December 2017

The Power of Giving Giving makes us happy. A 2008 study by Harvard Business School professor Michael Norton and colleagues found that giving money to someone else lifted participants’ happiness more that spending it on themselves. Happiness expert Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, saw similar results when she asked people to perform five acts of kindness each week for six weeks. Giving is good for our health. A wide range of research has linked different forms of generosity to better health, even among the sick and elderly. In his book Why Good Things Happen to Good People, Stephen Post, a professor of preventative medicine at Stony Brook University, reports that giving to others has been shown to increase health benefits in people with chronic illness, including HIV and multiple sclerosis. Giving promotes social connection. When you give, you are more likely to get back. When you give to others, your generosity is likely to be rewarded by others down the line—sometimes by the person you gave to, sometimes by someone else. Interactions like these promote a sense of trust and cooperation that strengthens our ties to others—and research has shown that having positive social interactions is central to good mental and physical health. “Being kind and generous leads you to perceive others more positively and more charitably,” writes Lyubomirsky in her book The How of Happiness, and this “fosters a heightened sense of interdependence and cooperation in your social community.” Giving creates gratitude. Whether you’re the giver or the receiver a gift can elicit feelings of gratitude—it can be a way of expressing gratitude or instilling gratitude in the recipient and gratitude is integral to happiness, health, and social bonds. In her book Positivity Barbara Fredrickson, a pioneering happiness researcher, suggests that cultivating gratitude in everyday life is one of the keys to increasing personal happiness. “When you express your gratitude in words or actions, you not only boost your own positivity but [other people’s] as well,” “And in the process you reinforce their kindness and strengthen your bond to one another.” Giving is contagious. When we give, we don’t only help the immediate recipient of our gift. We also spur a ripple effect of generosity through our community. Researchers at Harvard found that altruism could spread by three degrees—from person to person to person to person. Giving has also been linked to the release of oxytocin, a hormone that induces feelings of warmth, euphoria, and connection to others. Whether you volunteer your time, or donate money to charity or you give gifts, your giving lasts a long time. It can help you build stronger social connections and even spark a flow of generosity that ripples through the community.

Service Review 2017 Our service review for 2017 is ready for you: This survey provides invaluable feedback on our service goals and achievements as well as areas for improvement. This is an online survey and allows for some additional constructive feedback. If you have questions about polices or programs that require more detailed explanation and discussion please speak to the Director. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WCCCServiceReview2017

This survey can be anonymous, however parents who complete the survey by Monday 18th December will go into our thankyou draw with 3 gifts to be one.

PARENT NEWSLETTER

End of Year Celebration 2016 Our end of year celebration will be outdoors on Monday 18th December 6.15-7.30at the Gum Oval, Entry 1 of the Waite Campus. The Centre will provide sausages and bread for a sausage sizzle and fami-lies are asked to bring a salad or fruit platter to share. This year we have The Amazing Drumming Mon-keys to entertain us. Please note this is an alcohol free event. A registration sheet is on the parent notice board at the end of November so we can have confirmation of numbers attending and ensure we order sufficient sausages for the night. These will be gluten free. Food safety reminder: Potentially hazardous foods should be kept under temperature control, including during the time it is being transported - hot foods at 60 degrees or above, cold foods at 5 degrees or below. When refrigeration is not an option during storing or transportation the easiest way to keep risky foods cool is using insulated hot/cold boxes or an esky with plenty of ice. You can, nonetheless, transport or keep potentially hazardous food out of temperature control for short periods of time by applying the 2 hour /4 hour rule. The 2 hour /4 hour rule: You can have freshly prepared food out of temperature control for up to 2 hours then refrigerate it for later use. If food is out of temperature control for between 2 hours and 4 hours use the food. After 4 hours throw it out. Please remember no foods with nuts or nut based products and no seafood. Photographs at functions: W e abide by our Photograph Policy at Centre functions and request that any parent or family member only photograph their own child unless given permission by another

child’s parent .

Diary Dates: Please remember the following important dates: End of year celebration Monday 18th December 6.15-7.30 pm on Gum Oval End of year closure Friday 22nd December 2017 at 1.00pm re-open Monday 8th January 2018 at 8.00am

Board and PAG Matters 2017 Adelaide University Childcare Services Inc (AUCS) meets on the last Monday of the month. AUCS is cur-rently working on strategic planning and managing change. The Parent Advisory Group had its final meeting for Monday 11th December. A huge thank you to Rebecca Ryan and Simon long term PAG members retiring as their children move on the a new service Meeting dates will change in 2018 .

