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What Toni Morrison Taught Me About Parenting by Brene Brown
NewsParenting preschoolers is not an easy business. I read this short piece by Brene Brown on what she learnt about parenting from Toni Morrison, and it resonated with me. How often is the first thought, when we see our children, not one of joy of their presence in our lives but how they look or act.
We need to think back to our own childhood and remember how it felt when we saw our parent for the first time after school. What did they say and how did it make us feel.
To build resilient children they need to understand that they might not always be the best, the first or get what they want, and our job is to help children develop that resilience within themselves.
“When kids know they have the unconditional support of a parent, family member, or even a teacher, they feel empowered to seek guidance and make attempts to work through difficult situations. Positive connections allow adults to model coping and problem-solving skills to children.” Kate Hurley LSCW
And part of that process is showing that unconditional joy and love at their presence in our lives. We as parents cannot, and should not, fix every problem that arises, but question, discuss and work through problems with a child to an understanding of why things have happened the way they have. Sometimes that means that the child will not get what they want, but that is building character and the resilience to understand the way of the world.
We cannot start this process too early, as children who are able to work through and accept life’s challenges while still moving forward in their lives, grow into teenagers and adults who can make informed decisions and have better outcomes for themselves and those around them.
– Louise Murfet Director/Nominated Supervisor/Educational Leader Jacaranda Preschool.
https://brenebrown.com/articles/2019/08/07/what-toni-morrison-taught-me-about-parenting/
Pack your child a healthy lunchbox
NewsIt’s always hard knowing what to put in your child’s lunchbox. Munch and Move an initiative of NSW Health have formulated this poster to help in the understanding of what makes a healthy lunchbox. It is best to add a variety of foods from each food group – fruit, vegetables, dairy, wholegrains and lean meat and alternatives.
Remember always – make water your drink, pack icebricks to keep food cool (not necessary for us as we at Jacaranda put lunches into the fridge) – use a thermos to keep food warm.
And, of course, use a sustainable lunchbox which will mean that you have cut down on as much packaging as possible and recycle or reuse your waste.
AHealthyLunchboxPoster
Why it’s good for children to take their shoes off
NewsFive reasons why it’s good for children to take their shoes off
Felicity Barclay
Sand between your toes, a warm path on a sunny day, prickly grass, cool water, squelchy mud —What experiences are we denying children when we insist that they “keep their shoes on”? Here are five good reasons to lose the shoes.
1. Neural pathways and sensory information
Children’s brains are developing — being barefoot provides opportunity for sensory input — which in turn helps stimulate neural or sensory pathways which are important for the development of motor skills, and for the development of proprioception (which is the unconscious capacity to understand where the body is in space and where/how it needs to move). When children wear shoes all the time — and particularly when they are playing — they are receiving less stimuli to their feet — and therefore less information to the brain. They need this sensory input to help them balance and to help further develop their gross motor skills and their understanding of their environment.
2. Building healthy muscles in feet and toes
When children walk barefoot, they are exercising their muscles and using their feet in a different way from when their feet are protected and enclosed by shoes. Without shoes, children are using their toes to grip more carefully and also supports the development of a greater sense of balance. Falls are reduced when children develop these skills.
It also increases flexibility in the feet and helps give children a wider range of motion.
3. Increases an awareness of safety
As children go barefoot — they are developing a greater understanding of rough or uneven surfaces, of different levels, — which in turn helps them develop a deeper understanding of the world around them. This actually leads to pre planning and safer ways of moving.
4. Skin hygiene
Fresh air helps feet to ‘breathe’. Feet usually only start to smell after being closed up in shoes for a while.
5. It feels good — helps emotional regulation and can be soothing and calming
In a world where many children are less and less connected with nature — it is important to ensure we make time for them to literally feel the earth beneath their feet. This sensory input and connection with the earth helps foster an affinity for the natural environment as well as stimulating a lot of the “feel good” senses.
So why not head outside with your child today and lose the shoes? — it’ll do you both the world of good.
