Staff are available to answer your questions through phone or email. Please do not hesitate to contact us at our temporary email address earlyonfamilyresource@gmail.com or at 416-690-0102.
Good news! The Province of Ontario announced on June 30th that EarlyON Child and Family Centre’s will be allowed to open on Tuesday September 1st.
As mandated by the Province of Ontario, participants will be asked to pre-register for each visit. We have no further information from Toronto Public Health or the Province of Ontario about guidelines or requirements for re-opening. We will send this information to you by email and/or you will be contacted by phone once it becomes available. We will be following all health and safety mandates for EarlyON’s set out by Toronto Public Health and the Province of Ontario. We are so excited to see you and the children.
We are continuing to offer virtual services.
The links are as follows.
Facebook Page – https://www.facebook.com/FamilyResourceConnect/
Website – http://daycareconnection.net/family-resource-centre/ (Click on news and resources for virtual programming)
We value your feedback. Please fill out this brief 2 minute survey through Survey Monkey about virtual services.
We look forward to seeing you soon in person and virtually!
The joys of Nature
A very special thank you to our Student Intern Hilda, who is taking the ECE Leadership Course at George Brown College. Thank you, Hilda, for writing this article and for taking the beautiful photos in this months newsletter.
Summers in Ontario are quite short, so we better to soak up every minute of it. Now that August is here, we can use our neighbouring parks to gather and entertain our kids and family members, enjoying this warmer and sunshiny season.
During morning or evening, adults and kids can stroll around any parks close to home, saying “hello” to nature. When walking along the park, we will greet our friends from nature such as trees, flowers, grass, blue sky, clouds, birds, ants, etc. In fact, this natural environment can be regarded as a “third teacher” to the kids. In addition, open areas and natural materials are available for kids to promote the five domains; social, emotional, language, cognitive, and physical that reflect the continuum of development (ELECT, 2014).
Picking up some pinecones under the trees, kids can use their fingers to create their favorite shape e.g. a heart or piling up some branches to prepare a non-fire barbecue party.
This green open area is an outdoor classroom for our kids. Counting the numbers of leaves along the path, following the ant on its way to home, marching on the grass, throwing branches from one point to an end, kids enjoy every moment in this outdoor environment.
Running, jumping, kicking or cycling in the park, kids will physically release their energetic energy that promote coordination and accuracy in movement and motor control (ELECT, 2014).
When tired, please take a moment to sit down for a while and talk about everything they saw. Interacting with one another establishes social and communication practices with our children and those we care for.
Apart from enjoying this warmer summer, we can use our cell phone, iPad or digital camera for kids to take photos of these happy moments that we can share this experience later. To encourage our kids joining in this activity, their favorite toys, pets or bikes can be the main character in the photos.
Join with us to share your kid(s)’ photos on our Facebook page:
www.facebook/familyresourceconnect/
Please send photos of your children’s adventures to the FRC Facebook Page by messenger and Jen will post them. If you prefer not to include photos showing your children’s faces you are welcome to share photos of hands, feet, and materials created or seen.
Other Information:
https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/children-ordinary-digital-camera-anti-fall-SLR-camera-cartoon-children-camera-gifts/PRD1H52HG45VPA1
Reference
Ontario Ministry of Education (2014). Early Learning for every child today: A framework for Ontario early childhood settings (ELECT). Best Start Expert Panel on Early Learning. Toronto. Author.