Joy through Gratitude

The annual Joy Through Music event last night was a collection of brilliant stars whose shared light created an exponential brightness for our evening of family togetherness. Over 70 people, representing children, parents, grandparents, neighbors, Big Friends, AIA Board members, and co-workers from four different AIA programs, gathered in celebration of the season of love and gratitude. Reflecting our color scheme of silver and gold, old and new friends held time to share the joy of the season of giving. There was amazing talent on display. One of the most moving spectacles was the courage of young performers modeling risk to youth and adults.

Without neglecting anyone's magnificent contributions, many, many thanks to Christa Brandt and Kris Palmer for their leadership and support of this event, and for our set-up and clean-up crews, including:
Becca Alturk
Joe & Kimberly Anakata
Ihssan Abukhalaf
Andrew Fletcher
Zury Garcia
Keith Lewis
Dee McWilliams (sound)
Erin Nunn
Leandre Powell
Camille Reynolds
Heather Zunguze

And many thanks to Issa Brandt for hosting! His special presentation shared with Sharisse Huie, our parent AIA Board Rep, warmed the hearts of our dedicated teachers. Much appreciation to all the families for expressing their gratitude at this time to Artensia Young, Cierra Price, Dan Burr, Maria Sanchez and Sky Young.

DECEMBER GIFTS

• $90.00 was raised through cash donations toward the Home Sweet Home Music Garden.


• 100% of HSH staff have pledged support to the Alternatives in Action Annual Fund - joined by generous parent donations we are well on our way to achieving the Home Sweet Home goal of $1500. We hope to exceed this monetary goal AND achieve 100% family participation!


• Bongos and drums have been gifted to our preschool.


• An alumni gift of $1200 was designated to Home Sweet Home scholarships.


• Significant canned foods have been collected for the Food Drive.


• The unique and thoughtful gift of dry-cleaned dress-shirts, blazers and ties have supported many of our BASE seniors as they apply for internships this month.

Inclusion and Diversity

"Diversity and Coherence" by Peter Moss

“The value of diversity lies in its recognition and welcoming of otherness, its resistance to any form of referential norm, and its insistence that there are alternative perspectives, other ways of understanding the world and practicing life. It creates space for the construction of individual, group and local values, identities, and knowledge. In education, valuing diversity enables a pedagogy of difference, the creation of new knowledge, and new thought through the provocation of an encounter with otherness. It is a profoundly democratic value, welcoming participation of all on their own terms and with their own perspectives. "

To share a personal story, my Home Sweet Home alum got into an argument with her same aged cousin about same-sex parents, essentially taking the position that they exist. Her cousin was incredulous and insistent that this is not possible. The children's frustration lead to parent engagement, and the other child's parents said it was inappropriate to discuss "that" with a child so young. My response was a little bit indignant and judgmental. But was I appropriate?

Our Home-to-School Connection assignment is to hold space for an intentional conversation around "same and different". What do these concepts mean, how do we represent them to our children, and how do children define themselves with and next to others.

As Home Sweet Home prepares for our Winter Break, we reflect on these past four months filled with the adventure of new relationship. Relationship-based learning is rich from the provocation and negotiation embedded in observing, unwrapping and engaging with individuals and groups new to us or in new ways. By knowing and being known by one another, we are profoundly changed.

Emerging Themes

There is a lot of intentionality right now in Home Sweet Home to discuss and explore ideas about and practices of kindness, gratitude and empathy. Sky has supported strong conversations around the gift of giving - how it is a gift to ourselves to positively impact others. In the Butterfly classroom we have some collection bins for several charities, including canned foods. The act of the child bringing in a can to donate will further open up their thoughts about this theme. Please initiate and continue these conversations at home - linking the child's ideas back to their reality at Home Sweet Home. What does it mean to be a friend? What does it mean to have gratitude?

At our last Team Meeting, Home Sweet Home staff shared their observations of emerging interest around movement, both how we move ourselves and how things are moved. Transportation, with an emphasis on boats, seems to be an especially strong interest in the Brown Bear classroom.

A field trip plan started forming - taking the children by ferry from Alameda to Pier 39 and checking out the Jeremiah O'Brien Liberty Ship. This would be a rigorous field trip involving parent transport (to the ferry), walking, riding the ferry to and fro, and we will need a lot of parent and/or Bog Friend chaperones, especially for the Butterfly Class. Possible dates for this field trip are January 10th or 12th.

We would appreciate support from a parent coordinator! Any takers? Please connect with Dan and Artensia.

Child-Youth Relationships

"The child must know that he or she is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world, there will not be, another child like him"
- Pablo Casal

Reggio practice reflects deep respect for the primal need to know and be known by others. Families are invited to visit our board in the hallway outside of Classroom 2 to become re-inspired by the relationship building evident in the Child-Youth partnerships. Our Big Friends are featured engaging with our little friends during indoor and outdoor activities, leading projects, and supporting routines.

Pause and reflect on the stories these pictures tell. There is representation of mutual curiosity, co-created designs, exploration of texture and motion, sharing language, and strong evidence of joy! Who does your child know? Who knows your child?

Brown Bear Graduation!

Save the date!

Saturday, June 9th
10:00AM
Home Sweet Home Garden

Parents, siblings, big friends, grandparents, neighbors WELCOME!

Joy Through Music - December 14th! SAVE THE DATE

The Home Sweet Home Preschool annual event "Joy Through Music" has been scheduled for Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at 5:30PM.

Joy Through Music!
Why?
Music is a natural and important part of young children's growth and development. Early interaction with music positively affects the quality of all children's lives. Successful experiences in music help all children bond emotionally and intellectually with others through creative expression in song, rhythmic movement, and listening experiences. Music in early childhood creates a foundation upon which future music learning is built.

Who?
Children, parents, teachers and Big Friends, current enrollment and alumni - our learning community. By honoring time together, we expand and deepen our relationships. Through serving in both roles, as audience and performer, we appreciate how music grows our personal capacity for respect and joy. It is a window into knowing and being known by others.

What?
Joy Through Music is an open stage. Individuals and groups can sign up to perform. Home Sweet Home Butterflies and Brown Bears will each perform as a class. Soloists, duos or groups of any age or combination of ages are welcome to sing or perform their instruments. Please sign up with Kathleen Seabolt (kseabolt@alternativesinaction.org) by December 9th! We will organize the acts for our emcee and have them listed in the program.

Joy Through Music is a potluck dinner. Please provide a favorite family dish to share with portions for 12-20 people. Home Sweet Home will provide plates, utensils and beverages.

Parents are needed to support this event! If you feel your leadership emerging, please contact Christa Brandt and/or Sharisse Huie to get involved through the PAC Events Committee!

Needs:
Event Coordinator
Set-up Committee
Clean-up Committee

HOME-TO-SCHOOL CONNECTION ASSIGNMENT
Each family is asked to take a picture of their child engaging with music. Please help your child to glue this photo on to a star and post the star on our hallway board. Please make sure your child's first name is featured on their star. Proportions of stars should be about 7"-10" to feature a 3"x5" pic of your child in action! It would be wonderful if 100% of our STARS were posted by December 14th!

Halloween Carnival!

A wonderful time was had by all thanks to the incredible planning and coordination of the PAC Events Committee! Many hands supported the Home Sweet Home Halloween Carnival, with special shout-outs to Christa and Sharisse for getting the meetings going! With lots of love to the Nunn-Eckerts for staying to the bitter end to clean it all up!

Yo Gabba Gabba and Mini Me! (Isaac - 2, Keith - 17)

Kara and Laina tell a great story!

Earthquake Weather

Hot, dry and shakey - how is Home Sweet Home prepared?

It is not essential to involve children in a culture of fear. It is reasonable to teach them safe body postures and how to respond to emergencies. Home Sweet Home does not rehearse for earthquakes. We do involve children in knowing the "ready position". We encourage that parents cheerfully practice this at home with their child. Place both hands behind the head protecting the neck, kneel in the fetal position with the forehead down to the ground - hold this until an adult says "Clear! You may sit up.".

Home Sweet Home has posted in each classroom a Disaster Preparedness plan that outlines the roles held by various staff members. Parents are asked to take direction from lead staff if they are present during an emergency or drill. A reminder that in each classroom is a red dot indicating the strongest point of structural safety (usually in the kitchen or bathroom). First Aid kits are stored in the kitchens, bathroom #1 and the diaper changing area.

Big Friends receive training on how to support the children and program, including touring the premises, identifying the red dot zones and the storage fo first aid kits. Their first priority is their own safety, their responsibility to support the safety of the children is secondary. Most Big Friends leave their classrooms to support the children during monthly drills!

Parents are asked NOT to call Home Sweet Home after an earthquake. Staff must be able to focus on the physical and emotional needs of the children. Please assume all is well unless you are contacted directly. In the event of evacuation, an autoresponse phone message will go out to all parents. Additonally, as staff are able, an email blast will also go out. If parents pick up early PLEASE make verbal contact with staff members and sign your child out in the book with the correct time.

