Category Archives: Kids

July Calendar

July 3:  Fireworks at Compo Beach!


July 4: Independence Day was first celebrated on July 8, 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was read to the public. By the 1880’s, the Fourth of July had become the most significant patriotic occasion in the United States. The holiday is presently celebrated with parades, fireworks, picnics, sporting events, and music. Children can have fun making paintings of fireworks: Use a large piece of paper. Let children drop small amounts of paint (different colors works well, or just use blue and red for a patriotic look. If you can, get black paper and use red, white and blue for fireworks in the night sky). Have the children swirl the paint out with a spoon, let them keep swirling from the center, in all directions around the drop of paint. Some of them may overlap, and that is fine, too. When it is finished it looks like fireworks bursting in the sky. Or give the child a straw and have them blow into the pools of paint to make their own free form painting of fireworks.

July 9 The month of Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and is the holiest month of the year. During Ramadan many Muslims fast from dawn until sundown, abstaining from food and drink. The fast is for self-purification and renewal

July 14:  Bastille Day:  On July 14th the French celebrate Bastille Day. This day marks the end of monarchy and the beginning of the French Revolution. A favorite way to celebrate in France is with a picnic. You can plan a picnic with the children – it’s a simple adventure to eat outside on a blanket. Or try the Picnic Memory Game. A player names something they will pack for the picnic, then the next player names what he is bringing and what the other person is bringing. This continues with everyone taking a turn until the list is too long to remember or everyone is laughing too hard to play!

July 16-19:  Library Book Sale

July 20: Westport’s annual Point to Point Swim at Compo Beach.  Event open to ages 10 and up

July 20-21:  Outdoor Art Show along the sidewalks of Parker Harding Plaza in downtown Westport

Healthy Eating…Summer is Almost Here!

Healthy eating–Start slow and make changes to your eating habits over time. Trying to make your diet healthy overnight isn’t realistic or smart.  Changing everything at once usually leads to cheating or giving up on your new eating plan. Make small steps, like adding a fruit or vegetable to your diet every day. As your small changes become habit, you can continue to add more healthy choices to your diet.

Children should eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Many children prefer the crunch of raw food – especially popular are apples, pears, carrots, broccoli, celery and cucumbers. Use your imagination to serve cut up vegetables in an interesting way– for example, make a figure with carrot stick arms and legs, a celery body and a round of cucumber for a head.


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June 6 – National Applesauce Cake Day

Here’s a recipe for a healthy and delicious snack to make with the children

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 cup flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 cups applesauce
1 cup raisins or dried cranberries

Mix first sugar and shortening, then add flour, baking soda and cinnamon. Mix in applesauce and raisins/cranberries. Place in a greased and floured 9 x 13 inch baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

June 2013 Calendar

June 13-16:  Welcome summer with the Yankee Doodle Fair.  Great fun rides and amusements at the Westport Young Women’s League on Imperial Avenue

June 14 – Flag Day : Flying the American flag is more popular than ever. It is a symbol of the country’s values and traditions. Its 13 red and white stripes represent the original colonies and the 50 stars stand for the states. You can find a print out of the American flag and flags of many other countries in the Kids Culture Corner http://aupairinamerica.com/resources/kids/culture_corner/

June 16 – Father’s Day To honor the father in your family, work together to make a special picture or homemade gift.

June 21- First day of summer! Long hot days make for children who need some quiet time. Relax and unwind at the end of the day with some summertime reading.

June 23:  Opening day of the Levitt Pavilion – a summer of free outdoor entertainment.  Visit www.levittpavilion.com for their calendar of top quality nightly entertainment under the stars

Challenged to Get Children to do Chores?

Ask your host parents how much time they think it should take your host kids to complete a certain task that you and your host kids struggle with. Then set the timer and have a race against the clock to get things done before the timer beeps. There is no reward, just a high five and a challenge to do it faster the next day. This makes it fun and exciting! Once the behavior has changed and the struggle is over, you will not need the timer as the expectation has been set and met.

Use a timer for things like

  • getting dressed
  • room cleaning–set the timer for five or ten minutes and challenge your host kids to clean as much of the toy room as possible before the timer beeps
  • playtime before doing homework or chores

Having a hard time getting your host child to improve his behavior?

Childcare focus– Charts  – Stickers or stars are put on a piece of paper to show behavioral improvements. This is called a behavior chart. It works well with chronic problems –such as completing chores and homework or for starting routines. Once a goal of quantity of stickers has been achieved, a reward is given. The reward should not be food or toys; it should be more time doing a favorite activity, such as going to the park.  You should only focus on improving one behavior using the chart method at a time. It takes a lot of work and consistency to maintain an effective chart, so if you don’t know enough about charting, research it before you start.

