Winona County Day Care Providers Association Website

The Winona County Day Care Providers Association has a new website:

www.wcdcpa.info

WCDCPA is a group of childcare providers that meets regularly & shares resources.

See their site for more information!

April Family Events Newsletter

Story Time at the Library • Tuesdays • Winona Public Library
• 10-10:20 am Lap Sit (Babies & Toddlers) • 10:30-11 am Preschoolers (3-5 year olds)
• For more information, call 507-452-4592.

Toddler Gym Nights • Tuesday, Apr. 8, 22, 5:30-7pm • Room 107, Goodview School
• Open to parents and toddlers 12-36 months
• No pre-registration needed. Sponsored by ECFE PTA. More info: 494-0913

Using a Baby Sling • Thurs, Apr 10, 4-5 pm
• ECFE classroom at Goodview School, 5100 W. 9th St.
• Get hands-on help using a baby sling to feel safe and comfortable. Come with or without a sling. • More info: 507-494-0913

Drop-in Play Group • Thurs, Apr 10, 17, 24, 12:30-2:30 pm
• Goodview School, 5100 W. 9th St.
• Come play with your child! Check out the “Zoom” room, play with new toys, or just hang out with other parents and their kids! Class is free and pre-registration is not required.
More info: 507-494-0913

Family Fun Day • Sat, Apr 12, 10 am-12:30 pm
• Winona Senior High School, 901 Gilmore Ave.
• Celebrate the Week of the Young Child. Family Fun Day is a free event for families and children of all ages. This community event will have tons of activities, including a bounce house, food concessions, story telling, crafts, live music, safety information, games & prizes, resource booths, and children's performances.

Children’s Museum Free Admission • Sun, Apr 13, 12-5 pm
• Children’s Museum, 207 5th Ave S, La Crosse
• Enjoy all three floors, crafts, refreshments and door prizes for free. More info: (608) 784-2652 or www.childmuseumlax.org

Moms Supporting Moms Group • Tues, Apr. 15 • Room 106, Goodview School
• Children up to age 8 can attend with their moms. Activities for different ages of children will be planned. For child care or transportation needs, call Deb 494-0950.

Earth Day Celebration • Sat, Apr 19, 10 am-4 pm
• WSU Student Union, Kryzsko Commons, and WSU Courtyard
• Musical entertainment, booths, exhibits, speakers, food, drink and hands-on activities. “Procession of the Species” parade at 3:30 pm followed by the drumming group Batucada Nossa Senhora. Free. More info: 457-8258

More events at www.winonakids.org. This calendar is sponsored by the Early Childhood Family Education PTA. For more information about Early Childhood Family Education programs and events, call 494-0913. If you know of an event for families with kids age 5 or under, e-mail winonaecfepta@gmail.com to have it listed in next month’s calendar.

March ECFE Family Events Newsletter

Story Time at the Library • Winona Public Library
• Toddlers Tales – 10-10:20am, Preschoolers – 10:30-11am, Family night – 6:30-7pm.
• For more information call 507-452-4592

Family Gym Nights • Fridays, 6-7:30pm, Mar. 3, 7 • Goodview School
• Come play with your preschool children! Free and open to all ages.
Toddler Gym Nights • Tuesday, 5:30-7pm, Mar. 11 •Room 107, Goodview School
• Open to parents and toddlers 12-36 months.
• No pre-registration needed. Sponsored by ECFE PTA. More info: 494-0913

ECFE Drop-In Playgroup • Thursdays 12:30-2:30pm • Room 106, Goodview School
• March Activities: Mar. 6 – Big Book Exploration, Mar. 13 – No Mess Paint,
Mar. 20 – My Own Project
• Come play with your pre-K children at Early Childhood Family Education. Make a craft, play with toys, or run around the Zoom Room. Open to all; no registration required, but donations appreciated. More info: 494-0913

Kid’s Fun Day • Sun, Mar 9, 2-4pm • Winona Elks Club
• Join your kids for a fun-filled day of games, prizes, and snacks!
• Free admission for children ages 12 and under.

