January 2008
A NOTE FROM THE OFFICE...
Happy New Year! The past month has been very busy
for all of us, and as we all breath a huge sigh of
relief after surviving yet another holiday season,
I would like to take a moment to thank all of our staff
members and families for their support and encouragement as I have gotten settled in at the Center.
We have a wonderful program here and I continue to
be amazed by the dedication and commitment to our
children that I see on a daily basis from our teachers,
parents, and board members—hats off to all of you,
and best wishes for 2008!
Jennifer
CENTER UPDATES
•
Pre-K Winter Song Festival Photos– Thank you to
all of our families who were able to attend the
Pre-K Winter Song Festival. Our children and
teachers worked very hard to prepare for their
performance, and the result was fantastic! For
those of you who had your cameras, we are collecting photos and video for a slide show and
would love to have copies (on CD or DVD) of your
favorite shots!
•
Parents’ Night Out– We have had several requests from our families for ongoing Parents’
Night Out, so in 2008 we will be offering evening
childcare here at the Center on a Friday evening
every other month. Our next Parents’ Night
Out will be Friday, February 15th, 6—10 p.m.
The cost will be $25 per child, and $15 for each
additional sibling— dinner will be provided!
•
Parking at TCC– As you are aware, the parking
spaces in the upper lot of the Center are very
limited, and recently people have been using the
disabled and load/unload slots for other parking.
To help with this issue, our staff members will no
longer be using the upper parking lot to free up
more spaces for parents who are dropping off
and picking up. We are asking our families to
help us by saving our disabled parking spaces for
those with disabled parking permits, and by
limiting parking in our load/unload slots to 15
minutes (please do not use these slots when
parking at the Center for evening meetings or
events). Thank you for your cooperation!
MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
Upcoming Activities and Events—
sponsored by the TCC Parent Council
RAFFLE TICKET SALE—February 2008
We’ll be raffling off a grand prize of a night on the
town including a stay in a suite at the gorgeous Hotel
Andra and $100 towards dinner for two at Lola ($439
total value); 2nd prize is a chance to spice up your
home with two gallons of YOLO Colorhouse
environmentally responsible paint ($80 value). Our
goal is to have each family sell at least 20 tickets.
The family who sells the most raffle tickets will also
win a $50 certificate good towards a discount on your
child care tuition for the month of April.
“ROLL YOUR OWN” JAPANESE DINNER– March 3rd
Here’s a chance to socialize and dine with other TCC
parents while learning how to make sushi and other
Japanese delicacies. Meanwhile, your children will be
socializing and dining with their TCC friends and enjoying some fun activities under the watchful eyes of
our beloved teachers. Catering will be provided by
WARABI, a great new restaurant in Shoreline owned by
one of our Pre-K families (Takahiro and Shoko Kuno).
More information about the event will be posted soon!
STAFFING UPDATES
As some of you may be aware, our full time teacher
Ana is expecting a baby boy in April. Ana and her
baby are both doing well, but she has been placed
on bedrest for the remainder of her pregnancy. Ana
does plan to return to the Center after taking a few
months off with her baby. In the meantime, Weifen
will be working in the Toddler room in the mornings
with Renata, Val, and Devona. One of our summer
teachers, Meron, will be returning to help work in
the Toddler classroom in the afternoons as well.
TCC Wish List
Looking for an item to donate? We
are always in need of equipment and
supplies— here is the latest round of
requests from our classrooms.
•
DIGITAL CAMERA– Our digital camera is on it’s
last leg, and we would love to have a new or
gently used, sturdy digital camera to capture
those memorable moments in our classrooms.
Also, we are collecting photos to use for our 2008
calendar, and would appreciate copies of your
favorite TCC photos (on CD).
•
REVOLVING DISCO MIRROR BALL AND LIGHTSSeriously! Help us add some rainy day fun to our
classrooms with an impromptu dance party! We
would like both the revolving mirror disco balls
and the multi-colored light disco balls (both are
available at www.target.com). The first person
to donate one of these items will win a mystery
disco CD from our own Executive Director’s
personal collection!
•
DRIED FLOWERS/POTPOURRI– Our fall floral
centerpieces were such a big hit at the Arts and
Crafts Sale, we have decided to create another
round for the Japanese dinner coming up in
March. We are in need of dried and artificial
flower arrangements, tissue paper, ribbon, and
potpourri supplies for this project. Please contact Tomoko in our Pre-K classroom for morespecific information.
•
OFFICE DESKS– We are in need of two small or
medium-sized office desks (preferably one with
locking drawers) for both our main office and our
soon–to-be-created teacher’s office, which will
be located in the storage room next to the
Community Room.
•
PAINTING SUPPLIES- In upcoming months we
will be painting our classrooms and would love to
have donations of extendable rollers and pads,
painter’s tape, plastic sheeting for the floors,
and any other painting supplies you can think of!
If you would like to make a donation towards the
purchase of the paint or have supplies to donate,
please contact Jennifer in the office.
•
HOUSE PLANTS- Our classrooms need some new
life (and oxygen)! Do you have a green thumb
and non-toxic houseplants that are in need of a
new home? We would greatly appreciate any donations of low-maintenance, non-poisonous house
plants to brighten up our building during these
long winter months.
2008 INSERVICE DATES
The votes are in– after surveying our families and
coordinating schedules with our trainers, we have
chosen the following closure days for our 2008
inservice training days:
•
Tuesday, Feb. 19th
•
Thursday, July 3rd
•
Friday, April 4th
•
Tuesday, Nov. 11th
Please be aware that we have tried to arrange our
closure dates to provide the least amount of disruption for our families. By supporting the professional
development of our staff members, we are helping
to maintain the high standard and quality child care
that our children and families depend on each day.
We appreciate your understanding!
FUNDRAISING UPDATES
Our “Fall Into The Arts” sale last month was a big
success, and we raised $2250 in calendar, arts and
craft sales, and donations. These funds will be used
specifically to support our extracurricular activities,
including our music and movement classes, and to
purchase equipment and supplies for our classrooms.
Thank you to all who were able to attend, and thank
you to all our volunteers who helped with the sale!
We are also very grateful to all of our families who
were able to contribute to the Staff Holiday Gift
Fund. This year, we received almost $3000 in donations which went directly to our teaching staff in
time for the holidays!
BABIES, BABIES, AND MORE BABIES!
TCC families have been very busy lately.
Congratulations to the Chin/Ridenour family
on the birth of their twins, Riley and Cooper,
and to the Macebo family on the birth of their
baby boy, Isaac. All three were born in the
month of November and are doing great!