November 10th, 2015 Issue 33

Website: www.hvps.vic.edu.au

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

11/11 Arts Performance: Ray-

mond J Bartholomeuz

11/11 School Council

12/11 Prep Sleepover

18/11 Prep Info Session 7pm

The P.I.P. Parent Information Paper

Transition—Today was the second session of our 2016 transition program and it was great to have all our Preps turn up. We also have all their enrol-ment forms so this is a record for our school to have everyone enrolled so early. We look forward to seeing the Preps again in a couple of weeks. Prep Information Night—This is scheduled for next Wednesday 18th No-vember at 7pm in the Prep/1 room and we look forward to seeing our 2016 Prep families at this night. The purpose of this is to assist parents to have a smooth start to school and also some information about our programs and school expectations. Arts Performance—We have an Arts Council performance in the morning at 9.30. It is Raymond J Bartholomeuz. Parents are welcome to join us for the show. If you have not paid for this, please send the money in the morn-ing. Book Fair—This is coming up next week and again it will be a short one, so look out for the information about the exact days. It’s a great opportunity to buy Christmas presents at a reasonable price. Please support this as it gives us the opportunity to build the book stock in our library as well. Responsible Pet Ownership—On Friday, the children in Prep, 1,2 will have the opportunity to do the Responsible Pet Ownership program. This teaches them about the right way to look after their pets and also how to ap-proach a dog to make themselves known to it. This program is an annual activity in the Junior School. Curriculum Day The staff had a very successful Curriculum Day last week and they spent the time familiarising themselves with the new Victorian Cur-riculum and learning about the government initiatives associated with the Education State. Nutrition Program—Our Nutrition Program has now finished and was a very successful event, with the children being provided with lunch and breakfast for five days. Thank you also to the families who joined us for our dinner last Thursday night, it was a lovely way to finish up the program. The students across the school have certainly learnt lots and improved their knowledge of good nutrition.

Fish Tip As part of our Nutrition program, we learnt the importance of regular serves of

fish in our diet. Unfortunately fish and chips from the shop does not count due

to the batter and the fact that it is fried. Why not bake it in the oven! Simple

and quick. Try any or a mixture of these. Some herbs, (eg coriander, thyme,

dill, parsley), some lemon or lime zest, lemon or lime

juice, tomato slices, mushroom slices, onion, spring

onion. Wrap in foil and it cooks in about 15 minutes

on 180 degrees. You need about 150 –175 grams per

person.

Nutrition Dinner Last Week

Lunches & Duty Roster Duty begins at 12:30 and should be done by about 2pm. In most cases food will be pre-prepared,

ready to heat and serve. If there are leftovers please enjoy them or take them home. Andrea 0400 678988 or Veronica 0416 374563

Thanks again to everyone who supports the school lunches program! ********************************************************************************************************************* November Menu Duty 13th Sushi (egg & tuna) & carrot cake Tracey & Naomi 20th Pasta bake and raisin, eat & choc-chip cookies Lauren & Rebecca 27th Mild Chicken Curry & caramel slice Andrea & Jacq

Payment per week is $3/main and $1/Dessert to be paid by 9am each Wednesday.

Bendigo Family & Financial Services offers

No Interest Loan schemes to local families

to cover costs for household items and ex-

penses such as white goods, computers,

medical services, repairs, auto repairs, text

books and more. To find out more about

this service, please phone 5441 5277 or call

in to 8 Myers Street, Bendigo.

BRAIN FOOD—reminder to all families

that brain food is eaten by the children

around 10am while DOING their school

work. This means that brain food needs to

be dry, healthy & bite-sized—NOT sticky or

juicy.

Thank you.

Digital Resources for Parents:

Parents Voice— is an online network of parents who are interested

in improving the food and activity environments of Australian chil-

dren. Formally known as The Parents Jury, The Parents Voice was

formed in 2004 and now represents thousands of Australian fami-

lies. Check out their Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages.

Healthy Active Kids—is designed to help Australian families to

lead a healthy, active life. Browse their collection of reci-

pes, educational games and videos, articles, and other materials to

easily share healthy eating and activity information with kids. Have a

go at making one of the healthy dinner time recipestogether, or may-

be even share the Health eDash game with them.

Eat For Health—Advice about the amount and kinds of foods that

we need to eat for health and wellbeing including this great How to

Understand Food Labels Poster

Mount Alexander Community Children’s Network—MACCN

is a community based network of parents, community members, and

other key stakeholders who are committed to providing support for

children and their families across Mount Alexander Shire. Their site

also includes a listing of activities available or local children.

Please check your child’s uniform—if you find your child has brought home the wrong

one—maybe it is labelled with another child’s name—please return it to the of-

fice ASAP. We have children that have lost labelled clothing!!

This is a timely reminder to EVERYONE to label their children’s uniform items as well

as drink bottles, lunch boxes and anything else they might bring in from home.

