December 23, 2021

Celebrate Christmas With Us!

While Westchester Lutheran has two services on Christmas Eve - 4:30pm and 10:00pm, you are especially invited to attend the 4:30pm Christmas Eve service as it is geared more towards families, with a special Children's message for young children. If you do not have a church home, we invite you to join us as we celebrate Christ's birth!

How to keep your preschooler busy during the next week

Hang a white sheet on the fence outside. Put liquid watercolors (diluted food coloring) into spray bottles and you and your child can spray colors all over the sheet. You'll have a colorful masterpiece!
Cut up old Christmas cards (help your child hold the scissors correctly) and let your child glue them on paper.
Plan for a pizza party...together you can make mini pizzas on English muffin halves. Let the kids color paper to make placemats for the pizza party.
Make painted toast. Put a few drops of food coloring in little cups of milk. Let your child paint white bread with the milk, and then toast the bread in a toaster oven.
Have a painting party outside - provide rollers and big paint brushes and a tub of water. The children can paint the sidewalk, house, everything!
Movie Night with popcorn and cocoa...(or Movie afternoon!)
Bake cookies and decorate them, letting your child pour in ingredients, stir, etc...Have a tea party when the cookies are done.
Go on a Candy Cane hunt around the house (like a scavenger hunt)
Go to a park and run, run, run!
Gather fabric scraps, pieces of ribbon, and buttons and together make collages
Push some furniture together and cover with sheets and blankets to make a big tent.
Make a terrarium in a large glass container with potting soil and add some little seedlings.
Tape a big piece of butcher paper or wrapping paper on the wall as an area to draw on
Visit one of the museums in the area - California Science Center, Aquarium of the Pacific, the Roundhouse on the Manhattan Beach pier.
Hang a clothesline across one of your rooms and make that room the Art Museum. Paint with watercolors, and hang up the masterpieces.
Fold a coffee filter into 8ths, get out the watercolors and dab the filters. Open them up and hang on clothesline.

CLEANING OUT YOUR OLD TOYS TO MAKE ROOM FOR NEW?

We will gladly take donations of "like new" toys that are COMPLETE and not damaged. We are especially in need of:

MagnaTiles
Big tonka-type trucks and dirt-movers
Simple train set
Baby dolls with clothing for them
Simple small playhouse for our toddler yard

We would also love to have some cozy furniture to snuggle up in. If you have a small love seat or cozy upholstered chair, we would gladly take them off of your hands. Our rooms are large and can handle some soft places to sit in our book corners. Talk to Shirley if you have one to donate. Thank you!

From all the staff and myself....to those that gave financial gifts in response to the church request....thank you so much! And to the others that brought in gifts and cards, we are very grateful.

Have a wonderful holiday time with your family, and we look forward to welcoming your little ones back in January!

Screen time guidelines for preschoolers

Preschoolers learn by interacting with the world around them. They need to be physically active — to run, climb, and swing on the playground — and to have time to be creative, figure things out, and use their imaginations through play.

Time spent with screens (like a TV, tablet, or smartphone) can help reinforce learning and promote creative play when you choose educational programs, games, and apps. But too much screen time may lead to learning and sleep problems and increase a child’s chances of obesity.

For this reason, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends limiting the time that preschoolers spend in front of a screen. It's good advice — but in today's world, it can be tough to keep kids away from all the TVs, tablets, computers, smartphones, and gaming systems they'll see. That’s why parents need to set limits on how much time their kids spend in front of a screen.

How Much Is Too Much?

Preschoolers ages 2 to 5 can watch up to 1 hour a day of high-quality educational programming. The exception to this rule is video chatting with grandparents or other family friends, which is considered quality time interacting with others.

Screen Time Tips

The same parenting rules apply to screen time as to anything else — set a good example, establish limits, and talk with your child about it.

To make your preschooler's screen time more productive:

Be with young kids during screen time and interact with them. That can mean playing an educational game with your child or talking about something you see together in an age-appropriate TV show or video.
Research games and apps before getting them for your child. Thousands of apps and games claim to be educational, but not all of them are. Search online to see which ones educators and doctors consider the best. When possible, preview before sharing with your child.
Schedule plenty of non-screen time into your child's day. Playtime is important for learning and building creativity. Preschoolers should have time to play away from screens every day. Schedule lots of time for hands-on learning and interacting with caregivers and friends. Also, make sure your child is physically active every day and gets plenty of sleep.
Turn off screens during meals and at least 1 hour before bed. Keep TVs and other electronics out of kids’ bedrooms.
Set a good example. Turn off TVs and other screens when not in use. Don’t leave screens on in the background. Turn off or mute your phone when you’re not using it, like during family meals, and make time to focus on playing with your child.

We will be CLOSED for Christmas Break

December 24th through January 1.

When I look at books and listen to stories I learn...

that books are important and enjoyable
that print is written-down words
to handle books with care
to recognize certain words when I see them in print
to use more complex language patterns in my own speech
to follow the development of thoughts and ideas in the plot of a story

We are grateful to those of you who have been sharing info about our new center with your friends and acquaintances. We will welcome 12 more children to our center in January! We are starting waiting lists for the infant, toddler, and two year old classes. There is still room for a few more three and four year olds. Thanks for spreading the word!

Our center has a Facebook page.

Check it out, "like" us, and "follow" us!