Our Starfish Early Education educators come up with the most innovative projects that you can easily tackle from home with your own children. This week's "craft-ivity" is creating tie-dye art using . . . coffee filters. Materials (all found at your local "dollar store" or in your own home): Basic white coffee filtersBingo stampers in multiple colorsNewspaper or paper/fabric layers to protect your table Instructions: Take a coffee filter and fold it in half. Fold your coffee filter in quarters. Daub your favorite colors using your Bingo stamper Unfold and reveal! The ink dries fairly fast. Check out these masterpieces made by Starfish kiddos! … [Read more...]
Local moms raise money for state-of-the-art classroom
Starfish Family Blog: Beat the winter blahs!
It's important to stay active even during the dreary Michigan winter months. When it's too chilly to go outside on the playground, our teachers come up with super fun activities for our kiddos to do indoors. We've captured some super "chill" ideas for you to do at home. Make paper snowflakes to bring the outdoors inside. And hang them in unexpected places.Play board games! Yup, they still exist and it gives you a chance to introduce your kids to your favorites when you were little.Build a nifty "snow fort" indoors with blankets and pillows and empty boxes. Or maybe even a rocket ship out of a large cardboard box, using recyclable materials around the house for controls (e.g., bottle caps or empty toilet paper rolls)Make a pine-cone bird feeder with peanut butter and birdseed. Hang it outside your window.Guess how much snow is on the ground. Then grab a ruler and see who came the closest.Draw and color a winter-scene mural and hang it inside. Snap a photo and send to friends.Use … [Read more...]
One chef, two assistants prepare meals for 719 kids in Metro Detroit
Karen Bouffard, The Detroit News | Published 7:29 p.m. ET Jan. 1, 2020 Starfish Family Services, a Wayne County-based behavioral health nonprofit, makes 300,000 meals annually for children in their programs, preparing breakfast, lunch and a snack for 719 kids for most weeks of the year. It’s a Herculean task for head chef Shaune Fairley and his two assistants, who cook the meals every morning at headquarters in Inkster for transport to centers around Southeast Michigan. They do so 41 weeks of the year. If that's not challenging enough, they work from 60 different menus to accommodate children’s food allergies, and religious or cultural food restrictions. There were 156 kids with food allergies last year, some so severe that their food must be transported separately. "We have 86 (different food) allergies, diabetics, gluten-free, religious beliefs, lactose, citrus, every kid has a different allergy," said Fairley, noting that each specially … [Read more...]
Michigan’s teachers, counselors experiencing trauma ‘on a regular basis’
A Michigan teacher becomes part of a team of people that helps a traumatized boy. Along the way she must rely on her training and strength. Rochelle Riley, Detroit Free Press 9:00 a.m. EST Dec. 13, 2019 Children in Crisis series: Former Free Press Columnist Rochelle Riley studied how trauma and toxic environments impact how children learn. She unravels this issue through the eyes of three children and their caregivers in Detroit, Romulus and Flint. And she offers some solutions to ensure that children are mentally prepared to learn. Young students who have suffered trauma or adverse experiences typically get either no help, little help, or, if they’re lucky, help from special angels. In the case of Michael, whose learning was impeded by trauma, his angel was Amanda Beck. She was his social worker, his guardian’s confidante and his teacher’s support. It was not an easy job. The first time she met Michael, she had to take the next day off from work. “I could … [Read more...]
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