Lately I’ve been playing Lexolous on Facebook. I find it a wonderful diversion. The game makes me think about things I only get to think about when I am writing – words. Lately, I’ve heard a lot of positives and negatives about the game that made me spend a little time thinking about game playing and what it means in development.

A game like Lexolous – scrabble – for an adult is a measure of self. Every time you face the board and are asked to deliver your best word with what you have to work with is a wonderful test of self. Some people like this and some don’t. The question always begins in childhood about why this is a likable thing or a hated thing.

As a child, I always wanted to play games with my family. My parents were home maybe twice a week in the evening, and sometimes they would play games with us. It was my job to do the dishes by myself after dinner from the time I was five. So after I cleared the table, washed the dishes, scrubbed the pots and cleaned the counters, I would go in to find a game already started. When I asked to play, they always said, “We started already, maybe next time.” I think as a result, I often played games with myself, so consequently, I like the challenge of a game because I really feel the test of self.

Testing self against self is only part of the game. Testing self against others is the other more daring part of a game.

When do children begin to experience real game playing? It depends upon maturity and the cognition of application of rules to life. Children can hear, but they can rarely apply what they hear to any problem and a game is often a problem, a strategy, and difficulty to solve. Watch a child put on a coat. You can tell, tell, tell, and show, show show, but until a child can apply what is said or shown to what he or she is doing, the child will not be able to put on a disheveled coat by himself.

This is problem solving and it amounts to that algebraic equation: “If a=b, and b=c then a=c.” Until a child can understand this idea, he or she will be lost at many things.

I’ve tried to teach Chinese Checkers to the kids many times. Very few will grasp the concept of jumping one marble over another in a direct line. Most children will understand jump, but will jump the whole game board without application. This is because they can’t see the value of a carefully played game. The game doesn’t matter because they are neither testing self nor others.

Taking turns is also a concept of maturity. The very idea of a line, my turn your turn has to be taught to young children because most young children are egocentric, so the idea of your turn is an impossible bend. It’s really quite funny to watch. You also see this in the very elderly – it’s always their turn to speak, to reminiscence….

Teaching children to play games takes time. The time is in the maturity of growing up. The first step is in respect of the game pieces. When children stand back from a game taken out by adults, and watch, they are indicating the initial interest in the game. Children who grab without asking are not ready. Then it’s a matter of listening and trying to learn the rules. Children who stop listening and just do their own thing are not ready to play a game. The next thing is turn. When children are ready to watch the next guy take his turn, they are ready to play.

Games should not be long, complicated, nor should one person always win. That was my lesson this week. I’ve won a lot of Lexolous games, and I realized this week that the whole idea of playing the game is that sometimes I win and sometimes I don’t. It’s the play with people you love that makes the game fun. I have also learned that if I play my best game and still lose, I still have played well, and that is what should matter to me.

It’s a lot like life. It can’t always be peachy. Games are like a little vignette of life. If you don’t step into the game or into life, you can’t win or lose – you’re just a spectator and burying your talents in the backyard. These are the things I want to teach the children.

I want to assure them by their sixth year – give me a child before he is six and he’s mine forever – that their contribution is important and that their involvement is crucial to the lives around them, so don’t step back and let someone else – step forward and give it your best shot.

Games are an important lesson and well worth learning. The ability to play well, to win, to lose, to smile, to be confident, to be amused, to be happy to play is the mark of a well developed personality and this is what we should aim for in teaching our children to play as their primary educators.

Good morning. It’s 6:15 and there is freezing fog outside. Not sure if I’ve heard of freezing fog. Need to drive in it in about fifteen minutes, so we’ll see. Need to take the twenty year old Bronco in it…mmmm…

What do you need to know for this week? We are going to try to do the pajama party on Friday. Looks like clear sailing with the weather, so it’s a green light ;-}

Please remember to send a coat your child can live with. He will be going out all week.

Thinking about putting a cookbook together. If you have any input into this, please let Miss Judy know.

