A Word from Our Director
Laurel Hill, where kids get to act like kids...and parents learn to be ok with that! Children are constantly changing. That sweet three year old will become the brilliant, challenging four year old who will become a dynamic five year old. While at Laurel Hill, please accept that the children are behaving like children because that is their job. Our job as adults is to support their learning and to provide them with a warm and safe environment ...even on Bike Deck!
“Minds are like parachutes, they only function when they are open.” Thomas Dewar
Community Goal
Throughout the year we will be asking the entire membership to focus on particular aspects of the curriculum. Our ultimate goal, or our key goal, is to concisely communicate the school’s philosophy to each family. This week we will be talking about the subject everyone loves to hate, or maybe hates to love? Limit Setting!
As we supervise each other’s children it is important that we are all on the same page philosophically while at the school. Remember our assumptions about children? They want to be loved and to do well. When they exhibit off-track behavior they have lost a feeling of connection. Punitive or shaming behavior from adults will only compound the problem. At Laurel Hill we try to stay away from defining language such as “You’re a good boy/girl” or “He/She is a bad kid.” All the children are trying their best with the tools they have.
How and When to Set a Limit at Laurel Hill
When there is teasing or harsh behavior towards another person:
“Joey, is it ok for Jenny to say that to you?”
“No!” Shouts, whispers, or implies Joey.
Adult: “Jenny, Joey doesn’t like that, you need to stop.”
The direction needs to be clear, calm and direct. We’re not asking them if they want to stop, but telling them that they will stop. If you are clear and direct, you won’t need to be punitive.
When there is unsafe behavior:
“Sandy, you need to stop crashing the bike into the car.” If the crashing continues, stop Sandy’s car.
Say “Sandy I’m not going to let you crash anymore.” Be sure to get low, use a calm voice, and make eye contact. Then move in so you can keep the car from crashing.
Hitting, biting, pushing:
Immediately stop the behavior by moving in and using your body to block the action. ”I’m not going to let you hit your friend.” Calmly ask, “What do you need?” “How can I help?”
The tantrum may continue—call a teacher if you need help.
Limits for adults:
Sometimes the child’s anger might be directed at you, the adult. You may get angry and want to engage the child in an argument. We must insist that you rise above it and stick to our guidelines. You can say: “I don’t like it when you say that to me.” If the behavior continues, try, “I’m not going to let you say that to me any more.” Then move away or offer another activity (“Let’s read a book”).
In Sickness and in Health...
Colds and flu are common for children as they are building their young immune systems. We all want the best for our children and can be very frightened by their illnesses. To minimize exposure to colds and flu, sick children should not come to school. Please observe the following protocol: Your child needs to be fever, vomit, and diarrhea free for 24 hours before returning to school after an illness. Here’s to healthier days! Help to teach the children good habits by washing hands frequently and covering your nose and mouth when you cough and sneeze. Want to learn more? Try this link: https://www.healthychildren.org/English/tips-tools/symptom-checker/Pages/symptomviewer.aspx?symptom=Colds
Shoes!
Sandals - Please don't send your child to school in open toed sandals. We have noticed over the years that open toed sandals lead to big falls when on concrete and don't protect toes from bike wheels or sharp shovels.
Save the Rainboots for Rainy Days - Have you ever worn rainboots all day? It's really uncomfortable. Your legs feel heavy and sweaty. It's also really hard to go up and down steps in rainboots. It's hard to run and play and climb in rainboots. I totally understand why you might want your child to wear rainboots all the time, especially if water play makes you uncomfortable. Children who are allowed to get wet and go through the process of getting dry, will adapt quickly to the process. The sopping wet stages of play don't last forever! Rainboots are fun for a bit and come in handy on a rainy day, but try not to make them an all day everyday item.
- Maria Chew, Director
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Committee & Staff Announcements & Notes
Parent Ed
Thursday, September 6, 7:30 PM
The Alumni Meeting: Kindergarten Check-in is for LHNS families who have children who have graduated and want to meet and discuss the beginning of the year in elementary school. It is open to anyone who has been to LHNS at any point and currently has a child in elementary school at any grade level.
