Los Nios News

June 2012

Los Nios: Open This Summer!!

Tell your friends... Los Nios Nursery School is open this summer. As you know, our programs extend through the end of July with special emphasis on field trips and we need everyones support. And we accept new enrollments in the summer!

reflect.

Slasrever
Reversals are a concern for parents of Pre Kindergarten children: My child wrote her name backwards!...huh-oh, is she dyslexic?!! Writing reversals and mirroring are not necessarily early indicators of the learning disorder which, as you know can lead to reading difficulties. Three, four and five-year-old children often reverse the letters of their name and other words that they write as they become familiar with the written language. Both of our daughters and my son, Jesse, wrote their names, perfectly, backwards and yet only Jesse actually was dyslexic and indeed, though he is an avid reader, he still has to essentially read twice, translating for himself, in order to read the way others do. Decoding the language is a remarkable breakthrough in the cognitive development of our children...it is a wonder of neuro-processing and we, as parents, can help with time, patience, understanding and support. Reading to your children is still the best contribution you can make. If, in the first or second grade, your child is identified as having a learning disability like Dyslexia the District will have compensatory resources available to you. There are other learning, language, hearing and vision disabilities that we screen for at Los Nios. We dont diagnose, but if a referral is indicated youll be the first to know.

Tom Shares A Story...

about a party given by a very rich hedge fund manager and attended by authors Kurt Vonnegut and his pal Joseph Heller. When Vonnegut informs Heller that their host makes more in one day than all of the book sales from Hellers popular Catch 22, Heller responds, Yes but I have something that he will never haveenough.

******* Crisis in the Kindergarten!

is an exhaustive new study (I have a copy if you would like to read it) released recently by the Alliance for Childhood. It concludes that all of the new testing neither predicts nor improves educational outcomes, further, it is crowding out the one thing that truly is vital to childrens future success: play. Play is how children develop higher level thinking, hone their language and social skills and cultivate empathy. I know, this is getting repetitive, but study after study, expert after expert, for the 40+ years I have been working with young children has reaffirmed: please let us trust our childrens play! The Alliance also released the Essentials of a Healthy Childhood: 1.Close, loving relationships with responsive adults at home and at school. 2.Direct experience with the living world of nature. 3.Time every day for child-initiated play. 4.Music, dance, dramatic play, painting and other arts. 5.Handson handicrafts and other physically engaging activities. 6.Rich face-to-face language experiences including conversation, poetry, storytelling and books. 7.Time and space for children to

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Why Cant I Come On The Field Trips, Tom??
These summer field trips are really fun and we know that many of you would like to join us. I want to make this very clear to each of our parents: we appreciate you very much...after all, you support our little school and you value what we do here. The field trips are for the children...this is a child centered school and going on a trip or visiting a place with ones young friends is quite different from a trip with the family, though certainly each experience has its value. Over the years we have found that the children develop a unique and positive relationship with their group when they are allowed to experience the field trips on their own. These trips also enhance our goals: the development of selfconfidence, autonomy and trust. Please understand that for those reasons we limit the parents participation in the field trips to the Driver/Supervisors that we actually need.

****** Happy 4th of July!

Looking at the CUSD Calendar I see that Wednesday, July 4 is a Holiday. Happy Independence Day!

Los Nios News

June 2012
Our Graduation Gala (for children going to Kindergarten) is a wonderful occasion for the whole family to share.