Town Hall Meeting Kick Off Was A Success!

Ray Martin and Emma Lougheed share
breakfast with some friends in the
PVP Newton kitchen.

I remember one of the first things my doctor told me when I had Lucy thirteen years ago: that

whole birth plan thing? It’s a nice idea, but when the baby is ready to come out, she will. Her time, her way, regardless of any plans you might have. And that pretty much sums up parenthood in a nutshell.

Sure, you can make up all the plans you want, but the key point is being able to go with the flow. That was a sentiment that came up a few weeks ago when I was talking to James’ teacher at the parent/teacher conference back in October. Karina was showing us a picture of the kids doing an activity that was supposed to be one thing, but the kids took it in a whole other direction – and it was that much better for it.

And that pretty much sums up yesterday morning in a nutshell.

As some of you may remember from my emails, yesterday morning was the kick off to our Town Hall Meeting series. We’d envisioned a series of conversations between parents and the founders, families and Pine Village administrative staff. It would be a way for us to get to know each other on a more individual level, a give and take of sorts. The series was planned to start off with a breakfast morning during which we’d introduce the staff, say a little bit about ourselves and then do a Q&A to talk about whatever parents wanted. It didn’t quite happen that way.

The building was locked when we got there, so Pine Village co-founder Emma Lougheed and I (Jen Doyle, yours truly) ended up chatting outside for a few minutes with mom Annabella as we waited for the cavalry to arrive with the key. Not quite how we’d planned to greet our first Town Hall Meeting taker. With her boys playing outside in the yard, however, and our respective bags sitting on the ground, we stood there and got to know each other a little bit better.

So, um, no. Not at all what we’d planned. That conversation was definitely supposed to take place in a much warmer location (sorry, Annabella)! But in a way it was exactly the way it should have been in the first place. Not quite so planned and with no script to follow. Just a few moms talking in the schoolyard while the kids played.

Given that it’s actually beginning to feel like winter, however, I can’t say I’m sorry that we got into the building a few minutes later. And there, as co-founder Brid Martin and her husband/PVP Facilities Manager Ray arrived – as well as Education Director Jacie Feinberg and PVP Newton Director Kelly Cisneros – we set out the coffee and bagels, took off our coats and settled in.

Which brings me back to the plan. We were supposed to move into the meeting room off the kitchen, a lovely sitting room with couches and paneling and a gorgeous, richly woven rug. That was where the intros and the Q&A were supposed to take place. But instead what happened was that, as with any good gathering, we ended up staying in the kitchen. And rather than a structured Q&A, it ended up being more of a drop-in coffee hour, with parents coming in and out – some able to stay and chat over a cup of coffee, others just able to say a quick hello. To be honest? It was a hundred times better than what we’d planned.

We chatted about the possibility of opening up another location in the outer burbs (Acton – here we come! Um, some day, maybe…) We chatted about Saturday Spanish classes and after school programs. We chatted about school choice, preparation for kindergarten, Scholastic book orders, and how to get the word out about Pine Village. (Yelp reviews, everyone! We are very thankful for whatever kind words you are willing to share with the world-at-large!) And, I am happy to say, we ended up connecting. (Annabella, Larisa, Emily, Quyen, and Natalie – I will most certainly be in touch again soon!)

On the one hand, the conversations we had did reinforce our commitment to the Town Hall Meetings in the spring. And, yes, those will be a bit more structured than this one as they will be topic-based. But, on the other hand, we also ended up loving this morning’s gathering so much that we’re going to do it at all the schools. So stay tuned – drop-off, drop-in coffee hours are coming soon to a location near you!

And, yeah. About that birth plan. Our launching of the Town Hall Meetings series wasn’t quite exactly what we’d planned, but the end result was so much better. We can’t wait to connect with more of you soon.

Spanish Tip of the Week: Thanksgiving Vocabulary

Just in time for Thanksgiving: Spanish Tips of the Week are BACK. Do something different and add a little Spanish fun to the table! Use some Spanish vocabulary to talk about the food you will eat, to have a conversation, and to surprise everyone.

