Friday is a tough day for me to post Friday’s Tattler. I arrive at school at 5:45 a.m. and finish for the day at 7:45 p.m. After school I care for my three grandboys while their parents are at work. It’s a long day. Saturday is always filled with work for everyone, so pictures the teachers take and send to me for the blog rarely come in until sometime late Saturday or even Sunday. I thank Mrs. St. Louis for taking the time to send her pictures.

Yesterday, Miss Judy was “under the weather” – not usual for Miss Judy.

So today I report about Friday with great pride and enthusiasm! The kids were beautifully behaved on Friday at the zoo and at the playground. Javeon and Austin won treasure box passes for being constant door handlers and waiting nicely while we all passed through the door.

We packed a light lunch and headed out about 10:00. It was a nice day – a little too humid not to sweat, but the sky was blue and there were a few gentle breezes. We all loved Amazonia and spent a lot of time discovering all kinds of neat things from the animals to beautiful plants that were flowering right there! The Leopard was snoring right next to the glass and couldn’t have been more than six inches from our hands on the glass. The birds were flying the animals milling around and the weather indoors was hot and steamy.

We then moseyed over to the dark pavilion and saw the bats and all the nocturnal animals in their little habitats. The children enjoyed this and we had a nice little discussion about bats – one of Miss Judy’s favorite animals.

Then we went to the children’s petting part of the zoo, and the children loved climbing on the rope toy and sliding down the slide among the otters and the parrots.

Then it was the long hill back up to Amazonia and the bus. Not a single child complained. I was surprised how easy that hill was for me, but I have been working a lot on core strength, and that tells you something! More yoga please!

Next we went to Wesselman Woods playground and had a light lunch and then returned to school for an afternoon of reflection and play. It was a great day.

A great first field trip with the promise of many more. It’s always so nice to take children on trips the enjoy, where they behave well, and where they learn.

One of our school policies which has been in effect for years is “Go to the toilet before you go outside.” This school policy is in effect for two reasons: One, it’s an aim at the kind of personal habits that create a responsible discipline. We provide a toileting time for students many times a day because very young children sometimes need help in judging the need to “pee!” So before every meal, a teacher attends the children with the question, “Do you need to use the toilet?” If yes, the child finds one. If no, he can wash his hands and be seated at the table.

We ask the same question before we go outside, all children must try to use the toilet. After sitting, playing or being “in the building” suddenly being “outside” will bring on a natural and very demanding need to urinate. As adults we know this. We impart this information to children. Sometimes they listen and sometimes they don’t.

During play indoors, the bathrooms are open for any child to use anytime he thinks he needs to.

When we go outside, we always have two teachers and sometimes three outside with the children. If there are two teachers, one teacher puts the other teacher at risk leaving the playground for any reason. If a child were to need a one on one, that would leave no other teacher to watch the other children. It’s a great big red light.

So we tell the children, “If you need to go, now is the time. If you wait and must be brought back into the building, you will lose your medal simply because you are putting everyone at risk because you have broken the rules.” It’s about that simple.

Think about it this way: if you were traveling on a bus with 40 people, and there was a bathroom stop, and some little person refused to use the bathroom, and when the bus started up again, within five seconds that little person demanded that the bus stop so that he could use the toilet, most of the other travelers would be “hissy!”

The whole idea of school is order – doing things at appropriate times – not at inappropriate times. It’s about the group activity; it’s about thinking ahead; it’s about doing what needs to be done NOW not later. It’s about growing up. It’s about being responsible. It’s about taking responsibility for self. It’s about not being a baby.

Now the one exception to the rule is poop. I had to throw that in….

There are lots of little rules like this at the GS. One of them is drink your milk. We expect every child but one to drink his or her milk. It’s as simple as that. The one exception? A child for whom milk makes her ill.

Another rule is don’t run in the building. Running in the building knocks over children, toys, and work someone has created. Running is for outside, games of chase and dash are outside games and do not belong in the building. When a child runs in the building, it’s a medal offense. Why? because the danger lies in cracking heads and ruining work done over a game that belongs outside.

There are reasons for everything and everything is for parents to ask about. Children will lose their medals for making another child cry, for disrupting a class and drawing unnecessary attention toward self. A child will lose his medal for disobedience when that disobedience causes someone else to suffer. A child who creates a dangerous situation will lose his medal.

All of these rules are about social order, safety, and growing up to be responsible citizens. They are learned best in early childhood, and that’s why we do it that way.

And if you lose your medal, you must forfeit all treats, prizes and extras for the day. A medal bespeaks a child’s behavior during the day, so the game is : DON’T LOSE YOUR MEDAL!

We hope parents understand that one lost treat, one day of going without creates a much more positive learning arena than the constant drone of reminder for kids who are in the habit of brushing off adults and simply not listening.

Lots of things in the hopper this week. It’s our zoo week. We will be taking a field trip to Mesker Park Zoo on Friday September 18. We will be leaving school on a school bus at 10:00 and returning about 1:00 p.m.

This week we are getting ready for Grandparents’ Tea. We are learning songs and working on invitations and decorations. It’s a lot of fun! A questionnaire went home today about grandparents’ addresses, age, and something special about them. We need this back by Friday.

We will have two more guests coming: this week a special guest of Miss Amy’s, and next week our illustrious vet, Dr. Rege, is coming to talk about animals. The children seem to really love these visits, and that’s why we decided to take them over several weeks. If you have someone you think would like to spend twenty or so minutes talking to our school, let us know.

Please dress the children for afternoon weather. It is still really hot on the playground.

Please remember that we are still counting in the beautiful baby contest. Your pennies help your child win, and they help our playground goal for a new piece of playground equipment get closer!

Please remember to work with your child on counting as high as he or she can; naming the upper and lower case letters; and writing upper AND lower case letters from top to bottom. It DOES make a difference.

Several people asked me about our school recipes for muffins. Muffins are an interesting bit of cookery. A muffin is something that can be designed for a meal. They can be sweet and gooey and filled with all kinds of sweet things, and they can be pungent with spices and cheese and not sweet at all or they can be in between.

The basic recipe for a regular family is:

2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup oil
1 egg
1 cup milk

When you bake a sweet muffin, add 1/2 a cup of sugar. It can be brown for a heavier muffin. At this point you can add all kinds of extras like chocolate, fruit bits, berries, and even a box of dry pudding mix for taste.

When you want a cupcake type muffin, add a cup of white sugar.

When you want a lighter muffin, add 1/2 cup of coconut and use soy milk instead of the regular milk.

Vegetable muffins with grated vegetables like grated vegetables from the green grocer and packages of salad starters are great too.

Nuts make a wonderful addition to muffins. Try peanuts right along with other baking nuts. Try mixed nuts and chunks of cheese.

When you want a sophisticated dinner unsweet muffin, try adding 1 cup Parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup onion, some Italian spices and use yogurt in place of the milk.

Try salsa and horseradish for some crazy flavor.

There is no end to having fun with this very simple recipe. I use my own milled bean and rice flours to make even healthier muffins.

My theory is, if it’s really good for you and it tastes great, it’s a green light!

Friday was a huge and busy day that went with a huge and busy week!!!

We began Friday with a strong play period and lots of the kids re-invented building. It was good play. Then we stopped for a big breakfast of pancakes. They were especially good because they were made from black bean flour and lentil flour and soy flour plus whole wheat flour. The kids really enjoyed these.

Then Mrs. St. Louis taught Noah’s Arc. The children had homework from Thursday to bring a picture of an animal for the arc. They built the arc out of paper and then they pasted their animals into the arc. All in all a very nice little project. Austin and Emily and Javeon were clever enough to finish the arc. Austin was the first one to recognize the hole in the arc and offered to fix it.

Edan’s mom, Beth, came to show us zoo things. The kids loved the emu and ostrich eggs. It was wonderful to have a parent so enthusiastic about what she does for a living. Miss Beth works with the plants at the zoo and she has access to many fine zoo treasures. She brought plants and a snake skin.

