ENJOY

Happy Holidays and have a safe and fun vacation.

Bullying

If your child wants to talk to you about bullying please listen carefully. He or she may feel scared, angry, lonely, sad, or guilty. Help your child talk about their feelings. Let them know that you love them and will help with this problem. The most important thing your child can do is to get help by telling an adult. Praise them for talking to you. Contact teachers or school administrators if you have a concern.
Even if your child does not mention bullying, talk about examples of it on television, in movies, or in books. Help them to recognize bullying. Give them some suggestions to deal with bullying behavior.

• Tell a trusted adult about bullying.
• Tell the person doing the bullying to stop.
• Ask a trusted friend for help.
• Stick with positive friends who help each other.
• Walk away from the situation.
• Avoid people, locations, and situations that may be connected with bullying.

With your support your child will learn the skills needed to stay healthy and help to make their school a safe place for everyone.

Creating Goals and Plans

As adults we can look back on many things we have accomplished, such as getting an education, getting a job, and raising children. Some of the best things we have done happened because we decided what we wanted in life and then worked toward those goals.
Sometimes when we write down our goals it is easier to achieve them. Its important to write goals in a way that makes it clear what you will do and when, in order to achieve your goal.
For example, your child may have the goal of keeping their room clean. Keeping your room clean is a great idea but it is not clearly defined as a goal. The goal becomes specific by stating "I will put my dirty clothes in a hamper and return my books and games to their shelves every night before bedtime." This gives a clear picture of what your child should do and when he or she will do it.
Here are some ideas that may help you in developing goals with your child:

• Describe what the goal is. Make it realistic.
• Set the due date.
• Provide motivation by listing reasons why this goal is important.
• Brainstorm tasks that must be completed to reach the goal.
• Set a due date for each task.
• Track progress
• Make changes in tasks, dates due,if needed.
• Evaluate

Appreciating your Family

As the rush of the winter season begins it is important to remember how much and what we appreciate about each other. This is a fun activity to do at home. Help your child to draw the trunk and the branches of a tree on a large sheet of paper. Display it on a door, a wall, the refrigerator, or a bulletin board. Keep post-it-notes or slips of paper and tape nearby. Tell everyone that this tree needs some leaves. Everyone can tape slips of paper to the tree to add leaves in the next week. Each leaf must have a message on it thanking someone in the family for something he or she did. Younger children could draw a picture and add a smiley face. It is important to recognize the little things that people do as well as the big things. Make sure everyone in the family(including pets) receives some messages about his or her positive behavior.

Listen

In guidance we have been working on the following respectful listening skills:

• Stop what you are doing
• Look at the person speaking
• Be quiet while the person speaks
• Think about what they are saying
• Ask questions, nod your head or make comments on what the person says

Help your child practice these skills at home. Show how you use them in your own life .Praise your child when they listen more respectfully. Let them know you feel like they heard you.

Try this activity in your family to help your child practice listening skills and to build a sense of team work in your family.
Create a regular time to talk. This is a chance to really listen to one another. For some families, meals are good times to talk and listen. Other families find that the hour before your child's bedtime or the hour when everyone has arrived home are the best times. The time you choose  isn't as important as listening to one another. Use this time to share thoughts and feelings about what happened that day or week. Together you can practice the listening skills at the top of this page.

Accepting Differences

We have just finished a unit in guidance about accepting differences. By the completion of the unit students understand what we mean by, "We are all different, but we have a lot in common."
Each of us is different. Learning to accept each other and our differences is important.
Help your child accept his or her special qualities:

• Discuss your family's background and countries your family came from.
• Point out your child's individual talents and skills.
• Discuss the traditions that are a part of your family.

Help your child accept the special qualities of others:

• Provide chances for your child to interact with other children who may have different backgrounds, skills, or abilities.
• Stop any name calling or teasing that puts down another person.
• Talk about other children's talents, skills, cultures, and traditions.

Making and Keeping Friends

Friends are important to all of us. As your child grows up, he or she will have many chances to make new friends. The older your child gets, the more important friends become. Share with your child how you have made friends and what you like about them. By talking and listening to your child you are helping them to develop the most important relationship skill:communication.
Here are some simple skill steps to make a new friend you can share with your child:

• Pick a time and place when the person is not busy.
• Say "Hi"
• Talk about something you have in common or say something positive you have noticed about the student. Maybe you both like to play the same game at recess.
• Tell the other student alittle bit about yourself.
• Ask questions about the other student.
• Suggest doing something together, like having lunch, playing 4 square, basketball.

Take a break

Try some mindfulness and breathing to make a stressful day less stressful.

• Sit in a comfortable position. Close your eyes or look down.
• Pay close attention to your breathing. Feel the air come in thru your nose, then fill your chest, and your belly. Calmly and slowly, let the breath leave your belly, then your chest, and finally your nose.
• Keep your shoulders dropped and relaxed. Think about the air coming into your body and the air going out.
• Bring your attention back to your breath, if your mind tries to think about other things.
• Notice your stomach rising and falling. Let your belly be soft and relaxed.
• Open your eyes slowly and take a slow, deep breath.

More Tips to Start the School Year

Homework-staying motivated
When your child gets home from school or after-school care, he/she might want to relax for a little while or maybe just jump right in and work. If he feels restless when doing his homework suggest that he gets up and moves once in awhile to a new spot. For example he might finish his spelling at the kitchen table and then read on the porch. A planned break can also give him a second wind (a snack or a short walk).
Building Relationships
One way to help your child develop relationship skills is to enourage him/her to identify feelings. As you watch your favorite television show, movie or read a book with your child, have them write down all the feelings they see and hear the characters express. Compare the list with your list.
See how many feelings you label the same. Notice how many feeling words you both think of.
You can also discuss how the different characters handled their feelings. Talk about their decisions on how to deal with their feelings.

Welcome

Welcome to the 2014-2015 School

Hopefully you and your child(ren) are slowly but surely getting back into the school routine. I would like to start my blog this year with a few basic suggestions for getting off on the right foot.
Attendance
Being in school every day means your child will not miss out on learning. Try your best to schedule family trips and appointments outside of school hours, although we all know we all can not get into that 4:00 p.m. appointment time.
Celebrate Progress
Suggest that your child create a fun reminder of all the things he/she has acomplished. Try covering a container with construction paper and label it, "I did it". He/she can write each success on a slip of paper and put it in the container. If they are feeling discouraged it would be a great time to read their accomplishments in the container.
Have a meal together
You may have heard its important for families to eat a meal together. If you work evenings maybe it could be breakfast. On a week-end try a picnic lunch.

Let's have a great year!!