Exploring Details

My daughter, Molly, has been working for me since she was ten years old. She could get a line of kids straighter and quieter than anyone I've ever met. She's patient, funny, boisterous and commanding all at the same time. When Miss Molly walks into a room filled with kids, everyone pays attention.

I listen a lot to what she says. I find her insights and perceptions mostly on target. So a couple of weeks ago, while she was helping with one of our afternoon art projects, she said, "What these kids need is not to share."

"Mmmmmmmmmm?" I asked

"Every child needs his own stuff to use. Sharing only makes them crazy. The product is not as good, and the noise level when sharing is twice what it is when they have their own supplies."

I listened. There is a passion in someone who is always looking for a better mousetrap, and Miss Molly is one of those very special mousetrapians who is determined to replace time-weary practices and worn out uses with something bright, fun and smart-smart for the sake of the children in her care. In fact, her slogan today had something to do with "how big is dumb?" This kind of question is the impetus to finding much better mousetraps.

In building this better "supply" mousetrap, I asked her what she needed. That's my job - complimenting hers. I'm the problem solver for the mousetrapian! She wasn't sure, but it had to involve paint, crayons, glue, and other usable media.

While I was visiting the Dollar Store, I found some summer condiment bowls. I bought forty and trays to match. Now every child can have a small bowl of crayons to use without someone grabbing his or hers out of his or her hand or waiting for someone to finish using a color. The peace is remarkable.

With paint, I suggested the two ounce disposable condiment cups with lids. We tried this for paint and it's a lot of paint. So Miss Molly put on her thinking cap and bought the weekly size pill dispensers. I bought paint that comes with a plunger, and it's going to be a match made in heaven.

Glue will be put out on squares of paper rather than common bowls.

Why is this such a big deal and why does it really matter? Children are our business, and we care what they do, how they do it, and we care about the result. Many people say, "It's not the product, but the process." That might be true when you are teaching children age two, or children who are developmentally two, but by the time a child gets to be three, his art work is defining his skill, his intellect, his inner self, and if he's thwarted by a common glue pot, or paint that has been destroyed by another child, or crayons that he has to wait to use, he's not getting the full scope of education nor exploration.

We want children to know that everything they do is important to them, to us, and to parents. We want children to understand that their work counts and is a tribute to what they know and understand. Not everything goes into the folders at school, but when something is well done and worth taking home, that child will find that work in his folder.

It's the details of life that help make the whole picture work well. If individual paint pots create a harmonious and artistic environment, then that's the direction we will take. I just thank Miss Molly for her mousetrapian skills!

Monday's Tattler

Good Morning!

We are back to regular classes today. It's always good to be back to class after the play and Spring Break with a new and exciting classroom lay out. This makes teaching and doing things with the kids so much easier. Everything is clean, bright, and de-junked! So glad to see the school in such good shape.

We will start science this week and combine it with art which should be very interesting and fun. Lots of new art supplies have been purchased and are on their way. Love to see some truly nice work from our magnificent children.

Alexis's dad came by the school yesterday and put in a little sound system for us. We are truly grateful and so delighted to have this. We have always wanted to play fine examples of great music for the kids but have never had the facility to do it. Now we can, and the sound system sounds great. Still looking for a new record player...hint, hint.

Lots of new stuff int he hopper.

Have a great week!

My Home by Judy Lyden

I love being at home. I love being surrounded by the people and things I love. While cleaning this weekend, and that does not come to pass often because I am rarely at home during the day, I dusted and cleaned a thousand mementos, pictures and keepsakes that I've saved or collected over the years. Each one brought a new thought to mind about the person who gave it to me. I have a lot to treasure and a lot to take care of.

My home is not the typical home. I live in an antique house built as a barn in 1830 in a town called Sprinklesburg. Sprinklesburg became Newburgh, and the land grant given by James Madison began to take shape as a fine house, my barn, two slave houses and a tobacco barn. At the turn of the Nineteenth Century to the Twentieth, my house was turned into a duplex and for nearly sixty years, it had family after family living in it. In 1959, it was remodeled as a one family home by a family named Missy. The Missys added a mud room, a bathroom and a bedroom sans heat and then sold the house and the house was passed from person to person until Terry and I bought it in 1974.

