{Ludic} Play as a Basis for Education

Happy Holidays to all the families!
And don't forget to play.



When productive work is suffused with the qualities of play — that is, with freedom, creativity, and imagination — we experience that work as play. … In our culture today, those people who have the most freedom of choice and opportunity for creativity within their work are most likely to say they enjoy their work and regard it as play. - Play Makes Us Human, Freedom to Learn Blog

[Workshop] Your Best Year Yet!

Extending this to the Terra Luz families especially since one of our wonderful mamas is graciously hosting this one day workshop up North.

Best Year Yet Workshop
***Make 2010 Your Best Year Yet!***

The end of the year is fast approaching. Are you starting to think about the year ahead? Are you wanting to be more intentional about how you spend (and earn) your time, energy and money in 2010? Would you like some guidance on setting goals and staying on track in the year to come?

In other words, are you interested in creating Your Best Year Yet?

If the answer to any of these questions is “yes”, please join us for a workshop that could transform how you move into and through 2010.

The book, “Your Best Year Yet!”, offers ten questions that allow you to gain clarity on:
*Where you’ve been over the past year
*What you’ve accomplished
*How you have been limiting yourself
*Your roles
*Your values
*Your goals for the year to come
*What you can do to make the next twelve months your most successful ever

It’s so much more than just a process of setting New Year’s resolutions. It’s a way of discovering what matters most and finding out what you really want life to look and feel like. As a result of taking the time to answer the ten questions you will leave with a set of guidelines that will help you get on track so you can begin to live the life of your dreams.

Leading the workshop is Carrie Contey, PhD, who has personally done “Your Best Year Yet!” several times. She shares that the results have been incredible and every time she is more and more amazed at how simple, powerful and effective it can be. As a facilitator, many of her participants have shared that taking the time to do the ten of “Your Best Year Yet!” questions was a valuable investment that has paid off and helped them (and their families) immensely.

Your Best Year Yet! Workshop
When: Sunday, January 31st
Time: 10:00am-3:00p.m.
Where: Tanya Gleinser's Place (mama to Mia)
            Round Rock
Cost: $65

RSVP by January 22, 2010 is required
For questions, and/or to reserve your space, please contact Carrie at carrie@earlyparenting.com

THE KUDOS:
"Carrie has an uncanny ability to see the roots of a child’s problems. She offers concrete ideas as to how to resolve these issues at home in a way that supports what the teachers do at school. SAMS, with a teaching approach that none of us experienced growing up, has needed to support parents more — Carrie is the answer. I can’t wait for her next event!" Sri Atmananda Memorial School Parent

"I took the Best Year Yet workshop with Carrie and I had such a huge breakthrough. I am already watching some old limitations crumble and big beams of light shooting through the chinks in the wall… I’m PRETTY excited to see how this year unfolds, to say the least! Anyone on the fence about taking the class, I urge you to just dive in… I think the upcoming new year deserves five hours of your time… " L.G., Austin, TX

THE BOOK:
http://www.amazon.com/Your-Best-Year-Yet-Successful/dp/0446675474

Update on Property

Families,

A quick update to let you know what's unfolded in the last week, as I've sat crunching numbers and running P&L reports and putting phone calls in.

We returned to the property off Parmer for a closer look last Friday. As of right now, it's not looking promising. We did our own measuring of the rooms that can be used as classrooms and the number licensing has as capacity (40 children) is misleading. They must have calculated the front 'lobby' area as usable space, which it CAN be, but not as an environment that can be set up as a classroom, which means enrollment numbers would be less. After our calculations, the capacity we show is 25 children (using licensing's 35 sq ft per child, which I strongly feel is still too low, it should be 45-50sq ft per child, but that's another story). The rate they're asking for (with projections of 25 children) is not a viable option for my program. My husband has issues with the property in addition to the rental amount.

Another big contention is the fact that the upstairs of the property now has a tenant in it. It's apparently considered an "apartment" and the current tenant just moved in this month (signed a year lease), after it being empty for over 2 years. I've put in calls to my licensing rep, and also to the current childcare provider's licensing rep to see if this is allowable with a childcare facility below, and according to the current program's rep, apparently it may be allowable since they have made it inaccessible between the two 'suites'. They will just need to verify.

The lack of professionalism we have seen with the 'broker' for the landlord (who we have yet to meet), makes us feel uneasy, in addition to the lack of upkeep of the property. It's an adorable house, just not maintained, and IMO, that is something the landlord should be doing, if not at least keeping an eye on. We may consider putting in an offer of a reduced rental rate along with conditions. Many conditions.

