What's Happening?? March is next week...
Here’s a quick overview of all of the events happening in the next few weeks! — The February Meetings are over but ask us for the presentation videos!
Click on any of the squares below for more information.
Read more about camp HERE
Read more about the blood drive HERE
Read more about Miss Janette’s “Magic of Colors” Lesson Series HERE
PRESIDENT'S DAY: Fun Facts to share with your kids!
DID YOU KNOW that James “Jemmy” Madison, our shortest president, was only 5’4”? He was exactly one foot shorter than our tallest president, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was 6’4” even without is famous hat!
LET’S TALK WHITE HOUSE PETS! There have been lots of beloved cats and dogs… but DID YOU KNOW
William Henry Harrison, our shortest TENURE president, had a PET GOAT with him in the White House!
George Washington had a TON of hunting dogs and war horses, but “Royal Gift” was definitely the strangest: an Andalusian donkey that was a gift from King Charles III of Spain.
Thomas Jefferson, also an animal lover, received TWO GRIZZLY BEAR CUBS from Captain Zebulon Pike.
Polly the Parrot outlived both James and Dolly Madison! Other Presidential Parrots include: Snipe (Washington) Polly (Jackson’s rather rude parrot), and Washington Post (McKinley’s parrot who could whistle Yankee Doodle)
A Presidential Zoo? Alligators (Harrison) Hippos (Coolidge) Lion cubs (Coolidge again) Tigers (Van Buren) and Bill the Laughing Hyena (Roosevelt) were just some of the truly WILD pets of the Whitehouse
Tad Lincoln gave the very first Turkey pardon when, seeing who was to be dinner, begged his father for mercy. Jack the Turkey became a pet instead.
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on July 4th, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
William Taft and Gerald Ford both played professional ball! Taft was a lifelong baseball lover and threw the very first major league season opening pitch! Gerald Ford’s football jersey is retired at the University of Michigan—he wore the number 48
Martin Van Buren is the only president that learned English as his second language! His native language was DUTCH.
Do you have any fun presidential trivia?! Please comment below!
Miss Janette's "The Magic of Colors" Lesson Series PREMIERING IN MARCH!
To all the parents and guardians out there of curious, precocious little tykes…
We hear you. Winter is hard enough without the pandemic restricting activities. Sometimes you just need twenty minutes to do the dishes, to start a load of laundry, to make a zoom call. Sometimes you just need twenty minutes to take a deep breath and a sip of coffee.
That’s where we come in.
Miss Janette, the coordinator of our online classes for 2.5-3.5 year olds as well as our private kindergarten teacher, has designed four color spectrum lessons that come with a “ready-to-go” lesson box with everything you need!
Each twenty minute lesson has a story, a related craft or activity, and an extra bonus activity that can be done at any time. For each lesson you sign up for you receive a box with EVERYTHING your child needs to participate. Each activity is set up and measured out so that Miss Janette should be able to interact and teach your child with little to no supervision from a guardian!
Starting on March 8th, the classes will occur the next four Mondays!
Here is the registration page
We recommend signing up for all four classes because while they stand on their own independently, they also build on each other. Besides, they are all so fun, which one could you bear to skip?? The lessons are $20.00 per box, or $60.00 for the whole set! You may receive a “sibling box” for an extra $10.00 per lesson.
March 8th: Magical Color Mixing: Miss Janette will read Press Here and help your kiddo make their own magical color mixing wand!
March 15th: Rainbow Blooms: Miss Janette will read Penguins love Colors and do a Rainbow STEAM activity with your child!
March 22nd: Create Your Own Color Finders: Miss Janette will read Pete the Cat and his Magic Sunglasses. Afterward, she will help your kid create their own magical binoculars to help them search for colors!
March 29th:The Whimsical White Crayon: Miss Janette will read The Day the Crayons Quit and do an amazing coloring activity where they use colors to make their letters appear!
Give yourself a break, give the kiddos something to look forward to on their wintry Mondays.
-Common Ground
"I met a Pediatrician in the woods..."
Hello all! Ms. LJ here. We have been talking so much about kindergarten readiness here, both as discussions in our blog and in our kindergarten planning meetings. For many of us it is a passion project, a calling to find a way to reintegrate the joy of childhood with the delight of curiosity, of hunting for answers in this beautiful world of ours.
Learning IS a joy that fuels the fires of our existence. Our children are subjected to the fears of failure early, of “falling behind” or being measured against their peers with a single yard stick and being found wanting. These anxieties become inextricably linked to education as they get older, convincing them that it is something they have to endure, rather than tools given and honed to become our best selves.
Why? It is our very ambitious belief that it is because we have cut off curriculum from play. Particularly in the American education system for young children we have turned away from the most natural, efficient source of teaching.