Here’s some Thanksgiving vocabulary:

Turkey- El Pavo (pah-voe)
Stuffing- El Relleno (reh-ye-no)
Cranberries- Los Arándanos (are-and-ah-nose) Potatoes- Las Papas
Salad- La Ensalada (en-sah-lah-dah)
Pie- La Tarta (tar-tah)

If you want to add a little conversation, just add some verbs to the vocabulary:

Quieres _______? Do you want ___________?
Pasa el/la/los _______________. Pass the __________________.
Te gusta(n) el/la/los ___________? Do you like _________________? Mas ___________ por favor! More _____________ please!

And as you welcome or say goodbye to friends and family, don’t forget to wish them a happy Thanksgiving:

Feliz Día de Acción de Gracias!

Top 5 Preschool Food Surprises (Guest post by Sproot Founder Katherine Shamraj)

There's a lot of focus on eating this week, so we thought it was the perfect time to bring you this guest post from Katherine Shamraj, the founder of PVP partner organization, Sproot.

Nothing can prepare you for the challenges of feeding a preschool-aged child--not even feeding another preschool-aged child! Each child is so different, it’s hard to find any rhyme, reason or pattern to their relationship with food and eating.

Since starting Sproot, Boston's only nutrition-focused food company for young children, I've learned more than I knew there was to learn about feeding this age group. Throughout this process, I've had an incredible resource on hand -- Registered Dietician with a PhD in early childhood nutrition and a two-year-old daughter. When I am stumped, Dr. E. Whitney Evans always has an answer that's both practical and rooted in academic research. Because the research she shares with me looks for statistic significance instead of crowd-pleasing sound bites, her answers don't always apply to every single child. But on average, they apply to most children most of the time.

Here are five of the biggest preschool feeding surprises I've learned about:

SURPRISE #1:  14 TIMES

Otherwise known as:

• Once every single day for 2 weeks
• Once a week for 3.5 months
• Once a month for 1.2 years

This is how many times it takes -- on AVERAGE -- for a child to accept a new food if they don't like it immediately. Some children might take 5 times, others might take 25 times. The worst thing a parent could do is think: "My child doesn't like beans," and stop putting beans in front of them.

SURPRISE #2: VISUALS COUNT
There's this thing called "sensory processing" that influences a child's acceptance of food. Even if they don't eat it, exposing them to food by allowing them to see, touch, and smell it increases likelihood of acceptance. So, even if that broccoli comes back uneaten, it has still served a purpose so long as it was placed in front of them. It's very important for them to have their ENTIRE contents of the lunchbox placed in front of them at lunchtime (as opposed to allowing them to pull some things out and leave others behind).

SURPRISE #3: TASTE PREFERENCES ARE SET BEFORE AGE 4

The flavors they like by age four are the flavors they will default to for the rest of their lives. Wow! In a study that followed the same set of children from ages two to eight, the strongest predictor of the number of foods liked at age eight years was the number of foods liked at age four years. New foods? Far more likely to be accepted between ages two to four, than between ages four and eight.

SURPRISE #4: TODAY’S MEAL, TOMORROW’S HABIT

If you eat takeout more than once a week, you’re giving your children a lifelong preference for unhealthy food. Restaurant and prepared foods are tasty. That's their job. But they are rarely healthy. With today's lifestyle it is difficult to avoid ordering takeout. But when you put the following two facts together, you may think twice about what to order:

1) Food preferences are set before age four (see SURPRISE #3)
2) Eating away from home has proven to result in higher caloric intake and consumption of sugar and salt

It's impractical to suggest not eating prepared foods, but consider that today’s restaurant meals will set your child’s flavor preferences to extra salty, extra sweet, extra fat for the rest of their lives. Proceed, but with caution.

SURPRISE #5: GIVE THEM SWEETS, NOT TREATS

One of the most surprising things I learned from Dr. Evans is that she recommends that if you are going to give your child a sweet anyway, it is better to give it to them alongside dinner instead of saving it for later. This surprising piece of advice may remove negotiating leverage during the day ("You won't get your treat unless...") but not putting sweets on a pedestal is important for a number of reasons, which Dr. Evans eloquently describes here.

 

Waiting for a Miracle

PVP Newton Director Kelly Cisneros has a special place in her heart for the children of Tierra Adentro,

Colombia. It is an understatement to say that the small village, located up in the mountains three hours outside of Ibague, isn't the easiest place to get to. It certainly doesn't help that the roads were unsafe to travel as well. This, Kelly believes, is why, despite many promises from many people, the children of the village still don't have the clothes and supplies they need to attend school.