As a licensed daycare, Home Sweet Home is identified with emergency services as a first priority location.

Is Kindergarten Ready for them?

As parents understand and advocate for what is best for young children, policy makers struggle to catch-up and apply knowledge and understanding to practice.

Currently Kindergartens rarely reflect in design and teaching strategies the neuroscience research which supports best practices. This is demonstrated by a lack of meaningful playground time, long periods of desk work, early literacy activities that are flashcards or scripted dittoes paired with teacher verbal direction, and homework. Too often administrators, principals and K-teachers have a deficit in their education - it is possible to teach and/or administrate a kindergarten class without one course in Early Childhood Education. Increasing their knowledge and understanding by requiring Child Development training would possibly lead to developmentally appropriate kindergartens.

Please consider this recent alert from Child Care Information Exchange (bold italics by Kathleen Seabolt): As the Pew Center on the States concludes its 10-year initiative to advance pre-kindergarten for all three and four-year-olds, it has released the final report of its Pre-K Now campaign, "Transforming Public Education: Pathway to a Pre-K-12 Future", which strongly advocates that policymakers transform public education by moving away from our current K-12 system. One key recommendation is that the K-12 system incorporates play-based, child-centered approaches into its classes. The report states...

"Direct instruction has an important place in classrooms, but those dominated by teacher-centered approaches tend not to maximize learning. Instead, teachers trained to convert child development research into practice know how to complement direct instruction by structuring and facilitating activities in which children have a more dynamic role: creative play, working with manipulatives, independent or small group projects. These teachers are at the ready to provide feedback and to help children connect what they are doing to targeted concepts. Such intentional practices, common in high-quality early programs, foster social-emotional development and cognitive skills by giving children opportunities to exercise their curiosity and bring their own experiences into the learning environment."

As parents find their voice and advocate at local and state levels for 0-5 best practices in the Kindergarten classroom, the learning environment will change and become a place that seeks to meet every child's needs from exactly where they are at cognitively, physically and socially-emotionally. Kindergarten Readiness will cease to be a fearful phrase that panics parents, and become a mandate for every school district. Kindergartens, are you ready for them?

http://www.allianceforchildhood.org/sites/allianceforchildhood.org/files/file/kindergarten_report.pdf

Fall BUILD 2011!

The first BUILD of the 2011-2012 School Year received a lovely turn-out from parents to support beautification of the playground.

Zach, Katy and Jacob plant lettuce.

Big Friend Luis and Chris moving mountains with their muscles.

A whole lot got accomplished including the completion of Cierra's dream - THE SOD BOX so that Home Sweet Home can have a little lawn of their own to water and trim.

Many thanks to Sky, Cierra and Kris Palmer (Katy's mom) for coordinating this BUILD, and to our many helpers: Abukhalaf, Anakata, Avidon, Edgelow, Fletcher, Frederick, Martin, Russell, Speed and Springer-Sullivan families.

Terrific Work by Youth and Adults

Thank you to our BASE and West Alameda Child Development classes for hosting the HSH Parent Meet n' Greet on Sept 22nd. The slideshow was an enchanting look at this year's group of children engaged in the important work of play in their first month at Home Sweet Home.

Some additional great work has gone forward.

"Shakespeare Invented the Teenager" is off to CalShakes to see "Taming of the Shrew" on October 6th. They are planning a preschool performance, so do not be surprised if your child uses the word "varlet".

The Temple of Hip Hop class presented special guest KRS-ONE to kick off our afterschool enrollment rally. The Hip Hop Program is working toward their "Rock the School Bells" performance at Skyline College in March.

Families are encouraged to explore the following link which highlights the important work Nick Basta, Media Coach and the SRS and Video Production youth accomplish every day. http://aiavideopro.tumblr.com/

The Mozart Effect

"In October 1993, Nature magazine published an article by Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw, and Katherine Ky about their study in which subjects who listened to 10 minutes of a Mozart sonata prior to taking IQ tests added 9 points to their IQ scores. This research spawned a veritable industry of Mozart products for infants and toddlers (even though the research was performed on college students). Most famous was the Disney Baby Einstein products.

According to The Invisible Gorilla And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us (New York: Crown Publishers, 2010) even though dozens of subsequent tests repudiated this research, public fascination with the notion that playing classical music to babies would increase their IQs continued. Finally, in 2007 researchers at the University of Washington surveyed parents of infants and toddlers in Washington and Montana and found t hat for infants, each additional hour per day spent watching baby DVDs was associated with an 8 percent reduction in vocabulary, and for toddlers, there was no significant relationship between DVD viewing and vocabulary size."
(Childcare Information Exchange)

Suggesting parents periodically enjoy listening to Mozart while laying on the floor next to their child happily playing with blocks, dolls or puzzles. Dance with scarves. Take children to live concerts in the park. Read Maurice Sendack and spot all the Mozart references. "Smart videos" do not equate to smart children.

Back to Preschool Night

Home Sweet Home enjoyed an amazing evening when 42 parents, 18 youth, 5 teachers and one program director gathered for "Back to Preschool Night" on Thursday, September 22nd.

The youth from both the BASE and the West Alameda Community Programs Child Development classes were present to meet and greet parents in the Big Room with Mexican appetizers and cold tea, while a slide show of photos from our first month together was projected on to the big screen. Whether a shy 9th grader or one of our gregarious 12th grade youth coaches, parents had an opportunity to meet the Big Friends that support our preschool.

We were all grateful for the airconditioning (a tangible reminder of the power of HSH parents) as we gathered in the classrooms for teachers to review the Flow-of-the-Day and discuss the hows and whys of our Reggio inspired learning community. Excellent questions around project work and how staff manage discipline and transition supported parent clarity of understanding. There was a strong feeling of partnership.

Teachers are grateful for the expression of appreciation delivered by Room Mom Christa Brandt, representing the generosity of the 2010-2011 PAC. The sentiment of the cards made for a great point of reflection as teachers gathered to discuss the pluses and deltas of a wonderful evening, and a strong step forward into this new school year!

Things We Don't Worry About at Home Sweet Home

Bare Feet
because it best supports children by developing their muscles and ligaments, increases the strength of the foot arch, and improves proprioception (awareness of where we are in the space around us) while contributing to good posture. Toddlers stumble less barefoot because they keep their head up and bare feet helps them to negotiate the sensations on the ground allowing eyes to be forward not down. Children's feet conform to the form and structural function of a shoe - which is simply not desirable unless we want very little feet that look like slices of pizza. Home Sweet Home is aware that bare feet can pick up splinters and gravel on a nature based playground, and are mindful of encouraging footwear worn for protection when using tricycles. Soapy footbaths at night with a firm loofah can support clean, healthy feet.


Dirty Clothes
because children need to play as free from adult constructed restrictions as possible, and dirty clothes are not unsafe. HSH recommends going to Goodwill and buying 10 t-shirts for $10 and letting that be the school uniform. Pop them in the washing machine with a mild cleanser after each use and let any permanent stains tell the story of a happy, engaged child at play. Smocks will be offered to children, but HSH thinks smocks are silly and only keeps the paint off the torso (Did Pollock wear a smock? Picasso?); the task of putting smocks on delays a child's initiative to transfer his big idea into a representational Art piece and Home Sweet Home values creative genius over fashion.


Enterobius or pin worms, because it's not terribly dangerous and it's so highly common that probably 50% of children are walking around with them undiagnosed. When to follow up: if your child becomes a restless night sleeper and/or is doing a lot of heinie scratching, especially under the clothes. How to follow up: keep fingernails short, keep hand washing thorough and after every observed fingers to bottom scratching incident, and see a pediatrician for diagnosis and treatment. Home Sweet Home has embedded handwashing routines into the Flow-of-the-Day, including by asking parents to supervise their children's handwashing during morning transition and again when picking-up before they leave the preschool at night. This will keep our collective HSH germ soup out of the family and the family germ soup out of Home Sweet Home.


Our intrepid Board Rep Sharisse (Brody's mom) contributes this article to round out our understanding!

http://www.nwcn.com/news/health/Playing-in-dirt-may-make-you-smarter-94845759.html

PAC Off and Running!

Really great attendance at our first Parent Advisory Committee meeting on Thursday, Sept 8th.
Many thanks to the parents who found time in their busy schedule to jump right in!

In addition to treats brought by parents, the children (with help from Sky) composed a cucumber/heirloom tomato salad for our refreshment.

Big Friend Babysitting was staffed by veteran BFs Allegra and Keith (our newest Big Friends will be encouraged to offer babysitting once they get a little more training). Our new Big Friends will soon have their own Board so parents can learn their names and faces and which period during the day they work in Home Sweet Home. All parents are ENCOURAGED to come out Thursday, Sept 22 to the Big Friend Meet n' Greet! (See calendar and wait for evite!)

With gratitude to Issa Brandt (Ava's dad) for the PAC agenda and facilitating the meeting, and for Kimberly Anakata (Michael's mom) for taking the notes. Kudos to Sharisse Huie (Brody's mom) for getting the committee info circulating so quickly.

