Choklits Newsletter, March 2018

Newsletter, March 2018 1

Dear Choklits Families,

As you read this I will have left Australia and be relaxing on a fantastic holiday with family and friends. I hope you all enjoyed a break over Easter and spent some family time together. March has yet again been a very busy month, we planted our sustainability garden which was such a fantastic activity for all the children and educators. We are really excited to watch all our plants grow and thrive with the help of our green thumb early learners. We had a wonderful lead up to Easter and finished the month off with a Hot Cross Bun and Easter Hunt extravaganza which lots of fun.

As we move into April it’s the end of daylight saving and the end of our SunSmart season which means it is not a requirement for the children to wear their hats or sunscreen now until October. As the seasons change so do the clothes you dress and pack for the children when they come to Choklits. Time to pack the jackets, long sleeves, socks and long pants.

A healthy child is a happy child, at home or in childcare

As the seasons change so comes the dreaded cold and therefore an emphasis on hygiene and diet is important to keep your child healthy. At Choklits we are committed to providing good nutrition for your child.

Why is good nutrition important for your child? It is important your child has nutritious food to give them all the nutrients their bodies need to grow, and to develop and reach their physical and mental potential. Here are some simple guidelines to ensure your nutritional needs be met.

The National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia recommends children and adolescents maintain a varied diet, which includes the five main food groups. Children need to be encouraged to eat plenty of vegetables, fruit, legumes, cereals (including breads, rice, pasta and noodles).

A healthy diet includes lean meat, fish, poultry, milk, yogurts, cheeses, limited servings of saturated fats, margarine, butter and oils. The balance of these five groups is essential for maintaining your child’s health and wellbeing. Children are encouraged to drink plenty of water throughout the day. Healthy morning and afternoon teas will also help maintain your child’s energy level.

We have now started our Autumn menu, and Helen has added some wonderful new healthy options. You can check all our menus here.

Allergies and Dietary Restrictions

We have children at Choklits who have allergies, anaphylaxis as well as dietary restrictions, due to this we cannot have food brought into the centre from home.

Payment Information

Please make sure to note your child’s name down as the reference when making a direct deposit payment for fees. This is to ensure we apply the payment to the correct account and will minimalise any confusion.

Hope you all have a wonderful month ahead, and I will look forward to seeing you all again at the start of May when I return to Choklits.

Until next time,
Sue

Recycling and Sustainability Update

We have now planted our wonderful sustainability garden. Once again, thank you to everyone who helped us out with suggestions and tips. We had such a wonderful experience with Natasha from The Sage Garden who came out to Choklits to help guide us through planting our first crops! As always, we’ll keep you posted, there’ll be plenty of updates on our Choklits Facebook Page too.

Here’s how we planted our new garden, in less than 1 minute-

Stay tuned for other sustainability updates throughout the year including the installation of our new water tank. If you have any recycling or sustainability tips please let us know by email.

Whats happening at Choklits in April
  • Extra music classes will be running through April
  • 4th to the 15th of April is the Commonwealth Games and we will explore all things sport
  • 20th of April Earth Day activities
  • Anzac Day 25th of April, Choklits will be closed
Important Changes to Child Care Subsidy 2018

The Australian government is introducing a new child care package from July 2nd, 2018. The existing Child Care Benefit and Child Care Rebate will be replaced by a new Child Care Subsidy. Under the new package, the amount of subsidy paid by the government to help cover a family’s child care fees will change for many people. It is important to know about the changes now, so you can make informed decisions about your future. The easiest way to work out how much subsidy you are eligible for is through the “Family Child Care Subsidy Estimator” located at education.gov.au/childcare. It’s easy to use and only takes a few minutes to fill out.

Staff Member Acknowledgement
This month we would like to acknowledge Wei Xing our Kindergarten teacher. Wei started with us in January and has added vibrance and enthusiasm to the Kindergarten program and to the Choklits Community. Wei has introduced some wonderful concepts to the kindergarten class, such as rest time outside, the introduction of some supervised risky-play, exploration and experimentation, bush kinder concepts and further extension of the ELLA program introducing more Chinese culture and concepts to the children. Great work Wei the children are loving your program and we are love watching you grow into your role!
Storypark Update

We have been very pleased with the introduction of our Storypark communication platform and we have seen some wonderful meaningful interactions with our community. Over the last two months, the interaction with this app based system has seen over 2000 stories posted about the children and over 70% parent engagement. We are all still learning the functionality of the app and the features it has. 

We welcome your feedback and look forward to providing an even more responsive, innovative and valuable experience for you and your child.

Cooking with Choklits

Have you seen our new menu? Please visit our Choklits blog for all recipes and menus. If you have any delicious recipes you would like us to know about please email them to us.

Policy Review and Staff Training

We review different policies and procedures at Choklits every month. All of our policies and procedures are available for your review in the foyer of the centre and our educators are here to help with any questions. This month we have been reviewing our Inclusion Policy, for more information or if you would like to have input into any of our policies please email Sue.

Keep Up-to-Date

Please give our Facebook Page a like. It’s a great way to keep up to date with all the latest happenings at Choklits including features, stories, events, recipes and special incursions. This post has been one of our favourites.

Parent Feedback and Input

We welcome any feedback from our families, if you would like to have a chat please come and see us in the office or send any questions or concerns to us via email.

Choklits Child Care

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