Spring Gardening Tutorial

Liz Mansfield, B. A. in Fine Arts, Director of Operations

Spring has sprung and that makes this gardener very happy! This time every year, my green thumb wakes up right along with the early blooming crocuses and forsythia. As Artisan’s resident gardener, I thought I would provide some easy and fun ways to get your household on the “grow your own food” bandwagon!

From an early childhood education perspective, teaching children about the life cycle of plants, what they need to thrive and the various parts of the plant is an obvious science lesson-in-the-making. What is more challenging is teaching young children concepts like respect for the environment and sustainability. Look no further, gardening to the rescue! While those are big words, they are easy concepts for children to understand, especially if kids are included in things like growing and harvesting their own foods.

Kitchen Scrap Gardening

This is a great way to turn trash into treasure! Did that last clove of garlic get lost in the produce drawer and start sprouting? Plant it! Did grandma give you a package of dried bean soup you will never use? Crack open the package and plant those beans! Have your carrots gone soft before you could use them? Cut the tops off and plant those too! Since most food scraps initially are grown in water before being transplanted into soil, this is a quick (and clean) way to involve children. It could also save you a few dollars on your future grocery runs. For the real over-achievers out there, you could take daily photos of your plants and make a flip book, or have your child observe and chart growth progress daily or weekly.

Kidsgardening.org is a wonderful organization helping to bring gardens into the lives of children. They have plenty of resources to get started, including this handy guide for Kitchen Scrap Gardening!

Sprout Houses

Think of a sprout house as a homemade Chia Pet. Although most commonly used for grass seeds, edible microgreens like Chia or wheatberries can also be grown on a sprout house. Here is a Simple Sprout House Blueprint for you to get started.

Plastic Bag Seed Starter

You may remember this from your own days at preschool or elementary school! This soil-less planting option is another great mess-free gardening activity for children. A zip top bag, a wet paper towel, a sunny window and the seeds of your choice are all you need to get started. Carefully wrap seeds in the wet paper towel, pop them in the bag, zip shut and tape the bag to a sunny window. In as little as a couple of days, your seeds should sprout and continue to grow! Once they reach about 6 inches tall, you can transplant them to small cups or planters with soil until it is warm enough to move them outside to the garden.

Planting Suggestions for Small Gardens

A garden does not have to be very big to yield a hefty quantity of veggies. Even a window box can support many salad’s-worth of produce. Some other smaller garden options are elevated garden carts or raised beds. Building your own raised bed is relatively simple but does require a bit of elbow grease and some tools. Premade raised beds are also available for purchase, fully assembled.

Gardener's Supply Company is a great resource for these types of systems, along with thousands of other garden-related products.
For smaller gardens, I recommend staying away from veggies like cucumbers, melons and squash. Not only do they require quite a bit of water to reach maturity, but they are vines that like to sprawl and climb. Unless you have a trellis system for your raised bed, one or two of these beasts could easily take over all your growing space. Tomatoes are a popular choice for new gardeners; probably because they’re SO much better than store-bought. Sadly, most tomato plants are also vines, so have a tendency to become spindly and require propping up/tomato cages. If tomatoes are on your must-have list for your smaller garden, seek out “determinate” or bush varieties. This will limit the size of the plant overall and leave room for your other plantings.

Herbs, green beans, corn, peppers, onions, broccoli and lettuce are all good choices for a smaller garden. Lettuce and many other greens like spinach and kale can continue to yield all summer long if harvested properly and not up-rooted. A word of warning from this gardener, cauliflower and sweet potatoes seem to require a higher level of knowledge and skill. If you are a first timer, I would shy away from these options regardless of the cauliflower rice and sweet potato French fry craze.

Lastly, if you’re planning to start a garden this spring, seek out your seeds and starts (baby plants that you transplant into your garden rather than starting from seeds) early. Gardening during the pandemic seems to be a popular trend and many suppliers are running low on stock. Since last spring’s seed potatoes were backordered and then “lost in the mail,” I bought my seed potatoes in February to ensure I had them in time for planting this year!

While I’m certainly not an expert, I’m happy to answer questions to help get your family gardening! Happy planting! 😊

Dealing with Tantrums

By Kelsey McCarthy, M. Ed. Assistant Director, Artisan Childcare Center - Newton

As everyone works to balance home and work life it would be expected to see a rise in the tantrums your child might be experiencing. Tantrums are an expected part of child development however that does not make them any less difficult to deal with. Below are a few strategies for dealing with tantrums as well as what might trigger them.

• Tantrums are a response to a problem that needs to be fixed or a need that hasn’t been met. Often children do not have the emotional capacity to respond in a different way so a tantrum manifests.
• Tantrums can be a learned behavior. If children lack the emotional understanding to reason out their problem and they feel that tantrums have worked in the past, they will continue to fall back on them.

