I try to put something new on the blog every week. This week, I found a new gadget. It’s a search key you can find on the right side of the blog. Scroll down past the slide shows and you will see it. It’s powered by Google. I tried it out using the word hyperactivity, and it worked very well. It will take you to all the topics I’ve written about and also to the Web. I hope this is not only fun but informative. This is really an incentive for me to write more about early childhood.

We had a really hot day, and I’m sure the kids were exhausted when they got home. But as a field trip planner, I have to say that this was a keeper. Land Between the Lakes is just beautiful. If we had known what to do and where to go, it would have been better coordinated. Now I’ve got the numbers and the information, and next time…

We boarded the bus about 8:10, and started south. It would be a long trip and no stops until we got to the visitor’s station in Land Between the Lakes. We crossed some really beautiful water on some really old and really rickety bridges, but the kids loved looking out into the water. They saw a huge nest built on a pole. There were two parent birds in it and probably some youngins we couldn’t see from the bus.

We arrived at the visitor’s station and planned the rest of our trip – “No, there weren’t any beaches for the kids except…”

I was really disappointed.
We went down to the Homeplace, a farm estate that was representative of the 1850s.
It was HOT. We toured the main house,

the work shop, the barns, the smoke house, the creek house, the singles house, saw pigs, oxen, horses, lambs, chickens and baby ducks.

We ate near a stream that had mostly dried up for the season, but we went in anyway. Disappointment big time. Alex cut his foot, but we were prepared and patched him up. It was HOT.

Then we called all the kids together and said, “If you are packed up and on the bus in three minutes, we’ll go to that swimming place we hear of in the visitor’s place. In 2. 5 minutes we were rolling again. The cove for swimming was cool, sandy and shallow enough to accommodate all our kids. We swam about 20 minutes in our clothes like real kids, and then we had a soda and some cookies and we took off for home.

Next time, we will stop at the nature preserve and see a couple of other things as well.

A good friend made a comment to me recently about language. She said of a professional friend of hers, “How could he have a college degree and still use poor grammar?” Grammar, strangely enough, is not a matter of education, it’s a matter of the home.

A professor friend of mine, years ago, told me that if you want to speak properly, you have to choose the right parents. Instantly, I thought back to my own parents who spoke impeccably. My father was a word artist and my mother tagged along. I thought about their parents. My mother’s father was an engineer for the State of New York, and my grandmother was a Chemistry teacher. My father’s father was a police officer who rose to Deputy Commissioner of New York City, and my grandmother was the daughter of immigrants who spoke seven languages. Back one generation, you run into lots of immigrants who really had to struggle with English. My father’s grandparents owned the lofts that made Brooks Brother’s clothes and one was a furrier. All these people used language as a necessary tool in communication and moving up the social ladder.

In my family, there came to be money and position, and there better be good grammar, because grammar and manners were much more important than either money or position. I was reared to understand that it was a duty to learn to speak the language as flawlessly as possible, because one could distinguish your family by the way you presented yourself in public. If you “Couldn’t speak the ‘King’s English’ then you might as well be the hired help.” And speaking of hired help, one was ALWAYS ALWAYS gracious to anyone working in a capacity of service NO MATTER WHAT, and no matter how they spoke. But you didn’t copy them…

As I grew up, we moved quite a lot. As a Californian, I struggled with “There’s eighteen reasons why.” And as I moved east, I began to hear really poor grammar for the first time. “Where is it at?” I heard “ain’t” for the first time and people using double negatives. I began to ask questions because it sounded so strange to me. I began to really look at our language and try to understand it simply because that is what my family did.

English is an interesting language. We have tenses unlike Chinese and some of the more primitive languages. We can also un double the negatives to make sense of what someone is saying. We can interpret because of the language not in spite of it.

Today, in a world where the classes are mixed, you hear a lot of language oops and being in college won’t change poor grammar unless you make the effort. What your parents give you as “language skills” will probably stay with you because language is sound, and what you grow up hearing will always seem to be correct simply because it is so familiar.