"They live in very sad conditions," Kelly says, "and are waiting for a miracle."

Kelly is hoping that she -- along with help from the Pine Village community -- can play a part in supporting their educational -- and lifelong -- success by starting with the very basics that so many of us take for granted: clothes and shoes to wear, and a backpack full of pens, pencils, and other supplies. Her goal is to collect 300 backpacks, and then fill those backpacks with clothes and school supplies so that the children will have what they need to attend school beginning in Feburary, which is the start of their school year. And because so many previous attempts have failed in delivering these basic items to the village, she's taking it into her own hands by personally handling donations, packing materials, and then sending everything to Ibague. From there, her mother will hand-deliver the items to the children of the village.

In order to help make this happen, Pine Village is committed to helping in every way possible. Co-Founders Emma Lougheed and Brid Martin see this project as the very epitome of what their dream was in founding Pine Village thirteen years ago. "To not just see ourselves as part of the global community," Emma says, "but to directly reach out to children across the world."

Community Director Marina Ituarte takes it one step further in saying, "What is so special is that, by supporting what is in the heart of one of our [eight] directors, our community can come together and help make the dream a hundred times stronger. We can help make dreams come true."

Our hope is to establish a long-term plan that connects Pine Village families with those in Tierra Adentro, with the younger children exchanging pictures and then, as the children grow older, to set up a pen pal program and possibly even visits with teachers and kids. The first priority, however, is for basic goods. Kelly is therefore requesting the following items, many of which can be gently used:

School Supplies:

• Backpacks
• Rulers, compasses
• Erasers
• Markers/Sharpies
• Crayons
• Pencils
• Pens
• Glue sticks
• Notebooks
• Pencil sharpeners
• Laptops for the schools
• Calculators
• Dry erase markers

Clothes, sizes 2 - 16

• Summer clothing
• Rain boots
• Shirts
• Pants
• Socks
• Sweaters
• Raincoats
• Shoes

To make it easy for families in other schools to donate, each Director will place a box for donations in their school. Kelly is requesting that donations be made by Friday, December 6, to allow time for packing and shipping, and then delivery in mid-January (in time for February, the start of their school year). Specific questions can be directed to Kelly at pvpnewtonkelly@gmail.com.

Because Pine Village wants to make an impact in our local communities as well, we are currently working with several organizations in the Metro Boston area in hopes of establishing long-term relationships more locally as well, both for the Pine Village community as a whole, and for individual schools. The Brighton school, for example, will be participating in the Pay It Forward movement during the month of November. We'll be bringing you more information on these initiatives soon.

Connecting with our Kids

Pine Village Co-Founders Emma LaVecchia and Brid Martin

This post was written by Emma LaVecchia, Co-Founder of Pine Village Preschool. 

Every now and then, in between all of the office hours, I get the chance to meet with and talk to real live parents (and children) in person, to learn about their experiences at Pine Village and listen to what is important to them. 

Please don’t misunderstand, I am forever grateful for the opportunity to run this business, and deep inside I really love the business aspect of things.  I have learned more than I could have ever imagined, and relish every second.  But if I could ever dream of having the best of all worlds, it would be to spend more time with parents and share what we have learned, and of course learn more from all of them. 

Wednesday night was one of those wonderful and rare “connection” opportunities.  This is the stuff that fuels my tank.  I’m sure it does the same for all of us who are educators at heart, including Brid (the other PV Co-Founder), when we find ourselves missing the “people piece”.

We gathered that evening to help guide a small group of Pine Village parents at one of our locations to start a Parent Committee group, which they hope will, in part, have a positive impact on building community in their school.  This is of course another great passion of ours: to build communities within our schools that nurture lifelong relationships between families and children.  But that’s a whole other topic. 

The moment from that night that has remained with me until now was the discussion about connecting with our own children, and how as parents we want to have a clearer picture of what happens at school in order to know how they spend their day.  This of course was one of the subtopics that generated from the Committee goal of wanting to enhance the experience that their child has each day.  I was reminded in a deep way that connecting with our children isn’t only about collecting facts, knowing schedules, gathering and looking at their projects, knowing what they ate, or which park they went to.  Connecting with our kids is truly about understanding how they feel.  Yes, it’s a right brain AND left brain thing.

