We are very fortunate to have Kim Clarke (teacher, mother of 3 and EDSS member) as our lead childcare provider at our monthly EDSS meetings.  This month under Kim’s guidance we set up play stations to keep the kids occupied, they had a wonderful time making a Valentine’s craft, coloring, reading stories, eating a snack (a peanut free/gluten free snack), singing with Natalie our music therapist and playing with the toys in the playroom.

We are slowly making changes each month to meet the needs of the EDSS membership and to ensure that our children are having fun in a safe environment and kept active during the monthly EDSS meetings.  

You may see a few new faces over the next few months in the childcare room as we are gathering a pool of qualified ladies to provide our childcare at the monthly EDSS meetings.  Once we have our set childcare staff and back up staff I will be posting their pictures and a short bio on the EDSS website as the current staff information is outdated.  

To help us keep your children entertained, we would like to know what type of activities your children like to do so we can create play stations that they will enjoy.  Please e-mail your suggestions to Laurie McDonald at childcare@edss.ca.  Also if you have any suggestions or tips to help us keep your children happy and occupied please e-mail me.  Kim and I are meeting on March 4th to plan the activities for the March meeting so please e-mail your suggestions before this date to have them considered for the next meeting.  Again we are slowly making changes so if your suggestion isn't implemented for the March meeting we may be implementing it at a future meeting or trying to figure out how to incorporate it into our current routine. 

If your child is sick, please keep them at home so we do not get the other kids in the childcare room sick.  If they are coughing and/or have a runny nose it is very easy for them to spread their germs to the other kids and we have children with low immune systems and heart problems who come to the meetings.  

*PLEASE NOTE*
Lastly, due to the overwhelming response we had at the January meeting for childcare (28 children) and the lack of space to comfortably take care of this many children in our current temporary location we are capping the number of children we can have in childcare until we are in our new location.  So if you are planning on using the childcare at the March 2010 EDSS meeting please e-mail me to reserve spots for your children, I will require their names and ages.  Names will be taken on a first come, first serve basis until Thursday March, 11 and if the spots are full at that time I will e-mail you back and let you know so you can make different arrangements for your children.  The actual number of children we can accommodate will depend on the ages of the children registered as we will have a lower staff to baby ratio then we would have for school aged kids.  

Thanks
Laurie McDonald