Happy Holidays!  Even though the holiday season has looked very different this year, we hope you are still finding ways to safely connect with family and friends and enjoy some meaningful holiday traditions.  We remain very concerned about the rising caseload in Montgomery and hope that you are taking necessary safety precautions.  We have cause for hope in the new year as the vaccine becomes available!

The pandemic has deepened our concern about mental health issues in our area: isolation, anxiety, depression, unhealthy coping skills.  The long winter ahead may further exacerbate these problems.  We want to encourage our Montgomery residents to go outside, get some fresh air, exercise, and explore the local area as safely as possible.  It is easy to focus on all of the things we can't do, but there are many fun and healthy things we CAN do that will help with our mental health! 

We created Monty Winter Bingo Challenge as a fun way to motivate people to go outside and do fun activities this winter break/winter.  We have provided many options to choose from and we hope that people will play along by trying to cross off as many items as they can on the Monty Winter Bingo Challenge board.  By sharing pictures on our new Montgomery/Rocky Hill Municipal Alliance Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/municipalalliance, and tag us at #montywinterbingochallenge), participants will have a chance to win a Montgomery gift basket.  We would appreciate any support you can give us to help spread the word!  Below you will see a version of the Bingo board. You may click the image or any of the "Monty Winter Bingo Challenge" links to access the game board with live links to all suggested activities.

Many thanks to Jolene Schantz, Christine Grossmann, and Stefanie Lachenauer for their help with this project! We hope to see you out and about enjoying many of these activities! We wish you all the joys of the season!

Monty Winter Bingo Challenge

(deadline January 31, 2021)

Other resources to support our local families:

• NJ DOE “Guiding the Education Community through the COVID-19 Pandemic”
• Child Mind Institute Resources for Parents During COVID-19
• Dr. Lisa Damour:  The Psychology of Parenting

Family Videos from Lucy Calkins and Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University:

In these family videos—each less than ten minutes—we draw on a combination of research, classroom experience, and educator knowledge to help you support young people with their reading and writing. Some of these videos show you games to play at home while others help you support phonics, avid reading, writing, study skills, research, vocabulary, or abstract thinking. We’ll add to this collection regularly. You can access these collections via our YouTube Channel