CULTIVATING A PASSION FOR CULTURAL DIVERSITY

Attitudes about culture and diversity begin to form at an early age, and many of these attitudes are cultivated in the home. We know that once attitudes are formed, they tend to perpetuate and are often difficult to change.


Last week, I attended a Robert Burns Supper, sponsored by our local Scottish Society. My husband, daughter and three grandchildren also attended. The grandchildren experienced traditional Scottish food and music. They listened to some of the poetry of Robert Burns and learned about his life.

Bella, fourteen months old, enjoyed the music and the Scottish cuisine.



The youngest generation in our family is learning from their elders to celebrate and embrace cultural diversity, and we hope they will continue this family tradition in future generations. 

Peter enjoyed the Potato-Turnip Scottish soup, but he did not care for the Haggis-flavored beef.  The people at our table were surprised to see that the children were willing to try everything on their plate.



We’re hoping that by cultivating an interest in cultures other than their own, the children will learn to respect and embrace diversity.  This will not only enrich their lives, it will also serve them well when they are adults who have learned to be comfortable in the presence of people from different backgrounds.   

Ceci is demonstrating her own version of a Scottish dance.

Katherine Generaux, Community Incllusion

Family Support in Wellness

When you have a family who has time for exercise?

Exercise makes you:

• Build self esteem and body image.
• Improves learning.
• Lifts depression.
• Reverses the effects of stress.

So, why would you NOT exercise? No need for anymore excuses!

Ask yourself: "WHEN am I going to exercise today?" It works for me and Deborah; my running partner.

Deborah and Michelle
Our families will be taking a road trip to go with us on our journey
as we run our first 1/2 marathon in February at Myrtle Beach!

Let your spouse know in advance if it will require them to care for the kids. 

For example, today, I ran 13.1 miles in 3 hours and 12 minutes!! This required my husband to get the kids dressed, fed and take them to school. I told him last night that I will be exercising from 5:45am-9am so that he would be prepared.

We should not wait until we are sick to be well. ~Diane McLaren

Michelle Macon, Program Coordinator

Does your child think money grows on trees?

Teaching children about money at an early age will help them become accountable as they grow older. Accountability, responsibility, and dependability are traits that all parents want to instill in their children. Teaching children to save money at an early age teaches them self discipline. Saving money and not spending it wastefully, requires self control. Children need to start out small with a desired goal in mind. It must be obtainable and the reward must be one they cannot resist. Parents can then offer suggestions as to how to go about acquiring this money, and the time frame in which they must do so. This not only teaches them how to save money, it also teaches them to meet deadlines. In all reality it also teaches them consistency, and persistence. Parents can encourage their child to open up an account at their local bank, and watch their money gain interest. Children will feel empowered knowing they are the overseer of their own money, and not mom and dad. http://kids-and-money.yoexpert.com/kids-and-money-general/how-to-teach-your-kids-to-save-money-do-your-kids-1798.html In this video Dr Elizabeth Kilbey - who appears as a child psychologist on BBC's House of Tiny Tearaways - gives some valuable advice.

Colleen Carman

Finance/HR Director



 

Our beloved center dog is currently MISSING and there are 146 extremely disappointed children.

Dollie was last seen on January 25th at 9:15 in the morning on Oak St. in Granite Quarry.

If anyone has seen Dollie or has information about her please call 704-965-7731 or 704-638-9020.

Also please share this blog on your facebook page to get the word out.

WHY DOES HE STILL ACT THIS WAY?



I’m working with this a little fellow at one of our childcare centers here in Rowan County.  When I first met him in September, he was struggling with behavior that was aggressive, deviant and his interactions with peers consistently resulted in his hitting, kicking, pushing and biting.  He was unable to maintain interest in any toy or activity for more than a few seconds before throwing or trying to destroy it.

He was referred for services, and he’s now receiving speech therapy and a low-dose medication that has helped him be able to more fully participate in the classroom environment.  His teachers have noticed the difference, but they asked me why is he still unable to interact effectively with his peers.

Well, there are a couple of factors that come into play. For one, during that period of time in his development when he was unable to self-regulate, he was also unable to develop the social-emotional skills that his peers were learning, so he is behind in this area of his development and will need additional support to catch up. In addition, he will continue to rely on the behaviors that he has previously learned, and if his learned misbehaviors continue to produce a positive outcome for him, it will be very difficult to teach replacement behaviors.

Isn’t human behavior interesting?

(The photos in this blog are of my grandson, Peter, whose behavior is generally quite acceptable.)

Katherine Generaux, Community Inclusion Specialist

In Memory of Tasha Morris

It is a sad time for our Partners In Learning family.  One of our PreK children (Titus Morris) lost their mother this week after a long battle with cancer; Tasha Schmidt Morris, 28, of Salisbury, passed away Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, at Gordon Hospice House in Statesville. Titus will continue to be cared for by his wonderful, loving dad, Grant Morris.  This is going to be  a difficult for Grant and Titus and we will continue to lift them up in our prayers. 

