The end of the calendar year is a time to reflect upon the year behind us and to think about where we are going.  Here are 6 ways to bring in the new year with a focus on your family.  
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What are the qualities that we want to support and development in our children? Here is a list of words that we want for our children.  Print this out for your child's elementary school or better yet, volunteer to post this in the library or cafeteria to help inspire all children and adults in your child's school to live their best lives and be their best selves. ​

Click here for th  instructions on how to create your own inspirational board.  

Thursday, October 11, 2018 is Children's Environmental Health Day, as sponsored and supported by the Children's Environmental Health Network. Let's celebrate by taking small steps, pasitos, to help lead to a bigger change.

Unfortunately, there are lots more toxins in our surroundings, our environment, today than there were when we were young. And a ton more as compared to when our parents and grandparents were growing up. Sometimes I hear, "Well I turned out just fine, a little bit of XYZ (insert your choice of chemical, pesticide, herbicide, ingredient, etc) didn't hurt me and it won't hurt my child." Truth is we don't know how much of some things are too much and/or if some things are even safe (BPA had to be proven to be unsafe).

So what can you do to help? Try adopting some of these easy lifestyle changes to improve environmental health.

1. Purchase and use non-aerosol, non-toxic sunscreen. The tiny particles of sunscreen become breathable and are held in the air. For your child's lungs and for your lungs. Click here for a complete guide for purchasing preferred sunscreens from the Environmental Working Group.  I use their SkinDeep database to double check ingredients for most of my personal care products, including sunscreens.  

2. Pack a zero-waste lunch and snacks for yourself and for your child, for school days and every day! Or start with once a week. Then slowly increase it. Make it a goal to try for zero-waste lunch for the New Year. A cloth napkin can hold a sandwich, leftover pizza, some fruit, or other small snacks.  I prefer to send my kiddos with stainless steel containers.  I'm not a big fan of plastic.  The combination of glass and kiddos just freaks me out to much.  
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3. Adopt a "No idling policy" for your household and ask the same for family members or caregivers that drive your child. Especially at school. All schools.  Please.  

4. Limit or avoid fragrances in products. Avoid burning candles indoors. So much of our environment is the air we breathe. Typical air fresheners create particulate matter that we breathe. The same goes for candles. Improving air flow and ventilation can help with odd smells as well as a shallow dish with baking soda to absorb smells.

5. Offer your child recycled materials for projects. Pasitos has an imagination station. Full of lots of fun goodies. We often like to stock it with recycled materials. It gives the object another life, another purpose. It also gives us the opportunity to talk with the children about reusing objects. You might even catch us singing the song, "Reduce, reuse, recycle..." Truth: My children like to monitor our recycling at home and take boxes, cartons, jars, etc. in order to use for robots, kitchens, space stations, etc. Making use of lots of household recycling materials, my children get several hours of engaging play and then I get to recycle it when they lose interest, usually within a week.

6. Use green cleaning supplies. For cleaning yourself and cleaning all the stuff around you.  The EWG helps us again in determining toxicity of products and ingredients with their green cleaning guide.  

In a nutshell, these six small steps can lead to big change to protect the health of our children, our health, and the health of our planet, too.  Teach your child that small actions can make a big difference by modeling simple, eco-friendly practices.

A few years ago I attended the ACTFL (American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages) conference in San Diego and was thrilled to listen to a keynote presentation by Rick Steves, the travel guy from PBS.  To a room full of language educators, he talked about some of the whys behind language education.  We know the many benefits of language learning (cognitive, social, emotional, etc).  He also talked about what he believes is the the real reason for learning another language, to communicate with others.  

Once we have taken the time and energy to learn another language ourselves or with our children, we need to go out to the world and use the language in meaningful, real-world exchanges.  The best way to do this, of course, is to get out of the classroom and into the community.  

When we travel, we get to see new places, new structures, new landforms, new people.  We get to experience things that we have previously only heard about or read about.  We also get to reconnect with old friends.  

Maestra Stephanie loves to travel and is currently enjoying some time in Europe visiting different places and some Pasitos families abroad.  Why do you like to travel?  What benefits have you seen for your child? 

Happy summer solstice!

I love camping. I love waking up to sit outside in the quiet morning. I love walking around looking at the different plants and trees while looking for critters and creatures.  When I’m feeling it, I like to get in the car and head toward the Sierras. And then stop when we’re done driving. A few Pasitos families introduced me to Lake Alpine a few years ago. Beautiful.

There are also times when a 3+ hour drive is not going to happen. So then I’ll look for a middle of the week spot at a local campground, if I didn’t already make a reservation earlier in the year. (I like to begin planning out summer camping and try to make a couple reservations in February or March.). There are always cancellations, so weekends are still a possibility.

My favorites
Mt Madonna. It’s close. It’s easy. It’s beautiful.

Some parents had the luxury of growing up in bilingual households and learning two languages from an early age.  For these parents it can be a struggle to maintain the minority language, or the language that is other than English for those of us here in California.  Other factors arise for parents that are not quite fluent in the minority language.  Perhaps they studied a couple or several years of the language in high school or college.  Perhaps they grew up with some family members speaking the language and do have a rudimentary understanding of the language but are unable to fluently produce the language.  The strategies listed below are for those parents.


