Winner of Best Creche 8 years in a row
Pancake Tuesday is otherwise known as Shrove Tuesday, and is celebrated by many Christians around the world. Shove Tuesday is traditionally the day to use up all the rich ingredients – flour, milk and eggs before the fasting period of Lent starts. This year, Pancake Tuesday will be celebrated on Tuesday 28th February .
Planning on making pancakes at home for, or with your little ones? We’ve pulled together a simple recipe you can make with the children – and they are guaranteed to love it!
This makes 8 – 10 large pancakes, or about 20 “palm-sized” pancakes.
240g plain flour 2 eggs 1 pint (500ml) milk
2. At this stage, leave it in the fridge for a few hours if you have the time.
3. Grease the frying pan with sunflower oil.
4. Ensure the pan is very hot. Pour in small amounts of the mixture, enough to thinly cover the base of the pan.
5. As the batter cooks you will see it start to come away from the edge. At this point toss it or turn it over to cook the other side.
6. Serve with your favourite topping. Here’s some of our favourites:
Leave some toppings on the table and let the children choose, this encourages independence as and they love to decorate their pancakes themselves!
Decorating pancakes in IFSC
As well as making pancakes on Tuesday 28th February, there are so many other activities that young children might enjoy.
Pancake Crafts– using paper plates and any amount of colourful decorations, your child can design their ULTIMATE pancake creation.
Fruit Tasting Experiment – have a selection of fruits and topping in smaller bowls for the children to taste and experience.
Pancake-on -the-head ( Balancing Game): using Paper plate, take turns walking in a straight line with the “Pancake” balanced on your head. Each time you complete a distance, try adding another “Pancake” on top!
“Flip a Pancake” (Memory Game): Cut out a large stack of cardboard pancakes (even number like 18 or 20 will work great!) , and make matching pairs by placing stickers on one side of each pancake. Turn all the pancakes face down and shuffle them around, then take turns “flipping” two pancakes over at a time, trying to find matching pairs.
Spring is just around the corner! Read up on our seasonal menus here.
On Tuesday 14th February, our centre in Liffey Valley turned Pink! The carers and children held a special charity day in aid of A Princess called Emily.
Emily Duffy, from Celbridge, is 3 years old and battling stage 4 Neuroblastoma with a tough road ahead of her. Her treatments include chemotherapy and specialised radiation therapies, both which will effect a young child’s immune system.
Together with their carers, the children helped to make cupcakes and treats that the parents could enjoy on their morning commute. Special pink bracelets were available for a donation of €2. At the end of the day, the centre raised €425 for A Princess called Emily!.
One of the children in the preschool room told her family about the special charity day. Her mum, Hrsitina was so touched by the Princess Emily story, that with the help of her daughter they decided to host their own bake sale. Hrsitina brought her cakes into her workplace and raised over €475! Thank you Hristina for your incredible kindness and generosity.
All the children were invited to dress up and wear pink, or their favourite costume. There were Superheroes and Princesses and some wonderfully creative costumes on the day! Just look at some of these amazing face-paintings:
The day after Pink Day, when the children were busy choosing activities in the centre, many of them expressed an interest in making Get Well cards for Emily, and got down to making these beautiful creations
Thank you to all the families and friends for your help and generosity on our Pink Day fundraiser. In total we raised €900 for the Princess Emily fund. Well done Kamila (Centre Manager) and the entire team at Liffey Valley for your incredible efforts to make it such a special day for the children and their families!
It’s hard enough just to fit all your work and family life commitments into the day and exercise can sometimes feel like a challenge so why not look at it differently and exercise with your child by scheduling lots of playtime?
It helps to think of exercise as leading an active lifestyle with your children and you will probably fit in more than you think. If you keep exercise fun and varied, you’re more likely to keep at it and you will all enjoy it. There’s a double bonus to staying fit as a family: not only does playing and being physically active develop stronger muscles and bones, improve emotional wellbeing, and promote better sleep patterns for children – but you get fit at the same time!
The key is to choose an activity that will work for everyone in your family group.There are great health benefits for both adults and children by being active and the current recommendation for young children is to have at least 60 minutes of active play every day but this can be a challenge for some parents to fit in to the working week. If you can’t take a full hour activity break each day, try to provide at least two half-hour periods or four 15-minute periods in which your child can engage in vigorous and fun activities to get their heart rate up and blood circulating.
Keeping fit with your child brings you together and provides a sense of achievement and a greater focus on life and motivation. You will find that when you make fitness a part of family time, it will become as natural as eating dinner together. It doesn’t have to be hard work. It can be great fun and one of the best parts is, the fitter you get, the more energy you will have to enjoy life.
– Dearbhala Cox-Giffin, Director of Childcare
We are thrilled to announce that three of our Giraffe centres have recently been awarded the status of Healthy Ireland Smart Start centres! Congratulations to Giraffe Cherrywood, Giraffe Navan and Giraffe Liffey Valley on completing this initiative. All Giraffe centres are currently enrolled in the programme and expect to receive their awards over the coming few months.
