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OCTOBER HAPPENINGS
The leaves are falling - fall must be here! Our teachers are planning lots of fun and festive activities to help us celebrate the beginning of autumn. Remember to keep seasonally appropriate clothes at the center; including a light jacket, hat and mittens for those chillier days ahead. We will continue going outside every day.
DIRECTOR UPDATE
Anna and Samantha will be out of the office Wednesday-Friday, October 5-7, for a director's conference. If you need something urgently, email us at
EFC07@especiallyforchildren.com
and we will get back to you as soon as we are able.
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OCTOBER PRESCHOOL FIELD TRIP
On Tuesday, October 11, the Puppy, Penguin & Polar Bear classes will be going to Minnesota Harvest Apple Orchard in Jordan. The children will have an opportunity to go on a wagon ride through the apple orchard, and pick their own apples. The bus will leave at 9 and we will return to the center just before rest time. Please have your children dressed for the weather & bring a bag lunch!
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HALLOWEEN PARTY
Join us for our annual Halloween Party on Thursday, October 27, 6-7:30 PM.
Our staff will host a variety of fun activities for children of all ages. A light snack & apple cider will be served. Please pick up your child by 5:30 so we can close the doors and get ready!
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TRICK OR TREATING
The preschool children will go trick or treating in the office building on Monday, October 31. Please bring your child's costume and a trick or treat bag. Don't forget to label all the pieces of the costume!
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DEVELOPMENTAL SCREENING
Early childhood developmental screening is a check of a child's development, vision, hearing, growth, health history and immunizations. Screening takes approximately 1 hour and a parent or legal guardian stays with the child during the process. Edina School District is offering screening by appointment on select days in November and December. This screening must be completed before starting kindergarten in a Minnesota public school. For more information, visit:
http://www.edinaschools.org/Page/305
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EIGHT WAYS TO GET PICKY EATERS TO BECOME MORE ADVENTUROUS
Getting children to eat new foods sounds simple enough ("Just take one bite"). But parents and caretakers know that for many children, new foods - with their new appearances, smells, tastes, textures, temperatures and names - can be scary.
Try these eight fun tips
to lay a foundation for stress-free, adventurous eating habits before the first bite.
Story Time:
Learn about foods and recipes from around the world, including what children in different cultures eat. Read about food-based professions such as bakers, farmers and chefs. Watch cooking shows and videos with your children about cooking and food prep.
Scrumptious Smells:
Smell is a significant and sometimes forgotten part of the eating experience. Playing games to positively engage with food smells outside of mealtimes can demystify the experience. Use spice jars to guess scents. Or add vanilla extract to bubbles before blowing them outside. These non-eating activities will build happy associations with new smells before you use them in recipes.
Unleash the Artist:
Make art projects using food. Use fruit to make stamps: halved strawberries make heart-shaped stamps, and halved apples are star-shaped. Use a string to make garlands or jewelry from uncooked pasta, popcorn or cranberries.
Flip the Script:
Do you find yourself telling friends and family, "My child is a picky eater"? Train yourself to use hopeful language instead: "My child is learning to love new things." Instead of "He doesn't like it," say, "He hasn't had it enough times." Using positive statements will validate your child's feelings in your mind while recognizing that opinions can change.
Sort by Color:
Chop brightly colored fruits and vegetables such as red cherry tomatoes, green kiwis and purple grapes into small pieces. Practice sorting them by color while saying the color aloud. This can cultivate an acceptance of new textures by allowing your child to focus on the game rather than on his or her discomfort with new foods.
Name It:
Which do you think your child would rather eat: steamed carrots or X-Ray Vision Coins? In the same way that descriptions on restaurant menus can influence what you order, creative names in the kitchen or cafeteria can pique a child's interest.
Shine the Spotlight:
Many children love being the star, so use that instinct to explore new foods. Take videos of your child speaking to his or her ideal audience - a younger sibling, a stuffed animal, a favorite superhero - about trying new foods.
Get in the Garden:
A garden not only improves children's knowledge of produce, it increases their consumption of fruits and vegetables. From flipping through seed catalogs in the winter, to starting seeds in the spring, to weeding and harvesting all summer long, gardens can be joyful and patient teachers.
Reviewed March 2016 Holly Larson, MS, RD, is a nutrition expert, freelance writer and owner of Grass Roots Nutrition based in Oxford, OH.
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| Angie Williams |
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INTELLECT, THEN ACADEMICS
Every child is, by nature, an intellectual being--a curious, sense-making person, who is continuously seeking to understand his or her physical and social environments.
- Peter Gray, Ph.D
An intellectual mind is one that seeks to understand meaning through questions, observation and analysis. As children grow, their innate intellects develop--they are always trying to make sense of the world around them and their own place in it.
Academic skills
are those geared toward a correct answer; they are learned through practice, memorization and formulas. Academic skills can aid in intellectual pursuits, and they become necessary as children enter their school age years. But research shows that for young children, fostering the intellect through play-based learning curriculum first is vital to the development of lifelong skills in all areas.
Clancy Blair, Professor of Cognitive Psychology at NYU, has studied a neurobiological model of school readiness. He has found that "preschool programs are best when they focus on social, emotional and intellectual goals rather than narrow academic goals. On the basis of his model, an intellectually rather than academically focused approach is most likely to yield desirable 'school readiness' as well as longer term benefits." (Lively Minds: Distinctions between academic versus intellectual goals for young children, Lilian G. Katz, PhD).
Young children who are exposed to environments that stimulate their intellectual curiosity through play, investigation and social interactions enjoy the learning process because it stems naturally from the way their minds work. And when children begin to attribute meaning to academic concepts, they will find more long-term success in mastering those concepts. For instance, they may think, Why does science matter, and what makes it interesting? It helps me to figure out what my mind is naturally curious about (e.g. Why is it cloudy today? Will it be cloudy or sunny tomorrow?)
Furthermore, learning environments that emphasize emotional and social development help children to acquire lifelong skills such as resilience, self-regulation and initiative that are tied to school and work success:
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In many studies, behavioral self-
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regulation contributes to achievement even after controlling for initial achievement levels and other background variables such as child IQ, age, ethnicity, and parent education level."*
At Especially for Children, our goal is to create learning environments that support intellectual, social and emotional development first. We then introduce academic concepts in a developmentally appropriate way so that intellectual and academic development can support one another.
For more information on this important topic, read:
Angie Williams
Marketing Director
*School Readiness: Integrating Cognition and Emotion in a Neurobiological Conceptualization of Children's Functioning at School Entry, Blair
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TWIN CITIES
FAMILY EVENTS
10/22-10/30 (wknds) ZooBoo, Como Zoo, Saint Paul
Apple Orchards & Pumpkin Patches
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These amazing directors have been with Especially for Children for over 20 years! We are incredibly grateful for their hard work, dedication to children and families, senses of humor, commitment to the staff at their centers and so much more.
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