Dear Serene Sailor Families,

Thank you for your patience with the newsletter from last week. The system we use for sending out communications has been down.

I wanted to share a piece of an article from Love & Logic this week:

"Do your kids make enough mistakes? I’m afraid not.

Most kids need to make a lot more mistakes while they are young, when the consequences for those mistakes are small. We all know that the cost of making bad decisions grows with the age of kids.

One mother said it this way, “Far better that my child totals her tricycle when she’s little. If I protect her from that, she’ll be more likely to total the family car when she is a teenager.”

One of the important core beliefs of Love and Logic is that every childhood mistake can be a learning experience provided there is no rescue from the consequences. When mistakes are handled with empathy and consequences, kids develop an internal voice that says, “I wonder how my next decision will affect me?” This is the gift of Love and Logic.

When parents do all the thinking, they rob kids of the opportunity to learn from their mistakes and send the message that the kids are not capable of figuring things out for themselves. Give your kids the can-do message: Let them do the thinking. When they learn from their mistakes they build character, strength, and confidence.

However, this is not absolute. This does not apply when it has to do with loss of life or limb. In these situations, parents must intervene.

There are other situations when I would be willing to rescue a child from a mistake. It really doesn’t hurt to rescue a child who is usually quite respectful, appreciative, and responsible. It feels good to help this kind of person and it can actually help reinforce relationships.

On the other hand, rescuing a demanding, unappreciative, and irresponsible person never feels good. And it does nothing to develop relationships and only reinforces irresponsibility."

-Jim Fay

Love and Logic

This spoke to me both as a parent and an educator, and I hope it does the same for you.

Best of luck to everyone with detox'ing these kiddos from the Halloween sugar rush!

Have a super weekend!

Warmly,

Keegan Luedecke

Nov. 3: Daylight Savings Ends - Fall Back!

Nov. 5: Election Day - Remember to Vote!

Nov. 11: Veterans' Day Assemblies / Wear Red, White, & Blue

Nov. 11-15: Kindness Week / National School Psychology Week

Nov. 12: School Picture Retakes

Nov. 13: World Kindness Day

Nov. 18-22: Book Fair

Nov. 22: PTO Open Board Meeting @ 11AM

Nov. 25-29: Thanksgiving Break

Dec. 11: Early Release Day #2 @ 11:40 / No Extended Care

Dec. 12: School Spelling Bee

Dec. 13: 4th Grade Field Trip to the Meadows Center

Dec. 20: Holiday Parties / Early Release Day @11:40 / No Extended Care

Dec. 21- Jan. 7: Winter Break

Learning means doing something new every day. Sometimes when we’re doing something new, we get stuck and don’t know what to do. If we get stuck, we can use a skill for learning—being assertive—to ask for help. Being assertive means asking for what you need or want in a calm, firm, respectful way. Face the person you are talking to, and keep your head up and shoulders back. When you can’t figure out what to do in class, remember to be assertive and ask for help.

We finally have a crossing guard on Trophy Drive in the mornings! Please remember to cross at the crosswalk and look both ways before crossing. Also, please drive slowly, patiently, and carefully especially at arrival and dismissal times. Little ones can pop out from behind cars and into the road in the blink of an eye, and we want all our students to stay safe.

In addition, we always encourage our bike riders to wear helmets while riding.

This book is by former U.S. poet laureate, Joy Harjo, with illustrations by Caldecott winning illustrator, Michaela Goade. Harjo’s poem reminds children of the importance of family heritage and traditions as well as human’s connection to earth and nature. This book is available in the SHE library.

We're ready to stock the teacher's lounge again with snacks and drinks. If you are out grocery shopping this coming weekend, please consider grabbing some individually wrapped granola bars, chips, beef jerky, cookies, crackers, popcorn, sparkling water, K Cups, trail mix, pretzels, sodas, diet sodas, etc. and bring them to the front office next week. Thank you so much!

Did you know...October was dyslexia awareness month? On our campus Michaela Buddle, Stacey Lewis, and Amy Wilkinson provide dyslexia services to identified students. For more information on dyslexia & related disorders, please refer to this handout (Spanish) and the LTISD website.

Tickets are on sale now through October 26 for our Parent's Gala and Fundraiser being held on November 16th at Flintrock Falls Clubhouse. Don't miss out on one of our favorite events of the year!

Serene Hills Elementary Disco Ball Gala and Fundraiser

Please help us honor our nations' veterans by telling us about your own. Copies will come home with students next week, or you can print your by clicking the image above.

Are you headed to the grocery store today? Be sure to save those plastic bags! We are striving to help our school become a greener campus and partnering with Ridwell once again for a plastic film drive. Please hold on to your air pillows (the air filled plastic bags that come in shipping boxes), grocery bags, ziploc bags, bread bags, shipping envelopes, bubble wrap, produce bags, dry cleaning bags, outer bags (like the ones that toilet paper and paper towels come in), and cereal bags. In a week or two, we will have a box set up in the front foyer of the school for plastic bags (I will send out a notice when its ready).

We can make a huge difference by keeping all this out of our landfills! Ridwell has teamed up with Trex to turn all this plastic film into high performance composite decking.

Serene Hills will receive a free plastic film pickups from January-June with the 10 new sign ups for residential services and a field trip to their facility with 20 new sign ups! If you are interested in adding additional recycling services to your own household, please use our unique landing page:

https://get.ridwell.com/she

I am a personal Ridwell customer and love knowing that plastic film, batteries, clothing that cannot be donated, light bulbs, and multi layer plastic (this includes SO much) is not getting dumped. -Rachel Ellis

Education Connection Literacy Partners is excited to invite the Serene Hills Community to participate in their 2024 Holiday Book Drive in partnership with Barnes & Noble at the Hill Country Galleria. Customers who wish to participate will purchase a book suitable for elementary students at our Bee Cave Galleria Barnes and Noble, pay for it at the register, and tell the cashier that the book is for Literacy Partners. The cashier will place the book in the donation box behind the register. Some of these books will be gifted to our Reading Buddies at SHE during our annual end-of-year celebration; other books will go to Reading Buddies at other elementary schools in our community.

Here are the details:

Store Location:
12701 Hill Country Blvd, Ste O-140
Bee Cave, TX 78738
(512) 263-7402

Store Hours:

· Monday-Saturday: 10 am – 8 pm

· Sunday: 11 am – 6 pm

Dates of Book Drive:
Friday, November 1, through Thursday, December 12

Order early now through October 31st for a 10% early bird discount!

www.treering.com/validate

Enter school passcode: 101663195800543

Useful Links:

Serene Hills:

Serene Hills Elementary Homepage

Transportation:

LTISD Transportation

Transfinder

SmartTag

Food and Nutrition Services (FANS):

LTISD FANS

My School Bucks

Menus

Lake Travis ISD Mobile App

LTISD Extended Care Program

#SHEtheBestisYettoCome #LTWorkofHeart

The Serene Hills Elementary community commits to engaging every student in innovative, collaborative learning focused on growth and to igniting a passion for learning in which everyone is valued.

Website: https://www.ltisdschools.org/SHE
Location: 3301 Serene Hills Drive, Lakeway, TX, United States
Phone: 512-533-7400
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/serenehillspto/
Twitter: @SHEsailors