetry, science, math, social studies and Spanish.

All teachers have degrees in either early childhood education or in visual and performing arts, Tominelli said.

Terra Nichol Academy of the Arts can accept 69 students.

There is a full-time program and a half-day program.

What a great day – a real day day. The little kids were not overwhelmed by the demands of the older children looking continuously for something to do. Interesting they rarely find something real to do. But they can find some real annoying stuff to do at the expense of everyone else.

Sounds like we don’t like the big kids – we do – but mixing certain ages is just very difficult. What I imagine for the big kids is someone like Tom who can take five of them and work with them all summer taking them places, teaching them to do things and to think in alternate ways. You can’t do that with a lot of little kids hanging around.

At the same time, you can’t teach little kids to think as little kids do when you have big kids filling in your deliberate word gaps and contradicting most of what you say. It’s a different patois and trying to balance the two is purgatory stuff.

***
The food program inspection has brought a lot of things to light. I’ve been cooking for children for 35 years. My first and foremost thought in meal planning and serving is that food is an investment in the health of a person. Building bodies goes beyond birth; it’s a daily activity.

At the same time, food is a natural enjoyment. It’s often festive, fun, engaging and satisfying, so dressing up to cook with a stainless steel helmet and fire gloves, boots and long handled tongs is not my idea of cooking. I’m not a plastic and chemical person; I’m a last minute let’s have this because it’s fun cook. I’m a try this; I promise you’ll love it.

Planning menus today for next week leaves me cold. Who knows what will be fun or available next week? If pomegranates come on the market at 10 cents a dozen, and I have canned rhubarb and spinach loaf on the menu, it would be a sad thing to have to pass by the delicious for the disgusting. So…I compromised– sort of. I wrote out a general menu which you will find at the front of school from now on. Suggestions are extremely welcomed — use a post a note.

What I am trying to do – or what I am doing which Edith would call trying – is to pack each week with all the foods kids should get. Mondays are ground beef days; Tuesdays are pork days; Wednesdays are egg and cheese + days; Thursdays are chicken days; Fridays are fish or pizza days. Last week we had a whole baked salmon. This week it’s homemade cheese pizza. The fruits and vegetables I will fill in as we use them or come by them. It makes sense to me. Bread is easy and is often an experiment anyway.

Today we had summer sausage and quiche or egg and cheese pie, and fresh fruit and fresh garden vegetables and homemade muffins and milk. Tomorrow is baked chicken, rice, corn, melon, bread and butter of some kind – maybe bread sticks with cheese dip, and milk.

This planning will allow me to buy a little of everything and make different things as the desire and the interest and the curiosity flies. The question with cooking is always – can it be done, and secondly would anyone eat that? MMMM.

Tonight I am making sundaes with my usual axle grease chocolate sauce, and I’m trying some raspberry jelly boiled into it. Axel grease is something I make for the kids – it’s one part butter to one part sugar to one part cocoa to one part milk. Stir and boil three minutes to make sure sugar has de-crystallized. The end product is a thick heavy chocolate fudge stuff that’s hardy and gives a real boost to plain ice cream.

The problem with the new rules is that we HAVE to serve the children even if they don’t want it. So we are serving several things so that each child can choose two edible veggie and fruit components. It’s a compromise as well. My question is: if one child likes one thing and another likes something else, is there a “rule” on the books which would prevent very sly children from swapping? I would of course turn a blind eye.

***
The PC party today went very well. We are always so grateful to our parents for their help and generosity.

Classes went quite well today. We are learning two new songs in music and a bunch of new things in Spanish Class. Kelly is so good.

This is our first day without the summer big kids. They are going back to school today, and we wish them the very best experience. We love the big kids, but their care and feeding reaches into other categories that we just don’t have the staff for. When we are on the go, the big kids are an asset, but when we are at home every day, there is just not enough for the big kids to do. Hide and seek in the building during regular class time is a sight to behold!

Our graduates have slowly left. Our last child was Jack Snyder. He will be going to Newburgh Elementary and will have a “family teacher.” That means he will have one of the teachers his mother and some of his aunts had. Jack will come home from school to grandma’s house twice a week. It’s such a small world. When Jack started at the GS, he was no bigger than Robby who sat quietly yesterday watching from his infant swing.

