Newsletter: November 9th
Dear Parents,
Thank you for making Trunk-or-Treat a magical event for us! We had so much fun connecting with our families that we have a few more outdoor events coming down the pike so make sure you keep reading our newsletters.
After the fun on Friday, a parent asked about exchanging phone numbers with other parents in the center for playdates! We thought we could take it a step further and do a Common Ground directory! This will be an internal PDF document that we will send via Brightwheel so that it stays off the internet. If you DO NOT want your information included, please make sure to fill out this form.
Veteran’s Day is this Thursday, November 11. We are OPEN as usual. FCPS has a 2 hour early dismissal for school aged children and we will be picking up as usual, just 2 hours earlier!
Play Date - Saturday from 3-4:30pm
We had so much fun having parents and kids on site for Halloween, that we thought we’d have a “Play Date” this Saturday! So meet us at the Common Ground playground this Saturday from 3pm to 4:30pm to hang out with other parents at the center and let your kids enjoy our awesome playground!
We will have the building unlocked for restroom access and will have jugs of hot chocolate and water! No need to sign up, as this is just an informal opportunity to let your kids meet up with their friends and for you to chat with their parents!
And don’t forget to sign up for our Saturday Hours where the teachers will be here to hang with your kids while you go out and shop! https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0f4faca723abff2-saturday and make your donation: https://www.paypal.com/us/fundraiser/charity/1778362
Thanksgiving Boxes
Common ground is participating in the annual Cornerstones Thanksgiving Box Food drive. Our classrooms will be assembling the boxes!
Please see this post for more details: https://www.commongroundchildcare.org/blog-1/2021/11/1/thanksgiving-boxes
Or just sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0f4faca723abff2-thanksgiving
Our 5-11 year olds are getting Vaccinated!
Read Miss LJ’s account of Juliet’s vaccination on our blog: https://www.commongroundchildcare.org/blog-1/2021/11/9/kids-and-covid-juliet-gets-her-covid-shot
One of our long time parents, Michelle Wiss, has also volunteered to speak with any parents who have questions regarding the covid vaccine and children. She vaccinated her two daughters (ages 11 and 5) the first week it was available as well! You can email her here or reach out to Liz to her her phone number!
If your child is eligible for vaccination you can schedule it:
through your pediatrician
at several pharmacies
through this site: https://guest.vams.cdc.gov/?jurisdiction=FX
Holiday Gifts/Teacher Bonuses
Each year we ask that parents pool their resources to award the Teachers a combination Holiday Gift/Teacher Bonus.
Please follow this link to read the letter from the board and sign up to pledge the donation amount you wish to give. Common Ground will be matching the funds donated by parents!
The Stuffy Sleepover is BACK
We are excited to announce that Mr. Josh will be back for the Stuffy Sleepover!
Your stuffies don’t want to miss this amazing event!
Sign up here: https://www.commongroundchildcare.org/blog-1/2020/11/17/givefundsgivetime-the-stuffy-sleepover-np826-98jak
Thank you for reading our Newsletter!
We love that you are a part of our community.
Love,
the CG Team
Newsletter: October 27
Dear Parents,
It’s Halloween week with RAIN in the forecast for Friday.
Trunk-or-Treat RAIN DATE
We are moving Trunk or Treat to Friday, November 5th, due to rain. We have added an FAQ section to the Trunk or Treat Blog, please check it out HERE.
WE WILL STILL BE DOING TRICK OR TREATING ON THE 29TH. The kids will be trick or treating to each classroom door. While we cannot have our parents come into the building, we will provide plenty of pictures and videos so you don’t miss out, and we still ask that you all come to the trunk or treat event happening next week!
October 29th:
Please make sure to send your kids in regular clothes, but pack their costumes for trick or treating in the afternoon. That way they won’t be stuck in their costumes all day, but won’t miss out on the fun! We will be trick or treating from 4:30-5:30PM starting with babies and moving through by age.
It is going to be raining!! Please Send your kids with appropriate rain gear.
November 5th: Read everything you need to know about our updated Trunk or Treat HERE. We will post more updates next week!
Speaking of Inclement Weather…
Autumn has been really showing its colors this week! This is as good a time as any to let you know about our AUTUMN WEATHER SUPPLY LIST that each kid needs to be comfortable and happy at school.
We are outside rain or shine barring extreme weather only. Rain Jacket, Rain Boots, Wind Breaker, see what else your kid needs to handle the cold, wet, and windy days.
COMPLETE Supplies List — If you want to get ahead for any of the other seasons, check out our complete list for every type of weather!
Common Ground is embracing the tenants of Conscious Discipline
Do you ever wish you knew how to better communicate with kids? So do we. As teachers, we are always looking for incredible new ways to guide and teach the next generation. Conscious Discipline is a mindset we have been learning to embrace at all times to teach our children using love instead of fear.
We really want to share our journey with you, so we will be sharing some Conscious Discipline Spotlights for the next couple of weeks!
CLICK HERE to check out a little introduction on Conscious Discipline, followed by a description of S.T.A.R. Breathing, an essential tool when teaching kids how to communicate what they need. Want more? Check out these links!
Instagram I Blog I Free Webinars I Podcast I Discipline Tips I Extra Info Links I Methodology I Our Blog
On-Site Rapid Tests!
With the BinaxNOW Rapid Antigen Test, the same rapid test being performed at pediatricians offices, now available over the counter, Common Ground is now able to offer rapid antigen testing on site for the following two conditions:
a mild symptom that develops overnight that would not otherwise exclude a child for care
to return to care after staying home for illness, when the child does not have a doctor’s note or negative test lab report
We are excited to be able to offer this “yes” answer for parents who have struggled to get appointments or have asked that we accept rapid tests.
We’re STAMP Happy!
Did you see the announcement? Common Ground now has THREE Virginia Notaries on staff! We’re happy to help you with all your notary needs for no additional charge!
You can see the announcement on our blog here: https://www.commongroundchildcare.org/blog-1/2021/10/20/need-a-notary-we-have-3
Thank you for reading this!
And thank you for being a part of our community~
Love,
The CG Team
Newsletter: October 19
Dear Parents,
It’s been a busy start to the week!
Common Ground is participating in the Preschool Development Block Grant for the first time. This a federal grant that provides money directly to Early Childhood Educators that participate in quality improvement programs as part of the Unifying Framework for Early Childhood Education. In Virginia, we are using the CLASS tool developed by Teachstone for observations. Our CLASS observers are currently from the Fairfax County Office for Children, though we plan to have our admin team trained to become CLASS observers in 2022!
The CLASS tool focuses on observations of interactions between the teacher and the children. This evidence based tool that provides a shared lens and language between the teacher and observer, so that coaching can help the teacher improve and grow! It’s been really wonderful to get to be a part of this observation process, since this fall the observations are virtual! And I have to say, our teachers are pretty amazing!