As parents, when we want to know how our children are doing, we instinctively look for answers to questions; hard facts, real life examples to show us what our child did that day or week.  We want daily notes, photos, newsletters, projects and emails.  This is our left brain at work.  However, we are often so focused on those pieces – and it takes so much of the time and energy that is at its lowest point when we finally have the chance – that we don’t fully engage the other side, the emotional connections of the right brain.  We often forget to talk – just talk – to our kids.  To ask our children – yes even the very young ones: 

• “What were you thinking about when you made this picture?”
• “How were you feeling today at school when your teacher left early?” 
• “Tell me about who you played with?”
• “How is your new friend Jane? Why do you like playing with her?” 

It’s not just about the notes and the pictures. We need to focus equally on connecting emotionally with our children.   We need to walk with them on their journey of life, and encourage them to acknowledge the feelings and emotions they experience by asking about them and listening to them about their day.  This is truly how we get to know our children, learn about their day and what they learned and experienced. 

One morning this week as I was driving my 17 year old to high school, he said to me: “Mom, do you know why kids cheat?  It’s because teachers and parents put more emphasis on a grade rather than what we actually know.”  At the time I had three thoughts, 1) “Sad”  2) “That was quite profound for a kid his age.”  And, 3) “I hope he isn’t cheating.”

But his statement had even greater meaning since our parent meeting last week.  It’s truly not only about how many projects the children complete that day, if you received a daily note or if your child read three or four books that day. It is equally about experiencing what our children are experiencing.  About engaging with our children and taking the time to understand this whole other part of their life, from their perspective.  It applies to teachers as well.  We can get so caught up in the daily tasks of the day that we forget to enjoy the kids, to engage with them, to really get involved in their play.

Yes, of course there is a balance.  And in that perfect world we would all be able to have just the right amounts of each.  In reality though, most of us probably need to make the conscious effort to engage and emotionally connect, with our own children in particular, and put aside our expectations and predetermined guide of what we think determines success.

Open House Dates

Hello! We will be holding open houses at each of our locations over the next month. Please see below for more information. If you'd like to view the dates by school, you can see our events page at: http://mybilingualpreschool.com/events/

We welcome families looking for preschool spots in the 2014-2015 school year for children 15 months through 4 years old. (And we still have a few spots available for the 2013-2014 school year as well. Please contact our Enrollment Coordinator at enrollmentpvp@yahoo.com if you would like more information.)

And current families - don't forget that if you refer a family to us and they contract, you receive a referral bonus. (Just make sure they note your name in the "How did you hear about Pine Village?" section on their application form.)

All events are free and open to the public; however, we do ask that you RSVP at http://mybilingualpreschool.com/events/http://mybilingualpreschool.com/events/ (scroll down to the bottom of the page for the RSVP form) if you are planning on attending so that we can prepare appropriately. 

Open House Dates, Locations, and Activities:
All Open Houses are at 6:00 p.m.; for more information about each location, please see http://mybilingualpreschool.com/locations/.

Wednesday, November 6
Needham (65 Fourth Avenue; Needham)
Activity: Círculo del Amor (Circle of Love)


Thursday, November 7
Jamaica Plain - Centre St. (633 Centre St.)
Activity: TBD

Kendall Square (695 West Kendall St.; Cambridge)
Activity: Spanish Story Time


Wednesday, November 13
South End (700 Harrison Ave.; Boston)
Activity: Painting; making bracelets and necklaces


Thursday, November 14
Jamaica Plain - Revere St. (1 Roanoke St.)
Activity: Círculo del Amor (Circle of Love)

Newton (1326 Washington St.; West Newton)
Activity: Circle Time

Porter (2067 Mass. Ave.; Cambridge)
Activity: Sensory tables


Wednesday, November 20
Brighton (617 Cambridge St.)
Activity: TBD

Kaymbu Comes To All Pine Village Locations

Pine Village Preschool Introduces iPad-based System to Enhance Family Communication and Engagement
New system keeps parents and teachers better connected with the children they care for and love.

Pine Village Preschool, the leading Spanish-immersion early education program in the Northeast United States, is implementing an innovative new technology in its eight Boston-area locations to connect parents with their children’s time at school. Kaymbu, developed out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is an iPad-based system for teachers to capture observations in the classroom that are securely shared with parents throughout the week, thereby enabling parents to stay connected with their children during the school day and directly engaged with their children’s learning during out-of-school time.

