Prayer

May I take this opportunity to remind you that as staff, our aim is to start and end each morning with a time of prayer. This is because this is a Christian run group and we feel it is important to bring God into all we do. If you have anything in particular you would like us to pray about, please speak to Elsie as she is our
prayer co-ordinator.
Being a Christian is far more than being a ‘nice person’. It is about having a relationship with God. Any of the staff would love to talk to you about this, please take the opportunity today.

Waiting List

We cleared our waiting list in September but are back up to four families on the list as of the first morning.
We have reviewed our policy but would like to clarify what it is:-

First timers are welcome to join us for their initial visit at any point – we will then hold your details on file and let you know as soon as space is available. Unfortunately, we have no way of telling how long you may need to wait as this depends on our numbers week by week. If you would like an update, please check out our blogspot http://www.oaksandacornns.blogspot.com/ .

Our numbers have to be below 50 (adults and children) for two consecutive weeks before we allow new people to join, this is done in chronological order.

If you have four consecutive unexplained absences, you are at risk of losing your regular space here at Oaks and Acorns.

We have a maximum number of 55 (adults and children) at any one session. This is on a first come, first served basis. We start at 10:00am and run until 11:30am. We would recommend you arrive early as this will give you the best chance of getting in. We apologise if we ever have to turn you away. Please be aware that this is for Health and Safety reasons, more than 55 people can greatly increase the risk of accidents.

If you have any queries, please speak to Rhianne.

Small Change . . . Big Difference

We have decided this year to focus our charity giving to two specific charities.
These will be Little Havens Children’s Hospice here in Essex and
The Smiles Foundation in Romania – children’s work. If you would like further information on either of these Charities, please let us know.

We believe it is important to encourage children to support other children. We wanted to help a local charity and one further afield, Home and Overseas effectively.

All our fundraising this year will therefore be split equally between the two chosen charities.

We will be doing a sponsored trundle later this year but we will also be trying various other fund raising activities.

Toy Swap – please start looking out any good quality used toys – we will shortly be doing a ‘Toy Swap’ morning – you will bring down what you no longer need and ‘swap’ it for something else for a donation to the charities.

Cake Mornings – would any of you Mums be prepared to make some cakes to bring down for us all to enjoy in the morning - again raising funds?
If you could do this, please let Pat or Rhianne know so we don’t have too many all on the same morning (Question – can you have too many cakes???)

Penny pots – once again these will be available for your small change – please collect and bring in regularly – as we say above small change . . . big difference.

Card money – Pat has handmade a lovely selection of cards this year. These are available for just £1.50 per card and are out in the Lounge each week – please browse through and pick one (or several) up today – half the proceeds will go to our chosen charities.

If you have any other fund raising ideas, please let us know.

Subs – this year we will give 10% of all the subs we take to our supported charities.
10% will also go to the Church itself to help towards our running costs.
Note – please try to bring the correct change (£1.00) whenever possible – Thank you.

Because we are concentrating all our efforts on Little Havens and The Smiles Foundation, we will not directly be doing Harvest for the Hungry or Shoeboxes this year. However, the Church as a whole will be doing these projects and if you would like to support them individually, we can give you the appropriate information.

Birthdays

It is our aim to do birthdays on the first morning of each month and we will now be giving out a ‘Birthday Bear’ to every child on their birthday (31 bought at last count – I think I may become buried in teddies soon!)
Please can you let us know when you register in that your child will be celebrating their birthday soon so we do not miss anyone out.

Jingles for Jenny Update

Thanks to all those who collected pennies for us last term. We raised £80.00 which Jenny will be using to send toys out to the Smiles Foundation work in Romania. We have chosen a Wendy House, Trike, Dolls House and Train Set. Jenny has many pictures of her trip to Romania in the Summer and would be happy to share them with anyone – we will aim for these to be available in the Lounge for the next few weeks

All I really need to know I learned in Kindergarten

All I really need to know about how to live and how to be
I learned in Kindergarten
Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain,
but there in the sand pile at Sunday school.

These are the things I learned.

Share everything. Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Say you’re sorry when you hit somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and dance and play every day some. Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together. Be Aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup; the roots go down and the plant goes up, and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule of Love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living. Take any one of these items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all – the whole world – had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are – when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together

From All I really need to know
I learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum