How to Care for Children with a Broken Foot

How to Care for Children with a Broken Foot!

I have been fortunate. In all of the years of being a parent, I was never challenged with mobility issues until I became a grandparent several years ago. The first time I was in a walking boot, my grandchild was a baby. I could hold and cuddle him for hours which worked well for all. The second time I was in a walking boot, I hobbled around with small grandkids that were easy to manage. This time, however, I am in an ortho shoe with orders to not walk. Today, I realized I was in trouble when considering my mobility challenges with three young grandkids that can outrun me in seconds.

Kids Can Provide Added Help

I can drive and have seven-year-old Brandon help with car seat latching. We can get into the house while the grandson parcels out snacks to all. Brandon has also impressed me with his culinary skills. Last week he made his three-year-old twin sisters peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The girls loved his snack and were impressed with his leadership.

Our seven-year-old grandson was the babysitter and I was the helper. The twins proceeded to follow Brandon around as the leader. They watched him create a domino game, name his new fish in the fish tank, and play with slime as the art project for the day. I marveled at his leadership until all three children ran outside to play in the mud. Then I was in over my head when managing sheer joy and chaos. I was lucky. It was dinner time with mom back in charge to prepare the meal.

We Can Set Boundaries

Tomorrow, I will attempt to care for the kids again with the newly mandated no walking orders. It will be interesting and challenging with the following plan of action:

I have notified the parents about my added limitations.
The grandkids will be briefed and understand that Grandma has new limitations.
A parent will be working from home if or when there is a challenge.

Parents Can Build a Team of Support

I am learning that I must clearly state my needs with the grandkids before the chaos begins. With a team effort of parents and extended family members, the kids continue to thrive and grow in their responsibilities as family members overcome the daily challenges of life.

Happy parenting and grandparenting!

Mary Ann

Cultural Awareness Summer Programs

As our children focus on the last days of the school year, parents are anxiously trying to secure adequate childcare and enrichment programs for their children once school is out. Some parents focus on sports camps, wilderness camps, and performing arts camp activities. Other parents use much of the summer for parks and recreational play dates. And other parents will focus on academic learning boot camps. It is important to balance your children’s summer play with a variety of activities to ensure that they have time to regroup and learn many new skills.

Experiencing Your Culture

Ideally, children will also have time to learn more about their culture and family’s values. Our family has participated in Japanese-American cultural camps throughout the years. These elementary school age summer programs vary in length and encourage the students to appreciate their Japanese heritage and take pride in their unique cultural background. Parents are encouraged to participate in every aspect of the program and share their talents with the children.

Through these programs, children gain an appreciation for the diversity of lifestyles that make up our society today (see www.suzumenogakko.org or www.medakanogakko.org for more information). Each area camp is different and may include some of the following activities:

Lessons in language, crafts, and music
Family life of Japanese Americans
Learning Japanese cooking and farming
Japanese gardening
Games, sports, and martial arts
Japanese-American history and relocation camps
Field trips to local businesses and public landmarks that may depict Japanese architecture
Guest assemblies, celebrations, and community service events

Reading About Your Culture

When considering the variety of cultural experiences shared in these camps, parents can read books to their children about cross-cultural perspectives. For example, we can help our children understand the relocation camp experience by reading Mei Ling in China City by Icy Smith. The book is based on events during World War II in Los Angeles China City. The story describes how a 12-year-old Chinese American girl named Mei Ling Lee loses her best friend, Yayeko Akiyama, to the Manzanar War Relocation Center. By corresponding through letters, the girls vividly describe their painful separation and their lives in China City and Manzanar. The story depicts these hardships and experiences with beautifully illustrated watercolor paintings.

Celebrate Your Culture

May your summer be filled with opportunities to celebrate your culture and your community’s diversity of lifestyles!

Joyce

How to Combat Spring Fever at Home

Well, you survived spring break with vacations, play dates, and some much-needed down time. Now, how will the family cope with the end of the year in sight but feeling further away these days than it did in January? The adult version is similar to running a half marathon and making it through mile 9, 10, and 11. You see the end but those last 2.1 miles feel like forever.