Much discussion around forming sub-committees: Events, Fundraising, Green, Music and the BUILDs. Some quickly coming up events: October 1st BUILD; Harvest Festival

Christa Brandt (Ava's Mom) is the Butterfly Room Parent.
Katherine Crawford (Jack's mom) is the Brown Bear Room Parent.

Parents agreed to the Proposal to add four Professional Development days to the Home Sweet Home calendar (July 2, 3, 5 & 6 2012 = days of closure) and to offer the parents the choice of:

• $45 per day reimbursement for any enrolled days of closure (children who were enrolled for September as their first month at HSH, but attended Aug 29, 30 or 31 will be asked to acknowledge those free days for the new days of closure as they were not charged tuition) OR


• Parents have the option of using the number of enrolled closure days as drop-in days (must be used in July/August 2012) OR


• Families who were going on vacation this week anyway can honor code and waive any form of reimbursement (per terms of Contract)

New Contracts will be issued by October 1st noting the 34 days of closure with the above clause for parents enrolled before September 9, 2011.

Kimberly Anakata is surveying Brown Bear families about June 2012 graduation to see if a weekday or a Saturday morning feels more accessible to most of the families for this important event.

Many thanks for the great energy around problem-solving, and the attitude of partnership that prevailed.

Sweet Reports

Sky and Kathleen were delighted when Morgan (a dedicated staff member from AIA Fund Development) reported overhearing the following exchange as she walked by our playground fence:

(she said) "You pushed me and that hurt. You need to say I'm sorry, excuse me and try it again."

(he said) "I'm sorry."

Then they kept playing.

Morgan is duly impressed with the probelm-solving skills of preschoolers at Home Sweet Home! Especially when we revealed to her that this was an exchange between two three year olds!!!

First Week at Home Sweet Home

Welcome to all our Preschool Families, both returning and those beginning their journey with Home Sweet Home.

Please note our Family Board is being co-created with our Youth Big Friends this week, to reflect the wonderful collage work families are bringing in. The homework assignment was for parents to facilitate a discussion with their child on the topic of "What Family Means" and to create a collage (two dimensional, one sided 8" x 11") featuring the child's idea about her/his family. The collage must have the child's full name and a recent photo (head shot), but otherwise may feature pictures of family members, cultural artifacts, drawings etc. Please bring in when complete (any time in September - the sooner the better) and place on our Family Board!

Our Support Staff:
Home Sweet Home partners with fully qualified substitute teachers to support our team's ability to have weekly meetings and to enable teachers to take their much deserved vacations. These long term relationships between HSH and support staff will enable children and parents to connect and trust when primary teachers must step out.

Please introduce yourself and your child to our support staff.
Dan Burr - will be on site Wednesday and Friday afternoons and as needed
Maria Sanchez - will be regularly on site Friday afternoons and as needed
Carole Brandmeyer - available to support mornings as needed

Brown Bear Graduation 2011

Friday, August 19th at 4:00PM is our Brown Bear Graduation ceremony in the Home Sweet Home garden. All are welcome to come and celebrate our children as they perform their chosen song, go through the Key Ceremony and present their Literature Legacy. A potluck dinner (and cake) will follow.

This year Home Sweet Home bids a fond farewell to:

Lucy Allison
Charlotte Bond
Dylan Byrne-Sarno
Adrian Cain-Ruef
Kira Chin
Sophia Dant
Shani Elias
Cosmo Hondrogen
Jasper Jennings
Emmett Kotapish
Pierce Lapachet
Giuliana Means
Joaquin Ziggy Mintz
Margaret Rose O'Keefe
Etienne Racine
Jackson Ruggiero
Violet Sorenson
Gabriel Speed
Billie Spicer-Lambert
Vincent Steptoe
Leah Tabakh
Dashiell Von Stroheim

The door is always here for them, and their key will always get them back in!

Home Sweet Home would like to acknowledge the parents and families of our graduates for their partnership and tremendous contribution to the success of the 2010-2011 Preschool Year. Our community was formed out of a bit of a storm (new staff, new leadership, adding a classroom, re-dedicating to Reggio principles, observing and increasing commitments to youth), but by determining to create relationships with understanding, we united around the common cause of what is good and right for children, and amid much beauty and joy we may say - learning accomplished! I am humbled and privileged to have worked with you all - thank you. Kathleen Seabolt

"Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well."
- Vincent van Gogh

Staff Development

The Alternatives in Action committment to staff development supports our HSH teachers in their roles as youth development professionals, but it also creates a broader lens with which we view our work in Early Childhood Care and Education. The ramifications for our field, and the opportunity for strengthening best practices is daily demonstrated in the deep conversations, planning and reflection with which we are engaged. Home Sweet Home is committed to supporting parent understanding around these pieces, to enable staff and parents to go on this lifelong learning journey together. One day our children will be teens - our ability to see them in their full personhood at every age and stage is essential to creating a world where the rights of the citizen is recognized, respected and celebrated.

August 15 - Jose, Sky and Kathleen at AIA training (in Big Room) - Dan sub
August 16 & 17 Artensia, Cierra and Kathleen in Ukiah for staff retreat - Dan sub
August 22-26 Artensia, Cierra, Jose, Kathleen and Sky are in intensive training, including a second excursion down to see "100 Languages of Childhood" (Steinbeck Museum) We will be joined by Leandre (Dre) Powell and Ashlee Williams - our two Youth Coaches for the West Alameda Afterschool Programs Child Development class throughout the week, who will be instrumental in planning and providing support around organization and cleaning.

Thank you for allowing us this time together. We know the full effect of our ability to reflect and plan successfuly as a team will reveal itself throughout this year within our learning community.

Parking Lot Alert!

Well, it is beautiful, newly asphalt with lovely white lines AND a complete change in spatial organization. Please note the parking lot now ONLY offers spaces on the east side of the portables. These spaces are accessible to HSH parents unless identified reserved for Island High.

Kathleen is working on an agreement to identify and reserve one car space for 10 minute preschool drop-off by the south gate.

Please observe the traffic arrows, which direct incoming parking lot traffic to the right BEFORE the second portable.

HSH Parent support and encouragement really helps our HSH staff as we partner with AUSD to understand the space needs and share our resources. Please share any concerns with Kathleen or Nina Thompson, Alternatives in Action Director of Operations.

Thank you!

Friendship Picnic and 2010-2011 Memory Board

The Home Sweet Home Friendship Picnic was an amazing mix of alumni and friends. A beautiful day shared by all.

Acknowledgements:
Joe Anakata - A/C filter change (SO appreciated)
Kimberly Anakata - Key Ceremony set-up and breakdown
Our Friendship Picnic Good Fairies, including shoppers, cleaners, and hot dog grillers! (Brandts, Doyle, Huie, Jennings and Speed to name a very few!)


It seems impossible that 12 months are swiftly flown by. To capture our year of incredible growth as a learning community, we ask each family to choose 1-3 photos of your child engaged at HSH with a child who is going to graduate this summer. Please post them on the hallway board we are calling "Memories" 2010-2011.

New Parent Orientation

Take four youth interns, four HSH parents, one AIA executive director, one HSH program director and three HSH teachers (and one sending love in absentia) and mix with 26 new parents for an afternoon of chat that was informative and inspiring. It was a fabulous turn-out in a room that quickly grew steamy with the positive energy of our enrolling families engaging with our veteran parents! We hope all our new parents gained the information they need to feel successful in this transition with their children.

A few shout-outs:

Sharisse Huie - threw herself headlong into our New Parent Handbook!
Michelle Rosas, Melanie Limbo, Daryna Loch, and Edgar Alvarado - HSH teachers cannot imagine a greater team of summer interns. They love the work, they love each other, they love HSH. We thank them for crafting the evite, designing the event, managing the forms, and making over 40 finger sandwiches (served with pink lemonade).
Christa Brandt for supporting the Laptop Lunch fundraiser. (forms available through August 15th!)
Kimberly Anakata for speaking to tech/google group and how to join PAC without fear, intimidation or over-commitment!
Kris Palmer for representing the PAC groups (since she's on three of them)!
Patricia Murillo for finding time in a crazy schedule to support our event and provide a strong frame for the vision of Alternatives in Action.

Hurray for the Home Sweet Home learning community!

Recycle for Art Processes

Home Sweet Home kindly requests families to bring in the following recyclables to support our Atelier:

cardboard tubes
bottle caps (milk, juice, etc. - please run through dishwasher first)
corks
buttons

We appreciate that there is treasure in trash!

The Beets

"I think that no matter how old or infirm I may become, I will always plant a large garden in the spring. Who can resist the feelings of hope and joy that one gets from participating in nature's rebirth?"
Edward Giobbi

Many thanks to Kris Palmer and Co. (Katy's mom) for masterminding and facilitating our beet harvest this week. She took our tasty roots home and roasted them, returning to school to provide a delicious afternoon snack.