We’d also like to share this episode of The Daily with you: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/12/podcasts/the-daily/is-child-care-a-public-responsibility.html
Laundry Sign Up
We need families to sign up for Laundry please: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0f4faca723abff2-laundry
On Friday, October 15th, we had a DAY LONG PIZZA PARTY!
We are big fans of themes here at Common Ground, and if there is an opportunity to integrate FUN into eating, we are going to take it! All of our classes got to have Ledo’s cheese pizza, and they chowed down! We also had several families get in on the fun that evening.
To read more about how Pizza Parties can help Picky Eaters (And to see a whole bunch of adorable pictures) CLICK HERE.
To get the yummy Little Caesar’s goods for your own Pizza Party, CLICK HERE.
Spotlight on our Kindergarten and School Age Classes
Our School Age and Jellyfish programs exemplify everything we love about learning at Common Ground Childcare. Miss Janette and Ms. Victoria really get to know the students in their care, take account of what they need, and make sure they provide for them in a patient, structured way. In doing so, these kids feel confident in trying new things and exploring their curiosity.
CLICK HERE to see more about their science experiments, creative projects, and SUPER FUN ACTIVITIES!
Trunk or Treat NEXT FRIDAY!!
We are doing our ultra fun TRUNK OR TREAT on October 29th from 4:30-5:30PM and we still have spaces for any parent that wants to participate!
WE ARE DRESSING UP! WE ARE TRICKING AND TREATING! WE ARE DANCING TO THE MONSTER MASH!
Read more about it HERE. Too excited to read more and just want to sign up for a trunk space? Sign up directly HERE.
With that, thank you for being a part of our community!
Love,
The Common Ground Team
Newsletter: October 12
Dear Parents,
We hope you had a wonderful three day weekend! We know that our staff really appreciated the day off to recharge! We have a lot of information to share in this newsletter!
COVID
We have two pieces of information to share with you.
First, we have had to quarantine both of our infant classrooms again due to a child testing positive for covid. The child has very mild symptoms of nasal congestion that developed on Friday and persisted through the weekend. They were tested on Monday and it returned a positive result. We are working with the health department on the next steps for those classrooms, but as of this point all students in both classrooms that attended the center last week are at home in quarantine. We have determined that there were no additional contacts within the center.
Miss Adella also tested positive for covid when testing for her return trip from Barbados. She is currently doing well and has no symptoms, but has to quarantine before she can return to the US. We do not currently have a return date for her.
Teachers are getting booster shots! We are very lucky again that the FDA felt that educators should be included for Booster Shots! We are working through making sure that every staff member who wishes to get a booster has the opportunity and time to be able to do so! As of right now, Liz, LJ, Victoria, Susie, Gitti, and HuiHui have all gotten boosted!
Covid Policy Reminder:
If your child becomes symptomatic, you must provide a lab report indicating a negative covid test result or a doctors note indicating that an alternative diagnosis (not covid) has been made with instructions from the physician on when they can return to care. Keep in mind that a doctor may give return to care instructions that are different from our policies that are in place through our state licensing requirements or the local health department. In that case, the center policy will be followed. At this time, then health department has recommended that we not accept the results of at home rapid antigen testing for return to care.
Asymptomatic siblings must remain home until you have provided the lab results or physician’s note for the symptomatic sibling.
Covid symptoms in children are as follows:
Fever or chills
Cough
Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
Fatigue and “not acting like themselves”
Muscle or body aches
Headache
New loss of taste or smell
Sore throat
Congestion or runny nose
Nausea or vomiting
Diarrhea
If you have any questions please check our FAQ, email Liz, or call/text Liz.
OPEN HOUSE SATURDAY MORNING: 10AM-12PM
** Please Park ON THE BLACKTOP ONLY. The gate will be open!!!**
Reminder that we will be having our fall open house this Saturday morning from 10am to 12pm. This is an opportunity to stop by to see your child’s classroom and speak briefly with their teachers! We ask that you:
wear a mask
stay home if you are sick
plan to keep your time with the teacher brief
spend no more than 10 minutes indoors
keep social distance from children not in your own household, especially when indoors
But before the open house…
Friday night is PIZZA NIGHT!
Common Ground is hosting Reston’s Largest Pizza Party Ever!! This is an event that anyone that can participate in. Just have pizza with your family on Friday night share with us that you participated! You can upload photos here and RSVP to our event on Facebook!
Enjoy Pizza Nights? Have some extra delicious pizza kits ready to go in your freezer from our Little Caesar’s Pizza Fundraiser!
Classroom Spotlight:
Our 4s teachers are absolutely incredible at what they do to get their kiddos ready for kindergarten.What’s the main thing they focus on? Self-Motivated Learning. This requires our preschoolers to feel safe, supported, and free to explore their surroundings without fear.
How do they help their preschool students feel comfortable in the classroom? Read all about it HERE
Thank you for being a part of our community! Please make sure you check out our upcoming events below!
Love, The CG Team
Newsletter: October 6
Dear Common Ground Community!
First up, we want to remind you that we are CLOSED on Monday, October 11th for the Federal Holiday.
We have also launched our PIZZA FUNDRAISER! You can click through to the blog post or just order your pizza kit here. Common Ground will be hosting Reston’s Largest Pizza Party on Friday, October 15th! You don’t have to get a pizza kit to participate, just have pizza with your family, snap a photo, and upload it here. We will be using the photos on our website and social media, but won’t be sharing any personally identifying information.
It is officially Autumn in Reston and we are celebrating in style! We are doing our ultra fun TRUNK OR TREAT on October 29th from 4:30-5:30PM!
WE ARE DRESSING UP! WE ARE TRICKING AND TREATING! WE ARE DANCING TO THE MONSTER MASH! Read more about it HERE. Too excited to read more and just want to sign up for a trunk space? Sign up directly HERE.
Speaking of Autumn, our Bubble Buddies, Little Penguins, and Playful Pandas teachers are so amazing about getting our little ones outside daily, rain or shine. They let them play with age appropriate toys, practice their walking skills, or sometimes just read them a book in the bright sunshine! It is such a joy to see them go on their mini-adventures. How do we do this all year, rain or shine, cold or hot weather? Take a peek at our EXTRA DAILY SUPPLIES for all seasons!
As we head continue on into the fall, we would like to remind you that these newsletters, our calendar, and our blog are the best way to stay up to date on what is going on at Common Ground. You can also stay engaged through our Facebook Community Group!
As always, thank you for being a part of our Community!
Love, The CG Team
Newsletter: September 24
Dear Common Ground Community,
We apologize for having to reschedule yesterday’s classroom open house.
We are happy to announce that we will be having a Saturday Morning Open House on October 16th. This will be an opportunity for you to drop by, see you child’s classroom, and chat with the teachers. The open house will be from 9am to 11am.
