Greetings!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING
Especially for Children will be closed for Thanksgiving on Thursday & Friday, November 25 & 26. We wish you all a safe, healthy & fun Thanksgiving weekend.
For your planning purposes, we are also closed on Thursday, December 23, (floating holiday) and Friday, December 24, for Christmas, and Friday, December 31, for New Year’s.
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PARENT/TEACHER CONFERENCES
Conferences will be held via Google Meet for all classrooms in November and early December. We hope you will take the time to discuss your child’s successes in our program. Teachers will also share curriculum goals for the year and will fill you in on what your child’s day is like here at Especially for Children. You will sign up for your conference time via Sign Up Genius or let your child’s teacher know if you prefer a phone conference. Remember to return the parent questionnaire form to your child’s teacher prior to your meeting. We look forward to partnering with you in your child’s early development!
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OUTSIDE CLOTHING
Please remember to send your child(ren) to EFC with appropriate winter clothing including a warm hat, coat and mittens/gloves. It is SUPER helpful that you help label ALL items with your child’s name. That way, if things are lost, they have a much easier way finding its owner again.
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COOKING WITH KIDS
November is a month we seem to spend more time in the kitchen, and this provides a great way to create family bonding and lasting memories with your children. Cooking is a skill that helps children read, do math, and organize their work logically. This Pumpkin Pie Playdough recipe is fun to make and create with!
Pumpkin Pie Playdough
5 ½ cups flour
2 cups salt
8 TSP cream of tartar
¾ cup oil
1 ½ oz pumpkin pie spice
4 cups water
Orange food coloring if desired
Mix all ingredients together. Cook and stir over medium heat until lumps disappear. Knead the dough on floured surface until smooth.
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SHARE YOUR PASSION SPOTLIGHT
In celebration of EFC’s 45th Anniversary, we created the Share Your Passion Project to discover what inspires the people who are and have been part of the EFC community. We’d like to highlight some of the entries we’ve received so far. In addition, we would love for families to participate by sharing photos, video, words, or examples of something about which you are passionate. You can submit your entry to angiew@especiallyforchildren.com.
Gail Serbesku
EFC Teacher Since: 1997
Especially for Children – Eden Prairie
My inspiration for painting comes from my love of nature and the amazing world around us. I have always been an outdoor enthusiast. I also enjoy watching shows about our awesome Earth and the animals we share it with. Now that so many species are disappearing and their unbelievable habitat is being destroyed I feel the need to put these incredible gifts down on a canvas.
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HONORING LONG-TERM EMPLOYEES
In October we honored long-term EFC employees, as we do each year. Over half of EFC employees have been with the organization for 5 years or longer! We are so grateful for their dedication to children, families, and EFC! Here are the long-term employees who were able to make it to our event!
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20-24 Years of Service Brenda (right) |
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This summer our family had the amazing opportunity to travel to Denver and reconnect with dear friends. It involved a long road trip, some roadside rest stops, and lots of audiobooks. Luckily, the drive was easier than we feared, and the end result was completely worth it.
Our friends have children about the same age as ours, so it is always fun to reunite. Like our family, our friends love the outdoors. They take full advantage of their Colorado surroundings and spend time hiking, camping and exploring. This trip I noticed something particular about their kids: they have become expert climbers! At the park, in the yard, along the parkway…every time I looked they were scrambling up a trunk or swinging off a branch. It was amazing! And yet, there were moments when I felt myself holding my breath…were they going too high? What would happen if they slipped? And, can my kids do that?
Watching them made me recall my (much!) younger days when my sister and I would climb the neighbor’s tree. We loved the challenge of trying to reach that first branch, hoisting ourselves up and ascending into the canopy where we could see the neighborhood from a new vantage point and make up some tall tale to go along with our tree top adventure. Then, one day, we went out to find that our neighbors had cut the lowest branches so that we couldn’t reach the tree anymore. Liability, risk, danger: that was what the adults worried about, so our topiary adventures were over.
Of course adults worry about risk, for it is our job to keep our children safe as they grow. But at times, our obsession with safety could actually be causing our kids a different, more invisible type of harm. Risk is crucial for children to develop confidence, resilience and trust. It is only through taking appropriate risks that children build new skills, learn to work through failure, and develop resilience to try again. When we arrived in Colorado, my kids were a little tentative to follow their friends into the treetops, but by the end of our week there I saw them pushing themselves a little bit higher, and saw their smiles grow wider each time they conquered a new branch. It was a risk definitely worth taking.
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TWIN CITIES
FAMILY EVENTS
11/7-1/9 Annie, Children's Theatre, Minneapolis
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Especially for Children
3300 Edinborough Way
Edina MN 55435
(952) 835-0505
Center Co-Directors
Anna Wilson and Samantha Baker
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