It’s registration time! The January general meeting will be your opportunity for current families to register children for the 2016/2017 preschool year. Bring your $100 deposit fee if you are registering a child for next year.
The executive would like your very quick and valuable feedback on the class and family photo shoot that Notting Hill Photography provided for us last month.
It is a very small 6 question survey that should take no longer than 30 seconds plus additional feedback response writing time.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/W9LY9GC
All answers are completely anonymous unless you identify yourself for follow up conversation and detailed feedback would be most appreciated so that we can improve it for next year.
2016 Important Tax Information
Did you know you can claim your preschool fees on your tax return? The person with the lower net income may claim preschool tuition as childcare provided that they have earned income. CRA’s current stance on this (per Income Tax folio S1-F3-C1) is that payments made to an educational institution for a child under the compulsory school age (e.g., preschool) are generally considered child care rather than education, unless facts indicate otherwise. As such, preschool tuition would generally qualify (unless facts indicate otherwise).
If the lower income spouse does not have any earned income, or any income at all, then tuition can be applied to the arts credit by the higher income spouse. Also, if the preschool tuition paid exceeds the childcare deduction limit for the individual, you can apply the excess, up to $500, to the child arts amount. Here is a link to describe what a prescribed program is and criteria to be claimed for the child arts amount:
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/tpcs/ncm-tx/rtrn/cmpltng/ddctns/lns360-390/370/prgrm-eng.html
QPPS meets the required criteria of a prescribed program, so you can claim tuition fees under the arts credit.
If you have further questions or would like a receipt for tax purposes please send an email to qpps.receipts@gmail.com.
Tips for Getting Organized this January
I stumbled upon a blog with some great advice (how can you tell I was searching for January resolutions?). Here are some helpful tips if getting organized is part of your new year resolutions (in all honesty – not sure my resolution will last long enough to pull these off – but good luck to you!)
- Follow the Law of Conservation of Toys. Create a simple trade-in system to keep toy clutter to a minimum.
- Match secondhand clothes before you leave the store. Create outfits to get the best value.
- Digitize your kid’s artwork and school papers to reduce clutter. Hang onto those art treasures without having to save all of the bulky paper.
- Over-the-door shoe organizer as small toy collector. A little tip with a big impact. Turns messy piles of Barbies, Beanie Babies, and action figures into sleek, easy-to-play-with collections.
- “Chore board” helps postpartum visitors help you. During those first couple weeks with a new baby, few of us have the brainpower to delegate tasks to well-meaning visitors. With this hack, you won’t have to.
- Fashion a no-build “closet” out of a curtain rod and a bookshelf.Keeping a kid’s room tidy is so much easier when everything has a place. This hack works well for kids’ clothes or for the dress-up collection.
- Keeping Lego sets organized: Ziplocs and cookie sheets. Everyone needs a good Lego hack.
- Getting organized: Do the small stuff NOW. Life with kids can feel like one distraction after another, and often, the little tasks we intend to do later never get done. Follow David Allen’s Getting Things Done advice: if it takes two minutes or less, do it now and get it off your mind.
There are more tips and parent hacks on the site – here is the link: http://zenhabits.net/top-20-parent-hacks-tips-for-organization-kid-optimization-and-happiness/
Nutrition Column: 5 Foods that Fuel your Body’s Furnace
Think of your metabolism as an internal furnace that keeps your body working and warm. You want foods that take longer for your body to process, because the longer it takes to convert food to sugar, the less often you have to add more fuel. Fibre, protein and fat are all examples of these foods. With so little time to work on our New Year health goals here are some quick tips to keep your furnace working:
- People think a skimpy diet will help, but in fact it will work in the opposite way you want it to by slowing down your metabolism! Regular exercise and slight calorie deficits are more effective for weight loss than repeated extreme low-calorie diets as these low-calorie diets make your furnace want to save wood (aka fat) for later. Your mood and energy level will also be effected when your calorie deficient making you more likely to be lazy and reach for highly processed convenient foods.
- Green tea. Some studies show a small increase in metabolic rate after drinking green tea. Tea’s combination of caffeine, flavonoids and the antioxidant, catechin, may not only help your body burn fat, but also offer a plethora of other health benefits.
