Dear Seabird Parents,

A special thanks to the parents who volunteered at the farmer’s market, Italian Heritage Parade and Halloween. Your participation in helping support our school is greatly appreciated. We hope to see many more parents at our future events.

Scholastic Book Club

If you are ordering books for your child, please check out scholastic books. They have an excellent selection and every purchase you make will benefit our school in getting new books. Please enter code VY4JD when ordering.

Reminder to clean lunch boxes and water bottles regularly

Children often spill lunch items in their lunch boxes so please check often to see if the lunch bag/box needs to be washed or replaced. This also includes checking water bottles as there are plastic parts that sometimes collect mold. 

Parent - Teacher Conference - Friday 11/4.

NEW SEABIRD SITE IS OPENING

Please join us and save the dates!

Thanksgiving lunch - Wednesday, November 23rd

We know some families will be traveling that week, so if you do have plans, please let Director Mei know so she can order the appropriate amount of ingredients. If you can attend, please let Director Mei know how many guests will be attending. If there are any dietary restrictions, please inform Mei as well. We hope you all can attend this event where children will show their love and appreciation for those who take care of them.

Winter Performance - Friday, December 9th

Topic of the Month

Encouraging Independence

As parents, you have a natural instinct of wanting to do things for your child(ren), but are you really helping? Children learn independence when adults allow and show them. We will focus on 4 important skills children should master while in preschool.
 

During the preschool ages, your child should be able to dress and undress themselves fully. Parents are constantly in a rush and it is “easier'' for them to pull up their pants or slip on their shoes, but these are all vital skills a child must learn. When teaching children new skill sets, remember it will take multiple attempts for them to be successful and it will take time, sometimes a long time, so make sure you can support the skill during an undistracted time.  
 

By the time your child is in preschool, they should be able to feed themselves with utensils. Children, by this time, should be able to competently feed themselves with no assistance from adults. They should be able to master using utensils and adults should encourage the children to do it on their own even if it is messy or slow.  With practice, the children will be less messy and eat faster.
 

Another skill is to allow your child to be responsible for their own belongings. Your child should be carrying their own bag, lunch, be responsible for their own jacket and anything else their little hands can carry. They are a lot stronger than they look! There are 2 things that children lose in Kindergarten and they are jackets and lunch and this is attributed much to parents taking responsibility for their child’s belongings in preschool. If you remind them in preschool to be responsible, you will save a lot of time and money trying to find or replace their belongings.
 

Final thing is cleaning up. When your child plays with something or even spills something, do you give them the opportunity to clean it up or do you do it for them? Children need to be taught the skill of cleaning, because that is a major part of being independent. It is a responsibility that should start as a young toddler and almost become second nature as the years progress.
 

There will be days your child will not cooperate and it is okay if on occasion you help. The point is that your child craves more responsibility as they grow and it is the job of the adults in their lives to support and encourage those growths. Of course, there are more skills children should learn, however, they will be covered in other months of our newsletter.

General Reminders:

1. Seabird is closed on Friday, November 4, 2022 for Parent-Teacher Conference

2. Seabird is closed on Friday, November 11, 2022 in observance of Veteran’s Day

3. Seabird closes at noon on Wednesday, November 23, 2022 for staff training

4. Seabird is closed on Thursday & Friday, November 24-25, 2022 in observance of Thanksgiving

5. Bring your child’s bedding on Monday or the first day back during the week 

6. Label all of your child’s personal belongings

7. Cut grapes and all rounded foods in half lengthwise

8. Do not pack choking foods for your child

9. Pack utensils for your child’s lunch

10. Make sure your child has a water bottle daily

11. Make sure your child has a change of clothes at school

12. Seabird is a peanut and nut free school

13. When exiting, make sure gates and doors are closed behind you

14. At the pick up gate please announce your child’s name

15. All withdrawals require a 60 days notice

16. During drop off do not allow your child to play on the playground. The playground has been disinfected for the first group of children that goes out.

17. If you need to contact Teacher Mei for any reason, please email her directly at   director@seabirdpreschool.com and not through Brightwheel

18. Make sure you are getting notifications from the school through Brightwheel. If you are not, please reach out to billing@seabirdpreschool.com and they can assist to rectify the issue.

19. Remember to sign in and out your child daily.

20. Bring your child to school by 9am.

21. Schedule appointments to avoid drop offs and pick ups during nap time (12:15pm-3pm)

22. If your child is ill, please keep them home