In the Community: Thanksgiving Box Drive
No one should go hungry on Thanksgiving
Time and time again I am impressed by the loving charity of our community.
Due to the ongoing impact of COVID-19, there are so many families in our community who would be going without a Thanksgiving Dinner on our table if Cornerstones did not run their annual drive.
Our support of Cornerstones’ annual Thanksgiving Food Drive will help make a fulfilling holiday possible for nearly 1,000 families this holiday season.
FOR THE FRIENDS OF COMMON GROUND AND OUR FAR AWAY FAMILIES:
The North Virginia community can support the drive by purchasing a $50 Thanksgiving Food Box at the North Point Village Center Giant Food location in Reston, now through November 14.
FOR OUR ACTIVE FAMILIES:
THIS YEAR we have promised one box for each class, so we will work with your teachers on building a sign up so that each family can bring a part of their classroom’s box.
The kiddos will make art and letters to place in there along with the food so that we can give the family receiving the box a heartfelt hello on the holiday of gratitude.
This sounds complicated with our social distancing policy, but I promise you we will make this as easy as possible! Here is the link to the SIGNUP. You can click on as many or few as you like, including the BONUS box at the end.
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN FILLING YOUR OWN BOX — Let LJ Donnell know and she will give you your own box to fill with a list of what needs to go inside available. They can always use more boxes.
We will begin to collect items in the classrooms starting on Thursday. Please bring your items for the boxes either at pick up or drop off (place it into your child’s backpack.)
Because we have to limit our exposure with the drop off, we will only be doing one! Please have all of your ingredients and or boxes back by MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16TH COB.
FUNdraiser: Chipotle
HELLO TEACHERS, PARENTS, STUDENTS, AND OTHER SUPPORTERS OF GOOD TIMES AND GOOD CAUSES!
It is rare to get such an easy win-win-win as a Chipotle Fundraiser. Your family gets a delightful meal that satisfies even the pickiest eater, your school gets much needed support for their classroom curriculum supplies fund, and your local Chipotle gets business in a time of great upheaval.
HERE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART. The orders do not have to be from people who go to the school! They can be from your friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, ANYONE. AS LONG AS THEY SHOW THEM THE FLYER BETWEEN 5-9PM THE NIGHT OF NOVEMBER 17TH WE GET 33% OF THE SALES.
WHAT: Common Ground’s Awesome Chipotle Dinner Fundraiser
WHERE: The CHIPOTLE at 12152 Sunset Hills Rd Reston, VA 20190 (next to the Target)
WHEN: November 17th from 5:00PM from 9:00PM
HOW: You order Chipotle from our local Sunset Hills location between 5-9PM. You can do carry out, you can do delivery from their app, you can order in store! You can order food for one or food for one hundred, all of it counts toward our fundraiser!
For Carry Out and Store Orders: SHOW THEM THIS FLYER AT CHECKOUT. On your phone is perfectly fine.
For Chipotle Delivery via App or Website: PLEASE USE THIS CODE - N8AZX3W - IN THE PROMO CODE LINE.
(If you have any questions on this please feel free to contact LJ Donnell the day of the event.)
In the community: Peanuts for a Peanut Butter Company
On Monday, October `19th, I went with local business owner, Radhika Murari, in the Common Ground bus up to Maryland China Co. on an unusual mission!
Radhika is the owner of OmMade, an artisanal peanut butter company that is based here in Reston, VA and has gotten quite a lot of press recently for being awarded a grant to invest in peanut farming in Virginia, but she was in desperate need of another type of peanuts - environmentally safe, compostable packing peanuts.
don’t worry, our masks were just off for a quick picture!
She found a vendor up in Maryland about an hour and a half away, Maryland China Co, who sells them in bulk, but Radhika needed more than her small car could hold after making two trips in the last two weeks and going through them quickly!
So Common Ground came to the rescue! We were able to pack 16 bags onto the bus and help our community in a very cool way! In fact, as a thank you, Radhika offered to run a fundraiser for our center! She will be donating 20% of all sales through this link: http://www.ommadepb.com?aff=4 to our center!
The story of her peanut butter is a really cool one!