Soar with the Eagles
• Fri, Mar 7 – Sun, Mar 9 • 10am – 5pm • National Eagle Center, Wabasha
• The 2008 Soar with the Eagles event promises to be the biggest and best event yet. There will be many speakers, field trips, eagles to see and meet up close, silent auction, entertainment, photo contest, children’s activities, and much more. Cost varies with event, some are free. For more info or to purchase tickets: 651-565-4989 or visit the National Eagle Center website at www.nationaleaglecenter.org

Maple Syrup Making Time
• Sat afternoons • Mar 15, 22, 29 • Whitewater State Park (near Altura)
• Presentation on the history of maple syrup and sugar making. Participants will tap trees, gather and boil sap, and taste pure maple syrup.
• Event is $1/person and state park vehicle permits are required.
• Reservations and more info: (507) 932-3007

Moms Supporting Moms Group • Tues, Mar 18 • Room 106, Goodview School
• Children up to age 8 can attend with their moms. Activities for different ages of children will be planned. For child care or transportation needs, call Deb 494-0950.

This events calendar is sponsored by the Winona Early Childhood Family Education PTA. For more information about Early Childhood Family Education programs and events, call 494-0913.

Dr. David Walsh in Winona January 14

Dr. David Walsh will be in Winona to present:

No: Why Kids of All Ages Need to Hear It

&

Ways Parents Can Say It

Monday, January 14 at 6:30 p.m.

WMS Auditorium --1570 Homer Road, Winona

A free copy of Dr. Walsh's book will be availabe, while supplies last, to each household. A book-signing and reception will follow. The presentation is free. Free childcare will be provided for children ages 2-10.

To learn more about this presentation, visit:

www.sayyestono.org

Sponsored by: WMS & Area PTA's, MN Masonic Charities, St. Mary's Catholic Schools, the Winona Early Childhood Initiative & The Foundation for Winona Area Public Schools

Toy Safety at Christmastime

From Newsweek:

It’s a tough year to be a toy-buying parent. In recent months, almost 25 million mostly Chinese-made toys have been recalled because they have dangerous amounts of lead or magnets—which can cause intestinal damage when swallowed—in them. Then there were Aqua Dots, pulled when it was discovered that the popular beads were coated with a toxic chemical that metabolizes into gamma hydroxy butyrate, or GHB—the date-rape drug. Last week California filed suit against 20 toy companies, alleging that they had knowingly exposed kids to unlawful levels of lead.

The article goes on to give practical tips for making sure toys are safe for kids--you can read the rest of the article at Newsweek.

Sleep May Affect Postpartem Weight Loss

A new study finds that sleep, as elusive as it may be, may play an important role in helping women lose weight after the birth of a baby, according to MedPage Today:

OAKLAND, Calif., Nov. 21 -- Women deprived of only a couple hours of sleep a night after the birth of a child may find it more difficult even a year later to lose weight gained during pregnancy.

New mothers who slept five hours or less per day when their babies were six months old were three times more likely to have retained at least 11 pounds at one year than those who slept seven hours per day, showed results of a large cohort study published in the November issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.

The story cautions that "the study was not designed to show whether increasing sleep duration after the birth of a child would help women lose weight." Read the whole story at MedPage Today.

Photos from Flippin' for Books

About 300 kids and 250 adults attended the 2nd Annual Flippin' for Books Literacy and Wellness Fair on Saturday, Nov. 10 at the Senior High.
Thanks to our many sponsors!

Eating pancakes, sausage, and fruit is even more fun when it's free!

Every child received a free book to take home and read.

Creating with Wikki Stix

Face painting, courtesy of the MN Marine Art Museum

Many local organizations offered kid-friendly information and activities.

Early Childhood Family Education's booth--looks great Stephanie & Ann!

Storytime with guest reader, Ms. Michael Nelson

Winona County Public Health nurses provided a car seat clinic
with support from ECFE PTA. Approximately 30 carseats were checked

& properly re-installed.

The smile says it all.

ECFE Parents Meet with School Nutrition Director on Chocolate Milk

Several parents from the Winona Early Childhood Family Education program attended a Wednesday morning meeting with Lyn Halvorson, the school nutrition director for the Winona Area Public Schools, to discuss chocolate milk in the schools. Margaret Schild, director of Winona Community Education, also attended the meeting in her role as co-chair of the school district’s Wellness Committee.

The meeting was prompted by some parents’ concerns about the amount of extra sugar contained in the flavored milk. The chocolate skim milk served to students in WAPS contains 14 more grams of sugar and 60 more calories than white skim milk, with the extra calories presumably coming from the added sugar.

