Cultivate Mankato: April 2022 News

VOL. 23 APRIL 2022

This Month's News

Parent Resources

New Team Members & Partnerships, New Family Packet, Professional Development Recap

Building Resilience in Children, UpSkill Parent Resource by Laura Walser

NURTURE. GROW. EMPOWER.

April News Index 03

2022 Center Closures

& Coffee is on Us, Pizza Kits

04

Upcoming Study, March Guests

05

COVID Policies, Key Fobs, Leave a Review

Packet, We are Hiring

06

Upskill Parent Resources

07

Community Room

08

Professional Development Recap

09

Infant Development Center

10-11

New Team Members & Partnerships

12-14

Parent Resource Article, Giving Back

15-17

Kindergarten Celebration, NEW Family

Initiative

Menus

18-19

We were finally able to enjoy some warm weather this month!

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www.cultivatemankato.com

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Covid-19 Policies updated February 2022

Review and download MN Department of Health COVID-19 Decision Tree for People in Child Care Programs

Click Here

Need a New Keyfob?

If you need more than two key fobs or you have misplaced your key fob, you may request additional or replacement key fobs using this form. You will be charged a $15.00 fee to your Procare account.

Key Fob Request Form

Build Your Own Pizza Kits We have partnered with River Rock to create pizza kits for our families!

Our Build Your Own Pizza Kits will be

LEAVE

A

GOOGLE

REVIEW

HERE!

Once you've left us a review, email us at info@cultivatemankato.com with your choice of coffee. Check out our website to decide which

available to pick up every Friday at pick-up.

Each kit costs $14.95 and will includes mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, pizza sauce, and River Rock pizza dough.

blend you would like:

www.cultivatemankato.com/shop Note: Pick up only at Cultivate Mankato Administrative Office; 110 S. Broad Street (located right next to our center).

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PLACE YOUR PIZZA KIT ORDER HERE

Upcoming Study Within our education curriculum, we use studies to guide our lesson planning. Studies

Thank You to All of Our March Guest

are a broad concept that we focus on for 4-6

Laura Marti and Jane Dow from Mankato Zero

weeks. Currently our study has been all about

Waste came to share with the preschoolers how

Recycle Reduce Reuse. This month we will

easy it is to recycle organic materials. All those

begin our

food scraps can be saved from the landfill and

Spring Study.

If you feel your family has something special

returned to the earth as compost. Pretty cool!

to share in regards to our upcoming study, we

Learn more at

would love family participation. Reach out!

www.facebook.com/mankatozerowaste

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www.cultivatemankato.com

Employment Package includes:

NEW! Family Information Packet

health, dental & vision insurance,

We have created a family

retirement plan, professional

packet that includes

We Are Hiring development stipend, child care benefits, and other employment perks.

links/resources/forms/etc all in one spot!

​Please share this information to help us find caring, outstanding and

Whether you are a new

qualified individual to join our team!

family or a current family,

Open Positions: Teachers, Assistants and Supports in all programs

www.cultivatemankato.com/ employment CULTIVATE NEWS | 6

this packet is where you can go to find the answers to your questions.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR FAMILY INFO PACKET www.cultivatemankato.com

Laura Walser, our Early Education Coordinator will be creating short parent resource videos called Upskill for $10/month.

Upcoming topics will be: Handling big emotions Emotion coaching Keeping yourself calm Bedtime routines Building independence

Some more topics that will be discussed in the future include: Biting Morning routine Teaching a skill vs consequences Multiple environments equals multiple expectations Childcare drop off and pick up routine

Click Here to Subscribe

Setting your child up for successful sleep at childcare Potty training The importance of sleep Knowing yourself as a parent

HAVE YOU JOINED OUR FB GROUP?

IT'S FREE! 7CULTIVATE NEWS | 7

Guiding your child’s behavior; positive discipline Language development If you have questions, please email Laura

laura.walser@cultivatemankato.com www.cultivatemankato.com

s& U r e off Ref 0 2 ve $ on i e c Re uiti t r you

Community Room BEAUTIFUL EVENT SPACE FOR YOUR UPCOMING PARTY OUR COMMUNITY ROOM PROVIDES: • A large kitchen island with bar stools

• A kitchenette with a refrigerator, freezer, sink & microwave

• Tables, table clothes & matching chairs

• Access to a preschool room or an extra meeting room

• Three large windows for lots of natural lighting

• Access to bathrooms

• Beautiful artwork

ENROLLED CULTIVATE FAMILIES RECEIVE A FREE COMMUNITY ROOM RESERVATION

To reserve visit:

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www.cultivatemankato.com/community-room

www.cultivatemankato.com

Staff Professional Development Update Covid-19 Policies On Friday, March 25 our center was closed for Professional Development Day. Teachers were given the opportunity to finish their assigned professional development training* and were able to get many tasks done in their classrooms! (And as a bonus, they were given the A-OK to do all of this in their sweatpants if they'd like!) *All teachers and assistants were to complete 20 hours of professional development curriculum by the end of the day. The 20 hours of training is through Teaching Strategies, which covers the Creative Curriculum and GOLD assessment.