Children and crazy weather
Newshttp://www.examiner.com/article/children-acting-crazy-lately-this-may-be-why
Why Play? “…What is the use of transmitting knowledge if the individual’s total development lags behind?” Maria Montessori
NewsPlay is identified in the Early Years Learning Framework as a fundamental Practice. Jacaranda is not a place where children do work, it is a place where children play. Everything we do is based on our Mission Statement: Jacaranda will provide the highest quality preschool education with a child-centric approach to teaching and learning. That means that while schools might want every child who walks through their door to count to 100 and know what a hexagon is, that is not our mission.
We will support your child to build upon their knowledge to become a well-rounded individual, with a love of learning. “Love of Learning is one of five competencies, that together, determine one’s ability to accomplish what is needed to interact effectively with people and institutions. Love of Learning entails having a passionate interest in gaining knowledge about the world and one’s place in it; working hard in school to learn and improve skills; being curious and pursuing subjects of interest; applying learning strengths; finding ways to address learning challenges; and having a growth instead of fixed mindset.” Thriving Indicators
The Mental Health and Wellbeing (in children related to thoughts, feelings and behaviour) of your child is important to us and to their brain development. (see Brain Builders Blog). Forcing children to do something for which they are not developmentally or emotionally ready is not the way to build self-reliance and a strong foundation for developing the skills, values and behaviours they need to experience for positive physical and mental health as an adult.
Our job, as articulated in Jacaranda Preschool Strategic Plan 1.1.b is to: Support every child in their individual path to ‘being, belonging and becoming.”
“Play provides opportunities for children to learn as they discover, create, improvise and imagine.
When children play with other children they create social groups, test out ideas, challenge each other’s thinking and build new understandings. Play provides a supportive environment where children can ask questions, solve problems and engage in critical thinking. Play can expand children’s thinking and enhance their desire to know and to learn. In these ways play can promote positive dispositions towards learning. Children’s immersion in their play illustrates how play enables them to simply enjoy being. Early childhood educators take on many roles in play with children and use a range of strategies to support learning. They engage in sustained shared conversations with children to extend their thinking. They provide a balance between child led, child initiated and educator supported learning. They create learning environments that encourage children to explore, solve problems, create and construct. Educators interact with babies and children to build attachment. They use routines and play experiences to do this. They also recognise spontaneous teachable moments as they occur, and use them to build on children’s learning. Early childhood educators work with young children to promote and model positive ways to relate to others. They actively support the inclusion of all children in play, help children to recognise when play is unfair and offer constructive ways to build a caring, fair and inclusive learning community.” (EYLF p15)
Louise Murfet
Every Child Needs A Champion. Rita Peerson
NewsPoppies or Rosemary?
NewsA conversation with a parent of Jacaranda who was born in Canada started me thinking – why poppies and Rosemary.
The parent was telling me how for Rememberence Day in Canada everyone wears a red Poppy. We talked about how in Australia it is traditional to wear Rosemary.
Was it the season when we remember these events? But that can’t be right as they are both celebrated or remembered in Autumn – April in Australia and November in Canada.
So, like a good little teacher I googled it.
It it is very simple – in history and folklore the Poppy is for Sacrifice and Rosemary is for rememberence.
anzacday.org.au says that
This plant (Rosemary) was, in ancient times, supposed to strengthen memory. Greek scholars wore rosemary in their hair to help remember their studies, and the association with remembrance has carried through to modern times. In literature and folklore it is an emblem of remembrance.
And
The modern story of the poppy is, of course, no legend. In the years immediately following World War 1, governments and the whole of society, had not accepted the responsibility for those incapacitated and bereft as a result of war.
In 1921, a group of widows of French ex-servicemen called at the British Legion Headquarters. They brought with them from France some poppies they had made, and suggested that they might be sold as a means of raising money to aid the distressed among those who were incapacitated as a result of the war. The first red poppies to come to Australia, in 1921, were made in France.
So this, the centenary of battle of Gallipoli, we use both. Rosemary and the Poppy.