The parents expressed several concerns about making chocolate milk available to students at meals (breakfast and lunch) and during kindergartener’s snack time. Their primary concern was that the amount of sugar contained in one serving of chocolate milk (26 grams, including the 12 grams of naturally occurring sugar from lactose) represents about half of the discretionary calories recommended by the USDA on its food pyramid website, mypyramid.gov, for active five-year-old children. The parents said they worried that providing young kids with that much sugar through one or more servings of chocolate milk made it much more likely that they would exceed their recommended daily caloric intake from discretionary fats and sugars, increasing the risk of childhood diabetes and obesity. They also asked whether providing sweetened milk at every meal establishes unhealthy eating habits, with kids who have had a sugary drink at every meal for years as kindergarteners and elementary students becoming more likely to “graduate” to mealtime soda pop as teenagers.

Ms. Halvorson presented extensive information supporting the widespread practice of offering flavored milk to school children. (Some of the information she presented can be found in the post, “Milk Facts.”) She pointed out that the consensus among nutritionists and medical professionals is that chocolate milk consumption is not harmful to children and actually provides substantial benefits. She said that most children do not receive nearly enough calcium on a daily basis to build healthy bones and teeth. But studies show that children are more likely to drink more milk when the milk is flavored or packaged attractively. For example, eliminating chocolate milk in the New York City public schools reduced students’ milk consumption by 10 percent. Many nutritionists and medical professionals say that the extra sugar contained in chocolate milk is not significant enough to be a health concern for most children, and is outweighed by the benefits of providing kids with more calcium.

Parents at the meeting asked whether experts’ assertions that the extra sugar is not a concern for most kids applies equally to very young children, such as kindergarteners, whose overall caloric intake is less than the average elementary age child. They asked whether the schools could investigate the possibility of replacing sugary chocolate milk with a lower-sugar chocolate milk. They also suggested that parents ought to have some control over whether their young children are allowed to have chocolate milk at school.

Ms. Halvorson raised some concerns about the practicality of having cafeteria staff monitor kids’ milk choices. However, she suggested that she would be willing to investigate the possibility of providing more parental control over kindergarteners’ chocolate milk consumption during their snack time. She also said she would investigate whether a lower-sugar chocolate milk exists.

The meeting was sponsored and facilitated by the Early Childhood Family Education PTA, which has not taken a formal position on the issue other than to raise parents’ concerns with school district officials.

Infant cold medicines pulled from stores

From the Star Tribune:

Drug makers on Thursday voluntarily pulled kids' cold medicines off the market less than two weeks after the government warned of potential health risks to infants.

Products aimed at children under the age of two are being removed from store shelves due to "rare instantances of misuse" that could lead to accidental overdose, a trade group that represents over-the-counter drug makers said.

Cold medicines being withdrawn include: Johnson & Johnson Pediacare Infant Drops and Tylenol Concentrated Infants Drops, Wyeth's Dimetapp Decongestant Infant Drops, Novartis' Triaminic Infant & Toddler Thin Strips and Prestige Brands Holdings' Little Colds Decongestant Plus Cough.

Read the full story at the StarTribune.

NO LINK BETWEEN BREASTFEEDING AND TOOTH DECAY

From the American Academy of Pediatrics:

Breastfeeding does not cause early childhood tooth decay, according to a new study. "Association Between Infant Breastfeeding and Early Childhood Caries in the United States" analyzed data on oral health, infant feeding, and numerous other factors among children ages 2 to 5, in the 1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Despite some reports that link breastfeeding, especially prolonged breastfeeding, with dental caries, this study found no such increased risk. In contrast, maternal smoking was found to increase the risk for dental caries.

TV for Tots: More Bad News

"Baby Einsteins May Not Be So Smart After All," from Time.com:

The claim always seemed too good to be true: park your infant in front of a video and, in no time, he or she will be talking and getting smarter than the neighbor's kid. In the latest study on the effects of popular videos such as the "Baby Einstein" and "Brainy Baby" series, researchers find that these products may be doing more harm than good. And they may actually delay language development in toddlers.

