Greetings parents,

This letter is especially fun to write because it is filled with lots of good news and fun things to look forward to. The school is growing and evolving. A Valentine’s Day Breakfast, new teachers, licensing, curriculum, a new website and Facebook.

VALENTINE’S DAY BREAKFAST- On Thursday, Feb. 11th at 8:30 to 9:30ish, parents, grandparents, and special others are invited to join us for breakfast and a valentine’s making fest.  We will provide all the supplies and food ; you come and make valentines with your children. Come create your own alongside your child, visit with other parents, and get ready for the holiday in a relaxed way. Stay the full hour or 10 minutes, whatever you can make work.

PRESIDENT’S DAY HOLIDAY- We are closed Monday, February 15th for the holiday.

HELLO TY-As of this Tuesday morning, there will a new teacher with Melissa and me on Tuesday and Thursday. Her name is Ty Armstrong. She is a lovely woman who was referred by both Melissa and Rebekah from their LACC classes in child development. She has also been a teacher at the UCLA Child Development Center. She has visited the classroom and worked with the children for a morning and popped by on a couple of other occasions. The children responded to her so well. We are thrilled to have her and plan on expanding her hours as we enroll more children until she is full time.

One of the parents asked if our teachers had fingerprint clearances and other documents. Let me reassure you; all teachers have been cleared by the DOJ, the FBI, and The Child Abuse Index. They have formal transcripts on file, TB clearance, endless paper work and references.

CONGRATULATIONS MELISSA-

Melissa and her husband Todd are expecting a baby in the middle of August. It is such great news and we hope to see the 12 week sonagram at the beginning of the week. All of that funky nausea turned out to be something great. She is feeling quite herself now and happy to say goodbye to the morning sickness. Her school related timing is to teach until the late spring /early summer depending on how the pregnancy evolves. Her return to teaching at the school will depend on the normal, multiple variables of life so it is safest to say that she planning  on returning and see where that takes us. The children are no strangers to pregnancy and new babies in this group, with 4 babies born in the last 5 months,  but this will be a first hand chance to talk about how a baby grows and develops inside a mommy. If you have a great book or growth chart you wish to share, we would love it.

While we will miss Melissa greatly while she is away on maternity leave, she will not disappear from our lives. She will visit and we will meet and come to know the new baby. Your children will also learn that as we add new teachers and life changes that the world grows and expands, and that new people, along with the original people,  make their lives richer. We will discuss this pregnancy with your children starting this week but will share Melissa’s departure much nearer the time she leaves. It is too soon for them to anticipate that and it will only create anxiety until Ty is established in their lives, Feel free to congratulate and talk with her about the baby but we would appreciate it if you refrain from sharing her departure with your child until we announce it to you and them later this spring. Children don’t assume that her departure  will happen just because she is pregnant. Thanks!

LICENSING

Another piece of good news is that we had our review by our licensing analyst  for the change of ownership from Angelika Putintseva,  as Worldspeak MCDC, to ownership by Deborah as Children’s Center Preschool and Kindergarten. It went extremely well and there are only a few relatively minor steps left. The fire department now comes and clears us, and then the entire packet is sent to Sacramento for approval and the license is reissued in Deborah’s name. That will be a great day. The school will continue to operate exactly as it has, but, for me, it will be a huge load off my shoulders.

CURRICULUM- Parent volunteers especially welcome for the writing table

Three themes are clearly the topic of conversation at the school. The baby and family discussions will continue with Melissa’s pregnancy now part of the mix. Getting to know the new teachers will be a second important thread. Valentine’s Day will be the third. It is another chance to talk about who we love and study family histories. PLEASE send family trees. We are also setting up a post office and a writing station. It was very nice of Valentine’s Day to time itself so well this year as a number of the children have just become actively involved in writing. If you have old note cards, envelopes, writing paper, stamps (the fun ones that you get in the mail for different causes, etc), we could use them. We welcome parent volunteers as the table gets very active and the request for dictation, word spelling, etc. keeps us busy.

WEB SITE AND FACEBOOK

At the end of the week, we will be launching our web site. www.kidslovepreschool.com. It is very exciting and has been a project in the works for a couple of month with a great webmaster, Stephen O’ Bryan. We also have a Facebook site now and you can become a member. It will have photos and descriptions of what is happening at the school. We welcome your comments as well as referrals to friends and families you think would enjoy seeing it. Extended families love it  and word of mouth is our best way of helping new families know about our school.

Have a great February!

Deborah and Melissa

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