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 Rating System Enabled! | 0 comments | Write CommentPosted March 31, 2010, 01:00:15 PM by ruthwitte |
| Ben just enabled a rating system on the growingplaces.cc discussion forum! We would be ever so grateful for feedback, especially on the Parents as Teachers columns under the Children and Families heading. Thank you! |
| Community Garden and Earth Day Communications | 0 comments | Write Comment Posted March 13, 2010, 05:58:06 PM by ruthwitte |
| if we communicate re: community garden on the growingplaces.cc website, we can keep everything collected in one place instead of lost in piles of messages on facebook and in email. ben and i opened a new section in the discussion forum dedicated to the community garden, where i have started putting pertinent information and another for the earth hour. that way we can steer anyone who is interested to these spots and hopefully get them involved through that :-) when you post or are interested in responses to certain areas you can go to additional options at the foot of your post and click on notify... |
| Forum Upgrade | 0 comments | Write Comment Posted March 08, 2010, 06:41:49 PM by Ben W |
| Hello faithful users! in order to update the forum we had to switch to a new database system.  because of this all forum accounts and posts will have to be reloaded into the new system. The old forum can be viewed here www.growingplaces.cc/forum The posts will be moved shortly. Once I specify that the transfer is complete, if you notice anything we missed, please notify me. The accounts will also be transferred, you will be given a new password which should be changed ASAP. ___________________________________________________________________________________ to change your password log in with the username and password emailed to you. click Profile, mouse over the Modify Profile tab and click Account Settings, fill in the fields for choose password and verify password with a password of your choosing then use the emailed password in the current password field. And you're ... |
| Taste of Dominica 2010 | 0 comments | Write Comment Posted March 08, 2010, 04:52:43 PM by ruthwitte |
| Friday April 23, 5-7pm at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Dansville. Enjoy a simple meal of Dominican Cuisine. See slide show, music, crafts, and children's correspondence. All proceeds go toward Crayfish River Preschool Nutrition Program. Sponsored by Growing Places for their sister school in Dominica, West Indies. |
| Earth Hour 2010: Saturday March 27 from 8:30 - 9:30pm. | 0 comments | Write Comment Posted March 08, 2010, 04:52:02 PM by ruthwitte |
| Earth Hour is a global event that occurs on the last Saturday of March. The idea is that the people of the world join to take notice of the environmental danger our planet is in by asking households, businesses, and communities to turn off their lights and non-essential electrical appliances for one hour in the evening. Earth Hour was originally promoted by World Wildlife Fund Australia and the Sydney Morning Herald in 2007. The strong backing from the City of Sydney helped to make Earth Hour 2008 an international event. In 2008 24 global cities participated. In 2009 hundreds of millions of people in over 4000 cities and towns and in 88 countries world wide turned off their lights! In fact, entire cities (Cape Town, Chicago, Copenhagen, Dubai, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Las Vegas, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Manila, Mexico City, Moscow, Nashville, Oslo, Rome, San Francisco, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto and Warsaw) went dark! Please encourage friends, family... |
| Regeneration: A Show of Hands | 0 comments | Write Comment Posted March 08, 2010, 04:51:17 PM by ruthwitte |
| Garden Club Meeting 2nd Monday of the month | 0 comments | Write Comment Posted March 08, 2010, 04:50:33 PM by ruthwitte |
| Fee: $2 per month Purposes: Exploration of area resources Learn about earth friendly gardening techniques Increase wildlife habitat areas Garden and Nature craft Assist in nurturing the oasis that is the GP garden :-) Ideas for potential scheduling: Garden Planning Earth friendly weed and pest control Creating a Wildlife Habitat Make nesting boxes Field trips: Garden Factory Butterfly Conservatory Flower Show Lilac Festival Elizabeth Rapchick-Weidman Resources: Tools to share Extensive gardening library is available for browsing: planning. landscaping, pruning, wildlife gardening, birds weeds and pests,... November Meeting: Care for garden tools: clean, sharpen, repair and put to bed. Create list of tools available for loan by other members Discuss idea of community garden schedule upcoming months December: Sonne... |
| Cooking Club | 0 comments | Write Comment Posted March 08, 2010, 04:49:48 PM by ruthwitte |
| Cooking Club is set to meet the 2nd Wednesday of the month. Next meeting: November 12: Apple Pie!!! rsvp |
| Wanted: Ideas for Newsletters! | 0 comments | Write Comment Posted March 08, 2010, 04:48:56 PM by ruthwitte |
| Please share ideas, experiences, advice, resources for parents and/or women, for possible inclusion in newsletters! |
| Women's Center Renamed Tree Top Haven | 0 comments | Write Comment Posted March 08, 2010, 04:47:46 PM by ruthwitte |
| Growing Places Center for Women will henceforth be referred to as Tree Top Haven Women's Retreat. Stop by 14 Battle St. anytime durng the day on Fridays to see what we have to offer. |
Overview
Parents as Teachers: Growing Places With Your Kids
Kids Summer 2010 Taste of Dominica Earth Day Everyday
Growing Places Creative Learning Center is a non-profit organization that seeks to provide quality enrichment to children, parents, grandparents, and community members, in the areas of creative and personal development, with emphasis on environmental and social responsibility.