Kris's thoughts on the activity: "I felt pure and supreme joy as Mazen, Leah, Carla, Katy, Ava, and Vinnie pulled up beets and carrots. Leah yelled "look!" excitely and held each vegetable up high for viewing, each met with equal wonder. Carla's look of suprise and awe as she finally got the hang of using her strength and coordination to yank up a fistful of carrots out of the ground all by herself was so sweet, then with eyes wide open, "Can I eat these?" Vinnie had the energy and initiative to harvest many gardens full of beets and I wished we had planted enough to satisfy his intensity. Though probably the youngest of the group, Ava made sure she got in for her shot at beet pull. Mazen watched with intent interest, eagerly took his turn to pull, participating shyly but fully, figuring it all out. We washed the beets and carrots in the water play tub and all got the hang of twisting off the stems and leaves. Ava, with concentration, watched her hands move in opposing directions to twist off beet from stem. Carrots were devoured on a continual basis throughout the project, dirt and all. Carrot tops deposited in compost with many helping hands. "

Families that can manage it, take a little time and walk through the gorgeous garden - the handiwork of our parents and children from the April BUILD. It's pretty spectacular! Good luck not tromping on the pumpkin vines - they look prehistoric!

Uses for Beets

Appetizer
Layer roasted beet slices with goat cheese, pierce with toothpick and pretend Wolfgang Puck catered your next event.

Roasted Beets with Greens
1 bunch beets with
greens
1/4 cup olive oil, divided
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chopped onion (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (175 degrees C). Wash the beets thoroughly, leaving the skins on, and remove the greens. Rinse greens, removing any large stems, and set aside. Place the beets in a small baking dish or roasting pan, and toss with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. If you wish to peel the beets, it is easier to do so once they have been roasted.
Cover, and bake for 45 to 60 minutes, or until a knife can slide easily through the largest beet.
Heat remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and onion, and cook for a minute. Tear beet greens into 2 to 3 inch pieces, and add to skillet. Stir until greens are wilted and tender. Season with salt and pepper. Serve the greens as is, and the roasted beets sliced with either red-wine vinegar, or butter and salt and pepper.

Shankar's Borsht
3 potatoes, cubed
1 white onion, sliced thin
4 beets, cubed
1 tblsp. fresh dill
salt/pepper/paprika to taste
1 pound stew beef
1 quart beef broth
olive oil

Brown meat and onion in oil, place in crock pot, add all other ingredients. Cook 3 hours, until all is tender.

Transitions - Exciting and New

Much gratitude to Kimberly Anakata who logged countless hours ensuring our transition from the parent yahoo group to the parent google group. We are so appreciative of her talent and persistence in getting this tool in place for our incoming families and keeping it viable for our learning community. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Please welcome Danny Burr as a Home Sweet Home substitute teacher. Danny is a photographer who taught preschool many years for Marin Day Schools. Our summer interns noted how quickly he learned children's names! Danny is interested in nature activities and messy Art. He will be supporting staff vacations full time through August 5th.

The Alternatives in Action website makeover is complete and all HSH families are encouraged to check it out at http://www.alternativesinaction.org/! Much hardwork went into this piece and the Home Sweet Home section seeks to represent the quality feedback from our PAC discussions throughout the year. Many thanks to Morgan Cleveland (AIA Fund Development) and Apolonio Valdivinos (AIA Board Member) for making this possible!

Kathleen has been asked to take on the West Alameda Community Programs director position. She will support after school youth development for Alternatives in Action at this location through coordination of services and grants management. She is delighted and thrilled and has agreed to do so with the understanding that she will remain 100% Home Sweet Home Program Director. As we determine needs and capacity, Home Sweet Home teachers will be asked to support key pieces to enable her transition. This is a wonderful opportunity that supports our staff retention - by identifying the talent and capacity of our HSH teachers, we are able to provide some stipend roles! It is very heartening for Home Sweet Home's success to be recognized in this way. More updates at our next PAC meeting!

Taking Time for Acknowledgments during a Busy Week!

Alternatives in Action
Thanks to Chi Chin and Laleh Latini for supporting the website upgrade with gorgeous photos of all three of our sites. We are so fortunate to have their talent and art bring the community a window into our world.

BASE Graduation
Thanks to all the parents who were able to loan wafflemakers or donate toppings for the BASE Breakfast. Kathleen and Logan Manning (Base Adult Coach - Humanities) made 137 waffles: sourdough-banana, cinnamon-wholegrain, and regular with maple syrup, Mrs. Butterworth or nutella on top. NO LEFTOVERS!


Thanks to all the parents for celebrating Raven Roberts - our BASE senior. She was truly appreciative of the card, roses and book of poetry gifted by our HSH learning community.


Big Friend Appreciation Event
Heather Jennings and Christa Brandt organized our Big Friend Ice Cream Social in the main garden. Looking like Big Friends themselves, these adorable aproned ladies scooped up sundaes in waffle bowls for our Child Development interns under a red umbrella. The youth were delighted with these delicious tokens of appreciation on a hot day!


"Here Comes the Sun" brought warmth and light to Home Sweet Home. We enjoyed delicious home-crafted goodies, carnival games, and a mainstage of entertainment that included Cowboy Jared, Clark Cole and his Magic Squeeze Box, and the Devilettes! This was truly a PAC event with so many parent helping hands supporting every aspect, from ticket sales to bake sale to games to music. Many thanks to all our friends who supported what was a beautiful afternoon for our learning community - in attendance were alumni, grandparents, new enrolling families, youth and our Alternatives in Action Board President! The joy of fellowship with the acknowledgement of the children's chosen theme of Beatles and the parent interest in expanding our Music Education emphasis was clearly in sync. And the fundraising piece drove the total monies raised to (drumroll) OVER the $6,000 goal set in November 2010. Brilliant work on every program piece - kudos PAC Committees!

Some shout-outs:

• To Dorinda Von Stroheim for her extraordinary vision and organization. She also brought in the delightful Frances England who honored our gathering with her musical gifts. (And she does a mean Twist!)


• To Kimberly Anakata for managing tickets and holding down the clean-up round-up with her committe of amazing can-do parents.


• To Annalee Mintz for her decorating savvy and personal commitment during a difficult week.


• To Sharisse Huie for her organizational wizardry and the heart she brought to our HSH Cookbook.


• To Lea Speed for holding down refreshments with her team of amazing folk.


• To Dee McWilliams (door security and official teddy bear) and Daniel Zuranich (sound set-up and mixing) - we are grateful they will be BASE seniors NEXT YEAR and we get to enjoy their kindness for awhile more.


• And not lastly to the Home Sweet Home Sours - an amazing band of talent and temerity lead by the duo of Paul Kotapish and Dave Elias, and supported by Billy Davidson, Jared Altura, Kim Altura, Rebecca Huang, Kris Palmer and Shivaun McDonald.

The Journey is Always

"journey" - to travel; a passage from one stage of experience to the next

Home Sweet Home has been honored by the presence of children, parents and Big Friends who have invested their unique energy into our learning community. Each interaction opens up a rich world of possibility. Every relationship strengthens our courage to explore, question and wonder. We are grateful for the great gift each individual brought to Home Sweet Home. We continue to support them with warm thoughts as they will be transitioning on to their next big adventure.

Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t, it is of no use.
- Carlos Castaneda

Summer Flow of the Day

The Home Sweet Home staff meet weekly to assess program and support planning. Conversations seek to deeply engage our evolving understanding of Reggio values and provide a consistent space for reflection, evaluation and problemsolving. HSH teachers are interested in strengthening the community relationship by supporting more opportunities for small group work and child-teacher conversation.

The following is the adapted Summer Schedule outline that is being put in place.
7:30-8:15 Blocks, Board Games, Drawing in Room #1

8:15-8:30 Song Circle

8:30-10:00 Playground Exploration

10:00-10:10 HSH Community Gathering

10:10-11:30 Activity Choices

• Teacher-framed Art, Carpentry or Garden (outdoor)


• Room #1 Centers


• Room #2 Centers

11:30-1:00 Lunch
1:00-1:30 Small Group Circle Time

1:30-3:15 Rest Time

3:15-5:30 Activity Choices

• Playground Exploration


• Atelier (Art Process class 2:45-3:45/3:45-4:45)


• Snack (3:30-4:30 playground picnic)


• Small Group Activity (4:30)
  

5:30-6:00 Closing Circle in Room #1

Home Sweet Home seeks to facilitate an engaging environment that will support the play outcomes that are upheld by research:

• abstract and symbolic thinking, decision-making, creative problem solving and goal setting



• complex language development and ability to ‘self-talk’ through learning steps



• emotional awareness and competence, identity and self-image development, ability to maintain self-control through self-regulation, stress management, and ability to delay gratification



• social skills, such as patience, cooperation, negotiation, non-violent confli ct resolution, teamwork, sharing, considering other’s point of view



• formation of a moral or ethical code that distinguishes right from wrong, respect for others’ rights, and ability to work toward the greater good.

Big Friends Rock the House

Much gratitude to our Big Friends for coming out to present for Home Sweet Home Parent Education Night on Thursday, May 26th!

