
Please find below our daily SolBe Family update letter containing helpful resources and exciting projects to explore while we all do our part to stay home during this pandemic. Subscribe here to receive daily updates.April 16, 2020SolBe Families,In our post yesterday, we encouraged tending to our children's anxiety and/or stress levels surrounding the COVID-19 crisis. We will be offering additional resources in the days to come to provide various tools for helping our children cope.Today, however, we want you to focus on YOU. Release yourself from any pressure or guilt building up during this unprecedented time. Everyone is doing the absolute best that they can . If you normally do not allow screen time but are offering it to give yourself a few moments of peace or to get something done…forgive yourself! It is COMPLETELY FINE . In my opinion, you are all rockstars and when life is back to a new version of normal, all the parents out there doing it all deserve a medal or a hug or at least a very enthusiastic "WELL DONE!""There is no such thing as a perfect parent. So just be a real one." -Sue AtkinsProject of the Day for All Ages: Wine Cork Friends and FeelingsMaterials:- Dried Wine Corks- Pipecleaners- Googly Eyes- Markers/paint- String- GlueAny or all of these materials can be substituted depending on what you have at home. It can be fun to simply paint the corks or draw on them with markers. The corks are also an interesting texture and can be squeezed and poked by younger friends. Just be certain they are completely dried out :).Step One:This step can be directly linked to the above blurb. Collect wine corks for the project. In keeping with our blended educational philosophy from Reggio Emilia and Montessori, we highly recommend Italian wines for the cork collecting…particularly Chianti, Barolo, and Montipulciano (wink, wink!).Step Two:Lay out all of the materials that the kiddos can explore for their project.Step Three:With our older friends, encourage your child to explore and express any feelings they may be having. Emotional schematic faces have long been used to gauge how children are feeling (famously, the Wong-Baker Faces used for Pain scale). Are the cork friends happy? Sad? Frustrated? Excited? What a wonderful opportunity to let children know that it is okay to NOT be ok—being sad at times is normal!Step Four:Encourage imaginative play with all of the various cork friends. What would they say to one another? How might they interact? Could their emotions change? Imaginative and role play can be a wonderful way to develop social-emotional learning. How are the friends interacting with one another? Most important direction, as always: HAVE FUN!More resources to follow in the coming days. Feedback and more ideas welcome, as always!Be well and stay healthy!The SolBe Team
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