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Working from the traditional yoga sequences - warm-up exercises, breathing techniques, relaxation and calming exercises, yoga for children takes the process one step further by adapting the language, props, songs and length of the session to the age of the children involved - children respond to child friendly props like puppets and songs written for younger ears. Children at Kiddi Caru Day Nursery in Milton Keynes are enjoying their yoga session which is one of our free all inclusive activities.

At Kiddi Caru we plan our activities to meet individual children’s needs. We discovered that a child in our care was petrified of the noise and crowds at a recent family birthday party and with their own third birthday approaching soon the staff planned a week of activities around birthdays and celebrations. The highlight of the week was ‘teddy’s third birthday party’. All children were involved in making a huge cake for the party and bought their teddies in to join in the celebrations.

Peek a Boo is a fantastic game to play wherever you are; behind a muslin cloth, behind the sofa or through a tube. Peek a Boo helps your baby to feel special and is an effective way to communicate.

• Face your baby and explain “we’re playing Peek a Boo”
• Hide your face and remove material away then smile at your baby and say “Peek a Boo”
• Let your baby pull the material from your face
• Use words like “where have you gone?” and “there you are”
   

Babies are born ready and willing to communicate with the world around them. Language learning develops a number of skills and the earlier a second language is learnt the better.

The benefits of learning an additional language for your child:

• Research has shown this is the best time to learn as young children are more relaxed and better at imitating sounds and pronunciation.
• Children repeat sounds and, when rewarded by attention from an adult, this stimulates them to continue or increase vocalisation. When your child learns a second language, the same principles apply. The more they enjoy learning a language when they are young, the more likely they are going to find it a positive experience when they are older.
• Language learning also develops your child’s ability to listen attentively.
• Performance builds self-confidence in children’s ability to express themselves.
• It is very important, if a child is to embrace languages, that any language experience becomes an enjoyable part of their life and in turn a skill for life.

Pictured: Children at Kiddi Caru Day Nursery in Wellingborough using Polish counting cards.
 

No such thing as bad weather when children attend Kiddi Caru Day Nurseries. We provide wet weather suits for children to wear so that they can still enjoy fresh air and a broad range of outdoor activities such as planting and physical play. Children at Kiddi Caru Day Nursery in Chelmsford modeling our outdoor wear.

A love of books is actively fostered at every Kiddi Caru Day Nursery and we are encouraging parents to take every opportunity to share books at bedtime, provide books for long journeys and share their child’s pleasure in recognising familiar words by offering a library or ‘borrow a book for bedtime’ in our nursery reception areas. These children at Kiddi Caru in Northampton are thoroughly enjoying ‘Finding Nemo’.

Initially developed by Elinor Goldschmied in the early 1980s, Treasure baskets offer children an interesting and stimulating way to begin to discover the world around them.

A world filled with plastic and manufactured items, treasure baskets are designed to offer children a wide variety of natural materials and objects to explore. Many toys which are made of plastic, whilst possibly looking different, offer children very little by way of variety when handled. The materials offered can be made of cloth, metal or wood, for example, or could be natural objects such as shells or large pebbles.

The benefits of Treasure Baskets for your child:

• Treasure baskets hold a deep fascination for children, helping their concentration and confidence grow as they explore through touching and by mouthing everything within reach.
• Children need to explore and manipulate different and unfamiliar objects in a safe and secure environment are met with treasure baskets.

Pictured: The children at Kiddi Caru Day Nursery in Writtle have been discovering different materials and textures.
 

Try this at home: The children at Kiddi Caru in Northampton had lots of fun using the old detol bottles to create different marks on paper.

They filled the bottles with some paint and water and then sprayed the mixture. They were very excited with the results.
 

Kiddi Caru’s Facebook page has been awarded Star Facebook Page of the Week by Yell, the local business search engine company. Each week, Yell chooses a Facebook page that deserves a big thumbs up and this week it is Kiddi Caru that has hit the top spot.

