De-Clutter and Support Your School!
Spring Cleaning is such a transformative experience.
Who knew that thinning a bookshelf or tackling that front hall closet you avoid could feel so powerful? At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic I channeled my anxiety into cleaning and reorganizing the house. I set out to conquer “the creep” that tends to take over corners and closets during the daily bustle of kids and jobs. I wanted my home office back! I wanted to not feel guilty about buying new workout clothes! I wanted to feel like we were moving forward in an uncertain time.
The world is opening again, and rather than “going back to normal,” most of us have embraced the fact that it will be a WHOLE NEW ERA. A totally new definition of normal.
The best way to make that “new normal” a WAY BETTER normal than to start out with an old favorite, Spring Cleaning.
Here at Common Ground, we are doing just that! We are emptying our old storage units and thinning out our book collections (have no fear! We support child literacy more than ever before, we just don’t need 18 copies of “The Foot Book” floating around in the back of our closets).
What will we do with all this STUFF? Some of it is quite beloved and well taken care of, some of it is barely used but we certainly do not need it taking up space.
On our quest to REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE, we found a company called FUNDrive. Their incredible business model encourages groups of people and schools like us to get together and collect gently used items to donate!
Our drop-off date is not until June 5th, but ‘Spring Cleaning’ is happening as we speak! Save up those donation items and you will only have to do one drop-off.
Instead of trying to find different places to donate all of your myriad items, just bring them straight to us.
1. The donations will cost you nothing!
2. You are giving your house a spruce up!
3. You are helping your community recycle perfectly fine items instead of creating waste, and offering quality goods to people at more affordable prices.
4. You are helping your school by helping us raise funds through no cost to you.
We are looking to raise $1000 by cleaning out your closets and cabinets of GENTLY USED items. Help us get to our goal by helping us collect AT LEAST 120 full 33 gallon size bags and 100 small boxes. (there is no limit! I think we can blast through that number, but let's have a baseline) Ask your friends, neighbors and coworkers to do the same and make your pledge today!
DATES TO DROP OFF ITEMS:
Friday, June 4th from 7:45 AM-6:00 PM
Saturday, June 5th from 8:00AM-12:00PM
Drop off will be at Common Ground Childcare: 1700 Wainwright Drive, Ste 2, Reston VA 20190.
ITEM PICK UP DATES:
TBD: If there are enough people interested in this, we may schedule a “pick up” for items before our time slot on June 5th.
If you need help with lifting bags/boxes, please let us know: lj@commongroundchildcare.org
**IF NONE OF THE ABOVE DATES WORK FOR YOU: Please contact LJ Donnell: 703.498.9073/lj@commongroundchildcare.org. We will find a way to help you, store your things, et cetera.
SAVE THE DATE (June 4th and 5th). SAVE YOUR STUFF (clothes, accessories, small household items, books). SAVE THE WORLD (every little bit counts).
Love Love Love,
LJ and your Common Ground Family
Common Ground Celebrates: Week of the Young Child
We are excited to celebrate the 50th annual ‘Week of the Young Child’ with NAEYC just one week after Common Ground turns 49!
The Week of the Young Child is a chance for us to spotlight how we impact early childhood experiences. From the work we do in our classrooms to our advocacy work, we are excited to share Common Ground far and wide!
Each day the week of April 10th we will be celebrating a center wide theme! The classroom teachers will put their own spin on how they celebrate in their rooms to keep our fun age and developmentally appropriate!
‘All Smiles’ Saturday - we will be open for care from 9:30am to 2:30pm, since we know that Saturday hours put a smile on our parents faces!
Music Monday will feature an outdoor concert from Mr. Josh
Tasty Tuesday will include in class treats, and a chance to pick up dinner when you pick your kiddo up!
Work Together Wednesday will focus on working as a team to plant our gardens on the Common Ground grounds!
Artsy Thursday will feature amazing art work from all classes.
Family Friday will highlight how families, not just the kids that attend, are what make the Common Ground Community special!
