Do You Smell Something?

During my commute today, I was listening to the radio when one of the morning people mentioned (I don't know what lead up to it) that she loved the smell of new tires.  She admitted to being a tire junkie who would leave her children sitting in the shopping cart in the tire aisle of a big box store while she smelled the air.  This lead to a further discussion where another one of the morning people told about how he loved the smell of play dough.  I haven't played with it in years, and I will not use it in my classrooms when there are many better, less expensive alternatives, but I do remember that smell after 45 or so years.  A caller talked about loving the smell of the horse stables.  I do remember that smell from visiting my sister while she was feeding her horses, but I was usually jumping out of the way of what I was sure was certain death by huge horse to pay too much attention.

After listening to the conversation, I began to think of my favorite smell - that of my favorite present, a large box of crayons.  There were only 64 or so crayons in the box back then, but I still remember opening a new box, seeing all of the brand new crayons in neat rows, and smelling the crayon smell.  I have since learned that some of that smell is from the beef fat in the crayons, which should be off-putting to a vegetarian, but I still love the smell.

From there I went on to other smells from my past.  The smell of baking bread always reminds me of my mother's kitchen, where she made bread for the family.  When my husband is working on a project and is sawing or sanding wood, the smell takes me back to my home, where my father - a carpenter - had a wood shop in the basement.  Burning wood reminds me of Girl Scout camp, where we cooked over a fire during the day, and sang songs around the fire at night.  If I try, I can still smell the canvas of the tents where we slept.

 

So, you may ask, what does your love of the smell of crayons have to do with anything?  The point is that humans are very sensory beings.  Everyone has memories that can to evoked by a smell or a sound.  Young children, who are absorbing new things like a sponge absorbs water, are particularly interested in smells.  Too many programs for young children try to emphasize sensory items in the environment, but neglect the olfactory senses.  Does the program smell like disinfectant and bleach?  Does it smell like the diaper pail should have been emptied two hours ago?  Does it smell pleasant and welcoming or like the guinea pig's cage is long overdue for a change.  If the smell in not unpleasant, it is too often neutral and offers no stimulation.

 

There are many simple ways to help children experience the sense of smell.  While incense and candles are (of course) out of the question, there are many other ways to scent the air.  Children love to grind spices with a mortar and pestle.  Shop around - there are huge differences in the price of spices.  Do baking projects - cookies baking and bread rising have their own special spells.  Have the cook make real food - nothing is more welcoming that the smell of spaghetti sauce or soup simmering.  Flowers are a lovely addition to a room.  A pot of hyacinths in the spring will scent the whole room.  Herbs can be grown in pots on the windowsill.  Rubbing basil and other herbs is a special experience.  Smelly bottles can be made by soaking cotton balls in essential oils or extracts, putting the cotton in a bottle and hot gluing on the lid, and poking a few small holes in the sides.  The scented pine cones that are sold in the fall and winter will add a spicy smell to the room.

 

Adding a scent to a room is limited only by a teacher's imagination.  Just make sure that everything that is used is safe for children and, of course, that you talk about the smells if you should notice that a child is noticing them.  Also, remember that one child's delicious smell is another child's stinky smell, but they are both are correct.  Make some happy memories for your children, and they will remember you years later.

 

P.S. (Can you P.S. a blog?  I don't know, but since it is mine, I will).  After writing this post and finishing my day, I headed to Wegmans to get groceries.  I have been working 6:30 to 6:00 most of the week, with a 45 minute commute each way, so I was really dragging.  It was past 7:30 when I headed for the checkout.  At the end of one register, where there is usually a bin of some sort of merchandise, there was a bar of Yardley lavendar soap.  It has always been my favorite but it is very difficult to find now.  I held the cardboard box up to my nose and breathed in.  All at once I was visiting my New England relatives. Another breath and I was going to the Hopewell Jct. Pharmacy to buy a three pack in a pretty box as a gift for my mother.  Another breath and I realized that the cashier was looking at me funny, so I put the soap in my cart and checked out.  Tonight when I am home I will probably smell it again.

In my last posting I wrote about the problems that I see in today's electronic world.  I ranted about the way that people isolate themselves by being plugged into earbuds at all times, how people cannot walk through a grocery store without stopping to check their messages, about how children must have a video on at all times, and about how electronic toys are stealing children's imaginations.  I truly meant all of these things when I wrote them, and I still believe that they are true. 

But -oops! - several weeks ago we decided to change service providers for our phone, television, and internet in order to save money.  We were moving right on schedule, and the television service was installed with no problems, but the internet and phone did not come when they were expected.  I made a quick phone call to see when they were coming, only to discover that they were not coming.  I spoke reasonably, I begged, I pleaded, I even yelled (in a fairly calm manner), but to no avail.  Our paperwork had not been completed - much like talking to the children about a problem, no one had made the mistake - and we would not be hooked up for ten days.

My greatest concern was the telephone, since we have a number of family and friends who might want to contact us.  We do have cells, but they are the pay-as-you-go type, and can be expensive if we talk too much.  Still, I am reasonable, mature adult, so I should be able to handle this.  After all, for most of my life some of these items never even existed.

When one of my daughters was about thirteen, our telephone was out for a day.  She went through withdrawals, and when the repairman finally came I could have kissed him on the lips.  I have always laughed at this, or at least I did until I did ten days with no internet and very limited telephone.

The internet was really the worst, since I email my family, read blogs and articles, and google anything that catches my interest.  Believe it or not (and I had trouble believing it), Facebook was the worst.  I am used to checking frequently to see if my family, and especially my grandchildren, are doing anything new or noteworthy (or, in the case of my grandson, which body part he has hurt now).  I could check it quickly at work, but weekends were dry.  I couldn't see what the family or my friends were doing, and I couldn't voice my opinion on my friend's posts and pictures.  Even worse, I couldn't save the world by shooting bubbles at giant spiders or scheming witches.

I was happy to be reconnected and back to my internet.  I still think that we are too hooked into our electronics, but I am beginning to understand how people can become so hooked into them.  I have become accustomed to going online whenever I want to put a library book on hold, find a new recipe, follow the political news, or look for a new idea.  I will never go be one of those people who are hooked into the internet all day long, but I have found that I depend on it much more than I had realized.

Batteries Not Included? Good!

Young children today are growing up in a world that is radically different from the one in which I was raised.  Technology is growing is growing at an ever increasing pace, and things are becoming obsolete before our eyes.  I remember that my family got our first television on Thanksgiving day when I was four or five.  It was a black and white (as was every other tv) and we watched the Macy's parade.  Since I lived in Dutchess County, NY we were able to watch a total of seven channels - ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, and three independents from the city.  (In the hot summer, channels 2 (CBS)and 4 (NBC) ran into each other, so we didn't really have them)  Now children have any number of television sets in their house, each with flat screens, living color, VCRs, and 200 channels.  Our telephone was a black rotary phone, and we were on a party line with several other houses in the neighborhood.  Dinner was always cooked on the stove and typewriters were big clunky machines.  When we were teenagers we had the ultimate in new and cool - transistor radios!  When I was married, my Aunt Edie from Texas gave me the latest in kitchen tools - an electric frying pan.  To top it all off, when I was in college and married, I wrote long letters (by hand!) to my family and friends, walked to the post office to buy the stamps, and waited three or four days for the letter to arrive.

This new world can be confusing (another new version of windows?  I just learned how to save a file on the last one!), annoying (Why can't I have caps and punctuation on my text?  It is civilized!), and silly (Angry Birds?  On a telephone?).  Even so, I have found that email is much faster than snail mail if there is something that I want my family to know.  I love not having long distance fees when I talk to my daughters for hours.  Cable can sometimes be entertaining (as long as no one finds out that I love to watch Lizard Lick Towing).  I enjoy keeping up with friends on Facebook, but I am tired of people who post everytime that they brush their teeth.   Although I am an avid reader and love the feel of books and the time spent in the library, I am starting to develop Nook lust.

I have two major concerns with the boom in technology.  The first is that people are becoming more isolated from others as they stay plugged in to their electronics or sit and play on their computer.  There are so many wonderful sounds to hear outdoors, and so many good conversations are missed when ear buds are shoved deep into ears or phone owners are texting rather than listening or conversing.  There are so many wonderful things in this world which are being missed in favor of Angry Birds.  I realize how adictive these games can be ("I'll just shoot off one more set of balls to see if I can set the monkey free from the poachers and then I will ...."), but it is time to resist the draw of electronic.

My second concern is that electronics are taking the place of people and imagination in young children's lives.  Parents are concerned that reading scores among children are dropping in this country, so they buy their children electronic toys or videos to teach the alphabet or nursery rhymes.  The only trouble with this is that studies have shown that children do not learn from electronics, but from human interaction.  The best thing that a parent can do to help a child prepare to learn to read well uses totally free materials - a library and a lap.  Children learn language and reading readiness from people - people who read to them, sing to them, and talk to them about the world around them.  This is not the ravings of a cranky grandma; this is factual and backed by sicentific evidence.

When I began in child care (almost thiry years ago - oh, my!), the children played busily during the day.  The center was full of the sound of children making noises.  They were racing cars, playing puppy, shooting pretend guns (yes, I know that it is not politically correct, but that is a message for another day), cooking food, ringing telephones, roaring dinosaurs, being police sirens ... the list could go on and on.  Today, however, every toy makes a sound, if not several sounds so that the children have no need to do so.  The solution seems simple - remove the batteries.  For every battery that I have removed, a staff member or parent is waiting to replace it so that the "toy will work".  (I have discovered that a soak in nice soapy water or a ride through the dishwasher will usually render the electronics inoperable.  Since the toys need to be cleaned regularly, this is fairly easy to accomplish!).

Often staff members who are younger do not realize just how much these children have lost by having toys that make all of the noises for them.  A few weeks ago one of my younger staff members wanted batteries because one of the fire trucks no longer had a siren.  I refused the batteries and told the staff member that the child needed to learn to make the noises himself.  I did explain my rationale, and sent them back to play.  The staff member tried to encourage the child to be a siren, but he said that he could not.  The staff member then asked the child if he knew how a fire truck sounded.  The child replies, "Yes.  Put in the batteries and you will, too."  I rest my case.

1200 Words

As I was driving to work yesterday, the disc jockey was talking about a recent scientific study that was done by a psychologist (at least I think he said that it was a psychologist).  The study determined that the average person had 1200 words per minute going through his head.  I can believe this, since my head is often filled with songs, to-do lists, comments on things that are going on around me, and the Great American Novel that I am sure that I will write some day.  (I did spend some time wondering how he actually counted the words per minute - did each subject have to repeat everything that his brain was saying or could they tape them with some kind of CT scan?)  This would have just been another interesting bit of trivia if it weren't for one detail that I found very upsetting.  It turns out that out of those 1200 words, 1100 of them are negative.

Ninety two per cent of a person's thoughts each minute are negative?  I am a generally happy person, and although I occasionally have an unhappy or negative thought I cannot conceive of being so negative most of the time.  Is life so difficult?  Are so many things going wrong?  Is there no hope?

Unfortunately, I think that in many cases negativity is something that has been learned.  No one gives lessons in being negative, but it is something that is picked up as we grow.  When Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote the score for "South Pacific", they included a song called "They've Got to be Taught."  The plot involved a Navy Ensign and a Navy Nurse who were romantically involved with South Pacific natives, but found that they could not act on that  attraction because of racial prejudices.  They sang about children learning to hate and fear others from their families.

Do we learn negative thoughts from others?  I cannot believe that children are born to be negative thinkers.  They are busy, inquisitive, emotional, friendly, frightened, hungry, loving, anxious...  Children can be many things, and each one has a different personality.  There are definately negative moments when a child is afraid, angry, mad, or frustrated, but there are many happy moments also.  How does a child learn to be negative?  Is it when he hears his adults speaking negatively about others?  Is it when he cannot measure up to his adult's expectations?  Is it when his adults are ignoring his accomplishments?  Is it when his adults are ignoring his questions or treating him like he is stupid?  Is it when he is so pampered that he cannot do anything for himself?  Is it when he is the target of jokes and comments?  I can still remember several times when I was young and an adult made fun of my weight or something that I had done.  These adults were relatives and friends of my parents, and I know that they were nice people.  Still, my only memories of them are the times that they made fun of me to get a laugh from other adults.  What a sad legacy!

The Bible tells us to "raise up a child in the way that he should go and he will follow it all of the days of his life".  Children are so precious, and so fragile.  Please, please make sure that the children in your life are treated positively so that they may have positive, productive lives.  As adults we have so much power to influence the children that we meet - make sure that you are a positive influence.

I'm In the City Now!

I am quickly approaching the fifth anniversary of employment at the center.  I have been very happy here, and enjoy the staff, the church members (we are located in a Lutheran church), and - most of all - the children in our care.  There have been some adjustments, however, now that I am working in the city.  (Note:  People who live here will tell you that this is not the city, that it is a suburb.  It does, however, have the name of the city as its address.  In addition, it has sidewalks, street lights, stop lights, lots of buildings, and big, smelly buses.  That is a city.)  I have never spent much time in a city, so my tenure here has been very instructive and I have learned a lot about life in the city.  The things that I have learned include:

1.  Dog owners in the city tend to carry baggies to deal with anything that their dog may produce during the walk.  This is a nice change from the country, where dog owners tend to just let their dog out the door.  I spend a good amount of time pooper-scooping my lawn, which wouldn't bother me so much if I actually owned a dog.

2.  The city has squirrels.  I know that they are a nuisance, and that people tend to dislike them, but I love to watch them run and play.  We have recently acquired a squirrel or two in Retsof but one at a time is not as entertaining as several.  We used to have lots of little red squirrels at our house, but that was because Alexander (one of our cats) brought them home from the woods across the street, and since Alexander is no longer with us the red squirrels are gone.

3.  I don't think that there are amusement parks in the city because every time that I get on the expressway someone is trying to ram my car.  Perhaps if they could play bumper cars they would leave mine alone.

4.  It take forever to get anyplace in the city.  Going five miles down the road can take fifteen minutes or more because of stop lights, bus stops, and kamikaze pedestrians.  At home we are only held up if Cuozzo's cows are in the road again.

5.  There are dozens of pizza parlors, fast food places, sub shops, and restaurants.  Does anyone in the city cook?

6.  This one is really scary - "People of Walmart" really do exist.  Most of them are very friendly and love to chat, but I am not sure that I want to stand too close to them.

7.  People get cranky when my attention wanders at long stop lights and I forget to watch for the green.  There are really more interesting things to look at than stop lights.

8.  I have learned that when the speed limit drops to 55 on the expressway, it is not a good idea to slow down to 55 if you value the rear end of your car.

 9.  There are elevators everywhere.  I think that there are only two or three in my county.               

10.  Often when I am leaving a store, the cashier or door guard will tell me to "Be blessed" or to "Have a blessed day".  What a happy thought!

Training a Director Really Needs

Today I was visiting an early childhood training organization's website to discover what workshops were available in the Rochester area and to register for any new ones.  As a director I am always looking for excellent training that would improve my teaching and my administrative skills.  Like many directors, I was multitasking; in this case I was mending a red teddy bear while I was reading.  The bear, which is the much loved possession of one of the three year old boys, often comes into the office to have his seams closed or his limbs reattached.

The workshop list contained trainings on many of the skills that child care directors need:  staff orientation, marketing, supervisory skills, fiscal skills, and child assessment.  The combination of trainings and red bear made me think about other imprtant trainings that child care directors could use.  The training catalog should include:

1.  Basic sewing - This course would give the director expertise in mending stuffed animals, dolls, and blankets.  A segment will cover clothing, since once staff members discover that the director can sew, they will bring in garments that need to be hemmed or to have buttons reattached.  (I have even had children bring me their clothes that needed to be mended.)