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www.cultivatemankato.com

CULTIVATE MANKATO INFANT

DEVELOPMENT

CENTER

SAME PROGRAM SAME VALUES SECOND

LOCATION

RENOVATION

NOW

ENROLLING

&

HIRING

|

UPDATE

COMING SPRING 2022

w w w . c u l t i v a t e m a n k a t o . c o m We are excited to announce a tentative opening date of May 9th! We have started to use the kitchen and soon food will be catered from the IDC Kitchen to our Main Street location. We are actively enrolling AND hiring for our Infant Development Center. If interested in enrollment, your first step is to fill out our enrollment contact form.

Our Infant Development Center, coming Spring 2022:

♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡

Conveniently located near Mayo Hospital & Mankato Clinic Space is designed specifically for infants 3-16 months Brand new facility with the same stellar infant program Exceeds policies & procedures expectations Detailed parent communication throughout the day Infant development checklists, lesson planning & activities Staff on-site training & professional development

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ENROLLMENT CONTACT FORM JOIN OUR TEAM APPLY HERE MORE INFO www.cultivatemankato.com

MEET OUR SITE SUPERVISORS!

Cassandra Theriault

Lexi Leichtnam-Fitting

Hey, I’m Cassandra! I am one of the Site

My name is Lexi Leichtnam-Fitting. I am

Supervisors at the Cultivate Mankato Infant

one of the Infant Development Center Site

Development Center. I have been working in

Supervisors. I have a bachelor's degree

childcare since 2018 but always had a

from Minnesota State University: Mankato

passion caring for children through

in Family Consumer Science: Child

babysitting or nannying here and there

development and Family studies. I am very

growing up as well. I received my degree in

family oriented. I have always helped out

Child Development and Family Studies from

with babysitting my nieces and cousins. My

Minnesota State Mankato in 2020. While I

family always tells me that I am the baby

was in school, I started at Cultivate Mankato

whisperer of our family. I’ve been working

in January of 2020. During my time here, I

in childcare since 2019 and I have been

have worked in the infant program and

with Cultivate Mankato since august of

gotten to make great connections with the

2020. I am looking forward to expanding

children, staff, and parents. I am looking

our center to provide even more high

forward to supporting all of the staff at the

quality and loving care for infants. I love

Infant Development Center by providing

building relationships with the children,

guidance, information and assistance with

their families and staff. I want families and

anything they may need. I also will strive to

staff to feel welcomed and safe when they

ensure the parents and children feel safe,

come into the Infant Development Center.

comfortable, and as informed as possible.

Please feel free to contact me through email:

You are able to contact me at

cassandra.theriault@cultivatemankato.com

Lexi.Leichtnam-Fitting@cultivatemankato.com

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New Team Members & Partnerships New Team Member: Alexis Benedict, Early Education Curriculum & Training Specialist Our former Preschool 1 Lead Teacher will be returning to Cultivate Mankato in a new role! As the Early Education Curriculum and Training Specialist, Alexis will be supporting our team with curriculum and in-person training. More information coming soon!

Partnership: Fit and Grit Training We have partnered with Fit and Grit Training! Once a week, Fit & Grit Training will be coming to Cultivate to do fun large motor activities with our preschoolers!

Mention that you heard about Fit & Grit Training at Cultivate Mankato and get a FREE fitness or nutrition assessment.

To learn more about Fit & Grit Training visit: www.fitandgrittraining.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/FitAndGritTraining Instagram: @fitandgrittraining

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Partnership: Sam Olsen, owner of Persist Therapy Hi Cultivate Family! Cultivate “officially” introduced our partnership in the March newsletter and this month I’d love to tell you more about Persist Therapy and the Persist + Cultivate partnership. My name is Dr. Sam Olsen and I am the founder of Persist Therapy. We have been in business for a little over a year and we are so excited to be partnering with Cultivate--a company that shares the same passion as we do for working with children. Currently, our Persist Therapy team consists of Occupational Therapists (we hope to continue to grow our team in the future). The thing that I love most about being an occupational therapist is all the different things that we can work on and the unique lens that we bring to the professional table. An overarching definition of occupational therapy (OT) is allowing people of all ages to feel accomplished in their lives. We help people to be independent, find joy and success within the activities that we do daily and find meaning and value within their roles and routine. For children in (OT), that can mean so many different things—helping improve independence level with daily cares, assisting with coordination that impacts play, dressing, sports or academics, modifying environments to fit sensory needs, teaching emotional regulation, and the list goes on and on (and on). Our goal is for kids to feel motivated, confident and capable in completing the things that matter most.