Why bother? Who cares? Isn’t it a snob gig… it is and it isn’t. If you consider language to be your primary communication skill, then you need to ask yourself if your communication with other people matters and to what skill or level? For whom does communication not matter? Is anyone exempt? Is it OK to say, “I don’t speak properly because…” I can’t think of an ending to that sentence that isn’t poor.

From an understanding of history and psychology, traditionally, people who didn’t speak properly usually didn’t read well orally, and had less ability to understand what they read on an intellectual level. These people had a diminished vocabulary, couldn’t put a sentence together on paper… but it all fit together. Historically, undereducated people didn’t need vast vocabularies, didn’t need to use language for more than their daily lives, so it didn’t matter.

Today, it matters getting the job you want, in keeping the job you want, in teaching your own children, and in presenting yourself to the world on a different plain. Does a company want an executive to present himself by saying things like, “I have went there before?” Companies will interview for a whole day for jobs of importance, and communication skills matter a lot. In fields like education, there are those who “get” the degree and never read another book. There are those who can’t read another book because they simply don’t have the vocabulary to do so, so the education ends with the diploma and a certain relief that there is a lot of grade inflation, and yes ANYONE can get a college degree if he or she sits long enough.

So how does language change for the poor user? First by listening to it, and then by really hearing it. Language is very closely related to music. When you write, there is a balance and a lilt and you can hear it if you listen. When you read aloud, there should be a music to every line. The music begins, it is either short like staccato, or long like a violin stroke; it has ups and downs, it has a beginning and an end, and the good reader keeps the listeners spell bound by the words presented in the best of communication.

Good grammar flows from rules, so you don’t always feel as if you have to go back and re-write what someone said. The rules are not that hard to understand if you listen. Asking questions of what you hear and say is a good practice. Can I “went?” No. I can “go,” I can “have been,” but I can’t “went.” The best thing to do is to listen and think and form new good habits one at a time.

Education is an internal thing not an external thing. Some of the best educated people in the world never stepped foot on a college campus. And some of the least educated people teach on a college campus. The ability to be educated is the ability to understand. It takes a certain kind of personality not time in the classroom.

Apparently, this incident happened recently in North Texas.
A woman went boating one Sunday taking with her some cans of coke which she put into the refrigerator of the boat. On Monday she was taken to the hospital and placed in the Intensive Care Unit. She died on Wednesday.

The autopsy concluded she died of Leptospirosis. This was traced to the can of coke she drank from, not using a glass. Tests showed that the can was infected by dried rat urine and hence the disease Leptospirosis.

Rat urine contains toxic and deathly substances. It is highly recommended to thoroughly wash the upper part of all soda cans before drinking out of them. The cans are typically stocked in warehouses and transported straight to the shops without being cleaned.

A study at NYCU showed that the tops of allsoda cans are more contaminated than public toilets (i.e.).. full of germs and bacteria. So wash them with water before putting them to the mouth to avoid any kind of fatal accident.

Learning to swim is one of the important landmarks of growing up. Swimming is a natural thing for children, and they take to it easily if given the chance or the opportunity to swim often. For non swimming adults, this can be a nightmare. Fear is a natural and healthy part of water play, but follow these next steps, and even non swimming parents can teach their child to swim and will enjoy swimming together.

The first goal of teaching a child to swim is a matter of safety, not skill.

Being safe around deep water takes a kind of discipline many parents are wont to exercise. Deep water is dangerous for non swimmers, so many “nos” come with the first exposure. “No, you may not jump in water over your head; no, you may not play on the raft until you learn to swim; no you may not go with your older siblings to the diving area- YOU can’t swim.”

Swimming is not a me too situation until me too has learned some basics. Teaching the basics begins with letting a young child simply play in the water. Most very young children or non swimmers will have two different play issues: water in the face, and “It’s cold!”

