Friday’s Discussion Question:

What would you have done?

So here was the dilemma…  Yesterday before school I reminded my son that it was media day and he needed to put his books in his backpack.  He said he would and that was the end of the discussion.  Now we are in the car and almost to school when I simply ask, “Did you remember your books?”  Panic set in and I got the “I forgot, now what should I do” look.  As a parent I had two choices:

1. Drop my son off at school, go back home and return to school with his books.

2.  Tell him that since he forgot his books he would not be able to check out books this week.

What do you think I chose to do?

Yes, I caved and chose option #1.  I wanted to be tough and give him the speech on responsibility and suffering the consequences.  At the same time, I knew that this was going to throw off his whole day.  He is very much a first-born with a type A personality.  When he doesn’t feel like he has it all together, he starts to crumble.  Therefore, for his emotional stability (as well as his teacher’s) I decided to help him out.

If you were in this situation (dealing with a 1st grader), would you have brought the books to school or made it a teachable moment for responsibility?

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Geroges Seurat

Have your budding young artists tried pointillism?

Wikipedia defines pointillism as a technique of painting in which small distinct dots of colour create the impression of a wide selection of other colors and optical blending.

Many of you may be familiar with the work of Georges Seurat.  The artwork pictured above is his work titled, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. This piece is an example of pointillism.

A preschooler’s definition of pointillism would be:  when I fill the paper with dots of every color and ask my parents to tell me what it looks like.  When they say, “What a beautiful frog.”  I will shout, “It’s not a frog!  It’s a green monkey holding a balloon at the circus.”

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Do your children enjoy eating snow?

At our house, it is a common sight to see the kids playing outside and one of them licking the snow off of his/her mittens.  Are they lacking something in their diet?  Probably.  But most likely they eat snow because it is fun.

Recently I found a recipe for snowflake snacks using tortillas.  Now my children can eat edible snowflakes with their hot chocolate after playing outside.

Will this cut down on the amount of snow my children ingest?  No.  But it is a fun winter cooking activity.

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What type of lunch trays are used in your child’s school?

My son attends an environmental studies school which will be moving to a new site next year due to budget cuts.  At the new site, there is no dishwasher in the kitchen.  This I thought was rather odd.  Just wait, it gets worse.  Since there is no dishwasher all of the students will be using Styrofoam trays.  Yes an environmental studies school filling up the landfill with Styrofoam.

When I emailed the school board about this problem they sent me a message that said not to worry because the district’s trash company burns the Styrofoam to use as an alternative fuel.  Since I have not studied chemistry lately nor reviewed the EPA’s handbook on what can and cannot be burned, I am going to have to take their word on it.

However now I have learned that Styrofoam can leach chemicals into a child’s food.  What?!?!  New York City has taken an initiative to get Styrofoam trays out of their schools due to the environmental and health risks it causes.

Why do schools use these trays?  Is it simply because they are cheap?

Tip of the Day:

Find out what type of trays are used in your child’s school.

- If Styrofoam is used, take time to read the research and studies regarding these trays and its effects on your child.

- Make an effort to reduce or eliminate the amount of Styrofoam used in your home.

- Take time to read the information from the NYC schools:

Styrofoam Food Trays

Styrofoam Out of Schools

Have you started working on sight words with your preschooler?

Sight words or high frequency words are those words that a child frequently encounters while reading.  Examples of sight words are: he, is, was, it, etc.

So why is learning sight words so important?

When children are able to recognize words quickly and effortlessly, they are able to focus on the meaning of the text instead of the words on the page.  If a child is struggling with simple words, their ability to comprehend the text becomes more of a challenge.

We want children to find reading fun and enjoyable.  If they feel like reading is a chore or too difficult, they are less likely to do it.  Parents and teachers need to teach children the skills they need to become successful readers.

I found a good article on the Teaching Resource Center site that goes into more detail regarding sight words.

The Importance of Sight Words

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