Relationship is the cornerstone of learning. The ability for students and parents to meet, mingle and share their knowledge is a powerful finale to this year's preschool-high school laboratory experiment. Child Development interns created a wonderful evening, with a thoughtful, personal presentation that celebrated HSH children and families. The swanky hors d'oeuvres and mud-pie from Tucker's was pretty good, too!

An excellent powerpoint featured photos of HSH children in active learning and their relationship with our Big Friends. (Shout-outs to Becca and Edgar!) Students from Bay Area School of Enterprise and Life Academy supported their collaborative lecture with original posters highlighting HSH children as their activity choices exemplified Social-Emotional Developmental stages. Yolo COunty Conference attendees discussed the workshops they attended and how they applied their learning in the preschool. We would like to acknowledge Alina, Allannah, Edgar, Fernanda, Katie, Keith, Maria, Rebecca and Shankar for their extra efforts in creating this Parent Education event. All students were on their toes, ready and prepared for our parent Q&A.

A very special shout-out to Katie Hoffman for bringing her Home Sweet Home internship presentation all the way to the West Alameda campus for HSH parents to view (Katie won a school wide award at Life Academy for her intern leadership and performance in the West Alameda After School Program "Youth Act" class which produced the antibullying curriculum "Gentle Hands Make Happy Friends").

Thanks to Artensia, Cierra and Sky for their year-long outstanding coaching; and to the new and enrolled HSH families, the parents, siblings and children of our HSH Big Friends, and our many AIA friends from all campuses who came out to support!

Thinking About Children Thinking

On May 19th, as I was touring a prospective parent on our playground, I observed that HSH was "off schedule". Playground time continued to "eat in to" the Circle Time. Checking in with teachers, I verified this was a strong choice. As I continued my tour of our outdoor classroom, I saw small groups of children completely engaged in strong play narratives. Children in the garden counted the rolypolies and made "new houses" for them; the large legos were put to excellent use on the stage as children collaborated among often changing directions to finish their big vision; a group of children used the climbing structure as their startship homebase; the sand box was busy with a designated project manager ordering the excavation of new tunnels. To force an immediate transition would have shown adult disrespect for the child's work in progress; everyone was interested in the business of learning through play.

Home Sweet Home is excited and, frankly, empowered to send two staff and a youth intern to the Seventh North American Reggio Emilia Association (NAREA) Summer Conference on June 16 - 18, 2011. This international conference "Dialogues for Quality in Education: Valuing Early Childhood" will feature presentations by Elena Giacopini, pedagogista, and Anna Orlandini, atelierista, from the Reggio Emilia municipal schools. Our HSH representatives will also tour the traveling exhibit "The Wonder of Learning - The Hundred Languages of Children" at the Steinbeck Center in Salinas, CA (scouting for our learning community, as HSH will be organizing parent/teacher/Big Friend study groups to this exhibit). More information on their opportunity is available at http://www.steinbeck.org/pages/the-wonder-of-learning

Another wonderful resource for parents and teachers is the following website: http://zerosei.comune.re.it/inter/reggiochildren.htm

As articulated in this website, the aims of Reggio Children are:

• to communicate a forceful idea of childhood and of children's rights, potentials, and resources, which are often unrecognized or neglected


• to promote studies, research, and experimentation in education, with particular emphasis on children's active, constructive, and creative learning processes


• to advance the professionalism and culture of teachers, promoting a greater awareness of the value of collegial work and of meaningful relationships with the children and their families


• to highlight the value of research, observation, interpretation, and documentation of children's knowledge-building and thinking processes


• to organize guided visits to educational programs, cultural initiatives, exhibitions, seminars, conferences, professional development courses on the issues of education and the culture of childhood

The Reggio journey for Home Sweet Home offers children, youth and adults an opportunity to collaborate to create an intentional learning community. How does the HSH physical environment support inquiry? How does HSH resource the diverse talents of the children, parents, teachers and youth? How does the HSH routine honor the needs of the individual and support a community identity? Ellen Galinsky in her book Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills that Every Child Needs identifies the following:

• Focus and self control


• Perspective taking


• Communicating


• Making connections


• Critical thinking


• Taking on challenges


• Self-directed, engaged learning

Reflecting on the seven essential life skills, how do HSH adults and youth model these for children? Can we be held accountable in our thought, intentions, and behavior? Do our policies, practices and routines reflect a committment to these educational values? HSH commits to a continued dialogue on the seven essential life skills to support our journey as a learning community.

The following clip is provided to give the viewer 5 minutes of awe and wonder. Had we any doubts about the capacity for brilliance in the human mind, and the many shapes genius might take among us, this clip will (hopefully) inspire us to pay attention.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2MBBxU

Growing Our Learning Environment

Home Sweet Home has the opportunity to reflect on this year of growth and joy. We have been new on this journey together: first year director, first year teaching team of 4, first year for over 50% of our families; first year with two classrooms; first year of Music Committee; first year of Sweet Moments community building fundraiser; first year for field trips; first year for Alumni Days; first year with two air conditioners! (The list could continue. . . . .) How we reflect on our learning grows our capacity, now and for years to come.

A lot of committee work is going in to planning for New Family Orientation in July. This is a welcome opportunity to apply our learning from this first year to truly represent Alternatives in Action culture; Home Sweet Home policies, procedures and practices; and (most importantly) connect new parents and children with Big Friends, teachers and veteran families to aid in a seamless transition.

Home Sweet Home has two electronic surveys out: one to evaluate the Big Friend Program and on to assess Nature Education. Admittedly imperfect, these tools reflect a collaboration between Big Friends and HSH teachers and will provide some information to aid our understanding of program. Please take time to complete the surveys, as we seek at least 40 responses. HSH also encourages parents to write a letter to communicate a strong response to a Big Friend's performance.

This year all our Home Sweet Home staff were celebrated with thoughtful Teacher Appreciation events and gifts. The choice for busy families to take time to express gratitude means so much, and we are very grateful that our efforts have inspired this sharing of appreciation. June is bittersweet - while Home Sweet Home is a 12 month, year round program, we recognize that June is the month of subtle shifts in focus for the field of Early Care and Education. Families go on vacation. Children seem to return two feet taller and ten years smarter. Teachers steel themselves for the transition of children and families out of the preschool and on to new adventures. It is rarely spoken of, but often documented among directors: the June Staff Grumpies. Teachers often hide behind schedule, or tasks, or planning for next year, but we are really just staying very busy to mitigate the pain we feel in saying good-bye. Naming it goes a long way to understanding it. Teachers are proud that children are ready to step out of our learning community and in to the great wide world. But we wish we could go along for the ride and continue to watch the glorious evolution of body, heart, mind and spirit. So, please plan to stay in touch and visit us for many years to come. Brown Bears will have a formal graduation on August 19th, planned to perfection by our PAC Events Committee. Included in this is the key ceremony, a symbolic representation that every HSH child is always welcome to come back "Home".

Movers and Shakers

May is a month where Home Sweet Home is getting BIZNESS accomplished! Heck, it started in March (okay August). Many thanks to our tremendously dedicated families for making all of our program growth and development possible.

Home Sweet Home has a lot on its plate this month of May: Big Friends have Presentation of Learning (POLs) and job interviews, BASE seniors have firewalks and graduation. Child Development interns are planning to attend the Early Childhood legislative day in Sacramento on May 25th. Interviews for HSH Summer 2011 interns are coming up, and we are including HSH almuns on the panel for the first time!

It is important to acknowledge the thought and care that have gone into Teacher Appreciation Week, especially by the PAC Events Committee volunteers lead by Heather Jennings.

Sharisse Huie has agreed to be our AIA Board Parent Representative for 2011-2012! We are grateful for her time and talent.

Thanks to Rebecca Huang for coordinating the Alameda Farmer's Market walk, and Sharisse and Sky for coordinating our Sulphur Creek trip and to all our field trip chaperones and drivers.

With a big shout-out to our Earth Day-inspired April 30th BUILD crew: Anakata, Attias, Brandt, Colla, Conley, Davidson, Doyle, Elias, Fletcher, Hebert, Hondrogen, Mintz, Owens, Palmer, and Speed supported by Cierra and Sky. What got done? Removing the dreaded bars, reconfigure the stage and log cabin, create the new garden space, reinforce the shade structure, and beautify the big garden with pruning, weeding, planting and supporting the irrigation system. We also planted an oak tree! (Okay seedling, but check back in 8 years.) With special thanks to Jacqueline Bruhn (HSH alumni Leo's mom) for her mentorship.

Parent - Teacher Conferences May 6th

Home Sweet Home staff want to thank families for honoring our staff development day on April 21st. Amazing conversations took place around the possibilities for collaboration between parents and teachers. By analyzing the success of the year, teachers identified that there is strong inclination by parents to support program with their talent and presence, but an opportunity to more strongly communicate the details of program needs to make this support practical. Teachers are identifying ways to invite these collaborations to create a more seamless program, with richer process reflecting parents-teachers-youth and children. Please stay-tuned!

