villa voice 02.17.16...feb 17, 2016 · attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding...
TRANSCRIPT
Villa Montessori, Villa Voice Pg. 1
Letter from
Head of School,
Margo O’Neill
Dear Parents,
Many of us have embraced the culture of doing.
We keep our children busy with academics, ath-
letics, and various after-school and community
activities, all valuable pursuits. Yet, in our tech-
nology-driven culture, downtime has shifted to
become gadget time. Our children seem to be
relaxing in front of their gadgets; however, neu-
roscientists demonstrate that the constant buzz-
ing and beeping of games and instant messages
causes a chronic stress response in the brain and
body. Beyond the damaging effects on cognitive
development, this busyness leaves no time for
what I would call, “calm time”.
This issue came up at a recent meeting I had with
some of our elementary teachers concerned
about an increasing lack of focus and concentra-
tion that they are seeing in some of their stu-
dents. They voiced their wish that children had
more unscheduled down- time: time to play in
the backyard, work a puzzle, play a board game,
practice some of the mindfulness activities they
do at school in the classroom.
Practicing mindfulness, in particular, is a great
way to help children learn to become more re-
sponsive and less reactive, leading to better deci-
sion-making and less conflict. Ask your child to
show you some of the things they do at school.
Practice them together. It will bring more a sense
of peace to both your lives.
Margo S. O’Neill
Head of School
Villa Voice February 17, 2016
Villa Makes Plans for
Pink Shirt Day
February 24th
is an Anti-Bullying Awareness
Day at Villa Montessori School! You may re-
member last year’s event as our first year par-
ticipating—and we are excited to keep it as an
ongoing Villa tradition.
February 24, 2016 is one of several internation-
ally celebrated anti-bullying days. Called “Pink
Shirt Day”, students in grades 1-8 are asked to
wear pink to show that we, as a community,
will not tolerate bullying. The idea for this
event came from two high school students who
decided to take a stand after witnessing the
bullying of a fellow student by encouraging
their classmates to wear pink the following day
in support of that student.
Throughout the month of February we will be
gearing up for this day with anti-bullying activi-
ties and lessons. We will be encouraging our
students to give back to the community and to
know that each of them can make a difference.
Also, this year we will be reaching out our ef-
forts to the Primary students as well.
So, please wear pink on February 24, 2016 in
honor of anti-bullying awareness!
For more information about bullying, you can
visit the government Web site StopBully-
ing.Gov for helpful advice.
http://www.stopbullying.gov
And remember...
HEY! Be nice!
Villa Tax Credit 2016
Villa Montessori, Villa Voice Pg. 2
Primary:
Many jackets and items of clothing
from the Primary campus have re-
cently made their way to a huge pile
in the Early Childhood Office. While
we understand it is more difficult
with younger students to keep track
of their belongings — there are some
ways we can work together to help
this common issue.
If you have a child in a Primary class-
room — we strongly suggest that you
write your child’s full name on their
clothing — so that we can always do
our part to return it to you if it is lost.
Also, please stop by the office on a
regular basis to check for any lost
clothing — we are happy to help you
locate missing items!
Elementary:
On the Elementary campus, ALL
items are donated on the last Friday
of each month. If you have a child on
the Elementary campus, please
check our Elementary lost and found
pile (which can be found outside of
the Circle Room at the Davis Cam-
pus).
For February, the last day to check
the lost and found will be: February
29th.
Thank you for your cooperation!
LOST AND FOUND
Villa Tax Credit Contributors have until they file
their AZ State Taxes or April 15th
to contribute
to our Tax Credit Campaign. We need your
help to raise more in these dollars to support
Villa Extra Programs. You can donate on our
Website today!
www.villamontessori.com
Remember– it’s a Dollar For Dollar Credit to-
wards your 2015 Arizona State Taxes! No
money comes out of pocket.
Thank you for making the Villa Montessori
Campaign a success for our children!
What is the definition of Bullying?
bul·ly
1
ˈboo͝lē/ noun
Verb—gerund or present participle: bullying
Definition of Bullying on StopBullying.Gov—
Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior
among school aged children that involves a
real or perceived power imbalance. The be-
havior is repeated, or has the potential to be
repeated, over time. Bullying includes actions
such as making threats, spreading rumors,
attacking someone physically or verbally, and
excluding someone from a group on purpose.
Thank you again to all who participated and donated to the Villa Fun Run! What a great event
for kids and family alike…we hope to make this an annual event for our community!
