Mod Pizza Fundraiser -- Pizza Your Way!
(* NOTICE * Date updated!)
On Tuesday, February 22nd, Mod Pizza will be hosting a fundraiser for us ALL DAY LONG!
Where: The Mod Pizza in the Plaza America Shopping Center: 11642 Plaza America Drive, Reston VA 20190
When: Tuesday, February 22nd from 10:30AM-10:00PM
What: A fundraiser where you get your delicious, fully customized pizza, and your school gets 20% of what you pay!
How: You an order in store, through the Mod Pizza App, or directly on the website! Whether or not you do sit in or carry out, it counts! If you are ordering online, make sure to use the code MODF2789. If you are ordering in person make sure to show this flyer! Please note: ordering through apps like UberEats, DoorDash, etc WILL NOT COUNT toward the fundraiser!
Why: Mod Pizza has a pizza for everyone. Each pizza is lovingly created with your preferences, style, and dietary needs in mind! It is fun and scrumptious for the whole family! Which is why it is absolutely perfect for a Common Ground Community Fundraiser. Help us celebrate our 50th Birthday this year by helping us earn funding for our mission to lift early childhood educators up and provide living wages!
Friends of CG Fridays: Just Cats Clinic
Just Cats Clinic has been caring for our cats like they’re family since 2013. Now, when we need them the most, they have opened an Urgent Care clinic with extended hours.
Website I Contact Info and Hours I Directions
Dr. Elizabeth Chapmen started the Just Cats Clinic in order to offer your cat a personalized, comfortable experience for your cat in a stressful time.
Every person employed goes through cat-specific trainings so they are familiar with feline behaviors and handling. They are flexible and change their procedure based on each individual cats needs and temperament. From ample natural light, to windows with bird feeder views, to hiding places in every room… this will truly feel like a sanctuary for your cat.
Working with animals is a labor of love, and the veterinary community as a whole has been pushing itself to the brink to keep our animals safe.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic started, vets all over the country have suffered from staff shortages. Along with sickness and quarantines, the field is primarily women. When schools were closed or primarily online, many women left their careers to take care of their children.
For the first time in 20 years you can’t just go to an emergency vet. Imagine your animal is in trouble, you call their doctor, and they have to check to see which emergency vets might have space.
There are a lot of patients that NEED to be seen, but are not a life or death emergency. They are in pain, or vomiting, but would be turned away because the number of more urgent patients was just too high.
Dr. Elizabeth started an emergency clinic on January 1st to help mitigate this problem. Just Cats Clinic will do same day urgent care appointments for ANYone with a cat in need, whether or not they are a patient. They are not an emergency vet, but can help diagnose, stabilize, and take care of your beloved pet, and help you find a space in an emergency vet while they do so if it is necessary.
Help Common Ground Childcare show some love to our local heroes! If you or someone you know has a cat they adore, bring them to the place where you know their doctors will love them as much as you do.
Friends of CG Fridays: Hero Pediatric Dentistry
If you participated in our THANKSGIVING STUFFY SLEEPOVER, then you got an incredibly thoughtful, thorough SWAG BAG from our personal dental heroes, HERO PEDIATRIC DENTISTRY!! They are thoughtful, warm, insightful, and amazingly CLEVER!
Check out this HILARIOUS and informative video they made where they show us how to take care of our stuffy friends’ teeth!
HERO PEDIATRIC DENTISTRY VIDEO
Our teeth are so very important, and developing good habits to take care of ourselves begins at birth like all learning!
Consider these brushing basics:
Brush your teeth twice a day.
Use the proper equipment. Use a fluoride toothpaste and a soft-bristled toothbrush that fits your mouth comfortably.
Practice good technique. Hold your toothbrush at a slight angle — aiming the bristles toward the area where your tooth meets your gum. Gently brush with circular short back-and-forth motions. Brushing too hard or with hard bristles can hurt your gums.
Brush your teeth for two minutes. Remember to brush the outside, inside and chewing surfaces of your teeth, as well as your tongue.
Keep your equipment clean. Always rinse your toothbrush with water after brushing. Store your toothbrush in an upright position and allow it to air-dry until using it again.
