March Events

March is here with a variety of activities to enjoy with your little one.  If you know of any other activities that families will enjoy, please let us know!

March 2nd from 5:30 to 7:30 pm - Family First at Station Park - the theme for March is CRAZY CARNIVAL.  Shrek from Centerpoint Theatre will be there.  Also, free face painting, entertainment and discounts.

March 13th from 6:30 to 8:30 pm at the Central Branch Library (155 North Wasatch Drive, Layton) is Family Night at the Library "Seuss on the Loose"  Enjoy games, book readings and other activities.

March 17th beginning at 10:00 am is Discover Gateway Children s Museum of Utah Free Day. 444 West 100 South, Salt Lake City.

March 18th at 7:15 pm the Utah Easy 2 Love Davis County Support Group meets at Flippers Gym (1246 Flint Meadows Drive #102, Kaysville) to discuss Positive Discipline Strategies.  Childcare is $7.00.  Go to utaheasy2love.org to find information about reserving your spot and signing up for child care.

March 28th from 9:00 to 11:00 is the Bountiful Bunny Hop and Egg Hunt at Bountiful City Park (400 North 200 West, Bountiful).  Tickets can be purchased for $.50 for the egg hunt, cake walk, bounce house, fishing for prizes, face painting and more.

March 29th at 10:00 is the Easter Egg-stravaganza at Woods Cross Elementary (745 West 1100 South, Woods Cross).  Meet the Easter Bunny.  Easter Egg hunts are organized for different age groups up to 12 years old.

March 30th at 5:45 pm is the Easter Egg Hunt at Cherry Farms Park in South Weber for children 0 to 12 years.  Admission is free.

Help your Baby Build a Healthy Brain

Everyone knows that if you have a question, you can Google it and get a million answers.  I like knowing that when it comes to raising little ones, there are a few places I can go to get reliable ideas. I can always go to my mom, she is an amazing parent who raised an outstanding daughter (just kidding).  She was a teacher in the early elementary grades for many years.  She also was the director for Head Start and she did successfully raise three kids who still feel like she is awesome.

Another resource is the Zero to Three website.  They specialize in little ones.  Zero to Three wants every parent to be successful in raising children to be the best they can be and so they have developed a free video series to provide guidance, support and knowledge to all parents.  These videos cover the following topics:

• Brain Wonders: Nurturing Healthy Brain Development From Birth
• Literacy Skills: The Roots of Reading
• Power of Play: Building Skills While Having Fun
• Temperament:  What Makes Your Child Tick?

Children are learning from the time they are born.  All those early experiences shape how they learn, how they relate to others, and the kind of person they become.  Zero to Three is providing tools that show parents how they can have the greatest, most positive impact on their developing child.  This resource is called The Magic of Everyday Moments: Seeing Is Believing.  The great thing is, the videos show how parents can nurture all the key skills and attributes children need to be eager, competent learners and to form strong, healthy relationships through everyday routines!

Check out these videos at www.zerotothree.org/MOEM and help your baby build a healthy brain!

Sensory Activities

Yes, sensory activities can be messy.  But sometimes the benefits outweigh this small inconvenience.  Rachelle Doorley from artfulparent.com shares the benefits of sensory play as well as some simple activities that little ones can enjoy.  You can click on the underlined activity for more information.  Another BIG benefit of sensory play is it might just give you a few minutes to get something done!  You can check out the full article at this link: http://artfulparent.com/2013/02/8-sensory-activities-for-kids-to-fill-the-witching-hour.html

THE BENEFITS OF SENSORY PLAY

• Calming: Playing with dry rice, sand, water, play dough, and other materials that stimulate the senses can calm children and improve their focus
• Find inner voice: Sensory experiences encourage children to tap their inner voice as they test their ideas and explore the phenomena of the material/s that are in front of them
• Fine motor development: Oftentimes sensory experiences foster fine motor skills as children are challenged to scoop, pour, cut, sift, or mold.
• Language acquisition: Sensory experiences can build language acquisition when adults facilitate the experience with contextual description language such as, “You’re moving the sand into the corner of the box,” or “Do you feel the warm water pouring over your hands?”

