Activities at Home & Places to Experience
The winter holidays are often filled with traditions created by the greater community and traditions created by you for your own family. Traditions are a wonderful way to instill a sense of belonging, love and joy in your preschooler. Decorating a Christmas tree, lighting candles, making a specific recipe, exploring an art project, and reading books are some ways you can deepen your family bond through traditions.

Exploring holiday traditions outside of the home can be lots of fun! If you have experienced The Bellevue Botanical Gardens with Teacher Kym's class, consider visiting this time of year. A large portion of the garden has been decorated with scenes created by thousands of lights. For details visit https://bellevuebotanical.org/garden-dlights/

Parent Map offers a Family Fun Calendar of activities around Puget Sound. https://www.parentmap.com/calendar
Red Tricycle is a great resource for kid oriented activities. http://redtri.com/seattle-kids/

Teacher Amy's preschool teacher introduced this recipe to her when she was in preschool. Amy has carried on this tradition by making it with each of her classes. The children were fascinated by using their kid power and an old fashioned grinder to make this recipe. They enjoyed watching the berries and other fruit smoosh together. They even tried the juice that dripped into a bowl while grinding the fruit. You can also use a food processor but the old fashion grinder is so much more fun!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups rinsed raw cranberries
• 2 peeled and cored apples, cut into thick slices
• 1 large, whole (peel ON) seedless orange, cut into sections
• 1 to 2 cups granulated sugar to taste

Directions:  
     1. Wash fruit and get grinder or food processor ready
     2. Push fruit through grinder: Push the cranberries, orange sections, and apple slices through the grinder. Include the orange peel! Alternate the fruit as you push it through the grinder so that different fruits get ground together
    3.  Add sugar: Stir in the sugar. (Start with less than a cup and keep adding 1/4 cups to taste.) Let sit at room temperature until the sugar dissolves, about 45 minutes. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use.  You can store in refrigerator for up to 10-14 days or freeze for up to 2 months and then defrost in the refrigerator.

KCP's handcrafted wood sign tells a story of it's own. This summer it was given a facelift with a fresh coat of paint by our in-house teacher artist, Kym Meade. KCP is very fortunate to have an alumni grandfather determined to support the co-op spirit, who fashioned new posts and installed the sign. Deep gratitude to Walt Mauldin, otherwise known as our "Pa Walt." In the upcoming weeks, the posts will be painted our school colors of blue, red and green. Many hands make work light!

Kirkland Co-op Preschool is a 5013c non-profit preschool. Your donations make KCP great as well as give you a tax deduction.
Here is how you can send a donation to KCP:
PayPal

• Go to paypal.me/kcppayments
• Enter a dollar amount
• Log in to your account
• Enter a note that includes your name and reason for payment
• Send payment
• Email kcptreasurer01@gmail.com. In the note section please include your name and indicate the amount is a donation.

Mail a Payment
Mail a check made payable to Kirkland Co-op Preschool to:
Kirkland Co-op Preschool, Attn: Treasurer
7525 132nd Ave NE
Kirkland, WA 98033

Fall is here and KCP classes have been busy learning all things fall related through songs, art, activities and even pumpkin farm visits. If you would like to do a little pumpkin learning at home, give this recipe a try.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Ingredients:

• Seeds of one pumpkin
• Olive oil
• ½ teaspoon salt.

 

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Wash the seeds thoroughly in warm water- make sure all the pumpkin gunk is gone.
3. Spread the seeds out on a paper towel and let them dry completely.
4. In a bowl, toss the seeds with olive oil.
5. Spread the seeds on a cookie sheet.
6. Sprinkle with salt.
7. Put the seeds in the oven for 20 minutes, stirring every five minutes.  The seeds are done when they are dry and golden.
8. Cool and serve.

 
You can be creative with your seasoning – other suggestions are cayenne pepper, sugar and cinnamon, powdered taco seasoning, garlic salt, cheese popcorn seasoning, soy sauce, curry powder.

KCP Families Raised $2880!
Thank you everyone for such a strong turnout. We were blessed with a beautiful cloudy fall morning and it was so wonderful to see the happy faces with their extended families. We would like to especially thank parents who donated the yummy snacks that were provided to keep the young ones fueled up after their walks.

Serenity Gray, our Fundraiser, has calculated the donations. We raised $2430 plus $450 in company matching dollars, equaling a total of $2880. Angie Visser (Group II) won the Get Out of A Weekend Cleaning Reward for highest individual donation. Congrats Vesser family! And, drum roll please...Group II won the popsicle party with $1020 in donations! Serenity will co-ordinate with Teacher Doreen to plan the celebration.

When you make a purchase through the Amazon Smile website, 0.5% of your eligible purchase is donated to KCP. Go to https://smile.amazon.com/ch/910728533 to register. Goods and prices will be the same as their regular website or mobile apps, but using smile.amazon.com is the only way your purchases earn KCP free money. Please note that KCP is listed as  Kirkland Parents Cooperative Preschool Group Inc. Then shop away! Thank you!

Fred Meyer is donating up to $2.6 million per year - up to $650,000 each quarter - to the local schools, community organizations and nonprofits of your choice. All you have to do is link your Rewards Card and scan it every time you shop at Fred Meyer.
Here is how the program works:

• Sign up for the Community Rewards program by linking your Fred Meyer Rewards Card to Kirkland Co-op Preschool at www.fredmeyer.com/communityrewards. You can search by school name or by our non-profit number SA861.
  
• Then, every time you shop and use your Rewards Card, you are helping Kirkland Co-op Preschool earn a donation.
  
• You still earn your Rewards Points, Fuel Points and Rebates just as you do today.
  
• If you do not have a Rewards Card, they are available at the Customer Service desk of any Fred Meyer store.
  
• For more info visit www.fredmeyer.com/communityrewards or call 1-866-518-2686.
  

Parenting Education at KCP is one of those places where, "The more you give, the more you get." Fully participate and you and your classmates (fellow parents) will get a lot out of the experience. Be a part of making this a rich experience for all. Here are six ways to maximize your experience:

1. Everyone comes to Parenting Education from different (but often similar) backgrounds with different experience levels as a parent. Always be respectful of others' parenting choices.
2. Parenting Education is a safe place for all to share and open up; do your best to be respectful and kind.
3. Confidentiality is important to respect the members of the group. Treat your Parenting Education experiences like you are in AA - keep identities private.
4. The teacher's responsibility is to present the topic, provide materials to further your investigation and facilitate the discussion.
5. The parent's responsibility is to share in the discussion, ask questions related to the topic that relate to your experience, share your experiences related to the topic to potentially further the discussion.
6. Consider the discussion section as the most important part of Parenting Education and it is only successful with your input. Parents often have wonderful insight, so please share.