Mother's Encyclopedia for Care & Raising Children

Dr. Spock's Baby and Childcare book was the book that parents went to for many years.  In the 80's and 90's parents read 'What to Expect When You're Expecting'.  Search amazon for books on motherhood and you have over a thousand choices.  Barnes and Noble provides over fifteen hundred books on motherhood.  Type in 'motherhood books' in your browser, hit search and you will have over fifty-six million options. If you broaden your search to parenting? Two billion results.  

I love vintage books and have had the Mother's Encyclopedia for as long as I can remember. The copyright is dated 1950.  The chapters begin with the Privilege of Parenthood, The Expectant Mother, The Emotional Adjustments of Pregnancy, A Word to Expectant Fathers and in the first section is also Painless Childbirth (???).  It moves through the first year and preschoolers. There are chapters on how small children learn, letting your child have their say, discipline through affection and much more.  In the section on school age children there is advice on education, summer camp, the lunch box, natural and wholesome attitudes toward sex and advice on comic books, television and radio There are chapters on books, music, art, in-laws, grandparents, first aid and adoption.  

Each generation has their own set of challenges and obstacles.  The Mother's Encyclopedia in many ways is not relevant for parenting children today. However, in many ways the more things change, the more they stay the same.  The first chapter is Parents' Pledge to Their Children.  I've taken the liberty to edit and update---

Parents' Pledge to Their Children

Mother's Encyclopedia for Care & Raising Children

In every home where this pledge is made and kept, children will have a greater opportunity to grow into healthy, intelligent and useful members of society. *

From your earliest infancy we will give you our love, so that you may grow with trust in yourself and in others. 

We will recognize your worth as a person and we will help you to strengthen your sense of belonging. 

We will respect your right to be yourself and at the same time help you to understand the rights of others, so that you may experience cooperative living.  

We will help you to develop initiative and imagination, so that you may have the opportunity to freely to create.  

We will encourage your curiosity and your pride in workmanship, so that you may have the satisfaction that comes from achievement. 

We will provide the conditions for play that will add to your learning, to your social experience, and to your happiness. 

We will illustrate by precept and example the value of integrity the importance of moral courage. 

We will encourage you always to seek the truth.

We will provide you with all opportunities possible to develop your own faith. 

We will open the way for you to enjoy the arts and to use them for deepening your understanding of life.  

We will work to rid ourselves of prejudice and discrimination, so that together we may achieve a truly democratic society. 

We will work to lift the standard of living and to improve our economic practices, so that you may have the basis for a full life. 

We will provide you with rewarding educational opportunities, so that you may develop your talents and contribute to a better world.  

We will protect you against exploitation and undue hazards and help your grow in health and strength.  

We will intensify our search for new knowledge in order to guide you more effectively as you develop your potentialities.  

As you grow from child to youth to adult, establishing a family life of your own and accepting larger social responsibilities, we will work with you to improve conditions for all children and youth.  

Aware that these promises to you cannot be fully met in a word at war, we ask you to join us in a firm dedication to the building of a world society based on freedom, justice and mutual respect. 

So may you grow in joy, in faith of man and in those qualities of vision and of the spirit that will sustain us all and give us new hope for the future.  

*This pledge to children was unanimously adopted by 6000 delegates at the Midcentury White House Conference on Children and Youth, held in Washington, D. C. December 5-7, 1950.

There are all kinds of mothers.  There are as many ways to be a mother as there are mothers in this world. I was a lucky girl. I had really great role models.  Have a great weekend. Happy, happy, happy Mother's Day! 

http://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-meanest-mom-in-world.html

http://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-message-for-mothers-day.html

http://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2012/05/are-you-my-mother.html

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Z is for Zebra

Amazing Yo-Yo Performance

The Gingerbread Girl

The Gingerbread Cowboy

The Ninjabread Man

More Fractured Fairy Tales-The Gingerbread Man

The True Story of the Three Little Pigs

The Three Little Javelinas

The Three Little Pigs - Disney

The Three Little Pigs-Richard Scarry

Jelly Beans-sorting, counting and patterns

 

Why use worksheets and printables to teach math when you can use jellybeans? Sort, count and create colorful spring patterns. Practice easy addition and subtraction problems.  

Find out why sorting and patterns are an important part of your child's math curriculum:

https://www.pbs.org/parents/thrive/using-patterns-to-boost-your-childs-math-skills

More info:

http://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2021/11/sorting-patterns-and-counting.html

http://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2019/04/easter-sort-count-create-pattern.html

W is for Water!