- Spicy foods. Jalapeños, cayenne, and chili peppers all contain capsaicin, which has been shown to raise your metabolic rate for about 30 minutes after you eat it. Yay for Tuesday Taco night!
- Low GI foods. Whole grains such as millet, barley, buckwheat, oats or al dente pasta all take less time to convert to sugar in your blood making you feel full for longer.
- Water. A study found that participants who drank more cold water showed a 30 percent increase in metabolism rate for about 30 to 40 minutes afterward. While dehydration has the opposite effect – it slows your metabolism by as much as 3%. Drinking water also helps you feel more full and helps ensure you don’t mistake thirst for hunger.
Jess Pirnak is a Registered Dietitian working in Vancouver. She is passionate about education, prevention and creating a healthy community. In her spare time she updates her personal food blog (www.foodyourself.com) where she discusses hot topics in nutrition.
3-Year Old Classroom Information
Hello and welcome back! We are looking forward too seeing you all again! As we welcome everyone back to preschool, please plan to spend a little extra time with your child(ren) as they settle back into routine and get comfortable again. They sometimes need an extra moment or two to say hello to their friends, find their cubbies, wash their hands and choose an activity. If you could too, check to see how their feet fit into their inside shoes. We know how much they have grown since September!
After a month of Jingle Bells and requests to have the instruments out (again!) for marching bands and musical exploration, this month (on January 19) we have a couple musicians coming for a visit. Ann and Michael will be bringing their Indonesian Gamelan with them for us to explore! To prepare everyone, we will be talking a lot about instruments and how to respectfully play with them. We will be making a few instruments of our own and using them frequently throughout playtime too.
Hopefully, we will get a chance to play with some snow this month? In lieu of the real stuff, we’ll be using our imaginations for indoor carpet skating and ice play of all sorts. We will also be revisiting dinosaurs as they continue to be a favourite of many of the children. Chinese New Year is the beginning of February so we’ll be getting ready for that too!
Quote of the Month:
A child and Teacher Donna are getting ready to go outside in the cubby area. The child is curious about the photos on the cubbies of the children in the other classes and wants to know their names and which class they are in.
Donna starts listing their names and respective classes:
“That’s a picture of (boy), he’s in the 3’s, and that’s (girl), she’s in the 3’s, and that’s (boy) and he’s in the 4’s, and that’s (girl), she’s in the 4’s….”
Child looks at Donna and adds: “Yoda’s in the 4’s!” (And it is strong with him!)
Your Teachers,
Jenny and Donna
4-Year Old Classroom Information
Welcome back to preschool! We hope that you all had a restful and fun-filled break! We want to thank all the families for the thoughtful gifts and cards that were given to us before the holidays. What a treat they were!
As you arrive back at preschool during the first week, please give yourself and your child a few extra minutes at drop-off time. Sometimes after a break everyone needs a little bit of “warm-up” time to remember routines and feel comfortable. As soon as your child is “back in the swing of things”, we encourage you to work towards a bit more independence with them by saying goodbye at the door or at their cubbies, and then allowing them to do the handwashing/shoe routine on their own. If it is cold and snowy, please make sure that your child has cold weather gear (snow pants/coat, mittens, hat), so that he/she can play out in the snow. The children may have grown since September, so you may also want to check the size of their indoor shoes.
Before the break we had noticed that many of the children loved “cooking pancakes” in the house corner. Because of this we thought that it would be fun to do a “Pancake and Pajama Day” on Friday, January 15. We would like the children to wear their pajamas to preschool, along with slippers if they wish, and then we will make real pancakes for snack that day. Duty parents are also welcome to wear pajamas if they wish!
We have observed that the children seem quite interested in vehicles of various kinds (including the Polar Express train, Star Wars space ships and Paw Patrol transport cars.) We will explore this at preschool by creating different vehicles out of various materials from such as blocks, lego and other loose parts. We will also do some experiments with motion including ramps, air rockets and catapults. As it is the colder time of year, we also plan to do some “wintry” activities (especially if it snows!)
We wish you all a Happy New Year as well,
Your teachers,
Barb and Eleanor
Things to Remember:
- First day back at preschool is Jan. 4, 2016
- “Pancake and Pajama Day” – Jan. 15
- “Preschool in the Park” – Jan. 22
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