Greetings!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
The entire staff at EFC wishes you good health and happiness for 2019! Thank you for your continued support and allowing us to be a part of your child’s life!
THANK YOU!
We also want to thank everyone who thought of us this holiday season. The holiday cards, gift cards and presents were very much appreciated. We hope you had a wonderful holiday with your family!! THANK YOU FOR BEING A PART OF OUR EFC FAMILY!
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STAGES THEATRE FIELD TRIP
During the month of January, our learning unit will be Winter Fun. We are excited to send our preschoolers to Stages Theatre on
Thursday, January 24
, to see the musical Three Snow Bears. The bus will leave EFC promptly at 9am. For this field trip, we have just 3 volunteer spaces available and will be on a first come, first basis.
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CRAZY DAYS AT EFC
During the
week of January 14, things will be getting a little "CRAZY" around here! Each day we will have a different theme along with many fun activities planned throughout the "crazy" week. The themes are as follows:
Monday, January 14: Beach Day
Tuesday, January 15: Crazy Hair Day
Wednesday, January 16: Pajama Day
Thursday, January 17: Favorite Color
Friday, January 18: Sports Day
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SNOW EMERGENCIES
If Especially for Children cannot open due to inclement weather or other emergency conditions, the center’s closing will be announced on WCCO radio in the morning. If conditions during the day (weather or emergency) make it necessary to close before our regularly scheduled time, we will need to reach each of you at your work places.
If at any time you are aware of changes that should be made on your child’s emergency card, please request a new card. This also includes changes with your emergency contacts and authorized to pick up persons.
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TUITION AND TAX INFORMATION
Your new tuition rates are in effect
January 1. We will be emailing your 2018 tax information along with your January 15 statements.
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STAR WELLNESS
As we start out the New Year, many of us make resolutions to diet, eat healthier, exercise more, etc. We thought this would be the perfect time to talk about how to help your child like new foods.
As a parent, you play an important part in the development of your child's eating habits. Your child needs to eat a variety of foods every day to meet his or her needs for growth and development. Here are some things you can do to help your child learn to eat a variety of foods:
- Have a positive attitude. Serve foods to your child and expect that she will eventually learn to like them.
- Don't force your child to eat. Children sometimes don't like to eat food they have never seen before. Keep serving it until it becomes familiar.
- Let your child help prepare the food. This will help your child become familiar with the new food.
- Serve new foods when your child is hungry. Let the new food be the first thing your child eats.
- Serve one new food at a time. Don't overwhelm your child by serving her a plate full of new foods.
- Be a good role model. Eat a new food in front of your child and let him see how much you are enjoying it. He may try because he wants to be like you.
- Respect your child's food preferences. There may be some foods that your child doesn't like no matter what you try. That's okay. Just be sure to offer your child other foods from the same food group at other meals and snacks.
Keep in mind that a child will need many opportunities with a new food and to be successful-keep trying and not give up.
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KEEP CHILDREN MOVING
You may have noticed that our newsletter for EFC teaching staff accidentally hit your Inbox recently—oops! Within the newsletter was an article from Community Playthings entitled, “In Defense of Active Learning”. The article described how physical movement supports learning in all areas of development. Children are better able to understand new vocabulary words that they can act out through movement. They learn scientific and mathematical concepts by using their bodies to balance, jump, add, and subtract. It’s important to note that studies show children learn
more effectively as physically active learners because they are able to put these concepts into a meaningful context.
Another area being studied is the correlation between movement and mental health in young children. With academic learning being pushed into the early elementary years of schooling and less time dedicated to play and physical activity, teachers are seeing more incidents of behavioral disorders. At EFC, we believe that policymakers need to rethink how the daily schedule is affecting young children and ensure that physical activity is still an important component of the learning experience. As a recent article in ChildCareExchange notes,
“The best results occur when physical activity takes place every day in an outdoor environment, as these have the strongest correlations with positive mental health outcomes.”
For the first time, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a statement in November regarding children ages 3-5, recommending that they should be “active throughout the day.”
And while adult-directed physical activities are beneficial, “unscripted or solo free-play is also important. When they’re not responding to outward stimuli and instructions from their coaches or friends, kids are better able to tune in to their own imaginations. And according to
recent studies
, daydreaming is both a marker of intelligence and a conduit to greater creativity.” (
How the Outdoors Makes Your Kids Smarter, Outside Magazine).
It is clear that children require and benefit from physical movement for their growth and development in all areas. As caregivers and parents, we need to consider how we make room within the structure of our lives and environments for extended periods during which children can run, jump, roll, climb, spin, and move.
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Angie Williams
Director of Finance and Marketing
Additional Resources:
Mental Health Benefits of Exercise in Children, Psychiatric Times
http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/child-adolescent-psychiatry/mental-health-benefits-exercise-children
In Defense of Active Learning
(
http://www.communityplaythings.com/resources/articles/2018/in-defense-of-active-learning
).
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TWIN CITIES
FAMILY EVENTS
Now-2/23
Night Trains
, Twin City Model Railroad Museum, St. Paul
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CENTER CONTACT INFO
With the new year upon us, we thought it would be a good time to remind you of the center's contact information so that
you can save it in your device.
Phone:
(651) 450-1994
Address:
6125 Cahill Ave.
Inver Grove Heights, MN 55076
Email:
In addition to Baby/Daily Connect, your child's classroom also has an email address that you can use to reach the teachers. Please inquire with your child's classroom if you do not have that email address. Thank you!
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Especially for Children
6125 Cahill Ave.
Inver Grove Heights, MN 55076
(651) 450-1994
Center Directors:
Fle Jensen, Kristine Berg, and Roxie King
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