Nurturing Our Kids’ Health and Spiritual Growth

It is important to guide children in their healthy growth by helping them select a balanced diet of fruit, vegetables, grains, dairy products, and protein foods each day. Parents can model healthy meal preparations that can have a significant impact on children’s health, academic performance, and sense of well-being throughout life. Parents must take the time to ensure that their children have time for outside daily play for healthy growth and development. Children can play at parks and participate in afterschool sports, recreational activities, and performing arts activities.

Teaching Kids About Nutrition

From an early age, parents try and provide their children with a balanced diet. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, children should eat a variety of vegetables, fruits, grains, and protein plus a side order of dairy for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and for snacks. By using a plate for portion control, fruits and vegetables should take up half the plate while grains and protein each take up one fourth of the plate. Parents can encourage their children to plan and prepare nutritional meals by having them help when preparing a nutritional meal. They can:

Organize the kitchen before cooking by wiping down counters, setting up a recycle bin, and placing recipe ingredients and utensils on the counter for a recipe.
Assemble recipes and adjust the quantities of ingredients for a larger or smaller family.
Pick vegetables and fruits from the family vegetable garden or a neighborhood community garden.
Wash fruits and vegetables and slice them in salads and for cooking as a side dish.
Help prepare meat for grilling, baking, or mixing into a recipe.
Clean up the kitchen as the meal is prepared.
Set the table while the meal is cooking.
Clean up after dinner by washing the dishes, taking out the garbage, and recycling.

Training Kids as Meal Planners

As students enter middle school, they can shop and plan for nutritional meals while using a budget. High school students can prepare nutritional meals for the family one night a week.

Added heathy living includes sharing quality time with your children each day. Activities may include outside play, a family dinner, homework time, family recreational time, time for reading, and talking to individual children each night before they go to bed. Most children cherish these times to share their personal growth successes and fears. Some families share these successes and challenges during the family dinner each night as a daily check-in activity. Families can celebrate successes and help each other problem-solve challenging situations.

Nurturing Family Recreation and Physical Fitness Activities

Family recreation and physical activities can include park days, family hiking days, and cultural experiences. Families can plan mini getaways that include camping, hiking, bicycling, and nature explorations. Middle school and high school kids can plan the family’s annual vacation by:

Researching various destinations while considering the costs for lodging, meals, and activities within a specified budget and timeline
Reviewing travel options and selecting an option when considering the budget, driving requirements, and road maps to the destination
Creating a schedule of daily activities that meets the needs of family members

Providing Moral and Spiritual Guidance

As children venture into the world of school, playdates, and community activities, they will meet children and families with different moral and ethical values. It is important that parents clarify their family values and help their children problem-solve when introduced to moral and ethical challenges. A family can identify their values by:

Convening a family meeting to discuss expectations for daily life with each family member
Having each family member share what they think are the important values for their family
Making a list of what each family member has shared and voting on four values
Creating a family symbol that artistically represents the four values that received the most votes
Framing and displaying the family values symbol in a prominent location at home

Reinforcing Family Values

Families can review their list of values weekly at family meetings and when trying to decide on activities that the family will participate in that may reinforce these values. Families can consider adding or changing values over time. For example, families wanting to raise culturally sensitive children will encourage their children to invite friends from various cultures to their home for dinner. These families may participate in a cultural exchange program while their children attend high school and host a student from another country in their home for part of the school year. Spending quality time with grandparents and seniors can provide children with expanded exposure to different lifestyles, values, and activities.

Applying Family Values to Safety Concerns

As family members share their values, they can also discuss safety concerns regarding personal care, conflict resolution, sex, drug abuse, and alcohol use and abuse. Children can learn how to respond to situations that may not be safe. The chapter describes various case studies with worksheets on how family members might respond when exposed to challenging situations. For example, some families have a policy of having their children phone home for a ride if they feel uncomfortable at a party or a friend’s home. They can have an agreement that no questions will be asked when a child phones home for a ride to leave a party early.

Modeling Spiritual Growth through Community Services

Families can model spiritual growth and their love and care for others in need through church related activities, community service days, and school service-learning days. Community service and service-learning activities help children learn about different needs of families in their communities. Activities can include:

Making cards and blankets for seniors
Creating dog toys
Collecting books, clothes, and toys for families in need
Adopting a family or senior during the winter holidays
Creating community garden decorations

May you treasure your shared healthy and spiritual growth activities with your family.

