Haven't we all had those winter mornings where we'd just like to stay in bed for the day? Well, beginning Monday January 31st everyone's mornings should get a bit easier (at least for the week) as we bring back the always popular Pajama Week! The children are invited to wear their jammies, bring a stuffies, slippers, robes, etc. and join us for a week of pajama fun...
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A Halloween Favorite from The Frog...
Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate (five fingers up and count them down with each line) The first one said "Oh my, it's getting late!" The second one said "There's magic in the air" The third one said "I don't care!" The fourth one said " I'm ready for some fun!" The fifth one said "let's run and run and run..." WHOOOO when the wind(make windy motion with hands) and OUT (loud clap) went the lights and the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.... (roll hands around each other) Happy Halloween! The leaves are falling and the leaf piles are being formed- and jumped in- on a fairly regular basis these days at The Frog! We have been using maple leaf shaped papers to write our latest letters to our New Zealand Pen Pals, as well. On Monday we will be sending off a package filled with letters and pictures of fall and Halloween to share with our new friends.
Next week we will begin exploring pumpkins and all the fun & creative things we can do with them. We have had several requests for it... so here it is, at last - the Sleeping Bunnies song! This has been a favorite at The Frog for a long time. Sleeping Bunnies is a great outlet for excess energy on those rainy days when your child just needs to move around and outside is not an appealing option. The Tree Frog children all know what to do as soon as the song begins, so have fun...
(it's worth mentioning that each of the teachers has a slightly different version of the song, so if your child corrects you on the wording they may be more familiar with a variation on the song below) Sleeping Bunnies See the little bunnies sleeping 'til it’s nearly noon Come and let us gently wake them with a happy tune They're so still, are they ill? wake up now Hop little bunnies, hopping, hopping, Hop little bunnies, hop, hop, Hop little bunnies, hopping, hopping, Hop little bunnies, hop, and stop! (and right about now you will likely hear your child say "AGAIN!!") SEPTEMBER always feels like a new beginning....
The children have returned to the big school next door, some of our long-time friends are off to kindergarten and new friends have begun to join us at Tree Frog- including our newest teacher, Rita (look for her staff bio to be added to the Caregiver Page soon.) The first part of September will be "All about Me" at The Frog, as we explore the theme of getting to know each other by doing activities about self and family... watch for some great portraits to come home! Yesterday we also received our first package in the mail from our New Zealand penpals- so we will be spending some time over the next while writing back to them and telling them more about ourselves, our families and life on Salt Spring. The second half of September will be Fall Fair at Tree Frog! We will be talking about the Salt Spring Fall Fair before it happens, as well as after we've all had a chance to check it out on September 18th & 19th. This theme will include our annual Tree Frog Fall Fair Table, which always brings an impressive array of entries from the children, followed by our Fall Fair soup. For more information about entries, please visit the Frog Family Page. Happy September to you! What an exciting week of visitors! On Monday we had Mika and Liam come to Tree Frog with the fun and exciting Travelling Puppet Show thanks to Salt Spring Island Public Library, and funded by IslandLink Library Federation and Young Canada Works. The children were enchanted by the magic of the puppets and the stories they were used to tell! Liam and Mika held their complete attention with their enthusiasm and encouraged the children to participate by speaking with the puppets. Following the show, the children had an opportunity to "meet" the puppets- to touch them and interact with them, before moving on to a puppet making activity also provided by Mika and Liam. Thank you very much to the Liam & Mika, Salt Spring Island Public Library, IslandLink Library Federation and Young Canada Works for bringing this great show to us! Check back soon for photos of the fun! On Thursday we will be having a visit from Tree Frog's very first Coordinator, Anne Hohmann. Anne and her family left Salt Spring years ago to sail the world before settling in New Zealand. She is currently here for a holiday and will be coming back to The Frog for a visit and to deliver cards from the children of Parua Bay Childcare Centre (known colloquially as Pukeko Place.) We will be sending her home with cards and letters of our own to begin our Friends Across the Miles Pen Pals relationship. We are all looking forward to sharing our Salt Spring way of life, and to learning more about life in New Zealand from our new friends! Summer sunshine and splashing seem to be the perfect pairing. As the summer gets underway, waterplay is becoming a huge part of our day again. Whether we are floating things in it, pouring it, watering the flowers, washing cars and bikes or splashing about in it... we seem sure to spend a part of every day playing in water, getting our clothes wet... and LOVING IT!
With the beginning of a new season, we are seeing more changes come to The Frog.
Last Friday, June 25th was Dara's last day with us. This will be a huge change for us as we all get used to being at Tree Frog without him after more than 12 years. Dara has asked that his thanks and his love be passed on to everyone for his party, gifts, and most of all- the enormous amount of love we sent him off with! With this change in staffing we will be spending time with some new teachers over summer. Malindi and Mandie are both new to Salt Spring and we look forward to getting to know them better. And, as we eagerly await the beginning of the true summer weather, we get ready to greet more new children to The Frog.... summer is the perfect season for making new friends and enjoying the beauty of our wooded yard! Happy summer to you all! This week is a celebration of dads and all the reasons we love them! We have been reading stories and discussing what makes our dads so great. And of course, the children are happily creating special surprises to share with their dads this Sunday (June 20th.) To all you special men out there, Happy Father's Day from The Frog!
