Our PTA is AMAZING!!

It's Monday and I have the Hootenanny Blues.  The ECFE annual family dance was a huge success this year and I am sorry that it is over.  I just have to tell you how amazing our PTA is here at ECFE. This group of dedicated parents really pull out all the stops to put on a party.  Our Hootenanny had live music, an auction, a real live cowboy, a cupcake walk, and games. We had a blast. Our PTA is lead by our President, Heather Bradberg. Heather is such an asset to our program here at ECFE. She is the face of our Facebook page and the heart of so many of our projects. We will miss her terribly when she graduates. I wish I had gotten a picture of the whole PTA crew but they were busy all over the building making sure that kids and parents were having a good time. My heartfelt thanks go out to each of them!!

Random Acts of Kindness

                                                              Toddlers are curious.......

                                                                     and MESSY!!

And since we have been talking in second grade about being good friends, it made sense to share another favorite book with my friends in Mrs. Yess' class "One" by Kathryn Otoshi. The class had been to a Climb Theater presentation on bullying in the morning.  This book was a wonderful way to connect their learning with the project I had in mind. After talking about what makes a great friend, the second graders went to work in our early childhood classrooms.  It feels so good to do something nice for someone, even if you don't know them.  Thanks to my second grade friends, we here at ECFE are all cleaned up and looking forward to the HOOTENANNY!!

Patrick's Class

I am crazy about the book "A Dog is A Dog" by Stephen Shaskan and was so happy to share it with Mrs. Mehling's kindergartners this morning. What great listeners they are! We had fun guessing what animal came next by listening and rhyming. The kids had a few questions about my fun adventures as the teacher of the year and were very excited about my trip to the White House to meet the President.

Patrick, my great nephew was the leader of the day. Patrick loves sausages!  We have been planning how to share them with his friends at kindergarten since Christmas. They were a big hit! It was so much fun to hang out with Patrick and his friends at school. Thanks for the invitation.

Ms Relentless and Ms Persistence Have Lunch

I have been chomping at the bit to meet and commiserate with Debbykay Peterson from the Minnesota Department of Education.  Debbykay heads up ECFE and School Readiness programming at the department.  I am sure the other diners must have thought we looked like hummingbirds at lunch.....talk, talk, talk, talk....eat....talk, talk, talk, talk.....eat.....talk, talk, talk....you get the picture! I was so happy to walk away feeling connected to someone who feels as passionately about parent education as I do. I have often said that the most important key to closing the achievement gap is parent education. Minnesota is the only state in the nation with parent education embedded in it's public schools. It is very exciting for me to think about the possibility of expanding parent education into the elementary schools.  One of my favorite magnets on my fridge reads "Given a cape and a tiara, I might just rule the world".  Debbykay might be that cape!  I am looking forward to working with her on a few of the ideas we bubbled up over lunch to meet the changing needs of parents.  Thanks Debbykay (Ms. Relentless).

Drum roll please.....at 6:00 pm on my drive down the river to Winona.....this.....

It is still LIGHT OUTSIDE!!  I cranked up the 70's music and sang all the way home!  It was a pretty great day after all.....

Thanks St. Kates!

I have finished Real Colors training with every athlete at St. Kates! I so enjoy working with college kids and was especially impressed with the ladies and the coaches at St. Kates.  I have a new friend in Nicole Hempler and will likely give a shout out to her parents in Red Wing every time I drive through town (which is more often that you might think these days). Good Luck to the spring athletes as they head into the season.

Y'all Come Down Now, Y'hear?!

I hope you have the 6th annual ECFE Family Dance on your calendar!  Our Hootenanny is on Saturday night, February 25th from 5:30-7:30pm. I have blog followers from all over the state and I will tell you, the Hootenanny will be well worth a trip to Winona this weekend.  The PTA here pulls out all the stops to create a fun event for kids and their parents. It is a fun week at work as all of the preparation and anticipation builds to a hoot of a good time.  Don't be shy about dressing up, it's part of the fun!  Lookin forward to seein y'all on Saturday night! Yehaw!

Bel Air Elementary PTA

I met Mark and Ruben, Bel Air Elementary Schools PTA Presidents last summer at the state PTA conference and was so happy when they asked me to come to their school to speak to the PTA.  What a great discussion we all had about the challenges families face to create a family life that supports what kids need from childhood. There were parents, teachers, the principal, and a school board member in attendance all interested in what is best for kids.

I wore one of my many aprons, not to cover a coffee spill but to emphasize the importance of a family meal.  Eating dinner together is a great predictor of a students academic success.  We talked about the forces that compete with that family time and shared encouraging tips to keep at it. Dinner time can be challenging but rewarding too.

My  heart went out to the mom who talked about her regrets about buying her 5 and 7 year old each a DS for Christmas.  She told me I could tell the whole world about how they have changed her families free time.  I will, I promise.  Thanks for a great evening!