To hear more about the PTO as we head into our 2nd school
year, please join us next week for a general meeting. A little
business. but mostly fun visiting with our parent and staff
community! We will talk about the future of the PTO and
ways we can all help Villa achieve its goals to educate our
children. Hope to see you all there!
Click here for more details and to RSVP: http://evite.me/6vpW2EkdxE
Lights, Camera, Appreciation
The PTO is planning a Milestone Luncheon for the teachers and staff who are celebrating mile-
stone anniversaries at Villa: 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, and 25+ years (Below is the
list of people who we will be celebrating at the lunch.) We need your help to make it great!!
We have chosen an Oscar theme, and the lunch will be held on February 29th (the day after
the 'real' Oscars). The PTO Teacher Appreciation Committee plans to make this an annual tra-
dition/event at Villa. If you can contribute to the luncheon, please volunteer using the sign-up
genius page—linked here: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b0d49ada629a13-lights
There are many slots left!
35 Years: Mary Orlando 30 Years: Patty Langhurst 25+ Years: Marilyn Burbach, Jen Bailey 25
Years: Margo O'Neill 20 years: Sherra Sieben, Megan McGovern, Manuel Chimal
(Maintenance), 15 years: Maria Orlando, June Kraynik, Monica Bush, Sue Watson 10 years:
Patsy Taylor, Shawn Quinley, Karen Fisher, Brian Whitacre, Debbie Stucker 5 years: Stefanie
Lehmann
While there are many more wonderful teachers and staff who have been here for decades—
this Milestone Lunch will be the first event of many to start capturing these earned achieve-
ments. We look forward to making this a memorable event for all!
Have a great week! Hope to see you all next week!
www.vmpto.org
PTO Update
Villa Montessori, Villa Voice Pg. 3
Dates to Remember
February 19 Middle School (Oak Campus)
Land Lab #3 ENDS
February 24 Pink Shirt Day —
Support Anti-Bullying Awareness by wearing PINK!
February 25
Mandatory Heroic Journey Meeting, for current Middle School parents
6:30 PM—Oak Campus
February 25 PTO General Meeting 6PM at Sun Up Brewery (no children, please)
March 1-4
Middle School (Weldon Campus)Land Lab #3
March 4
Summer School Forms Become available to Current Villa parents
March 7
First Day of Spring Break Infants-Toddlers CLOSED— K-6 All Day Contracts ONLY
March 8-11 Spring Break
K-6 All Day Contracts ONLY
March 28 Summer School Forms
Become available to the public
Villa Montessori, Villa Voice Pg. 4
Please note that while
we do allow for All Day
Contracts to attend
school during Spring
Break, on the first day
of break, Monday 3/7,
the Infant and Toddler
classrooms will be closed. Students in Primary-E2 will be
the only All Day Contracts permitted to be in school on
that day. The Infant and Toddler program will re-open for
the rest of the week to it’s All-Day Contract students on
Conscious and Connected Parenting
Registration begins for the next course in March
Four weeks Course
$197 per person
Email [email protected] with your interest
It is a long day of work. There is no food in the house. You pick the kids up from circle and you
know they are wired, tired and hungry. You don’t want to, but you have to stop at the grocery
store for something to eat. Two aisles in and your six year old does not get what he wants and he
hits his older brother. The older brother begins to cry. You only want to get through the check out
and get home, so you hurry them along, offer a cracker, hoping it is not going to get worse. But
no, especially when you are in a hurry, your oldest son, is surely going to let all of his stress out
from the day and either melt on the floor or attack his little brother! What is a parent to do?
Empathy is the skill to handle all of the triggers and the tantrums!
When your kids are upset they are experiencing very strong emotions. We all have very strong
emotions and unless we model and teach to our children how to handle them with intelligence,
we just keep repeating the same patterns from the past. So many of us have been taught to ig-
nore, deny, bury strong emotions, but they are our guide and our catalyst and we must model to
our children how to handle them.
“Keep breathing, I am safe, I can handle this.” Repeat this to yourself and then say it out loud to
your child. “Keep breathing, you are safe, you can handle this.”
Then say what you see:
“Your teeth are clenched and your eyes are smooshed up, you seem frustrated.”
“Your arms are going like this and your feet are doing this, you seem real angry.”
“Your head is down, and your hands are covering your eyes, you seem sad.”
By describing exactly what you see your child’s body doing offers your child self awareness. Self
awareness is developing their frontal lobes and they will feel seen and heard. There is no need to
happy-up your child. Let them be with their strong emotions, while you stay calm, composed, and
conscious to what is happening in the moment.