The first few times of being near water, a child will not like most of his body in the water, especially his face, and that’s because he is not used to bathing in cold water and playing with water on his face. But more than that, a child feels he has no control of a large body of water and control is a big issue for beginning swimmers. That’s why it’s a great idea to go to a pool that has a graduated pool surface. Letting a child get wet a little at a time is what will create a no fear zone and encourage swimming because it’s a little at a time – his time – his control – his body.

A child who “thinks” will be naturally afraid of being in deep water. Trust is another issue of swimming, so taking a child into deep water too soon can create a fearful situation. It’s always better to wait for a child to ask rather than force a non-playful situation – especially around a danger zone like deep water.

So while a child is prattling around in the water, dont’ fear, he is learning. He is learning not to be afraid. He is creating a comfort zone, and that’s the first swimming hurdle to be passed.

As the child becomes increasingly comfortable, he will begin to be more adventuresome. He will advance on the water, which no longer feels cold, all the way up to his head. That’s a good thing because that means he is nearing the next step – head under!

Putting a face in the water is not easy for some children. I attribute it to difficult births. Children who struggled to be born seem to have a difficulty with swimming. Their eyes are closed and they are trusting that they will be OK. It’s a big step. Going under all the way is an even bigger step because they are taking themselves out of the air and the light and the company, and they are “going under” which is a very brave and frightening thing to do – first time.

Once a child is willing to go under all on his own because he wants to is the time to show him that he should be horizontal in the water instead of vertical. This is a key to swimming, and many children skip this step. It’s also a safety factor. “Will the water hold me up,” they wonder. “What happens if I can’t touch the bottom?” It’s also a control issue.

At this stage, it’s time for the adult to get involved. Taking a child to a deeper part of the pool and catching him as he jumps into the water is the next step. Most children who are not afraid to go under will love jumping to an attentive adult. They will hurl themselves off the edge of the pool into the adults arms and gleefully “get back to the side of the pool” so that they can climb out and do it again and again.

During this fun, the adult needs to show him that he can paddle and kick so that he can get himself to the side of the pool quite nicely. The adult needs to show him that kicking is the power behind swimming. Many children want to swim with their arms, and never become strong swimmers because their feet are always searching for the bottom of the pool. The feet are the engine for the body, so kicking with power will give him the control he is naturally looking for. Encourage him to kick, kick, kick.

So when that child jumps the adult must be ready to move deeper and deeper into the pool to make the jump a big one. Always catch the child but let him go a little deeper every time and make him swim longer and longer to the side of the pool, and encourage him to kick his feet and paddle his arms.

When a child is swimming fifteen feet or more without difficulty, it’s time to let him jump off the board. This must be his decision, and he needs to want to do it. Once a child can jump off a diving board and swim to the side, he’s a swimmer. He will be able to swim anywhere in the pool, and do well. He understands most of the swimming issues, and he will begin to challenge himself.

That’s swimming. It’s that easy, and children will not even think, “I’m learning to swim.” They will just do it in the play and the excitement of the moment.

Good morning! Another prize winning week ahead? We hope so. This week we are planning our usual trek to the pool on Tuesday and Wednesday. It will be a little cool to swim on Tuesday, but with luck, the temps will rise and we will have a great day.

Thursday is spelling test day. This weeks words are animal words. Please help your child study.

Friday we will be going to Land Between the Lakes. This is a new trip for us. We have never been there before, so it will be quite an adventure. We will be touring the Homeplace, a mid nineteenth century working farm and then, hopefully, we will be picnicking near a beach. Not sure how we will handle the swimming yet. A letter will go home on Wednesday.

Please continue to check your child’s popsicle status. Three popsicle sticks, and your child stays home on the field trip.

There will be a $25.00 charge for late pick ups on Friday after field trips. There were three families who picked up children late. We close at 5:30 and make every effort to be at school by that time unless posted. This past week the bus rolled in at 5:20.

