Did you know that you can help US and feed those you love on Thursday, February 9th?  When you order pizza from 4 area Papa Johns locations and mention United Services Early Childhood Center, 20% of your total order (delivery or carry out) will be donated to the Sarah Jackson Scholarship Fund. Click here for details.  Papa Johns flyer

Thanks for supporting US!

Finish your holiday shopping at United Services – East (by the Extended Care Hallway) on Tuesday, December 6th from 3:30-6:30pm.  A variety of special and unique items will be available from vendors including Silpada, Willow House, Thirty-One, Mary Kay, Beauticontrol, Essential Oils PLUS bows, scarves, baked goods and more!  Questions??  Call Melissa at ext. 751 or Holly at ext. 719.  Hope to see you there!

US alum Daunte stars in Variety Club\’s Wizard of Oz production - Check out US alumni Daunte Thomas who recently starred in Variety Club’s production of the Wizard of Oz…Daunte you make US so proud!  Congrats!

You’re invited to HOLIDAY HAPPENINGS – Saturday, December 10th from 9-11am at United Services – West in Dardenne Prairie.  Be ready for lots of fun & games!  Bring your camera and take your child’s picture with Santa!  NEW THIS YEAR:  Enjoy our Vendor Fair to find those one-of-a-kind holiday gifts!  Hope to see you there!

Hope you were able to join US at US West on Saturday, October 8th.  A great time was had by over 150 parents and students that day.  Thanks to our Alumni group for hosting this wonderful get together.  Hope to see you at our 2nd annual event next year!

I feel a strong sense of pride as a part of the generation X population.  After all, we invented the Internet.  I can’t wait for the time when I get to regale (bore) my great-grandchildren with tales of what times were like before the world wide web.  As I thunder my way toward my mid-thirties I now have the task of raising my child in a world where anything is a keystroke away.

Remember when you only paid twenty bucks a month for a simple land-line?  I do.  Remember the last time you had to run inside to answer a ringing phone?  It’s been awhile.

I think to my grandmother who has to plunk along when using her computer.  She thumps the keys as she wades her way through this new technology quagmire that is both exciting and confounding at the same time.  I see her do this and I think of how much more technologically advanced my own child will be as he grows older.  Eventually he will be the one helping me understand something new and he’ll give me the same pitying look as I try to figure out what this new technology is and how it fits into my world.

What scares me as a parent is what this new information filled, smaller world will offer my child.  There are many things in this world that I do my best to keep him from.  This runs the gamut from scary images his young mind cannot compartmentalize to the adult industry where with a tap of the mouse my little man can assure the website that he is at least 18 years old and can have full access to whatever they have in store.  Unfortunately as the parent I need to keep tabs on it and the control is getting more difficult with each new discovery.

Do I hate the technology?  No.  Far from it.  I love it and all the opportunities and advancements it brings my life.  But instead of keeping my child away from one store or area of town, I now have to worry about ten million adult websites.  It’s not fair, but we already talked about that ugly word ‘fair’ in my last post.  One of they myriad tasks I and you have as parents is to keep a working knowledge of new technology, keep the parental controls locked down and keep those who would try to expose our children to things beyond their capabilities at bay.

Have to checked up on what your kids are browsing on the web?  Have to made sure the parental controls are set on Netflix?  Have to made sure your child’s Facebook page is appropriately regulated?  Have you set your Google search results to Strict? 

It may be a good time to do a little check-up.

Have a great week,

Justin Hunter

I grew up in the frozen paradise that is Green Bay, Wisconsin.  My neighborhood was a safe one, where a person could readily walk the streets at night unmolested (unless that person was wearing a Chicago Bears jersey, but that goes without saying).  This gave me the increasingly unique childhood experience of having the ability to walk alone to my local park beginning at the tender age of five.  I would meet up with a few friends on the way and spend long days in play with nary an adult in sight. 

No adult presence meant that every game, conversation, conflict or negotiation was handled between us.  For good or for ill the terms were ours to figure out and I believe that I am a better person for it.  Not every piece of conflict ended with an appropriate solution.  Not every negotiation gave the parties involved a fair deal.  Sometimes a kid would get upset, take his ball and go home.  What it did do was give me practice.  I learned to tools to handle disagreements if I called a ball ‘foul’ and another kid called it ‘fair’.  I learned social skills that enabled me to instigate play and stay with a group.  I learned how to get my voice heard and opinions valued among my peers.  I learned how to negotiate rules.  I learned how to compromise.  Most of the social skills I have today that make me a successful, fully functional adult, I can trace back to my days of play at the park.

I bet you could too.

