This is an oops for Miss Judy who should have written this on Friday. But Friday we were all pretty tired. Friday was actually an interesting day. We had a lot of sick kids on Friday. There is a terrible bug going around that starts with exhaustion and the child falls asleep only to wake with ha high fever, headache, vomiting, lethargy, cough and you name it. We’ll call it the everything bug. The kids have fallen like dominoes until we had nearly 12 out with it. To avoid this, you need to insist that your child washes his hands as often at home as he does at school – like every time he breathes heavily – and that he keeps his hands OUT of his mouth. At home, your thermostat should be turned DOWN. Cold does not breed germs – heat does. You cannot get germs to flourish in rooms that are COOL. What is cool? For some it is 75 degrees; for others it is 65 degrees.

Funny thing about thermostats – we all think we keep ours fashionably low, but when the thermostat really does say 65 degrees, we all seem to be uncomfortably cool. The truth is, we are most comfortable at about 75 degrees and that’s a germ breeding temperature.

And speaking of these things, what happened to all the nice winter clothes we saw in September? All the long sleeves and heavy pants seem to have disappeared, and there is a steady stream of short sleeves now that the temps are in the 30s, 40s, 50s! The giant 15 lb coats have turned into micro minute jackets or none at all. I’m kind of expecting shorts the first day it snows. I’m supposing that families have heat trumped up to that 75 degrees, but at school it is turned way down, so dress your children in long sleeves when it’s cold and please choose a jacket or sweater that will suit the temperatures this week. It will be in the 40’s all week, so kids will need medium jackets.

The children are learning the lines for the play with great eagerness. I was delighted with Kamden, Addie, and Emma who have five scenes and who know most of their lines. In the other scenes, Skylar is doing a top job along with Phoebe, Mara, Alex H and Alex W, India, and our new little boy Ethan. Ethan started school last week and has five lines for the play. We are so proud of him.

Remember that Monday morning there is a field trip to the Philharmonic at 8:15. Please dress your child in our school t-shirt with a longer shirt under it. We will be leaving school at 8:15 and will return about 11:00.

Beve’s pictures will be back in about 4 weeks.

Your Discovery Toy orders need to be in by Thursday.

Remember, the play is this coming week at 3:00 on Friday afternoon.

Here’s an article from Preschool Matters. The article decries the loss of free play hours. Free play is the impetus of the developing child. In other words, it needs to be! We honor this at the GS and encourage children to engage in any number of choice driven play schemes. We try, in our small space, to allow for at least 50 or more activities the children can choose from a good part of their day. The teacher driven activities provide what we call, “how to” play, and that allows the children to take what they have learned into free play. It’s amazing to watch children play school in the library and be us. “I think she’s you, today,” say the teachers frequently, laughing at someone the kids are copying. It’s all great fun.

Anyway, here’s a clip of the article:

In his book The Power of Play, David Elkind, professor of child development at Tufts University, writes that over the past two decades, children have lost 12 hours of free time a week and that eight hours of that is unstructured play and outdoor activities. While those figures don’t necessarily apply to preschool children, they illustrate a trend that does. In a report on the importance of play in child development, published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, Kenneth Ginsburg concludes children who live in poverty as well as children with abundant resources may not be receiving the full benefits of play.

Ginsburg documents several trends that have resulted in less time for free play, including a decline in kindergarten classroom recess periods over the past two decades, passive entertainment such as television and computers that keep kids from engaging in free play, and a tendency for some parents to over-schedule structured activities.

He points out that when play is allowed to be child driven, children practice decision-making skills, move at their own pace and discover their own areas of interest. Such free play enables them to, in Ginsburg’s words, “create a world they can master, conquering their fears while practicing adult roles.” In the process, they develop new competencies that help them do such things as work in groups, share, negotiate, and resolve conflicts.

For more of the article, go HERE.

From Education Week:

President Elect Obama and his team started work this week on a transition that includes searching for the people who will bring to life his agenda of expanding preschool, improving the quality of teachers, and fixing the major federal law in K-12 education.

For the rest of the article, go Here.

Here’s an article from Teacher Magazine that’s interesting because it could happen anywhere, especially in this day and age. Howell sounds a lot like Newburgh sans clan.

In the article:

A Brand New, Short-Lived School

But perhaps the biggest controversy has come recently. The good people of Howell voted in 2003 to spend $70 million on a second, brand new high school and—with a little wrangling—adopted some pretty forward-thinking strategies (including flexible, college-type scheduling, and online coursework) to improve student services and deal with the transition from one to two high schools. Howell Parker High School opened in September 2007. A buddy who taught there gave me a tour last year—and I can personally testify that it is a totally awesome 21st-century marvel.

Unfortunately, the school closed after one year…

For the rest of the article, go HERE.

Some good advice from Dr. Phil

CALMNESS IN OUR LIVES
I am passing this on to you because it definitely works, and we could all use a little more calmness in our lives. By following simple advice heard on the Dr. Phil show, you too
can find inner peace.