Know when to replace your toothbrush. At least every 3 months!
See the dentist twice a year. Start taking your kiddos to the dentist around age 1! A lot of people talk about “baby teeth” like they don’t matter, but oral health is KEY to a happy, healthy life!
Why Hero Pediatric Dentistry?
Hero Pediatric Dentistry has a new location in Herndon! You should always take your kid to a pediatric dentist because they are specialized in kid care! They know all about growing teeth and gums, and know just how to make sure the dentist is not only a healthy experience, but a FUN one. We trust our friends at Hero Pediatric Dentistry implicitly, and recommend them for our students!
Tell us about your experience with them in the comments! We only wish we were young enough to get our teeth cleaned next to a green dinosaur…
Your CG Family
Teacher Tips: Healthy Eating
If you are like most parents or educators out there, you have stressed a non-zero amount of times on feeding the children in your care.
Here at Common Ground we have gotten every question in the book, so we are going to try to give you some peace of mind:
How do I get my picky child to eat things? How do I get them to not hold out for sweets?
This is a tricky question, and one I have actually faced a lot at home. There is no one simple answer that works for everyone, but there are lots of ways you can get a child to eat outside of their comfort zone.
PLEASE NOTE! We are using “picky” as an umbrella term because it is the question we get asked so often. There are lots of reasons a child may be hesitant about food. Maybe it is a sensory discomfort! Maybe they had allergies in the past or have allergies now, and are just hesitant about trying NEW foods. Maybe there are plenty of foods they will eat, but they are not interested in a particular genre of food (vegetables, meats, etc.). MAYBE they are on a sweets kick and are on a hunger strike until they get what they want! Whatever the reason, there are things on their plate that you wish they would eat that they aren’t…
Be a Role Model: The best way to encourage a behavior is to EXHIBIT that behavior. Making sure everyone’s plate has pretty much the same thing is very effective. If you are drinking water instead of soda, if you are eating almonds for a snack and fresh fruit for dessert, you are helping to show that you really believe in what you are asking them to do, and are not just “making them eat” the healthy stuff.
Let them be involved in the process:
Planting fresh fruits and veggies in a local garden is an amazing option. We have seen kids try foods grown right here at Common Ground that they would never try at home. Don’t have time or space to have a garden? There are plenty of farms locally that offer “picking” days! You would be supporting local farms and providing your child an amazing, technology/screen-free activity that might encourage them to try a new food.
Cooking together in the kitchen and having them be “in charge” of a particular meal or dish gives them control and autonomy. Let them serve your plate too! Kids want control in their lives. Giving them a little bit helps them develop independence and confidence. Cooking has also been known to be an excellent activity for math and number sense!
Offer Limited Choices: Give the child choices for what they want, but eliminate the choices that you would rather they not pick! “Do you want broccoli or cauliflower?” over “Do you want broccoli for dinner?” This is especially important if you want to cut back on the sweets intake! Offer healthier options for snacks and desserts.
Is my kid eating enough?
Here is a guide to how much kids should be eating generally: Infant Guide, Child Guide, General Nutritional Guide
I was personally shocked at how little kids actually need to keep growing healthy and happy. Children have an incredible ability to self-regulate. They know their bodies, when they are hungry, what they need. Sometimes, in an effort to make sure they are getting enough food, we are actually over-feeding/force-feeding our children, which can cause this ability to self-regulate to disappear. As long as our children are hitting their markers and their doctor is happy with their progress, they are okay! Make sure to keep in regular contact and stay up to date on your doctor visits.
Is my kid eating too much?
Does your kid seem to want a lot of snacks in between meals? Do they seem to always want way more helpings than you expect? Fear not! Most of the time, kids are eating what they need to eat. During a growth spurt they tend to eat a ton! Kids who are especially active may also want extra snacks between meals. Here are some healthy tips to snacking:
Do not offer overly sugary food items for snacks. Kids will eat these even when they are not hungry! Same thing with sugary drinks. Water or milk are the liquids kids should be drinking during most meals. (Tip: Sometimes thirst masks itself as hunger! Make sure that water is always available)
The best “between meals” snacks are little healthy portions of foods that have a low glycemic index: fruits, nuts, cheese, veggies with hummus, nut butters on whole grain breads, etc. these have the good proteins and fats that kids need, and they will probably be less snacky overall. Chips, goldfish crackers, these kinds of snacks may not be sweet but they ACT like sweets. They have fewer healthy bonuses and their high glycemic index leads to the kids needing to eat MORE of them just to feel full.