What I originally liked about the house was the way the house lives. There are two front rooms - the original living room and the dining room - both with fireplaces. Behind the two front rooms are a kitchen and what we call the downstairs library or the transition room because we added on 800 square feet to create a real family room and one must pass through this "transition" room to go from old house to new house - there is one step down.

Upstairs there are three bedrooms and a master suite - five rooms altogether - and two full baths. The smallest bedroom is tiny at 13x13, and the largest is 20x20. There are dormers and walk in closets with windows. One of the rooms is a library with wall to wall books.

The bathrooms are very small and sport tubs, showers, sinks, commodes and a small built in linen closet. Simple simple.

The kitchen is antique, and I've kept it that way. There is a small built-in with a sink, a refrigerator parked in what was once a closet, and a stove in an alcove, but all other furniture is antique. The floor is real brick. The kitchen is small, but large enough for a rocking chair that catches the light from a large window. There is a window over the sink.

The floors, with the exception of the brick kitchen floor and the family room floor are hardwood. I am an area rug person and not a wall to wall carpet person because I have cats. Most people would say the house is charming. But it was not always charming.

When we bought the house nothing worked. Not a toilet would flush and there was a hot water heater sitting in the back yard. The kitchen was so filthy, we scraped rather than cleaned, and the bedrooms were not much better. The downstairs bathroom had been used as a cat box and five floors had been eaten way by cat urine.

We didn't have a lot of money to spend in the early days, and we had to do a lot of make-shifting and doing without and waiting. There were times we closed off bathrooms, waited on plumbing, went without air conditioning, plugged holes in the roof and ripped carpet out and lived with unfinished floors, but little by little we've cleaned and re-papered and painted and added on the new addition until the house lives like a dream - still too cold in the winter, but we're working on it.

Now, when much of the work has been done, I think it's all been for a good cause. I wanted a constant place with character where I could rear my kids. I wanted a place where they could explore and grow and walk to school and to things of interest all on their own. I wanted a place that would go up in value and not have to be ditched at some point because the neighborhood was dying.

I wanted a place where my husband and I could grow old and enjoy our memories and mementos and visits from our grown children and grandchildren. I wanted a place where I could grow a garden that had purpose and would be an outlet and a craft. And I knew that just having the building and the land would not be enough. Anyone can buy a home and live in it for a few years and then move on. That's what my parents did - seventeen times in seventeen years - and that's not what I wanted. I wanted an "always" place.

I wanted a place that I would never mind cleaning, never mind painting, never mind spending the day re-arranging furniture or changing a wall arrangement. These are the things that should delight us domestically because they have the purpose of helping us to build our lives and create great memories.

Along with the house, the way we lived and still live contribute to our "home." Our home was always open to our children's friends, to slumber parties, late night last minutes, and a big breakfast the following day. We encouraged our children to develop interests and goals that they could take with them when they left. I am still picking up pieces of my son's nuclear accelerator from my bedroom carpet twenty years later. We always ate at 6:00 p.m. - and still do every evening. Dinner preparation has always been a big part of our life - it's a "count on" thing that creates an understanding that we care about ourselves and our time together. The sun goes over the yardarm here at 5:00 p.m. every evening - always has - always will. We love to walk by the river - it's still there even after all these years, lol. I love to visit the downtown stores. We take interest in our neighbors, our old friends, and the children of our old friends. We are good neighbors even now that we are probably the oldest couple on the block. At one time we were the youngest.

And the constancy and development of building what we have built allows us to be better at doing what we do for a living. Our own foundation helps us create a stability and rock hard foundation for the children in our care at school - and that's how it should be. Life matters, and teaching this to children is not hard when you spend a lifetime making it matter. Building a home and increasing it's joy is the goal.

Recipe for Piggy Pie

Lots of families have asked for this recipe because children and men love it, it's easy to make, it lasts in the fridge and most families have the ingredients at home.

You bake as many pork chops or pork steaks as you need to feed your family. This insures the grease is baked out of the meat. You can even bake these pork pieces on a rack.

Once baked, cut the meat into bite sized pieces and place pieces into a broad bottomed pot.

Add equal amounts of brown sugar, catchup, and fruit juice. For every pound of meat add about 1/4 cup each. Bring mix to a boil and then simmer for about 20 minutes. Mix should be thick and not particularly runny.

Serve over whole grain noodles.

