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Lanikai Elementary PCS Newsletter
May 5, 2010
Please contact me at 266-7844 x 248 or send me an email at
Ann_Pederson@notes.K12.HI.US if you have information that you would like included in the newsletter. Also, check out Parent Resources on our homepage for information on upcoming events, parenting tips and other newsletters/publications. Newsletters arearchivedon our homepage for easy reference.
Ann Pederson
PCNC
Lanikai Elementary PCS
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IMPORTANT DATES:
| 5/07 Teacher Work Day- NO SCHOOL for Students
5/13 PTSA meeting 6:30 PM in the library
5/19 Volunteer Appreciation Brunch 8 -10 AM in the library
5/19 School Board Meeting 6:30 PM in the library
5/21 PTSA sponsored SPRING FLING 6-9 PM
5/24 Field Day 8:30-10:30
5/26 Last Day of school for students
Please check out our month by month and annual calendar on our website.
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Art Auction/Gallery after school through 5/6
| Please make sure to stop by the art room this week to view the student art gallery.
The gallery is open everyday after school this week until 3:30pm. Photo prints of all student art are available for purchase. Raffle tickets are also still on sale through the week for the professional prints that have been donated from Wyland, Patrick Ching, as well as an ORIGINAL art piece from Mrs. Kristi's published children's book, "Hoku the Stargazer".
In addition to the prints for sale, the 4th grade students created a still capture movie animation on Native Hawaiian fishing. DVD's are available to purchase for $5.
All proceeds go directly to the art budget for supplies for next year!
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May Day Program
| We had an amazing May Day program this year thanks to everyone involved. The students did an outstanding job and were coached to success by Kumu Peter Lonae'a, their classroom teachers, and all of the volunteers who assisted.
Thank you to all of the parents who donated foliage and time to create the beautiful stage under the direction of Mrs. Villegas.
A huge Mahalo for all your kokua in making this a memorable day!
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Yearbooks on Sale Now
| Please send in your order form/payment envelope as soon as possible. Quantities are limited and no additional copies of the yearbook can be ordered. Last day to place an order is May 14, or while supplies last. The cost is $15.00. Please make check payable to Lanikai Elementary School. Order today to ensure that your child will have a keepsake from this school year! Extra order forms are available in the front office.
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PTSA Spring Fling Update
| On Friday, 5/21 from 6-9 PM a family movie night, bouncy house and dinner is planned. We need your help to make this evening a reality. Please contact Janny Gibson at jannygibson@gmail.com to volunteer. |
Camp opportunity for 6th grade students
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If your child will be attending Kailua Intermediate School (KIS) next year he/she may have the opportunity to attend "The Winners Circle" leadership camp this summer. Marine Corps Base Hawaii (MCBH) has generously offered to host 12 students for an all expense paid week (June 20-26) up in the mountains. This is a great opportunity for our children to learn lifelong skills and to put them in to action as 7th graders at KIS. MCBH is sending students from all elementary schools in the Kalaheo complex that feed into KIS. These students will have an opportunity to make friends and lead their classmates through challenge and change as they move on to middle school.
Teachers are now in the process of recommending students. You will be notified shortly if your child has been selected to participate.
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Volunteer Appreciation Brunch
Wednesday, 5/19 8:00 AM
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Please join us in the library on Wednesday, 5/19, from 8:00- 10:00 AM for a light brunch. Let us wait on you and show our appreciation for all that you have done during this school year for our keiki. Take some time out for yourself to enjoy the company of other dedicated volunteers, without having to plan, organize, or ask for food donations. We hope to see you there! |
Counselor's Corner
| Dear Parents,
Are you ready? Summer is right around the corner, and with it comes a lot more time with your children, more outdoor activities, and of course, more beach time! As always, parents are a child's first teacher, and in the summer, you are now his or her only teacher, as well as counselor, health aide, and tutor!
Here are a few interesting articles that may help out. The first one is about "Bullying Awareness", with a great website to visit with your child. Make sure to check out the website by clicking here first to see what is appropriate for your child!
The second article is about "Defiant Behavior", and might just have a tip or two to get you through the long, hot summer! www.parenting.com is another great website with lots of ideas to keep you and the family up and going through the summer.
Don't forget to have your child READ, READ, READ...and READ some more! They are never too old to have you read to them, and you can have them read to you when they are ready! Even though it's summer, you can still limit TV and video game time to make sure their precious minds are still ready to learn and think!
The neighborhood and state libraries are great resources for "things to do" this summer, as are the art and science museums, including the Contemporary Museum of Art, the Honolulu Academy of Art, and the Bishop Museum.
I have really enjoyed my first year here at Lanikai, getting to know you and your children...they are so precious! I look forward to seeing them back next year.
With aloha, Julie Halpern, School Counselor
Is Your Child Being Bullied?
www.parenting.com
An estimated 25 percent are-and the signs can be tricky for parents to detect. That's why the American Academy of Pediatrics has developed a new policy that recommends doctors discuss bullying during checkups. "A kid who is being picked on has often been told, 'Don't you dare tell anyone!'
