Tis’ The Season
Dear Families,
We can’t believe we are already nearing the end of the year! With the start of December, comes a lot of excitement and anticipation throughout our school. We are looking forward to a jolly month ahead!
Weather
With colder days ahead, we will still aim to get our students outdoors at least once a day to get some fresh air to strengthen the immune system. Please make sure your child comes to school with layers, gloves and a hat! If you have not already done so, please send in an extra pair of labeled gloves (mittens for the little ones) and a hat to keep at school.
2022-2023 School Year
Believe it or not, the time to start thinking about the 2022-2023 school year is approaching! Keep an eye out for the re-enrollment form in your child’s folder when we return from Holiday Break. Those of you who plan on returning to our school next year should plan to register as soon as possible to ensure preferred placement.
Giving Back to our community through Connect With A Wish
We would like to share a fundraising opportunity offered through our school this month! Connect With a Wish works to connect the wishes and needs of children in Virginia Beach foster care with the generosity of our community. These children are missing their families while trying to overcome adversity on all levels. Connect With a Wish gives our community an avenue to connect with these children in foster care on a level where we can make a difference in their lives.
We will be collecting donations up until December 10th. Donation suggestions for children ages Newborn-20 years old can be found below:
New Books
Stocking Stuffers
For more information you may reach out to the Non-profit at 757-337-2657 or visit them online at www.connectwithawish.org.
Holiday Party
Our annual Holiday Party will be on December 17th at 12:00pm. All students are invited to attend on this day. Please drop your child off by 10:00am if you would like them to participate in our surprise visit from Santa as well! We will provide pizza on this day, however please send in an AM and PM if your child is full day.
Surprise Santa
Santa Kenny of East Coast Santa wants to help make the holiday season even more memorable for our students! Santa Kenny will be making a surprise visit to our school on our Holiday Party day, December 17th! He will arrive around 10:15am. But shhhhhh it is a surprise to our students!
***If you would not like your child to participate in the Santa festivities please reach out to Admin.
Important Dates
December 15th- Invoices 5 of 10 due
December 17th- Holiday Party for all classrooms 12:00pm
December 20th-December 31st- Winter Holiday (School Closed)
January 3rd- School Reopens
January 5th- Re-enrollment sent home
January 17th- Martin Luther King Jr. Day- School Closed
An Article from Growing Child
Grandma Says|Respect Goes Two Ways
When the final book is written about all the things for which Covid is responsible, it will be a thick one. A big chapter will be on the disruptions in relationships.
A young friend just texted about the dilemma of her two-year-old's behavior with her grandmother visiting from the west coast for the first time since Covid began, just after the child's birth.
In the meantime, there have been FaceTime and sparse Zoom visits, but that has not done much to forge a connection.
You can imagine how eager Grandma is to spend time getting to know the child, whose response is cool, if not downright rude - "No! Go away!' "There's no room for you here."
Mom can see Grandma's feelings are hurt, though she respects the child's wishes, and this is definitely not laying the foundations for future relations.
From the child's perspective, this is a virtual stranger arriving at the peak of the time the toddler is trying to demonstrate her power, and directing behavior of others is a surefire way to do that.
From the parental perspective, we see a mom who wants to respect her child's wishes, yet is disturbed by the rudeness and concerned for the relationship.
A very positive development with this generation of parents is the importance they place on respecting the individuality of their children. I can imagine a scenario in times past when a reluctant child would have been forced to interact with an adult despite their fears or feelings, and this was definitely not respectful of the child.
But I sometimes worry that in this concern to respect the child's feelings, we lose sight of the fact that respect is a two-way street.
Individuals who get respect should also give respect. If only the child's feelings and wishes are respected, they become more and more self-centered, believing that they alone are the important ones. And we all know that is the direction of disaster, for the child and the surrounding society.
Grandma has feelings and rights in this situation that require a response. Young as she is, the youngster can be helped to see that: "Look at Grandma's face. Can you see your words are making her sad?" This is not to manipulate the child, but to support her developing awareness that she also has a responsibility to respect feelings of others.
This should be the basic stance. "I can't let you use unfriendly words with Grandma. That hurts her feelings."
Grandma is quite right in not forcing the issue. I reminded the mom that when I first met her daughter several months earlier, the child was quite reticent with me. Many young children are slow to warm up to new people.
I simply smiled and ignored the child for a while, interacting with her parents, old friends. The child watched us and drew her own conclusion that I was harmless, as well as clearly accepted by her loved adults.
Gradually, of her own accord, she came nearer and began to interact. I would advise Grandma to make herself attractive with an interesting toy or activity and give it all time.
In this learning opportunity, respect goes both ways.