Dates of Closures in 2010:
July 5 through 9 - September 6 -
October 11 - November 11, 25 & 26
December 24
Special Events
Infant 2 - June 16th from 3:30 to 4:30
Mothers & Fathers Party
Toddler 2 - June 18th from 3:30 - 4:30
Pre 1 - June 29th @ 3:30 - Tool Box Picnic
Toddler 1 - July 1st from 3 - 4
A Message from the Director
Conferences continue in each of the classrooms. Check the parent board in your child’s classroom if it is one of those that hasn’t been scheduled yet. In order to cover the conferences, we need to make sure that the class has an extra teacher so that we are in ratio. It’s just the logistics of covering, so we are nearing the last classrooms to be scheduled! If you have already met with your child’s teacher, we hope you felt it was worth your time to focus on your child without the activity of the classroom going on around you!
When we close the entire week of July 5 to 9, we are not scheduled for anything except minor repairs and deep cleaning. No major construction is in the forecast and we are very happy about that! The 2009 project was enough to last all of us for many years to come! We can all agree that having indoor plumbing was an invention that we can truly appreciate! As the week of closure approaches the teachers will be asking you to take your child’s personal belongings home for that week. We never know who is really in the building when we are not here, and sometimes diapers, clothing or blankets disappear. It might be inconvenient to have to bring the belongings back on the Monday following a long vacation, but at least we know the items are safe! It’s also an opportunity to check the extra clothing to be sure it still fits!
Early Childhood Education Classes
Congratulations to the teachers who have completed another semester of class work! Nikki, Lisa, Michelle, Iwona and Jessie have completed a total of 15 credits in early childhood education. We appreciate their dedication to the profession in general and to Clever Kids in particular!
Saying Good-Bye
Over the next couple of months we will be saying goodbyes to our five year old children as they enter Kindergarten. No matter if they go to public, private or parochial school, the anxiety of the change is there. To help them with the transition, drive by the new school several times so they get familiar with the surroundings. Use your local library to find the books about the first day of school and read it with your child a few times before the big day. Here are a few examples:
* First Day of School by Martha Atwater
* Stuart Goes to School by Sara Pennypacker
* Franklin’s First day at School
by Paulette Bourgeois
* First Day Jitters by Julie Dannerberg
* The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
Survey Results
We are currently in the process of tallying the parent surveys that have been returned. Thirty-nine parents took the time to give us feedback. One of the first items we can take an immediate look at is the response about the newsletter. But, we’d like your help for some clarification. We know from the circled responses that more parents rate the newsletter a “4″ or “5″ but only two wrote comments to let us know what aspects about the newsletter are liked. Those who rated the newsletter a “2″ or “3″ made no comment at all. So, we would like to get concrete suggestions about what you want from the newsletter. There are comment papers and a return box on the front counters. Please help us create a newsletter that gives the information you want to read. Do you want us to list the birthdays and transitions throughout the center, or is that not important to you? Do you want the parent parties listed, or do you want to find them on the parent boards in the classroom? Do you enjoy reading the overview of the activities that have been offered throughout the center? Create a list of the reasons you take a newsletter and what you are hoping to find in it. Perhaps this will give us some guidance in creating a newsletter that continues to be valuable to you. We will read your responses and look at what we should keep the same and if there are some things we should change. Thank you for your input.
The section asking for suggestions to improve the center and program included offering a more substantial snack in the afternoons. We have begun to look at how to add two items instead of one so that children have a choice; we offer several items at lunch so that children can eat more green beans, for instance, if they don’t like the main entrée! There were a few more requests for a “parent’s night out” which has been given before, but the security issues for after hours are still a question. We’ll look into it one more time and see if it is at all possible.
As we digest more of the surveys, we’ll incorporate your responses into our planning and see if they are viable suggestions. Again, thanks for giving us your opinions for those of you who responded.