Monday's Tattler

Good Morning!

This short week - we are out of school Thursday and Friday - will be spent on spring cleaning!

Everybody works. We are re-arranging the school and re-building some of our play areas and classrooms. Kids will love this because they get to work with us making their school a better place.

Lots of outdoor play in this fine weather and some nice art projects in the p.m.

It's a great time of the year.

Tuesday's Teacher

As a school owner, one of the things that has baffled me over the years has been the "classroom" question. Somehow, ownership of classrooms has nearly always been one of the separators that brings disharmony rather than harmony to the school. As a non classroom teacher, I've never understood having my own space - one more in my life - to keep clean and orderly. If having one's own space allows someone to view their teaching position as some kind of golden girl top-dog gig, that's not going to work in a group activity place where the team is where the focus should be.

Public school teachers who have worked for me have often brought some failing concepts with them that revolve around the "my space" concept. That concept begins with "my class is the only thing that really matters, all the rest is babysitting and housework, and I really don't want or think I should have to do it."

One of the great tragedies and failures of the public school system is a lack of teamwork and effort that isolates teachers and learning. When classes are finite entities, the learning stops at the door.

More than anything else, I believe that for children ages 3-6, teachers need to be united and work in every capacity as a team. No one teacher has all the artistic or intellectual parts for every job. Some teachers are organizational masters while others are detailers, and still others are better with art while others are better with concepts and for young children, the sharing of talents really works. Not every teacher is a literary whiz or can explain to children why the Norman Conquest worked!

Getting back to the individual classroom...over the years I have seen classrooms go from picked clean to a disgrace that needed three women to spend 25 hours cleaning just to turn it over to another teacher who does no better keeping it clean and orderly than the slob with the dead plants and the six month old mouse carcass. Can't tell you how often, daily, I travel into classrooms and see a mess that is so big and so tall, there is no way at all.... dust, un-watered plants, stacks of fire hazard paper, left overs, art projects from children who were graduated three years before and the proverbial coffee cup that was growing something but quit...

And if that is not bad enough, the very idea that one would covet that kind of mess only complicates the chaos, and top that with the fact that this sacrosanct space is "off limits" when teachers are gone for the day... I think I've lost a thousand square feet of usable space by 1:00 p.m. in the afternoon.

What to do...what to do...

This week we will be discussing making ALL our space multiple use and taking the ownership out of the classrooms. Every teacher will be expected to use the space most usable to the particular subject being taught as they are taught for the betterment of teaching and for the delight of the children. We will have a handwriting, music, video room. We will have a reading, geography, fine arts room. The main room will continue to be used for math, general play, science, and arts and crafts. Each room will be set up to use in the best capacity possible.

Teachers will use the classroom that is best for the children's needs. There will no longer be a reason for personal effects in any classroom, and every classroom will be kept neat and clean by the teacher who uses it last.

As a school whose basic tenet is "group participation and team effort" the whole idea of working for the sake of the children we teach is tantamount to what is important first. Every teacher will be able to go behind quietly closed doors and teach without worrying that they are trespassing into someone's sacred ground. What a splendid development!

I love this new group, team positive effort. Can't wait to get started.

Monday's Tattler

Good Morning!

A great rainy day...just the day to get some work done at school on the play. Lots to do, lots to do!

This Friday we will be having our play. It is at 3:00 p.m. Children have costumes and will be beginning the first act promptly at 3:00. Every child is expected to have an adult at the play.

The Garden School is a group activity place, and we work as a team to produce these plays. Everyone plays a part and as a result, every child's role is important. Please remember to check your child's lines this week.

We are not passing out candy during lent. Children receive candy and prizes during Lent that goes into a little bag at the back of the school. When they go home for Easter on Holy Thursday, the candy they have earned goes home with them in their Easter baskets.

Questions? Ask a teacher. Have a great week!

Thursday's Thought

A well rounded child knows how to pray. It's like anything else- we learn how to speak to others, how to play well on the playing field. We learn how to behave in a restaurant, at the movies, and generally in public. We learn how to use a public bathroom with decorum. We learn all these things, and many many more, during our formation years - ages 3-5. There have been several people who have not brought their children to the Garden School over the years because they have a fear of prayer and of God and do not want their children exposed to anything that they think is of creator status. That is their prerogative.