The Parent Teacher Conferences are scheduled for Friday, May 6th. Teachers would like to meet in teams with parents to support a greater capacity for sharing. Logistically, this is difficult, but staff worked on the following schedule and hope that parents can hold tightly to it. Please email Kathleen if you CANNOT make your spot and keep to the allotted 30 minutes time.

BUTTERFLIES
8:00 - Ava; 8:35 - Jackson; 9:10 - Elisa; 9:45 - Marcus; 10:20 - Lexi; 10:55 - Jack; 11:30 - Michael; 1:35 - Dylan; 2:10 - Katy; 2:40 - Lake; 3:15 - Mylie; 3:50 - Brody; 4:25 - Vinnie; 5:00- Elizabeth

BROWN BEARS
8:00 - Cash; 8:30 - Charlotte; 9:00 - Leah; 9:30 - Dylan; 10:00 - Margaret; 10:30 - Emmett; 11:00 - Sophia; 1:00 - Gabriel; 1:30 - Billie; 2:00 - Violet; 2:30 - Cosmo; 3:00 - Shani; 3:30 - Pierce; 4:00 - Lucy; 4:30 - Adrian; 5:00 - Giuliana; 5:30 - Kira

Hollow Block Celebration

Our parents worked hard to fundraise for them, and now our hollow blocks are on their way! At Home Sweet Home we want to celebrate the arrival of our Hollow Blocks! How can parents and teachers message to children that the group has selected this product and worked together toward providing it for our learning community? Home-to-school-connection: Parents are asked to "notice" architecture with children. In addition to buildings, big and small, any structure (a crate, a dog house): how is it framed? What shapes are represented? Please have intentional conversations around these themes with your child, including now leading up to when our hollow blocks arrive in two weeks. Parents are invited to volunteer to support block play. Hollow blocks add risk and enrichment to the preschool classroom. Children will be introduced to the hollow blocks in small groups to best be able to explore all their properties. In this way, children will be able to gain competency managing this new resource. Parents are invited to partner with teachers and big friends to explore the possibilities of hollow blocks with our children, to add a level of safety during this introductory period as well as heighten excitement and a sense of occasion. Please let us know if you would like to support this from 3:00-5:00 any afternoon the weeks of May 2 - 13. Why do we love blocks? "It’s been more than two hundred years since Friedrich Froebel introduced wooden shapes for children to explore, take apart, and put together. Since then, blocks have been shown to aid the development of young children. Jean Piaget’s theory of stages, for instance, tells us that children develop social, physical, and logico-mathematical knowledge through playing with manipulative materials such as blocks.When children play with blocks, they are practicing mathematical skills. In selecting blocks of different sizes and shapes and comparing surface volumes and areas, for example, they are unwittingly using classification and seriation (Hirsch, 1996). Cleaning up involves math too: sorting identical and dissimilar shapes, and organizing by size (Henniger, 1987). Because it involves measuring lengths, widths, and heights (if only by eye), block play develops a child’s ability to mentally visualize relationships. Such manipulations are similar to those used in geometry and algebra during the child’s later school years (Henniger, 1987). Constructive block play also involves the use of spatial configurations (Reifel, 1983), a vital aspect of mathematics and science generally (Casey, Pezaris & Nuttal, 1992). A study that evaluated the block constructions of four-year-olds (in 1982) and compared them with their test scores in high school (in 1998) supported the hypothesis that a child’s ability to create complex block constructions can predict mathematical ability. Interestingly, the study found a difference in achievement levels between boys and girls only when the boys were given greater exposure to blocks. When both were given equal ­opportunities to develop their skills, there were no gender-related differences (Stannard, Wolfgang, Jones, and Phelps, 2001). In short, unit blocks do not only afford long-lasting play, but also fundamental educational lessons that will be invaluable in later life. Because of this, adults who work with young children would do well to learn the names of geometric shapes, the built-in mathematical concepts their children will draw on in playing with blocks, and the developmental stages exhibited by children during play. Unit blocks ought to be an integral part of every childhood." (Pamela C. Phelps, Ph.D. and Laura L. Stannard, Ph.D.) Why are Community Playthings hollow blocks considered high quality? The soft maple wood happens to grow fast, reforest well and come from the Northeast—close to the woodshops instead of thousands of gallons of gasoline away. And that smooth protective gloss is a carefully selected water-based lacquer chosen specifically for its low emissions—hollow blocks are indoor air quality certified. Community Playthings upholds these high standards for health, safety and environmental responsibility: Forest Stewardship Council certification for a growing selection of products assures they come from responsibly managed forests. Call us about FSC-certified p. Indoor air quality certification protects the air children breathe every day.Indoor Advantage Gold™ is the highest level of indoor air certification in North America. US Green Building Council membership pioneering environmental non-profit and developer of the LEED Green Building Rating System.

Week of the Young Child

The Week of the Young Child is April 10-16. Sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (www.naeyc.org) this is an annual opportunity for our local communities to come together to honor young children and all those who make a difference in children's lives. Young children need and deserve high-quality early care and education. Home Sweet Home preschool recognizes that early years are learning years for all young children. As much as children need high quality early childhood care and education, parents also need dependable providers to care for and educate their children when they are at work. This week please take time to reflect on how our coummunity, state and nation reflect children and working families. It is a time for celebration of the relationships that create high quality learning environments for young children, and a critical opportunity to lend a voice of support to the power-brokers and policy makers that determine how we invest in the future by supporting programs for young children. "Gentle Hands Make Happy Friends" is a performance created by Youth Act, the Alternatives in Action's West Alameda Community Programs Child Development class in celebration of the Week of the Young Child. Wednesday, April 13th at 3:30PM in the Big Room at Bay Area School of Enterprise. All are welcome. 2011 Early Learning Advocacy Day: Seize the Moment for California's Youngest Children! May 25, 2011AM: Capitol Plaza Ballrooms1025 Ninth Street (at K Street)PM: State Capitol Building Sacramento, CA 95814 10:00 a.m. - Program and Brunch 1:00 p.m. - Legislative Visits Don’t miss this opportunity to meet with your state legislators, network with early learning advocates from across California and learn about this year’s early learning policy issues.

Animals - Extinct and Endangered

Since the beginning of the school year, dinosaurs and anything prehistoric related has always been an interest in the Brown Bear room. Although it never took off as a theme, the children are always engaged in conversations about prehistoric life. Whenever I read an article about a newly discovered dinosaur (or planet), I bring up the conversation during circle. When I read an article in early March about the discovery of a woolly mammoth and how scientists want to bring it back to life, the children thought that was amazing. They thought it would be great to go on a mammoth ride. They began talking about other animals they want to bring back to life; mainly dinosaurs and a saber tooth tiger. Different animals were mentioned and the conversation ventured into the difference between extinct and endangered. A few children knew the difference and were able to explain the difference to their friends. Extinct means that the animal is no longer alive and endangered means that the animal is almost "all gone." In order to support this interest of the children, I checked out a few books from the library of both animals that are extinct (mammoths and dinosaurs) and endangered animals (tigers, camels, and elephants). Such books included Almost Gone and Gone Wild. The children showed much interest and requested that I read about the different animals every day during circle. Before I go to the library, I always ask the children what books they would like me to check out. Books about woolly mammoths, tigers, dinosaurs, princesses, and dragons were requested. I also brought books about sharks (which was a giant hit), spiders, rhinos, and camels. I also found a chapter book called The Mammoth Academy that has been a huge hit with the children. I've only been reading it for two days and we are already on chapter 6; halfway through the book! The conversation that took place in regards to why animals were endangered was that their habitats were being destroyed, not enough food to eat, and/or climate change. A few children knew about over-hunting and this too was discussed - buffaloes, elephants, and possibly mammoths.

Children began bringing in toy animals for sharing and Charlotte brought in her dog. The children have been looking for worms and other insects outside. I brought in more books from the library that was not so much about endangered animals but cultural books in which animals were the characters. I also brought in pictures of tigers and dolphins from my days at Marine World. During my research on this theme, I had the idea of "adopting a tiger" from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). In my previous preschool, the classroom adopted a tiger and we received a plush tiger, along with photos. To develop social, writing, and cognitive skills, the children were allowed to take the tiger home for the weekend and write and draw about their time with the tiger in a "Tiger Journal." During the Monday morning circle, the child talked about what they did with the tiger during the weekend. This is one idea I have for the Brown Bear class.

As you may all know by now, we are also taking a field trip to the Oakland Zoo. This is a great way to support the Brown Bear's interest in animals, both endangered and extinct. After the field trip, the teachers will observe the interests of the children and support that interest. In addition to talking about animals, we have also talked about ways to take care of plants, trees, and flowers. This has been supported by books that relate to gardening and the habitats of animals. It is our goal to bring all these themes together by building, maintaining, and taking care our own habitat - our playground garden areas. We plan on building birdhouses and feeders, as well as ordering butterflies so the children can observe firsthand the metamorphosis of the butterfly. Sky and I are also looking to fill out tanks with different insects and possibly a turtle. With living organisms in the classroom, supported by books, conversations, our garden, projects, and field trips, we believe that this theme is a great way for the children to learn about animals, both alive and extinct, as well as caring for animals and our Earth.