This Pre-school Health Promotion training programme is the result of over a decade of collaborative working led by the HSE Department of Health Promotion and Improvement in partnership with National Childhood Network, to ensure children in the pre-school settings are supported to adopt healthy lifestyle behaviours in early childhood. The aim is to bring all people together into a national movement with a single aim to ensure the best possible health and well-being of our nation.
The programme is broken down into 6 topics:
Each centre held a staff meeting to discuss way that they could introduce the Healthy Ireland programme into their curriculum and involve the parents at every step of the way.
Activities for the Oral Health topic included:
Laura, Deputy Manager in Navan explains how her team worked together with the children and their parents to roll out the Healthy Smart Start Initiatives in their centre:
Laura and Nathalie in Navan
The emotional well-being topic was a lot of fun to promote within the centre. This got a lot of positive reactions from carers and parents as it can be tricky to deal with at times as the children are learning about their emotions and how to express themselves. For this unit, we shared stories that talked about emotions and feeling, such as the When I’m feeling… books by Tracey Moroney. There are 8 books in total, each discussing and exploring a different feeling: lonely, scared, happy, sad, jealous, angry, loved and kind. There was also a CD which played songs to represent the emotions too and we saw the children really connect with the music element of the stories.
If the CD was playing when you entered the room they would run up to you and tell you what emotion was playing. The angry song was quite popular cause it made you feel like stomping around!
“Can you point to the picture of this emotion?”
Before we introduced the books to the children, we set up a library for the parents so they could read the books and bring them home to show the children to see how they felt about them and if they had any questions about the books as there were some emotions that children might not have understood yet. This helps to reinforce new ideas to the children, when they are talked about at home as well as in crèche.
All of our centres will roll out the Healthy Ireland programme in the coming months
With special thanks to:
Last Saturday, Giraffe Childcare’s Training Academy hosted a training day for 63 practitioners with Lillian and Carol from Early Childhood Ireland, delivering workshops on Facilitating Play Based Learning. Our senior crèche managers acted as our In-House workshop facilitators on the day, and covered a wide range of topics on Managing Children’s behaviour and best practice in care for the Toddler age group (typically 2-3 years of age).
The afternoon workshops focused on supporting communication and managing change; as children grow up and transition to new social groups ( from baby groups to Toddler age, from toddler to Preschool and on to big School) it is our role as carers to support them and their families through this change. Some of our senior centre managers delivered skills demonstrations in small focus groups, covering topics like Children’s Health (presented by Elena, Sharon and Susan), Managing Transitions (presented by Leona & Jennifer) , Communication (presented by Caroline & Ciara), Key Carer Groups (presented by Rachel) as well as Winter Garden Activity Ideas (presented by Toma). The sessions were both interactive and interesting and the team all had an opportunity to be hands on!
It was great day and we all enjoyed refreshing and developing our skills. We have had some wonderful feedback from our practitioners and Giraffe Training Academy will host further workshops for all of our care groups.
A big thank you to our Centre managers, the central support team and all the practitioners who made the day such a success! and a particularly special Thank you to Chef Val from our Liffey Valley centre who kindly made wraps and sandwiches for our team lunch!
In recognition of their dedication, all of participants went home with a goodie bag of treats as a thank you for all their hard work.
New mums often encounter the term Heuristic Play for the first time at a mother and toddlers group or when their child starts crèche. Heuristic Play actually sounds much grander than it really is but do not underestimate its value: it is a term coined by child psychologist (Elinor Goldschmeid) who developed treasure baskets for babies and the heuristic play approach for toddlers which describes the activity of babies and young children as they explore objects from the real world.
The thinking behind it is not new and is something that we are all familiar with. Give a young child a present and more than likely, he or she wants to spend time scrunching the wrapping paper or eating it instead of playing with the toy itself. Our parents and grandparents already knew about this without even realising it. We played with saucepans and wooden spoons in the kitchen which we banged together, we stirred and poured rice with a jug and a funnel and a highlight was to have a basin of water!
Heuristic is defined as enabling a person to discover or learn something for themselves. It is rooted in young children’s natural curiosity. As babies grow, they move beyond being content to simply feel and ponder objects to wanting to find out what can be done with them. By using a treasure basket with children at this age you are providing them with rich mental stimulation, which not only activates the growth of the brain but also provides highly satisfying learning experiences. Household or kitchen utensils offer these opportunities and can occupy a child for surprising stretches of time as they concentrate on stacking pots, exploring the objects or sometimes just enjoying the new and interesting banging noise of a wooden spoon on a saucepan!