This will be a drop-in event and the playground will be open for children to play. We do ask that you plan to stagger your time in the building and keep a social distance while inside. Masks will also be required for all people aged 3 and up indoors and 5 and up outdoors.
Speaking of Saturdays,
We are bringing back Saturday hours on December 11th! Sign up here.
We hope that you enjoy these 5 hours of time to get any last minute holiday shopping done or just some non-work, kid free time! There is a suggested donation of $25 per child, but again, these funds will also go into our non-profit mission to help with teacher education and training!
Please check out our blog:
Miss LJ has worked hard to make sure that all of our upcoming events have a post AND she has done a spotlight of our twos and threes team! https://www.commongroundchildcare.org/blog-1/2021/9/23/team-spotlight-monkeys-and-stars-are-rocking-autumn
Have a FANTASTIC weekend!
Love,
The CG Team
Newsletter: September 21
Dear Parents,
It might not feel like fall this week, but our fall program is off to a spectacular start! This THURSDAY is our Fall Open House! You’re invited to pop into your child’s classroom for 5 minutes between 5:30pm and 6pm. We ask that only two families visit inside at a time.
We want to thank you for coming to our Ice Cream Social at Baskin Robbins last week. We were able to raise DOUBLE from our last fundraiser there! These funds will kick off our pot for our Christmas Teacher Bonuses.
Each year, Common Ground collets donations from families and then matches those funds in order to provide our hard working teachers with a nice Christmas Bonus/Gift. If you’d like to contribute, you can make a tax deductible donation through our PayPal Giving Fund or by emailing Liz and she can invoice you through Brightwheel for the donation.
Our next fundraising event will take place throughout the month of October, so stay tuned for details!
Speaking of October…
It’s time to sign up for our annual Trunk-or-Treat! See the post all about it here.
Back to the Present: Our flu shot clinic is NEXT WEEK!
We are so excited to be hosting an outdoor flu shot clinic again this year! They can do immunizations for anyone 4 years old and up! Please see this post or sign up here!
Thank you for being a part of our community!
Love,
The CG Team
Newsletter: August 30
Dear Parents,
We have been in a bit of a transitional period as we prepare for the start of our school year! We have made it through our first week of Kindergarten and our FCPS before and after care program and we are happy to say that we feel confident that our “cohort/team” mitigation plan for the fall will help to keep our center open.
Covid Update
As you know, we have had quite a few covid cases connected to the center over the last month as the delta variant has surged in the area. Please remember to stay extra vigilant, as 3 of the 7 cases connected to our center in the last month have been in fully vaccinated adults who were masking in public places. You can always use the graphic associated with our Community Pledge when assessing the risk of certain activities. We have been working with the Fairfax County Health Department to make sure that we are doing everything we need to do to protect the center and would like to share the following updates:
Virginia is expected to surpass the January peak number of infections within the next 4-6 weeks
Children are being infected and hospitalized at a greater number, though the risk of severe disease does not seem to be increased at this time
Emergency Use Authorization for the Pfizer vaccine in children 5-12 years old is expected by the end of 2021
Experts speculate that the vaccine won’t be approved for children under the age of 5 until the end of 2022
We have been asked to report non-covid respiratory illnesses that happen within the same group of children within 14 days
While the CDC does have guidelines to end quarantine early when someone has been a contact of a case, the Fairfax County Health Department does not allow children back in care until the full 14 day quarantine period has passed and does not recommend anyone end quarantine early.
With all of this in mind, we have moved back to keeping staff limited to only certain classrooms. Children will remain in classroom cohorts and will not be combined indoors between the hours of 8am and 5:30pm. The cohorts will be a part of 4 teams and staff members will, as much as possible, remain only with their team. Of course, we may have to make adjustments if we have multiple staff absent, but each team has extra support to handle normal operations:
Infant/Toddler Team:
Bubble Buddies: Miss Marita, Miss Nana, Miss Susie
Little Penguins: Miss Patty, Miss Hui Hui, Miss Gitti
Playful Pandas: Miss Pinky, Miss Simi, Miss Susie - moving into the old Little Penguins room
Preschool Team (2 and 3 year olds):
Dancing Monkeys: Miss Delia, Miss Kisha, Miss Kristel
Rising Stars: Miss Petty, Miss Vanessa - moving into the old Playful Pandas room
Pre-K Team (4 year olds):
Busy Bees: Miss Adella, Mr. Zach, Miss Casey
Lovebugs: Miss Yolanda, Miss Celestine
School Aged Team:
Kindergarten: Miss Janette
School Aged: Miss Victoria
We are currently looking to hire another teacher, either lead or assistant, to join our Infant/Toddler Team and an assistant to join our School Aged Team. If you know anyone looking for a job in early childhood education, please have them send their resume to me!
Extended Hours Sign up
We are continuing to offer extended hours, from 7:30am through 6pm, but you must sign up for it: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0f4faca723abff2-extended
Please note that this care will not be with your classroom cohort. We are still following all of our mitigation strategies, however, participation in extended hours does make them a contact of children who are not in their cohort and could cause them to be subject to a quarantine while their classroom remains open.
Staff Update
We are very sad to say goodbye to Mr. Josh! His last day a staff member was Friday, August 27th so that he can focus on school this semester.
We hope to be able to invite him back for an outdoor concert from time to time, and he’s said he’s available for babysitting!
Here’s a great post on our blog with some words from Mr. Josh: https://www.commongroundchildcare.org/blog-1/2021/8/27/goodbye-mr-josh
If you need his contact information, just shoot us an email and we can get it to you!
We are also happy to announce that Miss Yolanda is BACK! She’ll be opening our second 4 year olds classroom this fall. With the opening of this classroom, it takes us from being over full to having 5 available spots in our Pre-K program!
Miss Yolanda has been teaching in our 4s program at Common Ground since 2009 and we’re so happy to have her back!
We are also excited to welcome a new staff member:
“Hi everyone! My name is Casey Kendall and I recently graduated college from North Carolina State University. I am so excited to be working for Common Ground as a teacher assistant/inclusion specialist, and for the opportunity to provide these children with positive learning and growing experiences!”
Thank You, Summer Staff, for a Wonderful Summer!
As we wrap up our summer programming, we have to say thank you to our amazing Summer Staff! They brought a lot of energy to our program and we hope that they are enjoying their return to school and we look forward to having them back next summer. They have all promised to get in touch when they are back in the area and our school aged kids plan to write letters to them through out the year!
Reminders:
We are closed on Friday, September 3rd for a teacher work day and on Monday, September 6th for Labor Day! Fall programs begin on Tuesday, September 7th.
September’s Tuition Invoice contains a $150 registration fee for all children who are 2 and up!