Tuesday, September 25, 7:30 PM
“Parent from a Place of Connection: Create a Life & Family You Want” will be led by Aki Raymer who presented at the California Co-op Council Convention last March. Simply put? Invaluable. She presents straight forward parenting tools that are in perfect alignment with LHNS philosophy. Whether or not you're able to attend, check out Aki's blog: http://parentingpaths.com/blog/.
Save the Date for SF-wide co-op Kindergarten Night October 1, 2018 at Lakeshore Elementary. More info soon!
- Alyson Gembala, Parent Ed Chair (Theodore/AM)
Community Fundraising
PANCAKES ARE COMING! Got a pickup truck? Have a spare folding table?
The legendary LH Pancake Breakfast is less than a month away! (Saturday, 9/22, 9am-12pm) Start practicing your pancake eating skills, feel free to organize your own pancake workouts with fellow parents.
We need someone with a pickup truck to pick up the 72" griddle and 40 folding chairs from Action Rentals in SOMA (1530 Folsom St.) on Friday, September 21, at around 4:30-5pm, and bring it to the school. One maintenance hour given for this task.
We also need someone (could be the same person) to drop the equipment back off at Action rentals after aforementioned person is full of pancakes and sausage on Saturday, September 22 in the afternoon. One maintenance hour given for this task.
We need three or four folding tables for all our wonderful guests. If you have a table you're willing to spare for the event, please let me know.
Please email fundraisingcommunity@laurelhill.org if you can take care of one of the pickup truck tasks, or if you have folding tables. Thank you!
- Jason Kuo, Community Fundraising Chair (Hannah/AM)
Diversity and Inclusion
Dear Laurel Hill Community,
There are many things in our lives and world that seem beyond our control. Sometimes those things seem as small as getting your child to put on their socks in the morning, or as big as the wellbeing of our democracy or the health of an ailing parent. As the parents and educators of small children, we carry a lot. Big hopes and fears. The small and the big things weigh on us- mixing with the lighter moments to create a sometimes manic puree of feelings, chaos and responsibilities.
At the beginning of the school year we hold hopes and concerns for the little ones in our lives: Will they thrive? Will they grow in expected and unexpected ways? Are we enough for them? Is there enough? Love? Support? Connection?
You are enough. Our children are enough.
We are exactly where we need to be. The work of connection and creating community is the stuff that centers us. Tethering us to the whole. To a community that we can navigate and grow together. So at times when we perhaps do not feel whole ourselves- when we do not feel like enough- we can re-center ourselves.
The work of building our community falls on all of us. But we are all stronger for what we put into our community. When you comfort a child at school with ice or listen to their fears or excitement you are strengthening all of us. When you bring in food to share or offer your ear to someone in our community you are reaffirming that we can rely on each other. You are creating empathy- connection- trust. This is the essential work.
Creating community is work. But it is the most worthwhile kind. This year I'm excited to serve as the newly created Chair of Diversity and Inclusion at Laurel Hill. It makes a lot of sense to me that in a place that centers and thrives on connection that we provide specific Board level support for the work of belonging. Providing this role holds the space for this important work.
In the coming weeks you will hear more from me about after drop off coffee discussions, evening meetings on topics of diversity, and other ways that we can contribute to a robust sense of community and connection at Laurel Hill.
If you are interested in helping with this work at Laurel Hill please email me at diversity@laurelhill.org with your specific (or nonspecific!) areas of interest. If you emailed me before the summer I would appreciate a new email at this email address so I can keep better organized.
Let's get to it!
❤ Sunya Berkelman-Rosado Smith, Chair of Diversity and Inclusion (Leo/AM; Olive/Alum, August/Alum)
Building
Hello all! Just a couple of weeks into the new school year and already a work party is fast approaching!
For those of you who have signed up, thank you so much! Items that we will be tackling on September 8th from 9:30am to 12:30pm include: general cleaning and maintenance of the school, the rebuilding of the water pump deck and caulking/patching around windows and doors to prep for paint. Food and beverage will be provided. See you there!
- Christophe, Building Chair (Loic/AM)
Treasurer
Dear LH Community,
First, thank you for being part of this co-op! Your day-to-day involvement largely surrounds direct contributions to our children’s collective play. Membership in Laurel Hill also entails connection to the business of the non-profit. Going forward, I will summarize the budget vs. actuals at the business meetings to give you a sense of where we are at financially throughout the year. For July 2018 you can access a summary of the budget vs. actuals for one month into our fiscal year on our Parent Portal: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15xvswmccFo060f6gtUqY7KgefYgW1QPT?usp=sharing
Overall, we are under budget after the first month for a variety of reasons.
