Saturday, February 10, 2024
Sunday, January 28, 2024
Hey Mindful Parents- January 2024
Register for Kindergarten for 2024-2025 Children have to be 5 years old by Sept. 2.
Canyons District What are the expectations for a child in Kindergarten? Click below to go to Utah State Board of Education. The information lists skills, that with enough practice and support, can be done independently by your child. click here USBE Utah State Board of Ed. begins to count to 20, identify's rhyming words, tries new things, hop, skips, runs, eats independently, scribbles, draws to express an idea... The Children’s Center Utah is partnering with UCEBT in Salt Lake for a comprehensive 3-part webinar series where experts address your burning questions, offering guidance, strategies, and support to empower you on your parenting journey. Attend just one or all three! These webinars are FREE to attend. We will be emailing you reminders and the Zoom join link for each of these webinars as it gets closer. These webinars will be recorded and will be sent to everyone who registered. February 13, March 12, April 9 6:00 p.m. - 6:45 p.m. MST Learn More What are other states doing about this problem?New Jersey recently incorporated the DREAMS Program, which provides school districts throughout the state with trauma-informed and healing-centered training and resources, including training in the Nurtured Heart Approach. What is Utah doing for Mental health in our schools?
Here is what Utah is debating right now for our school:
Rep. Mike Petersen, R-North Logan, has proposed a bill that would require all Utah public schools to display framed copies of the Ten Commandments(at least 16 by 20 inches). Critics of the bill, including Rachel Laser of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, say it violates the U.S. Constitution and creates a divisive environment. [Salt Lake Tribune) What is Utah doing to support teachers? I will be listening today to the Utah State board of Early Educators today at 1pm. I'll let you know next newsletter. Nurtured Heart Approach
We will celebrate Ground Hog Day at the Hidden School on Feb. 5. We will have a celebration, practice using our manners, and eat donuts with utensils, and watch to see if Phil sees his shadow.
If Candlemas be fair and bright, Come, Winter, have another flight; If Candlemas brings clouds and rain, Go Winter, and come not again. History of Groundhog Day see our groundhog day tickets ready to print Apply for the Hidden School before it's too late.Your child should be 3 by November of the year they want to attend. They can begin the year they are turning three in August. Apply for 2024-2025/ 2025-2026
Thursday, December 28, 2023
Saturday, November 11, 2023
Joseph and Mary and the Rockefeller Tree
Once upon a time Mary Kremper took her first steps onto American soil. It was a hot and humid August day. She paused as she stepped off the vessel in awe. New York was a sight to behold. The dust did not give a hint of the deep depression that would come to take America by suprise. Her seventeen year old vocabulary did not know a word of English. “Itt vagyok,” she whipered. I am here.
Mary had two dimes in her wool coat pocket. She kept them in her left pocket because she had a hole in her right pocket. She wondered the streets of New York for three days. It was overwhelming. She slept on the side of the store until the owner told her to get out or else she would call the orphanage. She only wanted to come to New York, like a rebellious teen running away, she did not have a plan.
That is when she was on a corner watching the people cross the street when Sandra was picking up her laundry. She noticed Mary on the corner. Sandra noticed something about Mary's stout figure. She returned with her bag and asked Mary if she had anywhere to go. Sandra asked her if she would like to come home with her. Mary did not have to think about it, she clutched Sandra's arm and off they went. Sandra offered Mary a job cooking in the kitchen. Sandra family enjoyed Mary's German Hungarian cooking.
Sandra adopted Mary into her family. Sandra’s family was known as the Hilton’s. They were of German Hungary descendants. Mary learned English easily. Sandra’s brother worked in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He knew of a Hungarian gardener that worked for him in Titusville. He told Sandra that he was a good gardener with talent. Sandra did not care about the green thumb, she wanted to introduce the two Hungarians. “We need to introduce Mary to Joseph,” Mary told her brother with the excitement.
