January/February First Steps Newsletter by Community Education and Recreation

First Steps WASHTENAW Ann Arbor

Parenting Pathways A bimonthly publication of the Ann Arbor Public Schools • Jan–Feb 2012, Vol. 11, No. 3

Marj’s Corner Today is cold yet sunny with a promise of more fresh snow tonight! While I’ve enjoyed the mild winter so far, I’m looking forward to real snow. Anticipating the possibility of too much snow for school, here is a reminder of our snow closing policy.

School closings/snow days

Registration for Spring 2012 begins February 27 Classes begin April 9, 2012 and go through June 16, 2012 (10 weeks). Very detailed directions are on our website.

Cooperative Preschools 2012–13 Open Houses First United Methodist Co-op Nursery Thursday, Feb. 9, 10am–11:30am Snow Day: Feb 16, 10am–11:30am 120 S. State Street, Ann Arbor 662-7660; www.fumcn.org

If the Ann Arbor Public Schools are closed, all our classes are cancelled too. This includes evening classes, even if the weather is fine by then. You do receive an automatic make-up any time we have to cancel your class. Saturday classes are unique because I make the decision whether to stay open or close because of weather. You will know by 8:00 a.m. on Saturday. You can call 994-2300 x53179 to see if classes are running or cancelled. Or you may check the first page of our website www.aaps.k12. mi.us/firststeps.home where I will also put a message concerning Saturday classes. Sherri changes her extension message in case you call her as well (53186). We do our best to not cancel classes and to keep everyone driving safely.

Ann Arbor Co-op Preschool Saturday, Feb. 11, 10am–12pm 517 E. Washington Street, Ann Arbor 769-7966; www.a2preschool.org

Glacier Way Westside Co-op Preschool Monday, Feb 13, 12pm–1:30pm 900 South 7th Street, Ann Arbor 995-0707; www.glacierwaycoop.org

Ypsilanti Cooperative Preschool Thursday, Feb 16, 4pm–8pm 1110 West Cross Street, Ypsilanti 485-8775; www.ypsicoop.org

Bring slippers to keep your feet warm (and our floors cleaner) When it is snowy please take your wet boots and shoes off and leave them outside in the hallway or just inside the door. This keeps our floors dryer, cleaner and safer which especially helps our crawling babies – and our custodians! Feel free to bring along your slippers to replace your boots or just wear your socks if you prefer.

Another way to enjoy winter! Do you ever wish you could use our big playroom at the Family Center for a playgroup for you and a few friends with toddlers? You may! Our room may be rented for 1 hour for $10/child (babies under 7 months are free!). Limited to 10 children attending with their parent or caregiver. Families who are NOT currently active are also welcome. Our room is available Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons between 3:30 and 5:30. Questions? Contact Marj to reserve an afternoon.

Triangle Cooperative Nursery Saturday, Feb. 4, 10am–12pm 1432 Washtenaw Avenue, Ann Arbor 761-7688; www.trianglecoop.org Please call the preschool’s ofﬁce for alternate date if open house falls on an ofﬁcial snow day. The above listed schools admit students of any race, creed, color, national, and ethnic origin. For full nondiscrimination statements please visit the individual

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News to Use Make-up Policy Possible classes for make-ups are posted on our website and in your classroom by the second week of classes. Make-ups must be arranged 24 hours or more ahead. Look on the website under Classes. Then call or email Sherri and let her know your plans and we’ll let the teacher know you’re coming. Please do not just come to a class. You may do two make-ups during the Winter session for each class you take. Make-ups are also given any time we cancel a class. If there are extenuating circumstances (many illnesses) please discuss with either Sherri or Marj. Thank you!

Birthday Parties! Interested in renting a wonderful space for your child’s birthday party? Try our classroom at the Family Center as it’s a great place to have a relaxed celebration with your family and friends. We supply a staﬀ person to make sure things go smoothly and to provide a short circletime for some entertainment. The cost is only $115 for a 1½ hour party. Our room is available on Saturday afternoons or late afternoons or evenings during the week when we do not have classes. This is available to First Steps families, not the general community, and all proceeds are used to purchase new equipment for our rooms. Please call Sherri at 994-2300 x53186 to ﬁnd out more.