CG Gives Back: With Hurricane Ida, Covid-19, and the Afghan Refugee Crisis, there are a lot of families that are in need. In the coming weeks and months we will be setting up ways our community can help support theirs, so please stay tuned to our blog, our newsletter, and your Brightwheel messages. A little kindness goes a long way, so whether you’re donating blood, donating money/goods, or donating time, you are making a difference in someone’s life.
Thank you for taking the time to read our news letter! As always, please email if you have any questions!
-The CG team
Newsletter: August 10
Dear Common Ground Families,
It’s been a while since we have sent out a newsletter so this one will be full of a ton of information! We are happy to announce that our Book Fair was wildly successful. Miss LJ did such a great job planning it that it went off without a hitch, even in her absence. On that note…
Delta Varient
Its been all over the news, but the delta variant is here and causing the percent positivity in Fairfax County to rise. Our center has already been affected with two, fully vaccinated parents of children attending getting breakthrough infections. We have been very lucky at this point that no children within our care have contracted covid, but it is just that, luck.
Please take the time to review our Community Pledge as we all work together to keep our center safe!
You can also access the latest update from the health department here, as well as our comprehensive health FAQ here.
School Year Schedules:
Infants/Toddlers/Preschoolers: The preschool will remain in SUMMER PROGRAMMING until after our teacher work day on September 3rd and the Federal Holiday on September 6th. Our FALL PROGRAM infants, toddlers, and preschoolers will begin on Tuesday, September 7th, 2021.
Kindergarten/School Aged: The kindergarten program follows the FCPS school year calendar. Here’s the FCPS calendar with the days that Common Ground is closed (Federal Holidays) noted on it.
School Year - Classroom Pods and Teacher Teams
We are continuing to operate our classrooms as ‘Pods’. This means that children within each classroom group will not interact with children from other classroom groups indoors during the hours of 8am and 5:30pm. With the news that vaccinated individuals are still at risk of contracting and spreading the coronavirus, we are grouping Pods into Teams. This will allow us to have some staff coverage if necessary. The teams are:
Bubble Buddies, Little Penguins, and Playful Pandas
Rising Stars and Dancing Monkeys
Busy Bees and name TBD second 4 year old class
Kindergarten and School Aged Program
Our goal will be to keep teachers from leaving their team. This will help assist with any contact tracing that we might have to do, if we were to have Covid come into the center.
We will still be offering morning and evening hours by sign up, however, these hours will not be with your child’s pod or team, therefore there is an additional risk that your child will have to quarantine when their classroom would otherwise be open.
Transitions
There are only a few children that will transition to a new classroom with the start of our fall program on September 7th. You will be notified via brightwheel if your child will be moving to a new classroom for the fall.
Billing Switch and Yearly Fee Reminder
Just a reminder that you will see a $150 yearly registration fee on your September invoice for all children over the age of two.
For families that are not enrolled in automatic payments:
We will be switching our payment system to Brightwheel! This is exciting because it will bring our fees down from 1% per transaction to just $0.60 AND we are able to offer credit card payments and pass the fees on to families!
Just a reminder, you can still sign up for ACH payments with this form and we will automatically take the payments on the first of the month (or the first business day of the month).
Before and Aftercare for School Aged Kids
We will be offering Before/After care for children attending Fairfax County Public Schools this school year. While we know from verbal commitments who needs care, we need to notify the schools which kids are signed up for our program on which days. Please fill out this form so that we can notify the schools.
*before/after care and closed days (including Winter and Spring Breaks) are included in our all inclusive kindergarten program.
School Aged Program Pricing:
$800/month with a 9 month contract gives your all access - before care, after care, all days that FCPS is scheduled to be closed, plus all closed days for inclement weather
$175/month with a 9 month contract - all days that FCPS is scheduled to be closed, plus all closed days for inclement weather
Part time with a regular schedule will be calculated at $33/day for before and after care (such as every M/W/F)
$35/day for before and after care a la carte
$85/day for FCPS closed days, inclement weather days by availability only
And that’s what we have for this week!
Thank you for trusting us with the care of your littles!
Love,
The CG Team
Newsletter: July 8
Dear Common Ground Families,
This holiday short week has flown by for us here! We are finally sitting down to update you on all the events that are happening TOMORROW NIGHT! Please note that these are fair-weather plans only and will be scrapped if we have a threat of storms.
BLOOD DRIVE: Inova Blood Services will be onsite tomorrow from 12-7 taking blood donations. Sign up here: https://www.inovabloodsaves.org/index.cfm?group=op&expand=27715&zc=20190
Can’t donate blood? BUY TICKETS for our drawing for a chance to win some super cool prizes: https://www.commongroundchildcare.org/blog-1/2021/6/23/fireworks-tie-dye-and-blood-drive-july-9th
Casa de Avila is BACK with tacos! We did share with them that it took a little too long for some of our families last time, and they assured us that they could speed it up a bit this time!
FIREWORKS: We hit up the buy one, get one sales after the 4th for some on the ground fireworks! We will be setting them off in the upper parking lot by the dumpsters, outside of the blacktop area to keep it safe!
MOONBOUNCE: We will set it up around 5:30.
Again, all of these, except the BLOOD DRIVE and Drawings are fair-weather plans! We will update via brightwheel tomorrow if anything changes!
We also have a super fun update for the Rising Stars:
Next week the Rising Stars will be going to North Shore Pool to play in the Wading Pool on Monday Morning! Their swim time will be from 9:30am to 10:30am. Kids will need to arrive by 8:30 in order to have breakfast before boarding the bus at 9am. Miss Kassia will accompany the Rising Stars as their Lifeguard, as well as the Lifeguard provided by the Reston Association.
We have our fingers and toes crossed that our fun can happen tomorrow!
Love,
The CG Team!
Newsletter: June 29
Dear Common Ground Families,
We have a lot of information for today’s newsletter!
Phones are BACK!
Did you know our phones were down? Hopefully not, but if so, hopefully you also had an easy way to get in touch with us! You can always:
Message through Brightwheel
Call the center: 703-437-8226
email - Liz, LJ, director, or Victoria, all @commongroundchildcare.org
Call or Text Miss Liz (message through Brightwheel if you need my number)
Kona Ice is Coming TOMORROW!
We happened upon some perfect luck with our Kona Ice schedule! They will be here tomorrow, on the hottest day so far, for an afternoon treat!
We (still) LOVE Swimming!
This week, the Busy Bees got to enjoy a field trip to the pool! It was so AWESOME that we have decided that the Busy Bees will have a regular “pool day” beginning next week!
Busy Bees will swim on Wednesday Mornings from 9:30-10:30 at North Shore Pool! They will take the bus there at 9am, so please arrive by 8:30 to have breakfast before we leave. They will then walk back.