Many adults make the unfortunate mistake of thinking that children are merely uneducated, miniature adults.  The very young child (one under the age of 6 or 7) may not yet be capable of what Piaget calls "cognitive reciprocity." This means, in effect, that he cannot really benefit from learning outside the realm of his own experience. In talking about death, therefore, such children will naturally react in the light of their own experiences and of what they have been told by adults or have seen in the media.

Listening carefully to a child is important, because adults may tend to read into a question much more than is asked. When a child asks about what made a pet die, an answer which involves "going to heaven" or "being called to be with God" can be much more confusing than a simple "He didn't have enough water to drink" or "He got very very sick, and we couldn't make him better."   The real key is in addressing the question that is intended, whether or not it is the one that is verbalized. The unspoken question is often "Could that happen to me?" When a parent dies the parallel question is "Who will take care of me now?" Often, these questions are not raised directly, but may come out in such form as "What if I get very very sick?".  The best advice is doing what this dad did and listening to your child and the professionals.

  

Memorial Service: 4 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 24 at Salisbury Seventh Day Adventist Church, 305 Rudolph Road, Salisbury, NC, 28146. 

 

Family Pets

Meet our addition to the family: "Casey Coltrane"
-aka- "Casey" 3 year old Poodle

Children who grow up with pets:

1.    Have less risk of allergies and asthma.

2.    Learn responsibility, compassion, and empathy.

3.    Pets are loving, and provide a since of security in children.

4.    Can help ease separation anxiety in children when mom and dad are not around.

5.    Studies have shown that pets can help calm hyperactive or overly aggressive kids.

  

CJ spending time with Casey before school.

6. Children and adults alike can benefit from playing with pets, which can be both a source of calmness and relaxation, as well as a source of stimulation for the brain and body.

   7. Playing with a pet can even be a doorway to learning for a child.

   8. It can stimulate a child’s imagination and curiosity.

   9. The rewards of training a dog to perform a new trick, for example, can teach kids the  

       importance of perseverance.

10. Caring for a furry friend can also offer another benefit to a child: immense joy.

Michelle Macon, Program Coordinator

http://www.helpguide.org/life/pets.htm

Shop For Groceries Online??

             

Lowering your food costs these days can consume a lot of our already busy days.  Many consumers spend endless hours planning shopping trips to different stores to take advantage of special buys.  Others combine special buys with extreme couponing which takes even more of our valuable time.

 
In Sara Noel’s column (Salisbury Post), one of her readers suggested shopping online for bulk grocery items.  She has ordered peanut butter, sugar, cereal, and other bulk items at reduced costs through Amazon.com.  Although the prices may fluctuate, Amazon offers deals each week just like you will find in your local grocery store.

To get the best deals you can choose the “Subscribe and Save” option, which can lower your price by 15 percent and get free shipping.  This is a great alternative to save money and time…best of all your groceries are delivered right to your door.

Find more frugal tips at www.frugalvillage.com and visit Amazon.com.

Colleen Carman
Finance/HR Director

Future Community Helpers!

This week our four year olds are learning about their community. They went on a field trip to Santos restaurant on Fisher Street. They got to make their own french bread pizza. They piled on the carrots, asparagus, tomatoes, basil, olives and cheese. Most children if presented a pizza with these ingredients would never even bother to taste it but since they were the chef, they gobbled them right down.

They even were happy to bring their plates to the kitchen and wash the dishes. The sprayer was a big hit!!

All the children had a great time meeting the chefs, waitress and then getting to be the dishwasher. This particular child could not get enough, he would go get all the plates he could off the table and bring them to the kitchen and wash them. This is what children pretend to do all day long in a child care facility they had a great time enjoying the actual experience. Remember parents, children are never too young to help around the house, it may develop them into their future profession!!

Deborah Howell, Assistant Director

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE PROVIDERS: NOT JUST A JOB

I teach a course in Early Childhood Education at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, and a new semester is underway. The format of the class requires a lot of small group participation, so I start the semester by asking students to develop three interview questions to ask peers and then make their way around the room to conduct “speed interviews” with one another, a concept along the lines of “speed dating”. I participated too, and my questions were: “What is your passion?”, “Why is it your passion?” and “Where do you see yourself in ten years?”

Without exception, student’s faces would like up when I asked the first question, and overwhelmingly their responses were that working with young children was their passion. When asked why, responses varied from: “These are the most important years in human development”, “I am committed to planting the seeds for a life-long love of learning”, “It is how I feel I can positively impact the future of our society” and “I am motivated to help young children build a sense of confidence and to learn to dream big”.

