Volume 1, Issue 2 - April 2022

Celebrate el Día del Niño/Children’s Day with NOLS!

NOLS will be celebrating Children’s Day this April with crafts, games and books! Starting Monday, April 25, bring your children between ages 3-12 to any NOLS library to pick up a Take and Make kit.

It's Saturday April 30th at 11am, join the library staff on Zoom to play online!.

¡NOLS celebrará el Día del Niño/Children’s Day este abril con manualidades, juegos y libros! A partir del lunes 25 de abril, traiga a sus niños entre las edades de 3 a 12 años a cualquier biblioteca de NOLS para recoger un kit de Llevar y Hacer.

¡E sábado 30 de abril a las 11 am, únase al personal de la biblioteca en Zoom para jugar en línea!

https://www.nols.org/dia-del-nino/

Sequim School District Kindergarten Registration

Sequim School district Kindergarten registration is all online on their website. They Need to provide birth certificate and proof of residence.
Homeless families or families that are doubling up Due to economic difficulties can contact Marin packer (McKinney Vento school navigator).

Enrollment-Registration Information - Sequim School District (sequimschools.org)

Healthy Kids Day- Saturday, April 30th, from 10 a.m.-noon

FREE and fun event for kids and their families! We'll have fun activities and booths set up in the parking lot with games, prizes, and more! For more information, please visit https://www.olympicpeninsulaymca.org/hkd

Healthy Kids Day® is an annual event that celebrates the health and well-being of kids at YMCAs around the country over the last 30 years. The Olympic Peninsula YMCA will offer Healthy Kids Day events on Saturday, April 30, at its YMCA locations in Sequim and Port Angeles. Each event will offer fun activities for kids ranging from arts and crafts to physical activities, games, prizes and more! Don't miss out on this fun event for kids and their families.

Parenting & Playgroup Programs

Family Fun Nights! YMCA

We're bringing Family Fun Night back next Friday, April 1, from 5:30-7:00 p.m.! Bring your kids and families to the Y for a night of fun including a bounce house, tumbling mats, arts & crafts, dancing and more! For more information, call 360-452-9244. Upcoming dates:

• May 6th, 2022 -Cinco De Mayo

• June 3rd, 2022 -School Is Out

Free Parenting Classes

This Newborn Parenting Class - great information!!! For new parents….

Newborn Classes | Mount Sinai Parenting Center takes you to a good video!

Why Do Infants Cry When You Sit But Stop Crying When You Stand Up?

It’s interesting how babies immediately stop crying when you stand up with them in your arms and gently rock them. It seems almost as if they’re throwing one of their many tantrums and seeking attention. Gently swaying them on your lap doesn’t seem to work; distracting them with their favorite toy doesn’t seem to work — they continue crying. However, the minute you spring up, the crying seems to stop. What exactly is this behavior, and why is your little one behaving this way?

Read Early and Often

You probably know that it’s important to read to your child. You also may have heard that starting earlier is better. But maybe you feel a little silly reading aloud to an infant? Or you can’t figure out how to keep your 6-month-old from eating the corners of the book, or get your toddler to sit still and listen? We’ve all been there. Although it seems babies are too young to enjoy being read to, they’re learning something new at every stage.

1. Why Read to Babies?

2. Reading: Ages and Stages

Blue Sky Thinking

“Take the mobile off the bed, take care of their needs, and leave them alone.” This odd sentence was my introduction to Magda Gerber and the child care philosophy that would become my passion. I had given birth a few months before reading this quotation, the only one by Gerber, in an article in L.A. Parent magazine about raising a creative child.

I remember nothing else about the article, but I could not get Gerber’s unconventional advice out of my mind. I was, at that point, a lost and desperate new mother, who, in spite of reading books and getting plenty of well-meaning advice from relatives and friends, was miserable with the clueless, catch-as-catch-can feeling I had about the way I was caring for my newborn. I sensed that Magda Gerber held the answers I needed to understand child rearing. A few weeks later I called the phone number for Gerber’s organization, Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE), and I attended a Parent/Infant Guidance Class with my three-month-old baby. But first let me backtrack a bit.

Read Aloud

Toddlers are very busy learning about themselves and the world around them. They need to have activities to keep them safe.

Read Aloud - Subscribe to our Newsletter

Toddler Defiance and the Brain: They Know Better, But Can They Do Better? (yes, but they need help)

The difference between 2-year-old defiance and 3-year-old defiance is that smirk. That twinkle in their eye, the thrill of knowing better, but still doing it anyway.

That irresistible urge to flex their newfound power of assertiveness, the realization that they have power too — the knowledge that their reactions can cause a big reaction in you.

You know what I’m talking about right?