Kin Lo, Co-Founder
and CEO of Kaymbu

Kaymbu is an iPad-based documentation and media management solution for early education centers to keep teachers, families and administrators better connected with the children they care for and love. The company offers a turnkey solution that includes all software, web services and iPad devices for schools. Teachers use a dedicated app tailored specifically for classroom workflow that allows them to efficiently capture classroom activities for internal documentation and secure communication with families. Located in Cambridge, Mass., Kaymbu was conceived at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by parents seeking to harness the power of web and mobile technologies to strengthen relationships between preschool teachers, families and their children. For more information, visit http://www.kaymbu.com. 

“Pine Village is a very special place,” says Brid Martin, Co-founder of Pine Village Preschool. “We place a very high priority on a strong family community and know how much parents want to be connected with their children’s time at our centers. The Kaymbu system couldn’t be a better fit – it allows our teachers to showcase their amazing work in a way that is both powerful and incredibly efficient.” 

Jacie Feinberg, Pine Village’s Education Director remarks, “We are a unique language and cultural immersion program. Many of our parents don’t speak Spanish, so using Kaymbu to share moments from the classroom is a wonderful way to reinforce and involve parents with our curriculum.”
“We work with many, many preschools across the country, and Pine Village is really hard to compare with any of them,” says Kin Lo, Co-founder and CEO of Kaymbu. “There is a spirit of community, communication and diversity that is incredibly special. We could not be more thrilled to be help them ‘show off’ the remarkable activities that take place in their classrooms every day.”

In addition to enhancing communication with parents, teachers and school staff at Pine Village will use the Kaymbu system to document classroom activities for licensing, accreditation and assessment standards.

For the full press release, please see: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/9/prweb11096741.htm

Survey says...

We recently asked our Pine Village parents to help us gain insight into their experiences as families attending Pine Village by completing a survey through Surveymonkey.  The survey was sent to 400 currently enrolled parents and we received nearly 100 responses. A fantastic result! 

Before we share the results and offer our response, we would like to first thank each family for taking the time to respond in such a thoughtful way; it was a wonderful experience for us to be able to hear directly from every one who responded. The feedback is priceless and offers us invaluable insight into how things are working in our schools – even negative feedback is important as it helps us understand where we can improve. We take your comments and suggestions very seriously and strive to address and improve on every aspect that has been noted. We very much hope that you’ll contact us directly if you have any additional questions or comments, or would like to talk further about anything.

Here are the overall survey results:

  

75% scored PV between Extremely Well and Very Good in the area of communication, and 25% scored Moderate.

Did PV challenge your child? 85% scored Above Average through About Right.

85% felt welcomed in the mornings regularly.

85% felt that PV meets the Individual needs of your child.  15% feel we do a moderate job. 

75% of parents feel their children made great progress on language acquisition and 15% feel there was moderate progress.

85% see their director as a leader.

The areas survey respondents feel is most important for Pine Village to focus on:

70% Social/Emotional

20% Cognitive/Intellectual

5% Language Acquisition

5% Physical/Gross Motor

80% of parents surveyed feel informed of the daily activities and themes in the classrooms and 10% feel they understand occasionally.

Short Answer Responses:

There were of course occasional constructive responses to some of the questions, and it is important for us to understand why some parents have a negative experience at Pine Village, so that we can assure that every family has a consistently positive Pine Village experience for the years they are with us. 

Several themes ran through the short answer questions.  Below are the responses that repeated more than twice.

Pine Village Strengths:

·     Teachers are beloved

·      Directors are friendly

·      Warm friendly feeling at the school

·      Small environments

·      Individualized attention

·      Environments are stimulating

·      Sense of community

·      Spanish aspect

Pine Village Weaknesses:

·      Spaces/classrooms are too small; class sizes are too large

·      Locations are difficult (those with no outdoor space); want more indoor gym/gross motor space

·      Would like bathrooms in all of the classrooms so children do not have to walk to use them

·      Do not see the same teachers in the morning as in the afternoon

·      Expensive; would like to see us reduce our rates

·     Would like more Spanish

·      Teacher turnover rate is high

·      More books in the classrooms

·      More staff available in the morning drop off as well as the afternoon pick up time; you would like early drop off at 7:45 a.m.

