Some Food Dye Links...

Loved this article about food dyes, it's worth a read. Is it just me, or are the "foods" that are being marketed to our kids getting straight up ridiculous? Inane? Criminal? Silly question. I know it's not just me.

The author mentions a "Real Red" Valentine's Day party, which (thanks to my friend Teresa who sent me the link in January) I suggested to PBug's teacher as an option for her class Valentine's Day party. To my delight, she loved the idea! The class has been studying heart health all month, so it coincided perfectly with their curriculum. For the first time all year, PBug was able to partake in every single item offered at a class party! They had tomatoes, bell peppers, strawberries, raspberries, craisens, and apples to name a few. While most of the "real red" foods were out of season, you won't hear me complaining!

Do some kids a favor...

A friend of mine has a blog where her sixth grade students write reviews of the books they've read for class. What great encouragement for the kids to read and write about it! I comment on each post because, according to her, they LOVE to get comments (who doesn't, right?). If you feel so inclined, head over there and leave some comments. Consider it a little (blogger) community service :)

Room 23 Book Reviews

Q & A

I'm a follower of your blog. Jessie, from Education of Ours. My
preschooler is in public, and will be k next year, too. I wonder if you
still work with Montessori together? If there's a schedule, and how it
mingles with K. We may both be unique in this way. I consider myself
a homeschooler via Montessori, even though my children will be in public.

I thought I'd answer Jessie's question via my blog since it's been so long since I've blogged about Montessori on this, er, Montessori blog. I feel the same way Jessie does: no matter what, I think I'll always feel like a homeschooler to some extent. Particularly because I am very intentional about the ways I prefer my children to spend their time, but also because I'm their most important teacher!

Before PBug started kindergarten it was my intention work with her on Montessori activities in the afternoons. What became apparent soon after is that, after spending all morning at school, PBug undeniably needs the afternoons for unstructured play time. She's not interested in doing learning activities with me, and I made the executive decision not to force it.

Instead, her afternoon routine has morphed into something that works perfectly for her. Her afternoons usually involve:

Reading

PBug doesn't nap, but sometimes she (and, let's be honest here, I) need some down time. Since the babies nap in the afternoons, I (desperately) need her to be quiet. We spend a lot of time laying on the couch reading, mostly me reading to her from chapter books. (Sometimes I doze off:P)

Cooking & Baking

I don't think you need me to tell you about all of the teachable moments that can arise in the kitchen! We spend a lot of time there working together. This post mentions some of the skills she's mastering.

Sewing

We've been reading a lot of Little House on the Prairie and before Christmas PBug decided she wanted to sew a handkerchief for her brother for Christmas. Using a scrap cut from an old receiving blanket, a needle and thread, she sewed him a handkerchief by hand. My mother-in-law bought her this child's sewing machine for Christmas and PBug is obsessed with it. In fact, the first time she used it she had to stop sewing every few seconds to giggle uncontrollably she was so excited. (I don't necessarily recommend it myself, the Amazon reviews speak for themselves. The only thing that makes it worthwhile is the guard around the needle.) I'm currently sewing a quilt so she chose pieces to make a quilt for her dolls and we've been sewing it together on my machine.

Outside Play

Our backyard is PBug's kingdom. This past fall we cut down three 20 year-old birch trees that died and the branches, twigs, and stumps have kept her busy for months. She spends hours outside playing on her "farm" building tepees and digging her swimming pool (lofty goals!).

We also do lots of TALKING. The best part of our afternoons is all the talking we do. Because it is usually just the two of us, we spend a lot of time chatting about all kinds of things. I think it's what I'll miss most next year when she's in first grade.

Sometimes I set out activities for her on the kitchen table for her to work on when she gets home from school. Sometimes they're art activities or play dough, sometimes I put out Montessori materials such as the hundred board or the number rods. I've found that when I make the Montessori materials scarce she gets excited when they make an appearance!

Now that I've written it all down, it seems like her afternoons are very simplistic. But truly, they're rich with learning. I think it's important to follow your child's lead, and in our case I think I've made the right choice for her.

I'm very curious to know what you do (or did) in the afternoons with your kindergartner.

Stranger Danger

I have a friend who picks PBug up from school on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Her husband has Tuesdays off, and yesterday he was out running errands around pick-up time, so he called his wife a told her that he would swing by and pick up their son Kyle who is in the class next door to PBug. My friend agreed and it totally slipped her mind that she was supposed to pick up PBug that day. Luckily, their son remembered and he reminded his dad. They went back to her classroom and got her.

PBug has never met Kyle's dad and doesn't know what he looks like. He is not on the emergency card or on the list of people I approved to pick her up. When he picked her up he didn't introduce himself to PBug or tell her who he was (although she did notice that Kyle was with him). She knew he was a stranger, and she knew that she shouldn't go with him. Inside she was nervous and scared, but she went with him anyway, even though her gut was telling her not to.

Let me say that again.

Yesterday my child left school with a stranger.