We live in a world where plastic toys dominate the shelves of toy shops, but plastic is dull and disappointing for babies, and whilst each rattle may look different each one smells, tastes and feels the same – it is unstimulating to their senses. Using heuristic play with babies stimulates all the senses, creating a rich learning experience as during this stage, a baby’s primal instinct is to explore objects by handling and sucking on them in order to find out about their physical characteristics.
Parents love watching their children discover and explore which is inherently what treasure baskets and heuristic play encourages. It is not a novel idea as children have been fascinated with exploring household items for generations. Nothing delights more than a child’s sense of wonder when they make a discovery and in turn it appeals to our sense of wonderment and delights as we observe children developing wonderment of their own! When a child makes a discovery or an interesting sound is produced, they often repeat the action again and again, to test the result which strengthens cognitive development as well as muscle control and hand/eye co-ordination.
There should be a wide range of objects both natural and man-made that will stimulate all of the senses and that can be used as open-ended tools for exploration and imagination.
Include a good range of textures, shapes and materials and all should be non-toxic with no tiny pieces.
Consider some of the following……an old CD, a sparkly glitter ball, keys, hand bells, a bracelet, a serving spoon, saucepan and a lid, various sizes and shaped wooden spoons and implements, homemade shakers (plastic bottles containing coloured rice), castanets or wooden object to tap together, felt, silky ribbon, shiny fabric, a lemon, bag of lavender (safely tied!) and other objects of wonder which are found in the home.
it is an approach, not a prescription so the content of the baskets is up to you but will probably discover that your child will favour a particular item such as silky piece of fabric or a bell which they will always seek out first. Rotate the content of the basket regularly so that your child’s interest is sustained and remember, do not leave it out all day as it will no longer be exciting and interesting.
(You need to use your own common sense about what may be dangerous and never leave your child unattended or with another child while playing with the basket).
Halloween is the time when scary skeletons, spooky ghosts and wicked witches roam the world. All of the Giraffe centres enjoyed the build up to Halloween last week, and the children and staff certainly got into the spirit of the festivities! The children were delighted to dress up for the whole day for their Halloween parties. For some of the younger children, it was their first time wearing a costume! They seem to have really enjoyed the fun and festivities 🙂
Many of our centres participated in Trick or Treat for Temple Street, combining their fancy dress party with a Fundraiser to raise much needed funds for the Children’s Hospital at Temple Street.
The children weren’t the only ones enjoying dressing up though! Many of the staff turned out in costume for the day and some even ran competitions for best costume.
One of the highlights of the week was a friendly competition between the centres for the most creative pumpkin carving! An astounding 13 finalists were chosen and then it went to a public vote on our Facebook page. The children were encouraged to help carve their own pumpkins, tracing faces, painting the skin and scooping out the insides to make the pumpkins hollow.
This year’s winner was Giraffe Rathfarnham for this incredibly creative pumpkin display! Well done to all the staff and children who helped make this spooky pumpkin display. The centre will be awarded a fantastic prize of new equipment for all the children to enjoy.
Rathfarnham
Here are some of the amazing pumpkin designs from other centres. Thank you to everyone who voted for our creative designs!
When your child is ready to wean from milk to more solid foods, there’s no denying that food may end up in the strangest of places! The weaning process will take a lot of patience and perseverance, but it will be a rewarding experience for you and your baby.
Find a quiet time of day, maybe between meals when your child is not too hungry. Teaching a child a new life skill is going to be hard if they are tired, cross or – ironically in this case – hungry! In this way they won’t be frustrated by the fact that their hand to mouth co-ordination needs a little work and more food is spilling out than actually going in. Gently encourage them, with plenty of eye contact and smiles.
Meal times are a wonderful social time for children to interact with an adult, and learn through observation. Your baby naturally will be interested in the foods you eat yourself, so you may like to involve them with a taste of plain mashed potatoes or pureed carrots. Just remember that too much added salt or flavourings are not recommended for young children so keep the soft foods you are preparing for your child as plain as possible. This way they can learn to appreciate the taste of all the news foods they are trying!
Weaning is an exciting time for both parent and child but sometimes your baby simply doesn’t want to know. Children will usually give you a good indication of when they’ve had enough or they lack interest on that particular day. If this is the case, don’t worry, simply try again in a few days. Sit with your child at mealtimes, bringing their chair to the table so they can see how you and your family enjoy eating different foods. Watch for the cues: If you are spoon feeding your child, take regular pauses to allow them the time to think and feel if they are full. You may see your child show you they are full with these cues: Keeping their mouth shut, pushing the spoon away, turning their head away from the food, sometimes spitting food out or holding food in their mouth longer than usual.
Read Chef Natalia’s delicious dinner recipe!