- Jose Castellanos

Yolo County Conference

Thanks to the parents and other friends who supported Big Friends with fundraising and warm thoughts for our success. Some highlights:

• Luis and Dre for getting up on stage in the music workshop.


• Maria for her meticulous notetaking.


• Katie for her personal sharing in the Communications workshop.


• Jhannette setting our waitress straight at the restaurant.


• Shankar for not leaving that hotel until he found those extra blankets.


• Sky so dedicated to taking a picture of a beautiful tree for Kathleen (who still can't use her phone properly) that he rolled down the muddy hill and almost landed in the river.


• Kathleen and Keith polka down the sidewalk after the two and a half hour live theatrical performance of The Sound of Music. Oh, yeah - we climbed every mountain!

The experiences we shared absolutely met the goals of BASE, Life, and the Youth Act program. There was clear evidence of risk and rigor, and our Big Friends showed up professionally. The content: Keynote = 1 hour Jose-Luis Orozco Early Childhood Educator, author and musician Session #1 = 90 minutes

• Songs and Stories: Bilingual Education - Luis and Dre


• Infant-Toddler: Early Literacy Begins at Home - Katie and Maria


• Emotional Literacy and Social Skills Through Puppetry - Jhannette, Shankar and Keith

Session #2 - 75 minutes

• Environmental Education - Keith and Shankar


• Strategies for a Peaceful Classroom - Katie and Maria


• Mad Feelings - Jhannette, Luis, Dre

Session #3 - 75 minutes

• Music for Children and Families - Keith, Luis, Dre


• Effective Communication with Young Children - Maria and Katie


• Fostering a Sense of Wonder and Curiosity in Children - Shankar and Jhannette

Many, many thanks! And a reminder to all families that our Youth Act performance "Gentle Hands Make Happy Friends" is scheduled for Wednesday, April 13th at 3:30PM in the Big Room. ALL families, children (siblings and friends) are invited to attend. A wonderful opportunity to catch youth learning in action!

Everyone, Please Chime In!

We can all agree that the unofficial theme for Home Sweet Home 2011-2012 is "Making Beautiful Music Together". To continue developing our learning community, families are asked to partner to create the playground Music Garden Chime Frame. This is a Home-to-School Connection assignment for parents to facilitate over Spring Break or subsequent weekends.

Project: Two-three children from two-three families will make or purchase one set of chimes.

Exploring: Consciously listening to chime sounds to understand what individuals enjoy hearing.

Community: Gathering materials or purchasing chimes within our community empowers children to understand they have choices as a consumer.

Partnering: Families holding time and space to partner strengthens our larger preschool family - our choices are co-selected, co-owned, and appreciated by all.

Location: The children will present their choice at Sharing, explaining their decision. Chimes will then be hung on the shade frame outside.

Due Date: April 30, 2011

The first ever Home Sweet Home Silent Action “Sweet Moments” was a wild success.


Home Sweet Home parents, friends and relatives enjoyed scrumptious food prepared by the community, wine and champagne flowed freely, the Home Sweet Home band rocked the evening away playing everyone’s favorite classic tunes and as a collective we raised over $3500 for Home Sweet Home!

BIG APPLAUSE for Katherine for securing the donation of the church which turned out to be such a lovely backdrop for our sweet event.

It could never have happened without a ton of help and support from our community. Including but not limited to:
Dorinda, Katherine, Kathleen, Stephanie, Sharisse, Lea, Jakki, Peter, Deborah, Kris, Tania, Shivaun, Paul, Heather, David, Kathleen, Christa, Annalee. Our two volunteers Cesy and Sonia, Sky for the amazing Butterfly and Bear artwork handcrafted by our little ones, Carole, Luis, Shankar, and Allegra for donating their time to the daycare, and all the members of the Home Sweet Home band ‘Sweet and Sour”

We also wanted to include here a shout out to all those who donated ‘experiences’ and raffle prizes for the event

RAFFLE and SILENT AUCTION DONATORS
Alameda Aikikai
Alameda Bicycle
Alameda Theater
Arbonne International
Back to Health Chiropractic
Club Donatelli
Coco Zen
Crema
Happy Feet
Oakland Ice skating
Jason Lees
Method Home
Peets Coffee
Rock Wall Wine Company
Shay's Café
Tot Tank
Video factory
Williams Sonoma
Farmstead Cheese and Wine
Monkey Bars
Fruits and Chocolate
Anchor Steam case and Hat
Canadian company di erbe
Tessier Winery

FAMILIES WHO DONATED:
Adam Cain & Jenny Ruef – handmade silkscarf
Ziggy’s Family – beatles basket
Étienne family – french conversation and runner pocket
Christa and Issa - Oakland Zoo Tickets
Artensia – breakfast experience
Christina - babysitting
Cierra – party planning
Cowboy Jared - party
Hodgkinson & Allison Family – museum visit with Lucy
Dina – yoga series
Jasper’s Family – jasper hearts wren outfit
Jakki – two Donatello Gift Certificates
Joe and Kimberly– tech support & sleep over
Kathleen – baking bread and cinderella party
Kris and Andrew - Sailing
Speed Family – zoo visit with her family
Lisa and Chris – art and craft basket
Nason street familes – wine basket
Shivaun & Paul – collection of CDs AND tea party for 8
Sky – art in the park
Stephanie – movie night
Tania - dental camera
von Stroheim Family – rock hike with Dashiell
Casey – Trapeze gift certificate
Jean Nolan – pearl necklace and watch

We are now able to purchase almost all our items on our 2010/2011 fundraising list! Here is a re-cap on our fundraising thus far and when we plan to purchase these items!

Inside Classroom Tools
Light Box - $180 (brown bear room, March)
Magna Tiles - $120 (brown bear room, March)
Hollow Blocks - $1200 (outside and inside brown bear room, March)

School Improvements/Safety
Loft space - $1200 (butterfly room, April build)
Shade Area for outside - $500 (already purchased in January)
Fixing of Shade Structure - $100 (April Build)

Outside Classroom Tools
Sod Box - $400 (April build)
Music Garden – Chime Project $200 (March)
Music Garden - Marimba $1200 (we will raise money to complete our music garden in June!)

Teacher Appreciation
Teacher Stipend - $400 ($100 per teacher to purchase any dream supplies they want for classroom, will be awarded at teacher appreciation lunch)
Teacher Appreciation Gift and Lunch – monies collected through room parents heather and christa

Staff Tools
Laptop - donated
Camera - donated
Printer - donated

Thank you ALL for your efforts to help Home Sweet Home reach our $6000 goal!

I hope the tradition of the Sweet Moments event continues for years to come!

Cheers
Dorinda and the Fundraising Committee

Youth Interns

Big Friends dreamed of and created Home Sweet Home an an enterpise for the Alternatives in Action Home Project in February 1998. Their vision and work has developed from a daycare experiment with eight children into the Reggio-inspired, licensed for 30 children preschool we enjoy today. This is the first year that Home Sweet Home is self-sustaining through tuition fees!

The opportunity for Big Friends to engage with children and families supports career development and an understanding of the larger human community. Big Friends report tremendous satisfaction and joy through their direct engagement with children. Children return the compliment! Big Friends contriute to builds, present at parent meetings, provide informal daycare needs for after hours events, serve on hiring panels, and support the staff evaluation process.

Alternatives in Action's Big Friends currently hail from ACLC, Alameda High School, Bay Area School of Enterprise, Encinal High School, and Life Academy. Alternatives in Action's Big Friends must attend training and development through enrollment in the BASE Child Development class or the West Alameda Afterschool Program.

Our exciting Home Sweet Home Big Friend Spring Calendar:
March 25-26 - Yolo County Child Development Conference - aka the Kathleen, Sky and Big Friends Road Trip to Davis, CA!

April 13th - Youth Act performance for NAEYC Week of the Young Child in the BASE Big Room with an audience from Esperanza Head Start, Home Sweet Home, Woodstock and Ruby Bridges! Artensia and Keith coordinators.

April 14th (15th) - Life Academy Senior Defense (12:30-6:00) Artensia and Kathleen will attend, and seek to recruit three HSH parents as judges!

May/June - Job Placement in the field of Early Childhood Education for senior Big Friends. Artensia, Cierra, Kathleen and HSH parents to support interview practice as BASE and Life Academy seniors prepare to attend job placement opportunities!

Fall 2011 Enrollment Process

Home Sweet Home Preschool enjoyed an unbelievable 14 families at our February 23rd Recruitment Night! Many thanks to Sky, Cierra, and Artensia, and Big Friends Keith and Shankar for supporting this event.

Home Sweet Home is actively enrolling for the 2011-2012 School Year. The first day of school is August 29, 2011. Home Sweet Home anticipates a 3% - 5% increase on current tuition rates to inform next year's rates. Please note this will reflect the first tuition increase in two years.

