The CPES BobChat
November 3, 2024
How Can We Help Our Children Make Good Decisions?
We celebrated Red Ribbon Week last week. It is all about helping our children make good, healthy decisions in life. How can we best help them to do that? 1. Allow them to make developmentally appropriate decisions. Kids (and adults) build their choice muscles by using them. As adults, we should encourage our children to make increasingly difficult decisions that they can make. Little ones can decide whether they want to wear this or that and give a reason. Older students may choose an activity they may want to do on the weekend or how to spend birthday money. It is also OK to allow children to have a voice in decisions while reserving the right to make the final choice. If the adults always make all the decisions, children will never know how to do that when it is appropriate for them to do so. We are raising them to become more and more independent so they will make wise choices on their own. 2. Help them clarify the question and understand the facts. When making a decision, it is always best to know the parameters and boundaries of it. Do we know the who, what, when, where, why and how surrounding the choice that needs to be made? Do we have one, two, three or more choices? Have we gathered all the information needed before making the decision? Our children need our guidance and modeling in this process. Phrases like "You might want to consider..." or "Have you thought about....?" or "Do you understand the choices you have?" can be helpful to them. 3. Show them how to think through consequences. Every decision has outcomes that could be positive or negative. Sometimes the outcome could be good, better or best. We want our children to think about what could happen before making a final decision. Considering all the possibilities on the front end could impact choices which reduce painful consequences on the back end. One of the hardest parts of parenting is knowing when to allow our children to make decisions even when we think the outcomes might not be good. (Of course, we only want to do this when the stakes are low.) Failure can be a great teacher for our children if we help them to learn from it.
In order to help our kids grow and mature, let's do all we can to ask them, "What do you think you should do?" and then be ready to help them appropriately navigate the decision making process. When we do this well, their self-confidence increases and they learn to work through harder and harder choices as they become older. There is quickly coming a day when they are "out there on their own" and that is the worst time for them to begin learning how to make wise decisions. Let's equip them now to ensure their future success.
Strength and Blessings,
Mr. Maness
Bobcat Dash Pledge Forms
See information below.
Daylight Savings Begins Today
Be sure to "Fall Back" one hour today.
Election Day is Tuesday 11/5
This is a school holiday.
Pledges for Bobcat Dash are due Monday and Tuesday is Election Day (Holiday).
Notes and Reminders
1. Reminders--a. Daylight Savings Time--Ends today, November 3. Be sure to turn your clocks back an hour on next Sunday.
b. Tuesday, November 5 is Election Day--We will not have school that day.
c. Safety Reminders for Car Lines--Please do not use your cell phones so you can focus on driving.
2. Bobcat Dash Pledge Forms--Pledge Forms went home with students. Check your child's bookbag for them. Pledges are due Monday, November 4. See form below for more information.
3. Birthday Book Club Signups for November--We are gearing up for our Birthday Book Club celebration for the year! We will celebrate on Thursday, November7, 2024. Each child receives a free book of their choosing for their birthday! We need volunteers to help distribute the books during each students lunch time. You will find the sign up time slots on the sign up genius linked. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU ARE AN APPROVED VOLUNTEER THROUGH THE DISTRICT! It is district policy that all volunteers have been approved. Thank you so much for your help! https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0D49A4A923AAFBC70-50604723-november#/
4. November Book Fair--Please see information below as we prepare for the Book Fair coming the week of November 11-15.
5. Book Fair Volunteer Signups--It's that time of year!!! Dates for the book fair are November 11th - November 15th. We will need volunteers to assist students in the selection of items. You will find the signup time slots below. You are able to sign up for multiple slots if you would like. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU ARE AN APPROVED VOLUNTEER THROUGH THE DISTRICT! It is district policy that all volunteers have been approved. Thank you for your help.
School Calendar
November 3--Daylight Savings Time Ends--Turn clocks back an hour.
November 4--All Bobcat Pledges Are Due (Fundraiser prizes will be determined based on those turned in by the end of the day on that Monday.)
November 5--Election Day (No School)
November 7--Birthday Book Club
November 11-15--Book Fair
November 11--5:30 SIC; 6:30 PTO
November 20--Makeup Picture and Class Picture Day
November 27-29--Thanksgiving Holidays
Parent Organizations
Parent Teacher Organization--This group has three main goals: Raising funds for the school, appreciating the staff and securing volunteers as needed. The Cherry Park PTO is a 501c3 tax deductible organization. Meetings are held at Cherry Park on the second Monday of each month at 6:30 PM (right after the SIC meetings.) All parents are invited to attend. All financial records are distributed and updated at each month's meeting. Officers this year are Amanda Winters (President), Emmanuel Daniel (Vice-President), Celia Kerr (Secretary) and Shannon Martin/Caroline Stubbs (Co-Treasurers). We appreciate all of our sponsors (above) who contributed to our Bobcat Dash this year.
Previous Newsletters for 24-25 School Year
"Who Made a Difference at the Bobcat Dash?" October 27, 2024 https://secure.smore.com/n/v7pxu
"What Do You Need to Know about the Bobcat Dash?" October 20, 2024 https://secure.smore.com/n/jecu8
"How Do We Help Kids Process Difficult Events?" October 13, 2024 https://secure.smore.com/n/nefrt
"How Can We Help Kids 'Handle Hard Better?'" October 5, 2024 https://secure.smore.com/n/brh0j
"What Should We Remember When We Have Bad Weather?" September 29, 2024 https://secure.smore.com/n/28hfx
"What Do Great Coaches Do?" September 22, 2024 https://secure.smore.com/n/cuktn
"How Can We Support the Bobcat Dash on 10/25?" September 15, 2024 https://secure.smore.com/n/vs3uwm
"What Are We Thinking about Safety This Week?" September 8, 2024 https://secure.smore.com/n/pxhd6
"What is the Difference between PTO and SIC?" September 1, 2024 https://secure.smore.com/n/syh3t
"How Are We Doing?" August 25, 2024 https://secure.smore.com/n/b2a9s
"What Lessons Can We Learn from the Olympics? (Part 2) August 18, 2024 https://secure.smore.com/n/9fe7s
"What Lessons Can We Learn from the Olympics? (Part 1)" August 11, 2024 https://secure.smore.com/n/ejr3s
"How Can We 'Be' Ready for the First Day of School? (Final Reminders) August 4, 2024 https://secure.smore.com/n/0wvx9
"What Do Families Need to Know about Open House" August 3, 2024 https://secure.smore.com/n/3wx9d
"How Can We Start Getting Ready for School?" (Part 4) July 28, 2024 https://secure.smore.com/n/59pwv
"How Can We Start Getting Ready for School?" (Part 3) July 21, 2024 https://secure.smore.com/n/y0w1e
"How Can We Start Getting Ready for School?" (Part 2) July 14, 2024 https://secure.smore.com/n/x5hed
"How Can We Start Getting Ready for School?" July 7, 2024 https://secure.smore.com/n/6x9vk
"Who's and What's New at Cherry Park? (Part 3) June 30, 2024 https://secure.smore.com/n/ksd0u
"Who's New at Cherry Park? (Part 2) June 2, 2024 https://secure.smore.com/n/8cuf1g
"Who's New at Cherry Park? (Part 1)" May 26, 2024 https://secure.smore.com/n/c0pnvt