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From The Principal
It is our staff's sincerest wishes that 2009 brings you and yours the health, good fortune, strength, and happiness to enjoy and grow a little wiser from each and every of life's new moments. Also, lest we forget, “We'll drink a cup of kindness yet for Auld Lang Syne.” This centuries old Scottish term, which many of us either mispronounce or unconsciously recite while listening/singing to the song, simply means that we should not forget the times that have gone by.
Looking back on where we have been and what lives we have touched and, in turn, have touched us, truly makes reflecting back upon this last year an even more wondrous experience, as we have seen the children not only grow physically, but also grow intellectually in their academic and social skills.
Right before our eyes, the children are engaging us with conversations, replete with storytelling and sharing far more entertaining and enthusiastic as compared to their abilities just a year ago.
However, our children's ability to relate their own ideas and thoughts is inextricably tied to our own purposeful need to spend time, hold, and model conversational dialogues that engage their own interests and activities. Many times, we will hear parents say, “When I ask them what they did or learned in school, they say nothing.”
It is within these moments, these fleeting points of time, that our memories are created and developed. Sometimes, we overlook the obvious and forget that we need to model/teach the behavior we desire them to exhibit. Asking our children to relate their day's experiences does not have to be a chore.
It might not happen all at once, but tell them about your day first. Tell them what made you happy or disappointed and what you learned from the experience. Or, read a story, which we know is good for children of all ages. Discuss what the characters were feeling and how you might react to a similar situation. Share stories about your youth; not to tell them how they should feel or respond to a situation, but a way in which to empathize and help them express themselves.
Expressing feelings about situations we experience or even in the form of sharing a story is the most powerful form of creating and encoding neurological pathways, or in the lack of better words, moments that become memories that we hold on to the rest of our lives for Auld Lang Syne.
Have a wonderful 2009!
Luke Lambatos, Ed.D. Ed.S.
Principal