Currently enrolled Home Sweet Home children and their siblings have priority placement. To ensure each family's ideal schedule, parents are asked to complete the contract sent directly to you by email and return it in Kathleen Seabolt's basket by April 15, 2011. Please attach the deposit required (if any), check made out to "Alternatives in Action" memo line: child's name, deposit. Please feel free to follow up with any questions.

For currently enrolled families graduating from Brown Bears in August 2011, there is an assumption this is your child's last month at Home Sweet Home, and your deposit will be applied for August payment. For families that choose to terminate their contract, please know that two months written notice must be received to facilitate application of the deposit toward final tuition.


Many thanks to all our Home Sweet Home families, current and almunae, who have referred their friends to our preschool!

Currently we anticipate that there are five full time Butterfly spots and five full time Brown Bear spots available for new families. Additionally there are three-five part time spots available in each class. There is no space available on Thursdays in Brown Bears for new families wishing to enroll in Brown Bears part time.

Thank you for keeping our program filled with wonderful children and families!

PAC Fundraising Updates

The PAC Fundraising Committee created a document based on parent and teacher surveys of needed and desired enhancements to the Home Sweet Home community. This is the report on Home Sweet Home current achievements from November 2010 to date.

Acquired through parent donation:
laptop computer
printer

Built:
shade area ($560.00 - PAC fundraising)

Purchased within HSH budget:
magnatiles (starter set)
digital camera
field trip (and subsidized by parent paid fee)
Kevin Carr, Irish Music (special rate due to parent connection)

It is important to note that while money is a necessary tool to acquiring the items and services desired, it is not an end in itself. Any wish-listed item that can be donated, gifted or grant purchased is a tremendous support to achieving our goals of program enhancement. Home Sweet Home also seeks fundraising opportunities that support program values and enhance community. The PAC Fundraising Committee has been very intentional about choosing activities that reflect our program values.

Home Sweet Home continues to raise money toward our goal of $6,000. The total amount raised to date through direct contribution (including the AIA Annual Fund) is $1377. This does not include contributions made toward the Teacher Appreciation Gifts. Laptop Lunch Fundraiser = $60.00 raised.

Families who have met or exceeded their volunteer hours for the year exceeds 65% in this first six months of program year! The goal of Home Sweet Home is to have 100% of families having met their volunteer hours requirement by June 1st.

Next steps:
From shade structure to Music Garden
Working with our Build Committee and Garden Committee to complete our vision of a vine covered trellis with many chimes. Watch this blog in March for an important Home to School Connection assignment from the Music Committee.

Sunday, March 13th - Sweet Moments
A community building event coordinated by HSH parents for HSH parents that will also raise money toward Home Sweet Home. Goal is 50 attendees and $1500.

April Build
Garden expansion focused, Home Sweet Home is currently pursuing three grants to support these efforts. The "build" will be the sod box and additional planters.

Please watch the Parent Board thermometer or this blog for continued updates!

February Birthdays!

Happy birthday, Marcus! 2/17

Thinking About Thinking About Math

Home Sweet Home is a humming hive of math activity in any given corner, whether teacher lead (snack fractions, Blokus game) or centers (sorting bears, dividing magnatiles, building with blocks, folding paper) or outside play (how many scoops of sand fill this bucket).

What children think about amounts, proportion and ratio, and how they compare and classify objects is of interest to the Early Childhood Educator. What is mathematical learning? How can adults support an open ended learning environment for math inquiry?

There is a lot of adult anxiety over academic preparation of children. This is understandable in an era of high stakes testing. How can adults ensure that math learning is developmentally appropriate? Young children may recite rote labels for symbols without comprehension of what numbers these symbols may represent, and this standard and other narrow objectives of canned curriculum can distract teachers from appreciating how mathematical thinking is authentically represented in young children's play. What do we know about how children construct this knowledge, and what can we do to enhance and support it without imposing a 3rd grade agenda on kindergarten?


"If our brains can represent numbers only approximately, then how were we able to "invent" numbers in the first place? The 'exact number sense' is a uniquely human property that probably stems from our ability to represent number very precisely with symbols. This reinforces the point that numbers are a cultural artifact, a man-made-construct rather than something we acquire innately." (Andreas Nieder)


Young children naturally map out numbers logarithmically. Numeric competency is achieved through instruction by adults and changes children's perception to a linear approach. Is it wise for preschool to advance this linear instruction? It is important and necessary to ponder this question, especially when this impacts children before the age of six years.

As adults, specifically adults in a developed, Western country, we live and work with both a linear and logarithmic understanding of quantity. The linear seems evident, but the logarithmic is also apparent, for example in the way we perceive one hundred as much more than three in the number of gallons of oil spilled on a beach, but one million does not feel like much less than one billion gallons of oil cleaned up out of a bay - the higher the numbers are, the closer together they may be perceived. This may also be illustrated in that many people clump millionaires and billionaires in the same elite circle, although one is one thousand times richer than the other. Many indigenous cultures maintain reliance on logarithmic perceptions for survival. This aides strategies for safety, health and defense. For example, tribes considered illiterate can judge at a glance, within grains, the cups of rice to be cooked, without measurement.

Could it be that we have suppressed our logarithmic intuition in our dependence on linearity? What are the consequences of this linear way of being?

Parents are invited to engage in discussions on math education within our Home Sweet Home community. We are blessed with the talent and expertise of many parents who are elementary and high school educators that can further our conversation.

The Fiddler in the Subway

"The poet Billy Collins once laughingly observed that all babies are born with a knowledge of poetry, because the lub-dub of the mother's heart is in iambic meter. Then, Collins said, life slowly starts to choke the poetry out of us. It may be true with music, too."

The Fiddler in the Subway by pulitzer prize winning journalist Gene Weingarten explores the idea of would we recognize genius out of context. His essay reports on a real experiment facilitated in Washington DC when Joshua Bell performed the Charconne from Bach's Partita No.2 in D Minor outside of a subway for 45 minutes disguised in old clothes. He made $37. If a great musician plays great music and nobody hears. . .was he really any good? What is beauty? Is it a fact? Is it an opinion? Is it a little of each, but informed by the state of mind of the observer? Weingarten observed: "Every single time a child walked past, he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent scooted the kid away."

This passage especially impacted me:
"One biologically intriguing fact about Bell is that he got his first music lessons when he was a four year old in Bloomington Indiana. His parents, both psychologists, decided formal training might be a good idea after they saw that their son had strung rubber bands across his dresser drawers and was replicating classical tunes by ear, plucking the strings and moving the drawers out to vary the pitch>" My reflection piece as a parent and an educator is do I give children the time, space and loose parts necessary to experiment on this level? Not that I need my child to be the best musician in the world (although that would be cool), but do they have opportunity to discover their unique genius independent of my understanding, or even my adult agenda?

It is interesting to consider how the current vogue and pervasive use of gadgets (ipods, phones, etc.) impacts our ability to connect in real time and intentionally with the world around us. How does the constant barrage of stimulation actually cocoon us from broadening experiences?

One of the intentional teaching strategies at Home Sweet Home is conscious listening. Taking time outside of and within routine and schedule to actively hear. What might this skill mastered in Early Childhood support for young learners developing competencies? What might these strategies look like and how can we further enhance this? Adults turning off visual and audio distractions and laying next to a child, eyes open or closed, and simply being for 15 minutes. What emerges when we are quiet with our thoughts and open to the environment?

Alphabet Activity

This is a video I filmed one morning in the Brown Bear room. It began with a child telling me that he had nothing to do. I handed the child sandpaper letters and asked if he could put the letters in sequential order. A few children showed interest so the alphabet was divided between four children and they took turns placing their letters in the correct place. Slowly more children became interested and joined the activity. I originally began taking photos of the activity but realized that although photos are great, it could not completely capture the language, the cooperation, the inventiveness, excitement and enjoyment for literacy, and the creativity of the children.

Throughout the activity, I did not prompt the children in any way, nor did I speak to them. What you see is all them. The idea of using the alphabet puzzle as a tool to figuring out the order of the alphabet came from the children. The children picked their own roles in the activity; some children placing the cards down and others reviewing the order and then telling the group what was next. It was not until the end of the activity that I assisted them in correcting the alphabet.

We understand that parents are not able to completely understand what occurs in our classrooms. We hope that this little 13 minute video is a glimpse into the world of your children.

Thank you.

- Jose Castellanos

Winter Build

Many thanks to the 17 parents and youngsters who flew through the list! What got accomplished?

playground shade (which will become more shady with a vine or two)

lights mounted to improve hallway visibility in evenings

cubby earthquake secured

improve log cabin visibility

nourish raised planter beds with worm composting

cull yucky plastic toys

organize shed

scrub, scrub, scrub

Is there anything Home Sweet Home cannot do?! In gratitude to the great minds behind the designs and the hard working early risers.

Our next Build is in April and will be our GREEN DAY - dedicated to caring for our gardens.