LCP Newsletter

Lakewood Co-operative Preschool
December 2006 Newsletter
Where Families and Friendships Grow
Contents Co-Chair's Note LCP Open House Returning Student Enrollment Board Meeting Minutes Holiday Times Feed the Can Man, Man Special Events for December Auction News EScrip.com Haiku Corner Treehouse Editor's Note Been There, Done That Cute Kid Pix	Co-Chair's Note As I write this, I have escaped to my office after two snow days and am enjoying a little time away from the family. It seems like we spent most of November indoors, and we are all looking for ways to get out of the house and see friends. Many parents have told me that when their kids heard LCP was cancelled, they let out a wail, so disappointed not to be going to school. What a testament to the fun and friendships to be had at LCP that kids miss school so much! There's a lot going on in the classrooms these days: new units starting, lots of building and creating, and groups of kids playing together. It's fun to walk in and watch the kids in action. Enjoy all the fun social and holiday activities that December brings us. The kids are ready to bake, color, craft, and even think about others. Rasa has organized a collection of warm clothes for foster kids. Treehouse also takes new and gently used toys. Why not use this time of year to help your kids develop more of their sense of empathy. Have them help you choose some of the winter items that no longer fit them (they will probably want to try them on to be sure!) and talk about how important it is to share with those who don't have as much as us. I'm always amazed at how much my kids want to think about these things and how important they feel when they help. December will be a short school month, with the last classes held on Friday, December 15. We'll be back at school on Tuesday, January 2. Make sure you get a chance to sit down and put your feet up during those two weeks of "vacation"! Happy Holidays, Christine Campbell Christine Campbell is Co-Chair of LCP and mother of Dragonfly Charlie. ccamp [at-sign] u.washington.edu Back to top
"I like it after the holidays, when the crowds are gone."	LCP Open House If you know someone who might be interested in joining LCP next year, tell them about the LCP Open House, February 13th from 7:00 to 9:00 pm at the school. Parents should attend without their children. Children are welcome at class tours, which are held a few weeks later. More information about our school can be found on our website (www.lakewoodcoop.org), or by speaking with a parent co-ordinator (Melanie Fix 722-3052, Jane Schmidt 722-3238). Back to top
	Returning Student Enrollment Returning student enrollment begins February 21st and ends February 28th. Families must submit applications and payment at that time. Back to top
"If you're not good, Santa will bring you only educational toys."	Oct 04 Board Meeting Minutes Cell phone #s are being added to the LCP directory this year. Will be ready next week. LCP is reviewing our admissions policy and the PAC group is polling other co-ops. Brigita wrote up overview of evaluation procedures developed by a 2005 committee. This will be our process for this year Teachers: Everything going well. Some anxiety about playground safety in Bumblebees Class Chairs: First meeting for classes good to have in September. Discussion of Friday breakdowns and peanut allergy policy Fundraising: For auction, Laura is getting bids from Mt Baker Community Club, Rainier Community Club, and Giddens’ caterer. Targeting date at beginning of May. Scrip promotion continues Keys: Discussion of how to make school keys available to substitutes September Tuition: Decision made to prorate it next year Christine is working on organizing end-of-year duties for each LCP position to improve preparation for upcoming year Treasurer: Business voice mail lines will be switched to a less expensive option Opened 10-month CD with $15K savings Budget (see profit/loss budget v. actual and 9/30 balance sheet posted with minutes) Prior to a reimbursement request being filed, all requests to purchase should be approved by co-chairs Jim & Christine Next year we could try to budget for outside presenters to come in. This year should search for free options Back to top
"I see. And precisely what methods did you use to determine that my client was a 'bad boy'?"	