This week begins our geography race. I will be sending home a political map. That means a map with names of countries. Please help your child learn where the countries are. There are are about one hundred and eighty five countries to learn. Every time your child learns a country, his name will be put on a flag. The child with the most flags wins.

This week’s menu: M meatballs and biscuits; big squash; applesauce, oranges and grapefruit –
T Ham and cheese casserole, fresh spinach to dip; peaches and raisins – W Breakfast casserole with bacon, pineapple, oranges and apples – H Pork roast, potatoes, apple critter, corn and pineapple – F Pizza, fruit salad, vegetablesmix and dip and oranges and grapefruit.

Have a great week.

I posted on Facebook about a possible cookbook, and the first response was positive. I think maybe it’s time to do a third cookbook. Last time we did a cookbook, every parent participated and we still came up with too few recipes, but with today’s technology and ease of use, we might just be able to do something cheaply and still have a nice product.

At the party, several people asked me about the chicken curry. Chicken curry is one of those twenty minute meals and only twenty minutes because you have to wait for the rice.

You start by making rice.

Next you cut your chicken breasts into bite sized pieces. Do this with a kitchen sheers; it is half the work.

Next, pull out of the closets and refrigerator all the stuff you have that might make a nice side boy. Now a side boy is an addition to the dish that allows every taste to be different. Curry is not curry without the side boys. So into little dishes, and we used disposible bowls at school, you place those things in your closet that you can add to the plate.

Suggestions: bacon, crumpled egg yolks, chutney, chow chow, pickle relish, celery, green pepper, onion, apple, coconut, walnuts, peanuts, almonds, raisins, and anything like this you think you would like to “sprinkle” on the actual curry. My husband loves soy sauce on his curry.

In San Francisco, back in the early 60s, I had dinner with my father at the India House. I had chicken curry and the side boys were a gigantic plate of fresh fruit. The hotter the curry, the more fruit you will eat because it takes the sting out of very very hot curry.

Now for the main dish – the simplest dish on earth. You saute your chicken breasts with some of your cut side boy onions, celery, green pepper and apple, and add about a teaspoon of curry – more if you like. I add about a tablespoon at home, and at school I added about a teaspoon. When the chicken is done, you add enough water to make what looks like a stew. Add a tablespoon of chicken bouillon. Then you thicken it with a roux of cornstarch or flour and water. When it thickens, it’s ready to serve over rice. Add the side boys.

You can substitute milk, but don’t boil it. You can sub soy milk, or almond milk or chicken stock.

Buy yellow curry. Green curry is a little bitter. Spice Islands makes a lovely curry. You can also get it at the Asian Market. What you buy should be a deep yellow color – and it stains. Nutritionally, curry is one of the healthiest foods you can eat, and there are studies that show that not only does curry thwart the growth of cancer, it often keeps it away.

Curry like this can also be made with lamb, beef, fish, and pork. I curry rice at home. You saute your rice in butter and curry powder then add stock or beef bouillon and water.

I make a steak sauce with mayo and curry powder that’s to die for – just mix 1/4 cup mayo and 1 teaspoon curry powder.

Curry is a fantastic party food because it is cheap and beautiful and easy to make. You make a vat of curry – time – 30 minutes. You assemble 10-15 side boys and arrange them around a large bowl of curry. Rice on the side makes a fantastic party spread. You don’t need another thing.

I will post all the other recipes for the wonderful International Feast as I get them.

Friday was an exceptional day. We had a delicious pancake breakfast with whole grains including bean flour. Bean flour makes the pancakes lighter and have a slightly nutty flavor without being overwhelming. After breakfast, we told the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. Each of them had a personality and a name: Melvin; Thaddeus; Lester and each had a different reason to cross the troll ridden bridge and come out victorious on the other side.

The kids acted this out for about an hour and had a great time.

We got to go outside for recess on Friday, and the children loved just being out in the sunshine.

We had our International Feast with ten parents for company. We had such a fine fare:

A delicious seaweed salad and sushi; a great bread dish with a unique filling; scrumptious hummus and crackers; fabulous hummus and pita bread; perfect enchilada dripping in cheese; light and tasty egg rolls; inscrutable spaghetti; magnificent cheese lasagna; an incredible Italian beef dish; and Miss Judy’s own curried chicken, lovely Italian shells; a really interesting Philippine coconut pudding and the kids favorite potato chips.