Sandra invited Joseph over for dinner with her brother. Joseph Varanyak was born in the United States. However his family had moved back to Hungary when he was three. When he was seventeen he learned he was from America and he headed back to find his future. They introduced Mary and Joseph and it was instantaneous. Joseph had never seen simplicity and beauty as he saw under Mary’s navy felt hat held tightly with hatpins. She saw his hard working hands and memories of her father’s farm in Hungary flooded her day dreams. They only spoke in Hungarian. Talking English was fun, but talking in her tongue was natural. They arranged to be married three months later. Three seemed to be her lucky number.
One month after they were married they received a wonderful gift from Joseph’s boss. Conrad Hilton purchased Joseph and Mary their first piece of land. “You are talented with your hands. Put your mind and hands to work and build a tree farm,” Conrad advised Joseph. Joseph did and the Farm came to be known in Mercer County, New Jersey as the Varanyak Farm.
It was 1931 and Mary and Joseph were about to celebrate their first Christmas on the Varanyak Farm. They strolled toward the back of the property relishing this moment of their first Christmas. Joseph was the gardener; however, he was not the one that spotted the tree. “This is the tree, it’s perfect,” She told Joseph.
Joseph went to work to unearth the 4 foot Norway Spruce. They carried it to their home in a bucket. Decorating it was a delight, even during the Great Depression. After Christmas, Mary and Joseph planted it outside their home. Mary bore a son three years later, then twin boys. She continued to care for the tree. Cow manure was the main ingredient. Mary went to the tree to share her cares, tears, fears, pain, happiness and dreams.
In 1933 Mary remembered hearing about the first Rockefeller Tree in New York. She did not dare say it out loud. One day my little Norway Spruce will make it to New York. Little did she know that the first Rockefeller tree happened in 1931 by construction workers decorating it with tin cans and scrap paper.
Her pain came with the debilitating accident of her oldest son. He suffered a construction accident and she had to make the heart breaking decision to admit him permanently to a nursing home.
Mary and Joseph taught their twin sons, Bill and Bob, how to run the farm. “Mom, what are you doing with that cow manure?” Bill and Bob asked their mom. Mary would stir and liquefy the manure in a bucket for the tree. "Feeding the tree. This tree is going to be in New York one day!" The tree continued to grow; meanwhile, Bill and Bob grew up. They graduated in 1952 and worked for their father. The Norway Spruce that was once 4 feet was now a little more than 20 feet tall.
Mary lived another 46 years. Her husband, Joseph passed and the boys took care of the farm. Bill did some traveling around the world, but eventually returned home. In 1998 Mary Kemper Varanyak passed. She did not get to see her tree make it to New York.
Dreams do not die. Bill and Bob continued working the Varanyak Farm. One March Day in 2008, Bill noticed a helicopter hovering their property. Little did he know they had spotted their mother's tree. Two days later, the late David Morvak knocked on their door and said, “I think your tree would look great at the Rockefeller Center!” Bill and Bob were astatic. The tree was about to go to New York, from country to City, just as their mother had done in 1929.
December came quickly with a snow storm early. Bill looked out the back door one morning after the snow storm and saw a blue bird sitting on the Norway Spruce. The blue bird was rare in the middle of winter, especially after a snow storm. The next day came and the blue bird was still there. The blue bird stayed for 3 days in the 72 foot spruce. Then after the third day came, the trucks and chainsaw showed up. The blue bird was gone. Mary had continued her lucky three day trend. The boys knew the tree was happily on its way to New York. However, the tree did not have to wait three days to find direction. A New York City Parade awaited the tree!
By Jessica F. Ivins
Thank you to Bill Varanyak for the telephone interview in September 2011
This is non-fiction, however, there were some added information to clarify the story. I was not sure what vessel she came over to NY in or what she said when she got here. Bob said it was the Queen Mary, but it did not land here until 1936. Needless to say, Mary Kemper did land in NY and wonder the streets for three days. Their older brother did have an accident. Mary did want the tree in Rockefeller center. The tree was found by the famous helicoptor eyes of David Morvak, and the rest is history.
Making Bread (edited)
Flour in her hair.
Flour on the door,
Flour on the floor.
What a chore,
Flour is here and there.
She's painting her arms,
Her cheeks powder fair.
No more sweet rosey smiles.