When asked the ten-year question, students saw themselves still active in the field of Early Childhood Education in some capacity. One student, Velma, stated that she planned to be retired within the next ten years, but she also said, “I’ll still have young children in my life. I’ll always be around young children. They inspire me.”

Can you say that you are passionate about the work you do? Does it inspire you?

Katherine Generaux, Community Inclusion

Children learn at a very early age what it means to be a boy or a girl in our society. Through a myriad of activities, opportunities, encouragements, discouragements, overt behaviors, covert suggestions, and various forms of guidance, children experience the process of gender role socialization. It is difficult for a child to grow to adulthood without experiencing some form of gender bias or stereotyping, whether it be the expectation that boys are better than girls at math or the idea that only females can nurture children. As children grow and develop, the gender stereotypes they are exposed to at home are reinforced by other elements in their environment and are thus perpetuated throughout childhood and on into adolescence(Martin, Wood, & Little, 1990).

A child's earliest exposure to what it means to be male or female comes from parents (Lauer & Lauer, 1994; Santrock, 1994; Kaplan, 1991).   One study indicates that parents have differential expectations of sons and daughters as early as 24 hours after birth (Rubin, Provenzano, & Luria, 1974).  I am so thankful that my son and daughter-in-law allow my grandson to express his creativity in any way he would like.  Recently, he saw some crocheted scarfs that one of my staff members had made and became interested in how to do it.  Upon returning home, he immediately looked it up on youtube.  His mother went out and purchased him the materials and gave him a quick lesson.  He caught on fast and loves this new creative outlet.  Who knows, someday he may be the next Ralph Lauren!  Norma W. Honeycutt, Executive Director

Volunteering in Public Schools

Volunteer is more than a word, 

it is a world filled with people dedicated to serving others, 

volunteers lift up the hearts of others 

and most importantly, volunteers restore hope.

Pictured Above is Dash Dixon reading with me at his school. I enjoy volunteering at Overton Elementary with Mrs. Brown's kindergarten class! I spend one on one time with each child to listen and assist them as they use phonics to be successful beginning readers. It is so exciting to see their faces light up when they finish reading their book.

How are you restoring hope? Is it dedicated to serving others?

Michelle Macon, Program Coordinator

Plan Away Your Bad Money Habits

Plan to Stash the Cash!

Have you made a New Year's resolution to pay more attention to your spending habits and now just a couple of weeks in are you finding it hard to stay on track?  Maybe it's because you have developed a bad habit of not sticking to your plan or not even having a plan at all.  Planning any venture will keep you on track and guide you to a successful completion. 

One of the worse bad habits to acquire is to not have a spending plan.  Mary Hunt, founder of www.DebtProofLiving.com states that "spending money without a plan is like driving blindfolded.  You don't know where you are and can't see where you are going, so you don't know when to stop.  Prespending your paycheck on paper (it's called a budget) is the way to remove the blindfold so you can see what is going on."

Leave behind the old habit of using your credit or debit card for everyday purchases and plan your day or week by calculating how much cash you will need, put it in an envelope or your wallet daily/weekly.  Don't let those cards be so convenient...leave them at home.  It will open your eyes to just how frivolous and tempting some of your purchases can be.

Leave behind the bad habit of saving any "left over" cash at the end of the month.  (Does someone actually have left over cash at the end of the month?)  Suze Ormon suggests that we "pay ourselves" first.  In otherwords, no matter how little you have, SAVE 10%  of each paycheck for the future. 

It is said that it takes 21 days to form a habit.  Start now and in less than a month, you will have started a very good habit of planning your spending.  You might just end up with some "spare" cash to treat yourself every month.  Good Luck!


Colleen Carman
Finance/HR Director

What Will You Remeber?

Growing up my Mama always tried to make memories for us. Taking us on walks, rolling down hills, playing in piles of leaves.  I have so many vivid memories from a very young age, my first being when I was 18 months old and being at Rowan Tech. having my picture made with my "Baby Boy" baby doll and wearing a red dress, I was chewing Juicy Fruit gum and remember sticking it out between my lips. That is only one of many random things that I remember from my early years. I have many Kindergarten memories from Sacred Heart, like having to stand in the corner because I hit Zack while we were on the playground. I remember that Charlotte had her tonsils taken out and when she returned to school she sounded different. I recall going to Staci's birthday party and playing in a playhouse in her back yard.

All of these are random pieces of information that take up space in my brain, it is no wonder I can't remember something that my employer asked me to do two days ago. But my point is this all of these random useless memories that I have from my younger years make me smile and make me happy. So the next time you are with a child at home, or in the classroom what memories will you help to create for them to recall and smile about when they are older?