It was a nice party, and the best thing about it was the kids tried all kinds of new things. They trusted, tasted and enjoyed, and our families also tried new things. We were so delighted.

Our thanks to all our parents who participated in the International Feast. Well done!

I’m usually not a fan of Alphie Kohn because I don’t like his dismissive attitude toward emotional need, but this is really a very good article and well worth reading. It comes from Education Week and it’s about the ridiculous nature of standards. I totally agree.

Debunking the Case for National Standards

Normally I have Tuesday morning off, and I try to put a little column together. This week I had to work early, so I didn’t get a chance. But today someone said something to me that made me want to add a little something today. This person asked me what my expectations are for the children in my care. I replied without even thinking. “The sky is the limit.”

Now let me put it this way: If God were to ask you what you wanted, would you say, “A ham sandwich?” Would you say, “I would like to have a new toilet seat, God.” How about “God, since you’re asking, I could use some stamps; I ran out?” Probably none of the above.

Well it’s the same with being a parent or a teacher. In many ways, an adult in a child’s life mirrors the part of God in that the parent or teacher teaches by his actions, about God. He models someone who has all the control. At the same time, the child must satisfy the parent or should satisfy the parent because that’s his role. The expectations that come from the parent should be as high as God’s are.

When I expect the works, I usually get it. If I were to expect little or nothing, I would get that. So parents have to ask themselves, “What do I want?” At this point, parents should say, “I want everything because when my child gives me his best, the top of the heap, he is responding to being the best human he can be.

Doing one’s best every single time is the achievement of life. It doesn’t matter if it’s some dumb little worksheet or a meal for a special friend. It could be giving the dog water or fetching something for mom upstairs. Each and every act in one’s life is important and each and every act is an act of love for the people around the child. Falling short of the mark in ordinary things can only mean that when the big things come up, a child will not be in the habit of doing his very best and he will lose out.

If a child is asked to water the dog, the best job of it means doing it right away. It means washing out the dog bowl and filling the bowl with cool water and placing it properly on the floor. If there are spills, it should be cleaned up right away.

If I ask a child to clean up a puzzle for me, I expect that he will put it together and then put it back where it goes. I don’t mean that he will casually heap some of the pieces on the tray and then leave it on the table.

We are by nature bound to work all our lives. It’s simply part of being a human being. Shirking, skimping, leaving things half done, is the work of an immature and lazy person. The ability to appraise work, understand what the whole task is from beginning to end, approach the task with positive affection, do the job without complaining, and finally finish the task without detours is the work of a fully developed person, a person of skill and grace. Now which of these do I want for the children in my care?

I want the children I teach to master the art of work – happily – and the only way of achieving that is to expect the very best each and every time. So when my friend asked me, I told her. “The sky is the limit.”

Good Morning. It’s going to be a hot one :} starting at 21 degrees here in downtown Newburgh, and rising to a fast 30 today. Please make sure kids have gloves and hats today! Long sleeve shirts are preferable in this cold weather.

Lots of things in the hopper this week. State inspection today; new teacher, Miss Dana, tomorrow, and on Friday we’ll have International Feast.

If you are free at lunch time 12:00 on Friday and would like to come to lunch with your child, please plan to bring an ethnic dish for four. This can be anything. We will eat buffet style with children with parents eating first. It’s only about forty-five minutes, so it’s doable on a lunch break. Parents can bring food early and we can refrigerate it for you.

If you still have candy money out, please bring it in.

Have a great day!

This last Friday when my grandchildren came to my house, I had all the usual junk food waiting. I had pretzels for Jack, cheese puffs for Bill and regular potato chips for Bob. Now you’d think at this grandmother’s house I’d have something fabulous and made of whole wheat. If they would eat it, I would, but they usually won’t so whats the point?

