Giving Thanks for Traditions

The bottom line is that communities thrive on traditions. Whether they are celebrations, get-togethers, rituals, award ceremonies, rights of passage, pep rallies or just wacky, but regularly shared events, it doesn’t seem to matter. It is traditions that reinforce the values and vitality of a community. Just as the Lower School students have the Thanksgiving assembly turkey dance, the opera, the puppet parade, the Valentine’s Day concert, traditional community service projects,  preschool and kindergarten-fifth grade, first and fourth, third and seventh, and recently second and seventh grade buddies, graduation and countless other traditions to look forward to, families, our most fundamental communities, need traditions too.

The pace of our lives seems to quicken each year. Forces in our society conspire to pull us simultaneously in many directions. With both parents often working or volunteering, full weekdays, week nights and weekends makes it difficult to find time together for the family. Children’s lives are filled with sports practices, tutoring sessions, music lessons and more.  There is less time for the little rituals to develop into meaningful traditions. Looking back on our own childhoods, it is the regular trips to the grandparents, yearly, weekly, even daily special events, including shared evening meals, religious holidays, and birthdays that inevitably stand out in our memories.

Just as we try to create and maintain value-affirming traditions to support our Lower School community, it is vital for families to develop and preserve shared rituals that grow into traditions. More than once, our older children have surprised my wife and me by looking back fondly on something that we did regularly together, something that, simply because we shared it, was elevated to the status of a valued tradition. Our oldest daughter remembers Saturday morning bagels, made-up bedtime stories, weird rainy day driving games to nowhere and family movie making. Had we been able to foresee the impact, we would have carved out even more time for the makings of family memories.

As Thanksgiving approaches, probably the most universally celebrated traditional American holiday, notice the things that you do together that your children remember most; value them and look for opportunities to create more shared and repeated acts and observances. 

The Third Grade Dig

Finding an artifact

Last week, third graders spent their science classes involved in an archaeological dig on our campus. They laid out a string grid and have been carefully excavating, noting the position, cleaning and cataloging what they find. When they return from Thanksgiving break, they will analyze and arrange the artifacts by relative date order, while creating hypotheses about what may have occurred at 

Careful excavation using the grid

that site over time.

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Last week, PEP (D-E's Parent Education Partnership Committee) invited Jean Schreiber, our early childhood consultant, to give a presentation on the parenting  of young children. For those who were unable to attend, the following is the text from her handout:

Minimizing Power Struggles:

Understanding, Respecting, and Responding to Your Child’s Behavior

© Jean Schreiber MS in Ed. 2010Jean Schreiber, MS in Ed.
www.jeanschreiber.com

Discipline can be one of the thorniest parenting issues. Children rely on us to teach them values and provide them with boundaries and limits. They need us to be consistent and loving, yet firm in our responses. Yet, children are experts in sensing our areas of indecision, and they know exactly what button to push as they struggle to keep our attention and strive for independence.

As children mature, their demands increase. In infancy, power struggles rarely exist. Most parents quickly learn their baby’s rhythms and respond appropriately to their child’s signals of, “I’m hungry, I need a clean diaper, cuddle me, play with me, or put me to sleep.” Toddlerhood brings mobility and, with it, the ever increasing potential for danger. In order to keep toddlers safe, parents need to limit and control some of their child’s behaviors. This happens just as the child is striving to develop autonomy. It’s not an accident that a toddler’s favorite word is an emphatic “NO” as he practices the skills of self-assertion. And so begins the vicious cycle of control struggles expressed through the “dance” of discipline that occurs in many families. 

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Fairy Land

By second-graders Karina and Jisang 

Today we built a Fairy Land. We are showing that we are thankful for the earth and nature. We used things that would have been composted like pineapple tops from the kitchen, weeds, pumpkins, rocks, sticks and cornstalks. It looks like a Fairy Village! There are dams, wells, houses, and forests. It will be a good place for nature fairies, animals, insects and worms!

Fourth and Fifth Grade Paper Airplane Contest Results

Despite the complication of Hurricane Sandy and noisy landscapers across from Mr. Rocky's Field, we were able to complete the paper airplane challenge for fourth and fifth graders. The challenge was for teams of two or more students to design a paper "airplanes" that would preform best in three categories: greatest flight distance, greatest flight duration and most vertical loops.

Results
Fourth Grade:

• Distance - AJ and Viren
• Duration - Haley and Brian
• Loops - Jackson, Elias, Danny and Lauren

Fifth Grade:

• The team of Anthony, Sophie, Sera and Mena won all three categories

* There was a team of 4th and 5th graders who we were unable to reschedule.

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Dear Lower School community,

    We would like to inform you that the many food drive donations were picked up on Monday. We are still collecting money donations through Tuesday. This is the last chance to donate to the Center for Food Action. 

After all, Thanksgiving is about giving and sharing. If you wish to contribute, please do not miss this last opportunity.              
Happy Thanksgiving,

 The fifth-grade food drive team. 

                      

This week is the last week to submit the fifth grade memory pages for the Lower School Yearbook.