Scholastic Books Look for the current ﬂyers in your classroom and check it out online too at Scholastic’s website at www. scholastic.com/bookclubs. Use the Class Activation Code GJW4K and follow the directions. Order form(s) may also be turned in to Sherri at the First Steps oﬃce with a check. Please make checks payable to Scholastic (not First Steps). If you have any questions, contact Vidya Guruprasad, First Steps Coordinator, at 5480545 or vidyagpd@yahoo.com.

Upcoming dates: January 24: Parent Meeting—Choosing a Preschool February 2: Discussion Group February 14: Music Together Lottery February 15: Gym Play! February 20-26: Winter Break—No Classes February 27: Classes & Spring Sign-up begins March 31: Winter Classes End

Choosing a Preschool Tuesday, January 24 6:30-8:00 pm Parent Training Room at Preschool Su-Fen Lin, parent educator and Early Childhood program specialist with Saline Schools, will present basic info about the diﬀerent types of preschools in our community. Then she will help you learn how to choose one that ﬁts your family’s needs. Please call Sherri (994-2300 x53186) to register so we have enough handouts.

February Discussion Group Thursday, February 2, 2012 4:00-5:00 pm 2775 Boardwalk Dr. Our Playroom Bring your children and join us for a continuation of our September discussion on how to raise conﬁdent, capable children and help your children make responsible choices. If you were not able to join us in September, please come now and share the joys and challenges of parenting young children. We’ll exchange info on discipline, sibling rivalry and encouraging cooperation. Discussion is led by Ann Stalhandske and she’s happy to receive questions ahead of time too. Email stalhans@aaps.k12.mi.us To register and for more information, please contact Sherri. Limited to 10 families.

Open Gym Afternoon! Wednesday, February 15 4:30-6:00 pm In the Preschool Gym! Do you and your children have cabin fever? Please join us for movement, games and a time to socialize with other First Steps families at our annual winter open gym time. Limited to 30 families. Please contact Sherri to RSVP.

Scholarships Do you have a scholarship with Rec&Ed? Please check and make sure it’s up-to-date. If you applied more than a year ago, you will need to apply again now because they are only good for 1 year. Did you miss applying for a scholarship for Winter session? If you think you’ll qualify, please apply now so you’re all set for Spring session. It takes about 2 weeks and is how we determine your income and place you on the sliding-fee scale. Our scale does NOT match Rec&Ed’s. If Rec&Ed says you don’t qualify, you may still get a 25% discount from us. Please talk with us directly when you get your letter to conﬁrm what you’ll pay to participate. You’ll have an idea by looking at our scale yourself too. This scholarship is good for a year and works for your whole family for any class or sport through Rec & Ed. Questions? Call Marj.

Building executive function through play For most of human history, children played by roaming near or far in packs large and small. Younger children were supervised by older children and engaged in freewheeling imaginative play. They were pirates and princesses, aristocrats and heroes.

best when children stay with the play scenario for as long as possible.

The best kind of play costs nothing and really only has one main requirement—imagination. When children learn to rely on themselves for playtime—improvising props, making up games and stories—they’re actually developing that executive function. Here are some suggestions for getting the most out of playtime:

games, where you hide something and the child needs to ﬁnd it. You can turn those into a problem-solving task by putting a barrier in the shortest path to the hidden treat so that the child needs to detour around to retrieve what you’ve hidden.

Encourage children to talk to themselves. When you, as an adult, want to make sure that you remember to do something correctly, you may silently repeat the instruction to yourself. It helps you to regulate your But, while all that play might have looked a lot like time behavior. The same is true for children, but even more so. spent doing nothing much at all, it actually helped build They need more support for a critical cognitive skill called self-regulation, and they can’t executive function. Executive “The best kind of play costs nothing and yet do that silently, so they function has a number of elereally only has one main requirement— say it out loud. ments, such as working memoimagination. When children learn to ry and cognitive flexibility. But With a 5-year-old, you can perhaps the most important is rely on themselves for playtime—imtell him that if she repeats self-regulation — the ability for something to herself, it will provising props, making up games and kids to control their emotions help her to remember. So if stories—they’re actually developing and behavior, resist impulses, she is trying to learn to spell and exert self-control and discithat executive function.” something, for example, pline. Executive function — and tell her she will remember it its self-regulation element — is better if she spells it silently to herself. important. In fact, good executive function is a better Use open-ended props so imagination and minds predictor of success in school than a child’s IQ. can flourish. When children have specific costumes (eg Unfortunately, play has changed dramatically during the doctor or fireman) they no longer need to make a plan or past half-century, and according to many psychological use their own ideas to come researchers, the play that kids engage in today does not up with how to do something. help them build executive function skills. Kids spend The value of play comes from more time in front of televisions and video games. When children having to use their they aren’t in front of a screen, they often spend their imagination and pretend time in leagues and lessons — activities parents invest in the stick is a drill or a hose. because they believe that they will help their children to Then their brain has to hold excel and achieve. on to the idea and keep it And while it’s true that leagues and lessons are helpful going—making those brain to children in many ways, they have one unfortunate connections stronger. drawback. When kids are in leagues and lessons, they are There are lots of activities you can do to encourage usually being regulated by adults. That means they are imaginative play and develop executive function not able to practice regulating themselves. with 1- and 2-year-olds, too. You can play hiding