She was looking for a health peanut butter to feed her son. When she couldn’t find what she was looking for, she started making it. But once she started, it led her to experiment with different flavors!
This peanut butter isn’t just for kids. The chocolate and coconut are my favorites so far, but my friend is obsessed with the chai nirvana!
Radhika is incredibly humble about her business, saying that it belongs to the community and giving the credit to her success freely to the people who support her. However, anyone who has met her knows it’s her passion and work ethic, coupled with the best peanut butter in existence that deserves all the credit!
Please shop here: http://www.ommadepb.com?aff=4 to support both OmMadePB and Common Ground!
If you’re attending the center, choose local pick up and you can pick it up from the Center!
-Miss Liz
Non-Screen Life: Training your Inner Ear
Hey everybody! We are here to talk to you about:
PLAYING OUTSIDE!
GETTING DIRTY!
Finding that SAFE DANGER!
We know with the pandemic, 2020 has been a year of hand sanitizer and indoor quarantine. But it has also been a year of finding your own fun! Going into the woods and rolling down hills. Climbing trees and hanging upside down. Going out in fields and spinning like tops.
According to Pediatric Occupational Therapist Angela Hanscom, not only are these things incredible for attention and sensory issues, they are a KEY ROLE in developing The Vestibular System. This is the system our bodies use to know where we are in space! It is even more important than it sounds. Without serious play, children are more frail, more clumsy, less able to pay attention, and much more likely to struggle with emotional regulation.
Our children spend a long time sitting upright with little movement. Help them train their inner ears by:
Going Upside Down
Rolling Down Hills
Spinning In Circles (10x in each direction ought to do it… with hilarious results)
Climbing Trees
Jumping off Swings
Tossing them in the air
Sliding down slides on their bellies
Teachers and Parents should be life guards in play rather than consistent active participants. We want to ensure the children are safe and healthy, but too much structure and restriction has been shown to be detrimental! Let the kids fall. The dirt can offer so many essential lessons to growing up healthy!
We will be posting more on the benefits of outdoor play here so keep your eyes out! In the meantime, go have fun and WORK THOSE EARS!
For more on Angela Hanscom’s research and Timbernook Program, click here!
Common Ground is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
Saving our Planet: Recycling
Okay! So you want to be more green! You want to get those three R’s in action.
Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.
But where do you start?
We all know that change needs to happen on a world-wide scale. It seems all-encompassing, overwhelming. What can we do as our house, our family, our one person self?
Well, our kiddos are learning about just that. Starting in November, our Rising Stars and Honeybees classes will begin a RECYCLING unit! They will be sorting their recyclables, creating new things from old, and learning life-long habits to reduce their carbon footprint .
We recommend these books to help cement those essential insights on how to protect their world:
Lift-The-Flap Questions and Answers about Recycling Trash — Katie Daynes
A comprehensive, interactive book all about recycling that answers all your curious kid’s questions! The pictures are enchanting, the facts are sharp, the message is STICKY.
Planet Earth Mazes — Sam Smith
Does your kid love to doodle while they learn? Planet Earth Mazes is a book chock full of facts and enchanting images to capture your child while they solve complex mazes and exert their logic skills.
Be the Change, Make it Happen — Bernadette Russell
As we said above, it can be overwhelming to want to help, to enact BIG CHANGE, but be a small person. Bernadette Russell shows kids how even the littlest changes (and the littlest person) can change the course of the future.
These are incredible books to feed your kids’ appetite for knowledge and can be purchased at any time. But if you purchase them this weekend (October 23-26th) Common Ground gets 10% of the funds!
(Visit our Book Fair here)
In the meantime, here are some steps to get you going at home!
1) Look up your local recycling facility HERE
2) Learn which items can be recycled and how HERE
3) Find some creative/fun REUSE projects to do with your kids HERE
4) Find some ways to REDUCE your use of disposable products HERE
We will be posting more ways to do those 3R’s on our Facebook as well as easy tips to reduce your carbon footprint, so check us out! PLEASE also let us know what you are doing at home! We need to work as a team to keep this planet GREEN!!
Have a FANTASTIC DAY!
LJ and your Common Ground Team!
