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Network Child Care Services (Network) is proud to deliver to your inbox, the Organization’s September Newsletter! Please enjoy a few moments to review the brief articles and noteworthy celebrations for all families, staff and affiliated home child care providers. We truly hope you enjoy these quick highlights as we focus on one of Network’s Child Care Centres as well as other events of interest for the month of September!

Visiting Network’s St. Nicholas Child Care Centre!

Network’s St. Nicholas Child Care Centre is located on the north side of McNicoll Avenue in northeast Toronto. Uniquely situated within the Tendercare Living Centre, a long-term residential care home for seniors, this Centre offers a spacious environment, caring for sixty-two children from infants to pre-school age. Upon entering St. Nicholas, families immediately feel at ease as the dedicated and friendly staff take the time to fully interact with them, creating a true sense of calm and peace.

In conversation with Fei Huang, St. Nicholas’ Centre Supervisor, she describes this location as a welcoming and engaging Centre where conversations may be had in multiple languages. Children are fully engrossed in both literacy and numeracy learning opportunities, as well as multi-sensory hands-on activities geared to delight their unending curiosity.

Growing became the interconnected theme of the Centre during the past few months, as St. Nicholas partnered with Green Valley to initiate a garden where children were able to plant seeds and watch them grow into an edible fruit or vegetable. The most successful plants were the tomatoes which were studied and harvested meticulously by the pre-school children. These early learning STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) projects create exceptional opportunities as this advanced accumulated knowledge generates the foundational success for further education to germinate.

The harvesting will certainly continue into the autumn season as the squashes and hopefully the cucumbers will yield further delight throughout the garden and the Centre

Mark Your Calendars – These Dates Are Noteworthy!

September 2

September 2nd is Labour Day!

First celebrated in 1894, this statutory holiday in Canada commemorates the rights of workers and celebrates the achievements of their resiliency to acquire safe and fair working conditions. Network Child Care Services would like to wish all staff, affiliated home child care providers, and families a Happy Labour Day. In recognition of this important day, all of Network’s programs will be closed.  

September 6

September 6th is National Read a Book Day!

This special day is devoted to that special book which many of us tend to have put aside to be read at a later date. Well, the date has come! It is time to pull out that book and either start it or finish it as this day is truly about all things related to the book.

September 8

September 8th is Grandparents’ Day!

This important event has been celebrated since 1961 and was formally recognized by the Canadian Government in 1995. Grandparents provide a unique link to the past as often their wise words and wisdom have offered younger family members the benefit of their lived experiences.

September 21

September 21st is the International Day of Peace!

Officially declared by the United Nations in 2001, this important day observes the need for the world’s people to acknowledge peace around them and promote a day without conflict. This has been a monumental task which regretfully continues to be challenged by countries which remain at war.

September 22

September 22nd is the Autumnal Equinox!

At 8:44 a.m., the celebration of all things Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere will begin as the Earth tilts to equal the amount of daylight and nighttime. The beginning of astronomical Fall will slowly see the reduction of daylight as we move ever closer to the next season. Pull out the sweaters and the long socks!

September 30

September 30th is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation/Orange Shirt Day!

This unique day in Canada offers individuals the opportunity to reflect on the unfortunate and devastating history of Canada’s Indian Residential School System. It has also become known as Orange Shirt Day due to the forceable removal of a special orange shirt which a young six-year-old Phyllis Webstad had received from her grandmother upon her entry into residential school. The orange shirt was never returned to Phyllis and has become the symbolic colour to remind all of us that “Every Child Matters” as a mindful commitment which we must never forget.

Planting Seeds to Germinate Foundational Success

Over the past two years, Network Child Care Services has cultivated a unique group of caring Centre staff who have composed the “Growers Club”. These Ambassadors of gardening specialists have brought a unique set of skills to the children throughout Network’s stand-alone Child Care Centres, as well as the Before & After School Programs.

Mentoring and assisting other staff throughout Network’s locations, the Growers Club Ambassadors have provided nature-based learning opportunities to children from infants to school age. This was further enhanced through the support of Green Valley Landscaping who provided direct instruction to Network’s young farmers as “crops” were sewn as part of a pilot project throughout seven of Network’s Centre locations.

The learning and understanding of how seeds germinate into plants has offered the children in these locations the benefits of foundational expertise, as they have directly experienced how their actions have developed into successful outcomes. Feeling this sense of accomplishment for children reinforces the importance of positive learning as the new school year begins, and the sewing of new seeds will undoubtedly produce life-long success.

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