Here are some strategies for coping with tantrums:

• Don’t give in: this reinforces the idea that tantrums work when they are not getting what they want
• Remain calm: This will help them begin to calm down as you model the behavior you would like to see.
• Ignore negative behavior and praise the positive. Tip: Make sure the praise is labelled. For example, instead of saying “That was nice” say “It was nice that you shared your toy when your turn was over”.
• Use consistent consequences: It is important to follow through with stated consequences every time. Children respond well when they know what the consequence will be and know that it will happen every time.
• Don’t try to reason with a child that is having a tantrum. Once they have calmed down you can model negotiating but that will not be successful if they, or you, are feeling upset. Tip: use language like, “I can sit with you until you are feeling calm again and then we can talk about it”.

Yoga Pretzel Activity:

Be a Rainbow: This is a mindfulness activity that you could used to redirect your child after a tantrum. This will help them calm down and focus on something else.

• Relax and close your eyes and go inside. Slow down your breathing… sigh, ah… let go and melt into the floor. Imagine you are walking down a beautiful path. A storm is clearing and you see a rainbow. Stand under it and let its warm, bright light fill you with happiness. You are connected to all life. You are a rainbow too.
• Red: You are strong and safe. Orange: you are happy and playful. Yellow: you are proud and confident. Green: you are kind and caring. Blue: you are honest and truthful. Indigo: you are clever and creative. Violet: you are a good friend.
• As you are lying on the floor you could pretend to look at a rainbow above you. For younger children you could take turns pointing out different colors and talk about how they make you feel. For older children you could use the color key and discuss which color they might feel like today.

I hope this information can be helpful. If you are struggling with tantrums at home and have more specific questions feel free to reach out! Your child’s classroom teacher, Nicole Catalano, and I are all great resources when it comes to emotional milestones that children may be having trouble with. Be well!

Working on Transitions

By Kelsey McCarthy, M. Ed. Assistant Director, Artisan Childcare Center - Newton

Transitions can often be difficult for children to navigate as they begin to develop the skills to move from one part of their day to another. This part of a child’s day can often be difficult for both child and parent. A lot of children have a hard time switching from a favored activity. This becomes even less appealing when they are being asked to do something they do not necessarily want to do, like get ready for bed. The Child Mind Institute (childmind.org) had a lot of helpful articles on the best way to deal with tricky transitions. I have compiled a list below of a few tips that should help daily transitions go a bit smoother!

• Give a verbal or visual countdown: Leading up to a transition make sure to give verbal warnings about what the transition will be and how much longer they have with their current activity. With young children the use of a visual timer can be particularly helpful. There are a number of visual timer phone apps that will show your child how much time is passing. Sand timers, bubble timers, and “time timers” are all great physical timers as well. Tip: allow your child to help set the timer so they can feel like they have more control over when their time will be up.

• Getting their attention: Make sure you have your child’s attention by making eye contact, sitting next to them, placing your hand on their shoulder, or asking them to repeat the expectations back to you. Keep in mind, children are more likely to hear and understand your instructions if you are near them and crouched down to their eye level.

• Use Music: Everything is more fun when it is set to music, even unappealing transitions. There are a lot of transition songs that already exist, like the clean-up song. A quick YouTube search will uncover songs for brushing teeth, washing hands, and holding the railing as well. You and your kids can make up your own songs too! You would be surprised to find that simple repetitive phrases set to familiar tunes can be very effective.

• Visual Cues: Some children benefit from seeing the pieces of their day in picture form. Visual schedules can remove the anxiety caused by uncertainty. Many visual schedules have removable pieces that you and your child could place each morning before you start your day. • Routines: Children benefit greatly from routine. If, for example, your child has difficulty transitioning into bedtime you could create a special routine that you always follow. A bedtime routine could be as simple as, brush teeth, two stories, last hug, and lights out. At school, this could be a special hug or handshake when saying goodbye or waving to your child from their classroom window.

Supporting your child as they work through transitions can be tricky. Feel free to reach out to your child’s teacher to see if there is a strategy that works best for them in the classroom. Offer suggestions to their teachers as well to ensure children are receiving consistent support both at home and at school.

Diversity & Inclusion

By Nicole Catalano, BSc in Sociology, Director of Artisan Childcare Center - Newton

Embracing the diversity of families and staff has always been a key component in the Early Childhood Classroom and especially in the Artisan Childcare Community. With regard to recent social-justice topics and how news of these events might impact children, I wanted to share with you some ways myself and our educators gain knowledge and implement developmentally appropriate conversations and lessons regarding diversity and inclusion into the classroom setting. It is our goal to help parents raise kind, compassionate and respectful individuals who will one day grow up to be the leaders of tomorrow.

All of Artisan’s Early Educators are required to obtain twenty hours of professional development per year, seven of which must pertain to diverse learners. Some teachers at Artisan far exceed this requirement through their ongoing education at college, or through their love for learning and developing their knowledge. Because young children have the capacity to notice diversity from an early age, ensuring our educators receive proper professional development through state required trainings is crucial.

