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!