We start with a $19k loss in July, which is par for the course. Tuition has not started posting for the school year and we have not yet held any fundraising events, which is typically why we expect a loss in July. The loss is, however, less than projected for a variety of reasons.
- Expenses:
- Personnel and program expenses were under budget by about $8k, which is largely attributable to our worker’s comp payment not going through in July, so we will likely see this in August. We had also expected to pay our liability insurance in July, a $6k expense, but we will likely see this in months to come.
- We had also budgeted for a ~$3k auction deposit in July, which has yet to post.
- Income:
- $3.7k less than budgeted because forfeited deposits did not post to July Actuals.
- We received an unexpected $10k donation in July.
Feel free to contact me with any questions: treasurer@laurelhill.org. Thanks!
- Amanda Hing Hernandez, Treasurer (Maceo, AM)
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A Message from Sally, AM Purple Room Pre-K Teacher
Thank you, grown-ups, for all your hard work these past two weeks. We, the staff, hope you have been enjoying yourselves as much as we've enjoyed having you. These kids are all so lucky to have you looking after them!
As amazing and hilarious and adorable all these Laurel Hill kids are, we would like to encourage you to avoid praising them with the phrase, "Good job!" It seems to be an expression that pops out of people's mouths out of habit, and I'm hoping that the following suggestions will help curb that tendency. Kids are so good at all the important jobs that they do all day long, but they don't really need us telling them so. Again, thank you for all you do!
25 Alternatives to “Good Job”
Say thank you when you mean it – explain why you are grateful for your child’s actions.
- Thank you for helping with…
- It makes mornings/dinner/outings easier when you…. thank you
- I really appreciate it when you…
- Thank you for doing that… it means I/we can now…
Make an observation based on facts – just say what you see without emotions or judgment.
- We did it together.
- Wow! You made a building/drawing/etc.
- You did it on your own.
- You did x and then y and worked it out.
- You used lots of red paint/blocks/tape/etc.
- You made it really big/small/colourful/complicated/etc.
- That took you a long time, and you did it!
Extend and encourage – extend learning and encourage conversation by asking questions about what you see while also recognizing their efforts.
- How did you do that?
- You did X, what will you do now?
- Can you tell me about it?
- What is your favorite part?
- How did you think of that?
Put feelings into words – explain how something makes you feel, help your kids notice how their actions make others feel and acknowledge your children’s own feelings.
- I really enjoy doing this with you.
- I love watching you create/help your sister/play soccer/ etc.
- I’m so proud to be your mom, every day, no matter what.
- Look how happy your friend is when you share/help/smile/etc.
- You kept going, even when it was hard.
- You look so pleased to have done that!
- You made X feel so pleased when you did that.
- It makes you feel good when you do X.
Say nothing – we don’t need to praise every little action, or fill every space with noise. It is enough to sit back and watch our children’s delight in their own achievements
- Say nothing – just smile.
Changing this habit and taking the time to think of something better to say can be hard, and it takes more time and effort, but that is the point. It is next to meaningless if we just let rote praise spew out of our mouths without thinking. Only say something when you mean it, then you won’t notice the time and effort it takes to tell your child how you feel, how excited, or how thankful you are because it will be genuine.
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Calendar
Board Meeting
Tuesday, September 4, 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Parent Ed: Alumni Meeting: Kindergarten Check-in
Thursday, September 6, 7:30pm
Work Party: Building
Saturday, September 8, 9:30am – 12:30pm
Parent Ed: Philosophy Part I
Tuesday, September 11, 7:30pm
Parent Ed: Philosophy Part I (Makeup Sessions)
Friday, September 14, 9:15am & 1:15pm
Work Party: Yard
Saturday, September 15, 9:30am – 12:30pm
Mandatory Business Meeting
Tuesday, September 18, 7:30 – 9:30pm
Laurel Hill Pancake Breakfast
Saturday, September 22, 9am – 12pm
Giorgio's Pizza Monday
Monday, September 24, 11am – 9pm
Parent Ed: "Parent from a Place of Connection"
Tuesday, September 25, 7:30pm
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Upcoming Meeting Host Schedule
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