CAMP will swim:
Monday-Thursday mornings from 10-11am at Herndon Swim Club
Tuesday and Thursday from 1-2 at Uplands Pool
Friday from 9:30-10:30am at North Shore Pool (walking and departing by 9am!)
YES that is 7 hours of swimming over 5 days!
We are working on a plan to add a swim day for the Rising Stars later this Summer!
Got Blood? We need it!
Not specifically Common Ground, but blood banks in the area are DESPERATE for the red stuff! See our post about it here: https://www.commongroundchildcare.org/blog-1/2021/6/23/fireworks-tie-dye-and-blood-drive-july-9th
Summer is the BEST at Common Ground:
One more week for Pizza Kits:
There’s still about a week left in our Little Caesar’s pizza kit fundraiser! Make sure to order yours!
We hope you’re kiddo has been coming home happy and tired from our summer fun curriculum!
Love,
-the CG team
Newsletter: June 22
Dear Common Ground Community,
Thank you for making our party last Friday night an amazing success! We look forward to getting another one on the calendar soon! If you have any food vendors that you would like us to include, please send us a message and we will try to get them.
Going on Vacation?
Let us know when you’ll be out by completing this form: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0F4FACA723ABFF2-vacation
(if you haven’t figured it out yet, we got a sign up genius account and LOVE it!)
Speaking of Sign-Ups:
Don’t forget to sign up for:
Early Drop Off Hours: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0f4faca723abff2-morning
Laundry: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0f4faca723abff2-laundry
Late Pick Up Hours, starting July 6th: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0f4faca723abff2-summer
Sun Safety:
Summer programs in all classes have been a blast! The kids love water play and enjoying time out in the summer sun. That said, sunscreen only increases a child’s natural sun protection factor to a certain point. Because we are spending a large part of our day outside, it’s important that children have sun protective clothing as well as sunscreen. Here are some links to some great options for your kids:
Rash Guard Sun Shirts - might I suggest BRIGHT COLORS since white, grey, and blues are hard to see in the water at the pool
We will also be adding more shade tents near the water play sprinklers, in the hopes of keeping our kids protected.
Swimming Updates:
We are still restricted by the state and not allowed to use our pirate ship paddle pool but are hoping that updated guidance will come out soon so that our younger kids can enjoy more than a sprinkler. We have also reached out to Reston Association about the possibility of renting a wading pool for the Rising Stars and Busy Bee classes.
Busy Bees will try a swimming field trip on Thursday afternoon! They will be swimming at Uplands Pool in Reston from 1-2pm. If this goes well, we will try to make swimming a weekly event for them!
CAMP - Red, Blue, and Yellow Teams: Have been swimming all together this week at the Herndon Swim Club! It’s been going swimmingly! Due to the storm today, we did not swim this afternoon at Uplands Pool. To make up for it, we have added FRIDAY MORNING SWIMMING at the Herndon Swim Club! Please make sure your camper arrives dressed in their swim clothes with their camp shirt overtop every day this week.
Camp Update:
Next week we will be trying a new grouping that mixes our rising kindergarteners in with some of our older campers. Now that we know (and LOVE) our counselors, we have created camp groups that help to balance the strong personalities across the three color teams! We have quite a few campers out next week, so with smaller groups, this is the perfect week to try out some new groupings!
We also have a special announcement coming out later this week for next week’s camp session!
Juneteenth Holiday Pay, Wages, and Grants (oh my!)
Common Ground was ahead of the curve when Juneteenth was announced as a federal holiday. We had already budgeted and planned to pay our teachers holiday pay in addition to their working wages for Juneteenth, since it was announced as a state holiday by Governor Northam in 2020. Here’s a great post on that from our blog.
In addition to that, there was a new grant program that announced in the state that offers a bonus of $500 to people who return to work beginning May 31. This grant, the Return to Earn Grant, requires child care centers to pay their new employees $15/hour for them to be eligible for the $500 bonus. We had planned on a slightly lower hourly wage for our summer staff with a bonus from us at the end of the season, but with this grant announcement we decided to go ahead and bump our summer staff up! In fact, Common Ground was the first Northern Virginia business to apply for this grant!
It’s grants like this that show how effective our advocacy efforts have been!
With that, we say, as always, Thank You!
It’s because of your support that we are here, running a FUN, QUALITY program for your kiddos!
Love,
The CG Team
Newsletter: June 16
Hello Common Ground!
I know we say this every week, but THIS WEEK really feels like summer! Here’s what we’ve got for you:
Morning Hours are working like a charm! If you want to sign up, you can do so here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0f4faca723abff2-morning
Our CAMPERS are having a BLAST, mostly at the pool: https://www.commongroundchildcare.org/blog-1/2021/6/16/we-love-to-swim
We need VOLUNTEERS to sign up for Laundry - and yes, you can sign up for another class if you really want to: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0f4faca723abff2-laundry
We also have a PARTY PLANNED for FRIDAY!
That’s right, it’s time to celebrate with Common Ground! This Friday we have Kona Ice coming to treat the kids at 3:30, Casa de Avila Tacos coming with dinner to purchase from 4:30-6:30, and our NEW playground and blacktop will be open for families to come and hang out after you pick up your kids. The center will still close at 5:30pm, but a bunch of us will hang out until the party is over!
Advocacy Update:
Common Ground was the FIRST BUSINESS in Northern Virginia to apply for and receive the “Return to Earn Grant” announced last week by the Governor! This means that ALL of our new summer employees will receive a bonus for starting with us!
We haven’t forgotten about our full time employee though! They all received, and are so thankful for, an end of the school year bonus last week! Your gifts, plus a 1.5x match from Common Ground made those possible! But in order to make sure that our teachers are rewarded continuously, Common Ground will be participating in the practice years of the PGD-B5 grant which awards teachers $1500 directly!
Last week, I (Miss Liz) participated in a round table with Congressman Gerry Connolly about the state of the childcare industry. Congressman Connolly is an incredible ally, supporting the Child Care for Working Families Act in congress in 2019, and supporting funding child care as infrastructure this year! You can read his newsletter where our roundtable is featured here: https://connolly.house.gov/news/email/show.aspx?ID=CSYWWZIF7YGGM
Thanks for being a part of our amazing community!
-the CG team
BONUS Newsletter: June 11
Congratulations to our school aged kids, who officially had their last day of school today! With that comes the complete start of our SUMMER PROGRAMMING!
This BONUS NEWSLETTER is packed with a ton of information for ALL AGES:
CAMPERS SHIRTS:
Rising Kindergarteners and School Aged campers who are currently enrolled will be coming home today with their CAMP shirts! They will have a total of 2 (unless you requested more) lime green shirts and a tie-dye camp shirt. We ask that BEGINNING MONDAY, campers wear their camp shirts EVERY DAY to camp! Throughout the summer, we may add to their camp shirt collection, but since we will be off site quite a bit, we want to make sure that we can easily be identified as a camp group!