2.  Plumbing for Dummies - Learn how to replace a faucet, repair a leaking pipe, replace a trap which has developed a hole, and how to unclog a toilet that is full of tp, Legos, shoes, etc.  Plungers, snakes, and wrenches will be provided, but they will not necessarily be the correct size/strength.

3.  Beginning Carpentry - This course would give you the skills to replace hooks in cubbies, replace the backs on mailbox units, and wood glue the arms back on the rocking chair.  Included at no extra charge is information on assembling wood kitchen sets that come with one part missing and directions that were written by someone who has never seen the kitchen set plans or parts.

4.  Midwifery -  Provides the necessary skills to deal with birthing mothers, including hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs, and (in one memorable incident) staff members. This course may be taken in combination with:

5.  Ceremonies - This course will help the director to recognize and handle all of the details that need to be considered when planning a pet's funeral.  Topics covered include picking out the correct size shoe box, stealing a receiving blanket from the baby room without being caught, the funeral procession to the playground (single file vs. double file),  and musical arrangements (how many songs should the children pick out?).  As a special bonus, there will be information on funerals that involve flushing fish.

6.  Treasure Hunting - Learn valuable information about removing stones, beads, Legos, etc. from noses and ears.

7.  Physics - Discover how to remove blocks, balls, and matchbox cars from objects that they could not possibly fit into.

More courses will be available on request.

Let's All Honk!

As a child care director, I attend leadership conferences.  This gives me a chance to network with other directors and exchange ideas as well as helping me to improve my directing skills.  (Like many directors, I became a director with two weeks notice and little administrative experience, so I learned by fumbling along)  A popular theme in administrative meetings right now is imitating geese and flying in a V.  The discussions cover how geese help each other, share the burden, and stay with the geese who are having trouble.  These are great ideas, but I think that we could improve by following other aspects of geese.

I know that many think of geese are a nuisance, but I love them.  I love watching the large V as they fly overhead on their way south or north.  My heart lifts when I hear them honking because I know that they are signaling a change in the seasons.  I love seeing them in the cornfields as they break their journey and look for corn that was missed in the harvest.  I love the special times that I spy snow geese near the Canadian geese.  My favorite time, however, is when the goslings hatch and start to venture out with their parents.

Recently, I was driving through a business park while taking a short cut on my way to pick up the center's weekly order at Sam's Club.  As I rounded a curve, I noticed that traffic was stopped in both lanes.  Was it an accident?  A breakdown?  A traffic stop?  No - it was a Canadian goose strutting across the road followed by eight fuzzy yellow goslings.  They were stepping across the street in a perfect line while about a dozen cars sat and waited for them to pass.  Even better, another goose was at the end of the line, marching sedately behind all of the others.  As the last gosling cleared the curb, he stopped in the middle of the lane, raised his head, and honked at all of the cars.  I chuckled about him all day long.

Why should we copy the geese?  They knew where their children were at all times, and kept them protected between the two adults.  I am not talking about turning everyone into the helicopter parents who never give their children freedom to grow or to make mistakes, but about those parents (and, unfortunately, caregivers) who never seem to know where their children are much of the time.  I cannot be the only one who has watched a little one wander around the mall while their parent is on their cell phone.  How does a parent leave a child in a Burger King when the family leaves?  How can a child care provider leave a child on the playground when everyone goes inside?  How can a bus driver leave a child on the bus for six hours while the bus sits in the garage?  The geese seem to do it better than many humans manage to do. 

Several days ago I was in Wegmans doing the week's grocery stopping.  A young child (4 or 5) was upset because his little brother had his toy and would not give it back.  The mother kept telling him to be quiet because his brother was using the toy.  The boy, who was becoming quite upset, went into the produce preperation area, which was empty for the evening.  The mother, whose child was now out of sight in an area that was filled with big knives for cutting up fruit and who knows what else, reacted by saying, "Good-bye, Bobby" and pushing the cart out of the produce area and into the grocery area.  Fortunately, the older brother, who was about seven, came back, brought the boy out of the preparation area, and followed the mother.  This is one child who would have benefited from being raised by a goose.

Thoughts

My sister emailed me a few days ago about her three year old grandchild, who she feels is very cute and very bright (while he is, I don't have the heart to tell her that my grandchildren are obviously much cuter and brighter!).  While he was visiting he asked to see the creek behind the house.  My sister felt that it would not be very interesting because the water level was low, but they walked down to the creek.  The grandson looked at the creek and told her, "It's full of allergies".  "Allergies"?  In a creek?  Suddenly it dawned on her - there was algae in the creek.  The grandson was commenting on the fact that he saw algae in the creek. 

Now, this is a very cute story, and I enjoyed it very much.  While I enjoyed it because it was funny and made me laugh, I enjoyed it even more because of what it told me about the grandson's life.  This is a child who is obviously interested in what is going on around him and who enjoys being outside.  This means that he has parents and grandparents who let him run around, investigate, and enjoy nature.  He observes his surroundings and talks about what he sees, which means that adults are looking and talking with him.  He is comfortable in the outdoors, which means that he has spent time in the fresh air.  He has an unusual vocabulary, which means that he has been developing communication and language skills by talking with the adults in his life.  Children do not learn about algae by playing Angry Birds or by watching cartoons.  This is a child who has an excellent start in life because the adults in his life are paying attention to him rather than parking him in front of "educational" electronics.

