FACE+Program

Family and Children Education

** American Horse School FACE Program Joins Mother Goose to Promote Literacy Development ** By Jodi Richards Coordinator

On Thursday, September 29, 2011, 85 adults, children, and FACE Staff met at American Horse School for the first FACE Family Circle Night of the 2011-2012 school year. The theme of the evening was Nursery Rhymes and their importance for early literacy growth and beginning reading skills. The parents received their incentives for participating in the program and doing their “homework” with their children in between home visits or nightly for center-based participants. Items donated from National Relief Charities included; shoes, deodorant, shampoo/crème rinse, leather work gloves, diapers, eye make-up remover, face cream, balls, portfolios, strawberry short cake party supplies, and pens. Activities were run by FACE staff and volunteers and involved parents receiving a loose leaf ring with 7 brightly colored index cards. Each station had a nursery rhyme that the parents wrote on a card. Then the parent said the rhyme and did the activity with their children. Pat-a-Cake had play dough, Itsy, Bitsy Spider had Oreo’s and Chinese noodles to create spiders, Jack Be Nimble had candles to jump over and candles for the parents, Hickory Dickory Dock involved a mouse, a clock pattern and a toilet paper tube, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, involved making a star sticker book, Little Miss Muffet students sat on a “tuffet” next to a spider, and Jack and Jill Went Up The Hill. Jess Red Elk prepared a child friendly meal of hotdogs, macaroni and cheese, baby carrot sticks, Jell-O with whipping cream and juice or milk. Everyone enjoyed the meal after which DeVonna Bush spoke about Parent handout //Language Experience Center: Rhymes and Songs// discussing the importance of rhyming to hear pitch and rhythm and building brain connections for literacy development. Jennifer May spoke to the importance of rhyming to associate sounds of words with actions, develop motor skills and repetition with the parent handout //Reasons to Share Rhymes and Songs With Your Baby//. The parent training ended with parents receiving //The Real Mother Goose Board Book// and volunteering to take over the microphone to say rhymes! Everyone received a raffle ticket for filling out their index cards with rhymes, one for filling out a parent training survey and another for filling out an Incentive Store Needs Survey. The raffle was on and everyone received a prize. The prizes included pots and pans, blankets, laundry baskets with towels, sheets, and pillows, leap frog machines, car pillows, bags, art easels, and games. The FACE Staff would like to thank all of the FACE Families for participating in the program and for joining us at our first FACE Family Circle. The next FACE Family Circle will be on Thursday, October 27th in conjunction with the American Horse School Parent/Teacher Conference and Halloween Carnival! FACE parents will have an adult night out as we will have Bingo in the Adult FACE building while the children are at the carnival. See You There!

BINGO was heard loud and clear, as FACE Families had an Adult Night Out on October 27th! FACE Family Circle was held in conjunction with the first American Horse School Parent/Teacher Conference of the school year. FACE Families had a chance to tour the school, meet new teachers, and enjoy a delicious meal of chicken legs, mashed potatoes and gravy, freshly baked biscuits, a salad bar with a variety of salads, and an ice cream sandwich. Each FACE Family present completed the FACE goal of attending a local parent/teacher conference. All FACE children brought along a “friend” to take them to the carnival, which was held in the gym. Then the adults came to the FACE Adult Education Building to have a parent training done by home-based educators Lucy Cottier and DeVonna Bush. The topic was //Keeping Your Child Safe and Safety is Important// using Parent as Teachers Handouts in conjunction with October National Fire Safety and safety in general with Halloween around the corner. Once the parent training was complete the games began! Prizes ranged from irons, blenders, hand mixer, pots and pan set, laundry soap, floor cleaner, hand towels and wash clothes, Halloween candy, fabric softener plus others. Items from National Relief Charities were also raffled which included electric sandwich grills, snuggy blankets, candy, and plastic containers. Everyone was a winner and left after all prizes were gone and surveys were completed! In November, FACE Family Circle will be held on Thursday the 17th at 5pm. The topic will be //Eating the Rainbow// and the evening will revolve around healthy eating and exercise choices, and raffles including 2 complete Turkey Meals as grand prizes! Jodi Richards FACE Coordinator

(Photo & article courtesy of DeVonna Bush) Santee Witt Wins Art Award When I first visited with Santee on one of our Home Base FACE visits, he had said he hadn’t been active in his art painting for awhile and was more into his song recording. He is a gifted painter. He said, “on a lot of evenings, I take out the drum and our whole family sings together.” So I was surprised and very proud, when on our last Home Base visit, he showed me his Art Award. He had won $2000 on his picture, “Horse Riders,” at the Public Safety contest. He used part of his money to buy a laptop, microphone and speakers to further his family’s goal in recording their songs and sharing their music with the world. In our American Horse School FACE Program, our adults pick their goals to be reached during the school year. There are: parent & family, citizen & community, Education and Worker goals. There are other goals such as increased use of spoken Native language, written Native language and sharing Native traditions with other family members or FACE participants. There are also goals to learn Native skills, such as; beading, rug and basket weaving, etc. Santee is sitting in front of a wall art mural he painted at Allen Cap office.

**FACE STAFF:**


 * **Jodi Richards - FACE Director**
 * **Jennifer May - Adult Education Teacher**
 * **Jerilyn Fast Wolf - ECH Teacher**
 * **Gene Standing Bear - ECH Co-Teacher**
 * **Lucy Cottier - Parent Educator**
 * **Devonna Bush - Parent Educator**