In the early stages, it is important to introduce new foods one at a time, so as not to overwhelm your baby or risk digestive issues (or allergies). Once weaning is more established, make sure to offer your baby different tastes on a regular basis. You wouldn’t choose to eat carrots at every meal, so realistically why should your baby, regardless of whether they’re pureed, lightly mashed or teamed with baby rice? On the subject of texture, once your baby has mastered the basics and a few teeth are present, leave in some lumps, bumps and crunchy stuff for your child to enjoy and explore. Offer some water to your baby with their meal to ease digestion and keep them well hydrated.
If you plan to be out for the day with your child, prepare a weaning meal ahead of time and have plenty of finger foods available to encourage your child to keep weaning. When your child is in crèche or being minded by someone else, ask whoever is looking after them to continue to offer the weaning foods as well.
Not only is weaning an important bonding process between you and your child, it also means a lot of cleaning! Babies naturally want to feel the texture of the food in their hands but will also grab tables, chairs and you when they are finished eating! Be prepared with a few wipes close by and cloth to wipe down any eating surfaces. A waterproof, full body washable bib is a good investment and can save at least one change of your baby’s clothes. Most of all, allow your child to explore their food, taste it and enjoy, the mess is easily cleaned!
Take a look at some of our menus Summer Menu Autumn Menu Spring Menu Winter Menu
Planning for the potty is all about timing… it’s when your child is ready! You will know when the time is right when your child has developed enough physical skills to be able to walk and climb the stairs, to wash their own hands, and are showing an interest in what is happening in the toilet. They also need to be ready to communicate and to take instructions from you, and be familiar with such words as ‘wee’ and ‘poo’ when they are doing them.
Some parents like to wait for a holiday to start the training but anytime is the right time if you feel your child is ready, it can even be tackled as a crash course over the weekend.
The first stage is to have the potty ready in the bathroom or toilet, with loo paper and wipes easily to hand, and a small step for your child to reach the sink to wash their hands. Talk to your child about how it’s going to work and maybe even have a trial run with a favourite teddy. Let them practice sitting on the potty as this is a skill in itself. If they refuse to sit on it, don’t force them. It’s probably not the right time to start. Always try to change your child’s nappy in that bathroom or toilet so that they associate the location with routine. When you are both ready, you can make a fuss of buying some special ‘grown-up’ pants with your child, and away you go!
Take your child to sit on the potty just before and about twenty minutes after meals and snacks. Stay with them and help if required. Be enthusiastic about any successes and keep to the routine of hand-washing afterwards. You may want to read or tell a short story as you wait for your child to go, or sing a song together.
Most children are interested in looking at their poo and there is no harm in that before you flush it away. Make sure you are not negative about the smell if your child proudly shows you what they have done! Use incentives to encourage your child, cuddles and a cheer can work wonders for your child’s learning process, and a sticker chart for successes can be fun.
Take your child to the potty before you go outside and when you come in, and you can use these opportunities for discussions with your child. When you first go out, keep trips quite short, and take a spare potty in a bag with a spare change of clothes for accidents.
Of course accidents will happen, but this is the way your child will learn to react to what is happening, so don’t punish them. Be very matter of fact about the accident and give it very little attention. Make sure you teach your child how to clean up after themselves. It will be a stressful time but if you do get angry or frustrated, don’t let your child see it. Always carry spare clothes, tissues, wipes and plastic bags ready for a change when required. If your child is in crèche, talk to your child’s key worker and share that you are starting to potty train so that you work together to support your child with the process.
If you find your child is not having any success, maybe they weren’t quite ready to start, talk to your child and tell him that it’s ok and try again at a later stage. Don’t give up as some children may take up to six months to finally master the process, just keep positive and keep praising the successes. Your responses to your child’s behaviour when learning to use the potty will have a great effect on how successfully they learn!
Giraffe Childcare’s Training Academy hosted a training day for 75 practitioners on Saturday with Lillian and Carol from Early Childhood Ireland, delivering a session on Facilitating Play Based Learning. There were also a range of skills demonstrations modules delivered by some of Giraffe’s senior crèche managers to promote best practice in care for the Wobbler age group (typically 15-24 months).
Children learn about the world around them through natural exploration of their environment and free play where their imagination runs freely. Children play their way to learning! Children play everywhere – in their homes, in their local parks and schools and love to play. We all know it and the research supports it – children are happiest and at their most vital and energetic when they play.
For the afternoon session, some of our Giraffe centre managers delivered some skills demonstrations in small focus groups. The workshops covered topics like Children’s Health (presented by Jurgita & Liene), managing Transitions (presented by Gillian and Leona) , Communication/Key Carer Groups (presented by Karina & Caroline) as well as Garden Activity Ideas (presented by Sarah & Roisin). The sessions were both interactive and interesting and the team all had an opportunity to be hands on!
A big thank you to our Centre managers, the central support team and all the practitioners who made the day such a success!
In recognition of their dedication, all of our staff went home with a small token of our appreciation and a treat to say thank you!