According to Yell, there were a number of reasons why the Kiddi Caru Facebook page is so effective. Firstly, Kiddi Caru makes use of a welcome page, so that any new visitors who have not yet hit the like button will be greeted by this. Furthermore, the Kiddi Caru welcome page also explains that when the company reaches certain like ‘milestones’, such as gaining 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 fans, it will make a donation to charity World Vision.

The ‘info’ section has been filled out, so there are links to the Kiddi Caru website, an email address and telephone number. The Kiddi Caru team ensures that the Facebook page is updated regularly, which really gives a visitor confidence that this is a vibrant and interesting page worth following.

Crucially though, Yell was most impressed by the Kiddi Caru Facebook page as it updates parents on activities going on at the nurseries, and these updates feature fabulous pictures too. Parents get a real insight into what’s happening day to day but also this can be useful for prospective customers also as anyone researching Kiddi Caru can get a flavour of what goes on through the Facebook page.

Caron Moseley, Marketing Manager at Kiddi Caru comments,”

“Facebook is a fundamental part of our marketing programme and we work very hard to ensure to make it relevant and interesting to the parents that use our nurseries, our staff and prospective customers alike. We are delighted that Yell has recognised our efforts and recommended our page as an example that other businesses can learn from."
 

Kiddi Caru Day Nurseries across the UK will be taking part in Sport Relief 2012 on Friday 23rd March with lots of fun and healthy activities such as walking a mile and different sports games.

All the money the children raise through the all the activities taking place for Sport Relief will help transform lives – both on our doorstep in the UK and throughout the world’s poorest countries.

Sport Relief is an initiative of Comic Relief is supported by children’s favourite CBeebies character, Waybuloo. www.sportrelief.com
 

This is a double celebration for the day nursery who received the highest Ofsted inspection result by achieving an Outstanding in 2011. They are a committed, supportive employer ensuring that staff receive every opportunity to update their skills. Their commitment to quality of service goes hand-in–hand with continuous staff training, which includes bespoke courses and Apprenticeships.

Nursery Manager Tracey Noble, a strong advocate of the ’grow your own’ principle, firmly believes that; ‘Apprenticeships provides a strong foundation for our young recruits, increases their self confidence, knowledge and leadership skills as well as providing the essential skills required to do the job. Paige Taylor is a typical example who at 17 joined the Nursery as an Apprentice in 2011 and is working towards completing an Advanced Apprenticeship in Childcare this year.’

Why don’t you try this at home?

Using a jar or old fizzy pop bottle add water, food dye, vegetable oil and golden syrup and watch the magic appear!

What to do:

1. Half-fill a glass with cold water and add a few drops of food dye. Then stir the water with a teaspoon to mix in the food dye.
2. Spoon four tablespoons of vegetable oil into a small glass jar. Then slowly add four tablespoons of dyed water and see what happens.
3. Slowly add four tablespoons of golden syrup to the jar with a spoon. Then watch to see what happens to the three liquids in the jar.

Try adding the liquids in a different order to see what happens

Learning and Development promoted through this activity:

Step by step instructions can help your child to develop a sense of order linking to numeracy development. It will aid your child’s natural need to explore and give them the opportunity to watch how the different layers form (cause and effect). It will provide lots of fun and interaction for the family and provide opportunities to converse and ask questions such as why and how.

Mums and Dads help us fly high…. Vote for us to win the NDNA Nursery of the Year 2012!

We are entering the NDNA Nursery Awards 2012 but we need your help to win!

The NDNA Nursery Awards are the only nursery awards voted for by parents and carers and they are a real celebration of everything that is excellent in the childcare sector. The awards recognise and celebrate the fantastic care and support that nurseries and carers provide to 750,000 children and their families across the UK and being awarded a title is a real achievement.

Please vote for your Kiddi Caru nursery as the NDNA Nursery of the Year. You can also thank a member of staff for all their hard work by voting for them as NDNA Nursery Practitioner of the Year.

For more information on the NDNA Nursery Awards and how to vote please speak to your nursery manager and collect a voting form. Or download a form from www.ndna.org.uk/events-campaigns/awards/awards-2012/enter or click here and print.
 

