Category Archives: Family

By Jennifer Allison

Summer seems to slip away so quickly, the air gets cooler, plants go to seed and school beckons our children. I’ve found a few things that have helped ease the transition back to school for my family.

Set up your rhythm: Design a routine that works around what is important in your day. It is easier for children, especially the younger ones, if there is a consistent rhythm to the day. When do you need to get up so there is enough time to get ready? Try to eat breakfast at the same time every school day, and after school be ready with a snack and activities to allow your child to relax and refresh before they take care of other responsibilities. Keeping it the same most days will help a child stay grounded.

Seek sustainable sleep: This is so important for your child. Sleep allows children to process what they take in during the day and integrate it, and it’s essential for a healthy immune system. Give your child a calming, consistent bedtime ritual, like brushing teeth, reading a story and lightly rubbing their feet or backs. This can bring children back into their bodies and get ready for sleep. Keep to a regular bedtime.

Support the transition: An anxious child who does not want to leave your side will do well knowing what to expect when they get to school. You can say something like, “Mommy will walk you to your classroom, and then I am going to give you a hug and I will see you at the end of the day.” Keep is short and sweet. Lingering only makes the parting harder for your little ones.

Jennifer is an early childhood educator at Gnome’s Home. Please visit  GnomesHome.org for more information on classes for children and adults. 

By Karen Wells

It’s back to school time. You can feel the excitement, the anticipation in the air. The shopping trips to get the new school clothes, gear and electronics – the stuff that makes it all possible.

If you do the traditional, round robin of shopping malls and outlets, you drive there and back, right? If you’re lucky, the ideal parking space awaits, right?

Remember to Stop! Look! Listen! Check for your children or other kids around your car before you park, after parking and before pulling out.

Kids are short. Parents are distracted. Kids are excited and curious. Parents are in a hurry. Cars have blind spots. Kids are oblivious to cars, both parked and moving. Parking lots and driveways are dangerous places, ripe for tragedy.

Stop! Look! Listen! Check where children might be before getting into your car. It takes seconds and could save a life.

According to KidsandCars.org, about 114 children younger than age five were killed in 2015 from backovers – cars that backed over unseen children – and frontovers – cars that moved slowly forward over unseen children.

Don’t leave a child younger than five unattended in a car, even for a minute. Heatstroke or another medical emergency can occur in moments. If the outside temperature is 70 and the windows are closed, it’s 125 inside that car.

We’re good parents. Let’s do our best to keep our children safe. Stop! Look! Listen!

Karen is a master trainer in early childhood education at Oregon Center for Career Development in Childhood Care and Education. She provides health and safety training to parents and childcare staff via Child Care Resource and Referral of Multnomah County. Reach her at 5CornersFamily@gmail.com and 619.244.7892.

By Jennifer Allison

Summer has come into full swing with longer days and later nights, and all the extra sunshine has everyone busy with activity. In the natural world, nature is teeming with life, plants are at their peak growth for the year, and animals are busy foraging and feeding their young.

We are all part of this cycle of life, and we can easily get swept into the energy that is available to us at this time. Our children are feeling it, too! They are out of their school rhythms, and there is a freedom that comes with that. In my household, it can be frazzling to have later nights and days full of activities.

How about you? Are you also feeling the fullness of summer in your home? When our kids are whirling with the day’s activities, it is nice to help bring some calm and groundedness back into their beings. That helps restore rest, and it supports the growth they are also experiencing during the summer.

As a follow up to last month’s column, here are some additional ways to support your kids now that summer is here, and the energy is running high.

• Keep a consistent bedtime: What does this mean exactly? Well, if you are taking advantage of the later daylight, then you have probably moved bedtime back a bit. That is just fine, so keep it the same for your children. They still need eight to 10 hours minimum of rest per night, depending on their age, and more if they are younger. No child can do well with fewer than eight hours of sleep. Their bodies are still developing, and they need our help to get the rest they need.
• Use natural remedies: In our house, we love to take Epsom salt baths and use essential oils on our bodies. Warm salt baths help to ground and support their bodies physically and emotionally. Essential oils, like lavender and chamomile, offer gentle therapeutic benefits. Also dilute the oils with carrier oil like almond or coconut oil, or another one you like. Start with just a small amount — one drop — to make sure your child doesn’t have a reaction.
• Take an evening walk: Nature is healing. Children will do much better in the evening spending time outdoors on a walk, at a park or just in your backyard – as opposed to watching television or doing screen time before bed. Media can be a challenge for many children, winding them up and creating mental hyperactivity. It’s a good idea to bring some mindfulness about when you are allowing their interaction with media.