Click here to read more about Giraffe Training Academy
The pumpkin is a type of squash vegetable and has become one of the most iconic symbols of Hallowe’en.Pumpkin carving wasn’t always an Irish tradition but it seems to grow every year. It is a great sensory activity for children with the added bonus of creating a Halloween decoration at the end. You can also use the pumpkin flesh to make healthy treats or soup. Pumpkins are commonly found in Irish supermarkets and farmer’s markets this time of year. If you are buying one to carve look out for a nice round shape with a flat base so it will stand. If you can find a tall one these are great for making long faces too!
Note: The adult should always do the cutting but children can help with the other steps. I like to move the pumpkin to a counter-top when I’m carving and then bring to the table for the parts the children can help with.
Happy Hallowe’en!
Budget 2017 introduced a number of measures to assist parents with their childcare costs.
With effect from September 2017, all parents with a child attending a Tusla registered childcare service will receive a subsidy of up to €87 per month (€1040 per annum) towards their childcare costs. The subsidy will be allocated pro-rata depending on the number of hours per week a child attends their childcare service. The maximum rate of €87 per month is based on 40 hours childcare per week. The subsidy will be available to all children between the ages of 6 months and 3 years and will be paid directly to the childcare provider. The childcare provider will deduct the subsidy from the parents’ childcare fees. When the child reaches three years of age he or she will avail of the ECCE Preschool scheme until they start primary school.
The Affordable Childcare Scheme is a targeted subsidy to assist with childcare costs, for children from 6 months old up to 15 years of age. The level of subsidy will depend on :
The Affordable Childcare Scheme is currently available for ‘FIS’, Medical Card holders and One-Parent families. It is also available to Adult Learners enrolled in VTOS or ETB courses.
The maximum Affordable Childcare subsidy amounts to €8,000 per annum, or €667 per month towards childcare costs, and will be available to families with a net (after tax) income of €22,700 or less. The level of subsidy tapers downwards as a family’s net income rises, with no Affordable Childcare Subsidy available when net family income, with one child, reaches €47,500 or more. If a family has two children the maximum net income threshold increases to €51,300. The subsidy is payable to the childcare provider and is deducted from the net fee payable by the parent. It is intended that the Affordable Childcare Scheme will also be available to children in addition to the ECCE preschool scheme, where a family requires additional hours of childcare during the day.
For further information please call us on (01) 245 0935 or email us at info@giraffe.ie.
We cherish the importance of family in our creches and during the year we like to celebrate special days with our children and their families. This year we celebrated with Mother’s Day Breakfasts for all the wonderful Mummies and Father’s Day Breakfasts for all the wonderful Dads. Last week we celebrated some other wonderful people in the children’s lives, their grandparents! National Grandparents Day was on Sunday September 11th and here’s how we celebrated these important people in our children’s lives!
Our Preschoolers in Park West made lovely cards for their Grannies and Grandads!
Staff from each of our centres get together once a year to do a 10km mini marathon. This year a record number of our staff – 102 (!) signed up to take part in one of the biggest women’s sporting events of the year in Ireland – the VHI Dublin Women’s Mini Marathon. Our staff have been training and getting ready for the past few weeks. There has been a great sense of team work, encouraging each other and camraderie among the staff members taking part, with other staff members cheering them on!
Go Team Lucan! Anastasjia, Elaine, Natalia , Carla, Tara , Gillian, Leanne, Siobhan and Anca are all set!
Our charity is Laura Lynn Children’s Hospice again this year. Laura Lynn is a hospice for children with life-limiting conditions and residential care for young adults with disabilities.They provide respite, home support, crisis and end of life care for sick children. It is a charity close to our hearts here in Giraffe.
Supporting Laura Lynn
Women’s Mini Marathon [Image: Irish Times]
Each year on the June Bank Holiday Monday, women of all ages from all around Ireland take part in this amazing event on the streets of Dublin. The Big Day was on Monday the 6th June and the atmosphere as always was wonderful! The ladies from all our creches had a wonderful day and whether walking, running or were super happy and proud to reach the finish line.
Within our staff we gave special prizes for these awards:
***Giraffe centre with the Most Participants: Giraffe Park West!!! ***1st Giraffe Runner to finish the race: Esther Requena from Elm Park ***1st Giraffe Jogger to cross the line: Cinthia Conboy from Rathborne ***1st and 2nd Giraffe Walkers to cross the line: Gillian Kennedy & Tara Boyle both from Lucan
We are very proud of team Giraffe for their hard work and for the money they all raised for Laura Lynn!
“It takes a big heart to help shape growing minds”. (Anon)
Every morning, the pitter-patter of tiny feet and the sound of joyful little voices resonate around the rooms at Giraffe Childcare. Every morning, the carers, chefs and staff teams welcome the children and families at their centre with energy and enthusiasm for the upcoming day’s events.
