Stick Season Social Recap

Thank you all for joining us at the Stick Season Social! It was a fantastic afternoon of music, food, and a lot of fun. A BIG thank you to the Parent Collaboration Committee for putting it all together. It isn't easy to pull off an event this big and this fun. Thank you also to all of the local businesses that donated some wonderful prizes. Here are a few snapshots from the event:

Fittingly, another commentary was published this week that honed in on the connections between early childhood education and our community as a whole. Con Hogan, a prominent Vermont social and health policy expert, wrote this piece (first published in the Caledonian Record) about the effects of child care on Vermont's economy and general population health. Economically he framed our current situation this way: "Many people pay as much for child care as they do their mortgage, even while providers earn, on average, less than $27,000 a year. Many other working parents simply can't find quality child care. This is keeping thousands of highly-qualified people out of the job market. Economically, we can't afford to do this." At MVS we feel this pressure, too; we would love to offer our teachers higher pay and better benefits, but we know that tuition is already a large financial burden for our families. And, as I've mentioned before, we are unable to meet the demand for our services largely because the compensation we can offer does not attract enough teachers to the field.

On the health care side of the issue, Hogan discussed Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) which negatively affect lives into adulthood and also come with a large public cost. He wrote, "The most powerful protection against the negative impacts of ACEs is at least one stable, nurturing relationship with an adult." High quality child care could be an excellent source of such relationships as well as family and community support. For every child who struggles through stressful experiences at home or elsewhere, we are missing an opportunity to support them in developing the tools needed to lead healthy and successful lives.

A bit of trivia about Vermont: approximately 6,000 infants are born here each year (source). In the scope of things, that is not a huge number! Maybe our little state could actually figure out a way to provide each of those 6,000 infants with high quality early care and education experiences. What would that world look like? We'll keep working on it, one step at a time, and we so appreciate your support along the way.

Thanks for reading,
Megan

News and Reminders
A few more winter dressing suggestions from Jacob:
-Layers, the less cotton the better as wool and synthetics keep us drier
-Several pairs of warm socks (ski socks are great since we will spend as much time outside as a day on the slopes)
-At least two pairs of mittens/gloves as our morning gear will not always have time to dry before our afternoon adventures. Remember the waterproof Polarn O Pyret ones are great to layer on top of another pair of warm mitts.

We will be closed on November 23rd and 24th for Thanksgiving.

Another great idea is packing a "wet bag" for your children's dirty or wet clothing. This would eliminate the plastic bags that we need to send home on a regular basis. You can just throw the bag int the laundry with the dirty clothing. You can search on amazon for "wet bag" and there are a lot of options.

Classroom Updates

Infant I
What an exciting week! From the Halloween Parade to the definite shift to cooler weather to the Stick Season Social, we've been enjoying extra time with our larger community and with each other and handling disruptions to our routines like champions. The transition to colder weather always has a little extra layer of complication for infants who are exploring their mobility in general–now try doing it with two inches of insulation all over your body! But we do our best to dress them well (mittens and booties on before snowsuit), keep them comfortable, and give them time and space to experiment physically. Thank you, parents, for your thoughtfulness in sending your children well-prepared; it makes a world of a difference in their experiences. Finally, it was our last week with C as he will be transitioning to Infant II next week. He is so ready for that change but we will miss him dearly!

Infant II
This week we spent a lot of time talking to the children about the colder weather and taking time to dress them properly. We are getting used to layers and wearing mittens and hats. This being said, please make sure you are packing your child's bag with extra clothes and waterproof mittens. Halloween on Tuesday was a blast! Our children were excited to get into their costumes and did a great job participating and transitioning back to our routine when they said goodbye to their parents. Thanks all for joining us. We loved your company and your costumes. On Tuesday afternoon, the children helped us cut open a pumpkin and take the seeds and insides out. They loved the texture of the insides and loved throwing it around. After throwing it they did a great job helping us pick it up. Blocks and coloring have been an interest this week. Our classroom has done a good job utilizing the toys inside and playing with them. We continue to work with them on positive social interactions, kind words and phrases, and tone of voice.

Toddlers
We had a great Halloween week. The Halloween parade was a big hit and the children were very excited to get dressed up in their costumes and see what costumes their classmates were wearing. This year we walked all the way to the Town Hall–a huge milestone for our classroom! Such strong and capable Toddlers! Everyone was very excited about walking, costumes, the parade and visits from parents; a great time was had by all! This week we worked on keeping mittens on our hands. The Stonz mittens with drawstrings around the wrist work best for staying on and keeping hands dry and warm. We continue to work with each other on positive social interactions, using gentle hands and respectful voices. This week Pete the Cat, I Love My White Shoes, Big Fat Hen and Rosie's Walk were popular books. Building with blocks was of big interest as well, both horizontally and vertically.

Preschool I
What an exciting week! We really began to practice our routine for layering up to play outside and it's starting out well, although it occasionally means we have a bit less time to play. We're hoping that feeling prepared and ready for mushy muddy puddles this week encourages us to get dressed quickly. Everyone absolutely loved getting ready for the Halloween parade and felt especially proud of getting the job done "all by myself." Thank you to all who joined us in the big walk to Town Hall! The children had a blast and it was extra special to have visitors. As we work on dressing for the weather, we're encouraging making comments like, "This is tricky" instead of "I can't" and kindly asking for help when needed. Thanks so much for sending your child prepared for this seasonal transition!

Preschool II
We had a lot of fun playing in the rain this week! When we are in warm clothes and our Tuffos we can do almost anything. We especially had a blast sliding down the slides, going through the puddles and the bottom of the slide. We also spent a lot of time pouring water that had gathered in the tires into all different kinds of containers. We loved the visit from Elizabeth with ECHO and were so excited to learn about the animals and the story about Champ!
From Jacob: It was a treat to have such great participation in our Halloween Stroll–our team was all together, and the helpful teamwork of parents and students working together to get ready, get organized, and get to town and back was impressive. Thanks. I will be spending next week with Carly and family as we are expecting Baby D's arrival. Team Sarah will be spending the week with PS2 and I expect the kindness jar will be full again soon.

PreK
Highlights this week definitely included our scientific explorations utilizing the materials in our kit from ECHO and our visit from Elizabeth on Friday. We had a great time learning about Lake Champlain with her. We are really looking forward to reading the rest of our new book, Champ and Me by the Maple Tree: A Vermont Tale. Thanks, Elizabeth!!