Tomorrow, my husband, realtor, and I are meeting with an investment company that owns a house off 620. We met with them this summer, however, when they realized how much it would cost to upgrade to a commercial septic system, they decided it was too expensive. It's currently on residential septic and the dept of health will not give an childcare operating permit if it's on residential septic.  The house still sits empty 6 months later (it's situated in a very strange place, but the house and the landscaping around it, is so very lush). They have agreed to revisit and discuss.

Wish us luck tomorrow! Terra Luz needs a home.

Hanukkah with Mia S.

Making Latkes







What happens when you have preschoolers work with onions?
Their eyes tear up. Oy Vey!





Please  note, the children aren't 'crying'. Just teary. And it hit 4 kids in this group at the same time! Sweet things.
After eyes were dabbed, and hands were washed of all the onion, we played with dreidels.





Ava is a master spinner.


Mama Keri explained how in the celebration of Hanukkah, they light one candle on each evening (starting on the far right) during Hanukkah, and did you know? They don't blow them out! The children enjoyed taking turns lighting the candles with guidance, and then Keri sang the Dreidel song.



Mia even brought her pretend menorah to show her friends, which was followed by lunch and consumption of the delicious latkes Keri made.



Then a few children created their own version of candles with the aluminum foil that was under the menorahs.



A big THANK YOU to Mia S. and Mama Keri for bringing part of your culture to our school. We had a wonderful time!!





חנוכה שמח
Happy Hanukkah!

Filming Terra Luz

Families,

In my quest to find Terra Luz a permanent home, I feel very fortunate in the outpouring support from our community. Anjalika, in addition to being mama to Anika (and baby Arjun), is also a film maker. She will be creating a short film/video on our program so we can share this on our website for marketing. I am beyond excited about this!

Filming will be taking place over the course of several days in order to capture the true essence of Terra Luz, and will start the week of January 4th, when we return from the holiday break.

My vision for this film/video is to also include snippets of parents sharing their thoughts about Terra Luz. So, this is a call for parent volunteers who would like to come forward and spend a few [informal] minutes in front of the camera too. I will be ever so grateful. :)

Please let me know who is interested, so we can start planning.

Thank you Anjalika. So very much.

Bread Making (Krista)

Today, we made Advent Bread! This was the first of many bread-making adventures that we will have together--I am sure of it ;). The bread came out of the oven right before nap, so the full-day children got to sample some right out of the oven. We saved part of the loaf for the half-dayers (and their parents) to sample on Monday. We documented each step of the experience, and the photos will be posted soon, but for now, I wanted to give you the recipe, in case any of you want to bake bread over the weekend--it's SO fun!

Advent Spiral Bread

Supplies Needed:

2 ½ Cups Unbleached Flour

1 Package Dry Yeast

1 ½ Cups Milk

½ Cup Water

3 Tbsp. Margarine or Butter

3 Tbsp. Brown Sugar

1 ½ Tsp. Salt

2 ½ Cups Whole Wheat Flour

In a large bowl, mix flour and yeast. Heat milk, water, margarine, brown sugar and salt on low. Add to flour mixture. Stir several minutes

Add whole wheat flour until dough forms. Knead on floured table until smooth and elastic. Place in greased bowl. Cover and let rise until it doubles in bulk.

After the dough has risen, you will need to punch down the dough. The best way to do this is to let children pound the dough with their fists. After you have done this, shape your dough into a Spiral. If there seems to be too much, make more than one Sprial!

If you have star shaped cookie cutters, the children might like to cut stars out of excess dough and decorate their spiral with it.

Cover and let rise to double.

Place the bread into the oven in a pan and set at 400°F for 30 minutes.

Multicultural Winter Celebrations

Today, you might be trimming the Christmas tree, your neighbor next door might be preparing a Hanukkah meal, friends across town may be fasting in preparation for 'Eid-ul-Fitr, or some may be preparing for Winter Solstice. Still, most of us will end the year in a similar way -- gathering with relatives, enjoying great food, and giving gifts.

Despite some common traditions, your child may be confused by other people's celebrations. With global mindedness, we're embracing different people and practices by teaching our child to respect other people's traditions and cherish their own.

One of our Terra Luz families celebrates Hanukkah, The Festival of Lights, which is an eight day Jewish celebration; this year, it begins on December 12th. On Tuesday, Mia S. and her family, will bring part of their winter tradition to school with a delicious culinary activity, and other fun activities. We look forward to it, and are excited about this opportunity to, again, bring about global mindedness.