Several days later my sister sent a picture that grandson had painted for her.  He told her that it was a picture of a circle, and she had framed it and hung it in her living room.  I always admire people who frame and display children's art (don't tell my sister, however) because I tend to be the sort of refrigerator magnet decorator.  I enjoy his paintings and his sense of color, but I especially enjoy them because his parents and grandparents enjoy, admire, and treasure them.  What seem to adults to be mindless scribbling and swiping are actually very important developmental steps for a child.  A child needs to go through 80 stages of scribbling before they can begin to form letters.  These first attempts at writing and drawing are the equivalent of learning to crawl, stand, and walk, but many parents treat small children's art as if it were meaningless, rather than celebrating it with their child.  One of the saddest sight that I see in a child care classroom is a cubby stuffed full of a child's art that has been accumulating for several months.  Even sadder are the parents who tell the staff to "just throw it out".  (My staff, by the way, will not throw out a child's art.)  A child who is prewriting, drawing, coloring, writing, cutting, and pasting is learning many important skills which include:  fine motor control, sorting and classifying (math skills), color mixing (science), and self-expression, not to mention the language, communication, and social skills that are developed when the child talks to an adult about their artwork.  Parents who are pushing their children to learn what they believe is necessary to become ready for kindergarten give the children no encouragement when they take the steps that are needed to develop the skills.  Children are excited and proud about their work, and having a loved one ignore it to throw it into the garbage without looking at it is horribly unkind.  A picture in a frame seems to be a small thing, but it speaks volumes about the way that his family understands the grandchild and how much they value him. 

So what is my point in all of this?  Rather than worrying that your child is not learning enough to be ready for school, get involved with him.  Put down your ipad, turn off the tv (and don't tell me that it is educational videos - that is usually an oxymoron!), turn off your phone, and spend time with your child.  Talk about what you see, what you are doing, and what is happening.  Use grownup words and talk as if you were talking to a peer - that is how children learn language.  If you always baby talk or use one syllable words, so will your child.  Not only will you be helping your child to succeed, you will be having a whole lot of fun!

Yogurt

As I have explained before, my greatest interests are young children, nutrition, and cooking.  Fortunately for me, these interests combine easily and work together well.  This does not always happen - imagine trying to cook while skydiving...  Anyway, I have begun making my own yogurt.  It is easy, cheap (a week's worth of yogurt for about 99 cents), and it really impresses people who don't know how easy it really is.  Yogurt making is very simple, and children can help. 

All you need for successful yogurt making is a kettle, thermometer, whisk, 8 cups of milk (any kind - I use skim), and a small container of plain yogurt.  You do not need olive oil - that was just on the counter.

Heat the milk to 180 degrees to separate the proteins.  If your thermometer is the kind that is encased in Pyrex, make sure that it is not touching the bottom of the pan, since it will not read correctly.  Stir the milk occasionally to prevent sticking.  If you are the type that multitasks, do not wander off.  scorched yogurt tastes terrible, and if it boils onto the stove it makes a mess (trust me on this one!).

 



Take the pot of milk off the burner and let it cool to between 120 and 110 degrees.  Put about 1/2 cup (more or less) plain yogurt into a bowl.  Add about a cup of the warm milk, whisk until smooth, and add to the pot of warm milk.  Stir.  Do not try to save time by stirring the yogurt directly into the milk - you will have lumps of yogurt (trust me on this, too!),

Place the mixture into a container with a lid.  The mixture will have to stay warm to incubate for at least eight hours.  I found that the best way for me was to wrap it in an old bath towel and place in one of those foil-lined insulated Wegmans bags with a zip lid.  Any kind of container that would hold the temperature would work. 

 

 

The yogurt can be removed after eight hours, or it can stay longer.  I often make mine after work and leave it overnight, and I have left it as long as 24 hours.  The longer the yogurt incubates, the thicker it becomes and the more the flavor develops.  To thicken it a little more, I strain it through a colander that is placed over a bowl.  I line it with an old cotton dish towel, and I strain a few cups at a time just to make it easier to scoop into the containers that I use to store it (in my case, I have a complete matching set of margarine containers).

Draining the yogurt takes off some of the whey and thickens the yogurt.  Exactly how much you drain off will depend on the thickness of the yogurt when you start and on your patience while you are draining it.  It is okay to wander away during the draining; in fact, I recommend it.  Make sure to save the whey in the refrigerator - it is wonderful for baking.  You do not need to use anything fancy to store the whey, although I do have a lovely matched set of mayonnaise jars.

Your yogurt will be thick, much like Greek yogurt, and will be tart because it is plain yogurt.  It can be sweetened with sugar or honey.  I usually eat mine plain, since I put it over fruit which sweetens it enough.  This is a matter of taste.  Once you have made a batch, there is not need to purchase more yogurt, since you can use the batch that you made to start a new batch.

Yogurt is very easy to make, especially once you have made it several times.  It is a great feeling to produce something that is so good and healthy while saving money also.  Have fun and enjoy!



Spin, Spin, Spin

When I was cleaning closets in the center, I found a spin art thing.  The staff told me that it was a lot of fun - all you needed was batteries, some paint, and a round piece of paper.  The child would put the paper in the machine, squirt in some paint (carefully supervised by a teacher), and push a button.  Voila!  A piece of art work.  This was used with the children who were in the school age program.

