Five Tips to Improve Family Wellness -by Melissa Neeley, Kaplan University Adjunct Instructor, Human Services Department

What is Wellness? 

Our society has become very concerned with the idea of wellness. A simple search on the Internet yields a plethora of websites dedicated to improving our wellness (including one for our pets!). But what is wellness? Dr. Bill Hettler, of the National Wellness Institute, defined six components to wellness: physical, intellectual, occupational, social, emotional, and spiritual. These six dimensions are areas in which we can exert some control over our lives by modifying our behaviors.

• Physical : diet, exercise, medical care
• Intellectual: problem solving, creativity, learning
• Occupational: personal satisfaction, achievement, ambition
• Social: personal relationships, community, connection with nature
• Emotional: awareness and acceptance of feelings, trust, respect
• Spiritual: meaning and purpose, beliefs, values

Here are 5 tips to help improve your family's wellness: 

1. Cook with your kids
Instead of picking up dinner on the way home or popping something frozen into the microwave or oven, consider gathering up the whole crew to help make dinner at least once per week. You will probably prepare a healthier meal, have quality family time to talk and laugh, teach your children about mathematics and science through the cooking process, gain feelings of satisfaction for a well made meal, and start some long remembered family traditions. (And if the meal fails and you end up ordering pizza, at least you have a great story to tell at the holidays!) Remember that cooking with the whole family may take a little longer and require more patience, so plan your family cooking nights when you are not coming home late from work or having to run off to another activity. Here are some websites to help:

• Cooking With Kids
• Food Network's Cooking for Kids

2. Family night
Designate one night a week as "family night" and plan to do an activity together. One idea is to play a board game as a family. Board games can teach children life skills and will provide opportunities for problem solving, learning how to deal appropriately with losing (and winning), lots of stress relief, and creativity. Other ideas include camping in the back yard (complete with a campfire and s'mores), family slumber party, annual awards ceremony (celebrate your family’s amazing accomplishments over the year), art evenings (make holiday cards instead of buying them), assemble puzzles, go stargazing—the possibilities are endless! The below website has a multitude of games from which to choose:

• Hasbro.com

3. Hold regular family meetings
Children like to be part of the decision-making process. Weekly family meetings can allow even young children to help plan meals, determine who will do what chores, what activities the family will engage in, and the establishment of family rules and consequences. Talking to children about the family's finances in an age appropriate way can allow them to take a more invested role in caring for their belongings. The Family Meetings website is a wonderful resource for this.

4. Open those scrapbooks or photo albums
If you already have family albums, take time to review them. Bonding over shared memories and experiences can be a great stress reliever and allows each member of the family to see how much they have grown over the years. For younger or adopted children, reviewing family albums can give them a stronger sense of belonging to extended family members. Remember to add to your albums or scrapbooks, If you don't have pictures, have everyone journal about their experience and add those pages to your memories.  

5. Volunteer
Find opportunities in your neighborhood or city and volunteer as a family. Clean up a stretch of beach or highway, help build a home, serve a meal at a homeless shelter, plant trees—there are no shortages of ways you can help. Volunteering connects your family with the community you live in, promotes a sense of accomplishment and pride, and helps teach children life skills and critical thinking. The following websites are a great starting point for finding a volunteer opportunity for your family:

• VolunteerMatch
• Habitat for Humanity
• United Way

These simple activities can help address all six areas of wellness for your family. Remember to have fun—your family is worth it!

Indian Valley's Early Literacy Groups

These short videos present an overview of Early Literacy Groups in action!  It highlights each instructional component for Kindergarten and First Grade.  The activities are NOT staged... and as such, represent a typical, authentic day of ELG instruction at IVES.  We are witnessing amazing growth from our students.  We love the work our teachers and instructional team are doing to help our children succeed.

Videos will be posted later!

Who works at your school? by Ami Brooks

This was our [Pre-K] theme this week, and what a fun week it was! We started off by talking about

how we work and help in our classroom and even at home. The children brought in items from home that represented ways they help. We had mops, stuffed dogs, pots, and even a paper shredder! They really enjoyed showing the ways that they work.

Then we moved to the people that work at our school. Everyday the children were shown various tools that are used at our school, and they would try to guess who used the tools. We also had our school janitor Nate Brewer visit the classroom. He talked about the work he does at our school and read us a story.

The week ended with an on-campus field trip to the lunchroom.  The children were given hair nets to wear and toured the kitchen of the lunchroom. Their favorite part of the trip was the GIANT refrigerator!

This week allowed the children to not only learn more about our school but to build relationships with the amazing staff at Indian Valley. Nothing but  busy hands, busy minds and full hearts in our classroom! 

September Events

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Engaged…or just involved? by Dr. Todd Freeman

I have a not-so-fond memory of my last high school football game against our biggest rival. One particular play, the running back was speeding toward me like a train. I made the foolish decision to be involved in tackling him; in other words, he ran over me. It would have been far more enjoyable to actually engage the runner using the form tackle technique that my coaches taught me. That was a life lesson on the difference in being involved and being engaged.

To be involved is to participate in something. To be engaged is to make a difference while participating. If I attend a football game on Friday night and sit in the stands without any emotion, I am a participant. If I join the chorus of cheers for the team, I am engaged. Church services are another great example. I have fond remembrances of summer revivals that seem to transform our congregation from just being involved in worship to being engaged!

A team, business, or organization with a high level of engagement will perform more successfully. This is most likely to happen when its members feel a sense of purpose in what they are doing. Students, teachers, support staff, administrators, parents, government leaders, and community members are all part of the organization we call school. Peter Senge defines this learning organization as one “where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together”.

Most citizens are involved in school simply by paying taxes. The emotional investment needed to have a high performing school, however, transcends money. Leadership author Simon Sinek distinguishes engagement from involvement this way: “When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute”.

Imagine the impact if we purposefully engaged in political decisions that impact our children’s classrooms. Imagine the opportunities for our students when we combine the expertise of teachers with the ingenuity of community members. Imagine the economic impact of our communities when schools engage the collective genius of our business and industry leaders.

A powerful example of engagement in Sylacauga City Schools is the Aggie Branch Heritage South Credit Union. The branch provides high school students with the opportunity to handle financial transactions such as opening a new checking or savings account, making a deposit or withdrawal, and receiving credit counseling.  Employed students work in the Aggie Branch during school and then at one of the branches after school. Heritage South Credit Union also offers courses for students to take while working in the branch which allows them to obtain credit union financial certifications.      

Engagement is not a spectator sport. It must have the emotion and excitement of a football game or a revival service. Imagine every student graduating high school with the skills to be ready for college and career choices. When the whole community engages in its schools, the possibilities are endless!

Selfies...

Students at Indian Valley Elementary have been encouraged to read more.  Because we are not a home with them, we have invited our students to take "selfies" while doing homework, reading, or working with technology.  Parents have been asked to upload these pictures to our social media outlets:  Indian Valley Elementary School (Facebook) and @indianvalleyel (Twitter and Instagram), using the #IVRocks #weLead  #IVLeadLearnLove and share something about what the child is doing in the picture.  Many of these selfies will be posted on a bulletin board at the school.  Included in this post are some examples.