Town Hall on Prop 30 and 38 Oct 1

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Another talk about CA Budgets and Prop 30 and 38, brought to you by LAUSD Board Member Steve Zimmer and the Venice Neighborhood Council’s Education Committee:
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Featuring Jonathan Kaplan, Sr Policy Analyst of the California Budget Project
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Monday, Oct 1st at 6:30p
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Mark Twain Middle School
2224 Walgrove Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90066

Parenting In The Digital Age – Appropriate Use of Technology Talk

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Upcoming free talk about Parenting In The Digital Age – Appropriate Use of Technology

Featuring Yalda T. Uhls

Weds, Oct 10th at 7:30p

WS Pavilion, Community Room A.
10800 West Pico Blvd, LA 90064

(located on the 3rd Floor, just behind the Food Court near the Restrooms)
Free 3 hour parking!
Consider yourselves invited.

Super Two, What To Do?

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Waiting For Kindergarten

I get that it’s stressful being a parent and naturally we all want the best for our children, especially when it comes to nurturing their potential and wanting to make the very best school decision we can for them. But every now and then I get a question thrown at me that warrants a longer discussion. This is not a new question. Actually, it’s one I hear more often than you think. So, for all you parents of brilliant two year-olds, this one’s for you!

Q. “I have a 2 1/2 year old daughter. Growing up in the shadow of her older brother (just turned 6), my daughter is leaping ahead of her peer group, and is super smart to boot. Because she was born in January, she will not be eligible to start Kindergarten until 2015. Having already spent 8 months in preschool, I can’t imagine keeping her there for 3 more years. Would you be able to advise me on getting her a permit for early admission into Kindergarten (I am hoping for a 2014 admission). I am looking to find out what I have to do and who I have to talk to in order to petition for early admission. Looking forward to hearing from you!”

A. Thanks for writing to me. While I can appreciate your concern and best intentions as a parent, it is still WAY too early to do anything about an early admission for your daughter as far as public elementary school goes. Age cut-offs are a matter of state law, not individual school districts, or even individual public schools.
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That being said, my advice to you is to get her into a great preschool program (which might mean moving her if the current one is not providing enough depth and exploration), monitor her progress with her teachers, and when she is 4 years old, re-assess the situation and start to make plans. This might include:
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1. Enrolling her in a 2-year Kindergarten sometimes called a DK – or Developmental Kindergarten when she is 4. Many charters offer this.
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2. Speak to the principal where you son is enrolled to see if you can petition/appeal to have her admitted early (this is rarely done these days due to state law mandates but not impossible.) Just know that if you ask an elementary school principal about a 2 1/2 yr-old they most likely will not take you seriously so wait another year and a half before you approach the situation.
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3. Look into Montessori schools that allow children to work at their own pace (some go up into grade school and beyond), or
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4. Consider private schools for her as they are more flexible on the age cut-off as they have the flexibility to determine their own internal age cut-offs.
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5. At 4 you could also consider whether or not to have her tested to see if she qualifies for a gifted program.
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Mainly, the age you should begin this process in earnest is when she is 4, not 2 1/2.
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Dialog at this point should be between you and her preschool teachers. A good preschool will support and stimulate all kinds of development beyond what we typically think of as “academic” learning.
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Ideally, a quality preschool is a place where your child can experience group work, team work, a solid sense of self, learning to express oneself but also being mindful within the context of the group, fine-motor skills, ability to focus and stay on task for longer periods of time, social-emotional development, including making, developing and sustaining friendships, discovering connections to each other, their environment, their world, stimulating curiosity, problem-solving, conflict-resolution, inquiry, exploring possibilities, creativity and creation, and drawing conclusions. While not exactly “academic,” these are developmental skills that will build the foundation to serve her throughout her life.
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I know we all mean well, and it’s hard to be patient and watch our budding child unfurl in real-time as opposed to projecting various scenarios on them in fast-forward, but truly these are magical times right here, right now. Enjoy them for what they are, as, coming from a mother of a nearly Middle-Schooler, they surely are fleeting.
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I told another stressed-out mom of a 2 year-old in my seminar last night, “This is a good time to survey the land, get a sense of what your elementary school options are, and get informed, but really, there’s nothing you can do about it yet, so relax. Have a glass of wine. Know it’s all going to be OK.”
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Sending love out to all you parents…

Community Input Sought for Greening of Walgrove Campus This Weds, 6p

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Big changes are underway at Walgrove Elementary School!

You may have already noticed the removal of all the temporary bungalows on the south side of campus – the buildings that used to house Ocean Charter are GONE. Left behind is 25,000 square feet of asphalt that will soon make way for a new green space.