Mary Ann

Recording Observations in Science Notebooks

When I hike with my grandchildren, they make many observations along the way. They may watch a slug moving on a leaf, or worms slither around as they lift up a rock. They generate questions about the plants and animals they see. Often this leads to conversations that generate lots of ideas to explain what they have observed. It is valuable to record these observations and these comments in science notebooks.

Start Young

Recording observations can start with very young children by encouraging them to draw what they have seen. If children cannot yet write, they can dictate to parents or grandparents, who can then label the drawings. They may also record the children’s questions or observations next to the drawings.

Little by little, children will want to write for themselves. At first, they may write one letter or a series of letters they hear when they say name of the object they are depicting. This inventive writing should be encouraged. It is a vital step in the development of writing. Eventually, as their phonemic awareness increases and their phonics develops, children will fill in the missing letters and increase their written comments.

Academic Connection

In school, children will be asked to record their scientific observations as early as in kindergarten. The Next Generation Science Standards, adopted by the Sate of California in 2013, emphasize the expectation that kindergarteners will make observations to look for patterns in nature. It couples this standard with the English Language Arts standard about participating in research and writing projects.

We want to encourage children to think like scientists – to be observant; to put words to their thinking; and to record their thinking. We, as parents and grandparents, can encourage this process as we spend time in nature with them.

With love and affection,

Rosemarie

Book Recommendations for Middle Schoolers

Every now and then, people would ask me for book recommendations for their middle school aged student. “Are there any good books out there that my kid will like?” they ask. Acknowledging that there are books not all teens will like, let’s define what is meant by a “good” book for the purpose of these recommendations. For teenagers, good books provide IQ (intelligence quotient) and EQ (emotional quotient) perspective. In terms of IQ, books that give adolescents a point of view other than their own so they can expand their horizons would make great books. Teens will read plenty of sources bolstering their IQ through school, so this list offers only a couple suggestions in this area. In terms of EQ, teens will really benefit and grow from reading first-person narratives so they can learn to empathize and identify with the main character. In the case of auto-biographical writing, we benefit from the author’s perspective and voice. In an age where we need to develop more student leadership, compassion, and solidarity, I recommend the following:

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

In a collection of poems, award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson offers her readers insight into what it was like growing up African American in South Carolina and New York in the 1960s and 1970s. She gives a child’s perspective of increasing awareness during the Civil Rights movement, as well as her personal coming-of-age experiences as a young writer.

Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang

When the pandemic put a halt to all sports (professional and amateur sports) in March 2020, this graphic novel about Bishop O’Dowd High School’s basketball team trying to win the California State Championship was published at just the right time! With no televised games, my family and I all read Gene Yang’s inspiring story of how individual and collective transformation begins with taking a small step of faith towards overcoming obstacles.

Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly

A third-generation Japanese American, a shy Filipino boy, and a third generation neighborhood bully makes a girl who is hard of hearing, and up the diverse cast of characters in this book. They all just finished 6^th grade at the same school and through a mean prank, their lives intersect. This Newberry award-winning novel brings attention to the theme that despite what we may appear to be on the outside, we all face the same insecurities and challenges on the inside.

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai

The pain of the Vietnam War, separation from homeland and family, and experiencing a new life as an outsider in a different county are all intimately and vividly portrayed in Thanhha Lai’s poems. For teenagers who may not understand or may not have encountered trauma, the words expressed in Inside Out and Back Again will give youth a medium to connect with unfamiliar experiences.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey

Teenagers are full of potential, but how do they hone in on practices that will yield a beneficial, successful outcome for their future? The seven habits outlined in this book will help teens align all their energy so they know how to make their goals become a reality.

Stamped, Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds

In light of the Black Lives Matter movement that gained momentum in 2020, I really wanted to understand the historical perspective of racism in America. This book by Jason Reynolds is a remix of Ibram X. Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning. Using a voice that is relatable to youth, Reynolds “connects-the-dots” in the big picture of racism in our nation. It has opened my eyes to historical and current laws have kept Black people from a life of freedom and liberty.

Happy Reading!

Jaime

How Our Kids Can Overcome COVID-19 Social Isolation

This winter is a first for being separated from large groups of people due to the devastating COVID-19 pandemic. The good news is that this soon should pass as more of our elders and community members are vaccinated from this debilitating and deadly virus. But, until we can play with others again, how do we stay connected with our friends, families, and keep our kids socialized? Here is a list of various activities that families have reported success with during these last few months:

Family-Based Projects

As more families are locked into small spaces, they are teaching their children to become entrepreneurs. Some of these kids are partners with others and starting a small business like designing and creating stickers, holiday decorations, and crafts. Others are building computers for producing games, movies, and other products. Still others are having their children learn to cook and bake interesting new recipes for the family. This spring many will be planting vegetable and flower gardens. Our kids can learn how to install sprinkler systems that conserve water. Others will learn how to build container gardens. Some will learn how to help their parents with various household repairs and construction projects. Families that bond together when completing these critical services are teaching their children effective house management skills that reinforce academic learning and teamwork.

Support the Community

Many families have expanded their community services by participating in environmental cleanup days, writing letters to the military and isolated community members, and fundraising for families that need food and other basic needs. Some families are helping with various fundraising activities by participating in virtual sporting events that raise funds while others are writing grants for community service organizations. The skills your children will gain will contribute to their future career development skills and compassion for those in need.

Host Virtual Reunions

Most families are seeing each other now more than ever through various virtual platforms. Many host regular holiday celebrations online in addition to ongoing monthly social hours or online family game nights. There are a multitude of online family games all can play in addition to regular games that can be fun online. For example, grandparents taught grandkids how to play Candyland and Chutes and Ladders online. The grandkids had the board game at their home and could watch their grandparents online as they demonstrated how to play the game. These activities will entertain kids for hours. Grandchildren can also play remotely with dolls, construct art projects, dictate stories that are kept in grandparents’ journals, and receive help with homework.

Plan Family Outings

Many plan regular family outings to local and state parks. The children can plan and fix the family menu. They can study a map and decide how the family will drive to their destination. The kids can research the various costs and activities that can be pursued at the park and create the daily budget. They can also organize a treasure hunt, a hike, or picture taking adventure. These events will be remembered for years.

Treasure these special times together as this added dedicated time with our kids and families will soon be a treasured time in our past as more folks are vaccinated and free to return to work, travel, and school.

Enjoy the journey!

Mary Ann

One Word Challenge

Recently, I’ve received a challenge to select one word to sum up how I’m feeling or to choose one word as my focus for the new year. This challenge was new to me and honestly, it’s a bit intriguing, too. Hmm…just one word, huh? When we reflect on 2020, there were many new words and phrases introduced, wasn’t there? Bear with me a bit while I list through some words that have frequently surfaced in news headlines or social media posts.

Pandemic.

Unprecedented. Over-abundance of caution. Social Distancing. Mask. Work from home. Toilet paper shortage. Hand sanitizer. Essential worker. COVID-19. Hoax. Chinese-virus. Vaccine.Public Health.

Frontline doctors and nurses. PPE. Flatten the curve. Quarantine. Stay at home. Shelter in place, lockdown, curfew, mental health, social bubble.

Distance Learning.

Learning Pod, hybrid learning, blended learning. Asynchronous and synchronous learning. Opportunity gap. Zoom, Zoom fatigue. Google Meet. WebEx. Google Classroom, hotspot.

Racial Injustice.

Justice for George Floyd. Justice for Breonna Taylor. Black lives matter. Protests, Rioters. Central Park birdwatcher. Karen.

Politics.

Census 2020, Elections, Voter fraud, Electoral College, Stimulus checks. Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Kamala Harris. First female, black, Asian American Vice President of the USA.

And yet, despite all that surrounds us, the human spirit continues to rise above adversity. Consider these powerful human descriptors and attributes:

Generosity

Yearning

Motivation

Integrity

Joyful

Courage

Zealous

Hopeful

Determination

Inspired

Blessed

And so, dear Reader, I pose the one word challenge to you: what is one word that sums up how you are feeling? Or one word that will be your focus for the new year? What is one word that you might add to my list?

Wishing you a wonderful new year,

Jaime