Banbury's News – Oct/Nov 2020
 

Table of Contents

  • Hallowe'en and Pie-Throwing at Banbury!
  • Morning reminder - don't be late!
  • Student exhibitions on Monday & Tuesday, Nov.16 &17 (no school!)
  • Meet our Principal Karen
  • Grade 2-6: Latest LA project
  • Our Christmas Chocolate Fundraiser – Deadline Nov 24!
  • Meet our teacher Alanna
  • Senior Art Class: Local architecture explored
  • Mustard Seed Food/Cash Drive - Deadline Nov 18!
  • Tara's Bazaar Sale (starts Nov 25, all proceeds go towards graduation)
  • Parent's Corner - New question answered!

Hallowe'en at Banbury!
~ nothing beats a day of fun at school!
 
The school would like to send out a big thank you
for everyone who participated in our Pie Throwing Charity event. Due to your amazing generosity and kindness, we were able to raise $300 –all of which has been donated to the veteran's "Legacy Project". A big thank you goes to Grace and Alanna for volunteering to be pied! 
Karen Harrison


My name is Karen Harrison
and I am the Principal here at Banbury as well as the Language Arts teacher for grades 2-6. This is my 29th year of teaching (minus two years for maternity leave), and all of them at Banbury. I have two sons. One who is 18, attends the University of Calgary and is a player for the Dino football team. The other is 15, attends Crescent Heights High School and, is also a football player.

I was born and grew up here in Calgary. I earned degrees in Physical Education (now kinesiology) and Education from the University of Calgary. I was also a Dino athlete, playing volleyball for 2 of those years.

I currently live in a century home (built in 1912) in the community of Crescent Heights. And although I no longer play volleyball I am still pretty active. I also enjoy reading, watching NFL with my kids, and enjoying great wine with life-long friends. I guess you could say I have deep routes here.  

My reasons for remaining at Banbury this long are many. That saying, “everything happens for a reason,” definitely applies. Diane is my mentor, and at times, my counsellor. I feel strongly about being in, and maintaining, a community of professionals that work together to make decisions and support one another.  I continue to learn from my amazing colleagues and our even more amazing students.
 


The Story of our Lives - Gr. 2-6

~ Knowing and being able to tell YOUR story is an important
way of learning in Indigenous cultures. Students researched their own stories 
and told them in the form of a timeline.

 

Christmas Chocolate Fundraiser
~ Please help us pay off our kitchen
Here is a letter from our very helpful Parent Advisory Committee member Patty Auger:

"I know Halloween just passed us and who wants to think about Christmas... but chocolates are a great Christmas gift for the hard-to-buy person (or just because you love chocolate!). Our kids’ school is doing a Purdy’s chocolate fundraiser again this year!  If anyone is interested, orders are due by November 24th and will be delivered December 2nd to Banbury (and then to you).
 

The link to order is: https://fundraising.purdys.com/1045939-78587 
 
Or if you’d just like to submit an order form to me or to Banbury (I/we can add it online) and you pay us directly, that works too. 
 
Thanks in advance for your support."

 
Patty & Team Banbury
+++ Please help us to raise money by inviting your friends and family! +++
Here is a step-by-step guide:
Alanna Nagy


Hello all!  –  For those who are new, I am Alanna. I am entering my sixth-year teaching here at Banbury. I have taught all grades, but now I stick to the secondary side teaching Jr. High Social Studies and Language Arts, Sr. High Social Studies, and CALM. I went to school at the University of Calgary and received a Bachelor of Arts in World History, then moved to Thunder Bay, Ontario, and completed my Bachelor of Education in 2014. 