(I won't get into where the teacher was in all of this. I plan on talking to her about it face-to-face when I pick PBug up on Friday.)

Needless to say, we have made it abundantly clear to PBug for years now that she is never, under any circumstances, allowed to go with a stranger. You might say we harp on it. We've run through all of the "What would you do if someone offered you cupcakes to go with him" scenarios a million times. I've made her memorize (short) list of people with whom she is allowed to go home with and I go over it with her often. (C'mon, I know I'm not alone here!) This particular person was not on that list.

So what happened? According to PBug, she was scared, and she knew she shouldn't go with him, but she just didn't know what to do or what to say.

So she went. Simple as that.

It could have been so much worse: after all, the stranger in this case wasn't bad and my kid did come home right on time. But I was terrified that she went so willingly. I was even more shaken by it when I woke up this morning after it had a chance to really sink in. But in the end, I'm glad it happened, because now I know that telling her not to go with a stranger isn't enough.

So we role-played what she should do in that situation. She had absolutely no idea how to handle it. Not a clue. Yeah, I'm not counting on her winning any awards in the "street smarts" category. Ever.

I told her that she could have told Kyle's dad "I need to talk to my teacher." She could have whispered (so as not to embarrass anyone, something she's always concerned about) to her teacher that a stranger was trying to take her home. I told her that her teacher would have known what to do and she would have been very nice to Kyle's dad about it. That surprised her, and she was very curious to know what her teacher would have done. I told her that she probably would have called me to make sure it was okay for her to go with Kyle's dad.

As it stands, she's very upset with herself that she went. She hasn't said as much, but I can tell by the way she responds when I've brought it up. So I'm going to lay low for a little bit, but you can be sure that we'll be role playing situations a LOT more in the future!

I'd love to hear from all of you on this subject! How do you talk to your kids about strangers and other dangerous situations?

All I Want For Christmas Is A Flock of Poultry

My dad is the most generous person I know. He's always giving of himself - his time, his resources, his energy - to anyone and everyone. He's also the least materialistic person I know. Interesting how those two qualities go hand in hand. He doesn't ever want anything, except to spend time with his family. And who can blame him? We are pretty great!

This year for Christmas I made a donation to Heifer International in his name. In a nutshell, they provide livestock (and saplings, honeybees, etc.) and education to hungry people all over the world. PBug and I looked through their gift catalog and she chose the "Flock of Hope" package, which will provide chicks, ducklings, and goslings to hungry families from the Philippines and Rwanda, as well as teach them how to care for their animals.

One of the great things about donating through Heifer International is that you choose what your money is spent on. Your kids can participate in the decision, giving them a tangible idea of the difference that will be made.

Later the same day, we were eating eggs from our own chickens and started talking about the eggs and fertilizer that our gift would provide for a family. She asked me "What if they don't like eggs?" That question sparked a very interesting conversation about what it really means to be hungry, a condition I intend to ensure she never experiences.

I'm pretty sure my dad's going to love his "gift," and I'm positive that he's going to make a big deal out of it when he opens it. I hope to make this gift a Christmas tradition, and am also looking for more opportunities to give in this way.

Do you have any traditions involving charitable giving? I love to hear about them!

Blast from the Past

I heard from a former student of mine this week. She was a fourth grader in my very first class and she was one of the "testers" in the bunch, if you know what I mean. She tracked me down on Facebook and was excited to find me. She wrote me one of those this-is-what-makes-teaching-worthwhile messages, thanking me for being a memorable teacher.

This kid is special. She's seventeen years old, she's had a job working at Jamba Juice for over a year, and she just graduated from high school a semester early. She's in the process of applying to colleges to do something in the medical field. Oh yeah, and she has a four year old daughter.

When she had a baby in the eighth grade, I wondered if she'd even go back to school at all. But somewhere along the line she must have gotten the message that education is important. Not only did she graduate, but she managed to do it early! I'm sure she had support, but it takes a lot of initiative and personal dedication to accomplish what she's done.

She's been on my mind a lot since we reconnected. I'm so proud of her!

Sight Word Spelling

Although PBug reads sight words with accuracy, she doesn't always spell them correctly. For example, 'and' is 'adn'. Also, 'you' is yoy'. I'm not terribly concerned about it, and I was reassured by a friend that this is completely normal.

The same friend gave me a page of common sight words for PBug to keep with her when she writes and refer to for correct spelling. I explained to her how to use it when I gave it to her, but she never remembers to use it. I haven't mentioned it again to her. Right now I want her to enjoy the process of writing and not feel hampered down by spelling. Also, I enjoy seeing her invented spelling!

I came across a very simple website this week that is perfect for PBug at this stage. It just has a few games in which she can practice spelling sight words. It has 11 word lists, but I'm having her stick to the first four for now. She loves playing the games! It's too soon to tell if playing them will transfer to improvement of sight word spelling in her writing, but I figure it can't really hurt as long as she's enjoying it.