May these suggestions serve as tools to benefit your family on these long summer days, and to help keep healthy rhythms in your home!

Jennifer Allison is an early childhood educator at Gnome’s Home. Visit gnomeshome.org for information on classes for children and adults.

By Jennifer Allison, Gnome’s Home

The school year rhythm has wound down, and now we are faced with summer! There are so many choices for you and your family, and it can be overwhelming just thinking about what activities and vacations to do with your children. My mind is boggled as I plan out adventures to embark upon with my three children. While sifting through the various summer options, it feels as though the weeks have already passed by. This is where I get grounded and I remember one of the golden rules of childhood; simplicity.

My summers were filled with days playing in the woods, walking down to the local lake and swimming with the neighbors and basking in the sun. We did the occasional family vacation to the Jersey shore, and I went to a very cool overnight camp near my home in the heart of the Pine Barrens. Mostly, however, my days were spent in the lush landscape of the forest and lakes that surrounded my neighborhood, where I would get lost in nature. I miss those days.

So when I want to be a supermom, and I start fussing with all the things we could be doing, I pause and remember these simple elements I am going to share with you that make childhood the wonderment it is and deserves to be.

• Plan a simple rhythm: What has to happen in your day? Eating, quiet time, a morning outing before the sun scorches you? Put down on paper the basic elements that you and your youngsters have to do, and then let there be space for the unpredicted and unplanned to pull you into adventure. Keep your days and life simple! Summer is a good time to slow down and enjoy the natural elements. Build in a quiet time for you and the kids, even if it is 30 minutes. Everyone can benefit from alone time.

• Do one special thing: Have you made this mistake: In the morning we are picking berries, and then meeting the Jones’s for lunch at the park, followed by friends over for dinner and ice cream at the local shop? Well, I have. This spells disaster for your littlest ones. It is simply TOO much. One of my mottos is, “Too much of a good thing is still too much.” Just doing ONE of any of those things will make your day super special. Try it. It works.

• Let your child get bored: Every moment does not have to be the utmost supreme adventure that invokes every positive feeling your child has ever had. Seeking this goal sets kids up for the instant gratification monster that is always hungry no matter how much you feed it. The developing brain actually needs the down time, and you can tell your kids that something is coming right around the next corner.

Summer is a time of ease and enjoyment, so let your days be simple and fun.

Jennifer Allison is an early childhood educator at Gnome’s Home. Visit www. gnomeshome.org for more information on classes for children and adults.

By Kathy Crabtree, CNA Media Team

For many Portlanders, retirement as they planned it has hit the wayside. Not because of poor financial planning, but because the task of raising their grandchildren has fallen unexpectedly on them.

Connie, raising her three school age grandchildren, was at a loss. Her fixed retirement income was stretched thin in an attempt to provide healthy meals for the four of them. One of the children needed extensive dental work; the oldest was struggling with her studies, and the youngest was acting out in ways that were reportedly disrupting her classroom. The school

Jane Mayes, pictured here with her granddaughter, is a Ties that Bind navigator. Through the program Mayes offers support to other grandparents raising their grandchildren. Photo by Patience Tolentino.

principal appeared understanding, but seemed to expect her to be able to cope with these issues. Fortunately, the principle recommended that Connie contact the Ties That Bind program to get some guidance.

She was hesitant, however, to ask for help – ashamed that her daughter could abandon her own children, and embarrassed because she didn’t have the financial or emotional resources to handle the situation on her own. To protect the subjects’ privacy, the above story is a composite of several local families’ stories. But it could be your story, or that of a neighbor. Approximately 3,000 children in Portland live in multigenerational households without parents; Ties that Bind is working to address the needs of those affected.

“The Ties That Bind support group is a resource for foster grandparents and family members raising grandchildren, and speaks to the quality of life issues our members face,” said Keren Brown Wilson, PhD. She is the president and founder of the Jessie F. Richardson Foundation, established as a non-profit in 1990 with a mission to work in resourceconstrained areas to provide multi-generational support to underserved older adults. The foundation is a sponsoring partner in Ties That Bind with Concordia University and Faubion School.

