A Day in the Life of a Children's Choice Kid

We wanted to know what it was like to spend the day as a Children's Choice kid.    

Marli, a 5th grader,  graciously let us follow her around for one afternoon.   You can see the many activities she did that day, such as a lottery drawing, practicing for a talent show, and hanging out in the older kids area.

Kym’s Sandwich Sushi

We had a great time making, plating and garnishing our very own sandwich sushi. Everyone had the chance to design and construct their own sushi roll based on their individual tastes, likes, and dislikes. Many voiced ideas about other ingredients one could use inside the sushi roll and everyone was excited to repeat their experience at home. Parents were also pleasantly surprised to see their children so excited about making a healthy snack or lunch for themselves. We also loved hearing one of the children explaining to their parents the nuances of aesthetics in terms of plating and garnishing, “Just like in a restaurant!” Sandwich Sushi was a success on all counts! 

See below for recipe. 

Sandwich Sushi:

1 Tortilla

1 Cream Cheese Packet (or 3 TBS)

1 piece deli ham (or sandwich meat of your choice)

1 shredded carrot

1 red bell pepper, sliced thin

1 lettuce leaf

1 cucumber, sliced length wise

Cilantro (for garnish)

Slice 1 inch strip off the end of the tortilla, to make a straight edge. Spread tortilla with cream cheese, place ham, lettuce, cucumber, carrot and red bell pepper on opposite end of tortilla from straight edge, Tightly roll tortilla toward straight edge. Slice ½ inch pieces of “sushi” from the now rolled “sushi roll”. Plate sushi pieces on a plate and garnish with cilantro. Enjoy!

How to Earn Money Having Fun!

Let’s face it, finding a job is hard.  It’s even more difficult to find a good job that actually makes a positive difference in your life and the lives of others.  But at Children’s Choice they have a secret strategy for keeping their employees happy.  You want to know the secret?  It’s simple.

They value their employees.

It’s not just my opinion that Children’s Choice is one of the best places to work. Children’s Choice has been awarded by the Albuquerque Journal 3 years in a row for being a Top Workplace for Small Businesses in New Mexico.

Here are just some of the many reason why Children’s Choice is one of the best places to work at in New Mexico.

1. It makes a positive difference. 

CC (Children’s Choice) is a before and after-school program that offers a safe place for kids to go when they aren’t in school.  Not only is it a model of quality for after-school care, it is Nationally Accredited.   Additionally, many former CC kids have shared stories about their experiences in our program and attribute a part of their success to those experiences and their relationships with CC staff.

2. It’s all about the...

Randomly ask a CC staff person CC to finish this phrase, “It’s  about the…” and without hesitation they will shout “RELATIONSHIPS!”  This is because CC highly values the interactions between kids, staff, and families.  

CC focuses on positive and meaningful interactions.  It’s the only time during the day when adults can spend significant time with kids in a small setting, doing fun, enriching activities.  Staff are trained to pay attention to kids needs and teach positive social interactions.  These are life long skills that children and adults need to achieve success in life.

3. You feel appreciated and valued. 

At CC, staff is always highly valued.  Part-time employees get 8 paid holidays, and 9 paid holidays your second year.  Full time staff has access to health, dental and vision care, as well as a 401K with 7% matching, life insurance, and 10 days paid leave every year.

Not only that, Children’s Choice makes over 70 hours of paid training available each year.  Mike and Chelsea Ashcraft, the CEOs of Children’s Choice, travel the country to provide training at conferences and other after-school programs.  But more importantly, they train their own staff.   CC, unlike most businesses, allows staff to learn the philosophies and values directly from the founders, and if you have any questions you can ask them directly.

4. It’s a lot of FUN!

Children’s Choice is a place where play is required.   After-School should be a time when kids can be themselves, so we encourage staff to play.  Not only that, we go on fields trips, do fun activities, and have enrichment clubs.  

You can bring your passion to CC.  Staff get to make their own curriculum and bring in their interests and talents to share with the kids.  This means that if you’re into cooking, you can teach a group of kids how to cook.  If you’re into science, you can do a science project with the kids.  If you like music, you can start your own band with the kids.  A big part of the CC is the experience we create, and we always want to the experience to be FUN!

5. The company’s values align with yours. 

At the end of the day, it’s what you want that really matters.  There are a ton of jobs that you can get that won’t listen to you, or take in consideration what your needs are.  But at Children’s Choice we know the key to our success is having a staff that we value.

If you want to learn more, or want to apply to Children’s Choice go to www.childrens-choice.org.

505-296-2880

By Chris Walsh

5 Ways to Motivate Kids to Learn Math!

For most kids, math can be a total bore.  This year I taught I an after-school math class called Dramatic Math, and my goal was to make a math class that I would have loved to gone to.  Here are some ideas we came up with to make math fun and exciting.

1. Warm Up to Math!

After spending all day in class, the last things kids want to do is sit down and do some math problems. So we always start with a math warm-up exercise.  A math warm-up example:

16 Shakedown -Shake each limb starting with arms and going down to the leg sixteen times.   And count together.  Then ask what half of 16 is.  8! Perfect, now shake every limb 8 times.  Now what is half of 8?  4, of course!  Shake every limb 4 times.  Keep going to till you get down to 1!

2.  Make it a Game!

Kids love challenges, strategies, and games.   A math quiz SHOW is always going to be better than a plain math quiz.  Plus, it’s a great way for kids to interact in groups.

