Week of 4/3/17

Good afternoon-

Term 3 officially came to a close this week and grades will be available through iParent/iStudent on Wednesday, April 12 after 2pm.  

The bus company has asked me to remind parents and students that glass is prohibited from the school buses.  It would be greatly appreciated if you could remind your students that only non-glass containers are allowed.

The Sophomore Class of 2019 is selling plant bulbs to raise money for class events. The bulbs can be ordered online through the link below and will be shipped directly to your house. The plant bulbs can be shipped anywhere in the US so please share the link with family and friends to help support the sophomore class! 

https://groups.dutchmillbulbs.com/shop/?affiliates=ahs2019

Senior Families!

Want something special and personalized to celebrate graduation? The junior class is selling personalized AHS graduation yard signs made by Jostens! The signs are designed to be personalized with the senior's name and you may elect to add the college or future plan of the graduate. See the attached order form or pick one up in the office. Orders can be turned into the office until May 5th and the yard signs will arrive at the beginning of senior week. Any questions, email Christine Graham (cgraham@ashland.k12.ma.us) 

Check out the Parent Flyers to see what is going on around town.
Ashland Raise Healthy & Happy Kids:

AUTONOMY-SUPPORTIVE PARENTING VERSUS CONTROLLING PARENTING

The book discussed this week at the community book read was ‘The Gift of Failure’ by Jessica Lahey. It discusses how children NEED to fail in order to learn, and to gain confidence and competence. Being a supportive parent (versus a controlling one) can help them gain both confidence and competence.

• Controlling parents give lots of unsolicited advice and direction. Children see this as “nagging” and it interferes with their sense of autonomy and conveys a lack of faith in their competence to perform the task. Let them load the dishwasher the way they want to!
• Controlling parents offer extrinsic motivators in exchange for behaviors. Kids do not need to be paid for basic household chores that contribute to the household. Or for A’s on their report cards.
• Controlling parents provide solutions or the correct answer before the child has had a chance to really struggle with a problem. Give children time and silence to think through a challenging task. This shows that you value the process as much as the final result.
• Controlling parents don’t let children make their own decisions. Let your child choose the sports or activities they want to try, or the game for family game night.
• Autonomy-Supportive parents allow for mistakes and help children to understand the consequences of those mistakes. If we show our kids that mistakes are part of the process of learning, they will become more confident about their abilities and be better able to bounce back from future mistakes.
• Autonomy-Supportive parents value the mistakes as much as the successes.  Find the lessons in the failures. Help them discover new ways to cope and rebound from their mistakes.
• Autonomy-Supportive parents acknowledge children’s feelings of frustration and disappointment. Validate how they feel and even give an example of when you felt the same way.
• Autonomy-Supportive parents give feedback. Effective feedback guides kids toward seeing their mistakes rather than jumping in and fixing them.