Cultivate Mankato: September 2021 News

VOL. 16 SEPT 2021

This Month's News

Parent Resources

Carnival Recap, Two Year Anniversary, She Nailed It Giving Back to our Community

Subscribe to Upskill, Fostering your Child’s Intrinsic Motivation to Clean Up After Themselves….

NURTURE. GROW. EMPOWER.

September News Index CityArt Sculpture Walk in Preschool 2

03

Two Year Anniversary Slideshow

04-05

Upskill Parent Resources, Business Membership

Future Closures, Cultivate MN National Take Action Survey

Cultivate Mankato Family Carnival

Twinning in Toddler 3 Double Decker Bus, Mask Reminder, Cultivate Store Sale

Giving Back to Our Community - She Nailed It, Upcoming Study

06 07 08 09

Scholastic Book Order, Hiring

10

Workiversaries

11

Meal Menus

12-13

Workiversaries

14

Parent Resource

15-16

Playing dress-up in Toddler 4

Going for a walk in Infants

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www.cultivatemankato.com

Cultivate

Mankato

Celebrating

two year anniversary

Hard to believe it's been 2 years. It feels just like yesterday since I started working at Cultivate Mankato.

I get to watch a baby learn to crawl or take their first steps, a toddler learn to talk and sing and experience the imagination and creativity of a preschooler. Each one is different, each one is special, each one is beautiful. I've laughed a little harder, cried a little less, and smiled a lot more. -

Becky Fichter

Two years ago, I walked into Cultivate Mankato on day 1 to just volunteer and be a gramma and hold the babies.

On day 2 I came back and I walked up the steps and seen this nice lady - Ms. Becky. I asked her is she could use any help and I have been her sidekick for 2 years. I volunteered for about 1 & 1/2 yrs than became an employee.

I love working in the kitchen, knowing we are preparing healthy meals for the children and staff. I have found many friendships, and I've learned a lot from Ms. Becky. I know that there is much love and compassion at Cultivate. To see the kids 3 times a week and see their smiles and hear them ask if they can give me a hug, melts my heart. I am very proud to be a part of Cultivate Mankato and for all it stands for. -

Marsha Murphy

Some of my favorite times at Cultivate Mankato have been our spontaneous dance parties. We clear the floor, turn up the music and let it all go! My favorite thing to do is let the kids take the lead and follow their dance moves. There is so much joy to be had when we allow ourselves to be in the moment.

- Anissa Sandland

These last two years at Cultivate have been some of my favorite! The amount of love that is given and received throughout each day is remarkable. I don’t see teaching the children as a job but as something I enjoy having the opportunity to do each day! I often reflect on how much Cultivate has helped me grow not only professionally but personally. I am so grateful to be a part of this organization!

CULTIVATE NEWS | 3

- Abbey Weilage

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

TWO NEW VIDEOS NOW

AVAILABLE!

Knowing yourself as a parent Guiding your child’s behavior; positive discipline Language development If you have questions, please email Laura

laura.walser@cultivatemankato.com CULTIVATE NEWS | 4

www.cultivatemankato.com

PARENTS WE

NEED

YOUR

HELP

SPREADING

THE

WORD

ABOUT

THIS

MEMBERSHIP

BE THE CHANGE #supportyouremployees

OVERVIEW Cultivate Mankato's Child Care Business Membership is a low-risk membership program that provides tremendous value to employees and employers.

As a member, you will get the following:

ATTRACT AND RETAIN TALENT

55%

High quality child care options for your employees Discounted weekly child care rates for employees Company wide access to Cultivate Mankato’s Community Room

of parents would take a pay cut for a job that offers child care.

Source: Harris Poll, 2019

IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY

10%

Prioritized access to child care openings Tax write-off

How it works:

increase in work-life balance, employees with access to child care reported.

Source: KCE Fortune 100 Client Survey

ENCOURAGE ENGAGEMENT

30%

Step 1: Business purchases the tier that best fits their needs Step 2: Business offers child care benefit to their employee Step 3: Employee enrolls their child at Cultivate Mankato Step 4: Employee pays a discounted rate of child care each week

reduction in employee absences by providing child care.

Source: Child Care Council, 2014

PROVIDE SUPPORT

You choose the discount you want to offer your employee: Membership levels are structured to offer a low-cost, high value benefit

77%

of parents are looking to employers to offset the cost of child care.

Source: KinderCare Education Works

to your employees. Membership dues are annual and are per employee.

TIER 1

TIER 2

TIER 3

CUSTOM

10% DISCOUNT

15% DISCOUNT

25% DISCOUNT

YOU DECIDE

CULTIVATE MANKATO CHILD CARE BUSINESS MEMBERSHIP

Future Closures January 1st | New Year's Day

October 22nd | Teacher Appreciation

April 2nd | Teacher Appreciation

November 25th | Thanksgiving

May 31st |

November 26th | Thanksgiving

Memorial Day

July 2nd | Independence Day

December 24th | Christmas Eve

September 6th | Labor Day

December 31st | New Year's Day 2022

Take Action to Reduce Child Care Costs

Take our National Survey to help us TAKE ACTION to reduce child care costs!

