SHOW AND TELL
Bring some small “junk” to use in our junk sculptures
Topic: Pioneers
What was life like 200 years ago?
The value is self-reliance. Pioneers had to be self-reliant because they were the only people on the frontier.
For cooking we’ll make applesauce and butter.
Outside we’ll play outdoor games. We’ll also learn some indoor games.
The songs we’ll be singing are Clementine, She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain, Skip to My Lou, Michael Finnegan, Oh Susanna, and Oh, What a Beautiful Morning.
Our art activities are junk sculpture, yarn dolls, glass bowls, and button on a string.
Creative dramatics games are grandmother’s trunk and pioneer homestead.
For motor development we’ll do coordination exercises with balance exercises, cartwheels, and back rolls. For body development, we’ll work on postural response with ball pass, kick the pin, balance obstacle course, and walk the ball.
Eating Issues
It’s hard for us to give up control of our children. If we begin with the premise that we are beginning with the end in mind, that’s exactly what we must do. Fortunately, it’s good practice for us to realize that eating is one of the first things that begins to teach us parents to relinquish that power thing. We cannot make a child chew and swallow. It sets up a lot of really negative power struggles when we beg our child to eat, bribe with dessert, or force the child to stay at the table until she does eat. The goal is to respond to the child’s own internal cues. When only nutritious food is available to the child, it doesn’t matter how much or how little of any one food the child eats. It really doesn’t matter when the child eats. When emotional issues are removed from eating, a child may eat extremely erratically, but research has shown that daily caloric intake remains essentially constant. For your own peace of mind, think weekly, not even daily intake. A child may eat lightly for two or three days, then pig out for a day. If it’s all nutritious, it doesn’t matter. Here are some other tips:
- Keep portions child-sized. A tablespoon for each year the child is old of each food is enough to start the meal with. If he wants more, make it available. (Use good sense here. We occasionally have a child who will eat as long as we let him sit.)
- Expect food jags. Just make sure you vary accompaniments to the chosen food. As a general rule, the more colorful a meal, the more nutritious it is.
- Fruits and vegetables are both in the same food group, meaning that they’re equally valid foods. Keep juices to a minimum though. They’re full of sugar and there’s too little fiber.
- Set your rules and stick to them. As a general rule, preschoolers need intake every three to four hours, but you’ll want to be careful about snack or juice 30 minutes before a meal. A carrot or a cucumber coin works pretty well as an anti-pasta. Do you want to provide open snack from a low cabinet? If it’s nutritious (nuts, dried fruit, whole-grain cereals), it’s okay to be available at all times.
- Allow for individual eating patterns. Some adults go 8 to 10 hours between meals, then eat heartily. Other adults prefer to graze. Our children should have the same prerogative.
The most critical tip is to role model good eating habits. What we do speaks so loudly our children can’t hear what we say. Overeating and poor eating habits are so pervasive in our society that we have to take the first step of beginning with ourselves.
Coming Up
Pioneers in the Enrichment Curriculum – If you have some old stuff that might have been used on a pioneer homestead, please allow your child to share. It could be clothes, kitchen artifacts, or tools. We use so many new things that old can be fascinating.
Did You Make the Connection? – At the school we coach our children in critical thinking skills. A connection you might want to make in your house is that pioneers left their homes to make a new life for their families in another country. How does that connect with immigrants today?
Orbit Visit – The students in the primary class we’re super excited as they waited for the arrival of Orbit, the mascot for the Houston Astros. You can see pictures from the event on our Facebook page along with some pictures from stone snack. A huge thank you to Jonathan and his family for making the visit happen.
Vision and Hearing – The state of Texas requires all student four years by Sept. 1, 2018 and older to be tested for vision and hearing and a copy of the results be at the school. Our friends from Pine Woods Screening Services will be at the school on Wednesday February 20, to conduct vision and hearing test while your child is at school; look for the information form to sign up your child by Monday February 18.
CLASSROOM NEWS
Chloe, one of the newest students in the toddler class is now showing signs of contentment while at school, her tears are few and she’s now socializing with her classmates. While outside using a watering can, Chloe demonstrates to her classmates how to water the plants. Kennedy really likes puzzles, while working on the animal puzzle she counts the number of pieces in Spanish.
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