Drowning is preventable, but safe swimming is a life skill that has not always been accessible to everyone.
#WHOI and Gleason Family YMCA are teaming up to provide classroom instruction on life saving water safety skills to our community, working to address inequalities in water access. WHOI's goal is to make our vision of ocean exploration and discovery more available and accessible to all.
Join us on Wednesday, August 10 from 5:30pm-7:00pm at Redfield Auditorium on the WHOI Village Campus for a free professional instruction session. No pre-registration required.

Cape Cod Moms announces the 3rd Annual Cape Cod Parent Resource Fair to be held on Saturday, January 25, 2020  from 9am to 1pm in the Café at Cape Cod Community College, located at 2240 Iyannough Road in Barnstable, MA.  All parents, caregivers as well as children will enjoy this educational and fun resource fair sponsored by Bridgeview Montessori School, Cape Cod Healthcare & The Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod. Connect with local family friendly nonprofits, resources, and businesses that are dedicated to helping families in our community grow and prosper.  The event will feature local experts to help educate families on parent focused topics including “Navigating Grief with Your Family” presented by Good Grief Cape Cod; “Books Build Conversations: Family Story Time” with Eight Cousins; Empowering Children About Body Safety with Children’s Cove; and “Family Design – A Family Approach to Happiness, Health & Success” with Lamperti Counseling & Consultation. There will also be complimentary entertainment including a Princess Party, a dance session with Turning Pointe Dance Studio, a Magic Show with the Magicompany & music fun with Amy Wyman.

Tickets are only $2 for adults, children are FREE. Tickets can be purchased in advance via the Cape Cod Moms website or obtained for FREE via the participating vendors. Each ticket holder will be entered to win a Cape Cod Moms swag bag and will be given complimentary raffle tickets for additional chances to win any of the additional giveaways from local establishments.
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Special thanks to Cape Cod Conservatory; Cape Cod Radio; Elevated Impressions; Falmouth Chamber of Commerce; YMCA Cape Cod; Duffy Health Center; The Child Safe Division of American Income; Arc of greater Plymouth & Upper Cape Cod; Good Grief Cape Cod; Spaulding Center for Children; Crayon College; Gary DellaPosta, CPA and Attorney Monique Sadarangani for helping make this event possible!
For more information including a list of all participants, entertainment schedule and speaker schedule please visit our website: http://www.capecodmoms.com/parent-expo.html
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About Cape Cod Moms
Cape Cod Moms was founded in 2010 as a free resource, a place to network and collaborate for moms and parents on Cape Cod. Our blog is designed to help Cape Cod Moms connect with other moms, parents, and caregivers to empower the community with knowledge and support. Today much of our culture focuses on celebrity perfection, which fosters a desire in women and caregivers to do everything right. This is an impossible achievement for anyone and leaves women feeling overworked as the try to strive for a standard only achieved in the media.  Cape Cod Moms is a supportive safe-haven for moms to know they aren't alone in the obstacles they face every day; other moms and caregivers struggle to get it all done too!

What Dance Can Do for Your Child & Summer Dance Classes
By: Laura

​I'm sure, at some point, you've all read or conversed about the benefits of dance lessons and the many life lessons gained by having your child participate in dance.  For example you learn how to push yourself beyond your limits and reach your personal best, how to handle disappointment, learn time management skills, instill discipline, team work, humility, tenacity, and passion. I am living proof of how truly amazing life can be when you are passionate about something.
 
But where is the proof in our children? Having had 5 senior dancers graduate this year from high school and Turning Pointe Dance Studio, I have the proof and it was displayed by these 5 remarkable teenagers! These young women had been dancing with me since they were small. One of these young ladies used to cry every time her Mom dropped her off at the studio. It was clear that she loved to dance so her family kept at it, persevered and conquered and now she is performing in front of thousands of people with poise and confidence. These 5 young women all graduated with high honors (3 of which were in the top 20 students at Falmouth High School) and have managed to maintain rigorous dance schedules. They are loyal, team players even at times of stress and frustration. They are role models and I am confident that they will do amazing things in our community and world. They were accepted to top Universities and are majoring and minoring in subjects like forensic science, dance, art, architecture, neuroscience, physical therapy, and biochemistry.

​​Here is more of why...
 
Dance teaches the values and skills of creativity, problem solving, and risk taking.
 