The teachers were amazed when I would not let them use it.  While the children might perfect their button pushing technique, I could see no other value in the experience.  I brought in a salad spinner that I had purchased at a yard sale many years ago for $1.00 that the children could use for spin art.  The school age teachers had a great deal of difficulty trusting the children to use it "correctly", and tried to micromanage the whole process.

Fortunately, the teachers who are now working with the children at the center understand that children need to manipulate, explore, and experience to learn.  They also understand that children are capable of doing many wonderful things by themselves.  A few days ago I went into the four year old room and watched the children have wonderful adventures with the salad spinner.

 

The children loved to squirt in the paint, and used liberally.  There was no teacher telling them not to use too much, or to use all of the colors, since their teacher understood that children need to have control over their own art work.  Even more that squirting, the children loved turning the handle.

The teacher held the spinner steady while the children spun and spun.  When it looked at though they might be tired, they spun some more.  Some of the children spun for five or more minutes.  They spun and spun.  They twirled the basket so hard that the handle popped off and had to be stuck back on (sorry - no picture of this!).  When they finally stopped, everyone admired the masterpiece.

The fun, however, didn't stop there.  As soon as one painting was done, the children hurried to start another.  The discovered that colors swirled together to make other colors.  They discovered that if they turned the spinner really, pulled off the top, and dropped more paint into the spinner they could watch the paint swirl around the paper.  One child discovered that he could turn until the basket was moving very rapidly, lean over, and watch the paint cascade down the sides of the bowl.

The children kept making spin art for several days.  They explored velocity, centrifical force, colors, decision making, cooperation ... the list is endless.  Unfortunately, however, they did not have a chance to perfect their button pushing technique.  $1.00 yard sale kitchen find vs. a $12.00 electric toy - which is better?  The children know and, fortunately, so do some teachers.

A Boy Scout is Truthful

Work and life have been very busy lately, so blog entries have not been getting done.  That doesn't mean that my mind has not been on them; I am often writing entries in my head while I am occupied at another task.  I have been tying to decide which order to use when writing them, but one thought has been coming to my mind more often than any other - the need for absolute truth when caring for young children.  Everyone knows (I hope) the need for truth at work - not stealing, not faking illness to get out of work, not lying about reimbursable expenses.  I am talking about the need for absolute truth when dealing with children and their families.

Everyone who has worked in a child care center can probably relate a few horror stories - the director who tells a parent about a child's day when she has not been near a child all day, the staff member who tells a parent that they applied sunscreen when they didn't, the staff member who "fixes up" a child's project to impress the parents... the list can go on and on.  Little white lies and harmless untruths?  No.

This was brought forcefully to mind by a mother who visited the center seeking child care for her son.  The administration gave her a tour, explained the center's policies, and explained the center's curriculum, which consists of developmentally appropriate activities that allow the children to explore and investigate their environment.  She told us that her son (who had just turned three) had been in a home day care.  When he was 18 months old the owner had moved him from the infant/toddler room to the preschool room (ages three and up).  There he had learned how to count in English and in Spanish and to say the alphabet.  The mother was very proud that her child had such a body of knowledge.  The only trouble was that most children his age can count and recite the alphabet.  That does not mean, however, that they understand what numbers are and how letters are used; it is the first step to learning that every child must take.  The mother ultimately decided to take her child to another center because we were not "advanced enough" for her child.

It is okay that she decided to use another center; not every center is a perfect fit for every family and every child.   What bothers me is that her child care provider was not honest with her.  If a child was moved up to another room 18 months before he was old enough, he was most likely moved because the day care provider wanted to enroll another infant but did not have enough room until a child moved up.  This means that a child was moved into a room of three, four, and five year olds.  He was playing, socializing, and learning with children who were as much as three and four years older than he was.  I do not mean to belittle the child - he could very well be very bright.  Even so, each child has certain developmental stages that he must reach before he can go on to the next one.  Forcing a child to skip a stage or two does not help him and may even make things more difficult for him in the future.  Convincing a parent that a child is ready to do something that he is not is inexcusable.  The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has developed a code of ethics for those who care for young children.  The first principle of the code (P 1-1) is "Above all, we shall not harm children".  This does not refer only to physical harm, but to emotional, social, and intellectual harm.  While this child may not have been hurt physically, being put into an environment that the he was not not developmentally ready to enter was not in his best interest.  Was he happy trying to play with children who were on a completely different developmental level?  Was he stressed trying to do work that was not appropriate for him?  Was he frustrated trying to do activities that his hands and eyes and brain were not ready to do?

So often it is tempting to take the easy way out - to tell the little white lie or to stretch the truth a little.  We must remember that we are not just making Aunt Rose feel better by telling that we enjoyed her prune pie, but that we are dealing with children's growth and development as well as with parents' perception of their children.  We need to truthful if everything if we are to be professionals who are dedicated to the growth and perception of young children.  No exceptions!

This post is entitled "A Boy Scout is Truthful" because I was thinking that was a part of the Boy Scout code that would apply to caregivers.  When I looked it up, I discovered that truthful is not part of the Boy Scout code.  Boy Scouts are cheerful, reverent, loyal, trustworthy, etc., etc., etc., but not truthful.  (It is, however, implied!)  Anyway, even though I was wrong about the Boy Scout code, I liked the title so I kept it (and that is the truth!).

