SHOW AND TELL
Bring a red thing, a white thing, and a blue thing.
Topic: Colonial Times
How our founding fathers lived.
The value is courage, which means we are willing to deal with difficult, painful, or scary things.
For safety we’ll practice how to deal with scary situations.
Outside we’ll play hoops and horseshoes.
The songs we’ll be singing are America the Beautiful, The Star Spangled Banner, Yankee Doodle, You’re a Grand Old Flag, Camptown Races, and Polly Wolly Doodle.
Our art activities are quilting, silhouettes, weaving , peek-a-boo picture, and wind sock.
Creative dramatics will be practicing how we would act in some scary situations.
For motor development we’ll build stamina with dance freeze and jello. For body development, we’ll work on motor planning with follow the leader, swimming, obstacle course, and hopscotch.
THE DANGER OF ANGER
One of the most distressing things our parents hear about is that their child has been scratched, bruised, pinched, or bitten in a fight. The idea of violence among toddlers is particularly horrific. We want peace, not mayhem. Everyone wants a peaceful life – peaceful on the outside and peaceful on the inside. A positive environment is crucial if we are determined to raise children as no-limit people. (See Wayne Dyer’s book What Do You Really Want for Your Children? for an explanation of this term.) We cannot constantly expose them to the vagaries of anger and hostility and then expect them to cultivate an inner serenity. We have a choice in what kind of environment we provide for our children. If our children constantly view anger and fighting, they will develop into fighters. If we exercise no discipline over our own emotional reactions around children, we will see undisciplined children emerge.
We are confused about the conflicts in Iran, in Indonesia, and in Africa. Yet we boil when a salesclerk doesn’t respond to us fast enough, someone cuts us off in traffic, or a waiter brings our meal without the sour cream. Our national family cries out for peace and shudders at the excessive amounts of anger and hatred in our country. It all begins in the smallest units, the marriage and the family, and then it goes to the next units, our workplace and school. If our children are raised on peace and serenity, they will become no-limit people who will live peaceful lives and help others do the same. Anger immobilizes us and saps our energy to do constructive work. It’s a choice we make. No excuses. If we want the world to change, we must start with ourselves.
The child who grows up with no-limit values places a high premium on solving problems. It’s a choice to deflate anger and antagonism. If a situation presents itself where we find ourselves turning red, we can chose to step out of ourselves and deal with it as a challenge rather than as a frustration. Children can be taught the same technique. When they are frustrated about not having a toy or having to go to bed, listen to their opinion. It might not hurt a thing to go to bed with the toy car. Or maybe the tricycle can sit beside the bed until morning. The choice is ours. We can become emotional wrecks and keep a warring atmosphere in our environments, or we can accept that our little person is doing the best he can do and work out a creative solution for everyone’s peace of mind. To get ourselves out of immobilizing anger with the far greater peaceful, no-limit approach to our lives is worth the really hard work that it takes. It’s our choice. No excuses. The danger of anger is that it carries far too great a cost to our children.
For Your Information
Why Encourage Real Books? - In Newsweek magazine recently, Kashmira Gander describes a research project that assessed whether there was a difference in interactions between parents and children when paper books or ebooks were used. Gander reports that: “Parents and toddlers who read paper books together speak and interact more when compared with those who read e-books… Researchers found parents and toddlers spoke more when interacting with a paper book rather than a story on an electronic tablet. What’s more, parents used richer language when using print books compared with tablets, and collaborated more with their children.”
In the Enrichment Curriculum – We’ll be focusing in our Colonial Times theme on symbols of American heritage like customs around the flag, songs we sing about our nation, and the pledge of allegiance. We’ll talk about why we have so many rules about our flag and we’ll imagine what it would be like to be an eagle. We would love to have you partner with us in these learnings.
classroom news
In the toddler class, Aaron is working on identifying various shapes. Edie enjoys working with the sock matching work, this work helps in building memory, concentration, and matching skills. Nathan spent some of his time working with the locks and latches work which helps to encourage manual dexterity and coordination and the offers the opportunity to use the pincer grip and wrist movement. Aafiyah likes the bead stringing work. It seems like a simple task, but how fulfilling when a child accomplishes it. Bead Stringing is an activity from Practical Life; it helps a child develop concentration, fine motor control, and confidence.
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