And what do we want for our graduates? We want them to take with them a security about learning. We want them to know that other children in the classroom, together with them, make a team. We want them to be kind, and know how to love one another. We want them to be helpful and courteous to their teachers, know when to be quiet, and know how to listen and do their best so that they will always be a class treasure. We want them to share what they know in a polite way, and we want them to always do the hard jobs because the harder the job the more they learn and learning doesn’t stop in school.

Yesterday David’s family brought in a new train set. It is a marvelous toy and we are very grateful. The kids absolutely went crazy about this new set. They had track all over the place and they quarreled over the trains at first but settled down to a real sharing.

We are all looking forward to that real break in the weather. It’s just too hot.

Miss Kelly is doing a pampered chef party this afternoon at school. Please feel free to look over the neat merchandise. The proceeds go to the school.

The DVD Miss Kelly and Mr. Tim made of summer field trips is available. Please call the school. They are a nominal fee and run 15 minutes. They have music and pictures and are really quite beautifully done.

Today our whole day was set up to meet with the USDA Child Care Food Program. The program is a wonderful help to early childcare places, public schools and family homes. We are so proud to be on this program.

Part of the program is collecting paperwork. That’s no easy chore. Like any Federal or State program, the paperwork is voluminous! Every child’s file must contain, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, …. forms and more.

Menus have to contain certain components in order to count as nutrition for children. We didn’t have a single problem there. We serve A+, 100% good food at the GS, and we serve as much as a child wants.

Today we had spaghetti with meat sauce, cottage cheese, green salad, kandy melon, watermelon, green apples, French Bread and butter and milk.

But here’s the rub: how much, how much, how much? Everything has to be weighed or measured. That’s not usually a problem because what the state says we should be serving to a child in the 3-5 category is so small, we usually laugh and serve several times as much.

For instance: pancakes must equal one 1.1 ounces. Have you ever thought about what that is? It amounts to about one 2.5 inch pancake. We serve about six 3-4 inch pancakes to every child.

The lady who monitors us is Miss Kim. She’s an excellent lady and full of bright clear answers to questions and enthusiastic about food. We are very glad to have her on our side.

If you want to know what your child is eating and I don’t post it here, I have it posted in the kitchen and will post it on the door of the school a week in advance. If you have any suggestions, please tell one of us.

Food is an important issue because it is an investment in the future of the health of the child. Every effort is made to make sure our children are well fed and happy. Hunger in a country of plenty is a disgrace, but then so is poor nutrition.

Here’s an interesting thing to watch with older children:

MARS The Red Planet is about to be spectacular! This month the Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287.

Due to the way Jupiter’s gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again.

The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest 75-power magnification Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye.

Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m. By the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m.

That’s pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month. Share this with your children and grandchildren. NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN This should be interesting if it happens and is true. We’ll be watching.

This is a letter posted to the blog. In case you didn’t see it, I’m posting it as a post. This is the kind of teacher that makes the GS a great place to work.

Judy, Thank you so much for the kind words. It makes me feel good to know that I have a boss who trust’s me like this. I have my own children Caleb and Josie with me when I am at the garden school. When a situation like this arises my “mommy” instincts kick in. All of these children are my own when they are in my care. I will do whatever it takes to keep them safe. I hope the parents can work a little easier knowing that their children are safe and sound in The Garden School. The part I found the funniest was, no matter how dark the sky kept getting and how hard the wind was blowing, the children had one thing on their mind, Snack! They didn’t want to miss that. However, a pack of cookies later, the storm passed. I was so impressed with the kids. It takes patience to sit on the floor of the bathroom for thirty minutes. They are truly a special group of children. And I love everyone of them. Miss. Jana

This is a wonderful explanation of a fantastic group of exercises that can be done at home, at work or anywhere to keep fit. It’s worth reading. This article has special attention for pregnant women. But these exercises are good for anyone.

