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ATTENTION: ALL HOME CHILD CARE PROVIDERS!!
You are invited to attend a special evening dedicated to you and the work you do! Network with your peers while enjoying light refreshments and stimulating ideas. While you are here, try out the equipment in our workroom and browse the resources in our library.
DATE: Wednesday, April 11 , 2012
TIME: Drop in between 5:30 and 8:30 p.m.
RSVP: By phone 519-434-3644 x11 or by email lwilson@childreach.on.ca
COST: FREE!!!
There are many benefits of playing board games with your children!
Social:
- A TV-free activity for you and your child to enjoy.
- Mommy/Daddy & child time.
- Practice of turn-taking and cooperating
- Sharing in an exchange of ideas and points of view.
- Making decisions and choices and accepting the consequences.
Emotional:
- Practice in regulating emotions if child does not “win”. Avoid competition if a cooperative alternative is available. Play in teams rather than one vs. another.
- Sharing and communicating emotions—both excitement and disappointment.
- Developing self-esteem while gaining success at playing by the “rules”.
- Focusing attention on the game and avoiding distraction.
- Persisting even when frustrated and coping with disappointment.
Communication, language and literacy:
- Responding appropriately to the verbal and print directions on how to play the game.
- Using new words and building vocabulary.
- Recognizing numbers in print and counting.
- Recognizing colours and shapes and matching their names.
Cognition:
- Asking questions to solve problems and clarify understanding.
- Using numbers, letters, shapes and quantities of items.
- Sorting objects, pictures and things into groups (classifying).
- Identifying patterns and knowing what comes next in a sequence.
- Using memory to remember picture cards in a matching game.
- Using counters to represent objects.
Physical:
- Fine motor dexterity, eye-hand coordination, by picking up and placing small items such as cards and game pieces.
- Large motor in floor games such as hop-scotch and twister.
- Auditory skills when identifying sounds on a sound bingo/lotto game.
HAVE FUN!
The fall, whether it be for Thanksgiving, High Holy Days, Diwali or other traditions, is a time when many of us gather with friends and family to enjoy good company and good food. As you gather this year, we encourage you to start a new family tradition focused on charitable giving. Take the time to start a conversation about what donating means to your family and to inspire the young people in your life to become the next generation of donors!
Here are some tips to help you get started:
Talk to your children or younger relatives about the causes that matter to you and why you choose to support them. Discuss all of the great things that charities do in all sectors (healthcare, animals, the environment, education, international development, social services etc…).
Visit or volunteer at a charity you’ve supported in the past to see first-hand the important work they do with your donations. Be sure to set up a time to visit in advance – service demands go up for many charities around holidays.
Make this time of year the time that you set your annual giving budget. Decide the amount that works for you , and how you would like to split that amount among the causes you support.
Ask everyone to research a charity they would like to support. Before a meal, go around the table and ask everyone to say a few words about the charity they chose and the impact that organization has on the community.
DATE: Thursday, June 2, 2011
TIME: 7 to 8:30pm, Doors open at 6:30pm
PLACE:CentralSecondary School,509 Waterloo St.,London,ON
TICKETS: $10 – You can buy them online here – http://www.childreach.on.ca/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=278
Judy is an award-winning speaker, bestselling author and parenting expert on issues facing parents and families in the new millennium. She’s a regular guest on Global TV and has been featured in Chatelaine, Today’s Parent, Parents, Canadian Living, Globe and Mail and many more
This is the last year that we will be bringing Charlotte to London, so this is your last opportunity to see her live! Treat yourself and your child(ren) to a fabulous, interactive musical experience! You have your choice of two concerts on Tuesday, April 12 – 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. – at Forest City Community Church! Tickets are $10 each.
For tickets or more information, please call Jane at 519-434-3644 x36.
This IS Literacy is an initiative of the Literacy Implementation Team of the Child and Youth Network. This team’s goals are to improve literacy by 2011 and to be a provincial leader in child, youth and family literacy by 2015.
What are we talking about when we say we want to “make literacy a way of life”? We all may use the word “literacy”, but not have the same understanding of what it means. In terms of the work of London’s Child and Youth Network and this website, literacy is defined as:
- The ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute using printed and written materials and
- The ability to express thoughts, feelings and ideas
- Literacy is a key piece of helping people achieve their goals, develop their knowledge and potential and participate fully in their community.
Why the Focus on Literacy?
The Child and Youth Network identified literacy as one of its top 4 priorities. Literacy is an issue for London’s children, youth and families.