Holiday Times When you read this article, we will all be in the middle of the holiday season. Starting with Thanksgiving and ending with New Year's Day, the last month and a half of the year can seem like a marathon of holidays. Not to mention that many of us also have birthdays to celebrate during this season. Celebrating holidays is an important way of creating strong bonds within a family, but we need to keep in mind that it is not the only way. On the contrary, it is the everyday rituals with our children that will tell them we truly love them and care about them. Many of my fondest childhood memories revolve around simple everyday rituals: walking down to the lake at night with my dad to wash my feet, picking blueberries with my mother, going fishing with my brother. If you think back to your childhood, chances are that you too will have strong memories of rituals that were quite simple. If I were to ask my children about their holiday memories, I doubt they would even mention the different kinds of foods they ate during Thanksgiving, or the kinds of gifts they received for Christmas. What comes out in discussions is that they are very attached to traditions that are often quite simple, but special to our family: they like the tradition of reflecting on what they are thankful for at Thanksgiving dinner; they fondly remember the Santa Lucia celebration; and they still love Swedish pancakes for Sunday breakfasts. It is so important to keep a perspective on what is important in life. Of course you want to celebrate the holidays, but do what feels right for you and your family and keep in mind that it is really the small simple moments in life that count. Have a very happy holiday season, Brigitta Brigitta Dahl is in her seventh year as the parent educator for LCP. Questions welcome at 206-328-0960 or bdahl [at-sign] comcast.net. Back to top
	Feed the Can Man, Man Can Man want pasta and rice now! Starch me up! Noodles come in lots of shapes, all yummy: Spaghetti, rigatoni, penne, bow tie, fettuccine, linguini, vermicelli, cannelloni, fusilli, tagliarini, lumaconi, bucatini, and boilitoni. OK, me make up last one. Oh, and don't forget mac & cheese or Chef Boyardee. Sometimes me like comfort food. Me eat all I want. Never work out. Never gain weight. How you like that? Please not hate me. The Can Man lives near the LCP entrance. He's a recognized expert on eating packaged cuisine still in the package. CanMan [at-sign] canman.com Back to top
	Special Events for December On the heels of the dubious distinction of wettest month on record, it might be a good time to look indoors for some really great fun. The best place for event information is online at seattletimes.com. Click the entertainment link and start scanning the holiday events guide. Plenty of fun stuff there. Christmas Ships The annual Christmas Ships visited our end of the lake Dec. 5th, but will be at Madrona Beach on Sunday the 17th from 6:40-7:00, and at Seward Park Tuesday the 19th from 8:30-8:55. (See other times and places.) Winterfest Continues Winterfest 2006 continues with the carousel at Westlake Center, and a bunch of other stuff at Seattle Center. [I recommend Santa vs. the Snowman in IMAX 3D. --Ed.] Have a happy holiday season. See you in the new year! Yvette Moy is Events Co-ordinator the mother of Dragonfly Corrado. yvettemoy [at-sign] msn.com Back to top
"No, no, Timmy. Not that one. I'm saving that one for last."	Auction News The Fundraising Committee has already been busy on this year's event. We will host our annual auction on Friday, May 4th, at 7:30pm. Our special evening will be a celebration of the hard work we have done all year at the co-op. The event is an auction and cocktail party being held at the Rainier Club in downtown Seattle. A chance to dress up and have a night on the town without children! Heavy hors d’ oeuvres, dessert dash, wine, beer, sodas, and coffee. Eat, drink, and be merry while bidding on fabulous items at great prices that raise much needed revenue for the school. Stay tuned for news on the procurement drive, raffle tickets, and more details on what is sure to be the event of the year! Laura LaForte is the LCP Fundraising Chair and mother of Bumblebee Santo and Dragonfly Talia. sllaforte [at-sign] comcast.net Back to top
Our LCP group ID is 500004799	EScrip.com Register your debit and credit cards at eScrip.com, then LCP gets money every time you use those cards at participating merchants. The full list of stores is at eScrip.com, but it includes Safeway, Whole Foods, Big 5, Office Max, & TruGreen ChemLawn. If you use your phone number as your Safeway club card, you'll need to phone Safeway customer service to get your actual 11-digit club card number: 1-877-723-3929. Back to top
	Haiku Corner Our special guest author is 3-year-old Phoebe from the Crickets class. Let's all give her a warm LCP welcome [applause]. November nights long Winds blowing gusty and strong Winter lights on Rain is falling hard Towees jumping in the yard Soon we’ll need a boat I don’t go to sleep I’m too young to sleep alone I’ll sleep when I'm five Baby is coming Will he live with the midwife? You are my mommy Phoebe McNair-Luxon had some help from her mom, Fiona. fionam [at-sign] windwardenv.com Back to top
	Treehouse There is a small tree in the preschool to collect hats, coats, and gloves to donate to Treehouse, which serves foster children in our state. Please bring new or gently used hats, coats, and gloves to school and have your kids hang them on the tree. Thanks for everybody's generosity. Rasa Raisys is the neighborhood outreach co-ordinator and mother of Dragonfly Vilija. rasaraisys [at-sign] hotmail.com Back to top