·      Closed too many days of the year

·      Would like more communication

·      Would like better cleanliness

·      Better security systems

·      Would like Pine Village to intellectually challenge your children more

We again would like to thank everyone who responded; we are in the process of responding to those individuals who requested follow-up, but we also thought that our blog provides us with the opportunity to respond to the weaknesses and wishes expressed most frequently in the survey. 

• Our spaces/classrooms are too small
• Class sizes are too large
• The locations are difficult (those with no outdoor space)
• You would like bathrooms in all of the classrooms so children do not have to walk to use them

We know.  We share the same feelings. As we move forward and eventually open additional locations (that we have the opportunity to design), we will design our spaces with all of the things we have learned over the years.  At this point we believe each school should have classrooms designed for 8-10 children, with sinks in each, shared bathrooms, lots of natural light, access to indoor and outdoor gross motor space and plenty of parking.  We will be making design changes to those schools where we are able, and to add partitions and separate classes into smaller groups of no more than 10. In the near future we will look for the possibility of adding sinks to classrooms to lessen the transitions. 

• You do not see the same teachers in the morning as in the afternoon
• More staff available in the morning drop off as well as the afternoon pick up time

For those of you who drop off at 8 and pick up at 5:30 this is true.  We have arranged the staff schedules so that each teacher works 8.5 hours per day with a schedule of either 8-4:30 or 9-5:30. This schedule allows a parent or caregiver to see their teacher every day either at drop off or pick up. In the mornings and afternoons for the first and last hour of the day, the classrooms are combined and the goal is that there is at least one toddler teacher, one preschool teacher and one Prek teacher. Typically there are a minimum of 4 teachers and your director on site for the first and last hours of each day.

• Pine Village is expensive.  You would like to see us reduce our rates.

Yes, preschool/child care is very expensive. We would love to be able to reduce our rates.  Better yet, we would love to provide you with a Pine Village that was free of costs for everyone! Sadly, that is not possible at this point. We do want you to know that reinvesting every dollar available back into the schools for improvements is our commitment. Here are just a few of the things we have added and improved over the last 12 months:

·      We have hired 5 “float teachers” who will be stationed in the schools to provide support to the classroom teachers, be available to substitute in case of teacher absences.

·      We have added a monthly book budget for each school to increase each of our libraries, as well as added $500 worth of books to each school to start the year.

·      We have added the position of Regional Director (Marina Ituarte, former JP director), who will train and support directors, teachers and serve as a resource for families.

·      We are officially launching KAYMBU this September, which will provide all parents greater more detailed communication with your teachers and visibility into the classrooms via daily photos. (More to come soon on this!)

·      We have hired a full-time Facilities Manager (Ray Martin) to help each director maintain their school and make physical improvements to the spaces, as well as systemize ordering and manage our subcontractors (cleaners, painters, plumbers…)

·      We created a Kiddie Café outside our South End school (a school where we do not have an onsite playground) to provide an extension of the classrooms and a place for the children to eat and/or read outdoors. 

·      We have hired a Senior Director of Communications and Outreach (Jennifer Doyle) -- see more about this position below.

• You would like more Spanish

Our goal is to be a Full Spanish Immersion school. We will continue to focus on training teachers to feel comfortable and confident in their Spanish communication and educational goals for the children IN SPANISH. We are adding LOTS of Spanish books, props and music.  Thank you!

• Teacher turnover rate is high

Teacher turnover is our greatest challenge.  And yes, it feels high when it happens in your school and affects your children.  Realistically speaking, our annual turnover rate is approximately 10%. We would love for our teachers to stay with us forever. We work very hard to provide stable employment, excellent salaries and benefits (including PTO) and plenty of training as well as a great work environment. Unfortunately, this does not always ensure that teachers will not leave for various reasons, such as starting a family or changing a career path – or advancing within Pine Village. Over the years we have learned to look at these changes as opportunities to meet new teachers and expand our community. Many of our past teachers have stayed in touch with us, and see their years at Pine Village positively, and many even return to us. We of course want your children to have consistency and quality and have focused on new ways to ensure this. One of these ways is building our “floating teacher” base. These teachers will all be familiar to you and your children and will be trained and ready to step in as the need arises, thus preventing the emotional strain of losing a teacher and struggling to fill a position. 