Tips to Overcome Spring Fever

This time of year is long for the students as well. Here are some easy tips for surviving the home stretch:

Days are longer now that we turned our clocks back. Consider taking evening walks after dinner.
Allow your young person to bring a friend on a walk.
Include a trip to the local ice cream shop if it’s in walking distance from your house. Mixing exercise with a fun treat is a win-win for spending time together.
Alternatively, explore nature right in your own front/backyard. Challenge your curious crew to a timed data collection exhibition. For this activity, you will need a clipboard, pencil, paper, and a medium sized cardboard box with bottom cut out. Have the children select an area of interest in the yard. Once an area is determined they place their box down on the ground to determine how many living and non-living things they can count within the perimeter of the box. Set a 10-minute limit to the data collection process. There are a couple of ways to collect the data. They can tally under the categories or draw a sketch of the different types of items they saw and record a number total. In addition, children could record observations such as wind speed, dampness, location and proximity to water. I recommend groups of 2-3 for maximum collaboration. Bring everyone back inside and discuss the data collected.
Another strategy that will help combat spring fever is by having breakfast for dinner. Include the kids in the cooking experience rather than preparing the meal yourself. Giving them a taste of responsibility is exciting. Turning the expected into the unexpected is the key to survival.

Welcome spring days!

Danielle

Parents as Experts in the Classroom

No doubt about it – teachers are masters at crafting academic content so that its relatable to students. They can take the mundane in numbers, work their magic, and teach kids how to multiply fractions. And they can take drab characters, shine a light on them and all of a sudden, these characters become our kids’ best friends. Simply put, teachers are truly inspirational! Sometimes, though, parents are tempted to think that the teacher is the only one that can be in command of student learning in the classroom. The truth is that teachers embrace all experts to enlighten their students and would be more than happy to welcome your experience and expertise in the classroom! So, what are some topics you could present to students?

Your Cultural Heritage

Is there a favorite cultural holiday or family tradition that you celebrate? Why is it meaningful to you? What value does this holiday or tradition embrace? What do you do and what are some of the items used during the celebration? You may be the first person to share your cultural heritage with one of your child’s classmates.

An Art Demonstration or Activity

Children deserve access to arts education in all its forms, whether it be music, photography, painting, dance, or arts and craft. Is there a hobby or talent that you want to introduce to children? Share your talent, spark some interest, and inspire the next generation!

Your Love of Cooking

Cooking together is one of the best community building activities there is! Not only is everyone looking forward to eating the yummy food together, there’s always a lot of camaraderie while preparing food. And yes, cooking can be academic – there’s math in measuring ingredients and chemistry in the cooking process!

Your Love of Sports

Kids of all ages love to play games, however, most kids are still developing physical skills. It would go a long way in securing a child’s love for a sport if an adult would spend some physical education time to show them some techniques. Let kids know there’s plenty of physics in sports, too, like the trajectory of a basketball into the basket or the force it would take to hit a baseball for a home run.

A Lesson on Financial Literacy

Why not teach kids how to save money and balance a check book? These are just basic addition and subtraction skills, but it’s never too early to teach the value of saving money and delayed gratification when it comes to spending money. How about this for a fun class activity? If the teacher agrees to this idea, let the class know you’ll assign money to points the class can earn for good behavior. At the end of a designated time period, the class will convert those points and get “paid” in money. They can then have a follow-up lesson on civics and budgeting: they must come to a consensus on whether their money can buy popsicles or pizza for a class party.

Talk to your child’s teacher about ways to bring your expertise to the classroom! What might you add to this list?

Jaime

Benefits of Volunteering At Your Child’s School

My daughters have been very fortunate to attend an elementary school which offers a parent participation program. This type of alternative education program emphasizes parent involvement with classroom learning, whether it be to accompany students on a field trip, prepare classroom materials at home prior to the teacher’s lesson, or to read with a small group of students. The idea is that students who receive support from multiple adults will have a more enriched learning experience.

How to Volunteer at School

Even if your children are not in a specific parent participation program, you can still volunteer in your child’s school. There are many benefits for you and your children when you seek out opportunities and get involved with your child’s education. Here’s my top 10!

10 Reasons to Help

Your children will know you are interested in their everyday experiences.
They will know you invest your time in their day.
Since you are involved in supporting their classroom environment, they will take their learning more seriously.
Your children will know that you support and love them.
You’ll send the message that education is important.
Your children will be proud to have you around their classmates.
You’ll be familiar with your child’s surroundings and feel comfortable approaching the teacher or principal for help for your child, whether for academic or social needs.
You will be clued-in on the social climate of your child’s world, and be more prepared to help your child navigate social situations.
Parents form lasting friendships with the other parents who help at the school.
Your involvement and contributions will have a direct hand in shaping the school’s culture.

Go on, get involved! Your children will value the time you spend at their school and as a classroom volunteer.

Jaime