Take Care of Nia House

Dear Nia House Friends, 

You are all in our hearts. How are you?  

We want, more than ever, to stay connected with our Nia House friends and family. 

Nia House is committed to being the place children and families come back to for community, learning, and peace. We are going to need your help to make this happen. 

We need to raise $181,000 in total between May and August, in case the closure lasts that long. You can support Nia House today.
Read on for a transparent account of how Nia House is doing and how you can help. 

HOW TO KEEP NIA HOUSE OPEN

Nia House hopes to reopen our campus on July 1. We continue to support families and children directly, through distance learning and direct parent support.

We all want and need there to be a Nia House to return to when this pandemic is over. We need financial support from the community to do that, and to maintain our commitment to our mission, to support socioeconomically diverse families. 

WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE NIA HOUSE TEACHERS?

Nia House is experiencing revenue losses. Though we have kept a full staff paid through early May, the Nia House Board of Directors has made the tough decision to temporarily furlough some of our teachers, with continued job protection and health benefits throughout the furlough. The remaining teachers and administration will experience salary reductions.

FINANCIAL POSITION

Nia House’s Board of Directors has planned financially for potential school emergencies with approximately 3 months of school operating reserves saved, but this is not enough. 

Nia House has applied for all federal funding in the CARES Act, and will continue to apply for all state and local funds. 

Please support Nia House today.

We are so grateful for your support.

On behalf of the Nia House teachers, Board of Directors, and families- Thank you for supporting our beloved school.

We are a community and will get through this together!

With love,

Eve, Stacey, and the Nia House teachers

How to Keep your Spirits up During the Pandemic

by Natasha S. Chacon

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I’m no expert, but what I definitely am is an artist, Alexander Technique Teacher, and a meditation student. Having these 3 particular practices under my belt here are some tips from my experience that can help keep your Spirits up during this time:

  1. Notice your breath- wait, not if you have bad or good breath today (although I do hope you are remembering to brush your teeth friends!) but if you are breathing full, medium or short breaths, fast or slower breaths and where in your body you feel your breath is coming from. Your breath is an anchor to your body and what is actually happening in real time, in the “now”, so noticing it helps you recalibrate where you actually are in your body at that moment. If you aren’t used to this practice, I recommend noticing your breath even just once a day while you are doing some activity in or out of the house. For example: you are washing the dishes or putting them away in the dishwasher, then think, “I am going to pause for a moment and notice my breath. Is it fast or slow? Deep or shallow? Where in my body is it coming from?”. Just notice a couple of things about it. Then continue with your activity.

  2. Notice your pain- if you have aches or pains in your body that you happen to notice suddenly take advantage and check in with yourself about it. For example if you notice your neck is in pain you may think or say out loud to yourself or your partner: “Oof, my neck is feeling really tense and achy at the moment. I wonder if I can release even a tiny bit of that tension in my neck by just thinking it “free” or “light” or “softer”. The Important part here is to just THINK it guys, not to DO anything about it like a big stretch that could tweak your neck even more! Of course, a small gentle stretch is ok, but the practice is to THINK your neck light, or free. Just THINK it lightly, like a wishful thought, and see if there is even a slight release or change. 

  3. Do or make something creative- art has saved my life many many many times, and I believe it is so important for us to have art in our lives in whatever capacity possible. Since most everyone has children, it can be as simple as drawing or coloring with your children when you have 15 minutes of free time, or even doing something artistic after they have gone to bed on your own or with your partner. Sing a song that you like out loud for 5 minutes, or dance around in your living room or bedroom for 2 minutes to some music you love(with or without children). I know sometimes these things can make us feel self-conscious or insecure, but I really encourage you to try it out at least a few times and see if it makes any kind of a difference in your spirit! It’s ok if it doesn’t, too! Just keep noticing... !

  4. Take a short to medium walk every day- my Alexander Technique teacher who is 82 years old takes a walk every day, does no exercise, eats nutritious meals and is in very good health! This is why I am advising you to take a walk once a day and notice the sky, the trees, the plants, the houses, your feet moving, your breath as you walk. Basically notice your surroundings and just keep walking for even just 10 minutes a day with, or without your children!

  5. Drink your water with mindfulness- this is a friendly reminder to stay hydrated, but also to really be mindful of how you are drinking your water. Maybe notice your gulps, the way the water is contacting your mouth, your tongue, your teeth, or if it’s cold, or room temperature. I need to practice this one more myself, but since water is one of the most nourishing liquids we can gift ourselves throughout the day I just wonder if we can notice ourselves drinking the water in a more conscious way!

Forest Bathing with Ayako 

It was rainy and cold, 3 humans and 2 dogs cooped up indoors all voted to drive up north to our favorite place "Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve".

Only a couple of days since the "shelter in place" was put into effect, we were eager to find some safe outdoor time and space. A vast enough place where we can provide safe distance to other people without feeling tense when walking past each other.

Armstrong Redwoods SNR is located in the city of Guernreville, CA. We intentionally took a long scenic drive from 101 North to Lucas Valley Road, through Point Reyes to Bodega Bay, finally to Guerneville. We arrived in the town of Guerneville only to find closed stores and restaurants. We drove straight into the Redwoods.

I had such an amazing sensorial experience during this visit. My daughter who has visited this redwoods many times in the past enjoyed this particular trip also. The sound of soft rain amongst the forest, distant whisper from other park visitors, rhythm of the jingle of our dogs' metal tags all entertained her. Catching cold raindrops falling from the leaves of one of the tallest trees in the world rejoiced her. The vivid green of moss on the rocks and trees soothed our eyes. The smell of cold air scented with wet soil and leaves stimulated our nose.