You can handle it and your child can handle it. This too shall pass, there is no need to fix it, ignore
it, or deny it. It is what it is. And later in life when they are dealing with a major disappointment, a
broken heart, or the death of a friend, they will remember that they can handle it.
Micheline Green
School Counselor
Integral Master Coach
Villa Montessori, Villa Voice Pg. 5
Mad Men Fixed-Bid Event Hosted in Style
Last month, Tommy and Shan-
non Smith and Matt and Karin
Burbach hosted the annual
fixed bid 2015 auction event at
their home recently. The auc-
tion raised about $3000 —just
through ticket sales for this
event last year! The "Mad
Men" theme was a big hit - the
outfits were awesome and fun
was had by all!
Thank you to all who attended
the dinner (1960s style with
meatloaf, mashed potatoes
and deviled eggs) to support
Villa. What a fun night!
Villa Montessori, Villa Voice Pg. 6
Support our Villa Community
In keeping with the community spirit of the “Villa Family,” we would like to help support those Villa
families that own or operate businesses. If you own or operate a business and would like your business
listed, AND have a child at Villa, please contact Barbi Smith at [email protected].
We will list the name of the business, phone number, Web site, and your name.
Villa Montessori, Villa Voice Pg. 7
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Advertising in the Villa Voice is available to Villa parents as a way to support our community and celebrate each
other’s successes. If you are interested in placing an Ad, the cost is $25 per newsletter, or $50 a month for a half-
page spread, with two newsletters being published each month. We email this newsletter to all parents and also
post it to our Web site www.villamontessori.com. To begin the process, please contact Barbi Smith at
Disclaimer:
All information contained in any classified Ad is the sole responsibility of the individual advertiser. Villa Mon-
tessori is not responsible for the accuracy or reliability of said information. Villa reserves the right to review
each Ad submitted, and to reject or discontinue, revise, and/or reclassify any Ad at any time for any reason.
Individual advertiser is responsible for all proofreading and verifying of all information of the Ad.
It takes a VILLAge!
Business Name Business Phone Business Web site Parent Name
Angie Sams, Personal Chef 602-430-2885 angiesams.com Angie Sams-Isham
Home Smart Elite—Residential Specialist 480-201-7466 uniquephoenixhomes.com Danielle O’Connell
Rodan and Fields Skincare, Consultant 602-549-0711 mscolville.myrandf.com Melanie S. Colville
Bartholomew Graphics 602-434-5341 Bartholomewgraphics.com Lisa Bartholomew
On The Spot Waxing 602-525-3234 waxingaroundtown.com Cody Davenport
Bikram Yoga AZ 602-HOT-YOGA bikramyogaaz.com Todd Deacon
Villa Montessori, Villa Voice Pg. 8
COST IS ONLY $25 PER AD! HALF-PAGE AD’S DUE ONE WEEK PRIOR TO PUBLISHIING!
Villa Montessori, Villa Voice Pg. 9
My name is Mark V. Haley D.D.S. I am a Villa Montessori Dad and a general dentist at the 27th
Ave. and
Bethany Home Rd. branch of Desert Dentistry. Desert Dentistry is a family owned group of five
offices around the valley and in Payson. I have been in practice for over twenty five years. I am very
proud of our office and wonderful staff.
I would like to personally invite you and your family to tour our facility and meet the staff. My philosophy
in Dentistry has always been to offer treatment options that achieve the best outcomes for our patients’
individual circumstances. We also have incentive programs for referrals! We look forward to helping you
and your family with your continued Dental Health!
Mark V. Haley D.D.S.
6226 N. 27th Ave. #C
Phoenix, AZ 85017
Office: 602-242-0060
Villa Montessori, Villa Voice Pg. 10
Because vision development occurs from birth to age 6, it is now extremely im-portant for children to have their initial eye exams at age six months or ½
years old by a qualified optometrist (www.infantsee.org).
Understanding that this is not common knowledge for most parents, Healthy Eye Care is proud to offer the first initial eye exams in our state of the art facility for any child under 1 years old as a complementary public service, and any child
ages 1-6 for $50 (dilation included, normally $150).
If you know that your child is overdue for this initial health evaluation by an optometrist please call us at 480-887-8778.
*Please Understand: if your child can see, this does not mean they are not
straining to do so. This can only be determined by a qualified Optometrist.
www.myfiteyes.com
First Time Customers Receive $10 off Initial Order!