Artisan celebrates differences and welcomes parents into the classroom to talk about their culture, heritage, and traditions with the children. We believe that for our educators to be successful, well-rounded teachers, it is important that they partner with parents to learn about their students’ histories, cultures, languages, background knowledge, and experiences. Artisan also embraces the diversity of our staff, inviting teachers to showcase their culture, language and traditions in the classroom as part of our inclusive environment. For instance, many of our teachers are bilingual, which provides support for diverse young children and families upon transitioning into the center or when learning English as a second language.

The teachers at Artisan Childcare Center have autonomy in creating their curricula and are mindful about incorporating diversity and inclusion into their lessons each day. Diversity and inclusion are part of The Department of Early Education and Care’s Core Competencies for Early Education and out of school time educators, which are designed to improve an educator’s level of competence in a particular area through professional development trainings and courses. These eight areas are:

1. Understanding the Growth and Development of Children and Youth
2. Guiding and Interacting with Children and Youth
3. Partnering with Families and Communities
4. Health, Safety and Nutrition
5. Learning Environments and Curriculum
6. Observation, Assessment and Documentation
7. Program Planning and Development
8. Professionalism and Leadership

As mentioned, Artisan educators have autonomy in the lessons they create, however administration does require some specific topics to be discussed throughout the year, including at least two units on different artists/composers and four author studies. In response to recent social-justice news, and in addition to our daily mindfulness about diversity and inclusion, Artisan will now be adding an inclusion unit into our required lessons. This will include developmentally appropriate conversations with children about what makes people unique and positive language to use when describing the wonderful differences that makes each and every person irreplaceable.

In addition, social skills and character development are important parts of our daily lessons. Teaching kindness, respect, accountability, and skills for creating healthy relationships are all part of what helps to raise inclusive, compassionate and open-minded individuals. Our culturally responsive educators and lessons help to facilitate positive cross-racial relationships and inclusion within the center, which in turn, will create culturally competent adults who will lead our future.

Books to read at home!

• It's Okay To Be Different by, Todd Parr • The Kindness Book by, Todd Parr • The Family Book by, Todd Parr • We All Sing With The Same Voice by, J. Philip Miller & Sheppard M. Greene • Happy In Our Skin by, Fran Manushkin • All Are Welcome by, Alexandra Penfold • I Like Myself by, Karen Beaumont • One by, Katheryn Otoshi • Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush by, Barefoot Books • If You're Happy and You Know It by, Anna McQuinn • Be Kind by, Pat Zietlow Miller

Early Childhood Education in a Pandemic

By Julie Penta, M.A., M.A.ED, Director of Artisan Childcare Center - Woburn

With the news that our closure will be extended until June 28, 2020, I want to take a moment to offer some reassurance to all of you in educating your young child at home. This is a difficult time for all parents as many of you are figuring out how to manage working from home and your child’s education. Most importantly, you need not add to that stress worrying whether or not your child is staying on track academically or developmentally. Educators and those in the support services (early intervention, therapeutic interventionists, etc) are fully aware of the implications of this moment and are prepared to meet your children where they are when they return to school. There is an expected level of regression that comes with this disruption and a certain level of trauma that children and families are experiencing which have their own implications in development and learning.

Though there is no one size fits all solution for families, there are a few things that parents can do to help their children be as emotionally secure as they can through this experience so that they are in the best position for learning later.

• Do what works for your family. Please do not feel pressured by all the schedules and activities posted in social media. Those may not be best for your family or your child(ren). Some children will thrive in routine while other families may need a more flexible schedule.

• Support your child emotionally. Identify and validate their feelings with them. If joining a Zoom meeting or trying to write letters is causing more stress for your child, it’s ok not to do it.

• Emotional support over academic support. This is not the time to worry about whether or not your child will write their name before kindergarten. They will get there. Continue to provide the activities and opportunities for this learning, but manage your expectations. Learning is different in times of crisis, but the act of engaging in familiar learning activities will provide the normalcy that will help them through this moment.

• Regression and behavioral changes are expected. You may be hearing of more belly aches and headaches, sleep disruptions, or perhaps your child has regressed in an area they had previously mastered. This is to be expected when a disruption/traumatic event occurs. Comfort and support your child and meet them where they are now.

Below are a few links that I have found helpful in understanding this moment in how it relates to parenting, children’s development, and learning. Additionally, if you have any questions or concerns regarding your child’s development or behavior and would like to schedule a conference with me, I am happy to do so.

Helpful links:

What Past Education Emergencies Tell Us About Our Future Edutopia

Parenting Right Now is Really Hard Psychology Today

How to Help Your Kids Through This Challenging Time (not promoting Kumon, did like the article)

Anxiety and Coping with the Corona Virus The Child Mind Institute