Au Pair Tips


Driving– May is National Good Car Care Month
Take this opportunity to clean out the inside of the car and if it’s a nice day the school-age children might enjoy helping to wash the outside!

Healthy eating– May is also National Salad month. Try Blue Cheese and Pear, Tropical or Greek at your next meal. For the children,
Slice up the following fruits to make a salad. Top with plain yogurt. YUM!

1 banana

1 apple

1 peeled orange or tangerine

Berries, grapes or melon

Enjoy!

Hints for success – Many of you have been here for several months, don’t let yourself get into a routine of not doing your best. Take initiative – don’t wait to be asked, anticipate children’s needs, and offer to help when you are sharing “family time.”

Coffee at Compo Beach

Westport au pairs spent the morning having coffee at Compo Beach and getting a chance to catch up with their fellow au pairs at our May cluster meeting.  It was a beautiful day, the sun  was bright but it was a windy, chilly May morning!  IMG_1102IMG_1104IMG_1107

May Calendar

May 1 – `May Day is a holiday similar to Labor Day in the US. May Day is a spring festival celebrating the renewal of nature. May Day was especially popular in England during medieval times, with children dancing around the Maypole.

May 5 – Cinco de mayo – Cinco de mayo commemorates the May 5, 1862 Battle of Puebla (Batalla de Puebla) in which Mexican troops defeated Napoleon’s French forces. Cinco de mayo is celebrated more in the United States than in Mexico

May 7 – Teacher Appreciation Day – Today is a day to honor teachers – if your child is in school he or she might want to make a card for the teacher. Preschool age children 3-5 love playing school. Let the child be the teacher and read you a story or give you homework. You might want to invite some dolls or stuffed animals into the classroom as well.

May 8- Mother’s Day – Today is a day to celebrate and pamper Mom. Help the children make cards or gifts or plan a special meal or other surprise for Mom.

May 23-June 16 – Art About Town in Westport – Shop Main Street, which becomes one continuous art gallery to enjoy.  Art About Town begins with a festive Opening Night Celebration on Thursday May 23rd from 5:30-8:30 p.m. That night Main Street will be traffic-free and filled with music, street performers, art demonstrations and refreshments.  Art will remain on display through Sunday June 16th.

May 27- Memorial Day Memorial Day started in 1868 after the Civil War ended. Dead soldiers from both the north and the south were honored as a way to try to heal the nation. Now all past soldiers are honored. It is also a day that is considered to be the start of the summer season. Many people celebrate with a cook-out or even a trip to the beach. Many towns have a Memorial Day parade – this would be fun to watch, or even to march in

Fun Things to Do during the April vacation

April 12- Scrabble
Alfred Butts who was born on this day in 1899 invented Scrabble, the game that uses letter tiles to spell words. As soon as children learn to read and spell they can play an easy version of Scrabble.  For very beginning readers you can create your own simple game by making letter tiles from index cards for each letter that is used in the words the child knows. Be sure to make extra vowels (a, e, i, o, u) as they appear most frequently. Uses these letter cards together and you can help strengthen the children’s reading and spelling skills while having fun.

April 14 -National Library Week-April 14-20 – Visit the Westport Library, a fabulous place for your children to play, read, and learn.  Take your host children to story time, nursery rhyme time, chess club, movie afternoon or any of the other wonderful programs they offer for free.

April 27- Arbor Day -Arbor Day is annual observance dedicated to the planting and conservation of trees. On Arbor Day, many people plant trees and bushes in their communities.  Have your host children decorate a flowerpot,  plant some seeds in it, tend them and watch them grow.

Acting
Most children love to be the center of attention, so being on stage is natural for them. Choose 4 or five things that don’t go together and put them in a bag. Work with the children to make up a story to act out, using the things in the bag. It can be very funny!

Take time this week to visit the Bruce Museum in Greenwich.  Or go on a hike through Earthplace, Westport’s own Nature Center.  Arrange to meet some au pairs and other host children at the Compo Beach playground.

Childcare focus

Cleaning Up Made Easy
Is it hard to get cooperation at clean-up time?
Turn clean-up time into a game. Try throwing a die, if it lands on one, the person who threw the die must clean-up one thing, if the die lands on four then he or she must pick up four things, and so on. Everyone plays (even the au pair)!