Kiddi Caru Day Nurseries launch their new winter menus which include dishes such as beef and vegetable stew with dumplings, vegetable moussake, apple sponge served with custard, hot quiche plus a selection of fruit and vegetable snacks throughout the day. Our menus are checked by a qualified nutritionist (BSc Hons) who predominantly works with the education sector to help provide nutritious meals to children of nursery and school age.

After a Government review which recommended that all nurseries and childminders follow practical guidance on what children under five should eat and drink, the School Food Trust, a national charity and specialist advisor to Government on school meals and children’s food, launched their first ever nutritional guidelines on 16th January 2012. The guidelines say:

“Young children are growing quickly and have high energy and nutrient requirements for their size. A healthy balanced diet for children aged one to five years is based on the four food groups listed below: 

1. Starchy foods

2. Fruit and vegetables

3. Meat, fish, eggs, beans and other non-dairy sources of protein

4. Milk and dairy products

which provide a range of essential nutrients that children need to grow and develop”*

Following the work and commitment that our nursery managers and chefs, along with the nutritionist have given to developing our menus, we at Kiddi Caru are confident that we will meet the criteria set out by the School Food Trust guidelines.

*further information on the new guidelines can be found at www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk
 

Children across Kiddi Caru Day Nurseries will be taking part in the ‘I CAN’s Chatterbox Challenge’ which is an annual fundraising activity for nurseries, children’s groups and childminders. Children aged 0-5 have fantastic fun at these events; developing their communication skills by singing songs and rhymes to raise money for children who struggle with their speech and language.

Last year over 250,000 children had fun learning and performing nursery rhymes and songs and raised almost £100,000, as well as smashing the Guinness World Record for the most amount of children singing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes in multiple locations.

This year the songs are based on the theme of ‘Kids in Motion’ and if any parents would like to practice the songs with their child before the challenge, please visit www.ican.org.uk/chatterboxchallenge for further information.
 

At Kiddi Caru we are introducing free experience sessions/days for all parents and new parents.

Come and be a child for the day or relax whilst your little one experiences ‘learning through play’, the highly successful philosophy adopted by Kiddi Caru. Take part in sensory play, craft activities, French, music & movement, sing & sign, story time, play dough and lots, lots more.

The following dates are available so far:

Taunton, Sing and Sign Experience Session: 6th February 2-3.15 pm
Taunton, French themed Experience Session: 13th February 2-3.15.pm
International (Empress State), Experience Session: 29th February 3-4.30pm
Torquay Experience Day: 10th March 10.30 am- 1 pm (lunch included)
International (Empress State), Experience Session: 28th March 3-4.30pm
Burgess Hill Experience Day: 14th April 10.30 am- 1 pm (lunch included)
International (Empress State), Experience Session: 25th April 3-4.30pm

So creative in fact we wanted to share their beautiful artwork with everyone by reproducing some of the pieces as part of the Kiddi Caru 2012 Calendar.

If you would like to receive a copy of this special calendar please email marketing@kiddicaru.com and forward your full name and address details. Hurry we only have a limited supply left.

We would like to thank all the parents that have registered to use the secure log in section of our new website; there is now nearly 600 of you viewing up-to-date information about our nurseries. If you haven’t already done so please register and you will see the latest photos of our Christmas Events which have taken place across our nurseries. Our website will provide up-to-date information about Kiddi Caru and your nursery but will not replace or detract from the daily contact you have with your child's keycarer and any other staff members working in your child's room.

As part of our website incentive we are delighted to have placed an order today with World Vision for 10 birthing kits, school meals for 90 children and enough books to fill a small library – thank you for giving a child a better future through our World Vision campaign. The next milestone is training for a Child Carer.
 

We are very proud of our nurseries with over 35% having achieved an Ofsted Outstanding and as recognised in Nursery World (a childcare industry publication); we are ranked in the top three of their recent Day Nurseries Quality Table.

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But unlike the rest of us it’s not enough for Kiddi Caru Day Nurseries merely to be liked – on Facebook that is.

We have decided to use a simple action that people are now so familiar with to raise money for our chosen charity World Vision. For every person who likes our Facebook, a donation will be made to go towards children’s textbooks, training for carers, meals for children etc.