Led by Frederick Zimmerman and Dr. Dimitri Christakis, both at the University of Washington, the research team found that with every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants learned six to eight fewer new vocabulary words than babies who never watched the videos. These products had the strongest detrimental effect on babies 8 to 16 months old, the age at which language skills are starting to form. "The more videos they watched, the fewer words they knew," says Christakis. "These babies scored about 10% lower on language skills than infants who had not watched these videos."

It's not the first blow to baby videos, and likely won't be the last. Mounting evidence suggests that passive screen sucking not only doesn't help children learn, but could also set back their development. Last spring, Christakis and his colleagues found that by three months, 40% of babies are regular viewers of DVDs, videos or television; by the time they are two years old, almost 90% are spending two to three hours each day in front of a screen. Three studies have shown that watching television, even if it includes educational programming such as Sesame Street, delays language development. "Babies require face-to-face interaction to learn," says Dr. Vic Strasburger, professor of pediatrics at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Read the rest of the story here. And from the American Academy of Pediatrics:

EARLY TV VIEWING HABITS COULD HAVE LASTING EFFECT ON KIDS’ ATTENTION

Children who watch more television in their early years may be more likely to have attention problems as teens. In a study from the University of Otago, in Dunedin, New Zealand, more than 1,000 children were observed from age 3 through age 15. Early childhood attention problems were noted at ages 3 and 5. Parents’ estimates of the children’s’ television viewing time were obtained at ages 5, 7, 9 and 11. Then, using various tools and questionnaires, the parents, the children themselves and reported on attention problems at ages 13 and 15. For every additional 50 minutes of television watched on average per day, there was a measurable negative impact on attention. Those who watched the most TV earlier in childhood were more likely to have attention problems. In particular, those children who watched more than two hours per day had above-average symptoms of attention difficulties in adolescence. Early childhood attention problems, socioeconomic status, gender or cognitive abilities did not influence the results, leading the researchers to conclude that watching too much TV was the most likely cause. Possible explanations may be the world portrayed on television makes real-life tasks seem boring in comparison, or that watching TV displaces of the activities that encourage attention such as reading and playing games.

ARE KIDS BEING BURGER BRAINWASHED?

According to a recent Institute of Medicine report, there is strong evidence that television advertising influences short-term food preferences for children 2 to 11 years of age. Researchers for the study, “Nutritional Content of Television Food Advertisements Seen by Children and Adolescents in the United States,” analyzed food-product advertisements seen by children and adolescents on top-rated television shows from September 2003 to May 2004. Nearly 98 percent of food ads seen by children 2 to 11 years old and 89 percent for adolescents 12 to 18 years old were for products high in fat, sugar, or sodium and of poor nutritional content. Fast-food restaurants made up the largest category of all food-related advertisements viewed by teens, while children 2-11 years of age most frequently saw cereal ads. The current obesity epidemic among children and adolescents has challenged the food and beverage industries to reexamine their marketing practices. These findings will provide a benchmark against which future research can evaluate the commitment by food companies to change the nature of food advertising to children.

EQUIPMENT AVAILABLE FOR LICENSED DAYCARE PROVIDERS AFFECTED BY FLOODING

Winona County DayCare Providers Association is offering all licensed daycare providers who suffered a loss due to the flooding a free membership to the association so they can take advantage of our toy lending library, to help with rebuilding their business with toys/and equipment.

Anyone interested in doing so can call Mandy at 454-1531 to set up a time to go to the toy library to look around. Our toy library is located at Coldwell Bank's basement at 104 E 4th Street, Winona. Coldwell Bank lets us use this space free to help us offer many toys--ages infant to preschool and equipment such as cribs, strollers, and high chairs. PLEASE pass this onto a provider you know that was affected by this terrible flood, and let us help them out.

Carolyn A. Goree, Vice President
The Winona County DayCare Providers Association

The Importance of Play

The most recent installment of the public radio series "Speaking of Faith" spent an hour examining the importance of play, and how play shapes us as human beings. Here's an excerpt from a reflection that the host, Krista Tippett, wrote about the program:

[Dr.] Stuart Brown [director of the National Institute for Play], for his own part, says he spent too many years as a workaholic doctor; and he came to his fascination with play after observing play-deprivation in the lives of homicidal young men he had been given to study. These days, he gives himself three or four hours a day of "rogue tennis," reading, frolicking with his grandchildren. For work, he promotes better science on how play enriches us and nourishes human spirit and character. He believes this has implications for how we should structure our schools, workplaces, and family lives.

