Hull Family Network News

I hope you and your family enjoyed Halloween! We loved getting to celebrate with friends at the Hull Family Network's Halloween Parties and during groups last week.

This session of groups runs through Friday, December 11th. Our registration form for playgroups starting in January will go out with the December News. We will be offering special events next month including Gingerbread Houses and a Holiday Make and Take. Details will come in next month's news.

November is always a time to think about what we are thankful for. I am thankful for my family and the families of the Hull Family Network! I hope this Thanksgiving holiday brings the joy of a happy family, the comfort of good friends, and the wonder of the holiday season.

We hope to see you soon,

Kristy Chalifoux

Fall Fun at Hull Family Network

Drop-in Gym is back November 10. Join us Tuesdays from 4:15-5:15pm. No registration is needed for some indoor playtime for children birth through age 5 years. If a child has a school-aged sibling, they are able to attend with their younger siblings, but must stay on our side of the gym and be able to be safe around the other young children. Please enter the gym from the door by the Central Office between the brick columns. Please note there is no Drop-in Gym Tuesday November 24 as Ms. DeGallo and crew will be busy setting up for Jacobs School Turkey Trot the next day.

Ella Montgomery, a student at Hull High School, started a Families4Families Club in Hull, and she is supporting the Hull Family Network. Families4Families is a nonprofit organization that helps student leaders and their families organize collection events in their school community for fresh groceries and other essentials, and to provide those to families in need.

Families4Families collected books for us last year. They will start a snack collection for the Hull Family Network soon. Thank you to Ella Montgomery, her mom, Jenny Montgomery, and Sharon Striglio for their efforts bringing Families4Families assistance to our community. You may have met Ella, Ava, Sharon, and Jenny at the evening Halloween party. Ella, Sharon, and some other volunteers from the high school will be assisting at special events throughout the year. Here are some pictures they captured of the fun while helping last week.

It’s that time of year again. Apply now for fuel assistance through the South Shore Community Action Council. Applications are accepted online at https://www.sscac.org/fuel-assistance

or you can call them at (508) 746-6707 for assistance over the phone. You can also apply at Wellspring. If you are not eligible for assistance due to your rental arrangements you may still be eligible for reduced utility programs.

Enjoy these books with your little one as you prepare for Thanksgiving.

The Thankful Book, by Todd Parr, shows many reasons to be thankful. From music to pets and more. Kids will discover how to be appreciative of everything, even if it is small.

Turkeys can be very silly birds. They can twirl on a dance floor. Did you know that they are scared of bees? Five Silly Turkeys by Salina Yoon is full of laughs.

This beautifully illustrated book celebrates the whole of November, indoors and out, from forest animals preparing to hibernate, to friends and family gathering together for a glorious Thanksgiving feast.

Turkey is in trouble. Bad trouble. The kind of trouble where it’s almost Thanksgiving…and you’re the main course.

But Turkey has an idea―what if he doesn’t look like a turkey? What if he looks like another animal instead?

After many hilarious attempts, Turkey comes up with the perfect disguise to make this Thanksgiving the best ever!

Teach your young children more about Native American culture with this sweet story about a wonderful tradition. It will warm your heart and really value family and thankfulness.

We will learn "I'm a Little Turkey" at playgroups this month, sung to the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot".

• Gather acorns from outside.
• Dip in vibrant, fall-colored paint and drop into a container with a blank sheet of paper.
• Shake, roll, and tilt the boxes to watch the acorns create lines, squiggles, and mixed patterns across the pages!

Rolling paint-covered acorns to create beautiful process art!

Once your acorn paintings have dried, flip them over to trace leaf stencils. To make the stencil, draw two simple leaf prints on cardstock and cut out the centers to create an easy to follow template. Once you have cut your leaves, write things you are thankful for on each one. Have discussions as part of the daily routine about what you are thankful for and give suggestions of things your younger child may be thankful for such as “when my brother gave me a truck to play with.” Have older children write on their own leaves what they are thankful for and have younger children dictate or draw what they are thankful for. See the next section, Thankful Tree for a fun way to pull this together with the acorn art for a Thanksgiving project that can be displayed and added to all month long.