To assist in identifying shirts, please label the inside collar of their shirts if we have not already done so for you! If you are not currently attending, your child will get 1 shirt to wear at the beginning of their first day, and we will give the additional shirts to you at pick up on that day!
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED:
We are bringing classroom laundry sign ups back starting a week from today. Please sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0F4FACA723ABFF2-laundry
EXTENDED MORNING HOURS:
We have launched our extended morning hours by request beginning June 14th! Please sign up for those, but keep in mind, if you sign up and do not show, there will be a ‘no-show’ fee charged to your account. You can sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0f4faca723abff2-morning
CLOSING TIME:
Please keep in mind that Common Ground will continue to close at 5:30pm through July 2nd. Beginning on Tuesday, July 6th, we will extend out hours to 6pm.
CELEBRATE WITH US ON FRIDAY, JUNE 18th:
Kona Ice will be here at 3:30 as a treat for the kids, then we have Casa de Avila, Tacos coming from 4:30-6:30! Feel free to grab dinner and hang out at Common Ground! The grass area will be open for families beginning at 4:30 and the playground will open at 5:30, or when all kids have been picked up!
Have an amazing weekend, Common Ground!
CAMP - EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW:
Camp begins MONDAY, JUNE 14TH! Our theme is BRAVE EXPLORERS because your campers will be embarking on a new adventure! If you want to see more about what we will be doing next week, please check out the learning tab in your child’s brightwheel profile! Along with games, crafts, and snacks, it has the pool schedule for both rising kindergarteners and older campers. There is also a section at the bottom with fun (and totally optional) games, discussions, and activities you can do at home if your camper is really excited about the theme.
I wanted to send some quick reminders and give you the opportunity to ask any questions before drop off!
We sent you this INFO AND SUPPLIES blog recently, but here are some key reminders.
Drop off is from 8:00-8:30AM. We do offer breakfast. YOUR CHILD MUST BE HERE BY 9:15AM. We leave for the pool shortly after that, so in order for them to ride the bus, they must be here. We will play on the playground in the morning unless there is inclement weather. We will then be in the Great Hall in our TEAM QUADRANTS. Each school-aged camp child will be either in the red or blue team. Rising kindergarteners will be on the yellow team. We will be sending you a message with your child’s team separately, so don’t worry about this!
Send your children in their swimsuits. ALL THREE GROUPS will either be swimming or doing water play EVERY DAY except Fridays. We can always change into dry clothes after.
Your children will go through a swim test their FIRST DAY at the pool so we can determine what level of swimmer they are. They will receive a swim band they will wear all week that lets us know their swim level. We will keep them observed accordingly. Please do not take off their wrist band, it is water proof and will last the week.
Make sure you've checked out our SUPPLY LIST. The cooler, water bottle, and backpack are especially important. We will be providing bag lunches but encourage packing extra snacks. Water and Gatorade will also be supplied.
CAMP SHIRTS: CAMP SHIRTS ARE REQUIRED DAILY. That is their camp "uniform." Rising Kindergarteners will have their camp shirt sent home on Friday, June 11th. So make sure to look in their backpacks! For all the other campers, we will supply your children's camp shirt the morning of June 14th so you can send them in any shirt otherwise.
MAKE SURE YOU HAVE SIGNED UP FOR YOUR BRIGHTWHEEL ACCOUNT. You can see updates on your children, communicate with your camp counselors, and see what they will be doing in their learning tab from your camper's profile, so it is an essential tool! If you need any help with this, please let me know.
My number is 703.498.9073. You may call or text me with any questions before camp. Once camp has started you may use your brightwheel messaging tool! I see all of those, as do your counselors and Camp Leads.
Newsletter: June 8
Happy Tuesday Common Ground!
A BIG thank you to everyone who donated to our FUNdrive! Miss LJ made it an incredibly successful event with all of your help. And speaking of fundraisers - she’s got an even easier one planned for June! Pizza kits you make at home! See this post for details!
Summer weather is HERE and it’s GLORIOUS! And you know what that means - WATER PLAY!
Water Play:
Busy Bees: Please send your Busy Bees dressed for water play on Mondays and Wednesdays for water play.
Campers:
Rising K Camp: Please send them dressed for the pool on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They should wear their camp shirt and quick dry clothing everyday!
School Aged Camp: Please send them dressed for the pool on Mondays and Wednesdays, and with swim stuff on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They should wear their camp shirt and quick dry clothing everyday!
ALL CLASSES: Please send a swim outfit and towel on Mondays that can stay at the center all week. It will come home on Fridays to be laundered!
We are super excited to welcome Zach to our full time staff! He will be assisting in our Busy Bee classroom, supporting our inclusion program, all while he works on his Child Development Associate! Welcome ZACH!
Zach comes with some experience working for an after school program with older children, but is excited to begin working in the preschool setting.
Kassia
“Hello everyone, my name is Kassia Guevara. I’m Ms.Marita’s daughter. I recently started working in honeybees two weeks ago with Ms. Adela and Mr. Josh. They’ve taught me so much these past weeks, they’re such amazing teachers and are so caring towards their students. I’ve grown to love all the kids in this center and their own unique personalities. I’m so excited for all the fun activities planned for this summer and even more excited to get to know more of you in camp!”
Hannah
“I am so excited to be able to explore the outdoors and play games, and especially get to know all the kids!”
Lizzie
“I’m excited to work at common ground this summer so I can gain more experience working with kids from different ages! I love being around kids as they have such an infectious energy and I can’t wait to see everything I learn from them.”
Christine
“I’m excited to be active and outside this summer after virtually learning. I can’t wait to do some fun activities while meeting new faces!”
Katie
“I’m very excited for the warm weather, playing in pool and going on hikes with everyone this summer!”
Madi
“I am so excited for this summer & being able to go to pool & adventures. I have already had a lot of fun playing & hanging out with Kids & can’t wait for camp to start.”
Elise
Elise is completing her summer field study for her degree this summer at Common Ground! She is working in our baby room while Miss Nana is on maternity leave, but will also spend time in other classes to help round out her experience!
Allison
“I’m excited to be working at camp this summer because I’ll get to soak up the sun, meet new faces and have lots of fun!”
“I’m so excited to be working at camp this summer because I can’t wait to spend the summer making sure the kids stay safe while having as much fun as possible.”
We have a few more counselors starting later in the summer and will introduce you to them next week!
Save the Date: Kona Ice will be on site on Friday, June 18th to celebrate our first full week of camp!
-The CG Team
Newsletter: June 2
Happy Wednesday, Common Ground!
We are having an amazing first week of our summer program! We all can’t believe how incredibly smoothly new classroom transitions have gone. The teachers are working hard to get to know your kids as we begin to do some fun, summertime activities. We also have some EXCITING updates to share so please make sure you read through everything and subscribe to our newsletter.