Also, please share this survey with your friends and family.

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www.cultivatemankato.com

Thank You for joining us at the Carnival!

Thank you to all of our family and friends for joining us at our first annual Cultivate Family Carnival!

We had so much fun AND we raised more than $2,125 for the Fritz Family!

View more photos here

CULTIVATE Family Carnival CULTIVATE NEWS | 7

www.cultivatemankato.com

Double Decker Bus!

Mask Reminder

Our team was invited to travel London-style,

A little over a month ago, Candice wrote a

in a double-decker bus, up to the Infant

message to each of you saying that we were going

Development Center (coming January 2022).

to "pause" the mask requirement at Cultivate. We

We toured our new space and then hopped

anticipated that we may have to reinstate it based

back on the bus for a ride around Mankato!

on how the Delta Variant was progressing. We have been watching the data and increase in COVID numbers over the last several weeks and, a little over a week ago there was 3,044 reported new cases in a day. Considering the increase, we have made the decision to go back to temporarily requiring masks inside Cultivate Mankato. All staff and parents (even if fully vaccinated) will be asked to wear masks. We will continue to watch trends and pull in experts to help us understand the best course of action moving forward and, like many of you, we certainly hope this is temporary. We realize that we cannot please everyone, but please know that we are doing the best we can with the information we have and we would rather error on the side of caution. Effective Monday, 8/23 masks will be required inside Cultivate Mankato. Masks will no longer be provided inside the doors.

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www.cultivatemankato.com

Giving Back to Our Community THIS MONTH'S ORGANIZATION

Upcoming Study Within our education curriculum, we use studies to guide our lesson planning. Studies are a broad concept that we focus on for 4-6 weeks.

Currently our study has been about diversity. This month we will begin our

Community Study. If you

feel your family has something special to share in regards to our upcoming study, we would love family participation. Reach out!

For our Giving Back to the Community event in September our leadership team will be participating in She Nailed It organized by Habitat for Humanity.

Our leadership team will volunteer for a day to help raise a roof, raise some money for Habitat, and help other women raise their families in safe and affordable homes.

Last year, more than 50 female volunteers— who were supported by 22 sponsors and 12 businesses who provided lunch—sawed, nailed, constructed walls, and installed flooring at two houses in Nicollet and St. Peter. The progress they made on the houses was simply amazing!

From September 13th through October 1st, you can host a team of five women to work on one of their construction sites for a fivehour shift (9 am to 2 pm). Help them "hammer it home!"

No experience is needed.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SPONSORING A DAY DURING SHE NAILED IT!, REACH OUT TO DAWN BARRETT AT DAWN.BARRETT@HABITATSCMN.ORG OR CALL 507-388-2081 EXT 202.

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Some pictures from our Art Study the last few weeks. www.cultivatemankato.com

Scholastic Book Orders Through the Scholastic Book Club, you have the choice to place an order each month.

Your orders will allow us to earn free books for our Cultivate library and will be used throughout all of our classrooms. Books will be delivered to Cultivate and sent home with your child. Orders will be due on the 2nd Friday of each month.

Use the link below to order.

Order will be due on Friday, Sept 10.

Any questions about ordering can be emailed to Ms. Tera at

tera.vankeulen@cultivatemankato.com

Link to order: https://orders.scholastic.com/R76H7

We Are Hiring We are always looking for top performers to join our team!

Employment Package includes: health, dental & vision insurance, child care benefits, retirement plan, professional development stipend and other employment perks.

Please share this information to help us find an outstanding, caring and qualified individual to join our team!

Open Positions: Assistants

Class Code: R76H7

Mon-Fri 1:30-6:30pm or 10:30-6:30pm www.cultivatemankato.com/employment

Toddler Sizes Now Available: Order Today!

SAVE $5

when you purchase

Adult & Toddler Matching Shirts

ORDER HERE CULTIVATE NEWS | 10

www.cultivatemankato.com

CELEBRATING two YEARS WORK ANNIVERSARY Becky Fichter, Kitchen & Food Coordinator Marsha Murphy, Kitchen & Food Support

CULTIVATE NEWS | 11

Sept 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

CULTIVATE NEWS | 12

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

CULTIVATE NEWS | 13

To place an order: Visit our Cultivate Mankato shop!

Questions? Email us at info@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:

CULTIVATE NEWS | 9

www.cultivatemankato.com/community-room

www.cultivatemankato.com

Parent Resource Fostering your Child’s Intrinsic Motivation to Clean Up After Themselves…. And How to Survive Until Then Written by Jessica Milburn https://responsiveparentingblog.com/2018/11/18/fost ering-your-childs-intrinsic-motivation-to-clean-upafter-themselves-and-how-to-survive-until-then/

In the gentle parenting community, we gave up on behavioral techniques a long time ago. Regardless, so many parents seem to be struggling to find a gentle way to encourage their children to WANT to clean up their toys. Many end up choosing the exasperated option of donating or throwing out a lot of the toys. I get this, but I am not sure how it is any different from the behavioral technique of taking away toys as a consequence for not cleaning them up. I am pretty sure to the child, it feels like a punishment, especially if the narrative during the time of picking up the toys is along the lines of “we have to throw all these toys out because you won’t help me tidy up!” Now I do not

