Are SAC Relationships Worth the Time?

Daile's beautiful baby boy

My arms were full of groceries as I rushed out of the supermarket when I heard a tentative voice call out to me.

I swung around to see a young woman entering the store with a young baby secured tightly in her grocery cart.

"Daile!" I said.

She flashed a beaming smile and in that instant I was transported to 1994.

I remember Daile with her carefully braided hair, the graceful bowing of her violin and her soft spoken nature.  I had known her from her first grade to fifth grade and had seen her coaxed ever so gradually out of her shell.

After her fifth grade (and extended day) graduation, her family and I had kept in touch.

Years later I stood with other mothers taking picture of her and her friends before they went to prom.

Today Daile has finished college and is a young working mother herself.

She is a picture of happiness.

Tired happiness, she tells me, as she now tries to mentally check boxes and juggle priorities as an adult.

I could hear the pride and confidence in her voice as she tells me about life.

I interrupt her mid sentence to say: "Daile, when did you get to be all grown up?"

She laughed and and said, "I wish we could get together soon..."

As we went our separate ways I could not help but feel proud to have been a part of her growing up years.

I believe that somehow, the positive experiences she will provide for her son will be in part, due to the kind of environment we contributed to her childhood.

For myself  it is moments like that-- encounters with former children in my school-age care program-- that I realize that the twelve years that I devoted to my work there, was meaningful.

It is also just another validation that those school-age care relationships can and will last a lifetime if you treat the children in your program with respect and genuine care.

-Chesca Silva

What We Can Do Without

The children who come to the center on the university campus are from different countries around the world. Many of their parents are studying in the United States, leaving friends and familiarity to be together.

"It's amazing,"one parent tells Sarah, one of the teachers.

"These kids do so well with so many different backgrounds. You must have six different languages in this room."

"My theory is that it works because there is one language that none of the children know very well yet," Sarah replies.

"What's that?" the parent asks.

Sarah answered: "Prejudice."

(Source: For the Love of Children Daily Affirmations for People Who Care for Children.

by Jean Steiner and Mary Steiner Whelan)

Patience

I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand.
-Chinese Proverb

Charlie struggles to get all of his school stuff into his backpack.
"Weren't you here when we had a session about how to do that?" the teacher asks.
"I was here but I forgot." says the ten year old.
The teacher empties the backpack. "Watch. Put your books in like this," he says demonstrating
how to put the books in so their titles are visible."
"Now, try again," he tells Charlie.
Charlie slides in two spiral-backed notebooks, his grammar text and workbook and a math book and stuffs in a snack. "It all fits," he grins.
At the after-school club, Charlie drops the backpack to the floor while he opens his locker.
Nothing spills.
"See that," he says to his friend Kevin, who's scrambling after papers that slid out of his canvas back. "Packed it myself."

*Patience with children teaches not only the lesson at hand, but also gives children the pride of accomplishment that is necessary for building faith in themselves.

(Source: For the Love of Children: Daily affirmations For People Who Care for Children
by Jean Steiner and Mary Steiner Whelan)

Challenges We Face in SAC

Round Table Discussion is defined as a number of persons gathered together for conference and discussion of a topic.

On January 29, 2009 a group of after-school professionals came together to participate in the first SAC Round Table in southwestern PA this year. Before discussing the challenges that we face in the SAC field, we talked about what we thought we were doing right and what we would like to see more of in SAC programs.

What we are doing right:
* Staff plan for and with our after-school children.
* After-school programs are flexible.
* Staff understand that relationships are important.
* Staff are role models.
* Children are given choices.
* Parents learn more about their children through assessments and daily interactions with staff.
* After-school programs are not a continuation but a supplement to school and home.
* Children feel safe not just physcially but emotionally.
* After-school programs broaden the horizons of the children they serve.
* Please add to this list in the comments section.

Challenges we face:
* Finding and retaining good staff.
* Properly compensating quality staff.
* Building positive relationships with families.
* Sharing common goals between directors, parents, staff and children.
* Transporting children to and from programs.
* Dedicating space specifically for after-school needs.
* Serving children with special needs.
* Stating and implementing policies that deal with behavior issues.
* Finding the time and motivation to attend professional development.
* Please add to this list in the comments section.

Round table discussions serve as 2 professional development hours and also serve as an opportunity to network and share ideas about SAC issues. We hope more people will be able to join us for the next session. We will keep you posted for the next meeting and hope to see you there.

It was nice to meet Traci, Mary Lou and Christopher.
Thanks to Jan for leading the round table.

Suzanne and Chesca

The Secret to Teaching Science to Kids

Every child should have a solid science education regardless of whether they want to be the next Albert Einstein or Michael Jordan. Science is all around us, it is everywhere, effecting everything that we do. The “we” in that last statement includes children. Children that understand how science plays a role in our everyday lives have a wonderful foundation for success in life. This is what it means to give them a good educational science foundation for life.
In today’s world the idea that the only people that need to understand science are those that will work as scientists and engineers is seriously outdated. Making sure that all children have a good science education is vital to each child being a success regardless of their background, talent or abilities. Children need to be able to make sense of the world around them, so that they can make the best decisions possible in relation to what they want to do in life, or with life for that matter.

Teaching Children with Toys!

