Helping Hands

There is a reason that I named this school ‘Helping Hands’; many reasons actually. The first reason being that my mother used to say, "Many hands make light work."

But the most important reason is: 

Everyone can use a helping hand from time to time.   Parents need help, children need help, and teachers need help too.  Sometimes it can be very difficult to see when you need help. Harder still to admit it when you do realize the need.  I am certainly guilty of being slow to ask for help and slower still to admit when I needed help and should have asked for it.

       It wasn’t until recently that I have come to see that help is something I can receive as well as give to others.  I’m so happy I named this school Helping Hands.  I would like to take this moment to say a brief “Thank you” to two amazing people who have helped me in far too many ways to list.  It's important to me that all the Helping Hands' families know the magic makers behind the scenes.

Thank you Jill Lepow, for sharing with me your financial brilliance and for being so organized!  And thank you for your continued help with balancing the school budget and keeping me on task! I am in awe of your talents and know that I still have so much more to learn from you. Most of all, thank you for having confidence in me and believing in my dream.  You suggesting I start my own school way back when, was just what I needed and at just the right time.  I didn't know then the "how" or "when" but having you believe in me made everything I was struggling with manageable.   Thank you Jill~

And Thank You Victoria Marshall, for renting to me this absolutely beautiful house!  You were right when you said, “it was meant to be a school”.  It most certainly was and is!  You and Andrew will forever hold a place in my heart and I will always keep looking for your wings because I believe you are angels here on earth. Victoria's dedication to quality education and the devotion she has to her family and her friend's families is so very beautiful.  I've never known another person who gave so much to so many.  Thank you Victoria for sharing your ideas and supporting me in mine. The MANY clever suggestions Victoria has made, and I have begun to put into practice, are ones that all the families will appreciate. Not just these wonderful families who presently make up our school but the many to follow in the years to come. Thank you Victoria~

 

Without Jill and Victoria’s help this school would have never happened and I will forever be grateful to them both.  Thank you both so very much!   

To ALL the Helping Hands Family School parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles, caregivers and children...for your time and energy, your support and generosity, your love and understanding...

I am so appreciative of EVERYONE OF YOU and grateful you are in my life!  

Many hands DO make light work~  my mom was right!
PEACE
~Jennifer

 

Makin' Ugly Pie

If you've been itchin' for some Ugly Pie, today is your lucky day! Here's Ol' Bear's recipe, handed down from bear to bear for generations.
Ugly Crust:
2 & 1/2 cups flour
1 cup shortening (we used butter)
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 to 8 tablespoons icy cold water

Ugly Filling
6 cups peeled, sliced Granny Smith apples (we used apples given to us by Madeline's family from their apple tree)
1/4 cup molasses
1 teaspoon lemon juice

In a large bowl, toss apple slices with lemon juice. Then mix in molasses until apples are completely coated with ugly brown goo. Set aside.
5 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar

In a medium-sized bowl, mix the dry ingredients listed above. Add to the ugly apple mixture until everything is nice 'n' moist.
3/4 cup red raisins or cran-raisins
1/4 walnuts chopped fine (we left out the nuts)

Toss raisins and walnuts into apple mixture. Make sure all ingredients are well coated. Place into pie crust. Your pie should look fairly ugly by now.
Top with second pie crust and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon mixture. Cover pie with an aluminum-foil tent to prevent over browning. Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 20 minutes.
When your pie is done, you will have the most delicious, most beautiful UGLY PIE you ever did see!
Enjoy~

No Cook Kool-Aid Play Doh Recipe:

No Cook Kool-Aid Play Doh Recipe:

1 Packet Sugar-Free Red Kool-Aid Mix

1 Cup of Flour

1/2 Cup of Salt

(for the apples we added a dash of  

Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Allspice)

3 Teaspoons of Vegetable Oil

1 Cup Boiling Water

Mix dry ingredients;

then stir in oil and boiling water,

keep stirring for a minute or two --

once it cools down a bit 

pull it out of the bowl

and knead into a ball. 

Store in an air tight container.

Happy Play-doh-ing!

 

This was really quick and super easy but personally I'm not a big fan of the Kool-Aid smell so I don't know if I will make it again. Also I chose strawberry Kool-Aid so it turned out more of a pink color than true red.  If I did make it again I think I would choose cherry.  

 

Goodbye Beautiful Butterflies

Gifted to us by nature and the Kulbe family, two monarch caterpillars came to Helping Hands. Three weeks later two beautiful butterflies emerged from their chrysalis and take flight. This warm early autumn weather is here for this very reason. The children loved watching the whole metamorphosis process! Thank you to the Kulbe family for sharing your discovery with all of us. Thank you to Emmet for supplying the milkweed to keep the caterpillars fed & happy and thank you to Miss Jenn for taking these beautiful photos :)  Goodbye beautiful butterflies~

Autumn Arrives

Making Their Mark

A child's first introduction to writing letters often starts with the child's name. If your child is showing an interest in writing letters, try this lesson on learning how to write your name.

Indirect Aim: Writing.

Direct Aim: To make the child aware that sounds have symbols.

Age: 3 to 4 years.

Materials: Sandpaper letter(s), pencil, paper.