Remaking 25,000 square feet of of the campus is the first step of a much larger project : the re-envisioning of the whole campus, to transform Walgrove into a sustainable and performative schoolyard habitat.

This Weds, August 22nd at 6 pm we are inviting the whole school and the community beyond to come and learn about the progress we have made and the possibilities that we can create together. (Please see all details on flyer.) We want to consider how a greener and more sustainable campus can enrich our students’ experience at Walgrove Elementary School. It is important that we come together as a community to create a shared vision for the future of our school.

This workshop, the goal is to get input and ideas for the entire schoolyard/campus to understand better what the community needs and would like to see.

A small group of dedicated volunteers has worked diligently over the last several months with LAUSD to identify opportunities and limitations for a greener campus. A growing and impressive list of partners have come on board to guide, advise, design and build with us. What we need now is the full participation of our school community and everyone of our neighbors.

PLEASE COME!!!!!!! Bring your neighbors!!

Your input is extremely valuable and community participation is the key to achieving such a big undertaking.

Childcare will be available! Refreshments will be served. Mark your calendars! Looking forward to seeing all of you there.

if you cannot make it to this event but have any ideas or want to be involved, please let us know! Email Clare Carey at claretendai@gmail.com

It’s going to be an exciting year….

Very Best,

The greening and gardening team at Walgrove

Tanya Guests on Tonight’s Which Way LA

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Tune in tonight on KCRW‘s “Which Way LA” as Tanya joins LA Times reporter Howard Blume and host Warren Olney as they discuss LAUSD Chief Deasy’s Annual Address as well as the Early Start Calendar. Airs tonight at 7p on 89.9 FM KCRW.

Missed the broadcast? No worries. You can listen to it here:

Welcome To My New School Yard!

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Hi Folks!

Came back to offer you that tour I promised. So, if you haven’t already, take a look around. Need the highlights? Okay, since you asked…

Well for starters, the site’s wider, more horizontal. Less scroll. Room to grow and add all sorts of goodies.

Then there’s the maps. You all LOVE my maps. I know because it’s the most trafficked page of my site. Almost 10,000 hits on the Westside Elementary Schools map alone since I launched it in ’08. I’ve organized all my maps in perfect little rows and added a few new ones too. See how neat and tidy? Just click on the image to launch a full-screen color-coded map. Go on. You know you want to.

Many of you ask about the name “GoMama“ and how this whole thing got started. Sort of by accident actually. The name’s not exactly business-speak, is it. Nor was there a business plan. Born from my mama blog with just a good ole desire to share information and help people, who knew it would grow into as much as it has. So GoTanya and GoMama! We’re just gonna go with that. But now you can read all about it here.

I don’t know what you did on your summer vacation, but I spent a good part of July migrating this website. I also learned iLife- especially how to edit audio in GarageBand and how to shoot/edit video in iMovie. As a result I’ve got a bunch of new ideas hatching… but most currently, I’ve cut all my radio segments and embedded them on audio players right here on the Media page. No more off-site downloading. Or opening up your iTunes or other media player. Now with a click, you can hear just a snippet or the whole segment of the radio shows I’ve done without having to listen to the entire hour. Take a listen. Can’t decide where to start? How about this clip, “Three Things You Should Look For in A Public School (Four Actually).”  

I’ve also linked up all the press I’ve done since 2007. It’s all arranged by year. How tidy.

But mainly, I’m super-excited to have an embedded GoMamaGuidance BLOG right here on the same site. Now I can post and rant all I want in any size format without having to wait for the monthly newsletter. And, all my previous GoMamaGuidance newsletter articles and PS Smart Tips are categorized and archived here. Now you can search by category or tag. YAY. One home. All the content. And with the new school year just about to start, there’ll be plenty to talk about. That I’m sure of.

Plus now there’s space for your comments too. So share. Talk back. Ruminate. You’re all invited. We’re building a community school yard!

Come by and say hello.

GoMamaGuide’s Expanding!

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Take a look around…

There’s space.

Lots of it.

Space to hold all my growing ideas…media, more maps, an embedded blog…

Been busting at the seams on that old website layout; felt it was long overdue for a make-over. So now, here we are.

Welcome. Take a look around. Check out the new digs.

There’ll be more coming soon…and a tour…I promise.

Tanya

Welcome to GoMamaGuidance!

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We’re putting up a shingle!

With the successful launch of our monthly newsletter, GoMamaGuidance, back in May 2011, we realized we needed a place to house all that wonderful school-related content. This will now become the home of archived articles as well as a larger space to dialogue on breaking public school news, info, issues and rants.

We hope you’ll subscribe to the feed and add your voice to our growing community.