Deborah K. Howell, Assistant Director

LEARNING THROUGH THE SENSES

We often think of the brain as our learning tool, though it is actually our senses - sight, sound, touch, smell and taste - that collect the information that our brain then processes. If one of the senses is not functioning appropriately, the learning process can be compromised.

Many people may also have sensory sensitivity with one or more of their senses. There is the child who covers her eyes whenever she hears a loud noise, the child who chronically complains that his clothes are too “scratchy”, and the child who squints or covers her eyes when in the sunlight. Sometimes children will respond with challenging behaviors when their environment poses sensory overstimulation. Fortunately, environments can be adapted to help manage sensory sensitivity so that children are able to learning and feel comfortable in their environment.

If you have any questions in this subject, please feel free to contact us.

Katherine Generaux, Community Inclusion Director

Leaving a legacy

Last week was quite a scary week for me.  My husband was in a pretty bad car wreck where he rolled his work van.  We were blessed that he walked away with only a few injuries that will heal with time.   

 After the scare of Wednesday, I needed some "me time" to reflect and worship, so I did one of my favorite things, went for a bicycle ride.  I have a basket on the front of my bike where I place my cell phone as it plays my worship music.  I ride all over China Grove, where I have grown up.  Along my path, is a vacant home of a lady that I well remember.  She served on our town board and loved to work in her yard.  Her yard was always immaculate, but not anymore.  She is well known in our community for her fight with the town about all of the squirrels in her yard.  If you ask anyone, what they remember her for, they would laugh and say, "the squirrel lady".  

Between my husband's close call and riding past this vacant home; one of my favorite songs came to mind:

Legacy by Nichole Nordeman 

 What legacy will you leave?  How will they remember you?

Partners In Learning 30 Day Prayer Challenge

Lately our PIL family has experienced several hardships (Laura Medford, Jacob Usher, Jammie Wale, Mark Honeycutt, and others maybe not spoken of) 

I invite everyone who will for a: 

PIL 30 day prayer challenge

Starting now through Feb. 6^th 

I am asking for each of you to pray for our PIL staff, children, and extended family, for God’s protection and guidance and his love through us to shine to others.

 1 John 5:14-15 (Message Translation) 

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if he know that he hears us whatever we ask we know that we have what we asked of him.

Michelle Macon, Program Coordinator

BABIES IMPACT MORE CONTROL OVER THEIR ENVIRONMENT THAN YOU’D THINK!



My husband and I bundled up the grandchildren and took them for a walk last weekend.  Izabela, 13 months old, was content to experience the excursion from her push car until she realized she was the only one not walking, and she demanded out.   With her short little legs, she maneuvered slowly up the hill, so I lagged behind with her.    

Iza’s four-year-old brother, Peter took possession of the push-car.  At the top of the hill, he asked his Grandfather to walk down the hill and “catch him”.  Peter raced down the hill, with his six-year-old sister running beside him.   What both older children failed to notice was the creek.

Pokey little Iza; however, DID discover the creek.  She stopped, looked at the creek and then down the hill at her siblings.  It’s clear that she wanted to alert the older children to this great opportunity for play and mischief.   But what could she do, this baby with practically no language skills?  Well, she looked toward her siblings and said, “Oh NO!” and this got their attention

Iza’s little body was vibrating with excitement, because both her older siblings were looking at her. But what would she do now? I was very curious to see how this scenario would play itself out. Then, Iza took two steps toward the creek, pointed a chubby little finger at it and repeated, “Oh NO!” Both siblings responded by running back up the path to learn what Iza had discovered. Iza was delighted; thrilled that she was able to accomplish this.

If you think that babies are helpless little creatures that have no control over their environment, spend a little time observing one. You’ll be surprised.

Katherine Generaux, Community Inclusion Director

New Year, New Life, New Opportunities

On December 15th, I was blessed with my fourth grandchild, Braylyn Lake Honeycutt. It was so exciting to see my son and his wife have their first child. I took a minute to ask them what their hopes and dreams were for their precious Braylyn. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ebg0MX_z378&context=C32e3211ADOEgsToPDskLhrmSP0fP1JuatWuBQh_E2
They want her to have everything she needs in life, be healthy, and become a good person.

As I reflected on raising my five children, something that I had heard years ago came to mind. The Greatest Gift You Can Give Your Children is a Strong Marriage! This young couple will find that giving this gift will be the most challenging of all and statistics prove it:

Of all children born to married parents this year, fifty percent will experience the divorce of their parents before they reach their 18th birthday. (Fagan, Fitzgerald, Rector, “The Effects of Divorce On America)

The best advise I can give my son is to ensure that they make their faith the cornerstone of their marriage, have a regular date night and protect their couple time together at home. This will not be easy as little Braylyn becomes the center of their world, but all of the effort they put forth will pay off in having all of their dreams for her come true!

Norma W. Honeycutt, Executive Director and Nana