We do things a little differently at Persist Therapy and I’d love to share a little background and the why behind it.

We are the ONLY occupational therapy practice in southern Minnesota providing mobile occupational therapy. What does that mean? We come to YOU! If your child is struggling at home, we are in your home. If your child is struggling at child care, we are in their child care. If your child is struggling in the community, we will meet you there.

While working in the clinic, a parent once said to me “it’s great that things are working here, but it isn’t working anywhere else” and she was right, therapy needs to happen where the struggles are happening and that is exactly what we are doing.

We focus on collaborating with the entire team to meet therapy needs. We want to work hand in hand with the people that know the child best-- parents, caregivers, teachers, and other professionals to teach what we know and how to use it. Our philosophy—the more people, the more progress.

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Persist Therapy Continued...

Let’s talk about the Persist + Cultivate partnership and why it is SO great! From the moment I walked into Cultivate, almost one year ago, I immediately felt welcome. I could tell that the Cultivate team was a team of passionate pediatric providers willing to work together to meet the needs of each child. I wanted to share a few reasons why I am so excited to work with the Cultivate team.

We share the same passion for early intervention. We know the “wait and see” approach doesn’t work. The longer we wait, the further behind a child becomes. It is incredibly important to identify areas of struggle and address them as soon as possible. 

We share the same passion for collaboration and recognize that many heads (from many different perspectives) is WAY better than one. The more resources, the better. 

We focus on the strengths and abilities of each child. Children should be known for their personalities, individualities, and uniqueness.

We understand the importance of relationships and connection between children and their families, children and their peers and children and their teachers. It takes a village. 

We want kids to feel confident in who they are and empowered to share it with others.

In the next few months, we will be navigating our new partnership and defining our goals of working together. I am excited to meet all of the children at Cultivate and their families too. If you see me floating around the Cultivate community, please feel free to say hi or ask questions. In the meantime, please feel free to reach out via phone (507-382-7273) or email (info@persisttherapy.com) if you need anything.

Best,

Sam, OTD, OTR/L

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Parent Resource Building Resilience in Children

In today’s environment, children and teens need to develop strengths, acquire skills to cope, recover from hardships, and be prepared for future challenges. They need to be resilient in order to succeed in life.

That is why Kenneth Ginsburg, M.D., MS Ed,

Written by

FAAP, a pediatrician specializing in adolescent Healthy Children Magazine

medicine at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), has joined forces with the

Link to Article

American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to author A Parent’s Guide to Building Resilience

The world can be a frightening place. As a

in Children and Teens: Giving Your Child Roots

parent, I am constantly aware of choices that I

and Wings. The new book provides a dynamic

make to minimize my perception of fear and

resource to help parents and caregivers build

uncertainty. Death, illness, divorce, crime, war,

resilience in children, teens, and young adults.

child abductions, tsunamis, and terrorism — both here and abroad — have defined an evolving landscape for raising our families. How do we manage to parent from a place of love and understanding, not fear and paranoia?

It’s not possible to protect our children from the ups and downs of life. Raising resilient children, however, is possible and can provide them with the tools they need to respond to the challenges of adolescence and young adulthood and to navigate successfully in adulthood. Despite our best efforts, we cannot prevent adversity and daily stress; but we can learn to be more resilient by changing how we think about challenges and adversities.

Today’s families, especially our children, are under tremendous stress with the potential to damage both physical health and psychological well-being.

The stress comes from families who are always on the go, who are overscheduled with extracurricular activities, and ever-present peer pressure. In the teen years, the anxiety and

Dr. Ginsburg has identified seven “C”s of resilience, recognizing that “resilience isn’t a simple, one-part entity.” Parents can use these guidelines to help their children recognize their abilities and inner resources.

Competence Competence describes the feeling of knowing that you can handle a situation effectively. We can help the development of competence by:

Helping children focus on individual strengths Focusing any identified mistakes on specific incidents Empowering children to make decisions Being careful that your desire to protect your child doesn’t mistakenly send a message that you don’t think he or she is competent to handle things Recognizing the competencies of siblings individually and avoiding comparisons

Confidence A child’s belief in his own abilities is derived from competence. Build confidence by:

pressure are related to getting into “the” college.