• More books in the classrooms

We allotted $500 for each school to purchase books to open the school year in September 2013 as well as a new monthly budget for each school to purchase books each month.

• Pine Village is closed too many days of the year
• You would like early drop off at 7:45am

We understand that Pine Village has two personalities; an educationally based preschool as well as a child care provider. We aim to be both and we are very aware of the challenges this poses on families. We know our hours are the minimum that a working family can manage. We have and will continue to discuss the option of early drop off; staffing being the greatest challenge. We want to hire and employ educators (as opposed to child care providers) who understand child development and who are committed to implementing our curriculum and the Spanish Immersion component. Therefore we seek educated professionals who demand and deserve higher salaries as well as other benefits, one being vacations and a regular workday. If we did not offer these things and hire qualified teachers, we would not be able to fulfill our mission. We are always trying to find ways to offer more. Last year we gave back one full week of school by adding a week to the school year and closing for one less week in August. We want to meet your needs as working families as well as fulfill our mission. We will always look for ways to better accomplish this.

• You would like more communication

Introducing KAYMBU! You learned about this at your Parent Orientation, and we are confident that it will help our teachers better communicate with you and provide you all with better detail of your child’s day. It’s a very exciting tool for us as a school!

We have also created a new position this year for Senior Director of Communications and Enrollment. Jennifer Doyle, whose blog posts you have been reading over the last several months, began in this new position in July. Our goal is to be communicating with you regularly through various media – newsletters, the website, social media, etc. At the same time, we feel that it is important not to bombard you with so much information that it feels like you are being spammed. We encourage you to follow us on Facebook as that will allow you to see what’s happening on a daily basis; at the same time, please be on the lookout for the eNewsletters that come from Pine Village headquarters, in addition to those that come monthly from your Directors.

• You would like better cleanliness

Currently each school is professionally cleaned three nights during the week. Our goal is to make it five, thus eliminating the need for teachers to share that responsibility two days a week. We hope to be able to do this by the end of this school year. If you feel there are issues of cleanliness or a lack of please voice this to your director or send an email to Emma Lougheed at elougheed@verizon.net and it will be addressed.

• You want more indoor gym/gross motor space

We understand this challenge. This is a huge issue among city schools. We are taking a very serious look at finding gross motor options for those schools with limited indoor gross motor rooms. We have experimented with organizations such as Tumblebus in the past and promise to continue to look for resources. We also feel that it is very important that the children get outside every day possible. In addition, activities such as yoga and music classes will be implemented in the classrooms to provide physical activity on the days that going outside is not possible.

• Better security

This is something we have been focused on this past year, clearly with all of the school violence and greater security over all in public places it is high on the priority list. Most of our schools have keypad systems installed and in use. Those that do not yet are in progress and plans are in the works to install security systems or have locked doors at all times. 

• You would like Pine Village to intellectually challenge your children

Many of you know Jacie Feinberg, our Educational Director, as our classe de musica teacher who comes to visit your children frequently in your school. With the support of the founders and school directors, over the past two years, Jacie has developed an amazing curriculum base and monthly activities inspiration for all of the teachers. In addition she has developed standards and tracking tools so that the teachers can manage and continuously challenge your children in the classroom. Jacie is in each school monthly to evaluate and assure that the teachers are engaging your children all day and that they are constantly inspired to discover their world in their way. Our mission is to inspire children to be excited by school and to instill a love for learning new things every day. We believe this is the goal of an excellent preschool. Yes, your children will explore and learn many things! Their day is full and busy with challenges that cross all areas of development. 

There is still time to complete the survey if you have not had the chance to do so.  If you still wish to participate we would love your feedback.  A reminder email will be sent shortly!

Thank you all again, for taking the time to complete the survey, and for reading our response.  Your participation is greatly valued. 

If you have any additional comments please feel free to send them along to Emma at elougheed@verizon.net.

A New Day

Before it went bad
(and then good again)

As you well know given my post from Wednesday, yesterday was James' first day of preschool and, I'm sorry to say, it didn't start out as well as I would have liked. Or, actually, it started out fantastically, with James thrilled to be going to Pine Village, posing for first-day-of-school pictures with his "dot blanket" (which, unsurprisingly, is a blanket that has dots on it), his Monsters, Inc. lunch box (my husband refuses to acknowledge that Monsters University is a thing), and Duckie. We dropped Will off at his school (day two for him), then headed to PVP. 