First up, we are working to extend our hours now that the weather is nicer. During “normal, pre-covid” operations, in order to open early and stay open later, we would combine children from different classes and they would all be watched in a group setting. In the mornings, if you can remember back then, it was Miss Yolanda and Miss Mimi in the Rising Stars room from 6:30 until 7:30am, and in the evenings we would combine infant/toddler rooms and preschool rooms for the last half hour to hour of the day.
Currently, we are restricted by the state (and public health “best practices”) from co-mingling groups of children, especially indoors. Due to this restriction, we need to adequately staff to cover additional hours, without over working our most valuable resource, our teachers!
We feel that combining kids outdoors in the morning and evening on the playground, does not increase the overall risk of covid transmission above having your child in care. Therefore, we are planning to offer a 30 minute morning extension beginning June 14th by sign up and a 30 minute evening extension beginning July 6th.
MORNING HOURS SIGNUP - 7:30 to 8am beginning June 14th
Beginning on June 14th we will be offering extended morning hours from 7:30-8am by sign up only!
In order to meet the needs of our families who have requested earlier hours from us, we are going to have sign ups available 48 hours before the day that an early drop off is needed. All families are welcome to sign up for early drop off and these earlier hours are included in your tuition if you use them, however, if you sign up and arrive after 8am, you will owe a $20 no-show fee.
The sign up link will remain the same for the entire summer and these extended hours will go until August 20th. We will continue to update and evaluate along the way as restrictions change and children become vaccinated!
EVENING HOURS - 6pm close begins July 6th
With the extension of our evening hours beginning on July 6th, we will also bring back the late pick up fee of $3 per minute. Again, this begins July 6th, as no one has abused the flexibility that we have offered thus far. It gives me goosebumps when I think about this incredible community that we have all cultivated here. <cue heart emojis, if squarespace had that option!>
FUNdrive - Drop off your items NOW through SATURDAY at NOON!
Miss LJ deserves a BIG round of applause for everything she has been doing to arrange this fundraiser! Please drop off your bags of soft clothing and household linens and boxes of small household items starting today at pick up through Saturday at noon! We get paid by the pound, so I may or may not have bagged up 20 year old swim t-shirts to help with the weight!
You can see that we have a NEW PIZZA fundraiser starting soon too!
WATER PLAY - Preschool Side and afternoons
Water play will begin when the weather warms up! Please make sure your child has swim stuff and a towel that can stay here so that they can enjoy a run through our sprinklers! At this point, sprinklers are the only water play that we can do on site, though we are hoping restrictions are lifted later on!
For children 3 and up, please let us know if you DO NOT want your child to play in the water in the afternoons. Last summer we had sprinklers as an option in the hot afternoons. This meant that a lot of kids were picked up slightly damp and still in their swim stuff.
KINDERGARTEN CAMPERS
Our rising kindergarteners are enjoying a LOT of outside time with an exploration of the arts this week with Miss Janette! They’re doing a great job learning to be “big kids” and staying outside most of the day! Miss Janette has some very exciting plans for the next two weeks that I am certain all of your kids will tell you all about! Be on the lookout for buttons that can help you ask a guided question about their day about how they earned the button!
We will send their camp shirts home with them at the end of this week. Beginning next week, campers will need to wear their camp shirt daily to camp.
THANK YOU!
Our teachers also wanted to share how thankful they are for their end of the school year bonuses! Your generous donations helped show how much you appreciate our teachers!
Thats it for our newsletter this week! Sorry it’s a day late, but hopefully the content makes it worth it!
-The CG Team
Newsletter: May 25
Dear Common Ground Community,
It’s hard to believe that we have made it a full school year! When we reopened 10 month ago, I couldn’t think this far ahead. But looking back, I am so proud of our community! We worked together to get build this, and everyone deserves the credit for helping to get Common Ground to this point.
We have a LOT going on here, during our last week of the School Year! (sorry, Owls, you still have two more weeks with Miss Victoria before your summer program starts.)
GRADUATION - for Honeybees and Owls
This Thursday evening we will be holding our Graduation Ceremony from 4:30-5:15pm. Tickets will be going home with your child this evening. If you need more tickets, please email Miss LJ and we will get them to you.
After the ceremony has concluded, we invite everyone at the center to enjoy a piece of celebratory cake!
CONSTRUCTION HAS BEGUN - on our new playground
Were you surprised to see the demo of our old playground this morning? Of course not, you read the update in last weeks newsletter! We’re so excited that this project has started and can’t wait for it to be finished!
SUMMER PROGRAMS - begin June 1
You were sent your child’s summer classroom assignment through brightwheel. If you did not receive a message about your child, then they are remaining in their same classroom for the summer. Please email Liz if you have any questions about your child’s new classroom assignment.
Water Play - Will begin on June 1, as long as it is over 78 degrees outside. We are not yet allowed to used wading pools, so it will be “run through” sprinklers, just like last year. Like last summer, we will allow kids to get wet, dry off, and get wet again. This means that you will need to make sure your kid comes in quick dry clothes or has swim stuff and a towel with them every day.
Rising K Camp - Will begin swimming off site the week of June 14th. Please see the camp post for more details.
Flavor Ice - Just like last summer, we will be doing afternoon popsicles outside. It’s a fun little treat that we can easily do on most days as a way to keep our kiddos cool while enjoying most of the day outdoors
Kona Ice - will be stopping by about every two weeks this summer!
NEW SUMMER STAFF
By now a lot of you have met Miss Kassia and Miss Elise who will be with us this summer, but starting the week of June 14th we have a whole crew of Summer Staff joining us! We will follow up with an introduction post on our blog, so make sure that you are subscribed!
JUNE FUNDRAISERS
It’s not too late to donate to the Teacher Bonus Fund! Please donate through the PayPal giving fund or by emailing Liz to invoice you.
School photos are LIVE. You can access your gallery here: https://lizbadley.smugmug.com/Common-Ground-Childcare/2020-2021-School-Year
Your families gallery will be updated as soon as the photographer has finished with the photos. The password is your child (or oldest child’s) first name. It might be with a capital first letter, but it might be no caps. Please reach out if you have trouble accessing the photos.
Our FunDrive item drop off is SATURDAY, JUNE 5TH. Starting Tuesday, June 1, we are taking drop-offs at pick up! We are looking for donating old clothes, small household items, old books, or small accessories like purses and shoes. The more we donate, the more money we earn!
UPCOMING: From June 1 to June 30th we will be having a LITTLE CAESAR’S PIZZA KIT fundraiser! Details to come later this week!
Last but not least, we would like to welcome our newest Common Ground family member - Ray Nhât Minh, Miss Nana’s baby boy! He arrived yesterday weighing 7 lbs, 8 oz!
Mom and baby are both doing great!
