Dear Parents,
We cannot believe it has been over seven weeks since we have seen our children in creche. We miss all our girls and boys so much and we cannot wait to be together in creche again for more fun learning through play. We hope you, your little ones and your families are all well and safe during this time.
Here in our May newsletter, we would like to share a few nuggets of information with you, including some activities, which we hope you will try out and enjoy with your children.
And we hope you have been continuing to enjoy the videos we have been sharing daily with you through our Facebook and Instagram social media pages.
All our Educarers and staff have enjoyed making these videos for our children and making them smile. Your feedback and positive comments back have been really heartfelt, and on behalf of the team, we would like to say thank you. We miss our children very much and this is a way for our Educarers to be able to engage with them in a small way through things that we love doing with our children in creche, like reading, singing or experimenting.
If you have yet to see our videos, please click on the social media icons below to get full access. We have also set up a Links Childcare You Tube Channel that you can subscribe to, with the videos that we have posted. This will allow you to view the videos again without having to scroll back through our social media pages.
We hope you all stay safe, maintain social distancing and we hope your children are having as much fun as they can during these times. And for our parents, please take care of yourselves too.
Best wishes and stay safe,
The Links Childcare Team
A Little Note to our Children
Hello boys & girls,
We hope you have been enjoying this time at home with your families. We just want to say that we miss you all very much and we cannot wait to see you all again soon in creche. We have lots of fun things planned for us all to do together when we are back soon.
Have you been enjoying the videos that we have shared with you? We hope so, and we will do some more for you.
Do you remember our classroom bears in our Preschool Rooms? Well of course you do! We have been in touch with them regularly via post and they wanted us to let you know that they miss you. They have been keeping busy in class, where they live, and where they have been enjoying lots of play time with the other teddy bears, dolls and toys in class. They have also being practising their music and are learning how to play the drums from a set they and their toy friends made out of card board boxes and recycled materials. Perhaps you and your families can do that too at home, and when we can all be together again, our bears would love to hear your new tunes that you have learned while at home.
We have been staying at home too during this time, and some of us would like to let you know what we have been getting up to during this time. Here is what some of them have been doing (please see below).
For now, we say good bye. But we hope you continue to sing, read and have fun at home with your families. And remember, mums and dads need a break too. Don’t forget to help clean up after yourselves—we know you are very good at helping to clean up after playtime in creche, so we are sure you are doing it at home too! Remember to sing the CLEAN UP song while you are doing it. And for the smaller children, who are too small to help clean up, extra hugs for parents would be welcome!
See you soon and miss you all,
Xxx Love from all your Educarers
The team at Links Childcare took part in #FormalFriday with Today FM, 98FM, Newstalk & Off The Ball.
It was an excuse to get dressed up to stay at home—with all monies raised going to support our Frontline Heroes from various hospitals across Ireland.
Going food shopping, exercising and playing goalies in a wedding dress, baking in a tuxedo, gardening & cleaning the kitchen & ironing in your Sunday best….it was such fun, and for such a lovely cause.
We have created a short video on our You Tube Channel to say thank you to everyone in Team Links for their amazing efforts.
Together we, and all the people of Ireland & beyond helped raise over €170K for our Frontline Heroes.
Arts & Crafts Ideas:
Shared by members from Team Links & past activities from our crèches.
Homemade Playdough
All you need is water, oil, flour and food colouring. Mix it all up to form a dough in a bowl. Play away and enjoy!
By Luighsa, our Wobbler & Toddler Senior Lead Educarer in Links Balbriggan.
Musical Play
Make yourself a set of your own drums and practice your drumming skills to your hearts content.
All you need are a few recyclable materials such as milk cartons and boxes and a few sticks.
Mona, Links Regional Manager and her daughter Alexa enjoyed making these.
Jumping Frogs
Colour in one side of your page green and the other red. Decorate it with dark green circles. Colour in your legs and arms and stick them onto your frog. Roll it into a cylinder and secure one side with sticky tape. Cut our your bug and attach it with string onto the secured side. Enjoy watching your frog jump around! By Ursula, our Educarer in Links Clonee.
Kevin the Caterpillar
Cut out a egg carton (grown ups, please help with scissors.) Colour in and stick some eyes and thin foil for little ears.
By Carolina, our Educarer in Links Citywest.
Create Obstacle Courses with Chalk
If you have some nice out door space, chalk out an obstacle course for you and your children to keep active. If it is shared space, check with your Management Company / neighbors before doing so of course.
Picture by Eliane in Links Leopardstown and her children.
Cereal Play with Babies
This activity is easy for all families. You can use any cereal that you have at home. If you introduce new cereals to baby, it will encourage them to explore the new tastes and textures. This is also great for practicing fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination, as they will try and get the different cereals and crush them in between their fingers, bring them to their mouth and pour them from one container into another. Try and encourage baby to use different size spoons to pick up the cereal. By Leyre, Links Clonee & her baby Olivia.
Some more ideas for our Children:
Let’s Play Ireland is a government-led initiative aimed at promoting play for all children living in Ireland during the COVID-19 emergency.
It is a great site with lots of ideas that you can do with the children at home during this time.
Find out more here.
Together with a team of other geniuses, renowned & much loved illustrator, Axel Scheffler, the person who brought us Stick Man, The Gruffalo, Snail & the Whale & more, as released a book for children to help them understand about the Coronavirus & our time a the moment.
To learn more & to download, go to here.
Fingal County Council as released a downloadable colouring book, where your children can enjoy colouring in their favourite outdoor spaces and playgrounds in Fingal, such as Malahide Castle, Ardgillian Castle and Newbridge House.
Click here to download.
Lidl have launched a Time Capsule book for children. Costing 1euro and available to stores, profits go to Jigsaw
Click here for more details
Cooking Corner
Here Charlie, our group Head Chef, based in Links Abington shares his recipe for Cheesy Garlic Bread. It’s a firm favourite in our creches. The children just love it!
You will need:
- 3 cloves of garlic,
- small handful of flatleaf parsley,
- 125 grams of softened butter,
- 300 grams of strong white flower,
- 100 grams of wholemeal flower,
- 1 and a half tsp of salt,
- 2 tsp of sugar,
- one 7 gram sachet of fast acting yeast,
- 260 mls of warm water
- 250 grams of grated white cheddar.
Finely grate the garlic and chop the parsley together and mix in with the softened butter.
Place the flour in a bowl, add the salt and sugar and take 25 grams of the garlic butter and rub into flour until you attain a breadcrumb texture. Add 25 grams of grated cheese and stir in the sachet of yeast.
Add the water to the mix and bring ingredients together. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 10 mins.
Roll this out into 2 thin bases or 1 thick base. The kids love the thick based one. Place onto an oiled tray.
Spread your garlic butter onto your base(s) and prick all over with a fork.
Sprinkle the cheese on top and leave to prove for 30 mins to an hour. Preheat an oven at 180°C for 10 mins for thin base and 15 to 20 mins for a thick base.
Allow to cool slightly and eat while still warm. Enjoy.
Mindfulness Corner
