Ketcha Star Daycare-Eganville

https://london.ctvnews.ca/parents-and-early-childhood-educa?

From County of Renfrew : The Emergency Childcare Program is now available to eligible designated frontline workers in Renfrew County. To support the parents of ...school-aged children who may not be able to support their child’s learning or care at home, the Ministry of Education will once again be working with partners to implement an Emergency Child Care (ECC) program for school-aged children of eligible front-line workers, at no cost to eligible parents, during the period when schools are operating remotely. The County of Renfrew remains committed to supporting families in need of child care during this period as soon as, and as best we can. The Child Care and Early Years team is working in partnership with the licensed child care sector to ensure that the free emergency child care program is delivered in a way that is consistent with the ministry guidelines. For more information and to find eligibility requirements and to apply, please visit: https://www.countyofrenfrew.on.ca//child-care-and-early-ye https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=238736128427347&id=100068728842875

Our kinder and school age program has been ordered closed as of tonight to prepare for emergency child care. Current families have received an email. Please check your inboxes!

In light of today’s Covid announcement, which sees schools closed for at least another two weeks, there are many questions about childcare for our kinder and school age children. We have no clear direction as of yet and we will keep everyone posted the best we can as more information comes our way.

Happy New Year! All of our families were sent an email yesterday - please check it out if you haven’t alreadyHappy New Year! All of our families were sent an email yesterday - please check it out if you haven’t already

Hope everyone is having a good day! Families of Kinder/School age children-please check your inboxes for an email sent today. Toddler and Preschool families-May attendance schedules will be due Monday, April 19th. ... Thank you!

Friendly Reminder: April attendance schedules are due! Thanks!Friendly Reminder: April attendance schedules are due! Thanks!

Hope everyone is enjoying the Easter long weekend! All Ketcha Star programs remain open during this round of lockdowns. We will see many of you tomorrow!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from all these little Leprechauns!

Happy Easter! Happy Easter!

We're having a parent paint night and you're invited. Get a FREE paint kit to create a Love Grows Here sign with us. All you need to do is comment below or email [email protected] We will be hosting this night via Zoom on Tuesday April 6 at 8 p.m.

Our School bus to St. James and EDPS (209E) was running late this morning. The children have now been picked up! (10:00am)

Wear your green for St. Paddy’s tomorrow! Wear your green for St. Paddy’s tomorrow!

Happy Monday everyone! Friendly reminder to all our current families: April childcare schedules will be due via email ([email protected]) by March 19th! We are closed April 2nd and 5th for Easter holidays and school age children have April Break coming up April 12th-16th-we wil run our kinder/school age program full days that week!

An important email has been sent to at least one parent/guardian of each of our families-please take a look! There is an updated screening tool to be completed each morning before heading to child care: https://covid-19.ontario.ca/school-screening/

https://www.aeceo.ca/open_letter_protect_and_respect_early_

Dear Ketcha Star Families: please check your email inbox for an important message which requires a response by noon today. Please check your junk mail in case the message ended up there! Thank you to the many families who have already responded! We also want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

Update: Today we received direction that our daycare can re-open our toddler and preschool programs after the Christmas break on January 4, 2020. Our kinder/school-age program has been ordered closed by the Ministry until January 11, 2020 to allow for virtual learning. I will be in touch with families in the next day or two! Jenn

Friendly Reminder: January attendance calendars are due. Please email your child’s January calendar to [email protected]. Thanks!!!

The Kinder/school age group made reindeer hats this morning and we even had a Santa!

OnlyMadawaska area buses cancelled today so far

Join us for Breakfast with Santa...LIVE on Zoom. This event will take place December 19 at 9:30 a.m. You will receive a box of pancake mix and some Christmas ac...tivities to do with your family. You need to have a child between the ages of 0-6 years old to join, and need to commit to joining us on this day. We will have some special guest stars joining in on the fun. We have 100 spots for this event. It will be on a first come, first serve basis. If you are interested, please comment with the number of children in your family, and your Toy Bus community location. We will deliver the packages the week before the event. Looking forward to getting Merry with you all! See more

Nov23@05:25 IMPORTANT NOTICE: all transportation services are CANCELLED, for Monday November 23, 2020 due to Snow Fall Warning. All schools are OPEN.

We’re thrilled to announce that Angel Tree is back! Deadline to return unwrapped, star attached gifts is December 10th. See you at the library!

Today we honoured our veterans and those who serve by making poppies! We also enjoyed watching the cool helicopters fly by!