"Santa is no longer part of my belief system."	Editor's Note Welcome to December, where visions of sugarplums are perfectly normal. Do not adjust your head. I enjoyed last month's book recommendations from our LCP teachers. There are so many children's books out there these days, it's hard to know which are the best. It seems like everyone thinks they can crank out a children's book when career plan A doesn't work out, or even when it does. Madonna, Jamie Lee Curtis, Julie Andrews, Ed Koch, Katie Couric, Spike Lee, and James Carville have all written books for kids. We know instinctively to avoid a children's book by Madonna (How Sally Stays Popular with Boys) or James Carville (Hardball: The Winner's Guide to Playground Politics), but that still leaves a sea of literary chaff mixed with the grain. We can't avoid all the bad ones, but below are a few children's books I suggest leaving in the remainder bin: Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel and the Environmental Impact Statements Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Did You Maul? If You Give a Crow Cocaine Amelia Bedelia Finally Understands Idioms Bi-Curious George Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day Until He Took Prozac, by Eli Lilly The Five Chinese Brothers and Their Personal Injury Lawyer Harold and the Purple Crayon Learn to Draw Gang Tags Madeline Won't Shut Up About Jerry Lewis Stuart Little Tests Cosmetics The Polar Express Goes Amtrak Physics for Kids #29: The Impossibility of Reindeer Flight Care Bears vs. Winnie-the-Pooh Bill Muse is the LCP newsletter editor and father of Cricket Veronica. He is not writing a children's book. LCP [at-sign] billmuse.com Back to top
"You should go talk to Santa, dear, even though you feel he screwed you last year."	Been There, Done That Last month, Veronica and I went downtown to the Macy's Start Shopping Now Parade the day after Thanksgiving. I have taken the kids for several years because this event has what I want in a parade. First, it's short, maybe an hour. Second, you can plop down curbside ten minutes before it starts; no need to camp out for a good spot. Third, it starts at 8:45 am, which means people are drinking coffee instead of booze. This not only makes it kid-friendly, it results in a Jerk-Free Zone not usually found in crowds at open-to-the-public events. Also absent are protestors or anyone with an ax to grind, a rarity for a large Seattle gathering. Apparently the disgruntled and self-righteous don't do mornings. Fourth, the parade is entertaining in unintended ways. It has a half—or at best, three-quarters—baked feel to it. It's more like a hometown 4th-of-July parade than the Tournament of Roses, heavy on high school marching bands and drill teams. The floats are the same every year and they are all chicken wire covered with balloons. I never have the feeling that someone went to too much trouble for me. The hokeyness is also reflected in the pacing. This parade only runs 20 blocks, but there are always extended pauses of several minutes. It's fun to watch marching bands come to unexpected halts, negotiate corners, or see tuba players scramble to catch up. The mayor and police chief go by in open convertibles, and it's nice knowing that if I wanted to shout "Hey Chief! Glad you found your gun!", he couldn't help but hear. Veronica seemed to enjoy the candy best. Many parade entrants are people in costumes—peripatetic Christmas trees, giant ambulatory toys, an occasional name-brand appliance—who understand that America's children are tragically under-sugared. Therefore, they constantly hand out treats, sometimes throwing them when they must run to catch up. Nothing says Christmas like a candy cane thrown by a jogging gingerbread man (a.k.a. "person of gingerbread"). Adults get Frangoes (I scored five this year) and free coffee from wandering Starbucks employees with backpack tanks full of fair-trade coffee and holsters of recycled-paper cups; they're like Seattle's version of St. Bernard rescue dogs. The end of the parade is always Santa Claus in a sleigh pulled by eight tiny cylinders of a small-block Chevy. (I guess this sleigh is a rental.) He looked good this year; he has lost a lot of weight. Either they couldn't find a pillow or they're trying to send a message about obesity. This being Seattle, I guess I should just be happy there was no "fake fur" sign pinned to his suit. Bill Muse was born in the wagon of a travelin' show. His momma used to dance for the money they'd throw. Papa would do whatever he could: preach a little gospel; sell a couple bottles of Doctor Good. LCP [at-sign] billmuse.com Back to top
WARNING: Do not overdose on cuteness. Know your limits	Cute Kid Pix Email your cute kid photos to the LCP newsletter, or even better, post them online at www.kodakgallery.com. On www.kodakgallery.com, click Sign In (near upper right corner) Enter this email address: LCPSPhotos@yahoo.com Enter this password: gobaby You can look at photos, buy prints, or upload an album of you own.
Wagon full of Crickets
Jennifer and Phoebe
Clio sees something fishy

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