When to check with your doctor:
Your child is literally eating until they throw up
Your child eats constantly and doesn’t seem to be gaining weight, has abnormal bowel movements, and/or seems fatigued
How do I know if they are getting enough protein/vitamins/fat/fiber?
Our first bit of advice is going to be: KEEP UP A GOOD DIALOGUE WITH YOUR PEDIATRICIAN. If they have any concerns they will help guide you through a nutritional plan. You can also reference our nutritional guides we linked above so that you have a general idea of what a kid’s day should look like.
The most important thing to note is to not make eating an anxiety-inducing affair for anyone involved. Everyone gets caught in negative feedback loops, and since you can’t just skip eating for a few days and start fresh, it can make every meal exhausting. The trick is to offer a plate of the foods you want them to eat, and then leave them to it. It can take kids 15-18 times of trying a new food before it becomes a “normal food” for them.
FED IS BEST. Offer the complete plate every time so that they have the right options, but keep in mind that you really just want them eating enough to keep them moving and happy. It will all balance out.
Keep your eye out for more Teacher Tips on Healthy Eating and Exercise for Spring!!
Love Love Love,
LJ and your Common Ground Family
CG Recommendations: Top Ten Strollers for Spring Walks
Hi! Spring is in the air and we are SO EXCITED to see so many of our parents walking up with their strollers to pick up their kids.
Reston is one of the most walkable cities in America. The local Reston nature trails are phenomenal and we are right on the W&OD Trail.
Do you want to walk to the Reston Farmer’s Market at Lake Anne? EASY! Did you want to take the W&OD trail to downtown Herndon? Vienna? No problem.
You could walk the Lake Thoreau Loop in South Reston, admire the incredible scenery, and stop to play at three playgrounds minimum with very little detour.
There are so many amazing spring ways to make memories right in your back yard! No travel or indoor activity Covid-19 risk required. While we urge caution and social distancing, we are also right on Metro’s Silver Line. If you wanted to take your family to walk among Washington DC’s gorgeous Cherry Blossoms (peaking until April 10th, 2021), you could get there without having to take a car at all!
The key here, of course, is having the right stroller for your young family.
Here at Common Ground, we have seen (and tried!) them all. Umbrella strollers. Jogging strollers. Double umbrella and jogging strollers. Convertible strollers that match up with carseats. Strollers with three wheels, four wheels, eight wheels. We are here to give you our TOP TEN recommendations so that you don’t have to find out mid-memory making that a particular stroller is just not working out…
Single Stroller: Baby Jogger City Mini GT2 Stroller, Jet
Carseat Travel Stroller: Graco Modes Pramette Travel System
Best Convertible Carseat Stroller: Doona Infant Car Seat & Latch Base – Car Seat to Stroller
Lightweight, One-Hand Foldable Stroller: Babyzen YOYO2 6+ Stroller
Excellent Jogging Stroller: BOB Gear Revolution Flex 3.0 Jogging Stroller
BEST NEWBORN TO 50lbs UMBRELLA STROLLER: Summer 3Dlite Convenience Stroller
Amazing, Unstoppable Double Jogging Stroller: BOB Gear Revolution Flex 3.0 Duallie Double Jogging Stroller
Best Economy Jogging Stroller: Baby Trend Expedition Double Jogger, Centennial
Best Lightweight Double Stroller: Kolcraft Cloud Plus Lightweight Double Stroller
Classic Ultralight Inexpensive Stroller: Cosco Umbrella Stroller with Canopy
Do you have a stroller you absolutely love and want to recommend? Leave your suggestion in the comments!
Love Love Love,
Your CG Family