Dr Phil proclaimed, ‘The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started and have never finished.’

So, I looked around my house to see all the things I started and hadn’t finished, and before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a case of beer, a bottle of White Zinfandel, a
bottle of Bailey’s Irish Cream, a package of Oreos, the remainder of my old Prozac prescription, the rest of the cheesecake, some Doritos, and a box of chocolates.

You have no idea how freaking good I feel right now.

I used to love Ma and Pa in my youth. They were a real fixture for me, and when I got this clip, I thought I’d share it with you. It’s just pure fun.

Every so often we encounter a child who has what we call a processing problem. If you look this disorder up on the web, you will get your usual fare of quasi answers. It’s basically attention deficit; it’s autism; it’s a hearing problem; it’s a sequencing problem at the heart. The truth is, scientists don’t know what causes it and what to do about it.

Let’s look at the child so readers understand what the problem processor is. The child who has difficulty processing simply does not make any sense when you talk to him. If you ask a child if he wants a chocolate, his response is something like, “My mom told me I need to sit down.”

If you compliment, redirect, or initiate conversation with a poor processor, the response will be as off the wall. Ultimately someone who compliments has no place to go. “You look nice today; I like your dress.” The response, “There are books on the floor and my mom said they should be on the shelf.” It finishes the conversation. If you redirect the poor processor, by saying, “You need to put that away,” the answer might be: “But the rabbits are in the pen.” If you initiate new conversation with a poor processor, he can be so taken back by not having a ready response, he will look at you with horror while you repeat and repeat your question. You can ask a poor processor the same question fifteen times, and they can’t answer. In fact, they often can’t repeat the question you have asked 15 times.

Having worked with some troubled processors on a daily 10 hour a day schedule, and actually removing much of the problem, here’s the truth: Processing problems are a communication problem, and that communication problem begins in infancy. It begins because the parent does not communicate appropriately with the child. The child is cared for in a silent, no eye contact manner from the beginning. The child does not learn at the appropriate time what the conversational exchange is supposed to be. Perhaps it is a question of not wanting or liking the child or being too alone and disillusioned by the whole motherhood process. Because when you regard the parents of these children, they are likable, friendly sometimes outgoing people.

From the moment of birth, children want to know. They make eye contact almost immediately. They want to know about everything, and only the caretaker can show, tell, teach them about everything all the time. If that doesn’t happen, then the child will draw a blank. He looks at the parent; the parent doesn’t look back. The child coos at the parent; the parent does not respond. The child cries, and the parent takes care of his needs, but in silence. During the day, the child is fed, but there are no words to teach pleasure. The child is changed, and there are no expressions to show relief or humor or anything, so the child does not learn response. For the numerous things we do during the day for babies, there are usually compatible words and expressions that teach a child how to respond, so when it is time to respond with a smile, a coo, a laugh, he does.

At the same time, the well meaning parent places the child in front of TV for hours because the parent has nothing to say to the child, and supposedly, the TV does. This is a double whammy. TV expects no response; it just goes on and on in an incessant drone. This reinforces the child’s lapse in conversational response and ultimately teaches him that conversation is noise and only noise. There is no reason for it.

Years ago a good friend of mine wanted desperately to work with me. I gave her a job and she told me after about a week, “I feel really stupid talking to these kids.” It was an eye opener for me because that’s all you do as a young mother, talk to the kids! From the beginning when a child is handed to the mother, even the most ordinary mother speaks to her child. I remember saying to my kids at birth, “Welcome to the world,” and the conversation is still going on as much as 37 years later. I’m sure most mothers can think back and remember the little things they said to their babies.

So it does happen from the nicest people and most well meaning people.

Now what to do about it:

When a teacher gets any child, there is no going back, no changing what has gone before, so the idea is to take a child where he is and take him as far as he can go. The teacher must try to re-teach conversation, but it’s not easy. First the personality of the child has to be willing to change enough to begin to understand conversational exchange is important.

Most of these kids are lost, and they are either happily lost or sullenly lost. First the child has to come to believe he is lost and learn to trust. That trust is hard to build because trust is one of the things that is built early through conversation. Sometimes, a lot of hugging and a lot of interest will build trust fast – if he will allow you to do this.

Making a child responsible for what he says is probably the most crucial thing. Take him seriously at his word. Just like the new mother with the newborn infant, start talking simply. Make questions short and simple, and then sit with the child long enough for him to respond normally. He is not going to tolerate any length of time doing this because it’s foreign, and therefore unsafe. Most of these kids have become content with their little worlds; it’s good and enough, and yours is questionable at best. But don’t let him off the hook until he responds appropriately – and he can and he will when he learns how.