Love That Internet!

As far as I am concerned, the internet is a wonderful invention.  When I was growing up, if we needed to know something we had to use the encyclopedia, the card catalog, and the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature.  Now, if I need to know something, it is at my fingertips.  Where did John Wayne say, "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do"?  Google  Need a recipe for coconut cookies?  Ask  Don't know how to go to Naples?  Mapquest 

This year I used Google a number of times.  When I loved the fire roasted tomatoes that I had purchased (with a downloaded coupon for $1 off per can), I found directions for roasting my own on the grill.  I purchased a half bushel of roma tomatoes and roasted them on my grill.  When I needed window coverings for the large window in my back room, I found excellent directions for making Roman shades.  (I still haven't made them, but I have excellent directions.)  When I needed a new knitting project I checked out the free patterns, and when the Exercise on Demand channel closed down, I found free yoga downloads.

As an early childhood teacher, I have used the internet to find lesson plan ideas, words to songs and poems, and low cost used books.  As with everything else, however, anyone who is looking for program ideas must remember that just because it is on the internet doesn't mean that it is a good idea.  Many on-line lesson plans are made by people who have little training in child development.  When a lesson idea starts with the words, "This is a cute idea...", it is usually a signal to look elsewhere.  One of my favorite examples is from a page of "cute" Christmas ideas.  It involved having the children make their own nativity scene.  The children were to take a cupcake paper, put chocolate pudding in it, and sprinkle shredded wheat over the top.  This made a manger.  The children were then to put the baby Jesus on the manger.  I forget exactly what Jesus was (I probably blocked it out), but I believe that it was something along the lines of a peanut.  Once the manger was done, the children could eat it - Jesus and all.  I don't know if I am the only one that finds the project a little creepy, and of course it is not developmentally appropriate, but it will never be done where I am directing. 

The internet is full of exciting, helpful information. It is also full of nonsense. Before you use something from it, make sure that you evaluate it for appropriateness, safety, and just plain common sense. The internet is a powerful tool. Just remember, as a wise man said, "Use it well, young Skywalker".

Now I've Got It!!

Children's language development fascinates me.  I have been reading a great deal about brain development and the process of learning language and reading.  Many parents and teachers, who worry about their children developing language and learning to read, tend to push the children to learn the alphabet, phonics, and sight words at a younger and younger age.  Although more pressure is being put on children to learn at an earlier age, reading scores in this country continue to slide.  One of the countries that outranks the US in reading scores is Finland.  Do they have a secret formula for teaching reading?  Do they know something that we do not?  Do they have some kind of reading magic?  Their solution to raising good readers is simple - they do not start to teach reading until the children are at least 6.5 years old.  This is not rocket science - it is the age at which first graders began to learn to read many, many years ago when I was in first grade.  Now, in our rush to improve reading scores, we are pushing children to learn at a younger and younger age.  While they often can recognize sight words, they lack the years of preparation that they spend learning how language works, learning the sounds and rhythms of language, learning how letters are put together in different combinations to create different words, and learning how that we read top to bottom and left to right.

Our program is a relaxed, developmentally appropriate program which allows the children to learn naturally by experiencing and experimenting.  Rather than drilling the children with the sounds of the letters and worksheets that involve copying letters, they are allowed to develop a love of and understanding for the language.  The children listen to stories and talk about the sounds and letters in the books.  They learn poems and rhymes (did you know that the child who knows eight nursery rhyme type poems when he begins kindergarten is a measurably better reader by third grade?) and experience lots of environmental print.   By the time that they start kindergarten they are well on their way to learning to read.

Let me tell you about several of our children that are discovering how the alphabet, language, and writing work together.  The three year old teacher had printed the nursery rhyme "Jack and Jill" on a piece of paper and hung it on the wall in the reading area.  When I came into the room, Danny was standing at the paper, tracing under the words with his finger, and reciting the nursery rhyme.  About half way through, his finger was far ahead of the rhyme.  He looked at the page, said, "No", and began again with his finger following his words.  Was he reading this?  No - he had learned from watching the teacher that his finger had to line up with the words that he was reciting.  He was learning that specific combinations of letters make different words.  Without this knowledge, learning to read would be difficult, if not impossible.

Several days later, George was awake at nap time.  He looked at Jane, who was asleep, and said, "Jane is a sleepy-head".   Suddenly the light bulb came on.  He smiled and said, "I get it!  Jane  is asleep and she has a head!"  Again, the understanding of language, and the ability to decode compound words is an essential prereading skill that can only be learned by using language.  A young child who has a conversation rich environment will be a better reader than one that is forced to drill letter sounds.

One of the four year old girls was bouncing when I saw her a few days ago.  The children had been grinding whole spices with a mortar and pestle (sensory stimulation, gross motor experience, language development), when she noticed that the spices that she was using came from a bottle that was labeled "Nutmeg".  She couldn't wait to tell me that she found my name on the bottle.  She told me that if I had the word nut in front of my name that my name would be "Nutmeg".  Again, Nancy was learning that letters work together to make words, that a word can be broken down into its parts, and that the same combination of letters can make the same sound in different words. 

