Fall Updates

I've just returned from the Learning Centre where I listened to three children snoring in unison...which was not music to the one child who remained awake on his mat. Oh, the Fall and stuffy noses! Just a quick update below, please see each item and send me an email if you have any questions:

1. Sara will be posting her monthly themes, including various activities the children will be taking part in, on the bulletin board as you enter the LC. Please check it out, and see the effort that goes behind the scenes in our early childhood outdoor learning process.
2. Beginning later this week, we have two volunteers who will be assisting the Forest Preschooler's in making a scarecrow family for the garden. If anyone has any scarecrow outfits they would like to donate, [shirts, hats, jeans, accessories] please do bring them in. We will display our scarecrows by the LC for the month of Sept, as the children work on them, and then will place the scarecrows in the garden for October.
3. Starting on Tuesday, Sept. 22nd we will have a Katimavik volunteer joining us every week to assist in our Tuesday programming day. We'd like to welcome Valerie to our preschool, and look forward to seeing her wonderful contributions to our program!
4. As the weather is getting colder, and we're going through a transition in seasons, please pack warm clothes for your children for the colder days [ie. fall jacket, warmer socks, hat and even light mitts on some days].
5. Given the recent media attention given to H1N1 these days, I thought it would be beneficial to review our sickness policy with families. Please check out: http://www.carpridgelearningcentre.ca/pdf/Parent%20Handbook.pdf on page 15. It states:

"Parents will be required to pick their children up from preschool or keep them home under the following conditions:
1) Temperature over 101 degrees F or 38.3 degrees C
2) Vomiting
3) Diarrhoea (3 watery, profuse stools)
In the case of communicable diseases such as measles, chicken pox, mumps, flu, strep throat, viral pneumonia, head lice, et cetera. The child in ill‐health may not return to the preschool without permission from their health care provider (i.e. Naturopath,
doctor, nurse, etc). Please Note: Any outbreak of communicable
disease will be communicated to parents in writing."

In addition to this statement above, we request that children do not return to the preschool until they are asymptomatic for 24 hours without the use of tylenol/tempra.

Thanks for your assistance in the areas above. Cheers, Marlene

Resources for interested parents

Here's a great list of resources on early childhood education and sustainability for any parents interested in learning more about the benefits of nature-based education, or on the theoretical underpinnings of 'early childhood education for sustainable development.' Enjoy!

http://www.connotea.org/user/Sustainability

Four Seasons Under our Belt!

We have officially been here at Carp Ridge for one year now; having started our outreach for the Forest Preschool in Aug '08, our pilot project up on October '08, and having started up the full time preschool in March '09! We have learned so much from each season, the adventures/gifts/challenges offered to us by Mother Nature. We are looking forward to continuing to implement our program with each of these things in mind.

As September is here, we have two children who will be leaving the program to attend kindergarten...Laurel and Norah! We'd like to wish them so much luck and happiness at school and let them know that it was such an amazing treat having them here. Their ideas, excitement, stories, dreams, and sense of adventure were such great gifts for all the adults and children on site. We welcome visits, and hope to see them at our Camps during school breaks and the summer holidays.

In light of their departure, we have already filled the open spots with people on our waiting list. We look forward to transitioning them into the program, and will officially welcome them into the group after their first few programming days. Stay tuned!

Lastly, parents are reminded that September payments are due this week during your childs first programming day. Also, please don't forget to take your blankets home with you (once a week for full time children and once every second week for part time children) for periodic cleaning. Other than that, thank you so much for your help in keeping our bins organized and your child's gear in the appropriate place. We appreciate all these efforts! Additionally, I will be posting some Forest Preschool pictures on our blog very soon, and our Forest Preschool video will be posted on our website. If parents have NOT signed a photo consent form please let me know and I can leave one for you with Sara.

Kindest, Marlene

Hello Heat, Good Bye Mosquitoes

Welcome back, after our two weeks closure! We really missed all the children on site, but we were happy to clean out the Learning Centre, organize a better transition zone for parents in our front entrance, and set out our goals for the upcoming months. Here are some notices for parents that will assist us in keeping our LC clutter-free and our program running smoothly on a daily basis:

• Each child now has a bin labelled with their name on it. When you drop off your child in the morning, please take clothes, comfort item, etc. and place in basket. If your bag is small enough to fit in bin, feel free to leave it there as well. If it's larger, please take it with you into your car.
• Each child has also been assigned a hook at the front door. Please hang their jackets, rain gear, sun hats, and boots/shoes at this site.
• Water bottles can be given directly to Sara for her carrying bag.
• PLEASE put sunscreen and bug spray on children at home prior to arriving at preschool. You no longer need to bring sunscreen and bug spray with you in your child's bag, as we will be providing Sara with a communal bug spray and sunscreen for Sara to put on the children at several intervals throughout the day.
• Children only need one small blanket for sleeping at the Forest Preschool. If you have sleeping bags, or any large blankets on site, please replace them with one thin blanket as soon as possible. We will occasionally do sleep-outs and will request camping gear, but they are much too large for our Learning Centre.
• Parents should be taking their child's blanket home once a week for cleaning if they are full-time, and once every two weeks if they attend part-time.
• Our catering started last week, and the children have been very happy with the meals as well as the lunchboxes they come in. If your child is talking about these boxes, and you'd like to purchase one, they are for sale at Credible Edibles in Ottawa.

Please don't hesitate to call or write with any questions. Also, a note to parents who observed the mosquitoes last week...the heat over the weekend has seemed to help and we're hoping for fewer and fewer mosquito bites in upcoming days. Cheers, Marlene

Credible Edible Website

Here`s the website for the catering company we will be using in August on a trial basis!

http://www.credible-edibles.ca/home.php

Vacation Time!

Just a reminder too all parents that we will be closed for two weeks starting this upcoming Monday. This will give us time to clean out the Learning Centre, organize art supplies, create a better transition zone for our Learning Centre porch, and tie up all loose ends that accumulate over the year. We hope you have a great time together as a family, and look forward to a fresh start on August 10th!

To recap our past few weeks, the children have discovered a new site on the property which they've coined as "the mountain." They have been enjoying going there every morning, passing the apple trees along the way where they tend to sit and eat their morning snack. We've welcomed a new volunteer as of last week who will be joining us each Tuesday and Thursday mornings for the rest of the summer. Her name is Shayla and she is a keen young girl, who is very active with the children...whether it's distracting them when they say good-bye to their parents or starting up a frisbee game with them when they're feeling a little antsy. Yesterday the children discovered a small bat on the property who had just died. They examined the bat carefully with sticks, looking at all it's parts and coming up with stories on it's passing. Additionally, given it's strawberry season, we have just bought several quarts of fresh, local strawberries which will be turned into yummy strawberry freezer jam tomorrow for the children to take home on Thursday. We've had some suggestions that homemade jams may be a good future fundraiser, so look out for this in the future. For now, just enjoy the fruits of your children's labour.

Lastly, an update on our licensing process. We are still working very diligently at completing this process, from writing policies and pocedures to making the necessary building changes to the Learning Centre. We have been examing our options for food, given Ministry requirements, and until our new building is built we are opting for catering for the children. We've been looking into several catering options, looking for someone who can fit our requirements of allergen-free, vegan, local and organic. We have a trial beginning on August 10 for several weeks with Credible Edible catering in Ottawa. They have a very similar mandate as the Forest Preschool and are very excited about this potential partnership. If parents have any questions or feedback about the food their children eat during the month of August we welcome you to contact us at any time. Please feel free to check out their website in the meantime.

Enjoy the next two weeks!

Memories from last week:
-A beautiful butterfly fluttering around the children for five minutes, and then perching itself on a twig between them, allowing itself to be examined and adored by their little eyes. We were able to identify the colors; black and white with blue specs on the top and red specs on the bottom
-A child discovered that our apple trees have finally started to grow some apples, albeit small and probably very, very sour! We watched the apples for a while, then sat under the apple tree to see what the view was like from underneath
-We discovered a quartz rock in the Forest, and took our rakes up to do some digging and clearing of leaves. We were quite surprised and excited to find little quartz crystals that we then put in our pockets and gave a crystal bath
-We went in the garden to explore what vegetables have been recently planted, in preparation of painting the garden stakes the following week
-We continued having amazing afternoon naps in the yurt, and had a woodpecker come join us a couple afternoons on a nearby dead tree, who seemed to be disturbed that it wasn`t invited for our quiet time
-We sat under a large oak tree on our sports field and watched the clouds change colors, move quickly about as the winds began to howl, and the rain pitter-pattering ever so lightly. We were protected under the tree, so we sat there for 45 mins telling tall tales of animals who sought shelter from thunder and lightening

Ahh, this list could always go on. It was a beautiful week, and now that the summer is finally here we`re looking forward to the black flies finally being gone! Hello pollinators and good-bye black flies!
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