Throughout the month of May, our staff appreciation month, we have been inundated with beautiful message saying “Thanks a Thousand” to Giraffe team members, for the wonderful work they do every day. We understand that as parents, it can be difficult to leave your child with someone else, so it’s reassuring to hear from other parents about the great experience that their children enjoy in Giraffe every day.
What started as a few messages quickly became an enormous collection of Thank You’s and wonderful appreciative messages.
Here are a few of the kind words from children and parents that were shared with Giraffe team members over the past few weeks:
“(My son) has received excellent care and developmental nurturing from everyone at crèche. Thank you all!” Nessa, Mum (Harcourt)
“I know you all work really hard every day ensuring Oscar and Sam are not only safe and healthy but happy, simulated and loved. It means so much to me to see Oscar run in to his room and hug his carer.” Orla, Mum (Rathborne)
“(Thank you ) to all the girls that mind me. xxx John” (Adamstown)
“I want to thank all the staff in Cherrywood you have helped Aaron on the way to becoming a confident little boy” – Fiona, Mum (Cherrywood)
“Thank you Lana – for the way my son talks about her everyday, in such a caring way, we are truly grateful.” Parent (Harcourt)
Because there have been so many notes and messages of appreciation, many Giraffe centres have made appreciation displays in their hallways. Please take a moment to stop and read about the incredible staff in your centre!
This month, we recognize those staff who have earned the Employee of the Quarter award, as well as some special Team member’s anniversaries!
A big THANK YOU to all our centre chefs who prepare deliciously nutritious meals and snacks for the children everyday, spending a lot of time and dedication making their sauces all from scratch!
Congratulations to all the Mums-to-be and Parents currently on parental leave with their babies.
A very special mention to Samantha in Celbridge, who helped raise money for the Irish Cancer Society and took part in this year’s Shave or Dye campaign!!
Here are just a few snapshots of what the Giraffe team members get up to during their busy days!
We believe that through a commitment to our role as carers and educators, we make a positive difference to the lives of families, a children, our community and each other. Our carers share a passion and depth of knowledge and wealth of experience in childcare. After receiving so many wonderful Thank You messages, we are so grateful for the continued support from every parent and child.
April 8th was Ireland’s second National Workplace Wellbeing Day. Giraffe Childcare were proud to participate in this initiative to help improve employee health through promoting better nutrition and physical activity. Our teams came up with creative fitness activities and focused on wellbeing throughout the day.
On Friday morning, all of our Giraffe centres received fresh fruit baskets for the staff to enjoy on their breaks. Here are some of our centre staff enjoying their healthy morning snacks!
Many of our centres organised Fitness activities for the children to enjoy, both indoors and outside. Some of the planned activities included Early morning stretching, Yoga, jogging, team sports and obstacle courses. They look like they all really enjoyed doing these fun and energetic exercises.
As part of the many planned activities to support National workplace Wellbeing Day, some Giraffe centres took part in the Lunchtime Mile. This was an initiative to encourage everyone to get out on their Lunch break and walk, jog, run, cycle or swim up to a mile!
At Giraffe we are proud to support the “Cycle to Work Scheme” and encourage our team members to sign up to this great incentive. Here are some enthusiastic cyclists who peddle to work everyday!
Well done to all Giraffe team members who took park in National Workplace Wellbeing Day. Keep up the healthy habits!
We had a great time celebrating Easter in Giraffe. The centres did fabulous artwork to decorate their centres for Easter, they made wonderful Easter bonnets for an inter-centre competition, the children had Easter egg hunts and a special visitor turned up to make their hunt even more egg-citing!
In Park West the children created plenty of Easter crafts including painting eggs and making Easter bonnets!
In Northern Cross the children created these Easter chicks!
The staff and children in each of our centres created beautiful Easter bonnets for a competition. There was great friendly rivalry between the centres and everybody worked very hard on their entry!
All the centres showed their creative side with these gems:
Our parents and Facebook audience voted for their favourite. The winning centre was Liffey Valley and they have won a staff night out! Here are the winning bonnets modeled by Sadhbh and Tom!
The boys and girls in Liffey Valley had an Easter egg hunt! They were delighted to search high and low for the eggs and collected them in little baskets!
On the week leading up to Easter we had a very special visitor in all our centres! Can you guess who it was?!?! 🐰
For a parent or child, we all know what it feels like to get that full nights’ sleep, we are bright, well rested and full of energy and ready to take on the day, for our children they are content, full of beans and are ready for action!
Often with young children, we can experience nights of broken or interrupted sleep. Whether it’s a baby needing a feed, a toddler wanting to sleep in your bed, bad dreams or an early riser – it can be exhausting and difficult trying to function at work the next day!
When we are working we want to be able to give our children what they need to make them happy and comfortable while also keeping it together so we can focus on our day’s work. With a plan of action, consistency and perseverance there is so much that we can do to help both ourselves and our child to settle and sleep more contently.