In some places, prayer is being replaced with nothing - but not at the Garden School. I would not be presumptuous and and demand that every child pray. Prayer is an individual choice. But for those who desire prayer, we set aside a time before and after meals and in circle time to praise and petition God. If a child does not desire prayer, he may be still, but he will not disrupt the children who desire prayer. This time is a time to learn how to pray. For those whose parents practice prayer at home, this is not a strange thing. When children do not learn how to pray or what to say, they will not incur the habit, and prayer, like anything else, is a habit. We want to at least offer children the habit of prayer.

We have all learned the Our Father as a memorized prayer. We have learned to ask for blessings on our families, each other, the ill, dying, and those in nursing homes. We pray for our soldiers and all those who serve us. We pray for government and for the animals we love who are out in poor weather. We have learned to pray for good weather and snow storms! We have learned to ask the group to pray for special intentions and things we need and want.

Today, we will learn how to pray for others in crisis. We will pray for Japan. We have learned where Japan is on the map, and we have learned some interesting things about Japan, and we will ask God to make good come from this crisis.

Prayer is a way of life. Some adopt it early and keep it as a treasure all their lives. Some don't. But offering a way and a means and a habit is never a bad idea.

Blessings today from us to you.

Wednesday's Wonder

GARFIELD ON THE OIL CRISIS

A lot of folks can't understand how we came to have an oil shortage here in our country.
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Well, there's a very simple answer.
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Nobody bothered to check the oil.
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We just didn't know we were getting low.
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The reason for that is purely geographical.
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Our OIL is located in:
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ALASKA
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California
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Coastal Florida
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Coastal Louisiana
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Coastal Alabama
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Coastal Mississippi
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Coastal Texas
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North Dakota
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Wyoming
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Colorado
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Kansas
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Oklahoma
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Pennsylvania
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And
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Texas
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Our dipsticks are located in DC
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Any Questions? NO? Didn't think So.

Tuesday's Teacher

Field trips are fun. We've arranged a field trip for Ash Wednesday to St. Meinrad. It's a wonderful place the children will love. It's almost magical and well worth the hours trip on the bus. While shopping this afternoon, I met a fourth grade teacher who could not believe that we would take children as young as three on a field trip anywhere. She just shook her head and wandered away.

I wanted to remind her that field trips teach children about the world, but some people are best "wandered off." Field trips should not send parents, teachers or providers into orbit. The wonderful world of field trips is easy with some planning and should model the home where children frequently leave to go places and do things weekly or at least monthly.

Creating a field trip program is a snap when providers know they have a cohesive group - parents, teachers and students. Behavioral expectations should be high. If solid, dependable discipline is a part of the childcare program, everyone gets a lot from the special event of field trips.

Field trips should always be earned. Children constantly causing disruptive chaos in childcare should stay home. Because of the nature of being out in the world can be dangerous. It makes sense that field trips belong to the always well behaved.

Field trips are not all equal. Some field trips offer mind awakening and thought provoking adventure: national parks, museums, local events, city parks, zoos, orchards, farms, pet stores, horse races, historic sites, libraries, churches and other places of interest.

Just for fun field trips include: swimming, jungle gym equipped parks, indoor tumbling arenas, movies, outdoor activities like romps in the woods.

Field trips are expensive no matter what is arranged. Hiring a bus costs between one hundred and a thousand dollars a day depending on the destination. Then there are admission fees, supplies and lunch. How can these expenses be met fairly and with affection?

A field trip fee should be an up front expense. It should declare to parents that this childcare station is a busy exciting place. It should not be so expensive that children can't go. By allowing parents to pay off the field trip fee, it becomes user friendly and accommodating to parents who struggle with payments and special events, and it becomes doable.

Lunch should be a part of the field trip fun. Providing a balanced, nutritious lunch on a field trip is a breeze when providers put children first and cater to young tastes. Sandwiches are fun if they are fresh and cut into pieces children can handle. Little people like little bites.

The uniform for field trips should never vary. Smart places will put children in like bright t-shirts or sweatshirts with school or program names. This makes them identifiable at a glance. It allows children more freedom to move around on field trips, and most t-shirts don’t cost as much as regular play clothes.

Tie shoes and socks, shorts or pants only are always in keeping with good sense. Complicated clothes and dresses only hinder the ratio of teachers to children when it’s potty time.