Having watched a program on the making of junk food, I found out that the egregious little cheese puff is really cornmeal and water and air, and it’s covered in real cheese – about the same as powdered milk – powdered cheese, so it’s not a bad little treat although they tend to stick to your teeth.

I also had something good on Friday – homemade pizzelle cookies. I made these from whole wheat flour a little sugar, some rum, some ground oranges egg and milk – I think. I made a whole plate of them and thought at the time, “They won’t even touch them.” I made vanilla frosting and offered them to the kids who ate the whole plate, so I did feel good about grandma’s baking, after all.

I also made them a homemade pizza and homemade cannelloni for their father and for us. The boys finished off the pizzelles and dove into the pizza. Then Bill whined that he was “starving” and only gma’s granola would fill him up – that or the two pizzelles that I had hidden in the closet for his dad. After consuming both the pizzelles and the granola, he was not quite full and finished off another slice of pizza. The cheese puffs and the chips and most of the pretzels stayed in the bags.

Now these are picky boys and it took months to assure them that what I was serving wasn’t going to poison them, grab their tongues, bite them back or taste challenging. These children will not even consider eating most candy, sandwiches, they choke on the idea of mashed potatoes, won’t touch a noodle, vegetables are from Mars, and they think that most meat needs to be back on the hoof. But inch by inch, mouthful by mouthful they are getting more adventurous.

One of my methods is just ignoring the whole routine and trying to have something they might like even if it’s a saltine cracker. I made a whole batch of granola on Saturday just for Bill. By next week, he may not be eating granola. It’s almost a game.

I love the game. It’s a matter of getting the formula right: nine parts wallpaper paste and one part sugar. Sometimes it’s eight parts wallpaper paste and two parts salt. Depends on the stars.

A picky child will eat if the stars are in the right mix. The food has to look like something that won’t offend them – Chinese won’t cut it – something that smells good – no smell at all – and something that is small of nature – like cereal. When Jack tried his first pizzelle, he took a tooth full, and when that didn’t resemble snakeskin dipped in gasoline, he tried a regular mouth full, and then ate the whole thing. Pizzelles are about the size of a saucer.

Children who are picky are usually the ones who can separate foods correctly into salty, sweet, sour and bitter. Children who are not picky can’t. It’s an interesting phenomena.

Being patient with kids is hard sometimes, and I’ve had my share of fits when a child won’t eat anything. I usually take a medal if a child won’t eat one bite. I always make sure my picky eaters have something on the table they like. When they refuse everything, it’s not a healthy choice. I can’t and won’t force a child to eat, but I can regard that behavior as non- honorable.

Having fun with food is a wonderful part of life. Encouraging kids to eat is the job of the loving adult, and that works when the TV is off and adults actually sit down with kids and eat what they expect the children to eat. We eat with the children at school, and sometimes we have something on our plates that the children don’t have simply because we don’t think they will eat it. I make a lot of salads with weird dressings that contain raisins and nuts and onions and cheese and anything else I can find. I call the dressing sludge. The kids love it and eat most of it when I sit by them. One way of getting kids to eat something new is to have a plate filled and let them ask what it is and if they can have some. This is the way to build strong appetites and adventurous palates.

Recipe for sludge: (.5) = half

.5 cup olive oil
.5 cup balsamic vinegar

Some:
ketchup
lemon juice
pepper
garlic
mustard
soy sauce
hot sauce

Oh, and try this: .5 pint mayo;4 tablespoons lemon juice; 1 teaspoon pepper; .5 cup Parmesan cheese.

Snacking wisely should enhance meals not take away from it. If possible, make your snacks. It only takes a few moments. More about snacks next time.

I was not surprised they called school on Friday. I ventured out on Saturday afternoon for the first time since the snow, and my hill was still a sheet of ice. Newburgh roads were still slushy. I’m supposing the cold prevented a lot of ice from melting. I can only imagine what they were like at 6:00 a.m. Friday morning. I envisioned sliding down Monroe Street through Jennings and into the river.

We will postpone the pajama party for the end of the month.

This semester is getting off to a slow start. We have been out more days than in, but that is the way it is this time of year.