Just sifted flowered,
giggles in the air
with the bleached flour
Dusty white pats,
on black springy twists.
Baby brown hands,
now lightly white.
Flour everywhere,
time to be...
Clean.
brown with rosey cheeks.
it's tacit...
I love her brown
I love her white
oh, what a chore
I adore.
Wednesday, November 1, 2023
Utah and Mental Health for Children
Saturday, July 29, 2023
PRESCHOOL CURRICULUM 21st century
What do you think of when you hear PRESCHOOL? Do you want to send you child? Are you sad? Do you want to control every environment your child will be in? Do you just want a break from your child? Worried? Happy? Stressed?
All emotions are valid. Talk yourself through this. It will be okay. Some people think it is time to teach your child the ABC's. But before you you teach that we should be teaching them to identify feelings. MAD, HAPPY, SAD, EXCITED. This will help them to understand themselves. NOT the ABC's. And they are egocentric at this age any way. ABC's come naturally and so do most things kids need to learn.
Have you ever had a teacher teach a lesson and you didn't care for the content or their voice? Well, how do you think a kids feels? When a child is not interested they get up and run around. They leave the area. They do not sit still. I taught in the classroom and can tell you that there are some kids that will sit through a lesson and some kids will not. What do teachers do with the kids that won't sit? Get a $379 CUBE chair and make them sit. Give them a toy in the cube chair so they do not disturb the other children. That child is getting nothing out of it. The other children may get something out of it. Are they listening?
Education needs reforming. The younger kids are always on the back burner of getting help. Colleges are starting to recognize that Freshman need support because of the high drop out rate and suicide rate. And high schools are trying to help kids. Middle school is starting to have calming rooms and grade school has more psychologist and calming rooms for students and teachers. And Preschool is Preschool.
Obviously, kids and adult need some more help with the sky-rocketing anxiety and suicide rate. Let's teach kids how to recognize anxiety before it becomes habitual thought. Help them develop skills before it's a problem. DBT, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, is a new therapy that teaches that you can cope and there may be more than one truth. Everything isn't black and white. If we look at Piaget's theory
A child will not skip a stage of Piaget's theory. Does that mean that we must go through each phase. In my experience if a child doesn't get sensorimotor, they are still in that phase for a while longer.
Do they move on to the next stage? Do we still believe kids are capable of Formal Operational Stage in the 21st century? Kids are much more immature than in the 20th century.
So the reason we can't perfect being a human is because as soon as we figure out what it means, it changes!
Wednesday, July 12, 2023
TIPs for Parents 101
Tuesday, June 13, 2023
Nothing takes place of Interactions
How can you tell a good school from a not so good school?Does a good school let child cut with knives?
NO, a good school allows as many interactions to take place as possible. Ratio is 1:4. Kids are not afraid to speak up and are allowed to feel heard.
I would say to judge a place by interactions. Wholesome interactions. Supportive interactions. Learning interactions. If the ratio of teacher/ child is too low, 1:1 it may not get enough interaction. That is why mom's know it is easier with 2 kids vs. 1 child. Because 3 is more fun than 1 and 3 is also a number that is pleasing to the eye in the arts. 3 is also a significant number, with many stories. But don't make this your determinant for having another child.
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Self guided study to understanding language.
I believe the most interesting thing about Language is that we all acquire it. We do not have to have sit down lessons on. We learn by doing. We make mistakes. We create new rules. Then, slowly after 3-5 years we got it. Our language continues to grow until age 12-13. By then we have it. Ages 0-3 are the most important years for learning language. We begin listening to language in the womb and continue learning as long as we want. If you are in a dual immersion class we will be able to write and speak, but interacting will always be a struggle until we do it. Interactions are the best.
Next in my self studies are : How do cell phones interrupt interactions?
Click below to read the study:
Language study in early childhood
I delved ... here are the highlights:
By way of summation, according to the behaviorist (e.g., Skinner [9], children learn language through reinforcement and association, whereas Chomsky took the view that children have an inborn capacity for language understanding and use.
The most distinctive print of a culture has been defined as its language.
Notably, interaction has a significant role in language acquisition.