Update on Property Search

Hello Families, I want to give you an update on the progress of property search. As you all know, we need to find property to move Terra Luz offsite by summer of 2010 (at the latest), and we have a prospect!

I viewed the property this week with my realtor, and it has potential. There is work that needs to be done, but I can definitely see our program there. What's appealing about this property is

1). it's a house which is now commercially zoned (with tons of trees) and a good amount of land around it.
2). it's currently a childcare facility; so the process of converting a home to make it work for our program, is already done.
3). it's licensed for 40 children--not too big--which is the PERFECT number for the next step of expanding Terra Luz.
4). it's a lease
5). the house is unique, (very cute!) and with some of my TLC, it can be 'homey' and beautiful.

I'm not at liberty to disclose the exact details as the current program is still in the final stages of operating, but I can tell you the area, which is off Parmer and Metric in North Austin. There is, however, one contention, and my licensing rep is looking into it, which could lead to a deal breaker, but I have high hopes that the owner will be able to resolve it, and then we can make an offer.

I was hoping to have more solid information about this opportunity before presenting it to families, as it could go either way at this point (I have had more than my fair share of high hopes being crushed over the last year) however, this property apparently will be vacant the beginning of January, which means, if things work out,  a move for Terra Luz will happen very soon.

My husband and I are crunching numbers and will be preparing an offer. This in turns means, as a business owner, in addition to working on an offer, I need to spearhead the business plan, and put together a marketing plan. This is a HUGE step for our business, and we need to make sure its a viable option. For the next 2 weeks, I will be pulling myself from the classroom in order to work on the business logistics, and Krista and Kellyann will run things at Terra Luz.

I will keep you all posted as things unfold, which I hope, are in our favor.

Send positive thoughts this way!!

With Gratitude,
Andrea

P.S. We are having problems with the network and our terra luz emails. Feel free to use my personal email agtriche@austin.rr.com in the interim.

This Week in the Atelier (Andrea)

With the chilly weather, we spent more time indoors this week, and I had the priviledge of having several children flow back and forth into the atelier with me. And to top off the end of the week, we got SNOW!



Making Literacy Meaningful and Fun


The beauty of fingerpainting is you can write, then erase, then start over!


Jason and Damon collaborate on construction of their building. Here, they're working on how to keep the sides up.


Making a cube with an a-framed top is quite an accomplishment.



"I made a balloon!"
-Mia S.

Natalie hums a melody as she plays on the light table.




Alaira creates an animal prototype. In the 2nd photo, "it's on his feet."


Yoga










Happy Baby Pose


SNOW!! For about 20 minutes. ;)

Recently, at Terra Luz (Krista)

Scenes from the Classroom

Literacy:

Alaira, after we finished reading our 3rd book of the hour: "If I had it my way, I would just read and read books."

After reading We're going on a Bear Hunt, Jalie commented: "At home we hunt lots of things. Usually we go on a moon hunt, but we couldn't find it so we decided it must have forgotten to come out!"

Blocks:

Mia: "I'm building a bridge, and here's the cow. She likes it up here because she can see her mama from up here."

Jalie: "This was a tower, but now it's a silo for the cow in this park."

Dramatic Play:

Alaira to Allie: "I getting married today."

Allie: "To who?"

Damon: "Not ME!"

Alaira: "People fall in love and then they put a cape on their head and get married."

Allie: "Yep, they do that."

Scenes from the Naproom:

We've started a trend at nap time. I make the children into sandwiches. I thought that you might want to know about it , since it's a pretty popular naptime ritual.

First we put down one freshly baked slice of bread ( the nap mat) and then we put in the 'ingredients' (the child and whatever they've brought to sleep with), and finally we put on the top slice of bread (their blanket). And then I say, " Sleep tight little mayonnaise, cashew butter, green bean, popcorn sandwich (or whatever they're pretending to be)--I love you."

Here is a list of the most popular ingredients:

mayonnaise

yellow cheese

white cheese

cashew butter

green beans

popcorn

jelly

corn

sun spread

avocado

cereal

chocolate

grapes

Scenes from Outside:

Ryland, sitting back to review his sidewalk chalk creation: "This is a masterpiece!"

Mia S. and I doing partner tree pose together on one of the toad stool seats.

Mia S. in the sandbox: "Mommy and I went to the Domain but there were too many people there and we couldn't park so we went away."

Ava, placing a kind hand on her shoulder: "Parking is tough sometimes!"