Dates and events
October 19Priority Spring semester enrollment begins
November 9
Picture day
November 25
Spring semester priority enrollment ends
November 26-27
Thanksgiving recess – center closed
November 30-December 4
Parent/teacher conferences
December 21-24
Break week – center is open but you must pre-register for care
December 25-January 1
Closure – center closed
January 4-8
Break week – center is open but you must pre-register for care
News
Helping children develop self-discipline
Children’s misbehavior can be frustrating and disturbing to adults, but we can also see it as an opportunity to teach, a chance to model self-discipline and character. Emotional development, like other learning, takes time and learning opportunities. And children, being the excellent imitators they are, will follow our example – for better or worse.
If we yell at children, they will yell; if we hit them, they will hit. Or they will become the perpetual victims of others’ aggression. We get better results when we discipline calmly and teach our children to express their feelings in acceptable ways. When teachers share, children share; when parents are courteous, children are more cooperative.
Here are a few things we do in the classroom; they also work for parents.
Be clear and consistent. Set and discuss rules and consequences. Rules should be clear, simple, and few. Some adults have only one basic rule: You may not hurt yourself, others, or things. For example, to stop a child from hitting another child, kneel and calmly state, “You may not hit Ben. People are not for hitting.” Then add, “I know you are angry. Can you tell me why? …OK, how can you let Ben know that you want to use the blue crayon?”
Offer choices. “Do you want to brush your teeth now, or do you want to brush after we read a story?” “Would you like milk or juice with your snack?”
Ignore certain behavior, like cursing or stomping, if it is not harmful. A child will quickly learn that he will gain nothing by acting up. On the other hand, he will learn that good behavior gets results and a favorable reaction from grown-ups.
No matter what we adults do, there are times when children lose control. Aggressive acts may call for removing the child from the action in a brief time-out. However, a time-out period may backfire if used in the spirit of punishment (“Go to your room right now!”). The point is to give the child a few minutes to cool down. Those minutes come in handy, too, for helping a frustrated parent or teacher cool down and think of what to do next!
(Taken from Deborah Diffily and Kathy Morrison, e. (1997). Family-Friendly Communication for Early Childhood Programs. Washington DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.)
Scholastic book orders
We are once again offering parents the opportunity to purchase reasonably priced children’s books. Book orders will be online. We are planning to offer new book choices about every month. You recently received a letter containing information to access book orders.
www.scholastic.com/parentordering
Class User Name: wmuchildrensplace
Password: western
November book orders will be available online from November 9 through November 13.
In addition to reasonably priced books for your family, your purchases earn free books for our classrooms. Books ordered through this program will be delivered to the center and distributed by our staff. In the past, turnaround time on books has been around one week.
NAEYC accreditation
We became accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children a little over 4 years ago. During that time we have been striving to continue to meet the standards of the accreditation. Our accreditation expires in April of 2010. This last year we have been working hard to be prepared for the re-accreditation process. Our classroom teachers have put many hours into the process.
The parent surveys we do every semester is a part of maintaining this accreditation. Although a parent survey is required once a year, we have felt it is important to get feedback much more often. In addition to the questions we are required to ask, we add questions to help guide us in policy and procedural changes. Your input has been invaluable. We have another online survey coming out in November. Please watch for the survey and give us your feedback.
Baby, it’s cold out there
Winter looks like it is quickly approaching. We go outside to play everyday unless it is rainy or too cold. We define too cold as the temperature being in single digits after the wind chill is taken into account.
We strongly suggest the following items for your child during the rest of the season:
- Warm coat
- Snow pants or extra pants to change
into if their pants get wet (once the
snow falls) - Gloves or mittens (good
to have even without snow) - Hat or hood
- Extra socks (snow does get inside
the boots sometimes)
You can leave some of these items in your child’s locker or on their hook. Please label them so we don’t lose these valuable items. (We have markers here if you would like to use them.) I often suggest an inexpensive pair of snow pants from Goodwill or a resale shop to leave at the center.