Wow!  What a great experiment with water.  For more easy breezy experiments:

ttps://www.stevespanglerscience.com/

Hippity Hop

 Check out all the 'egg-citing' center activities in our classroom!

http://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2019/04/easter-has-us-hopping.html

The Life Cycle of the Monarch Butterfly

A Lucky Day

 

A lot of activities in our classroom to celebrate St. Patrick's Day!  Aren't we lucky?

http://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2019/03/st-patricks-day-2019.html

Sculpture 2022

 

After learning about Picasso's cubism and geometric shapes our Masterpiece Monday lesson is sculptures. Sculptures are three-dimensional. 

The children use lots and lots of cardboard tubes to create their sculpture.  Some of the tubes are cut at an angle or pulled apart for curves.

Next students paint their sculptures and glue on details from the collage box.

When the weather turns nice take some time to see if you and your child can find sculptures in your community.  

Pearly Shells

Sea Turtles

Pablo

 

Our Masterpiece Monday artist will be Pablo Picasso.  Picasso's work provides lessons on cubism, geometric shapes, two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes. 

To create a cubist portrait the children first draw black lines.

Color in the spaces.

Add eyes, nose, mouth and hair.

It's Picasso!

"Continents and Oceans"

Here Is Your Heart

Pancakes

Groundhog's Dilemma

If You Give A Pig A Pancake

Nat Geo-China's Incredible World of Snow and Ice

Winter Carnival Ice Palace

ROBERT MUNSCH "THOMAS' SNOWSUIT"

Aboriginal Dot Painting-Australia

Amazing Animals-Eastern Gray Kangaroo

Australia | Destination World

Australia 2022

"Just to travel is rather boring, but to travel with a purpose is educational and exciting. " Sargent Shriver

Our MCP students are travelling to the Land Down Under and learning about Aboriginal Art.

You might want to ask your child:

Why is Australia called 'The Land Down Under'?

Australia is surrounded by water, so it is an....

Can you and your child talk with an Australian accent?   What is an accent?

How would you travel in Australia?  

What animals live in Australia?

Are the children in Australia asleep or awake?

More info---

https://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2020/01/aboriginal-art-2020.html

Winter Boredom Buster

 

How sweet! Mini marshmallows, dice and coffee mugs are fun way to count! 

https://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2020/01/marshamallow-math-game.html

Emperor Penguins in Antarctica

Penguin Problems 2022

 This penguin is a wonderful winter craft for our preschoolers.  Creative art and crafts are important components to the MCP curriculum. 

The creative art space in our room is provided for the children to make their own personal choices.  There is a wide variety of materials for them to use as they please.  Paintings, drawings and collages all look different.  It is an opportunity and space for the children to explore and enjoy the artistic process. 

Crafts are very different.  We are working on listening and following teacher directions.  All the children receive the same pieces.  With slight variations, all the final products look very much the same.  As the teacher gives directions, we are reinforcing basic concepts.  We discuss shapes, colors and sizes.  We use positional words like top, bottom, inside and between.  

More info and how to:

https://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2020/02/penguin-problems.html

Polar Bear, Polar Bear

 

We are learning a lot about polar animals.  Students are learning to identify the North Pole and South Pole and which polar animals live at each polar region. There are so many polar animals. 

It is so cold in these areas, we have to ask, "How do polar animals keep warm?"  Polar animals are covered in blubber.  We learned that blubber keeps animals warm.  Find out more and how to:

http://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2010/01/polar-animals.html

The Best Dressed Bird in the South

The Polar Bear

10 Arctic Animals

Hot Chocolate on a Cold Day

 

Let's practice writing our name, our letters and our numbers.  Hot chocolate powder and pointer finger.  What a fun-filled way to encourage your child to write.  

A plate works well but if you want a bigger surface for letters and numbers use a cookie sheet.  Older children can get in the fun by practicing spelling words or math. 

Penguin Dance

Brrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

Out in the Cold

So much to do in the classroom in 2022!!!

Our friends will have lots of fun with their ABC's and 123's in January.  

Build a snowman! 

http://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2016/01/do-you-want-to-build-snowman.html

Games, lacing cards and much more are in our Discovery Center.

http://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2015/01/snowmen-abcs-123s.html

Crinkle paper, cotton balls and polar animals create a cool winter sensory tub.

There is a ton of winter fun for our friends! 

Snow Man Dance

Snow Country

 

It's the first big snow of the year.  If you and your child can't get outside bring the snow inside!