There are so many positive things to do on Sundays to prepare for the week. First off, spend your Sunday doing exactly what you want! Make yourself completely relaxed and ready to take on the week. There are so many that get the “Sunday night blues”. Don’t be one of those people.

With these three simple things to do on Sunday nights you will always be ready to tackle Monday.

1. Be positive about the week coming. The more that you dread it the faster it will come, and you will not enjoy your weekend ahead of you. Take a new approach to Mondays and look at them as fresh starts for whatever it is you wish to accomplish.

2. Make it a house rule that everyone finds everything that they will need in the morning. Medicines, clothes, jackets, hats, bags, sunglasses, wallets, homework, etc. Take the stress out of your Monday morning! Also remember the more tidy you are on Sunday evening the smoother the rest of the week will go. Clean up the clutter, do the dishes in the sink — it will make a difference. Those are the little things that I do to feel more successful in my week. Find the thing you want to do that sets you up for a more successful week.

3. Reflect on the previous week. Did you make your goals? Did you get the things done that you had planned on getting done? Do you need to find a way to make it happen this week, or set new goals because you rocked the previous week’s socks off! This can be a personal thing or make it a family connection. You could have this discussion over dinner. This will offer support and hold you accountable for achieving your set goals.

These goals can be big or small. Something you can get done easily or something that you will have to work at for many weeks. Things like taking the dog to the groomers, folding all of the laundry and actually putting it away, setting aside one hour each night to play a game or do a puzzle with your children, prepping for the holidays, or cleaning out your scary purse.

Whatever the task is (no matter how small) get it out there and see that you get it done this week. The first step is setting up a plan. That in itself will make you feel one step more accomplished before Monday even happens. This all ties back into having routines. Find three things that can become routine in your homes on Sunday evenings (aside from watching football perhaps!)

~Ms. Brooke
Prekindergarten Teacher
Curriculum Coordinator
Early Literacy Leader

November is National Gratitude Month. This is the perfect time to teach your children this beneficial emotion. The gift of gratitude is a present you can give your children that will outlast the happiness brought by all their holiday toys. Having gratitude has been shown to block toxic emotions that may rise. People with higher gratitude levels have lower levels of stress and higher self-esteem.

Studies done with children have resulted in better satisfaction with school and home. Children who show more gratitude also give more support to others and have better social support. Having more gratitude will help them in a big way, and will help them grow into caring, empathetic adults. Here are five ways you can foster the development of gratitude among your children this year.

Say Thank You at Home

This is a great way for young and older children to focus on giving thanks. Teach them that whenever they receive a gift or a compliment, they should always say thank you. This starts with the parents. Remember that when your child does something that deserves some ‘thanks’, be generous with your gratitude. Model the behavior you would like them to have.

Teaching children to always say “thank you” will create an atmosphere of gratitude in the home. It will also turn into a lifelong practice. If at first, your children are forgetful to give their thanks, help them by having them restate their sentence with “thank you” included.

Talking It Over

Another habit to create is talking about gratitude with each other. Create a special time each day where everyone lists multiple things they are grateful for. This could be at dinner, during a car ride, or as a part of your children’s bedtime routine. Bonus points if this activity is done many times throughout the day. The question, “what are you thankful for?”, can serve as the high point of any conversation. It will also builds fond memories for your children.

Create a Gratitude Jar

Find a jar that can hold multiple pieces of paper. Decorate it if you wish. Whenever your child wants to (they may need to be reminded) they can write on a piece of paper what they are grateful for. Before you know it, your jar will be full of small, sweet reminders of gratitude. Then, you can either pick a specific time to pull them out and read them together, or you can pick them out one at a time.

Spend Quality Time Together

Children thrive when they are around their parents. One way to foster your relationship is to spend more time with your children. When you spend an ample amount of quality time with them, you are teaching them the language of love. This results in both of you gaining more empathy. This is very important for building gratitude, as empathy is a crucial component of feeling thankful.

So, put away your smartphone and turn off all other distractions. Savor the moments you have together. Spending quality time with your children will give them a better sense of appreciation.

Help Them Find Their Passions

One of the best things you can do for your children is to assist them in finding their sense of purpose. It is an important parental duty to help our children discover what they are passionate about. Another way to foster this growth is to learn ways they can make a difference. When they discover this purpose, they will feel more connected to the world. This is great for fostering gratitude because the deepest sense of gratitude comes from finding our place and connecting to the bigger picture.

This National Gratitude Month you can use these steps to encourage gratitude amongst your children, starting today. Pick a method of encouraging growth of their thankfulness, and stick to it for the whole month of November. By the end of the month, you will be able to see what a difference gratitude makes in your home. It is our responsibility as parents to teach our children to be grateful. This will help them with their stress levels. It will lessen toxic emotions and will help them with the relationships with others. Helping them to be more grateful will impact them throughout their entire lives.

Anxiety according to Webster’s dictionary is vague unpleasant emotion that is experienced in anticipation of some (usually ill-defined) misfortune. Now going to school or daycare is not an unfortunate event. However, it can be very emotional and different for children and parents. Some children have always had separation anxiety from the get go. Other children feel their parent’s anxiety and start to stress the same.

