Valentine's Day

Children love Valentine’s Day at school. They are just as excited to receive Valentine cards as they are to receive Christmas gifts. The nice thing about Valentine’s Day cards is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to make your children happy.


Valentine’s Day can be a time to teach your child valuable lessons about being kind, sharing, and showing love to family and friends. Even though you could purchase pre-made cards with Disney characters or super heroes, why not consider making this year’s Valentines at home. This can be a fun family project that will create lasting memories for your child.

Gather the following materials for making personalized Valentines: colored paper, white paper, glue, glitter, tape, crayons, markers, colored pens or pencils, scissors, stickers, and photos. You can use family pictures or even pictures cut from old magazines.

1. Lay out the materials on a table. Begin by folding colored paper in half to form a card.

2. Select pictures to be placed on the outside of the card and glue in place.

3. With colored markers, write Happy Valentine’s Day on the front of the card.

4. On the inside of the card, help your child create a message. Think about the person the card has been designed for. If it is for a family member, the message should reflect love and care. If it is for a friend, the message should reflect kindness.

5. Allow your child to decorate the card with glitter, crayon drawings, stickers, or other artistic creations.

6. Sign and date each card. Since these cards have been hand-made by your child, I’m sure the recipient of each card will want to have it as a keepsake gift.

Making Valentine’s Day cards with your child will be a rewarding experience for you and your child. Your child will have the opportunity to bond with you as you talk about family and friends and why these people mean so much to your family. You are helping your child to develop positive ways of expressing love for others. Isn’t THAT what Valentine’s Day is all about?

Tips to Encourage Community Partners in School

Members of the community can become partners with the local school district through involvement with principals, teachers, and students.


The first step will be to contact the principal of a local school and schedule an interview. Share with the principal your desire to become a partner with the school.

Here are a few tips on suggested involvement opportunities:

1. Maybe you have a hobby or career that you can share at a school program for kids or parents.

2. Maybe you can volunteer for a school committee, parent form, or be a program speaker.

3. Have you had experience at world travel? Sharing your story with students can open their minds to cultures around the world.

4. Do you have political connections with the community? Invite an elected official to have lunch at school with a small group of students and teachers to discuss an innovative program, student achievement, or student aspirations.

5. Schools are always seeking volunteers for tutors and student buddies. Maybe this is an area of interest for you.


School and community partnerships create opportunities for students to explore and engage in new authentic learning. Schools need community involvement. Think about ways you can become a valuable partner with your local school district.

What is Parent Advocacy?

Parents show advocacy when they speak or write in support or defense of their children to improve opportunities for excellence in education. Parents show advocacy when they guide their children through school knowing what programs are available and understand how to navigate the system. Parents show advocacy by speaking together with other parents aspiring to articulate their needs and views to school personnel in an effective manner. Parents may assume advocacy roles to help outside agencies and community leaders respond to children’s needs and to the home school relationship. Parents can take a proactive stance in regard to the welfare of all children and appropriate programs to enhance their growth and development.


Parents are decision makers

Parents can participate in decisions about program planning for their children since they are the “experts” regarding their own children. They can also be involved in the needs assessment and evaluation for the class or program by providing their statement of needs and their perceptions about their effectiveness of the program.


Why should we focus on advocacy?

1. Parents and students have a voice in the process

2. They are involved fully in the important decisions regarding their education

3. Parents can encourage accountability in the educational system

4. Parents can influence programs and practices that benefit all children


What Schools can do

• Create a welcoming environment

• Solicit comments and suggestions from parents and families

• Invite parents to serve on committees

• Communicate regularly

• Encourage parents to learn more by offering parent trainings and workshops


What Parents can do

• Visit the school regularly

• Familiarize self with rules and procedures

• Know your child’s teacher

• Communicate regularly

• Include yourself in school events

• Participate in parent workshops and trainings

Schools Participating in Home Visitations as a Means to Increase Parental Involvement

“School Boards and policy leaders need to look much farther back to see that ‘lo and behold’, one of the great interventions that can affect their graduation rates is home visitations. It is a simple concept that has really never been more powerful”. Libby Doggett, Director of Pew Center


In 1998, the Pew Center Study on home visiting programs, found that 84% of students whose families had participated in the study graduated from high school, while 54% of students who did not participate earned diplomas.

Researchers agree that parents and families are the primary influence on a child’s development. Parents, grandparents, foster parents, and others who take on parenting roles strongly affect the following assets in children:

• Language development

• Emotional growth

• Social skills and personality

Child development researchers have arrived at a strong consensus on the extraordinary influence parents have on a child’s development. They recognize the positive impact parents have on lifetime learning for their children. Engaging parents as “educational partners” early in the child’s development is likely to lead to positive outcomes for the future of the child.

