Changeing with the Time Change

Someone commented that while it was simple to set their alarm clocks back last night they had forgotten to change the internal clock in their dog. Guess who got licked awake!

I've been thinking about the internal clocks of the children too! They will be hungry, sleepy, awake, all at the wrong times! How long will it take? How understanding and patient will you be?

Years ago, as the music teacher for an elementary school in Delaware, I was surprised one spring Monday after the time change when the entire class really HAD to use the restroom just after our class began. They were used to their break being right after music every week! The clocks had been changed but not their little bodies!

Not so very long ago my very bright little friend and Kindermusik student, "Emily", began to tell her mother that she no longer liked Kindermusik. She even marched into her evening class one day and announced to me that she hated Kindermusik! I was so surprised. I asked her why and her answer told me you can never know a child's whole story! This 3 1/2 year old was convinced that it was MY fault that it got dark during her Kindermusik class. Now that meant that when she got home it was bath and bed right away! No more play time! She was angry and let me know.

Children are such interesting puzzles!
Love,
Yvette

Holland Area Youth Orchestra and Holland Area Junior Strings Fall Concert Sunday, November 11th, 3pm Zeeland East High School, DeWitt Auditorium The Jr. Strings will be performing on the first half of the concert, followed by the Youth Orchestra. Please invite family and friends to this wonderful performance. Tickets are $7 adults & seniors and $4 students. Tickets are available at the Arts Council or online at www.hollandsymphony.org.

From the Holland Sentinel
Claire Gerhardt holds some kale from the Boeve Farm booth at the Holland Farmer's Market.

Monday, October 29, 2007

What is kale?

Veggie is loaded with nutrients
By Yvette Odell Sentinel contributor

If you're looking for a veggie that's packed with nutrients (vitamins A, C, E, K, calcium, iron and others minerals, beta carotene, fiber, lutein, some omega 3s and even a little bit of protein), open wide for kale.

This ancient vegetable is actually wild cabbage in the "cole" family with collard greens, cauliflower, broccoli and brussel sprouts, to name a few. Although no one is certain, some historians say that kale was brought from Asia Minor to Europe by groups of Celtic wanderers around 600 B.C. Wild cabbage was developed to form a head perhaps as long as 2,000 years ago.

There's good reason this vegetable has been around for so long. It's a hardy plant and some say it's the most nutritional vegetable there is. It's enjoying renewed popularity as people become more nutrition-conscious.

Kale is especially sweet if it has been in the field for a frost. You might actually like it, and your kids will too, if you can find kale that has been grown in some cold weather. Now that we have fall weather, you'll find it locally at the Holland Farmers' Market.

I know someone who has requested kale every year for her birthday since she was little. Now that she's older, she even volunteers to prepare it herself. Here's how she does it:

Claire's Kale

5 bacon strips, chopped (you can omit this but add more oil)

1 tablespoon cooking oil

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

1 cup water

Salt to taste (or soy sauce)

In a 5-quart pot (we use a cast-iron Dutch oven), saute the bacon in the oil over medium heat until cooked, but not crispy. Add the sesame seeds and toss around in the fat. Put the kale in the pot and stir it around until it wilts. You can fill the pot, cook it down, then add more kale, continuing until you have all your kale in the pot. Add the water and salt. Cover and cook for 25 minutes or longer. Check every so often and add water if needed. The leaves should be tender and the water nearly cooked away. A longer cooking time will release more minerals, making them more accessible for your body.We do a whole bouquet of kale at a time so that there are leftovers to toss in to the vegetable beef soup. Or try this easy and delicious idea: add leftover kale to your favorite mashed potato recipe and top with 2 leeks and half of a sweet red pepper sauteed in some butter.

Freezing extra kale is easy if you wash and prepare the leaves, fill a plastic bag and store in the freezer.

Yvette Odell, who wrote this story for the Sentinel, was chosen to present a session on "Classroom Management with a Sensory Approach" to her peers at the annual Kindermusik Convention to be held in Chicago. She has been teaching young children since 1980 and teaching Kindermusik in Holland since 1995.

Where Do The Children Play?Premiering Tuesday, October 23rd at 9 p.m. Michigan TV (PBS)

"Free play is slipping away from children’s lives. Yet time spent building forts or exploring outdoors, caring for animals, pretending or problem-solving with peers are now being shown by a wide body of research to be essential to healthy development, spiritual attunement, and emotional survival. Open-ended play in places that offer access to woods, gullies and gardens, ditches, boulders, and bike paths enhances curiosity and confidence throughout life.Play takes many forms. It may be best defined from within as a spontaneous human expression that relies on imagination and a sense of freedom. Players invent alternative contexts for conversation, visualization, movement, and interactions with real objects. They find release and involvement, stimulation and peace. Although play may arise anywhere, even in a cement cell, children are beckoned by the natural world to enjoy sensations of being alive."(Taken from the Where Do Children Play?" Website)

This is a very serious subject. I believe children should be rolling down hills every day. Has your child rolled, jumped, climbed, swung, and spun today? I know I have because I've taught an Kindermusik Imagine That! today and we did all those things plus pretended to be a tree full of birds, squirrels, bees, a bear and a little girl in the tree house all covered with leaves.....


Here are some interesting sites to inspire....or maybe to distract you so that your little one will play in the cupboards or jump off the couch! Better go outside!

• Alliance of Childhoodwww.allianceforchildhood.org
• The American Association for the Child's Right to Playwww.ipausa.org
• Children and Nature Networkwww.cnaturenet.org
• Childcare Exchangewww.colorado.edu/journals/cye/
• Children's Environmental Research Group (CERG)http://web.gc.cuny.edu/che/cerg/
• Hooked on Naturewww.hookedonnature.org
• National Wildlife Federationwww.greenhour.org
• Natural Learningwww.naturalearning.org
• Playing for Keepswww.playingforkeeps.org
• River of Wordswww.riverofwords.org
• Wild Zoneswww.wild-zone.net
  

Thank you Ashley for giving me this heads up.

Kindermusik Educators Have a Ball

What do hundreds of Kindermusik educators do when they get together?

We are home from the Kindermusik Convention!

What a wonderful, intense time. Here we are:Yvette, Carol Penny from KI, and Darcy sharing hugs and smiles. It was non-stop from the crack of dawn to past midnight every day...singing, dancing, learning, networking, laughing, sharing, hugging....it is very powerful to be around so many people who share similar vision and belief in music as we do. I loved meeting Kindermusik educator-sisters from around the world. (Thank you for sharing yourselves with us and Mabuhai to you all.)

I've got lots of fun things to share about our experience but since I got home at 3:45am I have got to catch up on the ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzs.

Yvette

William Tell Dance

THis is why children should listen to their Kindermusik CDs where they can jump and move and dance and conduct! Not just in the car while they are in the car seat or when they are all tucked in for bed at night!!!! How fun it was to watch this guy who really knows this music from beginning to end! He's so expressive with his hands. Thanks Kindermusik educator Deborah in Texas for sharing.