In the afternoon Emily’s mom came to show the kids all about yoga. Emily’s mom owns Yoga 101 which is about the best exercise program in the whole world, and she is so beautiful posing! The children were excited to see what they could do.

The day finished with theater, recess and a delicious snack.

So proud of the children for all their hard work listening this week.

Thanks to all the parents who came in to talk to us at the GS about what they do for a living. We had Officer Dickinson come and talk on Thursday about being a police officer, and Mr. Phil, Amy’s husband came and talked to the children about being a nurse. On Wednesday we had the fire department visit with the pumper truck, and all the children got to spray the hose and climb on the truck.

Next week it’s our trip to the zoo!

Published: August 28, 2009

Homework: The Necessary Evil

ANNISTON, Ala. (AP) — Homework — the necessary evil of the education system.

From Teacher Magazine

Comment: Homework is independent study, and children as young as three have had homework from the Garden School simply to see if they are listening and able to follow directions. If homework is busywork, copy sheet after copy sheet, the teacher is as bogus as the homework. Homework should be an attempt to “do it all by myself.” If a child can’t, then he has not learned or listened to what was taught that day. That could be immaturity; it could also be the home. When parents routinely don’t listen, then children don’t either. If your son or daughter is coming home from school and doesn’t know what is assigned, look at yourself in the mirror and ask when the last time you really listened to anything?

Article:

And while it’s the students who need after-school assignments to not only learn but to mature, it’s often the parents who learn the greatest lessons in both restraint and patience not to mention a little reminder of what school was really like.

“It’s their homework and it makes me feel dumb,” says Leslie Smith, whose son, David, attends Anniston High School. “It’s like every night I’m reminded of what all I’ve forgotten.”

Most parents have long since been left behind by their children for the mere fact that they’re in the process of getting an education, while their parents have already passed through high school, leaving a lot of that knowledge on their way to collect their diplomas.

“I’d like to be able to help him more when he gets frustrated,” Smith says, “But I honestly don’t know how. I just try and calm his nerves, keep him focused and tell him that getting the right answer isn’t always the only answer, as long as he tries and doesn’t give up, that’s what really matters.”

It’s a philosophy that most teachers, from elementary to middle right on up to high school, will agree with. Students are given homework not just as busy work or punishment, but as a means of measuring how well the day’s lessons have taken root.

“Homework is supposed to be practice,” says Bill Green who teaches seventh-grade social studies, citizenship and geography at Saks Middle School. “And you never give homework on something that’s totally new because that leads to frustration. You’ve taught the skill and the students have hopefully learned it, now’s the time for them to practice it on their own.

“And their success shows the teacher whether or not to go back or move on.”

According to a recent review of nearly 200 studies of homework and its effects by the so-called “guru of homework,” Duke University professor Harris Cooper, there is little correlation between the amount of homework and achievement in elementary school and only a moderate correlation in middle school. Even in high school, “too much homework may diminish its effectiveness or even become counterproductive,” Cooper wrote in The Battle over Homework.

Cooper recommends, and most schools contacted for the story agreed, that kids should be assigned no more than 10 minutes per grade level per school night — Monday through Thursday only. This means 10 minutes in first grade, 20 minutes in second, 30 minutes in third up to a maximum of two hours per night in high school.

There are more things to be considered when doling out assignments. Because for all their bulging backpacks, students often carry around responsibilities beyond the classroom, explains Pam Fitzgerald, who teaches first grade at Faith Christian School.

“There are only so many hours in the night,” she says. “I believe that homework should be balanced against family time. In most households, both parents are working, so there’s only so much time to get everything else done — getting everybody fed, bathed and in bed at a decent hour — throw two hours of homework on top of all that and something is going to be left out.”

Sleep is often what’s sacrificed, especially among active high school students who can easily stare down the barrel of two-plus hours of homework a night.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, 80 percent of teens don’t get the recommended nine-plus hours of sleep per night. And at least 28 percent fall asleep in school, while another 22 percent fall asleep during homework.