#RCDHU has issued a Section 22 Order, to ensure that community transmission of #COVID19 is minimized or eliminated. For more information regarding how to self-isolate, visit our website at: https://bit.ly/2W9DJ7J

A friendly reminder to our families that children’s attendance calendars for the month of November are due. If you have not done so already, please email schedules to [email protected]!!

Happy ECE and Child Care Worker Appreciation Day!! Our Kinder/School-Age group made us this wonderful sign (the balloons are their thumb prints)! Thanks to all of our wonderful staff for all they do!

This is a big week for us, not only is it week of the child, but we celebrate the 20th annual ECE and Child Care Worker Appreciation Day tomorrow! Ketcha Star also celebrates it’s 27 th birthday on Friday!

Week of the child...today we celebrate our toddlers and their curiosity, strong-will and loving cuddles! There is never a dull moment experiencing these wonderful little people grow and learn!!

Week of the child...October 19-23

On Tuesday, October 13, we are extending the hours of service on our Individual Tax Enquiries 1-800-959-8281 and Emergency Response and Recovery Benefits 1-833-966-2099 lines to 9 pm local time.

Thought this was cute. We all have those days!

Dear Families: ANOTHER IMPORTANT UPDATE: it has been a crazy day! New covid screening revisions came in late yesterday and we sought clarification throughout the day today on these new measures. An email was sent to families late today stating we could welcome back our children that have been off awaiting test results for minor symptoms if they were now symptom free. HOWEVER, an email came in later yet from the HU stating any families awaiting test results from before October 1st must stay home and isolate for 14 days or wait for a negative result before returning to daycare. The new protocol begins for those who show symptoms starting next week. We apologize for the mixed messaging and thank you for your patience and understanding!!!

We will try to gain more clarity on this tomorrow...

This is now the protocol for child care centres as well...

There has been some Pop-Up locations for COVID-19 Testing. Please note that an Eganville Location has been added as a Pop-Up. People can get testing on this W...ednesday from 9 am to noon and/or 2 pm to 5 pm at the Eganville Arena. You must call RC VTAC (1-844-727-6404) to schedule your testing time. See more

Reminder: we still have some belongings stored here that belong to children who no longer attend our centre-a phone call was made to each family in August. If you missed the message and wish to pick uo your child’s belongings or inquire as to what may be left here, please call the centre at 613 628-1657. Thanks!!!

Look at the differences between a typical preschool child’s hand (left) and a typical 7 year old hand (right). Want to know why a preschool aged child isn’t a...ble to write yet? This is why! Their hands are still developing and are not fully formed. So what should they be doing to support this? PLAY!! Playdough, colouring, cutting, gluing, playing outside, digging in dirt, sensory play, dress up play, science experiments, beading, puzzles, throwing balls, etc. . All of these things help their hands develop. When they are physically ready to write, they will! No need to rush them, they will show you when they are ready. via @Raisingherbarefoot

Save the date! Child Care Worker and Early Childhood Educator Appreciation Day is October 22, 2020! We know this has been an incredibly challenging year for yo...u all. We have seen how you have risen for children, families and each other. You deserve a government that will rise up for you with funding and policies that ensure ECEs and early years staff have recognition, respect, professional pay and decent work. With our Communities of Practice and our partners the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care (OCBCC), we have started planning a 'Week of Action' for Child Care Worker and Early Childhood Educator Appreciation Day - a week where we can rise up together to use our collective voice and our ECE Power. We are strong together. More information will come in the next few weeks - but until then, you can order your materials here: https://www.childcareontario.org/ccwad_2020

We recognize that some parents/guardians of new kindergarten students or parents/guardians of students transitioning into secondary may have a heightened anxiet...y for beginning the school year in-person. As such, we will be instituting a staggered entry the first week of school. On September 8, all elementary schools will welcome Senior Kindergarten students and Grades 1 to 8. Junior Kindergarten students will begin their school year on September 9 with a third arriving each day for the rest of the week until all are present on Friday. At the secondary level, Grade 9 students and students in Special Education classes receiving alternative programming will begin the school year. On the following day, (September 9) all Grade 10 students will arrive. On September 10 the remaining grades (11 and 12) will arrive.