Examples of good parent programs include:

1. Maintaining strong communication with parents

2. Learning more about the child from the family and working together to meet the child’s specific needs

3. Conducting home visits as a way of maintaining a relationship between the program and parents


Guidelines for establishing home visitation programs

A home visiting program needs to have:

1. An established needs assessment tool to determine the family’s level of risk

2. Established clear objectives and protocols for home visits

3. A means to encourage families to make a transition from home visits to site-based parenting programs


Examples of families who receive home visitation programs:

1. Families without access to reliable transportation

2. Families with several preschool children

3. Families with children and/or parents have special medical, physical, or developmental concerns

4. First time parents

5. Parents lacking group skills who are not comfortable in group settings


A positive result of home visitation programs for families:

1. Increases positive parenting practices

2. Improves in the health of the entire family

3. Increases in the family’s self-sufficiency

4. Enhances school readiness for the preschoolers

5. Enhances parent-child interactions and child development

6. Promotes early detection of developmental delays

7. Helps improve literacy skills


TWO TYPES OF PROGRAMS

Parent Programs

• Teach the parent behaviors that promote child development

• Engage the parent in teachable strategies for school readiness

Child Centered Programs

• Teach school readiness skills

• Engage the child intellectually and behaviorally

Engaging parents in their child’s learning is a key ingredient for early childhood programs to promote positive child outcomes. The earlier parents are involved in their child’s learning and development, the more parent involvement will continue later, leading to better child outcomes, including success in school and eventually graduating from high school.

Winter Safety Tips

The winter brings snowy days that excite your children.  They love to play in the snow but may not realize the dangers that can spoil their fun.

Here are few tips for keeping your children safe during their outside play in the snow:

1.       Children should dress in layers with hats and gloves.  When the gloves get wet, it’s time to come inside and change.

2.      Limit the playtime in the snow from 1-3 hours, depending on your child’s age and the cold temperatures.  If your child’s face becomes red, that’s a good sign that the temperature is too cold for long exposure.

3.      Include sun screen on the face to protect the skin from the sunlight’s reflection on the snow.  Even on cloudy days, sun screen is still a good idea for skin protection.

4.      Children should play with others while outside.  Have a buddy rule in place so they can watch out for each other.

5.      Choose play areas away from roads, fences, and water.  Especially encourage your child to be careful around frozen ponds and lakes.

6.      Snowball fights can be very dangerous.  Avoid all games that involve snowballs or throwing snow.

7.      Don’t allow your children to eat snow, as it can be dirty.

8.      Sledding is fun but can also cause head, spine, or stomach injuries.  Children should always sit up or kneel on the sled.  Wearing a bike helmet would give extra protection, too.

For further information concerning safety tips for outside play, visit www.gettingoutside.com

2013 Family Resolutions

Most people set individual New Year's resolutions.  This year, consider making family resolutions.  Choose to focus on creating simple habits around the basics of nutrition, exercise and family time.  Below are five small changes you can make to easily intergrate valuable new habits into your family's routine in 2013:

1. Always eat breakfast.
    -It is important for every member of the family to not skip breakfast and start the day with a healthy meal.

2. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate
    -Water makes up nearly 60 percent of our body composition and is a critcal component with many uses.  So, how much water should each family member drink? Men and women need to have a daily intake of 88-120 ounces and kids need between 40 and 64 ounces.

3. Plan for sleep.
    -Getting your family on a regular sleep schedule can have all kinds of benefits.  As a rule, children between the ages of 3 and 6 need 11 to 12 hours of sleep per night, while childre between 7 and 12 need 10 to 11 hours and teenagers need 8 to 9 hours.

4. Move your bodies.
    -Exercise is a critical component to regulating stress. Find an exercise that builds on something your and your family already love to do. 

5. Focus on gratitude.
    -Starting the year off with a healthy outlook helps build commitment.  You can encourage positive thinking by focusing on what you have, rather than on what you don't have.  Here's a simple technique that will open you up to gratitude: Go around the dinner table and have each family member say two things they are grateful for that day.

By following even one or two of these thips, you will improve your family's health and create positivie experiences and memories for the year ahead.

Happy New Year!

-Tips are from Julie Hammerstein a certified nutritionist, an expert in weight loss and family wellness.

Active, Healthier Kids in 2013

Make it a New Year's resolution to help your child be more active in 2013 and enjoy the great outdoors!  A moving body is good for growing brains.  In 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reviewed 50 scientific studies on the benefits of exercise; the majority of these studies showed the more school-age children exercised, the better their school performance and over all health. 

Here are six tips to help get your child moving:

1. Encourage movement while they watch.  While viewing TV, let children jump on a mini trampoline or flex their muscles with exercise bands.

2. Take family walks.  This is a great time to reconnect as a family and talk about the day's activities.

3. Practice anytime, anywhere exercises.  Teach your child to flex while he stands or sits.  When your child is standing around, encourage him to do squates, go up and down on his toes, and flex his knees.  When sitting, encourage her to arch her feet up and down, which flexes the muscles in the front and back of the legs.

4. Work their muscles while they ride.  Have your child flex a little squeeze ball during car rides-the movement will work their muscles and make the drive more enjoyable.

5. Take the stairs.  When possible, take your kids up or down the stairs instead of on elevators and escalators.

6. Get your child involved in a vigorous sport.  Kids who are struggling academically often improve when more time is spent in athletics.

-These tips are from Bill Sears, M.D., father of eight and author of 42 books on family health.  He has been a practicing pediatrician for 40 years.