This craft is a nice way to encourage children to learn and practice the art of gratitude.

Materials:

Tree branch, string or ribbon, hot glue, painted acorns and leaves from painting activity

How to:

• Hot glue painted acorns to branch

• Hot glue the leaves to the branch or punch a hole in the top and string a piece of ribbon or string through it, tying the 2 ends so there is a hanging loop.

Continue adding to the Thankful Tree all month long while practicing gratitude.

See https://jessicaetcetera.com/making-a-thankful-tree/ for more details on Acorn Process Art and the Thankful Tree, including leaves.

The Children's Librarian, Betty Thompson, hosts a weekly preschool story time Wednesdays 11:00-11:30am at the Hull Public Library.

Here is a link to their November Calendar: https://www.hullpubliclibrary.org/adult-calendar/

The statistics are staggering — children who are read to, or read 20 minutes a day, have heard a total of 1,800,000 words by 6th grade and are likely to score in the 90th percentile on standardized testing. Children who read only 5 minutes have heard 282,000 words and are likely to score in the 50th percentile, while the student who reads 1 minute has only heard 8,000 words and is likely to score in the 10th percentile.

As the parent of the young baby who wants to chew on the book or the toddler who has found his legs and doesn’t want to sit still for 1 minute, the thought of 20 minutes is overwhelming. You don’t need to do all 20 minutes at once and there will be days when you can’t get 20 minutes in because of your schedule, but making reading a regular and important part of your daily schedule ensures that your child will enjoy reading and seek it out later.

1. Make book reading easy. If your books are stored up high and your child can’t reach them, but your TV remote is in their reach, what are you saying to your child? Store special paper-paged books up high for parent-child reading time when your children are young, but keep a selection of board or inexpensive books down low in a basket (that eliminates the clearing off of every book from the shelf).

2. Read daily to your child even if it is just for a few minutes when they are young. Have books in the car and the diaper bag to entertain your child while you are waiting. For young children, just talk about the pictures and make the sounds to go along with the pictures. Make book reading a part of the bedtime routine so that warm, snuggly time is what your child gets last before bedtime.

3. Visit either the local library or the Hull Family Network’s Lending Library to add some variety to your own personal library. Wellspring’s Thrift Store is a great resource for inexpensive books.

4. Have book swaps with friends or consider a book group for older children including them doing an activity or craft related to a book.

5. For preschoolers, read books related to upcoming trips and act out the book or draw scenes from the book afterwards.

All children thrive on routines and structure. Once Thanksgiving rolls around, though, most households begin to change and everything is different. There are more outings and activities than usual. In addition, parents are often busier than usual, so they are less able to sit and play. It is no wonder that children, especially younger ones, can be cranky, disruptive or just not their typical friendly selves.

Prepare children for what to expect prior to the holiday happenings. Explain what will happen and how you expect them to act during an activity. Being specific about behavior such as, “At Grandma’s house you must sit at the table even if you are done eating” works better than an unclear, ”We must have good table manners”.

As parents, it is important for you to know what your children can tolerate based on their individual personalities and energy levels. If one child loves big events and parties, but the other one can’t tolerate all the stimulation, try dividing the families for some events. Families can take two cars to an activity, with the plan that one parent will leave with one child when he is ready. Other options are to bring some quiet time activities that one child could do in a separate room while the party is going on in the other rooms.

If an event is at your home, involve children in the planning and preparation. Put away special toys that will be hard for your child to share. Lastly, be glad for what goes well and continue to focus on your blessings.

Kristy Chalifoux, Hull Family Network Coordinator, kchalifoux@hullpublicschools.us

Karen Riccio, Hull Family Network Administrative Assistant and KidsCare, kriccio@hullpublicschools.us

This newsletter is provided by the Hull Family Network, serving families with children from birth to 8 years old. Sponsored by the Coordinated Family and Community Engagement (CFCE) grant from the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care.