News

Awhile ago I posted a blog on risk taking and young children. I find this a really fascinating topic. Every human parent takes keeping their child safe as a fundamental responsibility. So why should we let our children take risks? How does that fit in with keeping them safe? I ran across another really good article on this subject I want to share. It makes the point that teaching children to assess risk is a very important part of their learning. Enjoy!

I often say children are little learning machines. You really don’t have to tell any child that learning is a good idea. They know that. They spend all their time and energy on the task of learning. As I was walking through the toddler yard the other day I saw a fantastic example of this that contains important feedback for teachers and parents.

You have heard from me before about the very important role dramatic play has in a young child’s learning and education. To help us focus as a school on enriching our dramatic play, we have been having regular time set aside in our staff meetings for teachers to report on the dramatic play that is going on in their classrooms. At our last staff meeting one of our teachers shared a terrific example of how rich in educational content dramatic play can be.

On July 16th at 4:00 in the afternoon, after several weeks of practice, our graduates, their teachers, and the families of the graduates gathered in the Senior Preschool yard for their graduation ceremony. Graduation clothes were donned, performance props were gathered, chairs were arranged . . . we were ready! The parents were seated and when all was ready, the graduates danced in to a jazzy piece of music to take their seats.

I had a really eye-opening conversation with one of our teachers the other day. This teacher was working her way through some challenges in her life. I asked her how she was doing as I greeted her one morning. She recounted how the children were helping her and giving her the strength she needed. Here’s what she said. (The names below have been changed to preserve privacy.)

Children start working on peer relationships even before they are mobile. During the years between birth and six, children spend lots of time and energy working on social skills. As the article, 'Children's Peer Relationships Have Enormous Influence' indicates, a child's skills at entering a group of peers, self expression, assertion, listening, negotiation, empathy, and forgiveness are very important for a successful learning and a satisfying childhood.

We’re all seeing articles and reports of research on the importance of giving children unrestricted and unstructured time to play. In our busy lives with our emphasis on education, some of us tend to fill up our children’s time with lessons, excursions, and lots of coaching from the adults. What gets left out is time for children to simply play and work on their own ideas, relying on their own resources.

Take a look at this article 'Plugged-In Parents' to help you reflect on the quality of your time with your children when you are with them as you drop them off at school, pick them up, or take them to the park.

April 12 – April 16th was the official Week of the Young Child. At CPSC, celebrating young children is a daily phenomenon. As a matter of fact, we spend all our time every day celebrating the beauty, the love, the generosity, the creative ideas, and the unique capacities of every young child in our CPSC community. Even so, we held a special event as we do every year for parents and children to celebrate the young children at CPSC together.

Each year a teacher works within the CPSC community, our hope is he/she gains skills, advances professionally, becomes a more dedicated early childhood educator, and becomes increasing connected to others in this early childhood community. Alma (left) and Heather (right) were celebrated by their colleagues as they arrived at two important anniversaries. Alma has been teaching with CPSC for 10 years and Heather for 5. We will work hard to make sure they remain as happy in their work as they look in this picture.

As we move into spring and summer, we are all looking forward to spending time outside. And while we are still getting some spring showers, we will be getting more and more sunshine.

The sun provides us with light and warmth. It also puts out UV rays that can harm our skin. This can happen even on cloudy days. Too much exposure to UV rays from the sun can cause painful sunburns and increase the risk of skin cancer. And even though it’s often thought of as a sign of health, a sun tan is actually a sign of damaged skin.

It is common for preschoolers to be reluctant to try new foods, refuse certain types of foods, or decide they only want to eat one or two favorite foods. Some children dislike the textures or appearance of certain foods. Some children just don’t like new things. For other children, it is a way of exploring their independence.

Sometimes it can be hard to find ways to fit healthy eating into our busy schedules. Here are a few simple tips that can help your family find ways to eat healthier.

Norma Leonardo celebrated her 20th anniversary as a CPSC teacher! That's a long time! And for each of those 20 years Norma has dedicated herself to loving and cherishing some of our youngest CPSC children. Norma receives cards, a cake, and gifts to honor her at her 20th Anniversary celebrationLeading the Butterfly classroom for many years now, many parents have trusted Norma with their first baby, their second baby, and even their third baby.

Twice a year, we gather information about our snacks and hot lunches and send it to a nutritionist. She analyzes the information and sends us her analysis and any recommendations she has. The information she provides helps us make sure we are meeting the children’s nutritional needs. We are currently in this process, and will share with you any changes that we will be making based on her recommendations.

Over the next few weeks, I would like to share some simple tips about healthy eating.

CeCe and Teresa enjoy their anniversary celebration.Consistency is so important for young children. Relationships with teachers who know you well and on whom you can depend to be there every day for you are the platform from which children can launch themselves into learning. CeCe Dunn and Teresa Rojas have both been with us for many years. CeCe celebrated her 10th anniversary at CPSC and Teresa celebrated her 5th. We honored them at a recent staff meeting with commerative plates.

Vania plays a Brazilian instrument to Carnival music to the delight of the soon to be dancing children.

February is National Children’s Dental Health Month. The American Dental Association sponsors this observance to help raise awareness about the importance of dental health in children. Although primary or baby teeth will fall out, they play an important role in nutrition, speech development, and self-esteem, as well as acting as place holders for permanent or adult teeth.

I walked into a classroom to find one of our almost 3 year old little girls, Allie, crying by her cubby. April, her teacher, was with her, asking her why she was sad. She mournfully explained that she really wanted her Mommy. April and I both talked with her. We told her we could really see that she was very sad because her Mommy wasn’t there. April asked her if her mom was coming to pick her up this afternoon. No answer, just sobs and tears. “Do you want to write a letter to Mommy and tell her how sad you were?” “No. I just want my Mommy!” More sobs and tears.

CSPC is proud to have a long history of NAEYC Accreditation. This accreditation program, created and administered by the National Association for the Education of Young Children is an excellent tool to use to assure ourselves that we are putting into practice the latest research on how to help children learn and develop optimally and keep ourselves at the forefront of the early childhood field. We have held our NAEYC Accreditation since 1991 and have thus proved repeatedly that we are capable of maintaining these very high quality standards.

In the last week, there have been a few product recalls affecting children's products. I wanted to share some information about these recalls for any families that might have products affected by the recalls.

This week is National Influenza Vaccination Week. This year the focus is on H1N1 influenza (swine flu) vaccines. Although this vaccine was initially only available in limited quantities to a few high risk groups, more vaccine is now available and all groups are being encouraged to get vaccinated.