Water Scooping for Babies: This is one of the first sensory activities that my children were introduced to. We drink it, bathe in it, cook with it, and water our plants with it. Water is familiar to children, safe to touch, and endlessly fascinating.

Cloud Dough: This moldable, yet crumbly, dough is made from flour and oil. That’s it. It’s so simple and I’ve found that even if it spills all over my table and hardwood floors, it’s easy to clean up. If you add a little bit of lavender oil to the dough it will also leave your hands with a yummy smell.

Slime: The texture of this gooey substance is somewhere between play dough and silly putty. If you have carpets you’ll want to cover them first, but this is otherwise a fine activity to do indoors.

Goop: A simple mixture of cornstarch and water. It feels like a solid, and then a liquid…the texture will boggle the mind.

Water Beads: You’ll want to keep a close eye on small children who mouth objects. This is one of the most popular sensory experiences in my home.

Tearing wet paper: I gave my toddler a tub of water to play with and she carried sheets of paper over to it. Before I knew it she was soaking the paper and shredding it. She loved this activity.

Shredded paper: This is a super messy activity, but my kids ask for it ALL the time. See what you think.

Wheat Berries: Read more about how my girls used wheat berries in their play. Wheat berries could easily be substituted with dry rice, beans, sand, or lentils.

Valentines Crafts for Tots

This post is taken from Rainydaymum.co.uk and although it says 19 heart crafts for tots, there are only 16 activities that were still accessible.   Maybe these will get you thinking about other ideas!  Happy Valentine's Day with your little cuties!

The original post can be found at this link - http://rainydaymum.co.uk/19-hearts-crafts-for-tots

To start off how about 7 Valentine’s Day Crafts for Toddlers from Toddler Approved (I know a little cheeky saying I was sharing 19 when 7 of them are in one post). Toddler Approved is jam-pPacked full of ideas for toddlers, and these crafts are wonderful for little ones to do with you this Valentines Day.

Over on Mama OT there are some great fine-motor skill hearts crafts to make with your tots.

Playdough is one of our go-to activities, and I love this variation creating magnets with it play dough from Teaching Mama.

There are lots of printing and painting/gluing hearts ideas out there, but this Hearts Craft from Inspiration Laboratories is a little different.

Even then youngest ones can get involved in making heart crafts for Valentines Day, and The Educator’s Spin OnIt has some great ideas including the Heart winged footprint butterfly.

Mama Miss shared a gorgeous Heart Bracelet craft with us this week which would be great as a favour for Valentines Day Party with kids.

We love Glitter, and these Glitter hearts craft from Buggy and Buddy look a lot of fun to make, plus they are glittery.

An Idea on Tuesday shared a fun way to create a heart with weaving and garden trellis.

How about creating some faux stained glass effect hearts like the ones on Kara’s Classroom.

We love window decorations, and this one from The Fairy and The Frog is perfect for little hands to do.

Gigi's Playhouse

Here is more information about the Open House for Gigi's Playhouse.

To all who are interested,

 

This Friday is the grand opening of Gigi’s Playhouse in Layton! This is the first playhouse to be open in the Western United States. Utah has the highest capita of children with Down Syndrome, so it is very exciting to see this facility open up in our own backyard, along with the help it will bring to many Utah families. This facility provides a place for these children to attain free services that focus on physical/mobility support, math and reading tutoring, activities to improve their independence, and it also provides their families with resources and support groups. All of this is free to the children with down syndrome and their families.

 

Please spread the word that the opening will be this Friday from 10 am to 12 pm. It is located at 471 Heritage Park Blvd, Suite #4 in Layton, UT [just off of Hill Field Road, by the America First credit union].  The founder of Gigi’s playhouse will be in attendance, as well as her daughter who inspired this organization.

 

For more information on Gig’s Playhouse go to: http://gigisplayhouse.org/

 

If you want to pay it forward, in your spare time and on your home computer, feel free to nominate Gigi’s Playhouse for the Utah Jazz/Mountain America Credit Union Pass it Along contest at http://www.nba.com/jazz/PassItAlong .