Children should be versed in maintaining lines and being able to be quiet for certain periods of time so that learning occurs. Good manners always prevail and should be encouraged by teachers and parents. A hearty thank you makes a lot of difference when the trip is being completed.

Making field trips available and fun is in the heart of those who love the children.

Monday's Tattler

Good Morning!

Another brilliant week of play practice! The more the kids know their lines, the more other things we can do during the day.

We still need to paint our dragon, Miss Lisa wants to make paper with the children; Miss Judy wants to do some mosaic work and and we need to start collecting some art work for a portfolio and then there is Spring Sing... etc. etc... always something in the hopper!

We are still enrolling for summer. Please get your reservation in early. When we get to #50, we cannot take any more children!

Please dress your children appropriately for weather.

Lent begins on Wednesday. Every Lent we do something with the kids in the form of a work offering. It's called a Bona Opera. Please read your child's Bona Opera or Good Work and keep him in mind these next forty days.

Trying to get a field trip to St. Meinrad for Wednesday. Will let everyone know Monday P.M. I have not arranged this because of rain, but it looks like the rain will end by 9:00 a.m. Wednesday!

Have a great week!

Sunday's Plate

I've been making a lot of lasagnas lately, and the children just love them. It's usually a cumbersome, long job that never seems to end, but we've found some shortcuts, and today I'm going to share them with you so that lasagna becomes a twenty minute prep for you too!

Buy the best, least fat ground meat you can. I usually buy round - it requires little draining. I brown about 2 lbs of meat for forty children and add two cans of tomato sauce and Italian spices and garlic salt and set aside. (At home, if you use veggies, brown veggies with the meat.)

I buy oven ready lasagna noodles - not the best health quality, but I only know of only one whole grain lasagna noodle, and the only place to get them is the Grocery Outlet in Newburgh and they take an hour to make.

I mix a gallon of cottage cheese, two cups of Parmesan cheese and five eggs in a bowl, mix and set aside. At home, a pint of cottage, 1/2 cup Parmesan and two eggs will do. ( Eggs keep cottage from melting away.)

Spray your pan with pan coat; spread two layers of noodles; put your cottage mix on noodles; more noodles; sauce; shredded mozzarella on last and bake 350 degrees until top is brown and sides are bubbly.

For more industrious dinner makers, make more thin layers. For school, I do one layer each because it all looks the same when you serve it no matter how many layers there are.

This is the fastest lasagna I know - about twenty minutes.

Saturday's Under the Sun

Here's a new recipe for a dish called Carbonara. It's an Italian bacon and eggs meal that is one of my favorites. Miss Molly made this simple.

Make your favorite noodles and keep them warm while you:

For a family of four, cut a pound of bacon with a scissors into a frying pan and cook until pieces are brown. Add onions and mushrooms if that sounds good to you. I use portabella mushrooms, and they are delicious! Set aside in a bowl.

Melt a stick of butter and a package of cream cheese in a two cups of milk in a frying pan. Bring to a boil. Add 1.5 cups Parmesan cheese and a teaspoon of garlic powder. When mix is thick - about three minutes, add your bacon and veggies and pour over noodles.

That's it - a fantastic taste.

Friday's Tattler

This has been a surprising week with Campaign speeches on Monday and the Election on Tuesday. The children each knew who they wanted to vote for without hesitation. Every child knew what he was doing and went about his business with intent.

Garrett won the Presidency, and Kayla won the Vice Presidency. We are so proud of these children. They are truly loved.

The children have learned a lot of their lines for the play and have gotten some really excellent coaching from Miss Lisa. She is a natural director. She is so alive and earnest when she directs the children, I am thrilled to see a young person take so much interest and do such a good job.

It's a longer play this year, and the characters are delightfully cast. The costumes are coming along nicely. It's a group effort.

We should be ready by the 18th for a great production. This year we will move the stage way back into dress up so that more parents can be more comfortable watching.

We culminated the week with a Knowledge Bee involving play lines. The kids gobbled up the poker chips every time it was their turn to recite a line.

There is not a lot of time for much more than play practice during the week. We have done some art and played a lot outside when the weather permitted. There are some classes in the a.m. and we are trying to get some music sung in the p.m., but mostly, we are working on the play.