Example of child's name: Sarah

1. "Today we are going to write your name." (Or you can just write the first letter of the child's name: "Today we are going to write the first letter in your name.") "What is the first letter in your name?" If the child gives the name for the letter 's' (es) you say, "Its name is 's' (es) but it says the sound ‘sss’ like snake.

If the child has a blend, like 'ch' for Charlie, 

say "The letters 'C' (see) and 'h' (ay-chu) make the sound 'ch' like chair. 'ch' is the first sound in the name Charlie.

2. Take any kind of paper (or chalkboard) and a normal size pencil (or white chalk), and start with first letter in child’s name. Use a capital letter. Trace the capital letter 'S' with two fingers (use pointing finger and middle finger and always top to bottom, left to write) then write it. Do a whole line of the letter 'S', if the child can wait. Or, at some point, ask the child to have a turn to trace the letter 'S' and write it. Trace it first, then write it, trace it again, then write it again, repeat this pattern of tracing and writing, tracing and writing.

3. "Now we are going to write the second letter in your name." (Or you can write the second letter another day.) "The second letter in your name is -------" (for our example, Sarah, it would be 'a').

4. Use a lower case letter 'a'. Trace the lower case letter 'a' with two fingers (use pointing finger and middle finger and always top to bottom, left to write) then write it. Do a whole line of the letter 'a', if the child can wait. Or, at some point, ask the child to have a turn to trace the letter 'a' and write it. Trace it first, then write it, trace it again, then write it again, repeat this pattern of tracing and writing, tracing and writing.

Continue with the next letter in the child's name, or wait until another day.

You can also have the child's name written out on a piece of paper or cardstock, and place it near the pencils and paper for her to go and get when ever she wants to write her name. Later, she will want to write her sibling's or her friend's name, have that child's name written out on a piece of paper or cardstock, and place it near the pencils and paper for her to go and get when ever she wants to write it.

Optional: You can use dots to write the letter(s) and have the child trace over the dots.

The adult writes the name in yellow marker and the child traces the name in a darker color.

In our classroom we have a cornmeal tray.  This is a shallow tray with a thin layer of cornmeal.  The children trace the letters they know in the cornmeal.  This is great fun and is used by all the children. 

Markers: allow the child to decorate her paper with markers after she has practiced writing her name in pencil HOWEVER, for children who have difficultly writing (or may be hard to motivate) allow them to use markers to practice writing their name.  Our goal is leaving the activity with a feeling of success!

Encourage the child to always write her name on her artwork.:)

THIS SATURDAY!

‘Crows & Scarecrows – Unite!’ at Church Street Festival

Everyone is invited to the super-silliest event celebrating the harvest and creativity of Waldo County, the 31^st Annual Church Street Festival and zaniest MythWeavers Parade on Saturday, October 2, from 10 a.m. till 3 p.m., at Church and Spring Streets right here in Belfast.

“Crows & Scarecrows – Unite!” captures the essential conflict under intense scrutiny, beginning with the MythWeavers Parade, explains Mary Weaver.

“Crows have a primal desire to eat the corn.  Scarecrows are created to bear the responsibility of guarding the corn.  They are at fundamental odds,” Weaver wanders.  “Scarecrows are stationary and solid stick.  But crows can fly!”

Anyone may choose their costume and character, then march in the MythWeavers Parade.  Crows and scarecrows and other creatures – including longtime favorites Bela the Big Pink Elephant and Babe the Little Blue Elephant, along with Fritz the Lyin’ King – are most welcome to gather at 49 High Street at 10:00 a.m. where the parade begins.

MythWeavers Parade begins at 11 a.m. as the crows and scarecrows flabbergast each other on the way up to Church Street.  Parade watchers are also welcome yet warned not to provoke further conflict among paraders.

Then at 12:30 p.m. on Church Street, a MythWeavers Theater Performance will be challenged to seek peace and resolve the definitive differences between crows and scarecrows so that all may unite in community and harmony.

Meanwhile the Church Street Festival will host fun and games, contests, live music and performances, and various vendors and organizations.  The Belfast Bay Fiddlers will entertain on Church Street beginning at 10:30 a.m.

For those who crow, there will be a Crow Caw Contest with prizes and open to those of any age.  Another contest will feature Scare-downs for Scarecrows.  Plus the “Win-A-Cake Walk” (to win a cake from Molly’s Kitchen), the Bounce House, face painting and creating the colorful chalk mandala on Church Street itself will return to the festival’s festivities.

Anyone may submit a limerick or a sonnet on the theme of Crows & Scarecrows, and the best in each category will win a special prize.  For more information, contact Jacob at jacobrf@midmaine.com or Mary at mary.playhouse@myfairpoint.net.

There will also be a Pink Elephant Sale where anyone may choose to offer (or purchase) unique items for sale.

Custom costume photos will also be provided by Light in the Forest Photography (next to The Playhouse).

“There will be lots of things to see and do and fun for everyone,” promises Mary Weaver.  “We can only hope that crows and scarecrows will somehow learn to get along together after squawking at each other like crazy.”

For more information, contact Mary Weaver, 338-5777, mary.playhouse@myfairpoint.net.  “Come and join the parade!” she urges.  “Crows and scarecrows: Don’t fight!  Unite!”