We had talked about it for two weeks. We discussed how we were returning to school and work. I had no reason to think the two-year-old was going to have a breakdown and tantrum upon returning to school. Maybe it was my stress about returning to work with a second child. Maybe it was a change in pace after 6 weeks off even though he has been in care himself since 6 weeks old.

But the tears and screaming came in full force. My heart broke, I wanted to run and pick him up and tell him we didn’t have to continue with life and could just cuddle all day. But that wasn’t what either of us needed.

What we both needed was a plan and a follow through that would work best for everyone involved. Just like with everything in life there is no one perfect approach. One child a picture of the family can ease the anxiety. Another child a schedule of the events being discussed upon arrival and correlate with pick up works. With my oldest child it was having a routine and a morning connection that was just his and mine. We have the same talk and hug, affirmation, and pump up every drop off.

Consistency is the best medicine in my opinion when dealing with anxiety. Even a toddler likes to know what to expect and how his/her day is going to go. It is also important to validate the child’s emotions. Children don’t just develop an anxiety without some minor fear. Is one parent gone a lot? Is a parent deployed? Has another child been added to the family? Have the home schedules changed? All these events can cause a child to feel loss or abandoned leading to a child to fear separating from the parent. Allow a child to have feelings but give them the tools and resources to self soothe and understand that you will be returning to them.

One of the biggest influences of the child’s anxiety can be us the parents. Children are natural feelers. They can usually tell we are having a rough go before we even realize it. So it is no shock that they feel a parents anxiety about a situation. It is also hard for us to bottle it up and pretend like we are all smiles at drop off. However, for our little ones drop off with positivity, a smile, and a plan. Then when you get to the car have your moment. (no one is judging. We all need a good cry here and there)

Here is a great resource to help with the do and don’t of dropping off a child with separation anxiety.

~Ms. Michaela
Advanced Prekindergarten Teacher
Child Success Advocate

The US stock market has one of the highest returns for financial investments. Did you think there is an investment which could beat the stock market by far? Yes, there is. Here are three reasons why investing in your child’s preschool is better than the stock market. With most states launching programs for preschool children, Colorado is not left behind. Make sure to find a good Colorado Springs preschool for your child. Various studies show children attending pre-K has many proven benefits.

Preschool Investment Pays Off Long After

For the stock market, your investment is given every year. If you sell your stocks, you won’t gain any other returns other than the sale price. The economic conditions of the year will also help in determining the results. When you invest in your child’s preschool education, you are investing for full-time returns. Other benefits include a higher IQ, better health, reduced crime rates, as well as higher incomes and better decision making. A recent study indicates children who went through preschool performed skills better than their counterparts who did not.

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Walking into the baby safety aisle might feel a bit overwhelming the first time. There is safety hardware pieces, locks, gates and clip for everything! Suddenly you feel as though your house isn’t a safe place for your dog! Most moms like to be very prepared and like to do prep their houses early. Before it becomes overwhelming let me share with you some tips!

Do a little overtime as you get to know your baby and see what level of curiosity and interest they have in different areas of your home. My husband and I took the route of adding in safety features and items as they became necessary. Children are different during their developmental stages. What we baby proofed for our first child, in some cases did not need to baby proof for our second. Some things our first child got into that our second has no interest for; therefore there is a lack of needing to baby proof the exact same way.

Once your little one starts to scoot/crawl is when I think the first bit of baby proofing needs to take place. Examine all the things the baby can potentially get into at this level. Book on low shelves, DVDs under the TV, dog bowls etc. Find these “no no zones” and easily rearrange items that may become damaged or harmful to your baby if they came in contact. I felt in this stage the only major thing I had to baby proof was the stairways. We choose to install hardware mounted baby gates as we felt those were safer over pressure-mounted gates as we were focusing on blocking off stairs rather than just a room.

Also, you can easily baby proof by shutting the doors. Creating this new habit really helped us cut down on some extra baby proofing. It’s very easy to shut every door behind you. Get in the habit; remind all in your household that this is an important new rule. I would give that a try at first, if not then continue to look for safety hazards in those extra rooms. A few other areas to evaluate would be blind cords, fireplace covers, and any heavy furniture that may need a tie down.

After that little speedster starts crawling, soon comes pulling up to stand and then walking. This is the time when we invested in a few more items. Buy the drawer locks! Such a huge help! Babies at this stage love to pull and push and dig around in those junk drawers and cabinets. So many small things get stuffed in those kitchen drawers; sometimes they may not be safe for your little one.

Also, many tend to keep their cleaning products in the kitchen cabinet, make sure to install a lock on that cabinet ASAP. My suggestion is to let one cabinet or one drawer in the kitchen be baby safe. Let your little one have access to this pace and fill it with cups, books, big spoons, and maybe a few toy pans. They will love spending time digging in their cabinet and will maybe leave the others alone. Another big one at this stage for my family was corner guards. When your little one is beginning to walk, they tend to be a bit wobbly. Inspect any super rough corners on tables and counters to see if a corner guard protector may be necessary.

So, don’t go down the aisle and grab one of everything. Learn with your child as they are investigating and really see which safety items are needed. Letting them discover and explore can be done safely as long as you are learning with them. Be watchful and proactive in your baby proofing! Don’t let the potential danger of things create a panic and take away from your child’s discoveries.

~Ms. Whitney
Prekindergarten Teacher
Curriculum Coordinator