But when he's given permission to talk by a more neutral adult, he'll readily share his experiences," notes Robert Sege, M.D., chief of ambulatory pediatrics at Boston Medical Center. "And sometimes the symptoms of bullying appear to parents like something else. I see moms all the time who bring their child in because he's been doing poorly in school and can't seem to focus. They think it could be an attention disorder when the child is actually being picked on." More red flags:
Changes in behavior-your kid becomes moody, withdrawn, spacey, jumpy, anxious
Physical ailments such as stomachaches and bad dreams, or unexplained bruises and torn clothes
An inexplicable drop in grades or a sudden reluctance to go to school
Need help? Check out Stop Bullying Now-it's a site designed to help both parents and kids cope with big, bad meanies.
Counselor's Note: Remember not to over-react! Talk calmly to your child, as there might be other reason's than bullying for these behaviors! Also, the Stop Bullying Now website is great! Make sure you look at it first before you navigate through it with your child, so you know what is appropriate for them!
Dealing With Defiance
By Julie Tilsner, Parenting
Remove her
This is the gold standard of defiance busting. When the going gets out of control, simply swoop in and physically leave the store, take her out of the sandbox, end the playdate, and head home. In order for this to work, there must be no hesitation on your part. "Don't do any cajoling, begging, or convincing," says Valerie Hedrick, a Concord, California, mom of three. "Pick her up and leave. Your child's banking on her outrageous behavior to score some points in the form of an emotional reaction from you. If there isn't one, then she gets no payoff." Just say in very clear language why you're taking action ("You didn't stop throwing sand when I told you to, so now I'm taking you out of the sandbox.") This is bottom-line, no-nonsense discipline, and it makes the most sense when used with obviously egregious behaviors.
"Of course your child won't take you seriously if you just threaten and don't follow through," says Linda McGivern, a mom of three, in Rollinsford, New Hampshire. Once, when Abby, her oldest daughter, was 4, she had a fit in a store because she couldn't have the toy she wanted. "I told her to stop and that we would leave if she didn't stop," she said. "She didn't quit her crying, so I put away the items I wanted to buy and left the store with her screaming under my arm. When we got home, she had a nice, age-appropriate time-out, and that behavior never happened again."
Keeping your cool is as important as consistency. "March out calmly, with an air of command," says Jennifer Ingle, a mom of two, in Conover, North Carolina. "This lets spectators know you have the situation in hand. It's much better than sputtering apologies." This attitude isn't lost on the child, who's also noting that you're the one in control. Removing her from any "audience" may quell further defiance as well.
Create consequences
When the misbehavior isn't so site-specific, or when you can't just leave, or you're at home, you've got to find a threat that matters to your child. And as his or her mom, you're uniquely qualified to find her Achilles' heel. After all, one child's time-out is another child's excuse to daydream. When Ingle's 5-year-old daughter, Sarah, hit her, part of her punishment was to help write, then sign, an odious list of punishments, to be used for only the most outrageous behavior, such as hitting or lying. It included first a spanking, then no TV for the day (forcing Sarah to miss Animal Planet!), and finally, horribly, she'd have to call her dad at work and tell him how she'd been misbehaving. "She's never gone past number two," says her mom.
Removal of a privilege also fits in this category. When Dawn Blanchfield's son Kyle won't put his shoes on for school in the morning, he loses his video-game privileges that afternoon. "He ties his shoes real fast so he can redeem himself," laughs the Sacramento, California, mom.
Consequences that are directly tied to the misbehavior in question are the best. When her two boys won't get into bed, Cathy O'Brien of Durham, New Hampshire, doesn't move bedtime. She calmly tells them, "The longer you delay, the fewer stories I have time to read to you." This usually works, she says.
Expand the consequences
The lesson that you don't forget bad behavior can pack a wallop. And having a way to punish that behavior without raining on a larger group's parade can come in handy. A mom of eight in Alaska has lots of experience with discipline, but sometimes even she has to get creative. Once, when her son was acting up at a party, she told him he'd have to miss the next party he was invited to. But first she took a photo of him in mid-naughtiness. Then, two weeks later when he was asked to another party, she brought out the picture and reminded him of why he couldn't go. This made it immediate to a child who might otherwise have relegated the episode to long-ago history. At the next birthday party he attended, he was on his best behavior. "These things happen," she says, "but mostly it happens only once or twice per child because I make sure -- and they know -- that they'll face the consequences later."
Mary Rees, a mom of two in Albany, California, tried several tactics before she hit on the one that got the desired reaction when her 5-year-old, Joey, used to refuse to leave the park. "I told him that next time we came to the park, we'd have to leave fifteen minutes earlier than normal because he hadn't listened to me when I said it was time to go," she says.
If he did as he was told next time, she told him, the park date after that would last the full hour. That may seem complicated, but Rees enlisted the help of other moms she knew in the park to hammer this idea home. The next park playdate, one of these moms told Joey, "It's sad you have to leave so early today, Joey, but we hope you can stay longer next week."
Rees thinks the reactions and reinforcement that Joey got from the other moms were the key to the technique's success. "The issue became less of a power struggle between parent and child and more of a community ethos, a 'this is what we do' message."
Counselor's note: Read the rest of the article at www.parenting.com.
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