We hope that you are as excited about the summer as we all our!
Love,
the CG team
Newsletter: May 18
Dear Common Ground Community,
We are excited to share two VERY FUN bits of news! First, KONA ICE will be back on site on THURSDAY from 4:30-5pm! We just LOVE having the KONA TRUCK come for a treat on hot summer days! Beginning with our Summer Program, the truck will be coming every other Wednesday. Those dates are already on our calendar!
Our second bit of news is that our NEW PLAYGROUND is finally going to be installed! We we very lucky, as the manufacturer experienced a fire on site that took one of their production machines off-line the DAY that our playground left their facility.
We aren’t the only one with news though! With the CDC’s announcement, the state has begun to change some of our restrictions as well! One of the biggest impacts for us is that we will now be able to accommodate everyone for Graduation, rain or shine! We are allowed to have up to 100 people indoors and up to 250 outdoors at events! We still aren’t quite ready to let parents back in the center or return to our old hours, as we are still waiting for guidance from the department of social services/department of education. So keep bearing with us on that!
We are working on a plan to get you more hours, yet still uphold our highly successful mitigation practices, since children are still part of a vulnerable population. That plan will be shared soon. We are currently waiting to see if there is some updated guidance for childcare centers.
With the CDC announcement, I am happy to share that parents who are FULLY VACCINATED do not need to wear masks when dropping off in car line or when picking up outdoors! Masks are still required indoors for all staff, visitors (which we are still limiting), and children aged 3 and up.
So here’s the recap of everything coming up at CG:
Thursday at 4:30 - KONA ICE
Monday - Playground install begins
Thursday, May 27th - Honeybee and Owl Graduation at 4:30pm
Friday, May 28th - Common Ground CLOSED for a teacher workday, Open House from 12-12:30
Monday, May 31st - Common Ground CLOSED for the Holiday
Tuesday, June 1st - Summer Programs Begin
Saturday, June 5th - FUNDrive - give us your bags of stuff!
We are so excited about everything we have lined up!
-The CG Team
Newsletter: May 11
Dear Common Ground Community!
We are in the home stretch of our 2020-2021 School Year! Graduation for Honeybees and Owls is just around the corner. If you have an Honeybee or Owl please make sure that you sign up for your Graduation Tickets. If you also have a younger child, please note that our center will be open during graduation, so they can remain in their class until the ceremony is over.
Summer is Coming:
As we head into the summer, you will see some new faces here at Common Ground! We have several summer seasonal counselors coming in to work in our classrooms and camps during their break from both high school and college. On Monday, May 17th Miss Elise comes to join our infant room staff from Virginia Tech. She will be completing a Human Development field study this summer while working with us! Miss Kassia, Miss Marita’s daughter, will also be joining us on May 17th as a full time summer employee. We are sad to say that after just two weeks with us, Mr. Stephan resigned to take care of his own mental health. We wish him the best and enjoyed having him here for a short time!
With summer comes our third transition since we reopened and moved to a ‘three times per year’ transition schedule. By the end of next week, you will receive a letter with the plan for your child for our summer and fall sessions. We have worked hard to adapt our program to the children we have, rather than trying to squeeze children into a static program. This means that year to year, the path through our center may look different, but you can rest assured that we have taken careful consideration to design classes that best meet the needs of the students in them! Later this week we will publish a post with our upcoming summer class rooms and teachers, events and activities, and other fun we have planned at Common Ground!
Still Collecting Teacher Bonuses:
There is still time to donate to the Teacher Bonus Fund. This is a tax deductible donation that Common Ground will match so that the teachers end the school year with a nice bonus for their hard work throughout the school year! While teachers love hand made cards and sentiments of thanks, we ask that you contribute to this fund rather than buying gift and gift cards, so that the bonus can be really impactful for our teachers.
You can donate through the PayPal giving fund or by emailing Liz.
Thank you if you have already donated! If you donated through the PayPal Giving Fund, you will get a tax receipt from them immediately, as well as a duplicate tax receipt from us once they have made the donation to us.
Hours:
There have been a few questions about when we will increase the hours of the center again. We are working on a plan to add an additional hour to our day, but it is still a process. Just this week, our teachers began staggering their shifts so that they didn’t have to work more than 8.5 hours per day.
Prior to the pandemic, when we opened at 6:30, we had two staff members on site and could accept up to 18 early kids and remain in ratio. Currently, however, the state guidance doesn’t allow us to mix children between different groups, which means that we need one classroom teacher for each class, for all hours that we are open. Not only is this a staffing challenge and taxes our human capital, but it also can becomes very financially expensive.
We are still hopeful to be able to extend our hours this summer, so please stand by as we get creative! When the weather is nice, we are able to combine classes without sacrificing best practices in mitigation outdoors! In the meantime, if you’d like to fill out this survey, it will help us with our plans!
Spring Cleaning Fundraiser:
Lastly, we just want to give a quick reminder that our Spring Cleaning Fundraiser is coming up the first weekend of June! Declutter your house of old clothes, small household appliances, and books for free and earn your school $$$ at the same time! Check out our post below or Email LJ Donnell for more details.
Thank you!
And as always, thank you for all of your amazing support! We love an appreciate you all so much!
-the CG team
Newsletter: May 4
Dear Parents,
May the fourth be with you! It’s Star Wars day and it’s also TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK!
We have been making sure the teachers get some treats every day this week to feel appreciated and we are well on the way to collecting a FANTASTIC FUND for their end of the school year bonuses! If you’d like to contribute, please make a donation via the PayPal Giving Fund or reach out to Liz be invoiced for a donation.
This is also a reminder that our new tuition rates begin this month. Along with the new rates, we are now being charged 1% up to $10 for payment processing through quickbooks. While this is the cost of doing business and factored into our overall costs, we ask that you either:
pay your invoices in full through quickbooks, so that we incur only a max $10 fee
or sign up for ACH!
We process payments on both the 1st and the 15th of each month if you’d like to split your tuition payments into two!
Just send Liz and email and we will get you signed up!
As our school year comes to a close, we are working on new classroom assignments for a lot of our students beginning on June 1! There will be parent information meetings coming up via zoom for you to meet your child’s new teacher and ask any questions. We know transitions can be difficult for some children, and we will be doing our best to make it run as smoothly as possible. While there are dates currently on the calendar, we have not yet scheduled those meetings, so please bear with us!
School photos last week were ADORABLE! Our parent volunteer is working on getting the images to us, so please be patient. Once we have those photos loaded into your family accounts, we will send you your link and password through email and brightwheel!
There has also been some exciting news on the advocacy front! President Biden has proposed quite a lot of support for families and early childhood educators in the American Families Plan. You can access that here.
Thank you all for being a part of Common Ground and showing us every day how much you appreciate our teachers and what we do here!
Love,
The CG Team!