YOUNG INFANTS:

Dear Parents, 

Hope everyone enjoyed the Purim celebration! This past week we welcomed a new friend, Ezra! He is adjusting to our school and getting to know his classmates. 

We had a lot of fun learning about Purim and making our own groggers. The next major holiday coming up is Pesach (Passover). We are already planning crafts, songs and stories to read.

Spring is coming! We love going outside for fresh air and to play in our playground or go for stroller walks. The children love looking at cars and trucks at work in the neighborhood. We also pay attention to changes in nature that come with Spring. Birds are busy this time of year, buds are appearing on trees and even cones from nearby spruce trees are opening up and letting out their seeds.

Please send hats and sunscreen for your children as we spend more time outside.

Looking forward to a wonderful Spring,
Morahs Marla, Leslie, and Sarah 


OLDER INFANTS:

Dear Parents, 

Hope everyone enjoyed the Purim celebrations! Our infant classes enjoyed hearing the Megillah in the Shul, especially the lively sounds of the shakers whenever Haman’s name was read. We loved seeing the festive costumes too! 

In our classroom of young toddlers, we are noticing more capabilities with works and routines every day. Toddlers inherently have a “can-do” spirit. However, sometimes we adults can inadvertently get in the way of this independence. We want to be helpers. Or we want something done quickly. We notice that when given enough time, our children can open lunchboxes and containers. We observe that our children can help push down their pants (with assistance) before toileting. When given ten more seconds with the puzzle piece, they do figure it out! In this way we are building mental toughness. 

Mental toughness is sometimes referred to as grit. How do we encourage this in children? Don’t do too much for them! If you do too much, you will steal their self esteem. So when they give you a problem, don’t fix it. Give it back to them: “You can open your own lunchbox. Would you like help with the latches?” Children become confident when they solve their own problems. But if the adult has low self esteem, he/ she gets confidence by solving the child’s problems. Let's not do that. Allow the child to be responsible by not rescuing them. Too often parents rescue and they don’t realize they’re stealing the child’s self esteem. 

Wait: Children become more capable every day. The way to find out if a child can do a task is to wait. It may feel like hours! But if we are patient enough, the child realizes no one will do it for him/ her. 

Build in extra time: In our classroom, we help to build self-esteem by providing children with time and space to accomplish tasks for themselves. This requires patience from the adults, which can be challenging when running late. The solution is to build in an extra 10 to 15 minutes when getting ready for the next activity. In this way, children can put on their shoes independently, or put their own works away, at their pace, and we can still be on time for the next activity. There will be resistance; may be a struggle. But when you have built in extra time, you can more easily embrace it with patience.

Healthy self-esteem: Whether we are two or ninety-two, what we all need is to feel valued for what we can do and for who we are. These feelings are based not on what we are told we can do, but on what we actually do, and it is this experience that lets us know what we are capable of. Our self-esteem grows when we feel a valued member of a community and that is based on what we can personally contribute to the communities that we belong to. Whatever form the community takes – our school environment, our place of work, or our home. Children with healthy self-esteem not only feel capable in themselves, but do not feel the need to judge themselves as better or worse than others.

We are so grateful to be your partners in building up each child. Remember– allowing your child to struggle develops grit. 

Saving you a seat on the struggle bus…

Morahs Rachael, Kathy, and Pallavi