April 2012 Newsletter

Dear Parents,

The Week of the Young Child™ is an annual celebration sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). The purpose of the Week of the Young Child™ is to focus public attention on the needs of young children and their families and to recognize the early childhood programs and services that meet those needs. The 2012 Week of the Young Child™ is April 22–28 and the theme is Early Years are Learning Years®.

Developing early reading skills is crucial to children’s success in school and is the main focus for the week of the young child. Children who enter school with larger vocabularies start school ahead of children who have not been exposed to enriching language environments. Early childhood teachers educate and care for young children on a daily basis. They help your children build a learning foundation that will get them ready for school and support them through their lives. Just take the time to give your child an extra thanks this week. Also thanks to all of you who came in to read to the class for Read Across America day last month. The children had a lot of fun hanging out in their PJ’s. Bed time stories lasted all day!

As we are talking of education, I’m sure you are all aware that we are in the middle of re-registration within Little Frogs. Registration opens to the public mid-April, so make sure you have your pre-registration paperwork complete. Those of you enrolling for public Kindergarten will also need to sign up in April. See Deb for information or call your local school. Also in celebration of the ‘Week of the Young Child’, we will be hosting a child ID program event. Watch your child’s cubby for more upcoming information.

Over the last week or so we have been spoiled with summer-like weather. As we settle back down into spring, April brings the chirping birds and the new buds on the plants. April museum week is all about ‘MY GARDEN’. The children’s artwork will be on display April 23^rd thru 27^th. Please stop by and take a look.

Do you want to encourage healthy weight for your whole family to prevent heart disease, cancer and stroke, all while having fun? Get outside and be active. According to ‘Kids Eat Right.org’, children need 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day to achieve a healthy weight and prevent a range of chronic diseases, including heart disease, cancer and stroke. This might seem like a lot of time, but it all adds up. Being active and playing with your kids can be easy and no better way than to celebrate than to gather again for our 4^th Annual Walkathon. Don’t forget to join us on April 14^th. As you know we are raising money to purchase and install a security door at Little Frogs. Raffle tickets for the walkathon will go on sale next week. We have great selection of prizes this year.

WALKATHON RAFFLE PRIZES 2012 – Tickets now on sale at the center $1 each or 10 for $5

• ­Family Pass to Strawberry Banke Museum
• 4 admission to The Children’s Museum of New Hampshire
• $25 Gift Card to Your Home, Your World.
• Two one-day Admission Passes to Currier Museum of Art
• Two General Admissions Tickets to Water Country
• Four VIP passes to York’s Wild Kingdom Zoo & Amusement Park
• Two admissions to Polar Caves Park
• Portrait Session with Sharon T. Simpson…..portrait & wedding photographer
• Free registration for 2012/13 enrollment at Little Frogs & Polliwogs
• One weeks free tuition for one child at Little Frogs & Polliwogs
• Four Fisher Cats Tickets for NH FisherCats vs. Reading Phillies on Wednesday, May 2, 2012 at 6.35pm
• Two Silver Level Flex Vouchers for Manchester Monarchs 2012-13 season
• Two Day passes with rental gear to Vertical Dreams Indoor Rock Climbing (please note minimum age is 4)
• 2 x Hair Accessory basket (to include 3 hair flower clips to mix and match with a hat, u-headband, and stretchy headband) donated by Angela Paris. Click here to see her online store.
• Two Admissions to Santa’s Village
• 4 x Two Admissions to ‘A Dueling Piano Show’ at Boynton’s Taproom
• $35 Gift Certificate to The Butterfly Place.
• Two Fun Packs for Mel’s Funway Park. Each Fun Pack includes six batting cage tokens (a total of 72 pitches), one round of miniature golf, one go-kart ride, one laser tag game, one entry to the laser maze and a small bucket of balls for the driving range.
• Family Four Pack to the Zoo at Charmingfare Farm
• One annual family membership to See Science Center
• Half-day deep sea fishing trip for 2 with Atlantic Whale Watching & Deep Sea Fishing

Every year we have a bake sale at the walkathon, so any of you who bake that would like to offer up a batch of goodies please contact Sharon at the email address above. There are so many ways to help and pulling together makes for a great family community, something so many of our parents cherish.

To read the full article regarding kids fitness at Kids Eat Right.org — go to http://www.eatright.org/kids/article.aspx?id=6442465122

We have some exciting events coming up, so please take a minute mark your calendars

• April 3^rd – Picture Day (re-take day April 10^th)
• April 14^th – Walkathon 10am (rain date April 21^st)
• May 19^th – Applebee’s Pancake Breakfast
• May 21^st – NH Animal Rescue League visit
• May 21^st – 25^th – Stuffed animal collection (benefiting the NH Animal Rescue League)
• May 23^rd – Field trip to The Build Station
• June 21^st – Music Recital & Kindergarten Graduation – 6.00pm

The next Parent Teacher Advisory Board meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 25th at 5.40pm. We would love to welcome some new members. Please feel free to come along and join us if you are interested.

Look out for the next newsletter in May. If you would like to receive future newsletters visit www.littlefrogsandpolliwogs.com and click on subscribe.

Many Thanks,

Members of the LF&P Parent Teacher Advisory Board