to Family and Child Care Connections "Spring Newsletter ." Like so many of you, we are dreaming of spring things such as flowers and trees in bloom, robins in their nests protecting their eggs and the feel of grass between our toes. We would like to share the recent events that have taken place over the last while at our centre and give you a peek at
“What’s Happening” in the Spring and Summer.
In June of 2008, Melanie Hann accepted the position with the Family Child Care Agency as a
Home Visitor. Melanie has decided to go back to what she loves to do most, family child care. She is currently practicing family child care and all of us at Family and Child Care
Connections wish her joy and success in her return to family child care.
We are very happy to have Trudy Cuza back with us in a full time position as a Home Visitor.
Trudy has been in this position several times over the last 7 years, yet always on a temporary basis. Trudy just spent the last year as a Child Care Services Consultant with Eastern Health, in a maternity leave position. We are thrilled that she has returned and look forward to having her expertise shared with us on a permanent basis.
Eilis (pronounced Ailish) Baker has been with us since December 2009 as an Administrative
Assistant. Many of you calling, will hear her friendly and helpful voice and will also feel confident that her assistance to find the right person or right information will be beneficial to you. We are fortunate to have her and look forward to her staying for a while.
Valerie Collins , as the Lead Home Visitor, and Lynn Smyth as Coordinator continue to support the growth of early learning and family child care in this province.
Our Board of Directors made a change in January 2010. Judy Rossiter, our long time chairperson has now moved into the position of past chair. This change has brought Skye
Crawford Taylor into the position as Chairperson. We are grateful for all the energy that Judy put into the board and to this organization over the last 6 years and we look forward to that same support from Skye. A list of the Board of Directors for 2010 can be found on our website.
"
Hold fast to your dreams, for without them, life can be like a broken winged bird that cannot fly." - Langston Hughes

One Day Annual Conference .Each year, Family and Child Care
Connections holds a one day conference to support an awareness of family child care and offer topics of interest to family child care providers, the early childhood community, parents and others. This year we are happy to present
Join Family and Child Care Connections and AECENL for the entire day on
Saturday June 5 with Lisa Murphy as the
“Ooey Gooey Lady”.
Lisa has been touring both the United States and
Canada bringing her important as well as entertaining message on
Recreation Complex. Beginning April 12, this playgroup will run every Monday afternoon from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. It is a wonderful way to bring the community together and for us to bring an awareness of quality in early learning and family child care. This playgroup ends in June for the summer and we are hoping to provide more in the early fall.
Transportation is difficult to arrange and we are taking the next little while to investigate our options so we can get family child care providers to this playgroup frequently.
these playgroups are still ongoing and very successful. Our Tuesday and Thursday general public groups are full and our
Wednesday Child Care Provider groups will be full as soon as we resolve our transportation issue. Bernice Morgan is our playgroup facilitator for both the
Tuesday and Thursday groups and the
Monday CBS group. We are fortunate to have Bernice for she not only has an early childhood education background, but also works with youth and parent groups in supporting their individual needs.
“It’s OK for children to Play.”
Check out her website www.ooeygooey.com
Registration for the one day event is quickly filling up. To avoid disappointment, send in your registration soon. You can download a registration pkg. from the www.aecenl.ca
website .
Other upcoming events are:
Family Child Care Provider’s
Retreat. April 24, -featuring Barry
Green
PACAL -one day conference.
Early Childhood Educator’s week.
A Contract Writing Workshop.
Best Business Practices in Family
Child Care.
A Car Seat Safety Workshop.
A Story Telling Time (aecenl).
Details of these events will soon be posted on our website www.familyandchildcareconnections.com
We are happy to announce that we once again have begun a playgroup in
Conception Bay South (CBS) at the CBS
Once again this Easter, the members of the
CUPW local and Women’s Committee led their children and many others from the community around the bungalow in
Bowring Park hunting for the Easter Eggs that the Easter Bunny hid. After this exhaustive event, they returned to Family and Child Care Connections for fun activities and refreshments. So much fun!
Each month, we increase the resources in our lending library. Family Child Care
Providers, Parents and CUPW Members are invited to borrow items that will be of interest to their children. Here are a few new items that may be tantalize your

interest:
A two story doll house with many pieces of furniture for each room
Goldilocks and the Three Bears hand puppets
Story board puppets
New car seats
The library is filling up, so the next time you visit, have a look to see if there is something for you.
2009 was a very busy one while building our future as a Family Resource Centre and a Family Child Care Agency.
In May of 2009, our first Family
Child Care Agency Evaluation was completed. The outcome was positive and we have already begun to work on the recommendations that evolved from it.
Our Strategic Plan was created from the Evaluation Framework and has become the document for our long-range planning. It strengthened our vision and mission statements, set goals for our programs, and helped to prioritize these strategies. A work plan has now been created to help guide us in carrying out our plans.
Coming very soon is an enhanced look for our website. You will find :
A calendar of events
A quarterly newsletter
Current information on early learning and quality child care
Visit us at; www.familyandchildcareconnections.com
Dirt plus water equals big fun when you're gardening with kids. Roll up your sleeves and put on your gloves to create a children's garden that supports nature, nurturing and nutrition.
1. Sunny Side Up
Sunflowers have several things going for them. Two, they are tall and have really big flowers. Three, their flowers turn into something that a kid can eat, or feed to the birds. If your assistant gardener is on the short side, there are sunflowers that stay kid-sized instead of shooting up to the stratosphere.
2. Bean Sprouts for Little Sprouts
Because a bean is a large seed and behaves in a typical seed fashion, it can provide one of the best lessons in how plants grow. For a science lesson, put the beans between a coil of paper and the outer part of a jar so kids can watch them grow. For food, sprout mung beans in a glass jar. You can also plant them the traditional way, in the garden.
3
Sweet Potato Vine
In the fifties, many kitchen windows were decorated by a vine that wound itself halfway across the room. The source of all this vegetation was a simple sweet potato, stuck with toothpicks and suspended in a glass of water. The children will enjoy seeing something from the produce department turned into a house plant. Put the pointed end down into the water, and check the water level often. It's a good way to teach the children that not all plant growth comes from seeds.
4. In Mint Condition
An herb garden is a great project, but if you don't have the space or energy for a full-fledged one, at least plant a few sprigs of mint. It will grow like a house afire, and the children will enjoy its fragrance. The more adventurous of them might even try a little in their juice.
These activities were found on http://grandparents.about.com/od/gardening