LSR7 Parents as Teachers

As the weather changes, we want to address how home visits look on AMI days and considering a virtual visit vs. canceling the visit for minor illnesses, older siblings home sick, etc.

For the 5 AMI days (alternate methods of instruction AKA snow days) the district declares, Parents as Teachers home visitors are expected to keep their home visits. Whether it is virtual or in person will need to be decided between you and your parent educator. Sometimes if school is canceled due to cold only, parent educators will keep their visits as scheduled. If the weather is bad, they may need to pivot to virtual. Either way, we appreciate you keeping your visit. Your parent educator may be able to move around the time if it is virtual to make it work for your schedule. The graphic below describes what a virtual visit might look like.

Virtual visits may also be considered if there is a minor illness (low grade fever but child is feeling fine) or an older sibling home from school. While we appreciate every effort to keep our parent educators safe and healthy, if you are able to still do a virtual visit in place of your in home visit, it truly helps our parent educators hit their goals and our program to stay strong! All our parent educators want to make sure the virtual visit is a great experience (while obviously not ideal), it will hopefully only be a one or two time deal! We want to be in home as much as you want us there, but we truly appreciate the flexibility of pivoting to virtual when weather and illness rear their ugly heads!

Make magical reindeer food using ingredients you probably already have lying around:

• Oats
• Sprinkles
• Glitter

Mix all the ingredients and put in a snack or treat bag. If you want, you can print the following poem and staple it to the front! Spread the magical reindeer food on Christmas Eve to guide the reindeers!

Sprinkle on the lawn Christmas Eve night,

The moonlight will make it sparkle bright,

As Santa’s reindeer fly and roam,

This will guide them to your home.

Developmental benefits of play (AAP: Ginsburg, 2007)

• Essential for healthy brain development

• Sparks creativity and curiosity

• Critical for expanding cognitive, language, SE and motor skills

• Facilitates a development of social skills

• Relevant and meaningful to the child

• Through play, children learn how to learn

• Enhances problem solving skills

• Helps children deal with frustration

Another important play-based skill to practice: crossing the midline! Crossing the midline refers to the ability to reach across the middle of the body with the arms and legs crossing over to the opposite side. Being able to cross midline is an important underlying skill. Children who have difficulty reaching across the midline may get stuck in mid-reach and have to switch hands. They may compensate by moving their whole trunk to reach toward the opposite side. Poor midline crossing also makes it difficult to visually track a moving object from one side to the other or to track from left to right when reading and writing.

Selfies with Santa!

Bring your camera to your visit with Santa at the Lee’s Summit History Museum (220 SW Main Street

Lee's Summit, MO) on the following Saturdays this holiday season:

• December 7th from 3-5 p.m.
• December 14th from 3-5 p.m.
• December 21st from 3-5 p.m.

Visit the Magic Tree!

Located at Paragon Star soccer complex (1401 NW River Rd, Lee's Summit, MO 64081). This tree is beautifully lit every night from November 27th through the new year and provides a unique and magical experience for all ages!

Christmas in the park

Now in its 37th year, this magical winter wonderland features more than one million lights and 200 animated displays, all designed and built entirely in-house by our talented crews! Your drive to the Longview Lake Campground begins at the Frank White Jr., Softball Complex. Admission is free. This year's voluntary exit donations will benefit 35 local charities.

• This video has really easy tips for making beautiful holiday cookies
• This article from the Today Show has helpful ideas for $0 spending this holiday season
• This is a handy-dandy week-by-week guide of what to watch on Netflix (to simplify vacation binging...!)
• This blog post is rich with ideas for how to pamper yourself over vacation without spending a dime.
• And if you're not really feeling the holiday spirit this year, that's ok, too. This post has concrete, useful suggestions for how to tend to your own wellbeing.