Messy Morning was a Blast!

Thank you for helping to make Our First Annual Messy Morning April 25, 2009 a huge success!
A total of 19 businesses and organizations cooperated to provide fun, educational, and messy activities for young children and their families. We had a total of 44 families participate, with 83 children ranging from infants through 12 years-old
The staff of Workshop on Wheels would like to thank Warrensburg Parks and Recreation, Applebee’s, Creative Castle Child Development Center, LLC, Delta Zeta, Early Childhood Opportunity Center, Johnson County Christian Academy, Johnson County Community Health Services, KMOS, Leeton Early Childhood Development Center, MO Volunteers, Monetti’s Pizzeria Ristorante, National Residence Hall Honorary, Scrappin’ Oasis, Trails Regional Library, UCM Bowling Team, UCM Chlld Development Lab, U.S. Toy, Whiteman Air Force Base

This Could Get a Little Messy!

Be sure and join Workshop on Wheels, Warrensburg Parks and Recreation, and several local businesses and organizations for MESSY MORNING this coming Saturday, April 25 from 10:00 a.m. to noon at the Community Center in Warrensburg!

Activities available will include painting, water play, seed planting, car seat safety checks, shaving cream activities, pizza dough, and more! Plan to bring your own children, and spread the word to families in your care!

Garden Projects for Kids

We've gotten a super response to Pam's article about gardening with young children in our latest newsletter. If you're looking for even more gardening ideas, you've come to the right place!

Make a toad house: Patrolling the garden at night, toads devour many of the insect pests that damage flowers and vegetables. Invite them to your yard with a snug little home. All you need to build one is a clay pot about four inches in diameter and a trowel for digging. Toads need a cool, moist place to rest in the daytime so choose a spot in the shade. Dig a couple of inches deep, making the hole a bit larger than the clay pot. Place the pot on its side in the hole and bury it about halfway. Use some damp leaves to create a nice bed inside the pot, then moisten the area with a little water to keep the pot in place. Because toads "drink" through their skin, place a small saucer or pie plate nearby and add an inch or so of water. If you're lucky, you won't have to wait too long before a toad comes to visit.

Grow a bean teepee: Pole beans growing on a simple frame will quickly create a shady hideaway for the kids. You'll need a packet of pole bean seeds, three to six six-foot-long bamboo stakes (from the garden center), a planting area about six feet square, straw for mulch and a two-foot length of string. Start our bean teepee around the time you would normally plant tomatoes - about two weeks after the last expected frost. Arrange stakes in a circle, sticking them into the ground 10 inches from bed edge, leaving a two-foot wide space, so kids can enter the teepee. Gather tops of stakes, wrap and tie them together with string. For quicker sprouting, soak bean seeds overnight then plant following packet directions in a circle outside of the base of teepee. Water well. Place a two- to three-inch layer of straw over the soil in the middle to keep weeds down. As the bean plants grow, tie the stems carefully to teepee stakes. In six to eight weeks, bean plants will cover the structure and kids can play inside.

Great plants for kids: When starting plants from seed, choose big, easy to handle and quick-to-germinate seeds such as beans, radishes, sunflowers, dwarf nasturtiums and zinnia. Kids also love the tiny and the giant, so plant miniature vegetables like grape tomatoes and dwarf sunflowers like 'Teddy Bear' or big plants like tall Russian sunflowers or pumpkins (one rambling pumpkin plant needs a six-foot-square area of ground). Also try unusual veggies - like purple carrots and beans, rainbow chard, heirloom tomatoes, or yellow scallop squash. Uniquely shaped flowers like snapdragons and bleeding hearts are fun to manipulate and dissect. Textured plants like soft lambs' ears, woolly thyme and plumed annual celosia beg to be touched, and strawflowers and purple coneflowers are cool customers because they're so prickly.

Grow a pizza garden: Kids can grow the fresh ingredients for pizza sauce - a couple of tomato plants, one each of basil, rosemary and oregano, plus half a dozen onions (use onion sets, which are small onion bulbs) and one green and one red pepper plant. Buy plants in spring, but don't transplant them into the garden until all danger of frost is past. Help kids prepare the soil. For fun, make the bed round or wedge shaped, and edge it with orange or yellow marigolds to resemble crust. At harvest time, buy plain pizza crust or pizza dough, and help kids cook up a sauce using garden fresh ingredients. Top the pizza crust with sauce, diced peppers and the usual pepperoni and cheese. How proud they will be to have grown their own pizza sauce!