Administration Reminders: Due to the time delay with processing accounts under CCMS Centre fees for the week 18th—24th December 2017 will not be invoiced until we re-open in January 2018. This means that there will be a

delay of 3 weeks in families receiving this tax invoice. We trust that all families will ensure that fee payments are kept up to date, even during extended holidays,

and remind you that overdue fees are applied to accounts that are more than two weeks in arrears. There are no fees charged during the centre closure period. Holiday holding fees will only be applied to notifications with 3 full weeks notice (operating weeks). For families whose children are moving on to school or elsewhere in 2018 please remember if your child

does not attend their last booked day/s that CCB and CCR will not be paid for these absences.

Giving to others: As the end of 2017 approaches we often find ourselves reflecting on the year that has passed. This is also a time when we may think about those less fortunate than ourselves. There are many charities collecting at this time of year. Some locals ones to consider are the Hutt St Centre and Backpacks for SA Kids. https://www.huttstcentre.org.au/campaign/view/christmas http://backpacks4sakids.org/ Or more National Charities like Salvation Army http://www.salvationarmy.org.au/ and Kick Start for Kids

WCCC Green Page

Some Facts on Food Waste Australians discard up to 20% of the food they purchase equivalent to $8 billion worth of edible food or 4 million tonnes. Organic waste is Australia’s largest unrecovered stream of waste that goes into landfill. Researchers looked at how food surplus is managed in homes and found that in many households, food wastage is not due to people being unthinking, unskilled or uncaring over-consumers. It is actually a product of our consideration and care for the health and well-being of our family and friends. Leftovers may go to waste because of health concerns about freezing and reheating certain foods, or the need to eat them within certain time frames. Parents with young children wanting to give children a wide variety of fresh, nutritious food throw away the limp veggies and avoid foods that have crept past their use by date. Pre-packaging of foods often means that people purchase more than they need. For many households a home compost as is not an option. In SA some councils have food waste collection with green waste and this is processed via commercial composting. South Australia Water’s Glenelg wastewater treatment, commissioned in 2013, was Australia’s first co-digestion facility. The addition of food by-products such as milk, cheese, beer, wine and soft drink has increased power generation from 55% to 75% of the plant’s power requirement. The South Australian government is also developing a bioenergy roadmap. The aim is to link biomass suppliers in regions to users of energy and help to support local businesses to add value. Australia’s best example of a community-driven circular economy is being developed in Cowra on the Lachlan River, part of the Murray-Darling catchment in NSW. The project will use two processes: anaerobic digestion and thermal recovery through either pyrolysis or torrefication (the breakdown of organic material at high temperature). At full capacity, the Cowra biomass project will produce 60% of the town’s energy needs. Read more at: https://theconversation.com/au/topics/food-waste-5505

A Sustainable Christmas Have a happy festival season without leaving a large environmental footprint Avoid plastic trees. You may plan to re-use them for several years but will they eventually get tossed and they never degrade once they reach landfill. Real trees have a footprint as well, although this is offset by the carbon soaked up during their time in the ground. The best option is to make your own arrangements with branches or grab a potted Australian native pine like a Wollemi or Cypress that can be used year after year and decorate with home made or recycled ornaments.

Give homemade or pre-loved gifts Make your own gifts, whether this is a potted plant, something you bake or something you make; or choose vintage or pre-loved items from markets, op shops, Etsy or gar-age sales. There is also a multitude of online stores selling homemade and local products.

Get crafty Cut the paper waste- use material off-cuts, old scarves or vintage hankies for wrapping. Recy-cle last year’s cards by turning them into gift tags, or cut off the picture side and send as Christmas post-cards. E-cards are a great way of saving money and trees, but if you prefer sending them the traditional way, go for cards made from recycled paper or ones that support a charity Choose only sustainable and ethical store-bought gifts If you don’t have the skills or the time to get crafty, then give some thought to what you buy, where it came from, who made it and how far it travelled. Shop locally and buy Australian-made where possible. Look for certifications, like Fair Trade and cruelty-free such as Good Spender. https://www.goodspender.com.au/ Shop locally and buy seasonal produce. This will suppor t local businesses and cut down on unnec-essary travel miles. Many of us are guilty of over eating at Christmas, but we also often throw away tons of food. Instead of throwing out your leftovers, freeze them for another day or get creative and turn them into something else. Check out tips from Oz Harvest, and Food Wise which lists a 100 ways to use your left overs and scraps.http://www.ozharvest.org/fightfoodwaste/food-saver/ https://www.lowtoxlife.com/100waystouseyourscrapsandleftovers/

After it’s over? Unwanted gifts can be re-gifted or donated or sold online using services like Gumtree, Ziilch, and Ozrecyle. https://au.ziilch.com/; https://www.gumtree.com.au/; http://www.ozrecycle.com/

National Recycling Week 2017 We explored, experimented, problem solved and created,

with recycled materials.

Practising recycling —what goes where?

Weaving with found materials

Room 3 children, with Penny, created a beautiful patchwork and learnt some new skills

Childrens can always create with boxes