Emerging Empathy!

💕💕💕💕 it’s the moments like these - spontaneously comforting a teething friend - that remind us why we do all the empathy coaching in the early years. 

Some days we may feel like these coaching sessions about thinking about how others might feel in any given moment or brainstorming ways to help make amends to friends we’ve accidentally hurt is falling flat ... but these moments arise to help remind us they ARE listening, learning and experimenting. They hear our words and observe from our role modelling of how we treat each other and then when the opportunities arise the experiment with trying them out!

Moments like this is why I LOVE the home childcare model because the mix of infants and preschools is the natural life lessons in learning those roots of  empathy from those who are younger and smaller than us and their ability to “remember” what it was like not so long ago to be “little”.  

Have an amazing weekend!

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life

Elf on the Shelf - Community Candy Canes

This year the program is closed this week but thought I would share a couple of Ian the Elf ideas from years past ... this one is a particularly fun one for the crew cause they LOVE riding the city bus as a treat. Sometimes we do not even have to GO anywhere afterward they are happy to just ride the route and watch out the big windows at all there is to see in the community and come back home! 

So this challenge is particularly fun for them because we do just that sitting at the front of the bus and passing out a Candy Cane to the riders as they walk past us after getting on the bus and signing some Christmas Carols while we travel around the route. Sometimes we get off at the grocery store or the mall and do our choosing of either the Food Bank challenge or Angel tree during this particular multi tasking challenge and than we head back home! 

Have an amazing day!

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life 

 

Santa's Little Secret ~ Old Toys New Joys

I was totally inspired by the MotherList's  the New Elf on the Self Tradition that went viral earlier this month that I just had to adapt and build on it for myself for use with the crew! 

Ian the Elf came up with this poem to help explain the Secret of Santa Claus and we are going to purge some of the playroom toys that are rarely used anymore and help them find a new home this holiday season!

Old Toys New Joys

I wanted to let you in on a little secret about how Santa works

Now that you are ‘growing up big’ learning this secret is one of the perks

Santa is magic, why yes indeed,

But even he cannot make all the toys that the children of the world might need!

So Santa does not actually make all the toys from brand new

Sometimes he asks for help from boys and girls like you.

He asks that you look through the toys that you no longer use

The cars, and trinkets and maybe your old Blue’s Clues

Leave one each night for me to take back

And Santa will fix it up and add it to his Santa Sack.

This is how your old trinkets and toys

Can become new gifts and Christmas Joys!

Christmas does not need to be about 'commercialism' it really is about focusing on our PRESENCE in the community not the PRESENTS!!

Have an amazing day!

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life

Elf on the Shelf ~ Pet Love

Nevada cat has an infatuation with Ian the Elf ~ she can often be found snuggling up against him and his array of warm Christmas lights which gave Ian a nudge to create a lovely invitation, which we revisit annually here, where we gather up our old linens that are starting to get either discolored or just not being used anymore and we donate them to the local Animal Shelter along with some pet food and treats for those animals that are patiently waiting for their 'forever home' to become available! 

We were a bit sad this year that we could not go to the pet store in person to get some treats because of this silly stomach flu going through the program this week but we talked about it and again looked through some magazines for ideas on making a list for what we would send a healthy adult to go get for us.

Ian's Poem about sharing some pet love

Santa heard there some animals waiting for a Christmas home

They might be in the need of some warm towels, a toy or even a bone?

So while they are waiting for their new families to come

He thought perhaps you can help bring them some?

So here is some money for you to head to the pet store

Buy a few treats so the wee little animals will want no more!

Have an amazing day!

Margaret
Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much
Be Totallyawake4-life