Life, Unplugged: The Night Sky
Common Ground Friends…
It is COLDER. DARKER. GRAYER.
We know coming home after the sun sets can really sap everyone’s energy. At 6:30 PM you still have to do dinner, night time rituals, morning preparation, and there’s always dishes… It’s hard to avoid handing out tablets or throwing on The Magic School Bus. Crafts and games can be amazing, and we will be posting on this blog on those another time, but this particular blog is about the magic and majesty of simply…
Looking up.
You can enchant your child with their night sky any time of year. You can do it with or without a telescope.
Help them track the phases of the moon with this amazing (and free!) MOON CHART.
Introduce them to constellations with this super cool (and free!) set of Constellations worksheets (Found HERE)
Use this (free!) App to explore your night sky! (of course, then it’s not COMPLETELY screen free, make sure they’re looking up instead of at the phone or tablet)
Teach them The Moon Phase Game by Ms. LJ! (if you watch it beforehand, you can play with no screens!)
Listen to Gustav Holst’s Planets Suite while you fill out your moon chart.
Is your kid developing a passion for astronomy? Purchase a kid-friendly telescope!* For less than 100 bucks you can offer years of incredible family experiences and create new traditions.
From today until the new year, there are so many glorious events happening right above you. Here are only our favorite three, you can find the full list here. (There are three other meteor showers between now and January 1)
November 11, 12 - Northern Taurids Meteor Shower. The Northern Taurids is a long-running minor meteor shower producing only about 5-10 meteors per hour. This shower is, however, famous for producing a higher than normal percentage of bright fireballs. The Northern Taurids is produced by dust grains left behind by Asteroid 2004 TG10. The shower runs annually from October 20 to December 10. It peaks this year on the the night of the 11th and morning of the 12th. The thin crescent moon will not be much of a problem this year leaving dark skies for what could be a really good show. Best viewing will be just after midnight from a dark location far away from city lights. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Taurus, but can appear anywhere in the sky.
November 30 - Penumbral Lunar Eclipse. A penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes through the Earth's partial shadow, or penumbra. During this type of eclipse the Moon will darken slightly but not completely. The eclipse will be visible throughout most of North America, the Pacific Ocean, and northeastern Asia including Japan. (NASA Map and Eclipse Information)
December 21 - Rare Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. A conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn will take place on December 21. This rare conjunction of these two planets is known as a great conjunction. The last great conjunction occurred in the year 2000. The two bright planets will appear only 7 arc minutes of each other in the night sky. They will be so close that they will appear to make a bright double planet. Look to the west just after sunset for this impressive and rare planetary pair.
After you’ve come in with a little more wonder (and dappled cheeks!) you and your kiddos can make up your own stories and constellations while making hot cocoa. You can talk about what you wished for on the falling stars. You can read a book about your favorite planet, or just talk about your favorite part of the evening. Anything you do is fine, because you did something fantastic together.
GO START YOUR NEW TRADITION!
— The CG Crew
*Common Ground is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
Personal Stories: Family Quarantine
By Victoria Cosham
For the past 3 weeks my family (my husband, mother (77), my daughter (4)) and I, have been quarantined. On Wednesday the 9th my husband started feeling achy, the next day he made a doctor’s appointment and a covid test was ordered and he immediately isolated himself in Esme’s room. Upon his positive result, all the windows were opened and fans were turned on. My husband wore a mask when he went to the bathroom or received his food and we wore ours when we delivered items and were in the hall. The bathroom was bleached after each use, he had his own supply of water and gatorade and snacks in his room to limit contact to tea and meal drop offs. My mom had a concert scheduled for October 1st that had previously been scheduled for March and was cancelled due to Covid, it’s now been re-scheduled for November 19th.
\At first he was just achy, no other symptoms, then the chills started, then the fever, then the body aches got worse, and he developed a cough, then lost his appetite, then partially his sense of taste. Our interactions were over the phone or in 15 second conversations as he walked to and from the bathroom. He was tired and uncomfortable and in pain, nights were the worst. We couldn’t see him and only got communication when he gave it, so not knowing if it got worse over night was scary.