I am surprised, and eventually convinced, by the amazing list of virtues Stuart Brown associates with play across the span of our lives, drawing on a rich universe of play study in humans and intelligent social animals. (By the way, stop right here for a smile by looking at amazing pictures of animals quite obviously delighting in play.) It is established, Stuart Brown insists, that an actively playful life establishes the earliest sense of self; sustains trust; provides increased enthusiasm for effectiveness in learning; prevents violence; invigorates the body; lessens the consequences of stress; contributes directly to the capacity to approach and solve complex life problems; and rewards and directs the living of life in accord with innate talents..

You can read the rest of Ms. Tippett's reflection, read the transcript, listen to the program, or download it as an mp3 file, at http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/play.

WCDCPA 7th Annual Children's Festival

4:30 pm - 8:30 pm

Thursday, August 16th

Jaycee Pavilion at Lake Winona

Magician show put on by Tyson Entertainment*

Bounce house*

Train rides*

Food - hot dogs, walking tacos, ice cream, snow cones, cotton candy etc.*

clowns and lots of fun

FREE TO THE COMMUNITY

Thanks for a successful Sock Hop!

A few hundred people attended the ECFE PTA Sock Hop on April 21...thanks to everyone who made it such a success! Click on the video below for a three-minute music video/slideshow featuring some of the fancy dancing on display that evening.

Study: Early Child Care Linked To Increases In Vocabulary, Some Problem Behaviors In Fifth And Sixth Grades

From a recent study that appears in the March/April 2007 issue of Child Development (summary from Science Daily.com):

The most recent analysis of a long-term NIH-funded study found that children who received higher quality child care before entering kindergarten had better vocabulary scores in the fifth grade than did children who received lower quality care.

The study authors also found that the more time children spent in center-based care before kindergarten, the more likely their sixth grade teachers were to report such problem behaviors as "gets in many fights," "disobedient at school," and "argues a lot."

However, the researchers cautioned that the increase in vocabulary and problem behaviors was small, and that parenting quality was a much more important predictor of child development than was type, quantity, or quality, of child care.

Read the rest of the article at ScienceDaily.

Why do kids have more energy than adults?

"Why has evolution given children so much energy and their parents so little?" asks NPR reporter John Hamilton. According to the scientists he interviewed, it's all about brain development. But kids' sluggish parents have a role to play, too. Read the whole story at NPR.

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome linked to brain defects

From the Boston Globe:

Babies who die of SIDS apparently have not developed a sort of "alarm system" that would make them respond to rising carbon dioxide levels by turning their heads and breathing harder, said Dr. Hannah Kinney of Children's Hospital, who is senior author of the study, published in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

You can read the whole article at the Boston Globe.

Better parenting through neuroscience?

University of Minnesota family science professor Bill Doherty has teamed up with St. Paul parents to launch Birthdays Without Pressure. The group is hoping to combat extravagant children's birthday parties. Their website (www.birthdayswithoutpressure.org) offers tips to parents, a birthday pressure quiz, research, and other resources for parents. Doherty says:

Today’s parents feel pushed to do more for children, provide more experiences and opportunities—and in less time because of overloaded schedules. Toys overflow, birthday parties become Hollywood productions, and electronic gear takes over the home. If we are not paying for something or driving our kids somewhere, it’s hard to feel we are doing enough as parents. It’s time to take a deep breath and ask ourselves how to parent wisely nowadays, beginning with small things like birthday parties.

Getting control over kids' birthdays

University of Minnesota family science professor Bill Doherty has teamed up with St. Paul parents to launch Birthdays Without Pressure. The group is hoping to combat extravagant children's birthday parties. Their website (www.birthdayswithoutpressure.org) offers tips to parents, a birthday pressure quiz, research, and other resources for parents. Doherty says:

Today’s parents feel pushed to do more for children, provide more experiences and opportunities—and in less time because of overloaded schedules. Toys overflow, birthday parties become Hollywood productions, and electronic gear takes over the home. If we are not paying for something or driving our kids somewhere, it’s hard to feel we are doing enough as parents. It’s time to take a deep breath and ask ourselves how to parent wisely nowadays, beginning with small things like birthday parties.