BACK TO MY ORIGINAL POINT: I MET A PEDIATRICIAN IN THE WOODS…
On Friday morning last week I found myself home with my two children. I had just received my second covid inoculation and was feeling a bit run down myself, but I did not want to squander this rare opportunity to spend alone time with my kids! The Covid-19 pandemic as a whole has been a tragic, frightening event, but I will always cherish the summer I got to spend every day outside with my babies. I took them to the Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, one of our favorite “safe space” hangouts from last year, to walk the grounds and kick the slush around under a blue sky.
It was here on one of these particularly wet paths that I ran into two women, one of which commented that it was nice I brought them out on such a nice day. I laughed and said flippantly “I figured they didn’t need to sit in a classroom today.”
In response, this woman gestured around her and said with utter sincerity, “This IS a learning space.”
I grinned, even though I knew she couldn’t see it behind my mask. “I think so too.”
The lady laughed and turned back to her friend, ”And I’m a pediatrician, so you can quote me on that if anyone asks.”
It’s not just our career teachers that are seeing this. It’s not just the parents who know their “energetic kids” focus better when in motion. Doctors who specialize in children are urging for parents and educators alike to integrate consistent, long-form play into all aspects of children’s lives. Physically, they are stronger. Mentally, they are more able to pay attention and less likely to have sensory issues.
Social competencies and emotional resilience suffer greatly without consistent peer-interaction in a playful and imaginative setting as well! Children often work out a lot of their big questions and anxieties of the day by integrating it into safe-space imaginative play reenactments. Without being able to work these issues out themselves, children are unsure of their own abilities to problem solve, and those anxieties and dependencies grow.
Here is a fantastic article from The American Academy of Pediatrics all about The Power of Play if you would like to read more:
The Power of Play: A Pediatric Role in Enhancing Development in Young Children
It’s not that wrote learning, memorization, and standardized long-form curriculums don’t work, it’s that they miss the point of education entirely. They leave behind many and narrow the focus of the rest, curbing creativity, independent thought, and resilience to the necessary process of failure.
Think about any lesson you still remember 10, 20, 30 years later. Which ones stuck with you?
For me it’s almost always the games. My sixth grade teacher had us turn our entire classroom into a bunch of cardboard houses to mimic Hoovervilles. She dunked our feet in cold water and drew cards with battlefield injuries to give us a taste of war on the front. In third grade, multiplication songs and games stuck with me way longer than any flashcard work. Watching pumpkins rot, playing with baby chicks hatching from eggs and experiencing them grow was a poignant way to learn about the life cycles of living things. One of my favorites was pretending to be sound waves bouncing around a back alley. Even “Which President was it?” trivia tag helped facts that HAD to be memorized something fun and worth doing.
To reinvigorate education as a whole we have to reunite the JOY that should come with it, the fascination, the wonder. Let the kids run off in their excitement and experience a lesson with their whole bodies. Let them learn more than you thought, more widely than you thought. You’ll be surprised what you learn when you’re muddy and out of breath too.
Go Play! Keep Learning! Most of all, Have Fun!
Miss LJ
Snow Potential this Sunday - Snow Policy Reminder
There is a potential for the second snow of this season this Sunday! This storm has the potential to impact center operations on Monday, with the current forecasts are calling for between 3-5 inches on Sunday and another 1-3 inches of snow on Monday.
With that in mind, we’d like to remind you of our snow policy. In general, we follow the federal government, especially in regard to delayed openings and early closings, since those calls are made with the commute in mind. With our current limited operating hours, if the federal government delays by 2 hours, Common Ground will open at 8:30am instead of 8am. If they close early, we ask that you make every effort to pick up by the earlier of the two times - one hour past the government closing time or by 4pm.
If the federal government closes, there is a good chance Common Ground will also be closed. However, if they remain closed for multiple days and we feel that the roads in Reston, including the Common Ground Parking lot, are safe enough to open, then we will make every effort to open the center. I know that seems like a bit of a confusing policy, we just want to have the ability to err on the side of open, in case the government makes a call that doesn’t make sense for the Reston area!
The one exception, if Fairfax County Government, who almost NEVER closes, decides to close and the federal government doesn’t, then we will follow suit and close as well, because that means that there could be a greater impact on the Reston area, than the larger DC area.
Confused yet?! Don’t worry, we will stay in constant communication to let you know our plans! Our operating status will be posted on the website, instagram, and messaged through Brightwheel.
The point is - we want to be open, but only if it is safe for us to get our staff here and home safely.
And when there is snow and we are open, make sure your kiddo is prepared with snow gear, as there is nothing more fun than playing out in the snow with your school friends!