Aidan B - the dark and monsters
Aiden S. - vampire bats and tiger bites
Annie - skeletons
Chloe - Dust coming in my eyes
Daniel - Dinosaurs
Dashell - Real Ghosts
Gabriel - Bats
Issis - Witches
Jaico - Wild Things
Lille - Ghosts
Lucas - Nothing
Medora - Octopus
Oscar - Witches
Rose - Nothing
Ryder B. - Going to Jail
Ryder D. - Nothing not even witches or vampires
Sarah- Skeletons
Talullah - Getting Shots
Tea - Heights

Do you ever feel like the world is going 100 MPH and you can’t catch-up?  We have had that kind of a summer here at The Acorn School.  “The Sewer of 2009”, the follow through, final remodeling, follow-up with insurance, etc., has been a lot of work and is on the verge of being complete, and it was great to see how everyone pulled together during this.  When I reflect on the events of the summer, I cannot help but be very proud of The Acorn School staff, Boulder Valley School District, and the entire Acorn Community for coming together and continuing to provide High Quality Care for the children and families at Acorn.  It was truly amazing to watch parents offer their homes, watch our partners at Boulder Valley School District bend over backwards to accommodate us with a facility in less than one day’s time, see Acorn families step-up and offer contractors and volunteer to help put the school back together, and on and on.  It truly takes a village to work together for the good of all of our children.  Thank you all.

I hope that you will take the opportunity to ask your child’s teacher about how you can get involved in their classroom.  Whether as a volunteer helping with projects, room parent that distribute information to other parents, or maybe you want to get involved in our Parents In Partnerships (PIP) program.  It is a worthwhile investment in being involved in your child’s growth and development.

Remember our Back-to-school night Tuesday, September 1^st at 5:45.  It will be a great chance to meet other Acorn families and hear about the plans for the 2009-10 school-year.  Hope to see you all there.

Sincerely,

Matt Eldred

Thanks for a great summer and a great year!

At The Acorn School, we have a 5-year Strategic Plan that guides our direction and continues to help us focus on our mission. We have made great strides in achieving the Strategic Plan, but much more work is still ahead of us. We will remain focused on:

• Accessibility - Providing an environment that is accessible and welcoming to anyone, where balance and diversity are maintained.
• Advocacy - Raise awareness of need for high-quality Early Childhood Education in Boulder County to influence public opinion and policy.
• Capacity - Replicate one other center with capacity of 60-65 kids that meets our environmental guidelines and philosophy.
• Parent Partnerships - Parents understand what high-quality Early Childhood Education is, and take responsibility for becoming involved and invested in making it happen at Acorn.
• Environmental Sustainability - Practice and teach good environmental programs and responsibilities.
• Health - Every family has access to prevention from and treatments for physical, mental, and emotional health and development.
• Finances - Have adequate funding to fulfill all the other goals.
• Staff Development - Attract, retain and continuously improve {the capabilities of} committed, high-quality professionals.

Finally, I recently attended the National Institute for Early Childhood Professional Development in Charlotte, North Carolina along with two Acorn teachers and a board member. The theme was “Play, Where Learning begins”. As I listened to presenters and panel discussions, I came to this conclusion, “Those that play together, stay together.” This was focused mainly on our children and the importance of learning through play, which we practice through our Creative Curriculum. However, I believe that the same holds true for the Acorn staff, parents, board, and community. If we expect our children to learn to “play” together, we have to model this as well. We can do this by getting involved in the Parents In Partnership parent education program, giving financially to the work of The Acorn School, supporting fundraising and social events, simple play-dates, and family get-togethers. I believe that at The Acorn School, we have teachers and a community that are committed to “playing together” and in-turn are creating a rich environment for children to thrive and learn as they develop relationships that will last a lifetime.

Sincerely,
Matt Eldred  -Executive Director

We all really appreciate all our wonderful parents.  You are all such an important part of The Acorn School!

Have you heard of the Comprehensive Early Childhood Development System for Boulder County? Probably not. Should you care about an Early Childhood Development System for Boulder County? Yes!

The first three to five years of a child’s life are crucial to his or her healthy cognitive, social-emotional, and physical development. What happens during this time can have a significant influence on a child’s chances for success later in life.

For more than 10 years, residents of Boulder County have been working to develop a comprehensive early childhood system to serve all of Boulder County’s children. The Early Childhood Council of Boulder County (ECCBC) has been behind this work and is the primary forum for this countywide planning initiative.

The Framework for a Comprehensive Early Childhood System in Boulder County has two major components:

Services support the children, their families, and their caregivers. They address the quality of education and the environments the children are in, at home and during care.

System Supports refer to the management and infrastructure to support the services and programs, where the quality control and accountability are managed. The system must meet community goals, which means the community must understand its function and its accomplishments, and hold the system accountable to meet those goals.

A comprehensive early childhood system can help ensure that all children and families have access to high-quality programs and services. A large body of research demonstrates that investment in high-quality early childhood programs yield substantial short and long-term benefits. They achieve these impressive results by:

· supporting healthy early childhood development and effective parenting

· promoting academic success and developing productive adult citizens

· reducing public expenditures on remedial education, crime, and health-related problems

· strengthening local and regional economics

The Acorn School is proud to be a leading partner in this project and looks forward to sharing finished products of services and support systems in the near future. Feel free to contact me at anytime if you have questions about the framework for a comprehensive ECE system for Boulder County. Remember the mission of The Acorn School is provide high-quality, accessible early care and education programs, and to advocate for higher standards in the field or early childhood education.

Sincerely,

Matt Eldred -Executive Director

Happy Spring! It’s hard to believe we are mid-way through the first quarter of 2009!

We are really excited at Acorn for 2009! We had a wonderful “new year” party at the Zeid’s home, we just completed the 2008 financial audit with our best year in the school’s 15-year history, and 3 of our teachers recently completed an accelerated program allowing them to be group leader qualified and infant nursery supervisor qualified. This is in line with our mission of raising the standards in the field of Early Childhood Education. In addition, Acorn has received two large grants for Professional Development and Parent Education this year. We intend to offer courses for parents including Tantrums and Power Struggles and CPR/First Aid for Infants and Children.

We are also working with every Acorn teacher on personal professional development tracks that we will fund and allow time for completion. We aim to be the best in quality staff, as well as offer the best in Parent Partnerships in 2009! We need your participation and input to make that happen.

So, here’s to a healthy 2009! Let’s all look for opportunities to share the message of Acorn and how we can all strive to raise the bar for providing the best in quality childcare and educational services for children.

Sincerely, Matt Eldred

A special thanks to Karen and Nigel Zeid for opening up their home to us (again) and hosting the potluck. We really appreciate all your support for Acorn!

Our January PIP meeting was a huge success! We had a bigger turn out than ever (I’m thinking because we were able to provide dinner for your kids). Suzy and Lilith did a presentation on the Creative Curriculum and how it works. Please let me know if you would like any of the information from the presentation. Everyone should be receiving the minutes from the meeting soon.

Thanks for reading!
-Tara