This year you can expect transportation to be a little different. Planning and consultations are ongoing , for up to date information about how we are responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic check out: https://www.onthebus.ca/en/about-us/covid-19-information.asp

The health and safety of students and staff is a top priority for the Renfrew County Catholic District School Board (RCCDSB) as schools are prepared for the 202...0-21 school year amid the COVID-19 pandemic. All elementary schools will open for conventional in-person teaching for Kindergarten to Grade 8 while the secondary school model will take a quadmester approach to learning when the school year begins for students on September 8. Two RCCDSB principals, Karen Keels, Our Lady of Fatima Catholic School, Renfrew, and Derek Lennox, St. Joseph High School, Renfrew, are working with Jaime Russell, RCCDSB Health and Safety and Plant Services Officer and Renee Rivard, RCCDSB Community Use of Schools and Plant Services Officer, to prepare their schools for a walkthrough with a team from the Renfrew County District Health Unit (RCDHU). The measures and protocols being implemented follow return to school direction issued by the Ministry of Education and approved by the Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health for the safe reopening of schools. The Guide to reopening Ontario’s schools provides information on protection strategies, special education, mental health, academics, transportation, masking, cohorting, and more. We have completed a walkthrough with some of our own plant personnel to determine that appropriate safety measures are in place for staff and students. Some of the measures include one-way stairwells, designated in/out doors, physical distancing signage, and plexiglass in key locations such as our office, shared Lennox. At Our Lady of Fatima elementary school, staff have been busy setting up classrooms to allow physical distancing of 1 metre between cohorted students, creating alternate recess schedules, posting signage, and planning coordinated procedures (e.g., for handwashing, dismissal, etc.) in order to maintain 2 metre distancing between non-cohorted students. We’re working to set up classrooms to meet the recommended physical distancing within the space. There is also a lot of work involved in scheduling to ensure time for things to happen in a staggered way so students can maintain distancing. The plan for each school will need to facilitate the flow of students, stated Keels. During the August 11 walkthrough, members of the RCDHU team, Brian Brohart, Healthy Schools Coordinator, Darcy Greer, Public Health Nurse, Infection Prevention and Control, and Michelle Street, Coordinator of Healthy Environments were there to support the RCCDSB leadership team with issues such as student drop-off and pick up, cohorting, respiratory etiquette, disinfection protocols, and more. It was a very thorough day and everyone feels well prepared. With three weeks to go before students come back, schools are in very good shape, said Brohart after touring the primary and secondary ‘model’ schools. Discussion and feedback from the day will result in a written report that will be used to finetune preparations for the safe reopening of schools across the Board. RCCDSB staff and administration have been working tirelessly since the province announced that boards needed to prepare for the different models of re-opening in September. Their hard work and collaboration will ensure that every school is prepared to the standards required by health protocols and ready to provide a safe school environment characterized by warmth, hospitality, good humour and joy, stated Jaimie Perry, RCCDSB Director of Education.

We’ve heard from many of you over the last week. We appreciate and understand your interest in what we have planned for September. We thank you for your patien...ce. We will be sharing our plan with you tomorrow afternoon. Accompanying it will be a survey asking you to declare whether you intend to send your child to school for in-person learning or whether you will be keeping them home for online learning. The survey and resource guide will be emailed directly to parents and will be made available on our website.

Well, day one of re-opening is in the books! Thank you to our families for their patience with all the new policies/procedures! We welcone more families gradually throughout this week and next. Families wishing to return in September will be contacted once we have more specific info about fully re-opening.

Hello. All current families., please check your email inboxes for our covid-19 response plan. I will start contacting families by phone again on Monday to get set for reopening. -Jenn

Ontario is working to improve child care for families and operators across the province - and we need your help. We want to hear from families, child care workers and organizations, so we can make Ontario's child care even better. Share your voice at: http://ontario.ca/dygd

Dear Families: Please note an email was sent to all our current families on June 30th with a bit of an update. Please check your inboxes! Also, a call was placed to each family in mid June to ask current childcare needs. If you haven’t had a chance to return the call, I will be trying to contact those I left messages with again this week. We had our health unit inspection today, so we are one step closer to seeing you again! Jenn

RCDHU Announces Regional Approach to Mandatory Masks

The latest video in the #WeGotThis series of chats with Ann Douglas - Author of The Mother of All we say #BringBackPlay this summer! Summer is here, but with ma...ny activities and places being closed during the #COVID19 pandemic, it is becoming increasingly clear we are going to have to find fun on our own home turf. #Play is a huge way that kids learn, they’re exploring different roles, they’re #pretending, #learning the rules of who goes first, who goes second. There’s the amazing brain building that it does, because of the reward, kids love to play and it makes them excited, which puts them in a better mood. Who wouldn't love that?! It can be overwhelming and challenging for parents to reimagine and think of ways to be more playful with their children, especially for families with limited green space nearby. Thinking of ways of how you can play at home, in the house, with board games you can borrow from the library, we used to play pick-up sticks with our kids for hours and hours. Keeping it simple is possible - it’s the playfulness we need to be thinking of introducing back in our lives. This could be the summer of play and #imagination and new possibilities, not just for our kids and our families, but for the entire world! Optimists Unite! Video Production: The Blend Media Group

Please see statement from Renfrew County Child Care and Early Years division...