Visitors can go on to our Facebook welcome page www.facebook.com/Kiddicaru and they will find a chart outlining our many likes we need to achieve for each level of support we want to provide to World Vision.

As well as providing all the activities you would expect from a top-quality nursery, we also offer extra curriculum activities such as yoga, French, music & movement and sing & sign. We believe these activities are simply part of our quality brand and should be enjoyed by all children – therefore these programmes are provided at no extra cost.

Kiddi Caru nurseries launch their new Summer menus which include dishes such as chicken and leek pie, vegetable and lentil curry, lemon sponge served with crème fraiche, tuna mayo wraps plus a selection of fruit and vegetable snacks throughout the day.

Our menus offer children food on a more regular basis. Research undertaken by The Caroline Walker Trust recommends that children need to eat regularly which includes nutritious snacks between meals, these being low in added sugar i.e. fruit, vegetables, milk, yoghurt, any type of bread including sandwiches with savoury fillings.

Before we launched our menus, they were checked by a qualified nutritionist (BSc Hons) who predominantly works with the education sector to help provide nutritious meals to children of nursery and school age. And as already mentioned, we consulted various guidelines such as The Caroline Walker Trust, which produced a report aimed specifically for children under five in childcare.

Currently the only legal requirement in the Early Years Foundation Stage, which is regulated by our governing body Ofsted with regard to providing food to children under the age of five, is to provide a healthy, balanced and nutritious diet. As this is not clearly defined, there has recently been a government review which recommends that all nurseries and childminders should follow practical guidance on what children under five should eat and drink. The Advisory Panel on Food and Nutrition in the Early Years concluded that there should be a recognised, national set of guidelines which all settings should be encouraged to use. Following the work and commitment that our nursery managers and chefs along with the nutritionists have given to developing our menus, we at Kiddi Caru are confident that should the government introduce a set of standards relating to food provision for children attending Early Years Settings that we will meet all criteria.
 

Children between the ages of 12 and 24 months benefit from Heuristic play as it encourages them to learn about the world around them through exploration in a fun environment. At our nurseries we provide a variety of everyday objects for the children to explore. It helps them gain an understanding of what the object is, how it feels and what it can do.

You can also try this activity at home with your child - You will need following items:

• Cardboard tubes
• Wooden pegs
• Corks
• Show boxes
• Plastic bottles
• Old bracelets
   

World Vision is Kiddi Caru’s chosen national charity, supported since 1998. Each of our nurseries takes part in World Vision's child sponsorship programme, supporting children in nearly 100 countries – and yes, they really do have a vision for a different world, one in which no child has to live in poverty. Working to help communities sustain themselves, we are making that vision a reality.

Sponsor a child today and see the difference you make – if you would like to know more about World Vision’s child sponsorship programme visit www.worldvision.org.uk

“Saving the Lives of under Fives”

Did you know:

• Every year 8.8 million children die before their fifth birthday, all from preventable causes. That’s roughly equivalent to the populations of London, Birmingham and Liverpool, combined.
• Malnutrition is the underlying cause in at least 35% of all child deaths.
• Every day, 22,000 children under five die of preventable causes such as diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia.

John's Story

In Uganda, two year old John Mutegeki lies in his mother's arms. His mother and father have just walked eight miles to their closest clinic. John is diagnosed with extreme dehydration and anaemia as a result of diarrhoea and vomiting. His mother explains that they are not always able to drink clean water.

The nurse gives John simple Oral Rehydration Salts; it is the last pack she has left. John’s parents must now walk miles to the next clinic and use the last of their money to buy more of the medicine that their son so desperately needs.

In the west we sometimes forget the true value that something like Oral Rehydration Salts hold. They are cheap (just 10p,) effective and accessible, to us. In countries like Uganda children are dying because they are still too expensive and just out of reach.

We are facing a silent emergency, one that's bigger than any natural disaster the world has ever seen. It's unacceptable - cheap and simple solutions exist that could save millions of lives.

World Vision has launched its new global campaign Child Health Now; this campaign seeks to stop children like John dying from preventable causes and Kiddi Caru is getting involved too. Find out how in future updates...