It's easy to be happy at his new daycare when he has this awesome playhouse to explore in!

Isn't it interesting how the grass is frosty in the shade, but not in the sun?  Hmmm...

What a beautiful day to be outside exploring all of these big machines, and having a bite to eat!  What a great community we live in!  So many businesses and organizations brought their machines to show the children!  Thanks also to our parent and community helpers!

Over many years, parents have expressed that a 2.5 hour preschool class was just not long enough!  The Salmo Child Care Society heard that concern, and has increased their part-time program to 4.25 hours! 
 
This change comes with a change to the program name and license-type.  The Salmo Children's Centre Preschool will now be the Salmo Children's Centre Junior Kindergarten, and will now be under a Group Child Care license, rather than a Preschool license.
 
Parents who use the Junior Kindergarten Program will now qualify for the same benefits as those who use the Group Child Care Program, including a daily Parent Fee Reduction rate of $5 (since the program is more than 4 hours long,) and a full-day rate for the Affordable Child Care Benefit for families that qualify.  Some of the criteria for qualification in the Affordable Child Care Benefit program include:  working, looking for work, attending a school or training institution, a medical condition, or a recommendation from MCFD.
 
Our original hope was that, by creating a longer program, we could lessen the burden on our wait lists for the other groups at the Centre.  We are still anticipating this to be true, and are looking forward to seeing how that plays out.
 
The staff and board are excited about the programming possibilities that a longer program offers.
 

Today all of the children at the Centre joined some community members on a walk around the community to raise awareness about the importance of our environment.
The children were asked to notice as many things as they could, that are part of this wonderful Earth we live on.  
Here's their list:
Seeds, people, trees, snow, trucks, garbage truck, garbage, signs, sky, power lines, houses, cars, garbage cans, books, birds, squirrels, foxes, chipmunks, mountains, rainbows, schools, clothes, diapers, blankets, gardens, toys, giraffes, elephants, leaves, tree branch, water, rivers, rocks, sun, airplane, fish, buildings, ice, bunnies, fences, puddles, sticks, bushes, grass, slides, parks, deer, elk, moose, forests, dog, moon, clouds, bears, wolves, eagles, cheetahs, lions, earth, coyotes, bridges, animals, cougars, berries, pools
They are certainly aware of their environment!
Where will this conversation take us? 

What a wonderful way to enjoy being together!

Cathy picked up something at the grocery store. 
What does it look like? 
"It looks like a rainbow!" 
"It looks like a sausage!"  
Then it cracked!
"Now it looks like a nut!"  
"It's so weird."
We cracked it all the way open at noticed the inside....
"I eat it!"
"It's chocolate!"
"It looks like a banana."
"Seeds go in it."  "Peel it."  "Eat it up."
Then some of us tasted it...
"It tastes like fruit!"
"It tastes like raisins!"
It's called a tamarind!