FEC Hornet Heroes
December 9th, 2015
Hello FEC Families!
Next week is a busy week for FEC! Make sure to check out our spirit week listed below, and well as the fun activities we have planned to celebrate the season.
Check out our Facebook and Twitter pages also! On Facebook we are the "FEC Hornet Heroes", and my twitter handle is @jenmeyerhoff. We try to post pictures on both daily, to share our story with all of you, and to give you the chance to see your child at school.
We have found a new resource for parents in a collection of videos that are really informative in the social/emotional development of young children. I will start sharing those in our newsletter as well. If you are interested, the first one is featured in this newsletter!
Our next family night is coming up in January. We will have our third annual movie night, and second annual book fair! More information on this event will come home after winter break.
Have a great weekend!!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Meyerhoff
Things to remember...
December 14th - 17th: Holiday spirit week (schedule below)
December 16th: Candy Cane Trail
December 17th: Holiday assembly and a special visitor!
NO SCHOOL: December 18th (Teacher PD Day)
NO SCHOOL: December 19th - January 3rd (Winter Break)
NO SCHOOL: January 15th (teacher PD)
January 22nd: Movie Night/Book Fair (more info coming after break)
Holiday Spirit Week!
HOLIDAY SPIRIT WEEK
DECEMBER 14-DECEMBER 17, 2015
Monday December 14:
Tacky/Ugly Sweater
Wear your crazy holiday sweater or outfit
Tuesday December 15:
Family photo day!
Wear your favorite flannel
Wednesday December 16:
ELF Day
Wear your striped socks, pointed ears, and jingle bell shoes!
Thursday December 17:
PJ Day
Just roll out of bed and come in your comfy PJ’s!
NO School December 18th!!
Conscious Discipline Corner
Power Struggles:
People create power struggles when they feel powerless. With young children, power struggles often occur after giving the child a command or when the child is tired, hungry or otherwise stressed. Knowledge of child development, connection and active calming will help you to lessen power struggles.
Child development: Before age six, children process information 12 times slower than adults. We must slow down our speech and give only one or two commands at a time. If we speak at a normal pace and say, “Finish your snack, get your crayons and go color in the TV room.” The child may only process bits of information, hearing “crayons color the TV.”
Young children cannot conjugate the word “don’t.” When we say, “Don’t touch the lamp,” they hear, “Touch the lamp!” They look at you with a smile and touch the lamp. We think, “You wicked child, you deliberately defied me,” and enter power struggle territory. Instead of using “don’t,” pivot and tell the child what to do. “Don’t touch the lamp,” becomes, “Hold my hand (offer your hand) so you can learn how to touch delicate things softly.” “Don’t run,” becomes, “Walk slowly like this.”
Children under age seven also lack mature inner speech. Adults use inner speech to rehearse choices and outcomes before we act. Instead of inner speech, children encode information in pictures. So, we can use pictures to guide children’s behavior and avoid power struggles. Use your body as a picture by modeling what you want, use your words to help paint pictures of what you want, and put up actual pictures that show what to do. Instead of, “Walk in the house,” say, “Walk carefully with each foot going like this through the house.” Not only do you get better compliance (fewer power struggles), you also build language and literacy.
Finally, the brain is a pattern-seeking device. The more consistent your routines, the easier it is for the brain to pick up the pattern. If there is a consistent routine, the brain picks up the pattern, the child feels safe, and his neurological resources can be used for learning and exploration rather than for protection, and power struggles lessen.
Check out the video below for information on helping your child deal with frustration!!
About FEC
Email: jmeyerhoff@fulton58.org
Website: http://www.fulton58.org/vnews/display.v/SEC/Fulton%20Education%20Center
Location: 1805 Wood Street, Fulton, MO, United States
Phone: (573) 590-8050
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FEC-Hornet-Heroes-1490229047902285/timeline/?ref=hl
Twitter: @jenmeyerhoff