Everything was fine as we pulled into the parking lot. The smile began to fade a little as we got out of the car; the look in his eyes not quite so excited as we walked into the school. We were among the first ones there (we are big proponents of getting in before the crowds of kids descend) but it was already too late. By this point he was well aware that this was an entirely new experience and that saying he was going to preschool and actually doing it weren't quite the same thing. 

Ours is the smallest of the PVP locations, but it was a loooonnnngggg walk to classroom #3, with him clinging to my husband's neck just a little bit more with each step. (And, for some reason, trying to hand over his lunchbox to everyone that he saw.) By the time we got to his cubby, he was in full-out crying mode. Within a few minutes, Kelley (my husband) had sent me out of the building so that I didn't start crying, too. Because I have to say, for as much as I knew this was the right thing to do -- for as much as I knew that this was a temporary state (which brought to mind the words of PVP Porter Director Morgan Antonell who at one point said something about September being the month of crying thanks to all of the transitions taking place) -- my instinct was to gather him up in my arms, carry him out to the car, and say that we'd try again tomorrow. (Or maybe the day after that.) 

"Happy as a clam."

I told myself that I'd give it an hour and a half before I called the school to check in. I mean, I've been here before. I know it takes some time. Yet it still took everything I had not to pick up the phone and call. But then, about ten minutes after I got home, an email appeared in my inbox. It was from the Director, sending me a message. "Happy as a clam," it said. And there was a picture of James doing a puzzle and smiling.

There were several more emails throughout the day -- a picture of James napping, a picture of the whole class at circle time, and a picture of James and Denise together, with the following note: "By the time circle time came along, he was all smiles again! I was taking a picture of a another child, and he tapped me and said, 'How about me?' So, here we are, smiling for the camera!" Having these little bits and pieces of the day was beyond helpful and amazing. I can't thank Denise enough for thinking of us and keeping us updated. I'm sure that we weren't the only ones she was in touch with. It was just another one of the many reasons that we love PVP so much.  

When I went to pick him up, I had hoped that I'd have a little bit of time unobserved to watch him in the playground. Even though I felt so much happier after all of the notes, I wanted to see him for myself. Had he made friends? Was he connecting with his teachers? Was he too shy due to the newness of it all to start to make his own way in his new place? He saw me drive into the parking lot (or, I should say, he saw Lucy in the front seat -- "Luce!!!!!!!" he yelled across the patio), so I thought that I'd have to wait another day to see how he was fitting in. (Although I have to admit, having him run at full speed into my arms with a humongous smile on his face was something that I would happily have happen every single day. [Good thing that Lucy stayed in the car; otherwise he would have run straight past me and into her arms. Alas, it's happened many times before.]) 

Denise and James

But then he took me into the school and said that he had to have his snack, which, apparently, he'd been waiting to have until I got there. Lemonade, too. 

As he ate, I got more details about the day from Denise and Karina, his teacher. Being on the tinier size (his late August birthday pretty much guarantees a lifetime of being the youngest/smallest kid in his class), the other kids in his class thought he should be in with the younger toddlers. He apparently then opened up his (not tiny) mouth and explained in a very detailed way that he was three -- not a baby (bringing to mind Will's many years of yelling, "I am NOT little!") -- and that he was supposed to be in this room. Then, being used to playing with his ten- and thirteen-year-old siblings and their friends, he saw the even bigger kids (i.e., the pre-kindergartners), and took off to play with them. I guess I shouldn't be worrying too much about his ability to make his way in the world. 

"Did you set the timer yet,
Mommy? Did you?"

It took us a full half hour to leave, during which James insisted that he had to finish his snack, play in the playhouse, and, of course, poop. I was told that I needed to put the timer on, because only then would he be ready to leave. ("Did you do it yet, Mommy? One minute. Put the timer on. PLEASE." [It was not a request.]) And although I don't think I'll be able to spend that extra half hour at pick-up time every night, I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed it.

So when we have our next drop off time, even if he cries, I think I'll manage just fine. Because this is what I was waiting for. And tomorrow we get to do it all over again.