Dance lessons are a great place for kids to make new friends. A dance studio provides a safe dance family and community during a time when life can be unpredictable and confusing, especially during adolescence.
 
Dance education helps students develop physical fitness, appreciation of their body, mindfulness of health and effective stress management skills. In today’s technology-driven world, it is becoming increasingly more important for children to adopt a physically active lifestyle early on.
 
Dance gives non-verbal children and outlet to express their emotions. Dance gives children with sensory related issues an opportunity to move freely through space, to work on gross and fine motor skills, balance, and spatial awareness. Many parents find that dance lessons help improve behavioral issues, such as hyperactivity.
 
Studies have shown that children who participate in dance lessons tend to perform better in the classroom. Dance requires discipline and focus, which translates to an improved academic performance. Dance lessons help reinforce educational basics, like counting. Children also learn to differentiate right from left and fast from slow. 
So for all the parents out there with little ones that are shy or you can't get them unattached to your leg (I am one of those parents)... keep at it. It's all worth it and above is the proof!

Laura Sciortino is mother of 6 year old Henry and 4 year old Cordelia, a retired professional ballerina, and owner and dance teacher at Turning Pointe Dance Studio in Falmouth.
 
www.turningpointedancestudio.org
 
Summer classes begin June 26 and there are still spots in most classes! 
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​Cape Cod Children’s Museum Celebrates Jumpstart’s Read for the Record® Day
Cape Cod Children’s Museum Unites with National Early Education Organization to Highlight the Importance of High-Quality Education for All Children
 
Jumpstart, a national early education organization, will partner with Cape Cod Children’s Museum in Mashpee for the 11th anniversary of Jumpstart’s Read for the Record, a national campaign that helps address the educational inequities that leave too many children unprepared for kindergarten. 
 
On October 27, 2016, children and adults will join forces for the world’s largest shared reading experience, known as Jumpstart’s Read for the Record. Since 2006, this 24-hour celebration has mobilized over 17 million people, and Jumpstart holds the world reading record for the most people reading the same book on the same day. This year’s official campaign book, The Bear Ate Your Sandwich by Julia Sarcone-Roach (Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers), will not only inspire adults to read with children, but will also spur policymakers and organizations to take action towards transformative change in early education while putting books in the hands of more children across the country. 
 
A limited number of special paperback editions of The Bear Ate Your Sandwich will be available for purchase at Cape Cod Children’s Museum.  By Pre-registering for the Museum’s Read for the Record event, you will have an exclusive opportunity to purchase a copy of The Bear Ate Your Sandwich for the special price of just $4.50. This exclusive price is available only the day of the event and only to those who Pre-register at www.CapeCodChildrensMuseum.org. 
 
Special editions feature reading tips, vocabulary words, reading comprehension questions, and conversation starters developed by Jumpstart’s team of early education experts. All proceeds help bring Jumpstart’s program to preschool children in under-resourced communities across the country.
 
 
 
ABOUT JUMPSTART
Jumpstart is a national early education organization working toward the day every child in America enters kindergarten prepared to succeed. By participating in Jumpstart’s year-long program, children develop the language, literacy, and social-emotional skills they need to be ready for school, setting them on a path for lifelong success. Since 1993, Jumpstart has trained 45,000 college students and community volunteers to transform the lives of 95,000 preschool children nationwide. Learn more at jstart.org and follow us on Twitter at @Jumpstartkids.
 
ABOUT THE BEAR ATE YOUR SANDWICH
Julia Sarcone-Roach’s The Bear Ate Your Sandwich is the tale of a bear, lost in the city, who happens upon an unattended sandwich in the park. The bear’s journey from forest to city and back home again is full of happy accidents, funny encounters, and sensory delights. The story is so engrossing, that you will not see the surprise ending coming!

Working with Clay…No Guarantees
Sandy Nickerson, Head of School

Ok, full disclosure. When I was in college, I took a clay class. I worked very hard in that class. I just knew I could impress myself and my professor while I was at it. I wedged, slabbed, coiled, pinched, threw, and created all kinds of glaze concoctions. I spent hours perfecting each technique. And no matter what I did, how I did it, or how long I did it, the results were always the same oddly familiar shapes. Dare I call them vessels? I guess they were vessels, each with a unique likeness to my childhood mud pies. Needless to say, I achieved a ‘C’ in that course. I considered myself lucky…considering the hauntingly nostalgic repeated forms.
 