I grew up just outside Calgary with my two older siblings. Since my parents had very strict technology rules, I spent all my time outside playing sports. I grew up with a real love of most sports and being outside, something that I still do today. By far my favourite sport is soccer and I grew up playing it at a high level. As a result, I was able to travel to various competitions around North America and the United Kingdom.  From that grew of love of traveling and learning about various cultures around the world.  Hobbies I enjoy include hiking, camping, off-roading, cooking and hanging out with family including my dog Griff and cat Arya. I really enjoy bringing my knowledge, experience, and perspectives to Banbury and the students.  
 


Mustard Seed Food/Cash Drive
~ Please help homeless Calgarians

Dear Banbury Families, 

In the upcoming days you may hear students asking for cash and/or food donations for The Mustard Seed. Our goal is to collect non-perishable foods that can be used to make bagged lunches. 

Cash donations will be used during an elementary field trip to the nearby Safeway on November 18th. Please enclose any cash donations in an envelope and have your child drop it off to Sam in Karen's room. 

Attached is a list of the non-perishable food items we will be collecting until November 18th. Students can bring them in any day before the deadline and leave them in the designated space in the locker room.

Thank you, 

Sam 


The Banbury Fall Bazar is Back!

Looking for unique, handmade Christmas gifts?
Want a one-of-a-kind treasure all for yourself?

Check out the Banbury Fall Handicraft Bazar - online this year
- starting on November 25th.

Be on the lookout here: https://taraefry.wixsite.com/banburyfallbazar 
- being currently updated every day!

All proceeds go towards the graduation celebration.
 

 "Parents Corner"
~ or how to raise a responsible child

Dear Diane, 

"Should household chores be rewarded with money?"

Diane's Answer:
There is no “one-size-fits-all” solution here. As with many issues, there will be different perspectives, depending upon the life experience, values, and attitudes of the parents, as well as their financial situation. This answer reflects mine. There are several parts to this question. The underlying question is, “Should children be made to do chores?” Another one is, “Should children be paid for doing chores?” A third question is, “Are rewards helpful in accomplishing chores?” A fourth question might be, “Should children be given money of their own, and if so, should that be only if they do something to ‘earn’ it?” 

To answer the first one first, if chores are those cleaning tasks involved in everyday living, and are seen as a contribution to that community, then it is reasonable to expect that help, simply as a matter of course. Each person in the group could be expected to help out the group in their own individual way. Children should have some choice in the chores they do; this will give them a sense of ownership. Every family is different in the way they allot the tasks that need to be done on a daily basis, and they differ in terms of timing, standards, frequency, and so on. Each family has to work that out, and in one way or another, they do. Where children are involved, the first thing to consider is that any chore needs to be appropriate to the developmental stage the child is at.  A child of 8 should not be held responsible for, say, doing his entire laundry from start to finish, because he is probably not organized enough to remember the timing of the steps. I know a case where a child was expected to do this at this age, and several times he went to school in the midst of winter with wet clothes on. This was not the worst consequence: he learned to hate being made to do chores. As a teenager, he felt resentment about his early experience, and out of a sense of resistance, he still neglected fundamental chores. What we are trying to do is to demonstrate to children the work that goes into maintaining our living space, to help them gain skill in doing so, and to establish comfortable expectations about participating in that communal activity. We want them to want to help the other members of their family. Appreciation for work done should always be given, both as a reflection of feeling authentic gratitude, and as a role model for humbly expressing gratitude. 

Seen in this light, being paid for it would only make sense if every person in the group got paid for doing chores. This is not usually the way chores go. This leads us to the third issue, whether being paid is a bribe worth giving. My personal belief is NO. Giving a child a bribe simply teaches her that she needs a bribe to do it, and that the activity itself has less inherent value than the bribe. This is contrary to our goal of encouraging them to create a living space that is clean, healthy, and aesthetically pleasing. This is a supremely important goal—no bribe has a value worth more than that. Also, rewards are manipulative, and this pollutes the relationship between parent and child. The parent ought to be able to simply and openly explain the reasoning behind doing chores. There are good reasons for it. No manipulation is worth creating the sense of coercion that lurks behind it. This is particularly true if parents accompany the giving of money for chores with the taking away of money as punishment for misbehaviour. That is a distasteful and distrust-inducing experience for children. It is always wise of parents to not risk distancing their children through a bald show of power.

To the fourth question, I would answer YES to the part about giving children access to their own money. In the service of teaching children the value of money, the experience of having some of their own is a definite help. This is behind the idea of an “allowance”. Living within an allowance is a useful idea, unless that allowance is so small that the only items that they can afford to purchase with it is candy or trinkets that break on the way out of the store. This is the biggest problem—the small size of these payments. It is not necessary for their money to be earned. Sometimes, parents can put away birthday money or other gifts, explaining to the child that they are saving it for some future goal that the child agrees to. That is their money, and they can plan and dream about the spending of it. 

Children can also be encouraged to be entrepreneurial—to set up a lemonade stand, or give the parents a performance of skits, or mow the neighbor’s lawn, or shovel their sidewalk, or weed your garden (any task they would agree to that is beyond the normal run of chores).The truth is that big items, like clothing or games or sports equipment or musical instruments, will be purchased by the parents anyway, because parents have that parental duty, and they want to support a positive and stimulating life experience for their children. They need to concertedly cultivate their children’s talents and interests, and this often costs money that they simply have to spend. Along with these purchases, they are wise to give appropriate explanations about affordability, timing, need, and so on. Again, children’s opinions need to be respected regarding these financial choices. 

It is helpful if parents, or communities, or schools, gave children instruction on financial management. Schools do this formally in grade 11, within the CALM course. Other resources can be accessed in all of these spheres for this purpose, and it is a good idea.

~ Synopsis ~
Diane’s step-by-step reasoning:

  1. Families will differ on this issue, because it is a values question.
  2. Regarding whether children should participate in household chores, the answer usually is yes.
    1. The chores need to be developmentally appropriate.
    2. The chores should give opportunity for choice.
    3. The purpose to keep in mind is showing respect for maintenance of one’s living space, and respect for other household members.
    4. Parents need to explain the real reasons for doing chores.
    5. Appreciation is a gift worth giving.
  3. Payment for chores is not the point.
  4. Payment is a reward, and both rewards and punishment are not worth it, because these mechanisms between parent and child are: 
    1. manipulative, 
    2. power-laden, and 
    3. distancing 
  5. Yes, children need experience with money in order to value it, not waste it, and spend it wisely.
  6. Allowances are one way of giving money to children, but there are problems to keep in mind:
    1. The amount is often so small that what they can purchase is useless or even harmful.
    2. Parents can be tempted to give with one hand, and take away with another—the allowance becomes a bribe, with a threat attached whereby the parent coerces good behaviour along with the reward. This makes the whole process distasteful to children.
  7. Children can be urged to save money given to them as gifts.
  8. It is useful to help children figure out entrepreneurial ways of making money within their grasp, and assist them if they need it.
  9. Parents have responsibilities to fund their children’s clothing, sports, music, art, dance, or other activities that develop their interests and abilities. They have to accept this, within their means. They can explain the reasons why they choose what they choose, and when. Again, choice needs to be given to children regarding these expenditures, for buy-in.
  10. The community, as a whole, needs to take responsibility for teaching children money management. They need it.
Judy Arnall (a certified P.E.T. instructor) has been offering
"Parent Effectiveness Training" courses for about 17 years at Banbury.
Please contact us if you are interested in taking her upcoming Zoom course.
The course will consist of 4 sessions held always on Thursday
s in January 2021
(
7th, 14th, 21st and 28th) at 6:30pm - 8pm. Cost: $120
Please call (403) 270-7787 or email us at [email protected].

 

Judy Arnall is Canada's leading expert on child development and non-punitive parenting/education practices. She is a regular parenting expert on CTV's Alberta Prime Time, Global TV, and City BT-TV.
www.professionalparenting.ca
 

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