Please do not send children in long pants. It is simply too hot. Children sent to school in long pants will be sent home. As well, please do not send children to school in dresses. It’s summer and they are too much for summer days. We have a new mister for the garden and we would like to use it on the kids, but when there are long pants and dresses, we can’t.

Today’s menu is Pizza and fresh fruit :-}

Have a splendid week!

Last Thursday night, when I came home from work, I picked up the new copy of Yoga. It’s a great magazine for people wanting a better kind of life. It’s filled with articles on exercise, food, and meditation. One of the articles that really struck home was one about wheat.

Wheat is one of the things we all take for granted.
It’s in many many foods, and it is very very good for you.

But for some people, eating wheat is a real liability. An inability to digest wheat can mean several symptoms of illness: chronic fatigue, migraine headaches, chronic abdominal pain, chronic sinus infections and other more disturbing problems like Celia’s disease.

I notice when I eat a lot of bread made from wheat, I feel draggy. I feel like I weigh more than I do. I feel bottom heavy, sluggish, and my temperament declines. I get unusually sleepy even when I shouldn’t be tired at all.

I took wheat out of my diet this past winter for a time, and I felt good. Now I generally feel good, but I felt “good!” But like all attempts to make changes, only some changes stick,and I slid back into wheat flour about as quickly as I came away from it.

As I was reading the article, I kept wondering if Mr. Terry would benefit from a “no wheat” diet. I took the article to him, and as a last ditch effort to shake the sinusitis he’s had for almost a year, he agreed to stop eating wheat. Terry has never been sick a day in his life, and he’s been really struggling with this for months. The sinus gig has made him chronically fatigued.

“Not so easy,” he said after visiting the store on Friday and finding little food substitutes. “There is little to eat and it’s all expensive,” said he. Fearing he would be instantly discouraged, I told him that shopping was all about the approach, and Saturday morning I visited the store and read and read. It took about an hour.

What I read were the odd packages of flours that you look at but never buy. I bought three. Brown rice flour, potato flour and an all purpose gluten free flour all by Bob’s Red Mill. I read the back label stem to stern, and these flours are not processed with wheat at all. Some other flours might not be wheat, but they are processed with wheat and are therefore not suitable for this no wheat diet.

In addition, I bought Rice Chex, fruit, veggies like always, meat, fish and dairy, and rice snacks for when I get lazy…

Now the big question was: could I sub a gluten free flour for whole wheat? The answer was in the mixing. I beat two eggs with a little sugar, baking powder and oil until light and then added milk. I added about 2/3 a cup of each flour, a cup of coconut, some walnuts and some cheesecake pudding mix just for fun. The muffins came out light. I was surprised. I thought they would have dropped like glue pods to the bottom of the stone muffin pan and then abruptly burn.

OK, I thought, I can make dessert stuff, but what about regular bread? Before I try the yeast gig, I thought I’d try a kind of pancake flat bread that Terry can wrap ham and cheese in. Using the same recipe as the muffins minus the sweet stuff, I made the batter runny and used a hot saute pan and presto bingo, the best tasting, best looking “sandwich wraps” came forth easily. Yeah!

Palettes are different, health needs are different, religious choices about food are different, as well as tastes, likes and dislikes. Luckily for me, I’ll eat anything with the exception of guts or innards. And fortunately for us, food is abundant here in America, and taking advantage of that is something that is precious. Being able to choose from so many foods is a blessing that I treasure.

This time, there was no demanding health issue involved. It’s just an attempt to change something in the diet to incur a change. I know, most medical people would direct a person to a pill, but I’m not a medicine person; I’m an herb person. I truly believe that what you eat has a tremendous affect on your body. So changing my diet is hopefully tantamount to changing the source of the problem. Effecting a cure of the sinus problem could be as easy as taking wheat out of Terry’s diet for a time.

