Parents frequently ask why tuition is still required when their child is out for vacation. The answer quite simply is … you don’t. The monthly/weekly fees are not based on the number of days of care used in any particular month, but rather they are 1/12 or 1/52 of the yearly tuition. Each year an annual tuition fee is figured for each category of attendance (full month/week, half month/week, quarter month/week). This fee is the daily cost for providing care, times the number of available days of care. TTLC is aware that children will not attend school every scheduled day – most families plan a vacation and young children are guaranteed to miss at least a few days with normal childhood illness. In recognition of this, TTLC deducts four weeks of charges from the annual tuition fee. The yearly fee is then divided into 12 monthly or 52 weekly payments. Since this four weeks for sickness and vacation has been deducted before the rates were figured parents cannot expect that it be deducted again when the child is actually absent. Many policies are in effect which provide additional reductions in fees. A sibling discount is made to families with more than one child even though the cost of providing care to additional children in the same family is not any less. Substantial discounts are figured in to all advance payment rates. This discount is, reclaimed at 5% per week of late payment when fees are not paid in advance as promised.   Services which are not utilized equally by all parents (summer camp, field trips, registration fees, and late pick up fees) are charged separately so that only parents who use these services pay for them. While TTLC tries to be responsive to parents’ need for affordable care, the fee structure must provide a financial base for providing quality care. Once fees and payment policies have been set, no changes or special considerations will be granted.

We go out to play every day except in cases of very extreme weather.  Dress your child accordingly. Do not request that your child be kept in. If s/he is not well enough to go out, then probably s/he is not well enough to be at school. Each teacher is responsible for a group of children, if your child stays in, a whole group must stay in. Fresh air is good for children and there are fewer germs in the outside air.

We are still having problems with unmarked coats! Please, mark them now. Also, remember that anything that comes to school should be in a labeled bag which can go in your cubby or hang on the hook in the coatroom.

Thank you in advance for your help!

WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE

At this time of year, Native Americans become the focus of news articles, sale ads, magazine features, and radio and TV sound bites. Most preschool and early elementary teachers have a unit of study during November that focuses on Native Americans and their culture. It has been the same at least since I was in grade school. It is only recently that there has been any awareness that perhaps this is not an appropriate thing to do, that maybe we are teaching children prejudice and bigotry instead of history. Good teachers are aghast at this accusation. A stylized TV concept of Indians makes a convenient focus for learning because of its interest to young children. It is fun. It is exciting. Most of it is also untrue or distorted. This Indian stereotype ignores the passage of time for that one segment of the population, leading children to assume that Indians live today in the same way that they did 200 – 500 years ago. Any immigrant who came to America during that time period lived off the land, washed their clothes on a scrub board and lived in log cabins or underground soddies. You don’t expect your children to be taught that this is still the norm. Yet most young children assume that Native Americans still live in teepees and spend their time hunting with bow and arrow.

There were hundreds of different tribes of Native Americans each with different values and ways of life. Yet we lump them all together and teach our children about “Indians!” Making generalizations or assumptions about any group of people and attempting to apply them to everyone of that group without respect to individual differences is, very simply, prejudice. Some would attempt to right this wrong by reversing the prejudice. But, prejudging any culture as totally “good” is as inappropriate as prejudging it as “bad.” The myth of the “Noble Red-man” is as much prejudice as is the “Dirty Savage” image. In reality Native Americans, like any other group, are made up of a few really good people, a few really bad people, and an awful lot of people who just try to do the best they can. Any generalized cultural blame is non-productive. Europeans did kill off many tribes by exposing them to small-pox. But it is also true that Native Americans introduced the rest of the world to tobacco which has probably caused an even larger number of lingering and painful deaths. Neither group did this with malice, it was an unfortunate result of a mingling of two very different cultures.

We have no control over the past and we aren’t always certain that we have much influence into the future. Certainly solving the problems of racism, prejudice, and discrimination is not simple. It requires resources and power that we as individuals do not possess. There is however, one thing each individual can do to make this a better place for all of our children. Language is a powerful force. Many words we use to identify groups of people carry insulting overtones which give children the idea that superiority and anger towards other groups of people are acceptable. While individually you can’t solve the problems on the reservations or in the ghettos, you can become sensitive to, and eliminate from your vocabulary, all terms which are insulting to people of another color, race, religion, or gender. Only then can attitudes begin to change so that all of our children will be able to work together and improve their future

Scrub-a-dub
Combine water play with some constructive accomplishments. You and the kids put on your bathing suits, get out scrub brushes, soap, and the hose. Work together to scrub down the patio furniture, the kitchen table, and chairs, or whatever needs to be cleaned. When everybody is tired and the worst of the dirt is off the furniture, rinse it and put on a coat of wax. Yes, you could do it faster and neater alone, but the object is to spend constructive time having fun with your children.

Heavenly Fireworks
We all watched the fireworks in July, but August brings natural fireworks. If your family stays up late around August 10 -14, you can view the Perseid Meteor Shower. An average of 65 meteors will light up the sky each hour as they move towards the Earth. Viewing will start after dark, but the best show is after midnight. On any clear summer night, look for the big and little dipper.