The kids are really enjoying the egg rolls we are making on Thursdays. It's been fun to see them taste with delight.

Thursday's Thought

I’m not a political person. I don’t like politics. In my heart I wonder why people deliberately seek out a life that is the near occasion of being shady. Maybe it’s an attempt at chivalry. How much dragon fire can I endure before I succumb?

I wonder if this is what the clever child sees? Are astute children who read wonderful stories of genuinely virtuous people able to turn to TV and watch the frightful assaults made by smiling candidates and see the tarnish on the shields?

In order to understand why someone I admire would go into politics, I’ve started reading biographies of the presidents beginning with the Teddy Roosevelt biographies by Morris.

What I’ve discovered is a magnificent man who not only sought a life of political power, but was in fact a genuine and brilliant knight dedicated like Lancelot to the nation, but unlike Lancelot, he kept all his promises. But it all had to start someplace, and it started in his youth.

Teddy Roosevelt was extraordinarily hyperactive which amuses me to no end. It was obvious by page ten that this child was a ten count hyperactive, a mezomorph whose natural bodily ailments he would not only numbly ignore, but scorn with unusual bravery.

His graying asthma, which nearly killed him on several occasions, was disregarded in favor of twenty mile hikes, mountain climbs and freezing swims in icy rivers and streams. His father once made him inhale cigar smoke to calm his asthma. Then there were the chronic bouts of something he called moribundus. He had chronic diarrhea all his life.

At one point, his father told him that he had a superior mind, but his body was a shambles and needed remaking. So at the ripe age of about fifteen he began to rebuild his body. He put himself to the constant test as many hyperactives do, and enjoyed the spirit of physical endurance.

As President of the United States, Theodore would play a game he called Single Sticks or bats. He and a friend would go at each other with bats with the intent to do bodily harm. He often went to receiving lines limping and unable to use his right arm to shake hands.

At one point, he had a huge infectious mass removed from his leg without any anesthetic. This was done between speeches and other engagements. Just one of many things he did during that particular day.

As a child, he was constantly dragging dead things into his home and performing taxidermy on them. He had more mummies than Egypt. There was always a dead creature on his dresser and its entrails in his drawer. The Roosevelts had trouble keeping hired help.

Theodore had difficulty with people. He was too direct. Hyperactive people often are, and because they have force behind the action, they are often feared. He could be brutally honest and because he was always aimed in a single direction, he came across as a freight train barreling through other men’s ideas with a clarity that was almost frightening.

As a child, Theodore was an avid reader. He read voraciously throughout his life in English, French, and German. The extraordinary discipline it took to do this is astounding.

His love of nature and his ability to think allowed him to publish his first science work in his teens. Theodore published one book after another all his life.

As I read the last of three books on Teddy Roosevelt, by Morris, I am stunned by the immense production of this man’s life. He was a main participant in the Mexican American War; he was a Nobel Prize winner; he was the man who first set National wilderness lands aside for our posterity; he built the Panama Canal; he was President of the United States; he provided the specimens for the Smithsonian Museum of Natural Science; he fathered six children; most of what he wrote was published – just to list the top of the mountain of things he achieved.

Comparing Theodore Roosevelt and the politicians we now have is no comparison, but it does allow this reader to understand more about the life of someone outstanding who is engaged in what we call politics.

Wednesday's Wonder

40 years of marriage..

A married couple in their early 60s was celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary in a quiet, romantic little restaurant.
Suddenly, a tiny yet beautiful fairy appeared on their table. She said, 'For being such an exemplary married couple and for being loving to each other for all this time, I will grant you each a wish.'

The wife answered, 'Oh, I want to travel around the world with my darling husband
The fairy waved her magic wand and - poof! - two tickets for the Queen Mary II appeared in her hands.

The husband thought for a moment: 'Well, this is all very romantic, but an opportunity like this will never come again. I'm sorry my love, but my wish is to have a wife 30 years younger than me.
The wife, and the fairy, were deeply disappointed, but a wish is a wish.

So the fairy waved her magic wand and poof!... the husband became 92 years old.

The moral of this story:
Men are ungrateful and remember fairies are female.....

SEND THIS TO A WOMAN WHO NEEDS A GOOD LAUGH . AND TO ANY MAN WHO CAN HANDL