As far as the GS children are concerned. They will continue to get whole wheat and whole grain foods. But for a time, T and I are going to try this. I’ll keep you posted…

We arrived at the zoo with few problems. There was a single lane most of 64,, but the bus made great time. We were excited to get there and we left our lunch at the front of the zoo and toileted and counted heads and then took of. It was a great day. It was cool and the animals were pretty lively.

We went to the dark houses first. The first thing we saw was the orangutan who greeted us with as much curiosity as we met him. He seemed interested in amusing the children which they loved. He was a lot bigger than I remembered, and the children were just fascinated with him. It took quite a while to peal them away.

Then the children got to see an albino crocodile. It was almost eerie. The caging was very nicely done. We stood on a platform and the croc was down in his pool, about as you would imagine if you came across him while out in the wilds.

Then it was off to see the penguins. They were wonderfully lively and we got to watch one come down the rocks and dash into the water. It’s funny how they balance on the rocks. Lots of rocking lots of hopping. Many of the children did not like the fishy smell of the penguin house.

The next stop was the snake and spider house. One of the children was really surprised by what he saw. We saw lots of poisonous snakes, and spiders and huge frogs and my favorite, the bats. They were vampire bats and were feasting on little bowls of blood. I always find bats interesting.

Once outside, we made another head count. Very important for safety. It was crowded at the zoo, and the children mixed with lots of schools and lots of people. They did a great job.

We visited all the animals on one side of the zoo including the gorillas which were very accommodating and fun, and then we sent the men for lunch and walked down a pretty substantial hill for lunch.

The children got to play on the playground while we made a nice lunch for everyone, and everyone ate. They were starving!

After lunch we took off our shoes and socks and played in the water park. The kids had a ball.

They were soaked, but we knew they would dry off quickly, and they did as we walked back up the hill and saw all the animals on the other side of the zoo.

The lions were majestic and we got to see the baby giraffes.

We stopped for a little while at the petting zoo, and Miss Judy met an old goat she had known years ago…

Then, as it grew late, we made a beeline for the park entrance and had a brief soda and cookies to refresh us, and we climbed the bus for home. Twenty two children were asleep by half way home.

Sent by an old high school chum…

Look what’s new…

Why field trips? Isn’t it better for the parent to know that a child is safely where he or she left him or her? After all, it’s only ten hours or so until the parent returns. And isn’t it too much for the staff to plan and then execute a trip with small children? What about the cost?

The missing variable in this is the child. Have we forgotten about the child altogether? Is the parent our first priority or is the child? In our business, the child is our number one priority and that means field trips at the GS.

Let’s talk about the child.

The first question is, Why field trips? The answer is simple, because field trips teach more than any other activity. When I was writing a novel that took place in the Middle Ages, I read that at least fifty percent of all people at that time traveled extensively. It surprised me. People love to go and do and always have no matter the difficulties, the obstacles and the trouble. People love to see the world, experience new and different sights, sounds, smells, and be a part of what they see. It’s called being alive and responding to life in a very real and positive way!

People, and children included, are not content staying still. When you consider what the usual “day care” situation is, one room all day, drapes drawn, thirty five square feet allowed per child, you can imagine how a child feels day after beautiful day. You can imagine the frustration of having to nap all afternoon when all the child really wants to do is to run out side and play. But for the convenience of adults, the child is stuck year after precious year waiting for his or her parent!

Part of the fun of field trips is taking the whole school along for the ride. A child who is lucky enough to go on field trips gets the best of both worlds. He or she gets to go with their friends. It’s like a family vacation with all your friends. If the field trip is exciting enough, parents will go along, and that’s fun too.