Growing Places will:
- Promote self-knowledge, leading to self-acceptance.
- Promote peace in the classroom, home and community by teaching children and parents to prevent and resolve conflicts peacefully by making families aware of the influence of both peaceful and violent conduct in their surroundings.
- Provide children, and their parents and grandparents, an opportunity for creative activity, learning, and sharing.
- Provide a preschool alternative through art, environmental, community and world awareness activities.
- Provide community service opportunities for teens and senior citizens.
Peace Education
In creating a peaceful society, we are responsible to set standards and expectations for honesty, courage, wisdom and compassion. Children at Growing Places will learn the importance of reaching out, empathizing, accepting and celebrating differences. They will learn to communicate feelings and resolve conflicts in acceptable ways.
Activities which support peace education include the following: teaching and demonstrating good manners; nonviolent play; community service; parenting classes; Parent Center; clear guidelines and expectations for children and parents participating in GP activities; TV Turn Off Week; National Peace Corps Week; Newsletter articles; Sister School Project with Crayfish River Preschool, in Dominica, West Indies.
Children's Garden
The children's garden at Growing Places provides a self-contained ecosystem on premises, as well as an obvious initiation to environmental awareness through infinite teaching moments (e.g., observation of an ant hill provides lessons in community, life cycle, and environmental responsibility re: pesticides, etc.).
The garden offers a place of solace: nooks and crannies provided by the sunflowers, weeping cherry, bean teepee, and playhouse provide a back drop for elaborate make believe, hideaways for quiet chats or just a peaceful moment to oneself. It provides a focal point for observation, self expression, and creativity, while enhancing so many skills necessary for successful learning. Discovery activities encourage children to explore the natural world, and help children learn ecological principles. Children develop an understanding that everything in nature is important as they learn how nature works. Reflective activities inspire children to express their feelings about themselves and nature, and deepen their connection to nature as they write about thoughts and experiences. Nature writing and journal sketching help children increase awareness of the natural world around them. Children slow down, focus, and use observation skills to capture their experience of nature through various art and play activities.
Literacy: Laying the Groundwork
Our children are surrounded by books. Thousands of books line the wall of the library and shelves throughout the building. Our books are carefully selected for content, beauty of illustration, and quality of writing. It is clear to us that the earlier a love of books is instilled, the greater a passion of reading and learning as they grow.
We firmly believe that there are many things that a child needs to do and learn before s/he is ready to read and write, and that it is not necessary or even desirable for children of pre-school age to be able to identify and write their letters. Early childhood is a time for play, exploration, and learning to get along with others. Attempting to force the issue of reading and writing prematurely not only detracts from these basics of early childhood, it can cause frustration, a feeling of inferiority, and even a life long resistance to reading. It is however, so important to lay the groundwork which will make the task of learning to read and write easier when the time does come. We do this on a daily basis through our play, circle time, art, and music activities, each of which play an important role in this process.
Growing Places in Art
The art programs at Growing Places provide an opportunity for your child to develop his or her natural creative impulses by allowing him/her to:
- Become familiar with a broad range of material, process, and technique (paint, paper, clay, paper mache, collage, natural and reusable materials, etc.)