Karen Phillips, whose son, Chandler, is a junior at Oxford High School, has no complaints as to the amount of homework he’s bringing home at night. Chandler has been very self-motivated for most of his academic career, and now, doing his homework isn’t so much a chore as it is an expected part of his daily routine.

“To me, it’s very important to have prepared him early,” Phillips says. “Once you set that precedent early on, they’re much more likely to follow it through high school and on to college.”

That is another point worth noting — children are under tremendous pressure to succeed and move forward academically. According to the American Psychological Association, typical schoolchildren today report more anxiety than did child psychiatric patients in the 1950s.

And while no one is blaming that entirely on homework, there’s little doubt it can be considered a factor.

“We’re a changing society that’s putting much more emphasis on education,” Phillips says. “There are a higher number of people not only going to college for not only their bachelor’s degree but also a master’s degree and many are pursuing a Ph.D. And we’re all very competitive — and our children become part of that.”

Homework isn’t just about the individual assignments. It also teaches lessons that go well beyond the classroom, says Nancy Turner, who teaches seventh, ninth and 11th grade, along with AP English to seniors at Faith Christian School.

“There are a lot of life skills that are taught through homework,” says Turner, who avoids giving excessive amounts each night, choosing instead to assign long- and short-term projects. “They learn all about time management skills and about putting the most important thing first.”

And those lessons start early.

Though she’s only 6 years old, Jayda Hyatt, who’s a first-grader at Cleburne County Elementary School, is having homework most nights. It’s usually reading assignments, spelling words and math worksheet, which for her mother, Carrie, is a good thing. And while it might only amount to 15-20 minutes per night, these assignments are preparing Jayda for what will be expected of her in the years to come.

“I think it teaches responsibility at an early age,” Carrie Hyatt says. “When she grows up and has a career, she’ll have to learn to prioritize because sometimes that work has to come home. And what Jayda’s already learning is that work comes first and everything else — all the fun stuff — comes second.”

As a teacher with more than 30 years experience, Fitzgerald understands the value of homework for both the long and short terms. But it should not be viewed as a labor for the parents.

“Parents need to be active and involved as long as they know what they’re doing,” she says. “But there comes a time, when, if you’re child’s not getting it in the classroom, to consult a professional.”

And yet most parents have experienced the tears and frustration as it spills out over the diner table. The instinct for any parent is to take over, to make it better and then just hope for the best, but doing it for the child — especially when homework involved — will only lead to greater problems in the future.

“I’d love to simply see more parents interested in homework and making sure the assignments are being attempted,” Green says. “I’m all for parents trying to help, but the truth is, if they don’t know how, it’s really not going to do much good, especially come test time.

“Parents just need to offer help where and when they can and let the teachers make up the difference.”

___

Information from: The Anniston Star, http://www.annistonstar.com/

I often think of the scripture passage, The Parable of the Sower. In this story, Christ talks about different kinds of seeds and the planting of those seeds. I always think the point of this story is “early psychology.” It describes the gamut of personalities and how those personalities work or fail to work in the world.

When I think of the people who have graced our school over the years, it’s hard not to place most of them with one of the personalities in the Parable of the Sower. Students, parents, teachers, friends, volunteers, etc., all come to mind when I hear this parable read. The names go flying through my mind either with a sigh or a smile.

The whole point of the Garden School is to be a “first school.” We are a place where children can leave the safety of their homes and experience school to its fullest, but at the same time still have some of the flavor of home. We are the in between place, the garden between the house and the street – a fun zone.

In order to provide this, the people we employ, the people who volunteer, we, who own and run the school as well as the parents who spend time with us all contribute one way or another to the garden known as the Garden School.

In fifteen years, with a crew of between three and eight employees at any time, we have employed twenty people total. That means our turn over is outstanding. As I look back, I see how each of our employees fits into one of the categories of Christ’s Sower Parable. Some of them were quick to come and go as if the birds of the sky plucked them away. Some others came, spent some very enthusiastic time and then quickly faded. Others came with problems they will struggle with all their lives, and no matter the environment, no matter the help or the love, no amount of comfort is going to mitigate the problems. And some have come, spent their time wisely, and have gone on to other things because these people were originally planted well in deep rich soil, and the Garden School was a hot house to spend growing.