My son doesn’t have the same opportunities I did when I was a kid.  I don’t allow him to go to the park by himself.  Our society is different now than it was twenty seven years ago.  If I let him wander down the street by himself I would probably get a call from social services rather than a pat on the back for encouraging his independence.  My paternal presence is required for most of his play.  Me being present can make it difficult for my little guy’s development if I’m not careful.  When I hear him in conflict with another child, my instinct tells me to ‘swoop in’ and settle that conflict. All of a sudden I have robbed him of an experience that could help him in the future. 

When he’s an adult and has a conflict at work I will not be there to negotiate that conflict appropriately.  When he’s an adult I won’t be there when he negotiates a fair salary from his employer.  When he’s an adult I won’t be there when he has to compromise with his spouse on a disagreement.  He has to be able to do these things himself.  I would rather he develop those skills when he’s a child where the stakes and consequences are small.

The most difficult part for me is that ugly word ‘fair’.  I have enough life experience to firmly state that life is not fair.  Conflicts don’t always turn out how they would in a perfect world and negotiations sometimes don’t balance the scales.  If I try to make every interaction my child has turn out ‘fairly’, I will do him a great disservice.  Because sooner than later he’ll realize that I’ve lied to him.  I want him to relish the times he gets his way, but also be gracious when he has to step aside for another.

When your children play this weekend I’m sure amids the laughter will be moments of conflict.  Before you swoop in and settle it, wait another moment or two and see if they can work it out themselves.  If they do and go on with their play, you can be proud.  They just learned something they will carry with them always, from the park to Park Avenue.

Have a great weekend. 

Justin Hunter

I feel confident that I can speak for all parents in the way I love my son and want to keep his body intact as much as humanly possible.  He, like most boys, seems to enjoy scaring me with death defying feats of leaping out of trees, hurtling down steep paved roads on his bike or flinging his person towards danger with the eagerness of a young Evil Knievel.  When the dust settles I dust him off and check for wounds while he pulls away assuring me he’s fine.  As soon as the damage check is done, he’s off and on to his next adventure.

He’s been fond of skateboarding for almost two years now and his adeptness on the board grows with each hour of practice.  As his skill increases so does the risk of injury.  He goes faster, jumps higher and attempts tricks of increasing difficulty.  The only thing more difficult than ‘ollying a gap’ was to get him used to the idea of wearing the protective gear of a helmet, elbow and knee pads.

While strapping the helmet on his precious head and fixing his pads in place I can feel his pain.  The bigger boys at the skate park don’t wear any pads at all.  They defy the odds and relish the invincibility of youth as they fly across the concrete with the ease of a skiff cutting through water.  Wearing protective gear is definitely not cool.  I know the feeling.  I remember being young and casting my bike helmet aside as soon as I was out of sight of my parents.  I get solace from the protective gear of today being much less geeky than the stuff I had to deal with.  The 80′s didn’t lend much to style of protection and my banana style helmet, flashed with black and pink didn’t do much for my sense of macho.  Skateboarding helmets, according to my 30-year-old sense of style, are pretty cool.  They at least don’t make a kid look like he has a piece of foam strapped to the top of his head.

My boy is only five years old.  This gives me the ability to make decisions for him about his safety that he has no choice in.  If he wants to skateboard he wears pads.  If he doesn’t wear pads, that’s okay.  He just doesn’t get to skateboard.  At last count we’ve gone through two helmets, four knee pads and two elbow pads.

Once I found My boy sitting outside looking down at his knee pads.  I sat down beside him as he ran his finger over the scuffs, rents and tears.  “There are a lot of scratches on these pads”.  he said.  “If I didn’t wear these, the scratches would be in my legs”? He asked. I nodded. 

Since then he puts his pads on without me having to tell him too.  The fall weather is upon us which will take away his ability to go to the outdoor skate-park.  We’ll lose zooming down concrete slabs on wheeled boards and go to the joys of plummeting down tree infested snow-hills on sleds with no steering.  While winding down the warm time of year, please keep your children safe by being the bad guy and make them wear protective gear.  As a buddy of mine always used to say, “You can place the value a man puts on his head by the size of the helmet he wears”.

Be safe out there,

Justin Hunter

Welcome parents to the United Services Class Rm Blog, I’m not sure of all the ends and outs of this site, but will try to keep you updated. Yes, we are on our way to a great year. Other Staff in the building are commenting on the two. Tonya and I are both please with the children. They are learning the ends and outs of the everyday schedule and are following instructions and the rules great. We are enjoying them, Thank You

Please join US for our 1st Annual Picnic/Potluck at US West in Dardenne Prairie this SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8th from 11am-1pm.  Hot dogs, chips and drinks provided; bring a dish to share.   Face painting, agency tours, visit new playground at DP City Hall and much more.  RSVP to Jeanne at 636-926-2700 ext. 109.  We hope to see you there!