Encourage Positive Sleep Habits
If we want to encourage sleep in small babies and young children we first need to look for the signals of them feeling tired or sleepy and then acting on it. For young babies, when tired they often appear agitated, rubbing their eyes, yawning or crying. For the toddler or the older child, it’s the same but more so tiredness can be judged on behaviour. They can be more irritable. Small children are not necessarily good judges of how tired they are so often they will keep going until they hit that wall! Babies and young children can become over tired where they can have a second wind, as a result they will ‘fight’ it and have difficulty settling and going to sleep. The recommended time for a child to be asleep in bed is 8pm.
Daytime Routine
Having a good daytime routine, encouraging predictable mealtimes, naps and outside playtime if possible helps children feel more secure and know what to expect. As night time approaches try and create some sense of calm, avoid busy cartoons, loud music and rough & tumble play.
Bedtime & Daytime Routines
Creating a predictable and consistent bedtime routine from when your child is a small baby is a great way to start; I always encourage a visual picture sequence that we can place up on our wall near to their bedroom to allow your child to see what is happening next, pyjamas, hands, face and teeth, story time, cuddle and time to settle to sleep. When working often it’s bedtime that you have those chats about the day, if you find your child becomes overwhelmed with questions, try and ask them what their favourite part of the day was in crèche or school, they are more likely to share if it’s an open question!
Things That Go Bump in the Night
If you have a tiny visitor during the night, ideally explore during the daytime what it is that’s upsetting them most. Bad dreams are so common for all ages however for our smaller children they can often find it hard to determine between what’s real and what’s fantasy. A lot of it is about reassuring your child that they are ok while staying with them as they settle back to sleep. Likewise if they simple just want to be cosy in beside you however sleep is priority for everyone, returning them to their own bed taking the same approach each time will be a big help. Some families are more than happy to have extra to cuddle however if it’s something you want to change then a plan is necessary.
Early risers
If your child is an early riser a particular challenge with that or night-time waking is pre-schoolers can’t tell the time and don’t know when it’s morning. Often for the parent it’s easier to allow them into their bed if it means two more hours of sleep! The Gro-Clock is a great way to let your child know when it’s time to get up. How so they know? The sleeping star on the gently lit clock illustrates to “stay in bed until you see the sun!”
The Gro-Clock also comes with a beautifully illustrated book which helps to encourage children to stay in bed longer, which means more sleep for them and more sleep for you!
Whatever the approach you decide to take it’s important that you decide on a plan of action, be consistent and persevere!
Aoife Lee, Parent Coach for Giraffe Childcare
As we wind down from the Christmas festivities, encouraging calm after the sugar rush, and as Santa returns to the North Pole, we begin to focus on the widely anticipated return to our normal day-to-day family life, whether that is back to work, school or crèche. Although we may have sustained some form of routine in between family visiting and staying up late, the true testament is putting those daily routines and that structure back. It’s very natural and normal for both parents and children to feel tired and irritable after the Christmas break, and that can trigger all kinds of behaviours- big and small. So, how can we help each other out through routines to maintain a calm and happy house?
It’s all in the preparation As we near the first day back to work, crèche and school, it’s all about dusting off the lunch boxes and school bags. We know it can often take those initial few days after a busy break to get into the swing of it again, so take your time and allow you and your child that space to readjust. Allow a couple of hours before your first day of work and school to organise lunches and bags, and prep uniforms and outfits – all of this can take huge pressure off the night before.
Reintroducing routines for mornings and night times If your child has had a lot of late nights and you are lucky enough that they have been sleeping in, they have simply shifted their routine. As we know, this will take a few days to get back on track and it’s really no different for adults, either. I would often suggest to families to tweak the times of waking the children up with a purpose to getting out and about in the mornings a few days before returning to school/crèche. It’s more likely they will be tired that evening! Remember, though, to catch the signs of tiredness both at naptimes and bedtime for babies and toddlers, so look out for yawning, red or watery eyes, and being cranky or irritable. Often the later we leave bedtime, the more tired our littles ones get; it’s so common that they can hit a wall of tiredness and all of a sudden a new lease of life comes over them, ready to take on the night! This is usually the time when they find it really hard to settle to sleep. Keeping a regular bedtime with a story and wind-down can be a great comfort and a happy finish to a busy day.
Recreate habits when saying goodbye If your toddler or young child is anticipating that moment of saying goodbye to you – whether it is that first morning back in crèche or at the school gates – this is so very natural and normal, particularly if they have had some lovely times with you over the holidays. I often find it helpful to start mentioning crèche or school to the kids again a couple of days before returning: chat about keyworkers, teachers and pals – children love to know what’s happening, so the more we bring these little chats into the days running up, the more they take comfort in their return. Even consider packing a little something in their bag, like a picture that’s meaningful to them – that way, they can mind it for you until they see you later in the day or that evening. Resettling is just building on old habits and routines – children will embrace them.