Yoga and Pilates from Babyfit

A Winning Fitness Combo — By Sara Hambridge, Physical Therapist

Yoga and Pilates are two very popular forms of exercise today, and for good reason. Each has wonderful benefits, including many for the expectant mother. Both originated long ago and have since been adapted into many different forms, such as yogalaties and power yoga, to name a few.

Yoga, started in India more than 5000 years ago and springing from a Sanskrit word meaning “union,” has many forms but generally centers around techniques for breathing (pranayama), postures (asanas), flexibility, and meditation (such as the techique called dhyana). It can be very spiritual, linking the mind, body, and spirit. Other popular types seen today in videos and in gyms include:

Hatha: Involves basic introductory yoga poses, usually gentle and slow-paced.

Vinyasa: A version that uses more aggressive stretching, with focus on sun salutations and connecting breathing to movement.

Ashtanga: Fast-paced and more intense (sometimes referred to as “power yoga”), this form focuses on constant movement from one pose to the next in a specific order.

Bikram: Also referred to as “hot yoga,” this form is intended to be practiced in an environment where the temperature is 95-100 degrees, to promote intense sweating that will loosen tight muscles and facilitate cleansing of the body. (Please note that this form is NOT recommended during pregnancy.)

Pilates was first practiced in the early 1900’s by Joseph Pilates, who as a young boy suffered from rickets, asthma, and rheumatic fever. He developed a system of exercise to help recover from his illness, emphasizing moves that would strengthen and elongate muscles without adding bulk.

Once little known, Pilates is increasingly popular with dancers, therapists, athletes, and fitness enthusiasts who want to develop a strong flexible body. Pilates movements are generally taught either through reformer classes, using a pulley-based machine and providing more one-on-one instructor time (more expensive and not as easily accessible), or as mat exercises (more popular, since all you need is floor space). Both categories focus on the core muscles to improve posture and flexibility, and strengthen muscles in the abdomen and back.

Pilates is similar to yoga in that breathing, flexibility, and strength are emphasized, but yoga involves more static poses, while Pilates combines dynamic movements originating from the core that are more precise and controlled. Pilates can be described as an abdominal workout integrating moves with the upper and lower body to create firmer, longer, leaner body tone.

So how do yoga and Pilates help during pregnancy? As the body changes through each trimester, aches and pains can become more prevalent. Studies have shown that exercise during pregnancy can alleviate many discomforts, such as backache, fatigue, nausea, and cramping, as well as assist in an easier delivery and quicker recovery. Both yoga and Pilates focus on many of the key areas that need work during pregnancy– areas such as flexibility, abdominal muscles, and pelvic floor strength, of utmost importance in carrying and delivering a baby.

How to choose which is for you, yoga or Pilates?

It’s an individual choice but keep in mind that both provide different but excellent benefits. You may want to reap both the strengthening of Pilates and the relaxing, stress-reducing effects of yoga. Either way, consider your individual situation, both during pregnancy and postpartum, and ALWAYS check with your doctor first to make sure you have no reason to avoid exercise (bleeding, past miscarriages, placenta previa, and so on).

Then follow these Do’s and Don’t’s:
Avoid prolonged moves lying on the back– try to modify poses or positions to an incline, if feasible.

Never hold your breath!

Avoid holding positions for prolonged periods, especially positions where the head is lower than the heart (such as “the downward dog”). This can cause dizziness when coming out of the pose.

Always check for the condition of diastisis recti (separation of the midline abdominal wall) before doing any abdominal exercise – if you have this problem, avoid Pilates to prevent the separation from worsening.

Stop doing any exercise that causes dizziness, shortness of breath, pain, or nausea. Some moves can also cause heartburn; if you discover any affecting you in this way, avoid them.

Avoid exercises that “stretch” the abdomen (for example, “the upward-facing dog,” “the bow,” or standing back extensions).

Avoid exercises that enhance forward head and shoulder postures (such as “the plow” or shoulder stands).

Beware of poses that require a great deal of balance– you lose some balancing ability as your center of gravity changes during pregnancy.

If you’re a beginner, try to find a “prenatal” class or video to ensure proper instruction.
Always go at your own pace and remember to listen to your body.