  

3. Keep it Physical!

Lots of people think math is just a lot of worksheets and written problems. I always like to give physical challenge to test kids bodies as well as their minds.  Examples include:

Division Exercise – Break kids in to groups of 2-6 depending on how hard you want their math to be.  Then challenge to do something ridiculous like 120 push-ups, but also let them know that they can divide 120 by the amount of people in their group.  This also works great with crunches, jumping jacks, and running.

4.  Make it Hands On

A lot of the problem with math is it very abstract and hard to understand when if you can’t see it or touch it.  That’s why we try to let kids interact with math in a tactile way such as making a lemonade stand where they have to use money to and make transactions.

 5.  Keep it Dramatic!

Our math class was called Dramatic Math because wanted to tell a story with the math.  One of the ways was having the kids come up with sketches or even movie ideas that involved math.  We did an Indiana Jones type movie trailer where kids going into a candy cave and have to solve math problems!

Dramatic Math Trailer

By Chris Walsh

5 Steps To Rocking a Twinkle Light Parade

1.     Start with an Idea:

Children’s Choice participating in the Twinkle Light Parade came from Carmen our John Baker site director. Inspired by wanting families and kids and staff alike participating in this fun parade she had the had the idea of a How the Grinch Stole Christmas inspired float and spread the word to our site directors. 

Once our site directors were on board, and a list of the float rules and requirements was acquired and registration fees were paid. We were on the road to rocking the Twinkle Light Parade.
 
2.     Build an Awesome Float

Essential to any great parade is to have fantastic parade float.  You gather the troops and brain storm an idea of what would be the most visually striking on the parade route.  Our float was an homage to the town of Whoville in the How the Grinch Store Christmas.  A backdrop of the town was created along with a  lit Christmas tree.  Our parade allowed people on the float, so we made Whoville come to life with a singing Cindy Lou Who and a Grinch who was waving to the parade goers with Max by his side.
 
3.     Bring Awesome People on Board

You can’t rock any parade without awesome people to celebrate with. We at Children’s Choice are lucky to have such fun loving families and staff that the invitation was made open to anyone to come join us the day of the parade. We posted invitations at all of our sites and spread the word to our staff.  People came out to help build the float leading up the parade as well as show up the day of the parade to help with make up, costumes and general prep for the float. We had a wonderful turn out for our first parade.
 
4.     Get Your Twinkle On

We had a simple criteria if anyone wanted to join our float . they had to be ‘Twinkled Out’ on the day of the parade.  Since our theme was Whoville we encouraged our staff to channel their inner Dr.Suess and come in costume if they were able. If not, that was okay. 

We had a mix of families in Christmas Sweaters with twinkle lights,  suits with glow sticks taped on, Santa hats, people even brought their four legged friends decked out for the holiday. Everyone received a glow stick in a balloon to twinkle along the parade route or twinkle lights as they walked behind our already sparkling float.
 
5.     Bring the Spirit of the Season (& Comfy Shoes)

The twinkle light parade is an even that preps our city for the holiday season.  It’s a time to bring families together with members of the community to share a wonderful time of year. Our staff was on hand selling hot chocolate to parade goers.  Families and Staff that walked the float route  got to know each other while waving to parade watchers. We sang carols and members of our parade crew passed out candy to families we passed along our way.  It was great to have kids notice us from the sidelines and the community recognizes our organization. It was such a great night that the two mile walk seemed to end so quickly. 
 
If you’re interested in help Children’s Choice with our float next year, sign up for our mailing list www.childrens-choice.org.
 

Survival: Shelter, Skills, & Stew

In this club, the children were encouraged to think about what life would be like in the desert environment without modern tools, food services, and shelters.

The group began by designing tools that could aide them in hunting and gathering. After carefully considering the options based on food available and environmental conditions, the children then made their designs came to life.

They collected materials found in the environment and assembled them together to form larger tools. This was day one of the club, on day two the children were asked to consider what they might need in order to build a shelter that would protect them from the harsh New Mexico Sun and flash flooding common to the area. On day three the children continued working on their shelters but something had begun to change in the way the children thought of their shelters. What began as independent shelters quickly changed into community shelters as the children became aware of what the other survivalists had to offer with their individual environments.

Day four of the club was a day of food preparation for the big survivalist feast, but there was a catch! The only tools available to the children in order to chop the vegetables for their vegetable stew were large stones that had been collected outside.

Upon surveying several children, it was found that this was their favorite day of the club. Some said it was the feeling of smashing the stone onto the tough produce while others enjoyed the strong food smells, whatever the case, these children worked hard to put themselves in the mindsets of early New Mexican settlers and enjoyed the reward of building everything for themselves and for their community of survivors. 

By Lisa Audette 

Advocacy & Recycling

Don't know what to do with those old, inefficient incandescent light bulbs that you replaced with more efficient CFLs and LEDs.

Lights On Afterschool is a nationwide event celebrating afterschool programs and their important role in the lives of children, families and communities. 

To draw the attention of parents and educators and advocate for the importance of afterschool programs, this year for Lights On Afterschool one of our schools decided to have a lightbulb gallery! The kids spent the afternoon painting lightbulbs with glass paint and displaying them for families to see. The kids loved that they looked like hot air balloons to represent New Mexico!

Things you'll need:

1.Any glass light bulb

2.Glass paint and markers ( from craft store)

3.Air dry clay 

Don't bake the lightbulb a as the paint instructed as it makes glass explode! Place light bulb in clay before they star paining to hold as a base and start painting. Let dry at least 4 hours!

By Sarafina Nagle