September brought an increase in activities!

Because Parent Expo was getting closer, we stepped up our meetings to work on final details. I also had additional work outside the meetings to confirm and gather information from the speakers.

I got started on another year with the Pepper Ridge students in K – 2. For 1^st and 2^nd grades I am expanding on what I taught last year. For the kindergartners, I am starting this month with information on what the Food Pyramid is. I did also review with 1^st and 2^nd graders this month the things we talked about last year. We also talked about the challenges I gave them at the end of school in May. . . which were get activity into your day every day and drink water. Students shared how they did with those challenges.

Another program that started back up is the BHA Afterschool program on Hinshaw. We also did a review and introduced the idea of taking home newsletters to the parents. We are challenging the kids to take the newsletters home, show them to the adult in their home and have the adult sign a slip saying they have seen the newsletter. The kids can then earn points for bringing the slip back. At the end of the semester they can shop for prizes with their points.

Miller Park Seniors are continuing but the group has been dwindling, so I am waiting to see what next month brings.

Finally, BHA is starting a new program for families and it deals with learning money management. I was scheduled to be a guest for this program with a consumerism lesson. Unfortunately, it got canceled due to low RSVP numbers. We have another program scheduled for October.

I enjoyed starting the month off with YAH Day at the McLean County fair. It seemed to be well attended! Although I did not give away as many samples as I had hoped (stiff competition with popcorn next door!), I was able to share a lot of information and recipes.

This has been a big meeting month. I attended staff on the 14^th, FCS departmental meeting on the 21 and had a couple of meetings with the Parent Enrichment Committee preparing for the Parent Expo.

I also attended a training in Champaign with Judy. The lesson was on consumerism and we came away with some great materials!

Additionally, I had some program meetings. I met with Stacey Wiggins and her associate from BHA and we scheduled the fall semester at Holten. Because they have received new grant money, Stacey was able to hire an additional person and is going to be offering additional programming. We scheduled a couple of events that will be for families.

I also met with Vicky Hightower of the YWCA and we successfully scheduled an inservice event in December, then I will also be doing an event in the beginning of 2008. Additionally, we talked about offering programming for their summer camps at three different locations! I am looking forward to the new opportunities that exist here.

I have been in contact with Pepper Ridge and will get them scheduled for this year soon. Teri needed a few days to get things rolling.

Coming up!

September will bring:

The start of the BHA after school program

Continuation of the senior program at Miller Park

The start of Pepper Ridge school program

Training in Champaign

New programming for BHA families