To improve your own personal language skills:
1.  Use technology. Software, apps, games. The Rosetta Stone software, although expensive, works pretty well if you have the time to use it.  The military kept up their contract for many years because it's so good.

2.  High interest reading material.  Pick up some magazines, in paper or on your device to practice words in categories that already have your interest perhaps cooking and housekeeping or cars or science.

3.  Listen to music in the target language.  The radio is a great place to hear authentic conversation on local topics of interest.  Plenty of internet radio stations also are culture or language specific.

To improve and encourage the language skills of yourself and your child:
4.  Listen to children's music in the target language in the car when you are driving around together. Sing and talk with your child while practicing simple or fun songs.  Many libraries have children's books and CDs in many different languages.

5.  Make it a routine to read one book in the dominant language and one book in the target language every day to your child.  This can easily become part of your bedtime routine.

6.  Use a picture dictionary for yourself.  Have it available around the house and practice vocabulary with your child.  Alternatively, use a translating or dictionary app to help you learn and practice new words in context.

7.  Pick a certain experience that you engage in regularly with your child.  Maybe a certain meal, during bath time, or an evening walk.  Study up on some of the words that you imagine you'll need to try to sustain the minority language for the entire length of the experience.

8.  Choose to allow screen time in the target language.  Did you know that Sesame Street is in over 140 countries in several different languages?  I have several episodes of Plaza Sésamo on my phone to help prevent restaurant or other public melt downs.  I've heard some parents say that they just switch the language on favorite movies to allow their child to watch it in the target language.

Really, the goal is to surround yourself and your child with more opportunities to hear and practice speaking the target language.  I even switched the settings on my phone to a different language to allow me yet another way to make me think and process in the target language.  

On our staff development day we spent time reflecting on our practices and our philosophy. Below are some of the questions that were given to the maestros to answer. The maestros brainstormed possible responses and were given opportunities to refine and reflect upon their answers.  Some of our maestros responded in English and others in Spanish; you can see their authentic responses below. There were twenty questions in total.  Here is the seventh set of questions:

Why is it important to document children’s learning and display evidence around the classroom?  ¿Por qué es importante documentar el aprendizaje de los niños y exponerlo alrededor del salón?

• To show each child’s unique creativity. The child can observe their creation and others’ as well. Parents can see how their children work with materials given.
  
• Shows gradual development and that our philosophy and what we believe in actually works.
  
• Ayuda a animar a que los niños puedan lograr diferentes cosas y mejorar viendo la anteriores.
• Para que los niños puedan ver que nosotros como maestras apreciamos su trabajo. Los papas pueden ver su trabajo.

Why do we have community events?  ¿Por qué tenemos eventos para la comunidad?

• We want to create a sense of community between our families para que puedan conocerse entre familias para intercambiar comidas y culturas para enriquecernos como escuela.
  
• Gives parents a chance to interact with their child and what their child has learned in schools.
  
• Spread the word about our school and build relationships with the community.
  
• Para crear un sentido de comunidad y que las familias se empiezan a conocer entre ellas.
  

Why do we have an imagination station?  ¿Por qué tenemos una estación de imaginación?

• Para que los niños desarrollen sus ideas, sus habilidades y sus formas de pensar.
• Para mi es un espacio donde ellos pueden agarrar sus materiales y crear su imaginación.
• Para que dejen que su imaginación fluya y que no sean limitados en lo que puedan hacer.
• Para desarrollar las habilidades intelectuales de los ninos inventando y creando nuevas cosas.
• Para que los niños tengan la oportunidad de crecer su mente sin restricción o reglas.
  

On our staff development day we spent time reflecting on our practices and our philosophy. Below are some of the questions that were given to the maestros to answer. The maestros brainstormed possible responses and were given opportunities to refine and reflect upon their answers.  Some of our maestros responded in English and others in Spanish; you can see their authentic responses below. There were twenty questions in total.  Here is the sixth set of questions:

Why do we let children play in the rain?  ¿Por qué permitimos que los niños jueguen en la lluvia?

• Para que los niños tengan contacto con la naturaleza y todos los componentes que la rodean. Ellos pueden explorar todo lo que la compone.
• Necesitan estar al tanto del ambiente natural. Mientras más lo aprecian, más lo consideran. 
• Everything is a learning experience, rain creates curiosity and a new “texture” for children to explore.
• It’s a childhood rite of passage. It’s a great sensory experience- So much is learned when you play in water.

 
Why do we take off our shoes inside?  ¿Por qué nos quitamos los zapatos adentro?

• To reduce the amount of toxins, dirt, etc. that we carry/ bring with our shoes.
  
• To reduce the amount of bacteria we bring in from outside.
  
• Para reducir y prevenir el traer bacteria dentro del salon. De esta manera mantenemos el salon saludable.
  
• Evitar ingresar bacterias/ gérmenes que traemos en los zapatos, en especial en la alfombra.

Why do we not use time-outs? ¿Por qué no usamos time-outs?

• Because we practice positive discipline and time-outs are not positive discipline.
  
• Because we just change their environment, we don’t punish them.
  
• Time-outs can be negative, embarrassing, and humiliating for the child.
  
• Porque usamos disciplina positiva y no queremos castigar al niño, sino la accion.
  
• It removes the child from the situation but because it doesn’t teach the child how to behave in a positive manor.