Build a scarecrow: Collect adult-sized old clothing - an old plaid shirt, a vest or jacket, a pair of jeans, old gloves (for the hands), and boots or socks (for the feet). Use straw, leaves or rags as stuffing. For a frame, use two pieces of wood with one stake tall enough for the height of clothing and 1 ½ feet extra to pound into ground. Cut the shorter stake the length of the shirt with arms stretched out. Nail the boards in a cross-like form. Stuff a pillowcase for the head first and tie up the round part with string, then pull the open-ended pillow fabric over the vertical stake and secure the string. For facial features, kids can use waterproof markers, or help them sew on buttons for eyes and nose. Fasten a straw hat with safety pins. Put the shirt onto the frame, do up the buttons and add the stuffing, tying the shirt's waist so stuffing stays in place. Pin or tie ends of pants and stuff. Use a belt through the loops to attach jeans to the stake and shirt. Use safety pins if necessary. Prop leg ends into boots or stuffed socks and pin stuffed gloves to ends of the shirt arms. Presto! You have a fun scarecrow decoration for the kids' garden.

Theme gardens: Let the kids take the lead here. Some might be fascinated to learn about butterfly gardens and what plants attract first the caterpillars and then, later in the season, the nectar-seeking butterflies. Harry Potter fans could grow herbs and plants studied by Harry and his friends in herbology class. (Note: This is a project best suited to older kids as some of the plants in the books, such as monkshood, are poisonous.) A budding chef could research and grow gourmet vegetables. Other popular themes include color or fragrance. Theme gardens can be as varied as your child's imagination.

Grow the Tickle Me Plant: Try growing the plant that moves when your kids tickle it. It is the TickleMe Plant (Mimosa pudica). They are easy to grow and kids never forget the experience of seeing the leaves and branches of this sensitive plant move when they tickle it. TickleMe Plant seeds and growing kits can easily be found on the web, or in most science catalogs and science museums. I have grown them with my school children for many years!

This article and more great ideas can be found at http://www.kaboose.com/

Safely Handling Live Chicks and Ducklings

Many early childhood programs enjoy hatching eggs as a science activity during the springtime. Children also may receive chicks and ducklings as Easter gifts. As parents and providers, we must be aware that chicks and ducklings can place young children at risk for serious illness.

 Handling of chicks and ducklings has been linked to Salmonella illness.
 Children are less likely than adults to wash their hands after playing with the birds.
 Children have more frequent hand-to-mouth contact than adults.

What is Salmoella Illness?
Salmonella are a group of bacteria that can cause diarrheal illness. One of the most widespread pathogens in the world, Salmonella infection can cause mild to life-threatening illness in humans and other animals, including birds. Contaminated food is the most common way people become infected. Salmonella, however, can infect some pets and people who have had contact with pets or pet feces. Even chicks and ducklings that appear healthy can carry Salmonella on their feathers. In 2008, over 750 cases of human Salmonella illness were reported in Missouri.

How do I protect children from getting Salmonella?
 Do not let children under five handle baby chicks or other young birds.
 Pacifiers, toys, or other objects must not touch baby birds or their enclosures.
 If anyone touches the chicks or ducklings or their environment, make sure they wash their hands with soap and water immediately afterwards.

Important Information about Samonella:
Most people with Salmonella illness have diarrhea, fever, and stomach pain. Symptoms start one to three days after infection and illness usually lasts four to seven days. Young children and the elderly can develop more severe infections.

For more information about salmonellosis: http://www.dhss.mo.gov/Salmonellosis/

Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services
Office of Veterinary Public Health and the
Bureau of Communicable Disease Control and Prevention
Toll-free (866) 628-9891 or call your local public health department

Child Care and Biting

There’s nothing like predicting the inevitable. If your child is in child care, eventually one toddler is going to bite another toddler. And if it’s your child that is being bit, you are going to get upset. Even if your child is the biter, you are also going to be distressed. You can work with your child care provider to help keep biting to a minimum. You can also make sure procedures are in place to handle biting once it occurs.