We are taking every action to ensure child care is safe and accessible for working parents, and sustainable for our operators. Read my letter.

Hello families! I am sure a lot of you heard Premiere Ford’s announcement today regarding the gradual reopening of child care. Unfortunately, we will not be opening as soon as Friday. We will need to first receive clear, finalized guidelines regarding new policies/procedures from the province, and work closely with our health unit to provide the safest care possible for your children, while also keeping our staff safe. We miss all our families greatly and Jenn will be contacting current families by phone in the coming days to survey what your childcare needs will be in the near future! We thank you for your patience!

We have been working over the closure period to create opportunities for ECEs and early years staff to come together, for us to listen to your concerns and idea...s and to advocate on your behalf. In our survey, we heard from almost 4,000 ECEs and early years staff. This informed our report From Reopening to Recovery, co-authored with the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care (OCBCC) which included 27 recommendations to government on what is necessary in order for Ontario's early years programs to be able to reopen, or operate, safely in the context of COVID-19. We continue to call on government to do better. Today the Ontario government announced they will share more details on their plan for reopening childcare tomorrow, as they move into a regional Stage 2 opening. We are concerned. As we have seen through their "Stabilization Funding", the government has taken slow and insufficient action to support early years programs and ECEs and early years staff. We are continuing to organize and advocate to make sure the needs of ECEs and early years staff and children are a priority, and that sufficient funding and supports are in place so that programs can survive and thrive through the Emergency Order period, and reopen only when it is safe and they are prepared to. But - WE NEED YOUR HELP. Our collective voice is louder with you - we are stronger together. Right now you can: 1. Read and share our report, co-authored by the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care (OCBCC), From Reopening to Recovery: https://www.aeceo.ca/from_reopening_to_recovery 2. Send a letter to you MPP and the Minister of Education supporting From Reopening to Recovery: https://www.childcareontario.org/child_care_needs_a_safe_re 3. Invite parents in your network who are concerned about programs reopening to our Parent Call on June 9th at 7:30 pm: https://us02web.zoom.us//tZIsdO6hrD8pE9OtBxtJ06MgH4aTVKrI8 4. Join us Wednesday, June 10 at 1:00pm to learn how to meet with your MPPs and get connected with others in your area: https://us02web.zoom.us//tZIscOisqTguHNc7iEprLFOhVH5u9iPW7 5. If you can, consider becoming a member or donating to help us continue our work: https://www.aeceo.ca/membership

Good morning, hooe everyone had a great weekend! We are still awaiting word from the province/Ministry about any details for reopening...we did not receive a memo from Ministry last week as expected...we will continue to inform you of amy new details here as we receive them!

Some fantastic strategies to teach young children about their feelings and emotions.

Please join us on Tuesday May 26th at 7:30 p.m. for our Ask An Expert night. We will be joined by Erin Curtis from Dragonfly Family and Learning Services. Dur...ing these unprecedented COVID times adults and children alike are struggling to self regulate and manage their emotions. Erin will talk about some of the ways we can navigate these behaviours. This conversation will stream LIVE to our Toy Bus Facebook page. If you have any questions you'd like answered by our expert please send them to: [email protected]

Memo today...more info to come as we receive it! Hope everyone is staying busy and safe!

https://www.ctvnews.ca//feds-quietly-probe-expanded-role-f

UPDATE: Residents asked to wear masks where physical distancing is not possible. View the full media release at: https://bit.ly/2y75Ri4 #RCDHU

http://mncfn.ca/province-of-ontario-statement-protecting-o/

https://www.boredpanda.com/mom-memes/

Hello everyone! We are thinking of all our families and hope everyone is healthy! We received a memo from Minisrty today which states our closure is extended until May 19 th. We should receive another update that day. If you should need to pick up any of your child’s belongings from the centre please call the daycare. We can make pick up arrangements with advance notice. Take care!

This week is Mental Health Awareness week. Here are some great tips for supporting your child's mental health.

https://m.youtube.com/watch

@ECHO_CYMH is hosting a Pandemic Parenting Playbook webinar for both children and teens. Focus on children (up to age 12) will be held today from 1:30pm-2:30pm.... The focus on teens happens May 14th from 1:30pm-2:30pm. To register, please visit: https://redcap.cheori.org/surveys/?s=Y98XY7LD9H See more