Mothercraft provides nutritional, delicious morning snacks. The children are required to bring a nutritious lunch and afternoon snack from home. We are a nut-free centre, which includes any food and beverages with labels that read, “May contain traces of nuts/tree nuts” and/or “made in a factory that processes nuts”. We ask that you help us to keep the children safe as we have children who are severely allergic to nuts/tree nuts. If we have any doubt that something may contain nuts we will not serve it at daycare. Please be sure to label everything in your child’s lunch box with their name. Drinks need to be inside your lunch container.

Foods that need to be kept cold or hot can be packed into a thermos to keep the food at a safe temperature. Cold foods can also be stored with an ice pack or frozen juice box. The Public Health Department expects that parents will have an ice pack in their child’s lunch bag for the travel time from home to daycare.

A lot of parents wonder what to pack in their child’s lunch. Here are some suggestions from Canada’s Food Guide that you might find helpful:

Step one
Think food groups. Aim to have at least three of the four food groups represented in your child’s lunch. Check out Canada’s Food Guide for helpful information.

Step two
Think outside the sandwich! Get creative when choosing items for your child’s lunch. Sometimes changing something as simple as the type of grain. For example, using pita, flatbread, tortilla, or cereal instead of bread can make lunch more interesting for your little eater.  Here are some ideas to get you started. Mix and match the options in the different columns to get a variety of lunch meals.

Veggies and Fruit	Grain Products	Milk and Alternatives	Meat and Alternatives
Pepper strips (red, green, yellow)	Tortillas, flatbread, naan or pita bread	Fruit yogurt or soy yogurt	Hard cooked egg
Peas in a pod or snow pea pods	Cold or hot cereal	Yogurt dip (tzatziki) for veggies	Tuna, salmon or chicken salad flavoured with: curry, onions, light mayo, pickles, apples or dill
Baby corn	English muffins	Milk or fortified soy beverage	Ham slices
Cherry tomatoes	Oatmeal muffins	Cheese cubes, cheese string or cheese slices	Hummus (tahini and ground chickpea dip)
Melon balls	Rice cakes	Milk-based pudding	Refried or baked beans
Fruit smoothie	Whole grain crackers	Cottage or ricotta cheese cups	Hard cooked egg
Turnip or zucchini sticks	Chapati, roti	Milk-based soup	Tuna or salmon sandwich
Cauliflower and broccoli trees	Pasta, Brown rice, couscous, quinoa	Cheese-filled pasta (cannelloni, ravioli)	Steamed soybeans (edamame)
Sliced mango	Bread sticks	Hot chocolate	Marinated cooked tofu

We offer all the children a change to rest their bodies after a busy morning at play. In our sleep room we play CD stories for the children to listen to while they rest. We have blankets and sleep toys available, but your child can also bring their own from home. We provide flashlights, lanterns and books for those children that do not fall asleep but wish to remain in the quiet sleep room. There is always an Educator in the sleep room with the children.
Children who are not asleep after an hour of resting quietly on their beds may join our Wakers’ Program. In the Wakers’ Program your child enjoys playing with a smaller group of children. If your child is in our program for less than 6 hours and does not need to sleep, they will be in the Wakers’ Program for the full 2 hours. The Wakers’ Program includes quieter art activities, puzzles, dress-up, building structures, printing, cutting, etc. The children help determine what activities are going to happen.

We go outside twice a day, all year long, so please make sure the children have the clothes they need to be able to enjoy the great outdoors. Every child will have a cubby in which to hang their outdoor clothes and their backpack. Their backpack should include at least one full change of clothes (socks, underwear, pants, and shirt). Bathroom accidents occur when your child is busy playing or when he/she is learning to use the toilet. Diapers and wipes can also be stored in their bag or their cubby. If your child is still wearing diapers please supply a minimum of 3 per day. Leave the supplies in the cubbies and we will gather them as required throughout the day.

We also have messy play activities and water play. All of these things often require a change of clothes.

We have three basic rules in this program: safe bodies, safe feelings, and safe equipment. By providing a play-space with fewer restrictions and rules, we believe that the children are more in control of their environment. It is a place that truly belongs to them. This in turn creates a room full of happy children, happy families and happy Educators.

We are excited to have you and your child in our program. We are here to answer any of your questions and to share information with you about your child’s day.
There is an information board outside our door where you can read about our daily activities, special events, and the supply Educators who might be working with us that day.
Please make sure you have I.D every time you pick up your child in case there is a supply teacher working so they can verify your information.