Avoid inverted poses for several weeks postpartum to avoid air embolism.

Drink lots of water and be careful not to get overheated. The gains achieved from yoga and Pilates are extremely beneficial for the pregnant woman. Many women say they’ve alleviated back pain, feel more prepared for delivery, or just plain feel better about their changing bodies.

Although there are many options available today for the exercise enthusiast, yoga and Pilates top the list for great prenatal and postpartum workouts.

Interesting article on Malta

Times of Malta – Valletta,Malta

When I touch on the issue of working mothers, I like to remember an event which I witnessed and which left me both mesmerised and amused. It happened quite a few years ago, while I was interviewing a priest on the topic of poverty in Malta.

He was honing in on the issue of families, women, their children and the phenomenon of working women. He had barely finished voicing the start of a sentence: “Ever since women started working…”, than a nun who happened to be in the same room filing papers, swirled round to face us, walked abruptly up to his desk and with pointed intensity said: “Father… women have always worked.”

She left him agape and point made, she demurely walked back to her papers and filing. She might have been a nun with chaste habit and all, but she sure was a feminist.

A lot has changed since women walked to their husband’s, father’s, brother’s fields and worked there from dawn till dusk. Those were the times when the suckling babes were carried about in swaddling, the ones old enough to help did, while the ones in between stayed at home helping out grandmothers, spinster aunts and older sisters care for the home, elderly and ill, cook, wash, bathe and feed the chickens.

Young children could run about in the fields and play all day long. It was a different lifestyle. The working mother usually had somebody back home to help out, in some way or another, and the extended family was not only there to share Sunday dinner but to help in a factual way, every moment of the day.

Today many wish to remain hooked on to this romanticised version of a family, as if wearing blinkers. We are living a different reality and to keep a family and make ends meet, one must only do a simple physical exercise – share life with one medium-sized family of moderate means and try dealing with shopping, bills, school requirements, doctor’s fees, etc, etc, for just one month. One month will be long enough to discover that it is imperative in this day and age for most women to contribute financially to the family.

Fine. But what does one do with children before they are old enough to go to school and in between schooling periods? How can a woman work outside the home with peace of mind? Children need to be cared for by their parents or other persons and carers who are suitably qualified to do so.

Given a choice, most mothers will opt to stay at home with their babies for as long as it takes, and if they desire to proceed with a career, they would want to reassure themselves that the care given to their children will not be in any way ransacking their own right of motherhood.

But there is no simplistic solution to all this and since I’m writing about mothers and their children, I will only later on be writing about the father’s role in the whole set-up.

If grandma is still working herself, too old to care for grandchildren or simply disinterested, how is the young mother to regain her place of work? She has to seek child care, even if she is working on a part-time arrangement or at least on those days when nobody else from within the family can ‘replace’ her.

In a bid to address gender sensitive issues, the Employment and Training Corporation (ETC) took specific action last year through an EU-funded project which aims to train and give the necessary qualifications to prospective and existing child carers to work in this field and to offer employers the possibility of incorporating child care facilities on their premises through a number of incentives.

This year Government has specifally allocated Lm130,000 to support 45 existing child centres to upgrade their standard in order to comply with the new regulations.

Anna Borg, senior ETC executive in charge of the Gender Issues Research and Development Division, explains: “We want to tangibly help increase female participation through the provision of child care services at the workplace.”

ETC offered courses to women interested in taking up child care as a career. Training involved 300 hours of intensive tuition, and 500 placement hours in various child care centres catering for children aged up to five.

“With one course ready, and another ten still ongoing, we are planning to have a strong workforce of fully trained child carers to fill the need to man child care centres according to the standards set last summer by the Department of Social Welfare Standards.”

This is especially important in a country where up until a short time ago, child care centres were not regularised and mothers could not be blamed for being apprehensive about leaving their children in care.

The course attracted a healthy number of applicants – 700 women who applied for the child care training programme, even though ETC could only take around 200. But what about the other side of the coin – the employers?