- Over 27% of our children are not ready to learn when they enter Grade 1
- In 19 of 26 London neighbourhoods at least 20% of children are not ready to learn when they enter Grade 1
- At least 1 in 3 children in London ages 8 to 14 is not meeting the literacy and numeracy standards established by the province
- 19% to 23% of youth in London are failing to graduate from high school (within 5 years)
- 1 in 5 adults in London is functioning at the lowest level of literacy, often unable to read basic signs and medicine instructions
The emphasis on literacy needs to start at the beginning of a child’s life. Children who struggle with literacy will become youth and adults who struggle with literacy.
Although London is average in terms of literacy – no better and no worse than other communities – being average comes at a cost. Compared to those with low literacy skills, people with strong, well developed literacy skills are:
- Better able to earn a living and contribute positively to the workforce
- More likely to seek medical help when they need it
- More likely to maintain healthy diets and to be physically active
- Less likely to suffer from diseases such as diabetes and poor cardiovascular health
- Less likely to suffer from work related injuries
- Less likely to be involved in crime
- More likely to advocate for their children
What is Family Literacy?
One of the goals of the Child and Youth Network is to improve family literacy. How is family literacy different from literacy, in general? The term family literacy has 2 components. It refers to literacy activities that take place in the everyday lives of families and it refers to programs that aim to increase the amount and frequency of family literacy in homes and communities. It’s what families do together in their homes and out in their local community or neighbourhood. Family literacy is:
- About the ways families use literature and language in their daily lives
- About how families learn
- About how families use literacy to do everyday tasks
- Some examples of family literacy include:
- Shared reading activities
- Parents/caregivers modeling appropriate language skills, labeling objects and actions and describing what they or their child are doing
This website provides you with lots of ideas on how you can make literacy a part of your everyday life.
Charlotte Diamond will be returning to London to perform concerts for groups of children from child care centres and schools on the morning of April 12 at Forest City Community Church. There are two concerts – one begins at 9:30 am, and the second begins at 11 am. Tickets are $10 each and should be purchased in advance.
Charlotte will also be presenting a workshop for educators on April 11 at Childreach. For more information or tickets, please call Jane at 519-434-3644 x36. Check out Charlotte’s website and sign up for her newsletter.
This is a fundraiser for Childreach programs. Please help us spread the word, by sharing this with your co-workers, friends and family!
Learn tips on how to make safer earth friendly choices during pregnancy, childbirth and baby care – from feeding to eco-friendly diapers, household and personal care products. The third week will feature making your own products.
WHEN: Tuesdays, February 8 – 22, 2011
TIME: 6:15 to 8:15 p.m.
WHERE: Childreach, 265 Maitland St., London, ON
REGISTER online here or call us at 519-434-3644
You will need:
- white paper
- cotton swabs
- baking soda
- water
- purple grape juice
Here’s what you’re going to do:
- Have your child combine one tablespoon of baking soda and one tablespoon of water in a cup.
- Let your child dip cotton swabs into the mixture and make designs on sheets of white paper.
- Let their designs dry completely so that their papers look blank.
- Have them paint over their designs with purple grape juice.
- Watch what happens!
For more fun-tastic fall crafts, recipes, stories, activity ideas, and poems, download and print our Fall Funtastic Book!
Childreach is participating once again in the 1,000 Acts of Kindness Challenge for the month of October! Our staff have come up with a couple of easy ways for Childreach to be involved.
- A Staff Kindness Journal – Lesley has purchased a lovely journal to capture our acts of kindness. Staff are encouraged to do kindness and then write it down in the journal. This journal will act as evidence that we indeed participated! We will take this with us to the wrap-up event on November 9 (4:30PM to 6:30PM).
- Promote the 1,000 Acts of Kindness Challenge – Staff are encouraged to talk up the challenge with families and professionals. We will have little take-aways with the website link. Anyone can register! It’s free! This would be a great project to do as a family.
- Program Planning – Staff are encouraged to incorporate kindness into their programs and activities. It’s rumoured that the ECE Resource Centre has a kindness curriculum book! Sing a kindness song, read a kindness book, play a kindness game, role model acts of kindness . . that sort of thing.
- Koats for Kids – Boxes will be placed in the lobby with a poster indicating that we are collecting new or gently used children’s and youth winter coats, hats, boots, snow pants and mittens for the Boys & Girls Club’s Koats for Kids project. For more information about that project, please visit the website – http://www.bgclondon.ca/specialEvents.html#koats – they can certainly say it better than we can. At the end of October, we will deliver the goods to the Boys & Girls Club. Donors will be encouraged to write their name(s) on ‘mitts’ that we will display in the lobby. We plan to jazz up the lobby like you wouldn’t believe. This will make for great pictures that we can share with the challenge too!
For more ideas on how to participate or to check out what everyone else is doing, visit the 1,000 Acts website at http://www.1000acts.ca/ .