Acquisition of a child’s first language begins at birth and continues to puberty (the ‘critical period’). Spada and Lightbown [6]; DeKeyser and Larson-Hall [2] noted that during the first three years of the child’s life, the child gets exposed to the language in his/her environment.
linguistic environment where they can continually hear, interact and communicate in that particular language.
Language is a social phenomenon. According to Spada and Lightbown [6], children can also be exposed to the language through audio-visual media, but that exposure is without interaction, but, without using the language to express themselves, the children cannot acquire that particular language.
Children communicate first by using different languages, such as body language, sign language and oral language
Therefore, the first words the child learns are those that directly relate to the child’s sensory experience and connect the child to his or her exploration of the environment
age Newborn: This is the first stage of language where children babble and coo according to Tomasello and Bates [12], just to exercise the articulatory organs in an experimentally random and playful manner.
age 6 mos - 9 mos: the second stage is when the child starts to babble in a pattern similar to the patterns of adult speech, this happens between the ages of six to nine months.
age 12mos. one-word stage, where babies use only one word
age 1 yr 8 mos two word stage, "dada chair"
age 2- 2.5 telegraphic stage, rudimentary sentences, "I good girl."
age 2- predictable phonological errors or deviations
children first start by over-generalizing the rules
processing the rules of language
a process of development to full competence of the language use leading them to understand the exceptions to the rules
a process of development to full competence of the language use leading them to understand the exceptions to the rules
language grows organically in the child’s mind rather than artificially constructing it in the process of learning
There is no disagreement about the effectiveness of early language acquisition, but what if the language learner has a positive attitude towards the culture in question. Positive attitudes produce motivations in the students. According to Spada and Lightbown [6], “The overall findings show that positive attitudes and motivation are related to success in second language learning, [and consequently acquiring a second identity]” (p. 56). There are two kinds of motivations at issue in this process: a. Curiosity: A desire to understand a group of people and their way of life; a desire or interest to know why a group of people do things differently from us, or why they believe in so many things that we have never considered. b. Empathy: Upon repeated exposure, one might come to the conclusion that this group of people has a more sensible handle on things than we do.
Wednesday, April 5, 2023
What is Mindful Preschool?
Here is a wonderful video from a woman that started a mindful preschool in Seattle, Washington. I have taken classes online at Mindful Schools and continue self-studies of mindfulness. Mr. Rogers was mindful in all his episodes. His same sweater and the consistency of his episodes were a comfort to children.
Why Do Children Need Mindfulness?As we progress from hunter gather people, and we had to fit in with our society for survival to a smaller clan with the ability to be ourselves has created much more freedom for our children. More choices, more opportunities, more, more, more. Our current lifestyle has shown through statistics that mental health transparency is revealing suicide increase, anxiety increase, and stress increase.How can we help our children?
This is Dr. Dan Seigel's Wheel of Awareness shows all the things in our lives that cause emotions or feelings. When we are aware of these we can better understand them when the feeling surface. He and many other specialists have been studying the brain and how we can help children understand what is going on inside their bodies. This awareness will help them to be better able to handle life with simple coping skills. Mindfulness is not meditating, it a way of life with AWARENESS. If you can name it, you can tame it, then you will be able to heal it.And once a child can harness being able to understand their bodies, then they can LEARN. Mental health first. If a teacher understands mental health, brain development, and their capabilities than she can have a better chance of teaching the child academics. And academics are learned through play at this age.
This video says it best what mindfulness is and I am continuing to be inspired by others that are helping children reach their potential.
Is mindfulness in the general education setting?
Mindfulness is definitely a buzz word. More people ie. teachers, universities, legislation, are becoming aware of this opportunity to learn how to help children in their classrooms. It is practiced in some public schools. It is most beneficial if a teacher is mindful all day and sets this example for her students. More phychologist are being hired in public school however, budgets are also a hindrance. But it is just beginning to be at the forefront of needs for children, whereas, all that America cared about is that they could read. America is finally learning that kids can't read if they have mental health needs at the forefront.