Initially there was a relatively high response with 60 potential employers enquiring about the system. They were interested in being offered a scheme of incentives, namely providing full-trained child carers and grants to facilitate the initial transitory process. Since last year, however, interest dwindled due to a series of problems.

“Some employers found they simply did not have the physical space on their premises to set up a child care centre. Another set of employers found that, following site inspections, their premises, while being large enough, did not have the suitable requirements in terms of safety – no apertures, no space at ground floor level, or free space only within the basement quarters.”

The end result is that only a few valiant employers have held on to their initial resolve to man a child care centre in-house and these are presently in the process of carrying out the necessary alterations to accommodate their employees’ children.

After due clearance from the Department of Social Welfare Standards, permits from MEPA and physical time to carry out works, it is hoped these companies will be able to offer their employees full child care facilities with the assistance of the ETC.

In view of the limited number of employers who will actually have a child care centre on their premises, Ms Borg said: “We would have wished for bigger numbers and better results, but at least these employers have taken on an act of courage and it is a start. We live in a rather macho society which is hard to change quickly. We shall be applying for the next funding period which stretches from 2007-2013 and we are looking forward to wider opportunities and hopefully more openings for in-house child care centres.”

ETC employees have been among the first to enjoy the serenity of having an in-house child care centre which is open daily during working hours offering year round care, including an after-school and holiday-care service.

“Our employees are now dropping off their children in the morning, popping in to nurse or play with them during their lunch break and picking them up after work to head home together.

This peace of mind allows parents to continue with their work reassured, also because our child carers are top notch and that is what we have attempted to do during this past year – raise standards, raise awareness, inform parents that child care is not just about minding but also about educating. Hopefully more companies will follow suit.”

For more information go to the links on the right.

Evansville teachers get a lesson of their own before school starts next week.

Superintendent of Public Instruction in Indiana, Dr. Suellen Reed gave the keynote address Friday afternoon for the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation’s summer academy, Making Connections.

The focus was on how to close the achievement gap and strengthen instruction in math, science and technology. This comes a week after Reed announced new rankings of the state’s public schools.

Nine schools in the EVSC are on academic probation. Dr. Reed says, “We all have some schools in the district that maybe need to work a little harder. We need to make sure we narrow that achievement gap and we also have to be absolutely certain that we keep all the kids in school until they graduate.”

Reed says she hopes the General Assembly will consider extra funding for schools on probation. For a look at how your child’s school ranks, click here.

Yesterday during the storm Terry and Edith and I were giving platelets at the Blood Center. As the storm turned the sky darker and darker I was torn between the perfect blood match the Blood Center said I had with someone who desperately needed my platelets, and the safety of the school. Jana and Tom closed yesterday.

Edith and I both agreed there was no better closing team for an emergency. Jana and Tom are well versed in safety issues and when Edith called, they had the place settled down and battened down for safety. Tom is electrified by need. He has a heart as big as a bushel basket and relates so well to anyone who is needing special attention, he’s my choice for that desert island situation.

Jana is a “doer” like me. She’s the strong arm, the detail person, the rough and tumble, get it all done quick type whose personal radar probably sensed the storm and the entire afternoon’s agenda was probably a full script by the time the first drop of rain fell.

These teachers are the backbone of the school. They are the reason the “all day” teachers can relax and leave after class time is done. The school doesn’t stop after class time is over. Kids continue to learn and continue to thrive after school. The after school time is often the time when kids think about what they have learned and put the pieces together, that’s why it’s important to have the right people do the job. It’s tough to find the kind of people who compliment the school as well as Tom and Jana.

This has been a good first week. We’ve done a lot of adjusting. There will be more adjusting as the weeks develop. I think the primary interesting thing we’ve noticed is how well the Garden School children have learned to listen and how far some of the new children have to go to catch up with this single so important element in learning.

The primary single thing preschool and kindergarten children need to do is listen. This will be our first priority for the next few months. If a child can’t listen; he can’t learn.

Today is fine arts day and we will be looking at Van Gogh’s work. He’s an interesting artist and a lot of fun to copy.

Lunch is whole salmon and fish sticks – choice. We will have rice and corn and watermelon and cheese bread.