Do you want your child to be a successful reader?  Get rid of the "educational" toys, turn off the TV, and read, read, read to your child.  Talk about what you have read, talk about what you see, and talk about what you are doing.  Let your child see you read.  When you need to look up information, let the child see you do it and talk about how you are using the words in the phone book, cookbook, directions, etc.  Teaching reading is not done in a vacuum - it takes place every day.  Unless a child has an understanding of language and how it works, and appreciates that reading is important, he will not be a successful reader.  The best part is that while you are helping your child to become a successful reader, you will be having a lot of fun together and sharing some special times that he will remember for years to come.

To all parents and teachers - I would highly recommend the book Reading Magic by Mem Fox.  Mem is an author of children's books and a teacher.  I spent a whole day at her workshop at a NYS Association for the Education of Young Children conference several years ago.  She is extremely wise and extremely funny, and I often give her book as a baby shower gift, along with some children's books.

A Writing Rant!

One of my biggest frustrations as a child care director has been trying to convince parents of the value of play and hands-on learning in an early childhood setting.  Between advertising by companies that want to make money and politicians who think that they know about education, many parents are convinced that their child will not succeed in school unless he or she is drilled in academics at an early age.  One example of this is the issue of writing, which can be illustrated by two children in my care.

Child #1 attends a very academic nursery school, as well as our program.  At his nursery school, he sits at a table each week with a pencil and a ditto sheet and practices printing the letter of the week.  It does not matter that he has just turned four, and it will be several years yet before the bones in his hands will ossify enough to allow him to form the letters correctly.  It does not matter that there is almost a two year continuum of development at each age and he might not be developmentally ready to do so.  It does not matter that the lines are closer together than he can write at this age.  Each week he sits and practices. 

A few days ago child #1 was trying to write a friends name and was frustrated because he could not make an "R" correctly.  He worried and worried about that R.  It did not matter that he had written S, A, M, H quite well (some were backward, but that is very normal).  It did not matter that he had made a lower case R.  It did not matter that he was trying to make one of the more difficult letters.  It did not matter that his child care teachers reassured him that his work was fine.  He needed to live up to the unrealistic expectations of the nursery school teachers.

Child #2 is about a year older than child #1.  She has spent her days in a developmentally appropriate, play based child care.  She has been in a print rich environment, where books are read daily, children's stories are dictated to the teachers who copy them to go home to be read, and children and teachers discuss the things that they see and hear.  There are always paper, pencils, markers, and crayons available and as children are ready they can try to copy the letters that they see if they wish.   When we had our first snowfall, the slate floors in the entry room became wet and slippery.  The four year old teacher asked for help making a caution sign.  Child #2, who had learned to enjoy letters and writing, volunteered to help.  The teacher helped with spelling, and Child #2 made the sign that is now hanging in our entry.  While Child #1 is seeing writing as a stressor, Child #2 is comfortable and confident with what she had learned, since she learned it in a way that is appropriate for her age level and makes sense to her.

PS - The person on the sign is upside-down because he has fallen on his head on the wet floor!

I had started to write about Christmas several weeks ago, but ended up being so busy that I never completed it.  I have been feeling guilty about not writing for so long since I had made a commitment to write this blog, but I have noticed that all of the blogs that I follow have slowed down during the holidays.  I usually am very excited about Christmas, and enjoy every aspect of the season except for shopping.  I hate malls and crowds, so my shopping is always done early.  This year, however, I just did not have the usual excitement and Christmas feeling, but I wasn't sure why.  The grandchildren live 1000 miles away now?  They did last year. The 24 hour Christmas radio songs (many of which are not very good music) had been going on for days?  They did last year.  I didn't make cut out cookies this year?  I did have some at the center Christmas program, although a lack of cut outs is a serious problem.

That was as far as I got on my last blog post.  I had intended to write about the hustle and bustle of the season, the love that I have for Christmas, and my thoughts about the unkindness that many adults show to children by threatening them with a fat man in red suit while the children are becoming hysterically over excited about the tales of Santa, all of the parties and celebrations, and the fact that the Christmas season now starts on November 1.  This was my intention.  Instead I wrote blogs in my head while I cooked and cleaned, wrote cards and decorated, shopped and wrapped.  I had thought that since there were just two of us at home now that things would be calmer.  The presents that were going south to our family had to be on the UPS truck at the beginning of December.  The cards were written over Thanksgiving. Two of the parties that we attend were not held this year.  Still, it seemed as though there was always something to do.

As I said, this year I just did not feel the usual excitement about Christmas.  I also discovered that many others felt the same way.  I do feel that the Christmas season is being pushed on us so early that it does not have the special excitement that we used to feel when everything started after Thanksgiving.  I have discovered, however, that the missing ingredient was snow.  Last year the Rochester area had 46 inches of snow by Christmas.  This year we had about 5, although I am not sure where that much snow fell - it certainly wasn't at my house.  If I lived in the South it probably wouldn't bother me, but New York is supposed to have snow.  Last week we finally had snow.  Only about 4 or 5 inches fell, but it was enough to make driving in the dark with a strong wind tricky, and it had to be shoveled off the porches and the drive in 20 degree weather.  It did, however, make me breath a sigh of satisfaction - things were as they should be.  (Or as they should be until the temperature hits almost 40 tomorrow and it all melts!)

When Christmas came, when the tree was decorated, when the candles were lit at the Christmas Eve service, when we went to church on Christmas morning, when we drank coffee and unwrapped stocking gifts, I felt the peace and joy that had been missing.  I was celebrating the day that my Savior was born, and knowing Him is enough to celebrate.  It was a good Christmas.