Make questions what questions and not why questions. Most children under 6 have trouble with the abstract why questions, so make the questions what. “What are you doing?; what is the color of that butterfly; what did you eat for lunch; what is that, a dog or a cat? Simplicity means success and he will begin slowly to understand success from failure. But that success has to come from his own understanding. You can’t take one of these kids aside and say, “You’re a mess and we’re going to fix this, now listen to me.” He won’t, and even if manners allows him to listen, he won’t understand. It has to be done in short quick responses over a long period of time so that he begins to learn all over again what he must do.

What the disheartening thing is about these kids, they don’t understand much of what you say to them unless it is short and to the point. They don’t register a lot of new material unlike their counterparts, so learning is slow and laborious and friendships are hard to make. But they can, and they will if they feel safe and loved.

Some other obstacles:

1. Poor processors often talk a lot but don’t say anything of value.
2. Their hand eye coordination can be atrocious.
3. Many constantly draw their mothers into their conversation as some kind of a safety zone.
4. Sometimes one will have learned a host of recordings that he will pull out to play for anyone who comes by, but the content of these prerecorded messages he has stored in his brain are aimless and brainless, and those are the things to change through new patters and new responses.

How long to success? It depends – at least a year because they are not diseased; they are lacking and this can be mended. They are not limited by nature, but by experience. One of our little girls needed music and dance added before she made progress. One little boy needed a best friend. The children who have come to our little school have found success and are top students in public school years later. I think a lot of the re-training comes from love and understanding, the same kind an infant gets – unconditional.

It was Monday all day… Monday’s the kids are very loud – kind of excited to be back at school with all their friends. They played well today. Miss Kelly is still out, so we had a “Play” day and practiced the play in different scenes and then all together as a group. Many of the kids know their lines, and only a couple didn’t have a clue, but it was Monday!

On Mondays, typically, the children have forgotten their table manners and eat next to nothing. We made sloppy Joes today with salad, grapes and oranges. They ate some of it. Usually we throw out as much as we serve on Mondays. Not sure why, but that’s what Mondays are like.

On Mondays half the children have forgotten most of the rules, can’t figure out how to be quiet, how to stand in line without knocking the person in front of them over. They have forgotten how to flush a toilet or ask nicely for something. They can’t sit, and they certainly don’t want to listen. Getting back “at it” takes nearly a whole day. But Tuesdays are spendid.

Tuesday is picture day. We will practice the play a lot on Tuesday while Miss Beve is working. Today at practice my best students were Kamden, Emma, Andrew, Javeon, Jillian, Meme, and Skylar. Thanks to all the parents for working witht their children.

Because it’s Monday, half of the children could not figure out how to put on their coats. We have a routine for going outside. Everyone goes to the bathroom first and washes hands. Then we get our coat. If a child is having problems with your coat, you need to go to the red carpet for help. Well it was keystone cops, and the kids couldn’t figure out what to do first. But tomorrow is Tuesday, and they will be listening tomorrow!

The candy sales are moving slowly! We hope this picks up soon. If you need a new box, please please ask for it. If candy is not moving, let us know.

It should be a very nice day tomorrow; looks like rain – at least some of the day.

We have a new student named Ethan.

We are enjoying the outdoor world.

I got this from Patti M.

DID YOU KNOW?

Peel a banana from the bottom and you won’t have to pick the little ‘stringy things’ off of it. That’s how the primates do it.

Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in beat them up.

For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in a double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper.

Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!

Reheat Pizza

Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, – Set heat to med-low and heat until warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works!

Easy Deviled Eggs

Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done. Easy clean up.

Expanding Frosting

When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You will frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount of frosting. Also eating less sugar and calories per serving.

Reheating refrigerated bread

To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

FYI

And while I am waiting for the thing to download, and we are on the subject of food, I got an email this morning for the recipe for Piggy Pie. It seems one of the children is particularly fond of Piggy Pie.

The actual recipe comes from a book I read on Medieval food and cooking. The original was a honey based recipe, and I “foxed” it by adding ketchup.

The recipe I regularly use at school has pork, but chicken can also be used. You bake the meat, and especially the pork until all the fat is cooked off. Then, using a pair of kitchen sheers, you cut the meat into bite sized pieces and put it in a heavy bottom (so the mix won’t burn) pot with equal amounts of ketchup and brown sugar and fruit juice. You boil this mix for about 20 minutes. It can be served on whole grain noodles or brown rice, or as a sandwich material. Kids really love this stuff. It saves in the refrigerator a week once cooked.

This meal was initially used in a Medieval week during a banquet just for the kids, and they liked it so much we have made it part of our fall and winter and spring fare. It’s a favorite. We will be having it on Tuesday. I bought a 10 pound roast, so there will be plenty.

One of these days, like in the next couple of weeks, we expect to have our food inspection. This will mean a check on how we are doing at providing food to children. I’m looking forward to this because we have worked so hard this year to make every single meal we serve to our children outstanding.

The video is from Food Navigator and is about the Obama Food Policies. This is the kind of thing I look at all the time.