Brainstorming for Next Year

As part of our state's standards, we are required to have a family literacy night every year. While I was getting ready for my field experience this morning, I came up with an idea for our night next year.

I'd like to do a family read-a-thon. The kids could collect pledges on a per book basis, and we could use the money we raise to support a charity (not sure which one yet). The actual night would be two hours of reading as a family and participating in various activities. It would serve two purposes; one being to teach kids to give by supporting a charity and another being to teach families strategies to use as they read together at home.

I'm sure my board would be behind this idea. They have always supported my attempts to bring in families. I'm excited! It makes me sad, though, that I have to wait so long to put this plan in action...I don't want to wish summer away, but I am looking forward to next year. There are so many things I'd like to do differently.

In other news, my field experience has gotten better. One of the things I've learned is that the center has an excellent idea of what their care should of infants should be. They have a great daily schedule that includes early literacy skills as well as a great deal of fine and gross motor skills. The problem is that there doesn't seem to be a clear idea of who is in charge in each room. No one plans anything on a daily basis, because no one knows who's job it is.

I have been noticing a lot more adult to baby interaction, so I'm feeling much better about that. I was reading at article last night in Young Children about communicating with babies. One thing that stuck out to me was the idea of starting a conversation with the infant before handling him/her. I think we, adults, often forget that babies are humans who deserve respect; we pick them up and move them around as if they are toys. I don't think we mean to disrespect them by doing this. We just want to love them and keep them safe. The article talked about how when we do things like this, we are telling the infant that what s/he wants doesn't actually matter. We really need to talk with the infants - tell them what we're going to do with them and ask them for permission (if they are old enough to understand and respond). I just thought that was a powerful point. We wouldn't want someone to come over, pick us up, and move us somewhere us without a good reason, so why shouldn't we give babies the same respect?

I have two more days in the infant room, and then I'm moving on to preschoolers. While I love how cute and cuddly the babies are, I'm looking forward to seeing someone else handle preschoolers. I teach by myself and it can be easy to get stuck in a rut because I don't have new ideas being presented to me on a regular basis. Watching someone else will, hopefully, open new doors for me.

Babies Galore!

I'm working on my field experience for my early childhood endorsement for the next two weeks at a local daycare. Today I was in the mobile infant room. The babies in the room are anywhere from 12 months to 18 months old. They are a hoot too! I'd forgotten how much I love holding a baby. They're so sweet and soft. It, of course, makes me want to start a family immediately. There's plenty of time for that though - no need to rush.

One thing sort of disappointed me today though. I was there for three hours, and for at least an hour and a half of that time I was the only adult in the room who was actually interacting with the children. The woman in charge of that room was only on the floor talking with the children for about 15 minutes. Talking to the children and introducing them to vocabulary and experiences is incredibly important at that age; it just makes me sad to see all the opportunities that were missed today.

I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt though, and go into tomorrow with a positive attitude. Maybe today was just an off day - it is Monday, and I know how crazy and hectic Mondays can be in the daycare setting.

I wasn't completely thrilled about having to do this field experience, but I am looking forward to hanging out with those adorable babies again tomorrow! :)

Spontaneous Camping Trip!

I didn't even think about school for most of this weekend! It was a very welcome break.

My husband and I took our first camping trip together. It was pretty spontaneous. He came up with the idea around 10:00 on Friday morning. Next thing I knew, we were out checking on the camping areas around the lake on his lunch break. We had to reserve our spot as soon as we found it - just to make sure no one else would take it, of course - but he also had to go back to work. I ended up setting up the tent by myself! It's not a difficult task, but I was proud of myself.

We spent the weekend sitting around the fire, hanging out at the lake, reading in the sun, and eating wonderful camp food. It was a little chilly. I think the high yesterday was somewhere around 69 degrees, and it dropped down to the low 50s during the night. Plenty of sweatshirts, blankets, and, of course, plenty of snuggling kept us warm. What a great weekend!

This is what our campsite looked like. Our tent looks tiny, but it fits our queen sized air mattress with some extra room. Also, we learned a thing or too about raccoons... Around 11:00 last night, we heard our bags of food rustling and knew it couldn't be the wind. There was a fairly decent-sized raccoon digging for some supper. He took off with our bread but dropped it by the truck. Goofy raccoon!

We made some tasty pizza pockets on the fire. Pretty simple - pita bread, pizza sauce, pepperoni and Canadian bacon, and cheese all wrapped in foil. They were fabulous. We also made the obligatory hot dogs and s'mores on the fire as well.

Hopefully, we have plenty of camping weekends in the future. It was a fabulous time.

Literacy Bags

I sent out a family survey the last day of school asking parents and family members to review the year. They had the opportunity to share their favorite things about the year and give suggestions on how to improve our program. I've been getting a few surveys back, and I'm looking forward to figuring out ways to address their concerns.

One parent asked for more parent involvement, particularly in the curriculum area. I sent out a fairly-detailed weekly newsletter, but I understand her desire to have a better understanding of how she could be helping her daughter. I've been thinking about this concern all day, and I've come up with a number of ways to include more. One way, I want to help parents help their children is by sending home literacy bags.

I'm not sure where I originally discovered literacy bags, but I know Reading Rockets has a ton of information about them; they have materials for bags on their site as well. Basically, literacy bags are bags of themed books and activities that children can take home and do with their families. Each literacy bag will contain:

• at least three books centered around the same theme
• a stuffed toy to match the theme
• a journal
• a list of activities the families can do together
• tips to help families read to the children.
  

I have a schedule worked out, and I hope to have six different literacy bags. Children will have the chance to take one home about once every month and a half. My hope with the literacy bags is to encourage families to read together. When parents and families share time to read, it helps young children find the fun in reading and realize its value.

Here is an example of what I hope my Amazing Apples Literacy Bag will look like:

• Apples for Everyone by Jill Esbaum

• Up, Up, Up! It’s Apple-Picking Time by Jody Fickles Shapiro

• Amelia Bedelia’s First Apple Pie by Herman Parish

• Apple-shaped Pillow
• Apple Journal - This will likely just be a notebook with an apple-decorated cover.
  
• Example activities
• Letter with Reading Tips

I'm super excited about this!