In the hopper we have a new teacher and are losing another. We are losing Miss Elise who is leaving us to be a full time mommy and continue her education. We wish her well. We will miss her enthusiasm and her gusto.

We welcome Dana Palmore as our new art teacher. Miss Dana has a nursing degree and has worked with children for many years. Dana has a child at the Garden School – little Jil who is in the preschool class. Jil played the peacock in the Thanksgiving Play.

This coming week we will be having the International Feast on Friday. This is a voluntary participation for any parent free at lunch time. The feast begins at Noon and goes until it goes. If parents are interested in coming to lunch, please plan to bring a dish for four to share among the diners. The dish should be an ethnic dish that your family enjoys. Salads, entrees, breads and desserts are welcome. Miss Judy will be making Chicken Curry with 8 sideboys.

This coming week we will be going outside for recess when the temperature rises to 35 degrees. Please make sure your child has a hat that is separate from whatever his coat offers. Please send mittens that fit so that he will be warm.

Have a peaceful Sunday!

New Rules Will Give Hoosier Students More Knowledgeable Teachers Subject-Experts from Outside Education Welcome

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Media Contact:
Stephanie Sample, Press Secretary
317-232-6616, ssample@doe.in.gov

The state board overseeing teacher licensing and preparation voted today to advance new teacher licensing regulations that ensure all new teachers will be experts in the subjects they teach and allow adults from other careers to more easily enter the teaching profession. These new regulations—called the Rules for Educator Preparation and Accountability or the REPA—aim to improve student achievement through better classroom instruction.

“We crafted these changes with the belief that students’ academic success is determined, in large part, by the quality of their teachers,” Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett said. “These new rules for licensing go further than ever before to make sure all Indiana’s school children receive the high-quality instruction they deserve.”

Members of the Advisory Board of the Division of Professional Standards, including Bennett, have been meeting since July, 2009, working with the Indiana Department of Education and education stakeholders statewide.

In addition to passing exams that test their knowledge, the new rules require those who teach grades 5-12 to earn baccalaureate degrees in the subjects they teach. This creates a better balance in teacher preparatory programs between coursework on how to teach and subject-specific training on what they will teach.

Dr. James Fraser, senior vice president for programs for the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation and professor of History and Education at New York University, said, “The proposal to require every future secondary school teacher in Indiana to complete a full discipline-specific arts and sciences major makes very good sense. Indeed, such a move will bring Indiana up to a standard that is currently in place in many states across the United States. A solid major in the discipline to be taught is an essential minimum to truly knowing the content one aspires to teach.”

Equally important, the rules take steps to address future teacher shortages and bring more knowledgeable adults into Indiana schools. The advisory board will have the authority to approve online and non-traditional teacher preparation programs in the future. Without these alternative licensing programs, it’s unduly difficult for successful adults in other careers to enter the teaching profession. These new regulations allow for new pipelines to bring real world experts into Indiana classrooms.

Ariela Rozman from The New Teacher Project said, “We commend the IDOE for taking important steps to increase teacher and administrator quality—through an expansion of teacher and administrator pipelines, a focus on content knowledge which has been linked to student achievement, a requirement to measure the effectiveness of teacher preparation programs and a commitment to school-based professional development.”
The new regulations go even further to improve teacher support and provide greater flexibility. Incoming teachers will work closely with school-level administrators to create targeted professional development plans to benefit student instruction. Current and future teachers will have more options to renew their licenses—options that won’t require them to pay for college coursework. The new rules also make it easier for teachers to make their licenses more marketable; they can add subjects to their licenses by passing exams that test their knowledge.

“I’m incredibly proud of these teacher licensing changes,” Bennett said. “They address a foundational aspect of my plan to reform education in Indiana by targeting instructional quality. This is a great victory, and it should energize all of us to work even harder to improve Indiana’s schools in the year ahead.”

The REPA regulations go into effect July 31, 2010. Students currently enrolled in teacher preparation programs will be transitioned into these new rules between now and August 31, 2013.

For more details on REPA and to view an updated summary of the rule, visit www.doe.in.gov/news/2009/07-July/REPA.html.