This does not just apply to 4 year olds!
(and thanks for taking the time to read this...) What should a 4 year old know? By Alicia Bayer of Magical Childhood (used with permission.) I was on a parenting bulletin board recently and read a post by a mother who was worried that her 4 1/2 year old did not know enough. “What should a 4 year old know?” she asked.1. She should know that she is loved wholly and unconditionally, all of the time. Most of the answers left me not only saddened but pretty soundly annoyed. One mom posted a laundry list of all of the things her son knew. Counting to 100, planets, how to write his first and last name, and on and on. Others chimed in with how much more their children already knew, some who were only 3. A few posted URL’s to lists of what each age should know. The fewest yet said that each child develops at his own pace and not to worry. It bothered me greatly to see these mothers responding to a worried mom by adding to her concern, with lists of all the things their children could do that hers couldn’t. We are such a competitive culture that even our preschoolers have become trophies and bragging rights. Childhood shouldn’t be a race. So here, I offer my list of what a 4 year old should know. 1. He should know that he is safe and he should know how to keep himself safe in public, with others, and in varied situations. He should know that he can trust his instincts about people and that he never has to do something that doesn’t feel right, no matter who is asking. He should know his personal rights and that his family will back them up. 2. She should know how to laugh, act silly, be goofy and use her imagination. She should know that it is always okay to paint the sky orange and give cats 6 legs. 3. He should know his own interests and be encouraged to follow them. If he could care less about learning his numbers, his parents should realize he’ll learn them accidentally soon enough and let him immerse himself instead in rocket ships, drawing, dinosaurs or playing in the mud. 4. She should know that the world is magical and that so is she. She should know that she’s wonderful, brilliant, creative, compassionate and marvelous. She should know that it’s just as worthy to spend the day outside making daisy chains, mud pies and fairy houses as it is to practice phonics. Scratch that– way more worthy. But more important, here’s what parents need to know. 1. That every child learns to walk, talk, read and do algebra at his own pace and that it will have no bearing on how well he walks, talks, reads or does algebra. 2. That the single biggest predictor of high academic achievement and high ACT scores is reading to children. Not flash cards, not workbooks, not fancy preschools, not blinking toys or computers, but mom or dad taking the time every day or night (or both!) to sit and read them wonderful books. 3. That being the smartest or most accomplished kid in class has never had any bearing on being the happiest. We are so caught up in trying to give our children “advantages” that we’re giving them lives as multi-tasked and stressful as ours. One of the biggest advantages we can give our children is a simple, carefree childhood. 4. That our children deserve to be surrounded by books, nature, art supplies and the freedom to explore them. Most of us could get rid of 90% of our children’s toys and they wouldn’t be missed, but some things are important– building toys like legos and blocks, creative toys like all types of art materials (good stuff), musical instruments (real ones and multicultural ones), dress up clothes and books, books, books. (Incidentally, much of this can be picked up quite cheaply at thrift shops.) They need to have the freedom to explore with these things too– to play with scoops of dried beans in the high chair (supervised, of course), to knead bread and make messes, to use paint and play dough and glitter at the kitchen table while we make supper even though it gets everywhere, to have a spot in the yard where it’s absolutely fine to dig up all the grass and make a mud pit. 5. That our children need more of us. We have become so good at saying that we need to take care of ourselves that some of us have used it as an excuse to have the rest of the world take care of our kids. Yes, we all need undisturbed baths, time with friends, sanity breaks and an occasional life outside of parenthood. But we live in a time when parenting magazines recommend trying to commit to 10 minutes a day with each child and scheduling one Saturday a month as family day. That’s not okay! Our children don’t need Nintendos, computers, after school activities, ballet lessons, play groups and soccer practice nearly as much as they need US. They need fathers who sit and listen to their days, mothers who join in and make crafts with them, parents who take the time to read them stories and act like idiots with them. They need us to take walks with them and not mind the .1 MPH pace of a toddler on a spring night. They deserve to help us make supper even though it takes twice as long and makes it twice as much work. They deserve to know that they’re a priority for us and that we truly love to be with them. And now back to those 4 year old skills lists…..http://www.worldbook.com/wb/Students?curriculum Since we homeschool, I occasionally print out the lists and check to see if there’s anything glaringly absent in what my kids know. So far there hasn’t been, but I get ideas sometimes for subjects to think up games about or books to check out from the library. Whether you homeschool or not, the lists can be useful to see what kids typically learn each year and can be reassuring that they really are doing fine.http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/early.htm I know it’s human nature to want to know how our children compare to others and to want to make sure we’re doing all we can for them. Here is a list of what children are typically taught or should know by the end of each year of school, starting with preschool: If there are areas where it seems your child is lacking, realize that it’s not an indication of failure for either you or your child. You just haven’t happened to cover that. Kids will learn whatever they’re exposed to, and the idea that they all need to know these 15 things at this precise age is rather silly. Still, if you want him to have those subjects covered then just work it into life and play with the subject and he’ll naturally pick it up. Count to 60 when you’re mixing a cake and he’ll pick up his numbers. Get fun books from the library about space or the alphabet. Experiment with everything from backyard snow to celery stalks in food coloring. It’ll all happen naturally, with much more fun and much less pressure. My favorite advice about preschoolers is on this site though: What does a 4 year old need? Much less than we realize, and much more. |