In the country I grew up, we call it "Shinrin-yoku"  It means forest bathing and it creates calming effects on our nervous system. It's healing, calming and invigorating. My mind kept going back to my childhood when I walked through bamboo forests and feeling that everything is just wonderful.

At the end of our trip, we felt very grounded. 

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Bake With Kendall

Simple Banana Muffin Recipe

Dry Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Wet Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas, mashed

2 eggs or *flax egg 

¼ cup virgin coconut oil or vegetable oil

¼ cup maple syrup or honey

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 335 degrees F

  2. Grease 24 mini muffin tins, set aside

  3. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl

  4. Mix wet ingredients in a bowl

  5. Combine wet and dry ingredients until mixed. Banana chunks are okay!

  6. Spoon batter into muffin tins

  7. Bake for 10-15 minutes max or until a skewer or toothpick inserted in the center of the muffins comes out clean (mine came out perfect at 12 min)

  8. Let cool for 10-15 minutes.

  9. Enjoy!!!

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Natural Dye Easter Eggs

What do cabbage and beets have to do with Easter eggs?

Over the last several years, a tradition I have really enjoyed bringing into my home and classroom is dyeing Easter eggs.  We often just buy a dyeing kit, but when I’m feeling super industrious, we make natural dyes! This can be a lot more work, but if you’re up for it, it offers you a chance to experiment and produce some stunning colors.  What ingredients produce the best colors? The ones I’ve had the most success with are 1. Beets, 2. purple Cabbage, and 3. Tumeric. You can also try red or yellow onion skins, paprika, coffee and blueberries for fun results.

There are many different recipes online, but the best one I’ve found uses just 2 cups of water along with 1 teaspoon of salt and a bit of vinegar, along with whatever gives the color.  This recipe combo is simple, but has great results. See full recipe at end for quantities.  

Method:  Place your ingredient of choice in two cups of water along with 1 teaspoon of salt.  Bring water to boil and continue at a rolling boil for 15 minutes. Strain the water and place in a dish.  Add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar and allow to cool before using. Children can help add ingredients to the pot to make dyes.  This can be done a day ahead, but if so, keep them in the fridge.

Tips:  Don’t forget to hard boil your eggs… white eggs produce more brilliant colors.  

Tricks:  Beyond solid colored eggs, optional ways to engage kids can include making patterns on the eggs with a white crayons before you dye, or wrapping them with rubber bands - riffs on batik.  The white crayon is like a magic trick to most children, that they won’t quite understand until after the ‘big reveal’ happens in the dye.

How Long?  The longer the better.

Recipe:  So, how much cabbage, or turmeric, etc do you put in the water?

Each of these options makes a different color:

1 chopped Beet (skins are fine)

2 cups chopped Cabbage

2 tablespoons Turmeric powder or ¾ cup fresh

2 tablespoons Paprika

2 cups red Onion Skin

2 cups yellow Onion Skin

1 cup Blueberries



Hamburger’s Outing

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Hello everyone!

Today I want to share a little story of Hamburger. Hamburger is a female Russian tortoise who lives in P.S.S. classroom. You might find her presenting herself in front of curious eyes of children at circle time. She gives invaluable lesson on how to make silence and use a watching body. She has an amazing power and charisma. She can even calm down a child who is having a big emotional outburst. When I speak to her, she listens to me and looks me in the eyes.(I'm not imagining that. It's true!) Overall she is purely awesome.

Many people might think that tortoises are slow and low energy animals. Well, not our Hamburger. She can move from one place to another in a jiffy! When she roams around in our classroom during the nap time, our non napper explorers are often in charge of keeping track of her movement because she moves so fast.

She is pretty chill and relaxed inside her small shelter, but She needs to go outside and get some exercise. So We visited Nia House to care for her last week. After she had a big bowl of fresh green salad for lunch, we took her out of the terrarium. She was ready for an expedition. 

She walked all over the yard. She ate a whole bunch of dandelion flowers which are her absolute favorite. The afternoon with Hamburger was relaxing. It let us hear the faintest sound we miss all the time. We listened to the sound of her feet rustling in the grass. We held our breath to hear her eat dandelion flowers. She gave me a chance to slow down and focus on what's in front of me. 

Parenting Stress

Hello, dear families.

Parenting stress is real. Experiencing heightened stress or anxiety right now is a normal experience.

If you need immediate parenting support, please do not hesitate to call:

Parenting Stress Helpline

800-829-3777

Parenting Stress Helpline provides free and confidential counseling, information and referrals to anyone in need of parenting support. You have access to caring helpline counselors for anonymous calls at any time, or schedule regular call backs to support you with your parenting or family concerns. Parenting Stress Helpline also can refer you to Family Paths’ services and 900+ Alameda County resources.

You can also visit FAMILY PATHS WEBSITE for access to parenting tips and classes.

HELP ME GROW

Help Me Grow Alameda County is a system that collaborates with agencies, families and providers across the county to help ensure children ages birth – 5 years reach their optimal development.

To achieve this, Help Me Grow

  • Provides FREE and confidential support in early childhood development

  • Promotes early identification of developmental concerns

  • Helps families access resources

  • Builds the capacity of early childhood providers

  • Partners with families, agencies and providers to build a strong network of services

You can call Help Me Grow: 888-510-1211

NIA HOUSE

Schedule a meeting with a Nia House teacher to discuss behavioral challenges and strategies. We are here for you!

Click here to schedule a meeting.





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