Time to connect in our routines We all know that it’s great to connect with our children as much as we can, but when we are focused on getting from A to B we can often miss out on opportunities. If we build little connection rituals into our routine, they become habit. Try a snuggle with each child when you first see them in the morning, or a “recognition” ritual when you’re first reunited like ‘morning morning’ – whatever feels right for you.
A good healthy structure creates predictability and consistency, something our children cope very well with. Routines help children manage change as well as their willingness to cooperate. The more they know what’s happening next, the happier they will be. Children really do thrive on routine, and once they are used to a certain way of doing things they will be more likely to slip back into that way – and sooner than we think!
Aoife Lee, Parent Coach, Giraffe Childcare
Preparing mum and baby for the world of work………
After we spend those first six months or more nurturing our tiny babies, it’s decision time for many parents as they have to consider their return to work and that very important decision of childcare. For many it can be a roller-coaster of emotions, some finding it hard to even think about being away from their tot for one moment. Regardless of how we’re feeling it’s a reality for families all over and can be overwhelming. Often it’s only when we’re back into that working way of life that we feel the benefits of how we can prepare both ourselves and our children through that transition.
Preparing Mum
There’s so much we can do to help ourselves as we return to the familiar surroundings of work that existed way before baby arrived! However when it comes to saying goodbye on that first morning, for many it can be a struggle. We have developed an emotional bond with our child that is different for all, handing over responsibility to another to care for our baby like we would is a big step for any parent. To allow yourself feel more assured give that time to get to know the crèche staff, make the most of those initial introductory days so both you and baby can adapt to being away from one another, you feeling reassured and content are a big part of the process. Allow that time during the initial weeks and months to readjust and settle into your new routine and work schedule, for many it takes that time so don’t be hard on yourself.
Preparing Baby
Prepare to wean breast to bottle
If you are breastfeeding when you return to work there are a number of ways to make the process easier for mum and baby.
Gradually wean baby – gradually phase feeds from 5 weeks before starting crèche, ideally at the beginning introducing one bottle with expressed or formula milk, the more our babies adapt to the bottled teat the easier of a transition it will be for them to take a bottled feed from the crèche staff.
Expressing & feeding during your working day – In Giraffe we encourage parents to come in and feed their babies when they can, often it is when mum works locally. Under Irish law, breastfeeding mothers are entitled to time off or a reduction in working hours. Speak to your employer about how you can break this time down within your working week to either express milk or feed your child.
Enjoy the morning & evening feeds – There is nothing more special than being able to continue feeding your baby before and after work. Although some mothers may have stopped feeding during the day, her milk supply can be maintained for just those feeds.
Children thrive on routine
As our babies grow and develop they adapt to their surroundings, whatever time of the day it is our children love routine. Creating that consistent ‘what happens next’ message enhances their sense of security and comfort. Encouraging regular mealtimes, naptimes and playtime maintains that predictability for our children.
When it comes to that busy hour in the evening where we juggle dinner, bath times & bed establishing a routine from very early on is an excellent way of promoting positive sleeping habits. It’s not just something that happens naturally, for the parent it does require a plan, adapting it as our children get older. The more we live it the more it becomes part of our everyday habits.
Ease the load
We can make life easier for ourselves during that working week if we are to consider the following few tips
Cook in batches – if you manage to create some meals that can be frozen, for even 3 evenings out of 5, this can make a big difference in the evenings.
Order your grocery shop on line – one less job to do and it saves time and pressure!
Managing clothes –For our children, at the weekends try and have their outfits set out for the week as this can take the pressure off the morning routine.
Making the most of your time together
Whenever I meet with parents that have just returned to work after their maternity leave, the one thing that jumps out at them is that little time they have in the evenings with their child. No matter how small or big our children are – they love our attention and so it’s by creating that one to onetime even for the recommended 20 minutes that makes all the difference. If at that point it still is hard to fit in, always make the most of that cuddle at bedtime. Be present with your child as you help them wind down, whether it’s babbling away with your 9 month old or having little chats during bath time with your toddler – it’s that quality time with you that they love and hang on to. Weekends are precious too; remember it’s the quality of that time and not quantity.
Returning to work after having a baby is a big deal for any parent, preparing for that transition can be a big part of settling back into the workforce while also knowing that your little person is happy. Remember to allow yourself that time and attention – and trust your instincts.
“Every family is different, and we’re choosing to do what’s best for ours”
Katie, working parent
Aoife Lee, Giraffe Parent Coach
Please leave your details and one of our team will get back to tell you more about what we do.
Your Name*
Your Email*
Your Phone*
What is your call regarding? Childcare Careers
Privacy Policy * I agree to the terms under which we obtain and store data as outlined in Giraffe Childcare’s Privacy Policy.
Giraffe have 24 crèches across the greater Dublin area, Navan & Kildare, find which is closest to you....