The first week my mother, Esme and I didn’t leave the house, I ordered groceries from Amazonfresh, signed us up for the Imperfect veggies box, family members and friends dropped off items I couldn’t online at the front door. I focused my energy on being efficient and productive and trying to make sure everyone had what they needed. Within the first hour of his results I’d ordered pulse oximeters, thermometers and large jugs of water. We ordered an air mattress because 2 weeks on a toddler bed wasn’t going to work.
Esme didn’t handle the initial pandemic shutdown well. She missed Common Ground, she missed playing on the playground, she missed trips to Target, she missed trips to see her extended family. She regressed in some ways- went from loving baths to hating them and started throwing tantrums. I felt if we focused on being together we could get through what we initially thought was 2 weeks. Until she looked out the window as the sun was going down and started to cry about missing the sun. We all did, so my mom, Esme and I started going on drives to nowhere- limited by an hour round trip due to bathroom restrictions, but for self-care and our sanity. This time was different for me and my mom too- we had the virus in the house, we are both high risk for complications. We breathed an initial sigh of relief when we made it through the first few days symptom free which meant that Common Ground was safe. But there remained a looming sense of fear, loneliness, and isolation in our home. We all held our breath waiting for it to get worse or better, the days dragged and the end seemed nowhere in sight.
A second sigh of relief came when my husband’s symptoms started lessening. My husband’s company requires 2 negative tests to return to work, so we scheduled tests. With the possibility of being asymptomatic, I wanted to be sure I was negative before I returned to work. We went for our tests (in separate cars) mine was negative, things were looking up, his was positive. We reached back out to the health department who instructed us to stay quarantined another week, just to be sure. We also found out there was a possibility he could test positive for 3 months because of the first infection, a new fear. My mother’s results were negative, another sigh of relief. My husband got his first negative on Saturday and his second this week. Esme went two and a half weeks without a hug from her daddy, they got to have a sleepover in her room earlier this week because once she could be around him she didn’t want him out of her sight.
Friday was the first day the four of us rode in the car together in months, and went on a drive to somewhere- the Cox DIY hayride. We highly recommend it. Life is so stressful now for adults and kids this is a risk free good time. We were able to have fun as a family, safely (30 seconds of masked socially distant instruction) and stress free. We got to laugh and feel a sense of calm and joy that has been missing from our family for these past three weeks. We know Covid has the potential for further health complications down the line, but today we were able to make a memory and enjoy each other and not think about it.
These three weeks have been heavy and trying and stressful, with lots of tears and breakdowns. We are looking forward to a return to work and school and community meetings. We don’t know how my husband contracted the virus, thankfully no one he was in contact with before his isolation tested positive. We will be continuing curbside pick up for groceries and Target runs, just to limit any further risk. We are so thankful to everyone who prayed for us, checked in with us, dropped things off to us, or sent things to us. Thankful that the virus didn’t spread and that as bad as it was, my husband’s symptoms were mild and he was able to recover at home.
Winter Coat Closet 2020
It is only the beginning of November and already, all of us here at Common Ground are huddled in our warm winter coats. The kids look like happy, puffy little marshmallows in the Autumn chill while the teachers are laughing about matching their scarves and gloves with their masks.
Not everyone gets to enjoy the change of the season from a safe, comfortable position. Parents and children alike are facing a long, cold winter (and cold/flu season!) without proper attire.
PLEASE NOTE! If you or anyone you know needs help this winter, note the winter clothing distribution times. There is no shame in needing help. Click Here for all the programs available through Cornerstones.
Cornerstones, in partnership with the Hunter Mill District Supervisor’s Office, is once again operating the Hunter Mill District Winter Coat Closet for 2020 – 2021 in order to provide free winter coats, hats, gloves, mittens and scarves to all who need them.
We at Common Ground are encouraging our families, friends, teachers, neighbors, and readers to contribute new or gently used winter attire to their cause!
Donations can be dropped off at:
The Reston National Golf Course (until November 6th)
The Cornerstones Main Office (Oct. 15th-Jan. 4th)
These three days in the North County Government Building (Nov. 14th, December 12th, and January 9th).
Would you like to donate, but do not have the time to get over to the drop off station? Do you have any other questions or need clarification?
Contact LJ Donnell and she would be happy to help in any way.
