Request for Comments and Info

If anyone has any comments to share from the week, or stories they'd like to share - photos, videos, etc., please let me know - I'll get them posted on here promptly.

With the council's mandate of getting and keeping Haultain parents engaged, it would be fantastic to see more comments and posts on the blog. Keep them coming!

Raising self-regulated kids takes work

By Katherine Dedyna, Canwest News Service

Lots of little kids declare "You’re not the boss of me!" to their bemused parents.

Yet the kids are on the right track. The sooner parents can instil a sense of "executive function" in their children, the better, psychologists say.

Helping even very young children develop ways to regulate their own reactions and emotions has been linked to doing better in everything from school work to getting along with others.

Called "effortful control" by Wanda Boyer, an educational psychologist at the University of Victoria, executive function includes four abilities learned by a child: to keep focused on a task; to shift attention from one task to another whether they want to or not; to initiate actions; and to stop actions whether they want to or not.

Click here to read the full article.

Haultain Calendar Updated

Please have a look at the bottom of this page - the Calendar for June has been updated to reflect the calendar in the newsletter. Please let me know if there are additional school related events that are not listed, and I'll adjust it accordingly.

Block watch meeting

There will be an informative Block Watch meeting tomorrow night at 7pm at the Queensland Community Centre for those who wish to attend.

Most kids earn failing grade on exercise, report finds

CTV.ca News Staff

Most Canadian kids are earning a failing grade on a new report card assessing their levels of daily exercise.

Active Healthy Kids Canada's annual report card on physical activity for kids found that 87 per cent of children and youth are not getting in the recommended minimum of 90 minutes of physical activity a day.

Despite the dismal numbers, that's still an improvement compared to 2006 when 91 per cent of kids weren't reaching the target.

Click here to read the full article.

Calgary leads in learning ... again

Calgary Sun

Canada's Composite Learning Index average score fell for the first time this year, but Calgary continues to top the list measuring lifelong learning.

Ranking more than 4,700 towns and cities across the country, the CLI measures 17 indicators of lifelong learning and draws a link between learning conditions and social and economic well-being.

This year's national average fell by two points compared to 2008 -- from 77 to 75 -- but Calgary's score of 89 remained highest in the country.

Click here to read the full story.

Alberta passes law allowing parents to pull kids out of class

CBC

Written notice required when sex, sexual orientation, religion are covered

Alberta legislators passed legislation early Tuesday that will give parents the option of pulling their children out of class when lessons on sex, religion or sexual orientation are being taught.

The Alberta legislature held a seven-hour debate on Bill 44 Monday night before it passed third and final reading about 1:30 a.m. MT (3:30 a.m. ET) Tuesday.

A clause in the bill, which is an amendment to the province's human rights legislation, requires that school boards give parents written notice when controversial topics are going to be covered in the curriculum. Parents can then ask for their child to be excluded from the discussion.

Full story here.