During this week, we ask that you participate by sharing your support on your social media channels by sharing what Common Ground (and quality early childhood education) means to your family. You can:
share our posts
share photos of your child enjoying our activities
share your participation in some of our fun “at home” activities that we will share with you that support our themes
purchase some of the recommended books from our book fair, since reading together is one of the greatest gifts you can give your child
If you’d like to register for our “All Smiles Saturday” care hours, please do so here. Like last time, there is a suggested donation of $25 per child, however we know that the value of a few hours off work with care could be worth 100x that, so please don’t limit yourself! Donations can be made here: paypal.com/us/fundraiser/charity/1778362
Birthday at CG: Our SPRING STUFFY SLEEPOVER!
April is our Birthday Month! And to give it a GRAND FINALE, we are hosting another SUPER POPULAR SPRING STUFFY SLEEPOVER!
What is a Stuffy Sleepover? We are glad you asked!
Kids bring their favorite toy. It can be a stuffed animal, a doll, an action-figure, an excavator! They leave them in the loving care of our teachers for a night of music, books, and awesome activities. Kids can watch their favorite toys play with their best friends’ favorite toys from either Facebook Live or YouTube.
Basically, it is a heartfelt way for kids to be together without BEING together.
We had seen them before, Scrawl Books does an especially fun series of them featuring amazing children’s authors.
They are ridiculous fun for everyone involved. CHECK OUT OUR VIDEOS FROM THAT NIGHT ON OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL
STUFFY SLEEPOVER VIDEOS
On Friday, April 30th, the stuffies will come into Common Ground for a night of fun! This time, we are going to have our Mr. Josh sing-a-long around a CAMP FIRE! We will roast marshmallows, look at the stars, and read books about Spring. We will play outside, eat delicious snacks, and make something delightful for our kids at home. After that, we will camp out under the stars and dream of adventures with our Common Ground Family.
Our Featured Author is the warm-hearted, endlessly talented Andrea Lamont.
We will be reading her book “The Magic Friendship Rock,” a lovely story about imagination, art, and the absolute magic of friendship. The stuffys will bring home a copy of this book along with some other fun story-themed surprises to share with their friends.
The next morning on the First of May we will take all the stuffed animals (and other friends) home on the Common Ground Bus with a delightful goodie bag to share with their kiddo to remind them of all the fun things they did the night before.
Does this sound amazing? It does to us too. We could barely wait until Spring to party with all our magnificent stuffy friends again!
Sign Up Right Here!
$30.00 Donation to our COMMON GROUND BIRTHDAY Campaign gets you a ticket for the stuffy sleepover! It includes the goodie-bags, the fun, the live-videos, and more surprises!
Then you can drop your stuffed animal off on Thursday the 29th or Friday the 30th at the center (we will email you with the details when you register!) and it will be delivered home via the Common Ground Bus!
The money raised will go towards necessary educational initiatives at Common Ground Childcare.
In the spirit of OUR BIRTHDAY, since we cannot all BE together, at least we can celebrate together.
Miss LJ
Earth Hour: A Moment to Pause and Reflect
Saturday, March 27th at 8:30 PM local time is Earth Hour.
What is Earth Hour?
Traditionally, global skylines have gone dark and millions of individuals have turned off their lights for Earth Hour as a symbolic gesture to their commitment to preserving our planet.
EarthHour.Org encourages people to participate in the hopes to keep nature loss and climate change top of mind. It is that mindfulness and reflection that will encourage people of every generation to stop and reflect on the lovely fragility of this earth that holds the entirety of our past, our present, and our future.
The World Wildlife Post is hosting a meditative hour for peace and mindfulness Here. You can sign up for text reminders Here.
Reflection may be an important step, but it’s just the FIRST step. There are so many things you can do, even as an individual, to change the world for the better.