It seems a popular topic of discussion lately is how

say this from some high horse. In moments of

to motivate our children to clean up after

extreme frustration, I, myself have muttered similar

themselves. Many people use behavioural

phrases.

techniques such as sticker charts, rewards, taking away toys that are not cleaned up or other privileges. For some children, these external reinforcements are highly motivating, many children find them motivating, but lack impulse control and focus, so they are unable to stay on

(I will admit, I often catch myself saying something in a less than gentle way. I recognize it, change my tone, rephrase and move on. If what I said requires an apology, I will offer a sincere apology and spend time reconnecting before trying to continue whatever task is overwhelming me at the time).

task (delayed gratification) and some children do not care at all about your sticker chart (this is my

But ask yourself, would you donate the toys of a

eldest spirited child). These techniques, although

nine-year-old or a twelve-year-old? What do you

popular because they sometimes yield immediate

think would happen if you went into your twelve-

results, actually create extrinsic motivation. You

year-old’s room and told them you were donating

might say “I don’t care, I just want them to clean

their Xbox because they never turn it off? Your

their room.” But you will care when they are no

twelve-year-old would likely be very angry,

longer motivated by whatever reward you have

frustrated, feel out-of-control, confused, hurt, feel

been offering. See we think if we can convince

their trust had been broken. You say, “yeah but

our children to clean their rooms by rewarding them, they will develop habits of cleanliness and eventually not need a reward for the task. This is actually not true; extrinsic motivation, not only distracts from intrinsic motivation, it has been

that’s an Xbox, we’re talking about items that cost a couple dollars.” Three-year-old’s have no concept of money. For them, everything is an Xbox.

My five-year-old saw me putting puzzles in a pile for VarageSale. They were not even his puzzles, but

shown to hinder it. *this is something that

of course, he thought they were. I casually

behaviourists do not agree with. Most of their

explained what I was doing. He panicked! My

strategies are based on extrinsic motivation so

usually not materialistic and generous child

they spend a lot of time trying to debunk the

became obsessively protective of all the toys in the

theory. I believe for this reason, you will find a lot

basement. Now every time I go downstairs with toys

of contrasting research on this subject.

he becomes concerned that I’m selling them. He’ll

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yell “no, mom you can’t sell my toys in the garage

have to go to work in pants that smell like chicken

sale!” Although I was not enacting some sort of

grease because they forgot to do their laundry

punishment at that time, I realized, in that moment,

and now they’re scared to stand by that boy that

how cruel it had been for me to threaten to take

they like at work because they stink. Intrinsic

toys away in the past, how painful that actually

motivation is not something you can teach but it is

was for him. He never became better at cleaning,

something you can encourage by allowing your

but I did break his trust and I have still not earned it

child to develop their own desire to clean and

back. This was probably a year ago. When we

modeling grace.

know better, we do better, right?

So, what do I do instead?

Try to focus on intrinsic motivation. There are many factors that go into intrinsic motivation. Probably the biggest part of intrinsic motivation, that we miss as parents, is when it actually begins. Until children develop theory of mind, they can only be intrinsically motivated by joy. Theory of mind develops throughout early childhood but does not become a concrete concept until after age five, for most children. So, if something is fun, they may want to do it. Now I can hear the parents counting down the days until their child turns five, unfortunately it doesn’t work like that. As they get older, they can develop a desire to live in a clean space but let’s be honest, this doesn’t usually become a personal priority until at least your 20’s, unless you are naturally a very organized and clean person. Usually these people fight their own battles, they aren’t just living in a blissful clean universe, they are constantly working to maintain order, often at the sacrifice of other, more important and beneficial things. Highly intelligent people are usually messy because they just find cleaning boring and they just aren’t willing to waste too much of their time on it.

If children were faced with a lot of external pressure to clean (even gentle) it can make it next to impossible to create intrinsic motivation to

I also find children who have trouble focusing often make very large messes and really struggle to clean them up. I think this is cause for a lot of family challenges around cleaning; so many children struggle to focus. My son has the kindest, biggest heart and I know that if he really understood how helpful it would be to clean up his toys, he probably would do it, but he is five years-old and cannot put all that together, nor do I want him to. I don’t want him to clean his room for me (ok well sometimes I do, but deep down I don’t). Luckily for me, I have a background in Early Childhood Education, where we have spent countless hours discussing and researching how to foster and expand play while still maintaining some level of order. In child care, it is a safety hazard if there are toys everywhere, so you need to keep pathways clear and clean up before most transitions. Also, many educators struggle with a lack of order. We view this issue as the educator’s challenge, not the child’s. From this perspective, we face the challenge of the natural messiness of play.

What do we do?

Minimize Organize Rotate Offer variety, not quantity

clean, while under your roof. Cleaning is now seen

Provide project space

as something they do to please their parent

Have reasonable expectations

(extrinsic motivation). Intrinsic motivation starts when they go to heat up leftovers in their dorm and notice they have no clean dishes or when they

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