Monday, April 3, 2023
Conventional Preschool
It may look like the children are just hopping, dancing, singing, coloring and laughing together, but studies have shown that structured play can hone a child’s language, math and social skills. Conventional Preschool generally follows an evidence-based curriculum that line up with the core standards of learning at the kindergarten level.
Teachers are pressured to meet District expectations. They are busy taking data (which takes valuable time away from interacting with the children.) Conventional Preschool Teachers are generally not certified teachers. They are not expected to have skills for mindfulness.
And some schools are so desparate for help they will lower their expectations when it comes to who works with children. There is more to 3-5 year olds than ABC's and 123's. Social and Emotional skills need to be priority at this age. And children require more 1:1 help at this age than any other age. They always have something to add to the conversaton, but in conventional preschool they have to be quiet when the teacher is teaching because there are over 12 children.
This is me in my conventional preschool classroom with my daughter. She enjoys the preschool room still today. Teachers do a great job helping classrooms feel like home, and many home-based preschools are in basements in Utah. In a basement? No sunlight? When I was teaching I was moved to a classroom without windows. This is when I decided to make the bold move and quit the school district job. No windows fro preschoolers, especially the kids who love outdoor play was like losing valuable learning possiblities and mental well-being. When we are stressed, seeing out the window can calm an adult or child. The etheral of the trees, and plants helps calm the soul. Swedish academics show that children do not need academic settings until age 7. Children do not start school in Sweden until age 7 and they are one of the top performing academia around the world. So embrace the home-based preschool program, toss the conventional programs out the window (if they have one) and see the benefits of The Hidden School, Mindful Prechool. At the Hidden School there is always something happening in our "Mr. Rogers" neighborhood ie. houses being built, trees being cut down, puppies, goats, decomposing apple, or a peregrine falcon crashing into the window while chasing a finch. Just look around where you are standing.You'll see, your missing whats happening right infront of your nose.
Saturday, April 1, 2023
What is Montessori Method?
The Montessori Method encourages self-directed learning that promotes self-confidence, independent thought and action, and critical thinking, while fostering social-emotional and intellectual growth. Education for peace is a foundational component of Montessori education at all levels.
Montessori preschools are focused more on individualized learning. There is less overall structure and more freedom for children to learn at their own pace. Likewise, the Montessori setting encourages a more independent mindset and “work” environment
Each child is valued as a unique individual. Montessori education recognizes that children learn in different ways, and accommodates all learning styles. Students are free to learn at their own pace, each advancing as he is ready, guided by the teacher and an individualized learning plan. Beginning at an early age, Montessori nurtures order, concentration, and independence. Intentional classroom design, materials, and daily routines support the student’s emerging “self-regulation” (the ability to educate one’s self, and to think about what one is learning), in toddlers through adolescents. Students are part of a close, caring community. The multi-age classroom—typically spanning 3 years—re-creates a family structure. Older students enjoy stature as mentors and role models; younger children feel supported and gain confidence about the challenges ahead. Teachers model respect, loving kindness, and a peaceful conflict resolution. Montessori students enjoy freedom within limits. Working within parameters set by their teachers and the classroom community, students are active participants in deciding what their focus of learning will be. Students are supported in becoming active seekers of knowledge. Teachers provide environments where students have the freedom and the tools to pursue answers to their own questions. Internal satisfaction drives the child’s curiosity and interest and results in joyous learning that is sustainable over a lifetime. Self-correction and self-assessment are an integral part of the Montessori classroom approach. As they mature, students learn to look critically at their work, and become adept at recognizing, correcting, and learning from their errors. Montessori supports social-emotional skills. Contemporary research supports the 100-year-old Montessori Method's effectiveness, indicating that children who learn in Montessori classrooms demonstrate stronger social-emotional skills in many areas than children in more traditional environments.At the Hidden School we strive to use the Montessori method along with mindfulness and a little more freedom. I strive to teach children to be curious about thier own backyard instead of only "at school". Learning is always happening. We are always asking questions. Why does the snow melt on the red color faster than blue? Why is there so much snow falling? Why should we follow rules? Kids ask everything! And I am a mother of 5 grown kids and a grandmother.