Biting will happen – it is a stage that many toddlers go through. It is helpful to know that biting is not a predictor of later aggressive behavior, and it should not be grounds for expulsion from a child care program. Studies show that one out of 10 toddlers and 2-yearolds are biters. The occurrence of biting in child care is highest in September, lowest in the summer and usually
peaks around 10:00 a.m. Biting is most common when toddlers are under stress or going through a developmental change. Once your child can use words and has a little more control over his or her behavior, biting will be less of an
issue. It helps to understand why toddlers bite.

◗◗ Their back teeth are coming in. Their gums hurt.
◗◗ They still use their mouth to explore the world.
◗◗ They don’t have the words to tell you what they want.
◗◗ They don’t understand having to wait for something.
◗◗ They do understand there are things they want to do, but are unable or not allowed to do.
◗◗ They may not be getting enough oral stimulation in their diet.
◗◗ The setting may be overwhelming.

Biting is less common in a calm environment. Your child care provider should be doing as much as possible to avoid unnecessary commotion and competition for toys and adult attention. You should expect to see the following:

◗◗ Watchful adult supervision
◗◗ Teething toys (that are sanitized frequently)
◗◗ Children being taught to share, wait and use their words
◗◗ Daily activities that engage toddlers in sensory activities such as using straws, crunching on ice or blowing on a whistle
◗◗ Foods that have a variety of tastes, temperatures and textures that require sucking, gumming, munching, crunching and chewing
◗◗ Supervised use of toothbrushes and oral stimulation brushes that allow children to massage their gums
◗◗ Planning for individual children’s needs, interests and developmental levels
◗◗ Written policies that describe how the program handles biting
◗◗ Information for parents about how to prevent and respond to biting

Biting is scary for the whole group - for the child being hurt, the child doing the biting, and the group that witnesses the results. A good program will have procedures in place to deal with biting. You should expect your caregiver to respond calmly and take steps to minimize future incidents. If your child is bitten, you should expect your child to be comforted and given appropriate first-aid. You should receive a written injury report. When you hear your child has been bitten, stay calm. Let the caregiver explain what happened. Find out what steps are being put in place to reduce chances that this will happen again. Please note that your child care provider is legally not allowed to tell you who did the biting. If your child is repeatedly being bitten, and you think that your provider is not taking care of the problem, you should notify your local licensing office. For contact information, call Child Care Aware® at 1-800-424-2246 or visit www.childcareaware.org/en/.

If your child is the biter, you should expect your child to be comforted as well. It’s scary to lose control and bite. Once your child is calm, he or she should be helped to see that the child
who was bitten has been hurt. Then your child should be redirected to another activity.

The providers should consider the best strategies to use with your child to prevent future biting. Your child may need a teething toy, a different toy, or a reminder about learning to share or wait.

You and your child care provider should spend time watching and understanding your toddler.
Share positive techniques you have used at home to reduce the incidents of biting, hitting or other specific aggressive behaviors. Help your child care provider look for patterns in the biter’s environment and emotional state during each biting episode.

◗◗ Does the time of day make a difference?
◗◗ Was the child uncomfortable, sick, hungry, sleepy, bored or excited?
◗◗ How long has it been since the child last ate?
◗◗ Does the child feel crowded?
◗◗ Is the child over stimulated or under stimulated?
◗◗ Does the child always bite the same individual?
◗◗ Has there been a change at home or at the child care program that affects the child’s
stress level?

Consider which of the prevention strategies will be most successful in reducing your toddler’s urge to bite in the future. Make a plan to support the biter’s needs and help the child be successful. You and your provider can guide your child toward self-control and away from biting. The key is understanding - for adults and children alike.

For More Information:

American Academy of Pediatrics, www.aap.org/healthtopics/childcare.cfm, has a parenting section on its website that covers a variety of issues on raising children.

Talaris Research Institute, http://www.talaris.org/, provides research summaries for parents and the general public about a variety of child development and parenting topics.

Reprinted with permission from The Daily Parent, a newsletter for parents funded by the Citi Foundation and produced by NACCRRA. Copyright 2009, NACCRRA, Arlington, VA. All rights reserved.