All planting belongs to parents, after all, and like our twenty employees, so it is with the students who have graced our school these fifteen years. Some children have come to us, and within weeks are plucked away. One parent was furious to find out that her child would go on field trips would have parties and special events. The child was with us three days. Some children spend a few months and then stop coming for a hundred reasons, parents lose interest because the world is calling and the grass might be greener someplace else.

Lastly, and for the majority, there are the students come to us with great and good parents who with great enthusiasm, maintain that special charm, who push away the world and let their child experience everything the Garden School has to offer. These people get involved and stay involved. Their children do well, and graduate to a great career as strong delightful scholars ready for the world.

And among these families, are the very special golden people. These parents contribute in many very special ways. They help us manage what is sometimes a huge job. Every year we have a couple of golden families, people doing things we can’t do ourselves. Contributions of all kinds, and the truth is, without these families, our job would be ten times as hard, and our program not nearly as nice.

This past weekend two of our Golden families put a fence in for us at the Garden School. There is no way we could have done this ourselves. The work was hard, it rained, there were many difficulties, and yet there was not a single complaint. Jeremy and Rhonda Ross, and Bruce Miller spent a whole weekend digging, measuring, sawing, and using skills I only dream of having to help us with this enormous project. They finished it beautifully. We could not have asked for more.

These are the parents who are golden to us. These are the joys of a small business. These people could not have come to do this if they were not planted on the very best of soils and regularly yield a hundred times what was originally planted. The children of these parents are blessed because the example these parents are offering in a world of uncertainties, is the deepest, finest soil there is. We thank them from the bottom of our hearts.

To every child, no matter if that child is with us one day or three years, be assured that we will love them all no matter what. We will give to each child as much as we can, and we will take every child as far as he can go. We ask only that every child take away with him something of value, something that he will be able to use to stay planted well and thrive for his whole life. If we can be a part of this, then our job has been done well.

We thank Bruce and Rhonda an Jeremy with all our love.

Comment: Here’s an article about taxing soda. You might enjoy:

Can a ‘fat tax’ on soda help beat obesity?

03-Sep-2009

Foodnavigator-usa.com

The controversial idea of taxing sugary soft drinks to combat obesity has been brought up again this week in a report from the Institute of Medicine. But is a soda tax fair? And can it do enough?

It’s been a wild and crazy four days for all the members of the Garden School. Thursday evening, the faculty met at the Acropolis for a wonderful dinner and three hour faculty meeting. We discussed every child at school. We talked about a lot of the projects and programs that are coming up this month. It was a magnificent meeting. I’ve wanted to do this for years, but we have never had a faculty that was willing to spend out of school time on this kind of loving caring evaluation of our little kids. More about that later.

We have a great September planned. The focus is on families and what we do to contribute to our communities. We have several parents coming to talk to children about our work. If you would like to be one of those parents, please see a teacher.

Friday, we made mud men. These are our little creations that go with the creation story. This is an important reference, and children should know both the creation story and the evolution theory to be well rounded little people. This is in no way doctrine. It is for families to strengthen children’s belief. It is for us to tell both stories.

Saturday, the Ross family and the Miller family arrived to help put in the new fence. It went very well, but it was a lot of work. We can’t thank them enough for all the work they did. The fence looks magnificent. My daughter Katy was able to get a really nice deal on the fence, and we were able to put it up because of families like ours who would give a Saturday and Sunday to manage this for us. More about this later.

Sunday, Jeremy Ross and his crew were back at it to finish the fence. Again, considering the weather, it went very well. These people are a Godsend, a blessing and a joy to know. More about this later.

Today is Monday. It’s shopping day for Miss Judy. More work at school to reclaim Miss Amy’s class which took a beating from the router and some other equipment. Her poor carpet…

Tuesday is coming too fast. Lots to do… lots to do…