One way Ties that Bind provides support services is via peer to peer navigators. The navigator, who is also raising children not his or her own, assists by inviting a newcomer to the support group that meets monthly, and can explain how to apply for food stamps, provide medical resource contact information, and recommend resources for dealing with behavioral problems.

“The most valuable help comes from the support of knowing that we’re not alone,” said Pamela Harris. She and her husband, Ike, are peer navigators in Concordia.

“Within the community grandparents of any age are suffering in the same manner and we all find comfort with others through the support group,” Pamela Harris said.

“The peer to peer navigators know stuff; they know where to find the help that new members need,” Wilson said. “Data shows that children being raised by grandparents have a higher risk of chronic mental and physical health issues and learning disabilities. The grandparents report social and emotional problems of their own. Our peer to peer navigators are there to help with the next crisis or conflict.”

Another avenue for support from Ties that Bind are meetings that provide a social outlet, resources, and expert referrals – and even offer child care. Meetings are generally held the third Tuesday of the month during the summer at 2 p.m. at Concordia University in the George White Library Room #120; in the winter months the group meets at Faubion School.

Plans are in the works for a big family picnic at the end of August. Information about that event and additional information related to programs, resources, and peer to peer navigators is available by contacting Brown Wilson by calling (503) 408-4088 or email kwilson@jfrfoundation.org.

JOIN US for our next TIES THAT BIND session!

WHEN: Tuesday, July 19 at 2 p.m. – 4 p.m.

WHERE: Concordia University, George White Library, Room 120 Join our support and resource meeting for grandparents, foster grandparents and family members caring for grandchildren. You are not alone! Join a fellowship of grandparents where you can share and participate in conversation important to you!

For additional information contact Keren Brown Wilson (503) 408-4088.

Sponsors: CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY • JESSIE F. RICHARDSON FOUNDATION FAUBION SCHOOL

By Jennifer Allison

Media. This has to be one of the biggest topics in early childhood that everyone wants to know how to define. What is too much screen time?

Let’s start with the basic facts about young children, and dive into what is going on developmentally in the newborn and the young child. Children, specifically from 0 to 3 years of age, come into the world very open to life, with heightened sensitivities and completely dependent upon us for love and care. They are not able to filter out the adult world, which is full of stimuli and fast-paced demands. Their brains are in a state of constant flux, reacting to their surroundings, developing and pruning unused neural pathways in their first 3 years of life, and adjusting to the state of immense sensory input they now find themselves in.

When we give our young children a screen to watch, the learning becomes passive, which will change the way the brain process information with long-term exposure. Strong images live deeply in the mind of children under the age of 7, which is also why you will see a child who has seen a lot of TV engage in play that is scripted. Their own imagination is overridden with what they perceive as real and intense images that they have taken into their being when they watch TV. Also, because it is a mental activity, young children who are exposed to a lot of media have trouble being in their bodies. They get agitated easier, and sometimes you can see them bounce around the room right after they have watched a television program or listened to loud music. I am sure we have all experienced this.

We are also a culture of instant gratification when it comes to media and information technology. We can just pick up a smart phone and get the answer, or pass a short YouTube video off to our child at a grocery store to pacify him/her to get a few extra minutes of quietude as we finish shopping. I wonder if we didn’t put so much on ourselves and live the lives we do with all of its demands, there might just be more of us to go around, so these modern conveniences would not need to be our default mode.

Most importantly, what I want to share that has been true from my own experience, as well as from talking to other parents, is that my family is happier when we feel connected to one another. We play games, we go hiking, we laugh, and we read together, we make arts and crafts, we bake, we have mud fights in the garden, and we enjoy snuggling at night. We find other ways to share time together that cultivate relationships beyond the television. I think it is important to know what is happening developmentally with your child, to be aware of how your scheduled home life affects your child, and then to make choices about media in your home that model your values and the life you strive to live. When is doubt, I always lean towards simplicity. The last week in April is TV turn off week, and I challenge you to go for it! Who knows, you may just find a deeper, richer connection with your family if you try going screen-free for one week.

Jennifer Allison is the parent child teacher at Gnome’s Home. Gnome’s Home is the little brother of Heart in Hand Preschool and focuses on fun and wholesome classes for the littlest ones and their adults! For more info please check gnomeshome.org