- Gain first hand experience of expressive arts as they relate to nature and community, and different cultures (e.g., Native American, Latin American, African-American)
- Practice expressing him/herself in a positive manner
- Increase his or her level of confidence through personal accomplishment
- Experience the satisfaction of seeing their artwork on public display
- Become acquainted with working artists in the community
- Develop a strong foundation for the lifelong expression of creativity
Check out the children's art gallery from the home page or click here..
Our Music Program
Our children are introduced to the world of music through song, rhythm experiences, movement, and exposure to the many types of music through recorded and live presentations. This program is enhanced through the participation of music and dance professionals in the community, and live performances in the area. We feel music is important to learning because it develops listening skills and auditory awareness, contributes to speech and language development, involves both large motor skills and small motor skills, encourages creative expression, and offers a release for feelings and frustrations. It gives children opportunities for social interaction and cooperation, and sets the tone for our classroom.
Expectations
We will treat ourselves and others with dignity and respect.
* We will not put ourselves or others down.
* We will not invade the privacy, personal space, or property of someone else without their permission.
* We will acknowledge and show our appreciation for kindness and service given us.
We will do our best in all of our endeavors.
* We will attempt the things we think we cannot do.
* We will not give up when we make a mistake.We will work together in making our world a better place.
* We will discover and share the gifts and talents we each possess.
* We will develop awareness, learn appreciation for, and share the beauty which surrounds us daily.
* We will strive to make the world more beautiful.
* We will share what we have with those less fortunate
* We will strive to perform "random acts of kindness" on a daily basis.
Tree Top Haven Women's Retreat
Mission: Create sense of community among women, offering opportunities for personal discovery and growth in a nurturing environment.
Over these last months, women in the Growing Places community have strived to create a place of solace for themselves and others seeking retreat from the endless demands of our chaotic lives. This lovely, quiet haven is located above Growing Places Creative Learning Center- an apartment hidden in the branches of the trees out back, henceforth called the Woman's Retreat. Here is an opportunity to create a space for yourself, a quiet spot for reflection, friendship, a resource library, an opportunity to pursue acquaintance with and knowledge of your inner-self.
Creativity- kre a tiv' i te n. 1. The state or quality of being creative; 2. Characterized by originality, imagination and expressiveness; 3. The ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; 4. Attributed variously to divine intervention, cognitive processes, the social environment, and personality traits; associated with genius, mental illness and humour. 5. A trait we are born with but may have been squelched as a child. 6. Seems to lie tantalizingly beyond the grasp of most people. 7. Requires time set aside to allow for percolation of creative impulses.
In these days of economic uncertainty the question of what next adds to the current day to day stresses of job, household, family obligations. It is no wonder that the inner flame that defines who we are and what we have to give to the world flickers as we lose sight of the essence of our being, from whence we come, the people we truly desire to become. We get swept away by the demands we place on ourselves, disappointments and frustrations and perceived failures. We lose sight of the fact that in order to truly succeed in everyday affairs we need to fan our inner flame, recognizing that what is truly important lies within. In order to accomplish such a feat during these difficult times, we need to create a space, a peaceful bubble for ourselves in which to focus on nurturing our soul, be it through meditation, creativity, appreciation of nature, or taking the time to learn about something new just because you have always wanted to. It is so unfortunate that in the grand scheme of our day to day lives we place ourselves at the lowest of priorities, when in fact by caring first for ourselves we are better able to nurture the others we care for, to meet the challenge of our day to day existence in whatever form it takes. Continued self neglect leads to irritable discontent, resentment, hopelessness. In this state we are of use to no one.
- Discover your hidden talents while you relax and make new friends.
- Classes are designed for those of us who think we have no creativity, but inspired artists are welcome as well!
- Pre-register by Thursday. Class size is limited; minimum number of participants is necessary to hold class. Bring a friend!
Growing Places Creative Learning Center is located at 14 Battle Street, Dansville, NY 14437.
Our phone number is (585) 335-7340.
You may email us at Ruth@growingplaces.cc.
Copyright Growing Places, Inc. 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
Contact the Webmaster at bjwitte@gmail.com.