Educate Yourself
Earth Hour has links on Nature Loss and Biodiversity, Climate Change, and Potential Solutions Here
World Wildlife Fund has several excellent links on what’s at stake, what needs to change, and how we can help Here
Nasa talks about the proof of Climate Change Here
COTAP.org talks about several ways to reduce your Carbon Footprint Here
The Rainforest Alliance offers tips on how to teach your kids about Climate Change Here
One Planet One Future has a video lesson series coming out that you can watch Here
SCRAWL BOOKS has a whole section on Science and Nature for Kids Here
Sign Petitions and Donate
Earth Hour has its pledge for educating others and finding greener ways to live Here
World Wildlife Fund has a ton of excellent petitions to go through Here and several ways to donate Here
GLOBAL DEAL FOR NATURE PETITION HERE
TWENTY GLOBAL NON-PROFITS PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT YOU CAN DONATE TO HERE
#GiveFundsGiveTime is a motto we came up with during our Giving Tuesday event last year, but we find that the concept behind it is one we want to keep top of mind ALL year long. If you don’t have the funds to donate, spend time educating yourself and others! Every time you pass on knowledge to someone, they pass it on to someone else. These good deeds ripple out. You may be one person, but one person spreading their love can change the world.
With Love,
Ms. LJ and your Common Ground Family
Friends of CG Fridays!: True Mover
HURRAY! IT’S TIME FOR OUR “FEATURED FRIENDS OF CG” FRIDAY!
This week we are bragging on someone who LITERALLY and FIGURATIVELY moved us with their professionalism, kindness, and flawless work ethic.
True Mover in Sterling — Chris and Robert will take care of you.
TrueMover is a small family of local movers born out of a passion for hard work. Their team was entirely raised in Northern Virginia, and everyone there has known one another since the days of High School sports. When asked if they enjoy the work, they said:
“It is a great blessing to be physically active every day with people that we love!”
True Mover serves all of Northern Virginia, but can and do move nationwide regularly. They offer full service moving and storage, and their warehouse is right down the street from us in Sterling, Virginia!
Our Story with True Mover
The year 2020 was stressful the world over. But here at Common Ground, the stress started a little earlier that year, and for reasons completely unrelated to the Covid-19 pandemic.
After a year-long experiment we realized we had to recombine the Common Ground Wiehle-Metro location and the Common Ground Wainwright location. Our Honeybee and Turtle Kindergarten classrooms suddenly had to be at home AND comfortable in the Great Hall, a space that had to be completely cleared and refilled every single week so that weekend groups could use the space.
We were tight on space, funds, time, and energy.
Enter our friends at True Mover.
They loaned us durable plastic storage boxes for all of our Wiehle-Metro classroom supplies.
Once everything was packed up and appropriately labeled they made quick work of emptying that center.
They took all of the essential classroom boxes to the Wainwright location and took all of the “storage boxes” into a very reasonably priced storage unit in Sterling.
They allowed us a week with the storage boxes to unpack all of our classroom items carefully in the Wainwright location.
The most incredible part was: they helped us every Friday night to empty out the Great Hall Room and reload it with all of the furniture in the right places on Sunday night. Every week. One company of movers basically solved 90% of our problems.
January and February of 2020 were really hard months. There was a lot to figure out, a lot of questions to answer, a lot of valid concerns on how we were going to make this work. Our teachers were steadfast and patient, our parents were open-minded and helpful, our children were resilient and optimistic.
Without the help of True Mover crew, it would have been impossible. We are eternally grateful and we will shout our recommendations of their work ethic and character from the rooftops.
Moving is one of the most stressful things you can do in your entire life. Hire a crew that you trust to really have your best interests at heart. Also, you know, moving with a U-Haul is really annoying.
www.thetruemover.com // chris@thetruemover.com - 703-577-6422 // robert@thetruemover.com - 571-777-0800
Movin' on Up!
We are happy to announce that Common Ground has officially been awarded the Virginia Quality Level 2 rating!
The Virginia Quality rating of Level 2 is all about staff education. We were able to earn this rating because our staff did the work to begin new educational opportunities, meet the requirements to renew expired certifications, and with my official appointment of director, we became eligible for level 2 again.
The last time Common Ground qualified for Level 2 was in 2017.
We won’t be stopping here though! Virginia Quality is being phased out by 2024, but it does give us until the summer of 2022 to obtain Level 3, which is all about curriculum, or maybe even Level 4. This will ensure that we begin under the new system at a higher rating level as well!
