Winter Weather Blues
This time of year can bring the “winter blues”—the lack of sunshine, longer hours of darkness and more time spent inside. This winter in our northland area has been especially snowy and cold!
Of course, children feel it also. It leads to boredom, lack of physical activity, more clutter and noise in the house. And then there are the discipline issues that pop up. Children are more rambunctious in the house and siblings are fighting over everything.
What’s a parent to do? If a parent can step in with ideas before things escalate, it is possible to turn a bad situation into a fun family time. The following are some ideas to help cope with cabin fever:
1. Build a fort (in the living room or den) out of chairs/couch and blankets over them. Have a picnic lunch or supper inside or on a tablecloth spread on the floor.
2. Have a tea party with your children. This was a favorite in our house! Use your best china or plastic cups and saucers and serve cookies or small sandwiches. Get dressed up if you like.
3. Look and laugh at baby photographs of yourself and your child. This creates a sharing and bonding experience. Your child can see the family history.
4. Put on some of your child’s favorite music and everyone dance! Put on some of your child’s favorite sing-a-long songs and sing together.
5. Let your child take an unhurried bubble bath in the middle of the day with all the toys he or she wants.
6. Sit down and make art with your children. Get out all the glitter, glue, scissors, stickers, markers, paints, and get creative. Make seasonal pictures—snowmen, children sledding or skiing or skating or whatever you or your children can imagine!
Here are just a few ways to make your winter seem shorter! I’m sure you can think of others. Don’t forget ECFE Thursday evening family gym nights coming up again in January! Hope to see you all there!
—Jill Phillips, ECFE parent educator
Mesabi Family YMCA Holiday Open House
Title: Mesabi Family YMCA Holiday Open House
Location: 8367 Unity Drive, Virginia
Description: Make this holiday season a healthy one! Bring your friends and family to the YMCA and share all that we have to offer…use the pool, sauna and hot tub, shoot hoops in the gym, workout in the fitness center, try some group fitness classes and more - all for FREE!
Start Date: 2008-12-29
End Date: 2009-01-04
Strong Foundations Conference
Circles of Influence: Expanding Your Sphere to Ensure Positive Outcomes
Thursday, January 15, 2009 - Saturday, January 17, 2009, Cragun’s Resort, Brainerd.
Registration Deadline: Monday, January 5, 2009.
Strong Foundations: Minnesota’s Birth-to-Three Conference for Healthy Development
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Shamoon Shanok, LCSW, PhD, director of the Institute for Infants, Children & Families of the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services, New York City, NY
Keynote Presentation: Patterns, Parallels and Parenthood: Guiding Principles for Our Work
Using videotape to discuss brain development, early relationships, the effect of parent upon baby, and of baby upon parent, Dr. Rebecca Shamoon Shanok will delineate key guiding principles for all the fields of early and earliest childhood, highlighting ideas about why and how to work closely with parents and within parent-child relationships.
A limited number of scholarships are available for child care providers.
Sponsored by: Center for Early Education and Development, Minnesota Department of Education, Minnesota Department of Human Services and Minnesota Department of Health.
More Information & Online Registration
Baby Sign Language
Tue. Jan. 20 6:00 – 8:00 pm Parkview $8
Instead of playing 20 questions each time your child cries, set aside two hours and learn 50-60 child-relevant American Sign Language signs to use for communication with babies while they are still too young to speak. It often takes up to 24 months for a child to begin speaking. Babies as young as 7 to 9 months can learn and use up to 50 or 60 signs as a means of expressing their needs, wants, and feelings. Participants will also learn to sign the alphabet so they can later spell signs that they may not know. This class is for parents, grandparents, teachers and other caregivers. Please do not bring your infant. Limit 15 participants.
Please call 742-3990 for more information.
Summit on Early Care and Education
January 28, 2009 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
House of Representatives Chamber. (Community members may watch the proceedings in the House gallery, on Capitol television or online.)
The Minnesota legislature has chosen to make early childhood a top priority for this legislative session. To demonstrate this commitment, the Legislature is holding a Summit on Early Care and Education where all members will be invited to be present. This is an historic and unusual event that demonstrates the true commitment to early childhood issues by the Legislature. Community members may watch the proceedings in the House gallery, on Capitol television or online.
Goal: To ensure all kids are school ready by 2020. We need an investment strategy for the future of Minnesota’s children.
Keynote Speaker: David Lawrence, former publisher of The Miami Herald
When: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 from 4 p.m.-5:30 p.m.
Where: House of Representatives Chamber
Who: All Representatives and Senators
David Lawrence Jr. retired in 1999 as publisher of The Miami Herald to work in the area of early childhood development and readiness. He is president of The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation and University Scholar for Early Childhood Development and Readiness at the University of Florida. Named by Gov. Jeb Bush to the Florida Partnership for School Readiness, he chaired that oversight board for two terms. A fully endowed chair in early childhood studies has been established in his name at the University of Florida, College of Education.
Other speakers include Jim Hoolihan, President of the Blandin Foundation, who will highlight the innovative “Invest Early” model in Grand Rapids; and Jon Campbell, CEO, Minnesota Region of Wells Fargo Bank, who will discuss business community commitment to early childhood education.
Take Action Message from iCAN» Call and urge your legislators to attend the Summit on Early Care and Education. Tell them why it is important to you that they be present, and plan to follow up with them after the Summit to find out what they think.