Saturday 21st November

The next major fundraiser for the school is our annual Warehouse Shopping

Tour

If you have put your name down to go on this fund-

raising Shopping Tour to Melbourne, please pop in to the office ASAP to

make your payment. With less than 2 weeks to go, it is important that we

get commitments now.

Book today by contacting Lorella on 0422 286 393. Cost is $65 per adult or $32.50 per U/17 student. Bus

departs Stanley Park on Saturday 21st November at 6.30am or pick up at Woodend Kinder at 7.15am.

Do you let your kids amaze you?

By Michael Grose

“I'm amazed at what children CAN do when given the opportunity and encour-agement. I love the pride, confidence and sense of purpose/ pleasure in contributing, each new skill achieved brings. The smiles are awesome too.”

A mother left this comment on our Facebook page recently in response to our post: “What would be the impact if you did less, not more for your children?”

Lovely answer!

It got me thinking that the joy that this mother took from watching her children develop independence was no acci-dent. Her parenting style played a large role in her children’s independence. All power to her and her parenting style!

I’ve long believed that adults are the gatekeepers for children’s independence.

We open the gate to independence when we give children opportunities to develop self-help skills (carry their own schoolbags, get themselves up in the morning, tidy their own rooms); provide them with real responsibility(feeding pets, setting the meal table and preparing meals) and give them autonomy to make some of their own deci-sions (choosing clothes within limits, following own inter-ests, making choices about pocket-money spending).

We close the independence gate when we do too much for children (tidy their toys away, pack their schoolbags, make simple snacks); rescue them from learning opportunities (take forgotten lunches to school, sort out their friendship problems, pay their library fines) and neglect to build scaf-folds to independence (such as help them make their bed, walk half way to school, teach them to ride public transport).

It’s a quirk of parenting that many children think they are older than they are, and parents think their children are younger than they are. We underestimate children’s abilities to the detriment of their development.

Are you an opener or closer of the gate to children’s independence?

Think of independence as a continuum with opening the gate and closing the gate at either end. If your parenting is more at the closing end then look for ways to move down the con-tinuum towards independence building. My advice is to make small adaptations to your parenting. For instance, start with a child making their own snacks before moving to helping you to prepare a meal. But first you need to develop a mind-set for independence building. That means, be on the lookout for opportunities for children to do things for themselves.

As many readers will know I firmly believe that the job of parents is to make ourselves redundant from the earliest possible age of a child’s life. That means, that our interac-tions with kids have an endgame in mind – we want our kids to be able to stand on their own two feet physically (Don’t we get a kick out of them walking for the first time!), emo-tionally (with support, of course) and to navigate their world without being reliant on others.

There is no better feeling as a parent than watching your child beam with joy and pride when they’ve mastered a new skill, overcome a challenge or conquered a fear. It’s those times that make parenting so worthwhile. Those awesome smiles won’t happen by accident. They require a parenting style that gives kids a chance to be independent; that encour-ages them to be brave and offers them the safety net of emo-tional support when life throws them curve balls. Why not try it? Give your kids a chance to amaze you.

www.parentingideas.com.au

School Banking Details for EFT

Payments.

Bank: Commonwealth Bank

BSB: 063509

Account: 10042656

Use your family name as the pay-

ment reference

Harcourt Valley Primary

School Wilkinson Street

HARCOURT VIC 3453

Phone: 03.54742266

Fax: 03.54742706

E-mail:

harcourt.valley.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au

FOR SALE

Polish Chickens (pom-pom heads)

Laying, great pets—all hens $25 each

Please phone Carla 0410 927 513

Al’s Tomato Plants 4 Sale

5 different varieties to choose from

$3 each

Speak to Al Brasher at school or phone

Andrea on 0400 678988

Monster Garage Sale

25 Binghams Rd Harcourt

this Saturday Nov 14th

8am to 12 midday

Household goods/ kids toys/Building materials/Irrigation

equipment

Castlemaine Rocky Riders Dirt Crits Mountain Biking Series

The popular Dirt Crits mountain biking series has returned for season

2015/16 on Thursday evenings. This year the Crits have been reformatted

to provide a separate category (and an earlier start time) for junior riders

(12 years of age and under), and we encourage any young riders with a

suitable bike, a helmet and a sense of adventure to participate. The junior

circuit is a 1 km loop that can be safely navigated by riders of all abilities.

Registrations open at 5:30pm each Thursday with racing kicking off at

5:45pm and finishing by 6:15pm. Note that junior riders can opt-in to

compete in the seniors event (from 6:45pm to 7:30pm) if preferred. The

season continues each Thursday evening through until 3 December and

then resumes at the end of January.

For 2015/16 we have moved the location of the Dirt Crits to the Baco trails,

just off Daws Road, Castlemaine in the Walmer State Forest (behind the

Bacon Factory). Entry to the event is from Daws Road and will be sign-

posted on the evening. Information and maps are available on Facebook

and at www.rockyriders.com

For any enquiries regarding Dirt Crits please contact Mat Shears on 0431

882 510.