About 25 years later, as an Art teacher at Bridgeview Montessori School, I very much wanted our school to have a kiln. I knew our art curriculum would not be complete without our students experiencing the process of bringing a clay piece to its completed glazed finish. The Bridgeview Parent Association jumped aboard and raised money to pay for a new kiln and the kiln shed. The goal was reached, and the kiln and shed were installed. At last, there I stood, a ‘C’ clay student in charge of the new clay curriculum. I took a deep breath and contacted Kim, a local potter, and a parent at our school and pleaded for her guidance. As a parent volunteer, she helped me choose the most appropriate clay and glaze to use with children. She reminded me of all the steps involved in bringing a clay piece to its finish. We started by offering an After School Clay Class that Kim helped me teach. At home, I studied my clay vocabulary words.

Our clay adventure was underway, our students and their ‘C’ clay teacher were ready to explore, make mistakes, discover, make mistakes, and create three dimensional art pieces, some beautiful, some not. Each step in the process provided opportunity for great success and undeniable failure. Working hard did not factor into guaranteed successful outcomes. As the teacher, I could only guarantee the full process… celebrate the student successes and help students endure the failures, and continue on to the next work. 
Here’s the full process. Wedge your clay to make sure there are no air pockets. Build your piece and make sure all added pieces are scratched and slipped, being sure not to create any air pockets. Allow piece to dry until leather hard with no moisture left. Bisque fire. Glaze piece making sure to layer every glaze color at least three times. Glaze fire. Bring completed pieces home without breaking them. 
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Air pockets will cause your piece, no matter how beautifully built, to explode in the kiln. Not scratching and slipping properly will cause your piece to break during the leather-drying phase. Little bits and pieces that managed to stay connected in drying may still fall off during the bisque firing. Failure to layer the glaze at least three times will lead to a “watery” layer of color that is bound to disappoint. I am sure we all understand the consequences of breaking clay pieces on the way home.

As a teacher, the stressful part of teaching clay is that I cannot assure my hard working students that they will not make a fatal mistake along the way. I can’t see air pockets or incorrect scratching and slipping technique or that a leather hard piece won’t slip out of my hands and fall crashing to the floor. All I can do is be a good role model for picking myself up, dusting off, and trying again when something disastrous happens to my demonstration pieces. My students and I have worked and grown together. They have encouraged me through my trials, as I have encouraged them through theirs. I start each clay lesson with the words, “There are no guarantees.”

Why all this trouble anyway? First of all, everyone should experience working three dimensionally. Most importantly, all learners need to experience the excitement of working hard even though they know from the start there will be no guaranteed success. Yet my belief is that the lesson is not as important as the attribute that can be gained… that attribute is true grit. Handling success is wonderful, but the real challenge is handling it when the going gets tough. I am proud that this ‘C’ clay student did not use her ‘C’ as an excuse to never teach clay. I am very proud of our clay students who continue to exclaim, ”Yeah, its clay time!” even though each of them has experienced disappointment while working with clay. I am equally proud of our cumulative successes and disappointments. Together, they have led to growth and grit. 

Oh, and those annoying mud pie forms previously mentioned, they are fewer and farther between. Phew!

Bridgeview Montessori School
885 Sandwich Road
P.O. Box 270
Sagamore, MA 02561
508-888-3567
www.bridgeviewschool.com
info@bridgeviewschool.com
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Director of Admission: Suzanne Lawson at slawson@bridgeviewschool.com

Serving ages 2.9 to 12 years, Bridgeview Montessori School, guided by the educational philosophy of Dr. Maria Montessori, provides a child-centered learning environment in which students develop a love of learning that will sustain them throughout their lives. Our goals include: the development of the whole child, emotionally, physically and intellectually; academic excellence gained through independent and critical thinking; inspired learning through creativity, courage, passion, personal responsibility and respect for self, others, and the world in which we live. We encourage our students to approach their work and their world with a sense of wonder, curiosity and the excitement of discovery. We value diversity and, above all, we value a compassionate and peaceful community. Bridgeview Montessori School awards upwards of $70,000 in need-based financial aid annually!  Our school is allergen free.  A wonderful small school for all kinds of learners.