March 2011 Archives

"New research supports the value of early childhood education. Reporting on this research in the article "Does Higher Quality Early Child Care Promote Low-Income Children's Math and Reading Achievement in Middle Childhood?" in the September/October 2009 issue of Child Development, Eric Dearing, Kathleen McCartney, and Beck Taylor conclude...

"... We found evidence consistent with the hypothesis that higher quality early child care promotes the achievement of low-income children during middle childhood. As has been suggested for early education intervention, higher quality early child care may help compensate for impoverished home environments by promoting growth of early cognitive skills upon which later achievement depends... These results give added credence to the central role that higher quality child care should play in future discussions on antipoverty policy." "

exchangeeveryday@ccie.com 

3:00 on Friday is the newly rescheduled time for resetting the transformer. (Don't quote me on that or ask me the technical how to's as I'm not an elecrician).

At any rate, the power will have to be off for that process. This should happen while the children are outside for recess. Water and bathrooms will not be effected.

Pre-Kindergarten children: you should receive a summer attendance slip today or tomorrow in your mailbox. Please indicate as accurately as possible if your child is attending this summer and when their last day will be if they are going to public school kindergarten.

Other age groups: If you are staying next year but have not submitted your yellow re-enrollment slip we need to know that now as we have some classes with a waiting list forming. We cannot guarantee your continued placement if we have others waiting to claim those spots and you have not re-enrolled. Obviously we prefer to keep children that we already know and love so please let us know you plan to stay. We want you to be here.

Also if you will be gone for vacations or weeks or days with grandma we would like to know as soon as possible as we have new enrollees wanting to visit-in prior to their full time start date. We'd like to know what days we have availability. The same is true for our Academic morning students as some of them have indicated they might wish to attend some full days as "drop in" students this summer. We hate to tell them no only to find out we have multiple children absent for those days. So help us out and give us a heads up. I realize that the unforseen always happens, but preplanning as much as possible will sure help.

Aren't we all just ready for summer anyway? I know I am.

The backhoe just broke the water line. We do have access to water in the other buildings so we will have a field trip to the Hoffman Annex for bathroom time : )

Gotta love construction.

Briefly today the crew will be working on the water line, so if you are visiting the building between 12:30 and 1:30 please do not use the water or flush any toilets. The children will be napping of course and the teachers will all have pitchers of water for emergencies. It should be just a very short time that the water is off and right back on again.

Remember tomorrow there will be a late afternoon time where some of the electrical services will be limited if it doesn't rain. We should be outside during that time and will have fully functioning water. Our heat, should we need it, is gas. This should only affect lights and appliances.

Be sure to take a minute to look around at the progress in the renovated section of the building. It is simply gorgeous.

As you will see when the Growing Times is published at the end of next week, there will be a ribbon cutting for the renovated section and new church nursery on April 3rd. We would love for our GTK families to attend. Two of our classes will be using the "new rooms" starting next month!

The church minuistry staff finished a book study on Michael Slaughter's Momentum for Life with a chapter on Eating and Exercise for Life. How many of you would guess that this would be my favorite chapter? Well, not so much the exercise part although I did commit for lent to walking three times a week. Ironic since I played just about every sport growing up and was in incredible shape most of my life.

It's been a big part of my spiritual journey, the last three or so years in particular, to really try hard to change over the way I eat. The good news is that I have always had a natural preference for healthier foods. Every time a new "best" foods list comes out it contains all of my favorites. The focus for me then has been to educate myself about food additives and production procedures that destroy nutritional value in food or put things into food that we should never eat. I have been trying to pass that information along to all of you and as you probably know we are moving from information gathering to application in our food program.

Consider your position of power as a parent. You have great influence over your young child to teach them good eating habits, to encourage them to try new things, to garden with them so they understand what food is and how to honor God by being good stewards of the earth that provides for us and their own little body as the temple of the living God. Wow, that is a lot of influence!

You also have power in your community by spending your money where it supports local business and agriculture. You can drive the demand for purer food by buying it yourself. You can request it of your grocer, your workplace, your public schools and hospitals. ( I hear St. John's is exploring coordinating efforts with a  local natural beef producer--way to go!)

We are having a bunch of fun exploring new foods with your children so don't be afraid to try some at home. We've had great success with "eating our colors" and they are seeing that new and different doesn't mean bad. This year more than in years before the children are willing to try many new foods. Let's strike while the iron is hot and help them develop a taste for highly nutritional pure foods. I think it is a way to honor God by taking care of the home (planet and body) that he gave us. 

Monday when the weather was just oppressive, cold and bleek, I had this rambunctious Irish tune running through my head and it helped keep my mood positive. I had felt this way at home a few days before when it was just nasty outside and my son and I were fighting side by side the dirt that is my kitchen. He had put on a Flogging Molly CD and we were cleaning up a storm with the occasional break to dance a jig. I sat Monday reflecting on this and remembered what I had heard in an Irish dance program years ago.

When the British oppressed the Irish they set about to dismantle their culture by outlawing their language and songs. The Irish stealthily kept their music alive by tapping out the rhythms to all their traditional songs thus inventing the step dance. Their upper bodies were compliant, as they held themselves ramrod straight, stoic, staring straight ahead, and hands straight down to their sides. Their feet were as Irish as Irish could be dancing like mad to the tunes in their head. The complicated beats of the songs memorized by the next generation through dance helped to preserve their culture.

Christians in the earliest years of the church had to go underground, sometimes literally, but refused to give up their belief and faith in Christ. In reading about the early Christians it seems difficult to comprehend the joy that they held even as their lives were in danger. Like those stubborn Irish that held fast to who they were no one could touch their core beliefs. We can take note and keep a song of joy on the inside regardless of horrific world events, collapsing economies or painfully cold raw days when we are longing for spring. God is God of all and our joy in Him is untouchable!

.

The Parents as Teachers organization is coming here for preschool and Kindergarten screenings beginning next week.

We are thrilled to have them back doing onsite screenings after a long absence. This was a very helpful and successful process in the past and our families loved the convenience of having it done during the school day. No needs for appointments or driving to a location.

Please fill out the paper work for this quickly as screenings begin one week from today, (March 1).

The teal class will be the first to be screened beginning on the 8th at 9 AM.