 

Thank you so much for your time and reading this email!

Stacie Passey

February Calendar of Events

Reminder: Early Intervention staff try to protect the health of all children involved in our program.  To help us do this, please reschedule your appointment if anyone in your home is ill.  Thank you for your help in keeping kiddos healthy.

February activities are just around the corner.  Here is a list of activities you can enjoy with your family.

Syracuse Skating Rink is open at the Town Center (about 2000 West and Antelope) on Monday through Friday from 4:00 to 9:00 pm and on Saturday from 10:00 am to 9:00 pm.  You can rent skates for $3/hour for kids and $4/hour for adults or if you have your own skates, it is free.  They anticipate the rink will be open until mid-February.


Family First Monday at Station Park on February 2nd from 5:30 to 7:30 with Elsa and Anna.  Get your pictures with the Ice Princess and the Ice Queen.  Join them for a sing-a-long.  Free face painting.

Utah Legislative Coalition for People with Disabilities

Reception with Legislators

Thursday, February 5^th, 2015

4:30 to 5:45 pm in the State Capitol Rotunda

Invite your Legislators to come to the reception to meet you and join in an afternoon discussion of disability issues and concerns!

To locate the names and contact information for your State Senator and House of Representative Member, go to the Internet website http://le.utah.gov/GIS/findDistrict.jsp enter your address and click on the links provided.

Call them and ask them to meet you at the Reception!

RSVP PLEASE!

Please RSVP by contacting Brooke Wilson at

the Utah Statewide Independent Living Council

by Friday, January 30^th

by phone at 801-463-1592 or email brooke@usilc.org

Grand Opening of Gigi's Playhouse from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm at 471 Heritage Park Blvd, Layton.  Ribbon Cutting Ceremony at 10:45.  Games, face painting, glitter tattoos, princesses and a big dance party!

Brown Bag Lunch with the Legislators on February 13th from 12:00 to 2:00 pm at the Capitol in the Olmstead Room (Senate Building).  If you weren't able to attend the Reception on February 5th, then this is another opportunity to let your legislators know that Early Intervention is helping your child.

February 13th from 7:00 to 9:30 pm is the Family Valentine's Dance at Central Davis Jr. High Gym.  Admission is free.  Live music by the local band "Mid-Life Crisis".  Refreshments, prize giveaways throughout the night, and a sweetheart photobooth.

February 25th - Wild Wednesdays at Hogle Zoo.  Free admission from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm.

Happy Valentine's Day

Two Important Notices

We try hard to not spread illness to your families.  We have an illness policy in place to helps us protect your family.  During this time of illness, please follow the illness policy and cancel appointments if anyone in your home is sick.

Our staff works with many babies and toddlers who get sick very easily. Because of this

fact, it is very important for everyone to remember to cancel home or center visits if

ANYONE in your family is sick.

Please call to reschedule if any of the following symptoms are present:

     

• fever of 101 degrees or more
• stomach/flu-like symptoms such as throwing up or diarrhea
• very sleepy or tired; fussier than usual
• a sore throat
• bad cold
• coughing
• red eyes with discharge
• thick green mucus from the nose
• skin rash
• oozing fluid or pus
• head or body lice; pinworm or scabies
• mouth sores

If anyone in your family is showing any of the signs listed above or isn’t feeling well, call

to cancel the visit by 9:00 AM.

Please help us keep everyone healthy.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Early Learning Center Layton 801-402-5514

Early Learning Center Bountiful 801-402-5432

Early Learning Center Farmington 801-402-5408

Also,

Each family with a child who was eligible for Early Intervention services at any time in 2014 will be receiving a TC-40D tax form this month.  The Utah State Tax Commission has authorized this form to be used to document a dependent child with a disability.  Families will need to fill in the  necessary information on Part 1 of the form and keep it with your tax records.  With this form, your child who was eligible for early intervention will count as two dependents on your Utah State Tax return.  The form does not need to be sent in with your taxes.  We are only authorized to provide forms for children who were eligible for early intervention services in the 2014 year.  If you have questions about the eligibility of older children, please check with the principal at your child's school.