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www.cultivatemankato.com

Focusing on the best in each child so that he or

Contribution

she can see that, as well

Children need to realize that the world is a

Clearly expressing the best qualities, such as

better place because they are in it.

fairness, integrity, persistence, and kindness

Understanding the importance of personal

Recognizing when he or she has done well Praising honestly about specific achievements; not diffusing praise that may lack authenticity Not pushing the child to take on more than he or she can realistically handle

Connection

contribution can serve as a source of purpose and motivation. Teach your children how to contribute by:

Communicating to children that many people in the world do not have what they need

Developing close ties to family and community

Stressing the importance of serving others by

creates a solid sense of security that helps lead

modeling generosity

to strong values and prevents alternative

Creating opportunities for each child to

destructive paths to love and attention. You can

contribute in some specific way

help your child connect with others by:

Coping

Building a sense of physical safety and

Learning to cope effectively with stress will

emotional security within your home

help your child be better prepared to

Allowing the expression of all emotions, so that

overcome life’s challenges. Positive coping

kids will feel comfortable reaching out during

lessons include:

difficult times Addressing conflict openly in the family to

Modeling positive coping strategies on a

resolve problems

consistent basis

Creating a common area where the family can

Guiding your child to develop positive and

share time (not necessarily TV time)

effective coping strategies

Fostering healthy relationships that will reinforce

Realizing that telling him or her to stop the

positive messages

negative behavior will not be effective

Character Children need to develop a solid set of morals and values to determine right from wrong and to demonstrate a caring attitude toward others. To strengthen your child’s character, start by:

Demonstrating how behaviors affect others Helping your child recognize himself or herself as a caring person Demonstrating the importance of community Encouraging the development of spirituality Avoiding racist or hateful statements or stereotypes

Understanding that many risky behaviors are attempts to alleviate the stress and pain in kids’ daily lives Not condemning your child for negative behaviors and, potentially, increasing his or her sense of shame

Control Children who realize that they can control the outcomes of their decisions are more likely to realize that they have the ability to bounce back. Your child’s understanding that he or she can make a difference further promotes competence and confidence. You can try to empower your child by:

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www.cultivatemankato.com

Control continued from previous page...

Helping your child to understand that life’s events are not purely random and that most things that happen are the result of another individual’s choices and actions Learning that discipline is about teaching, not punishing or controlling; using discipline to help your child to understand that his actions produce certain consequences

Giving Back to Our Community Initiative During the month of March we collected personal care items to be given out at the Project Community Connect Expo on April 19.

"Project Community Connect is a collaborative, one-stop resource expo to help

Dr. Ginsburg summarizes what we know for sure

reduce barriers and connect people to

about the development of resilience in kids by

essential resources and services for a

the following:

healthier, safer and more stable community.

This free event raises awareness of hunger,

Children need to know that there is an adult in their life who believes in them and loves them unconditionally.

Kids will live “up” or “down” to our expectations.

homelessness and poverty in our region.

By bringing more than 70 service providers to one place, this event aims to provide ease of access to a broad variety of services and

There is no simple answer to guarantee

knowledgeable service providers to improve

resilience in every situation. But we can

lives in our community."

challenge ourselves to help our children develop the ability to negotiate their own challenges and

Thank you to all who donated to this initiative!

to be more resilient, more capable, and happier.

Overview of Stress There will always be stress in our lives.

Stress is an important tool that can aid in our survival.

Our body’s reaction to stress is mediated through a complex interplay of sensory input— sights and sounds—as well as the brain and nervous system, hormones, and the body’s cells and organs.

Emotions play an important role in how we experience stress because the brain is the conductor of this system. The way we think about stress and what we choose to do about it can affect the impact of a stressful event.

This article was featured in Healthy Children Magazine. To view the full issue, click here.

Learn More About PCC CULTIVATE NEWS | 17

www.cultivatemankato.com

April Menus

We would like to give families the opportunity to order the bread that River Rock makes for our children. There are two different options to choose from: Sourdough and Midwest Multigrain.

Pick up at Cultivate in 1-2 business days.

Click the menu to download a pdf

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To place an order: Visit our Cultivate Mankato shop!

Questions? Email us at info@cultivatemankato.com

www.cultivatemankato.com

We would like to give families the opportunity to order snack packs for your child(ren) or upcoming event. Choose between a meat or vegetarian option or send us a message to create a custom order.

Pick up at Cultivate in 1-2 business days.

Click the menu to download a pdf

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To place an order: Visit our Cultivate Mankato shop!

Questions? Email us at info@cultivatemankato.com

www.cultivatemankato.com