Behind the Music: ‘Big Heart World’ Seconds That Emotion

Music, emotion and language are all tied up together. Neuroscientist Alistair Jennings has written that the brain “processes musical syntax using the same area it uses to process language syntax.” University of California Berkeley neuroscientists have mapped 13 emotions to songs ranging from “The Star-Spangled Banner” to the Clash’s “Rock the Casbah.” Science may be starting to untangle these connections, but they remain elusive. Is music’s emotional power universal or culturally determined? Do its effects change as we age?

Read more: Infants the World Over Can Spot a Lullaby—in Any Language

United Way of Clallam County partnered with North Olympic Library Foundation and North Olympic Library System to start a local affiliate of The Dolly Parton Imagination Library. A Free Book Gifting Program!!

In 1995, Dolly Parton launched an exciting new effort, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, to benefit the children of her home county in East Tennessee, USA. Dolly’s vision was to foster a love of reading among her county’s preschool children and their families. The new program gave each child a specially selected book each month. By mailing high quality, age appropriate books directly to their homes, Dolly wanted children to be excited about books and to feel the magic that books can create. Moreover, she could ensure that every child would have books, regardless of their family’s income.

Register your child here.

***If your child is already signed up for the Imagination Library and you need to update your information please contact Jennifer Lubecke at jlubecke@nols.org.

3 Reasons Kids Don’t Need Toilet Training (And What To Do Instead)

As a parenting teacher and writer (Janet Lansbury), my intention is to support, encourage, and answer questions. So I feel a teensy twinge of guilt when I’m asked for advice about toilet training, and my response is, essentially, don’t.

Children don’t need adults to train them to use the toilet. They do need attuned, communicative parents and caregivers to support and facilitate the toilet learning process, a process that is individual to each child.

These are the 3 main reasons I don’t recommend adult-led toilet training:

Our Mama Village | Facebook has some great advice…

From our friends at Vroom.org

Scavenger hunts are great brain builders, but you don't need to buy anything to make them happen. Pick a color or letter and go on a scavenger hunt to find as many things as you can. How many things can you find that are blue? How many things that start with the letter T? Count out loud together as you find each item.

Scavenger hunts like this one help your child get to know the world around them and teach them to make connections between similar things.

Tissue paper or coffee filters, watercolors, and pipe cleaners!!!!

Videos to transform worry, anger, perfectionism and negative thinking into resilience

Websites/Programs to Checkout:

Prevention Works Clallam County | Facebook has lots of helpful posts for parents

https://www.momjunction.com Information on marriage, pregnancy, and parenting. They also have a Facebook Private Group: Momjunction Community

Toddler and Preschool Activities - totally free activities and educational ideas for moms, dads, caregivers, teachers, and grandparents. This group shares free ideas and links to keep kids busy and learning.

Peninsula Pre-Three Cooperative (Port Angeles)

A parent-run cooperative preschool affiliated with Peninsula College's Family Life Education Program.

Program Philosophy

The Pre-3 Cooperative is a place for parents, grandparents, and caregivers with young children to come with their child each week for a wide variety of activities led by an experienced Early Childhood Education teacher. Parents join others in a parent discussion with a Parent Education Instructor from Peninsula College. The Peninsula Pre-3 Cooperative has been offering programs to parents of young children on the Peninsula for more than 30 years.

Class Times & Age Groupings

TUESDAY CLASS – 9:30 to 11:00 a.m.: 10 months – 2 years*
WEDNESDAY CLASS – 9:30 to 11:00 a.m.: 18 months – 3 ½ years*
THURSDAY EVENING CLASS – 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.: 10 months – 3 ½ years* (MIXED AGE CLASS)

* Child's age in September

Crescent Cooperative Preschool - Opportunities for Ages 3 to 5 Years

A parent-run cooperative preschool affiliated with Peninsula College's Family Life Education Program.

Program Philosophy

The Crescent Cooperative Preschool provides an environment in which children are encouraged to grow socially, emotionally, physically, and intellectually. The school sets the stage and provides the material for children to learn through discovery, play, and experimentation. The belief is that the experience of doing is more important than that of the finished product. We consider the school to be a place where children can develop independence and self-confidence while socializing with other children their own age.

We believe the preschool should be a cheerful place, providing enough space with suitable equipment for young children to meet their individual needs. The program follows a flexible routine and is unhurried. The teacher works with the children in a group as well as one-on-one.

Crescent Cooperative Preschool contracts with Crescent School District to provide classroom involvement for children three to five years of age with special needs.

Class Times

Preschool: Children attend class 2-4 days a week from 8:00 AM - 11:00 AM.
Preschool Parents work in the classroom on a rotating basis as assigned. The Parenting Education discussions are held once a month at a prearranged time.

Age Groupings

Preschool: 3 years to 5 years
Fridays – Getting Ready for Kindergarten: extra class for 4-5 years old