Dear Angie,

Hello families!

We are glad so many of you were able to take advantage of the Lion’s Club eye exam!

As we head into May, we would like to celebrate our teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week and the special women in our lives for Mother’s Day. See below for more details on how we will be celebrating at EFC.

CENTER HAPPENINGS

May 6-May 10: Teacher Appreciation Week

May 10: Grab and Go Breakfast for all our special mothers, aunts, grandmothers, and caregivers.

May 10: Fire Truck Presentation for Preschoolers

May 24: Center closed for Professional Development Day

May 27: Center closed for Memorial Day

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

We would love to have a staff appreciation potluck on Tuesday, May 7. If you would like to bring something in for that day please email us with the dish you would like to share by Friday, May 3.

In Honor of Mother’s Day, we will have a Grab-n-Go Breakfast on Thursday, May 9. All mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and special caregivers are welcome to take a treat to go. Have a great Mother’s Day weekend!

FAMILY REMINDERS

Conferences will take place May 6 through May 23, depending on the classroom. We look forward to seeing you all and discussing your amazing children!

As the weather starts to get warmer, please remember we do not allow flip flops and recommend continuing to send closed toed shoes. We cannot apply aerosol sunscreen, just the lotion kind.

As a reminder parents need to come through the building for drop off and pick up. For the safety of the children please do not go through the fences when dropping off or picking up.

ESPECIALLY FOR PARENTS

Screen Time and Young Children: Taking Stock

We have heard it so many times that it may be easy to ignore the headlines: screens have transformed our lives in profound ways over the last several decades. Much of the recent media conversation has focused on the negative impact of smartphones, and especially social media, on the brain wiring and mental and emotional health of preteens, teenagers, and young adults.

Research on the effects of screen time in young children can be confusing and contradictory. However, there are some clear tips from experts that can help parents and caregivers of children under 5 (whose brains are developing at an incredible rate) as they think about screen time:

Children under 18-24 months: For children younger than 2, there is very limited benefit, and potential developmental risk, to screen viewing.
Content Matters: The best content for children is slow-paced and reflects real life. (Think “old school” episodes of Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street versus frenetically paced cartoons, even those that are labeled “educational”).

Behavior: Screen time should not be used to console. In addition, it may be helpful to assess how your child behaves before and after screen time...you can make adjustments to the time spent or the type of content viewed by assessing your child’s behavior.
Participation: Very young children get the most benefit from screen time when an adult watches with them, participates in active content, and follows up off-screen, reinforcing any lessons from the media content.
Sleep: Screens should not be used 1 hour before bedtime as they have a negative effect on sleep.

In considering how our children are affected by screens, experts also encourage adults to consider our own screen time in the equation (which can be very hard!). Children learn by observing the world around them and by interacting with their environment. It makes sense that both the child’s use of screens as well as their caregiver or family’s level of screentime, can impact development.

Research is important and helpful, but we don’t need a study to understand that the world has changed due to the mobile devices in our pockets. Several months ago, while at the airport, I looked around and observed that nearly every person around me was looking down at a screen. A young toddler was standing close to her parents, taking in the environment around her, and I wondered to myself about what she was learning—or not learning—from this scene. She could not observe or hear many interactions between people because there were not many taking place. Eye contact, smiles, or friendly waves from passersby were nowhere to be found.

Since that experience, I have tried to be much more aware of not taking out my phone in places where it has become the default norm—because children and adults of all ages still need to experience those interactions and allow their minds to wander. It can feel difficult, but also important, to resist the societal norm that screen-based connections take priority over real-world ones, even in places filled with strangers.

Screen Free Week is coming up on May 6-12. This may be a great opportunity to disconnect and reflect on how screens, which are here to stay, and certainly have benefits (like keeping in touch with far-away grandparents or giving all family members a bit of time to decompress), best fit into the life of your family.

Additional Resources

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/need-to-revisit-screen-time-2021020921912

https://screenfree.org/