And sadly, there are many children who will not get a summer vacation in the traditional sense of the word. So taking children on field trips becomes their summer vacation. When they go back to school, they can say, “I did this and this and went there and there…”

Next question: Isn’t it better for the parent to know that their child is safe… Safety should be the first consideration when planning a field trip or do anything with young children. When you use a school bus, you are choosing the safest mode of transportation there is. When your staff knows each and every child well, you are encouraging the best part of safety. When you choose a field trip that is child friendly, you are staying within the same safety zone. Taking along an attendance sheet, counting every little while, breaking into groups are all ways and means of keeping everyone safe. So is insisting that children wear a school shirt. The school shirt is an absolute. You can spot a child at a hundred yards. But if your staff is on top of things, you won’t have to spot anyone. They all stay where they belong.

Now I return the volley about the question isn’t it better for the parent to know their child is…
What? Stuck in a room all day waiting to go home? And ten hours in a child’s life stuck in a room is a waste of his life. These are the learning years – the years between 3-5 are when any child learns the most. So probably not. Children are not boutique items. They are human beings wanting to go, do and learn.

Next question: Isn’t it too much for staff to plan and then execute a field trip? If it is, it’s time to find new staff. The purpose of providing care to a child is to provide care to a child…that can either mean the least I have to do to get by without losing my job or the most I can do at all times for the sake of the child. The latter is what we want working in childcare. The staff that hangs back, does the least, doesn’t want to pitch in and help are staff who need to find other jobs today.

Planning a field trip is not hard. The first thing to establish is a relationship with your bus driver. You want the same driver every time. You want to know who you are leaving town with and how good they are. At the Garden School, we have had the same driver for fourteen years. We ask her about certain trips. She can tell us how long certain trips will take and where are the best places to stop for toileting. Miss Sandy is a partner in our excursions, and she is a fine person and a good friend. I wouldn’t want to do it without her.

The second batch of questions to ask is: can the children do this? Will the children want to do this? What will they learn? And the answers should be yes, yes, and lots. I never plan a trip that is longer than three hours on the bus. And at the end of the three hours, it better be worth it. The kids will let you know if it is or it isn’t. Our longest trip is to Mammoth Cave which is the biggest and most exciting cave in the whole world. It’s worth it.

Planning to take food is another big issue because there are safety matters to deal with. Let’s face it, a picnic is a picnic. The adult in charge can either make it or blow it. Pre-made sandwiches and a cup of milk won’t cut it when kids are hungry. If they have exercised all day, they will EAT. So taking a variety of stuff is the ticket. How do you do that?

There is a company that makes “takeable” equipment that keeps food cold for hours. We have several of these takeable food containers. We start at 6:00 a.m. baking cookies. We put together fresh tuna, egg, because this is what the kids will eat. We take peanut butter, jelly and honey and give children a choice. For the parents, we add crab and shrimp salads and sometimes chicken salad. We now make a really nice vegetable salad. We include ham, turkey, balogna, salami, and cheese for the children to choose from. We take long hoagy buns to make sandwiches on the spot so they are fresh and yummy. We take along chips, the cookies, a watermelon, apples, carrots, pickles and dip. We take milk and water and soda for parents.

The key to taking is to have the equipment to take, regular bins for this or that, and a routine of how it’s all suppose to be put together. A picnic lunch for 40 takes an hour to prepare and can be taken in a small cooler and a couple of carry on bags.

The only other consideration is clothing and illness. It’s frightful to take sick children along on a field trip. We had two sick children one year on the same trip. They vomited all day. It’s best if children are checked for temps before they leave their house. Clothing is another issue. Shorts that are drowning the child will encourage heat prostration if it’s a hot day. Cute is not cute in an ill child. Better that a child wear something really hideous and be comfortable than something trendy and hot. Shoes are also a big consideration. Slip ons, shoes that are too tight, his sisters shoes and no socks create blisters and woes. No woes please. If a parent cannot find a child’s clothing before a field trip, the child should not go. It’s as simple as that.

So there are some of the reasons, the methods and the problems of field trips. Ultimately, it’s up to the parent to make it a go for a child.