Free time for play is a good beginning. Planning the pretend play and sticking with your role is even better. Social pretend play is an excellent way to exercise and build up the executive functions of working memory (children must hold their own role and those of others in their mind), inhibitory control (children must keep themselves “in character”), and cognitive ﬂexibility (children must make changes while playing in order to continue the developing plot). Social pretend play works

Or try multiple-step imitation games, such as putting a tiny animal on one end of a stick from an ice cream pop (using the stick as a lever), and then showing the child that if you press down on the other end of the stick, the tiny animal goes ﬂying. Such imitation games tax working memory and could be great fun for your child for long extended periods at a time. —This article is excerpted from a story that aired on NPR in April 2008. To read the full article go to http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story. php?storyId=76838288

First Steps in Ann Arbor 2775 Boardwalk Ann Arbor, MI 48104 website: www.aaps.k12.mi.us/ﬁrststeps.home First Steps phone extensions: 994-2300 x

Email addresses: @aaps.k12.mi.us

Marj Hyde, Director ................................ 53179 Sherri Polovick, Registration & Billing .... 53186 Ann Stalhandske .................................... 53182 Shanda Trent .......................................... 53187 Yvette Daniels ........................................ 53181

hyde ﬁrststeps stalhans trents danielsy

WISD consultants: Su-Fen Lin .....................sufen_lin@yahoo.com Asian populations Mayra Prince ............................(734) 528-5066 Spanish speakers Karma Basha ............................(734) 434-2443 Arabic speakers Newsletter editing & design services donated in part by Pilcrow Text & Design Parenting Pathways is published bimonthly by the Ann Arbor Public Schools

Be realistic about your child’s attention span Convinced your toddler’s attention span is no more than a few seconds? Guess what: you’re probably right. Although your face might keep a baby interested for a couple of minutes, a toy or book may hold your toddler’s attention for as little as 30 seconds. If you’re playing with the toy together or helping your child “read” the book, expect two or three minutes before it’s time for something new. That’s the advice from Helen Fowler Neville, a pediatric nurse and author of Is This a Phase? Child Development & Parent Strategies, Birth to 6 Years, who explains three components to attention span: “Our ears, eyes, nose, and skin are always checking around to be sure we are safe,” writes Neville. “Both babies and adults automatically turn to the sound of a crash or the bark of an unfamiliar dog.” Some of us quickly learn to ignore unimportant distractions. For others, what our senses report continues to interrupt what we’re doing. Our attention is also attracted—and held—by whatever interests us: food we want to eat, books we want to read, toys we want to play with. The length of a child’s attention span depends on how interesting he ﬁnds the meal, the companions or the activity. Finally, there are things we make ourselves pay attention to. We adults stick with tasks because we know we need

to, or because other people ask us to: we read the same story again because our toddler wants to hear it, or we ﬁnish a dull report because the boss wants it done. Only gradually do children learn this self-discipline. What does this mean about children’s attention spans? It means parents need to be realistic about attention span and plan activities accordingly. It also means that we need to help children develop their attention spans: by playing with them, by attracting their attention to things we see or hear, by introducing them to new projects and sports, by helping them with challenging activities—and most of all, by turning oﬀ televisions, computers and electronic games. —Adapted from Is This A Phase: Child Development & Parent Strategies, Birth to 6 Years, by Helen Fowler Neville, B.S., R.N. (Parenting Press, Fall 2007)

First Steps is on Facebook! Please LIKE us! We’ve been on Facebook for a while and would love to have people “like” us. Marj sends out quick notices about upcoming events as another way to communicate with everyone. To ﬁnd our page, just type “First Steps Ann Arbor” in the Facebook search box.