Children can learn science at any age really. The earlier they start the better. The best way for kids to learn is through play and repetition. There are wonderful science toys for preschool science activities. Babies learn cause and effect, they are hungry the cry. They are wet they cry. They are learning that you respond to what they need if they cry. That is science is a very simplistic form. Wooden blocks or architect blocks are wonderful for teaching balance and stacking and lessons in gravity. Baby crawl mats are also wonderful teaching toys that are a lot of fun for babies.

With play being the best way kids learn, it only makes sense then to introduce toys to them that encourage understanding science. Children love to use their imagination to have fun and to help them figure out the world around them. So play is a wonderful time to be introducing science to them. Think of the games that we used to play; Don’t Spill the Beans, Don’t Break the Ice, the Telephone Game, Lincoln logs, patty cake, each of these games has a science behind it. Each of these games are wonderful science games or toys for the pre K school age group.

Another popular toy is the Block N Roll, which is a construction block system with hundreds of possibilities, such as building a space ship that a child can sit in, to constructing the tallest tower that they have ever seen. There are also “board games” that teach science are fun for the family, such as Aggravation or Chinese Checkers.

Children are by nature curious as they feel out the world, trying to makes sense of what is around them. Science feeds that curiosity hunger that they have. It is a hunger that needs to be encouraged and satisfied the best that it can be. Finding these toys is not as hard as one would think. To make sure that you get good quality toys, visit science toy shops online. These are the best places to find unique science toys such as 3-D space projectors, or Hydro Greenhouses.

Help your children appreciate the world around them with understanding the world around them. This way, they understand how we are all linked together. Children will not only question the world, but be able to come up with answers to those questions on their own. Science is life. 
By: Barry Chickini

 Article from: eslteachersboard.com

From Fast food to Family Style

Image from culinarymenus.com
"The human mind treats a new idea the same way the body treats a strange protein; it rejects it."

-PB Medawar

Throughout my years of running an after-school program for 70 children, there were many things that we did just because "that was the way it had always been done."
As I began the self study process of working towards NAA accreditation, I realized that what may have seemed to be the easiest way of doing something was not necessarily in the best interest of the children.

Case in point was snack time.

When I took over as director, the snack routine was already in place. All children would check in, wash their hands and line up to walk beside a long table that had snacks sitting in coffee filters followed by juice already poured into cups.  They would then have to walk back to their assigned tables which were by grade. (Yes, we had lots of spills! What were we thinking?)

As I began to understand the NAA standards, I realized that we were not giving the children any choices (first of when to eat and then what to eat). It was a time for change.

As anyone in the position of management has experienced, change can be difficult. In this case, it was most difficult for the staff. My desire to upgrade our standards was met with much opposition.

I wanted to serve snack family style. 

The tables were covered with tablecloths and adorned with center pieces. 

Children passed snack to one another, served themselves using tongs or plastic gloves and yes, poured their own drinks. It would be a time to enjoy each others company, socialize, eat and reinforce table manners.

My staff said:

"But if we do it that way, there will be a mess to clean up."
"There will be a lot of waste."
"It will take longer."

My reply was that the children will learn responsibility and would be empowered to decide when they were hungry.  The children would also learn to clean up their messes and spills (with assistance from staff).  I also realized that during school time,  the younger children were eating lunch 11:00 a.m. and the older children were eating at 2:00 p.m..  Needless to say, the younger ones were famished by the time they arrived at 3:30, while the older ones did not want a snack until 4:30.  In serving snack the old way, we were not meeting their needs by forcing everyone to eat right when they arrived all at the same time.

Eventually we succeeded in making the transition and it is one of the changes that I am most proud of.  I found that snack time became a time for building relationships (not only between children but between children and staff).  Sitting with the children while they snacked soon became my favorite time of day!

Just the other day I spoke at a professional development session and one of the SAC practitioners shared a great idea.  

Their program (Child Development Center, Inc. in Franklin,PA) uses a syrup dispenser for the young children to pour their juice. It is much smaller and the children are able to control it better than a regular pitcher. 

What a great idea! All I can say is we learn something new everyday.

by Suzanne Ashman

"You'll Never Catch Me on Stage"

"No, not me." She said that she would never get up on stage in front of people.
As an 11 year old, Jen was pretty adamant about that.
Her shyness was precluding her from joining her friends as they participated in the annual variety show.
She reminded me of myself.
I remembered what it felt like to be that age and I recalled my own battles with stage fright.
I decided to help her conquer this fear by giving her a purpose to be on stage.
I asked her to be one of the pole handlers in an ethnic dance called Tinikling.

I told her I needed someone dependable.
Someone who would not drop the poles nor catch a child's ankle with it.
At first she resisted, but she agreed to help with the practices.
Pretty soon Jen was the best pole handler.
She knew that she was important to the success of the dance number.
Finally she agreed to do it on stage, on the condition that she would have her back to the audience.
I agreed, but only if she promised to take a bow before and after the dance.
And she did.

I have had the chance to bump into Jen as a young woman today.
She told me that that experience was one of the biggest achievements of her young life--and it helped arm her with the confidence she needed to manage large groups of children at a local Boys and Girls Club.
Jen is now a senior in college doing her student teaching and I have no doubt will be an excellent teacher for years to come.

by Chesca S.

To see how this story is linked to the NAA standards, click here.

*We welcome your own heart warming stories about your work with children.