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Day Care remains a vital part of the community for many local families

The Estevan Day Care Co-operative continues to provide Kim Lowenberg, the programming director at the day care, told the Mercury that most of the restrictions have been lifted, and they’re getting back to their normal numbers.
The Estevan Day Care Co-operative
The Estevan Day Care Co-operative is still a place where children enjoying learning and engaging in activities. Photo submitted

The Estevan Day Care Co-operative continues to provide

Kim Lowenberg, the programming director at the day care, told the Mercury that most of the restrictions have been lifted, and they’re getting back to their normal numbers.

The day care is licensed to have 90 children. They can have 25 young people in a room at one time, which would be close to normal, and definitely better than the eight they were allowed earlier.

The learning and the activities provided by the day care have remained a constant. “We’ve been lucky that we’ve been able to keep most of our staff members on, and helping the kids with their needs and wants,” said Lowenberg.

Cleaning and sanitizing have become more frequent, but the staff has stayed positive and they’re trying to keep things as normal for the children as possible. The day care now takes temperature checks of everyone who enters the building.

Licensed childcare facilities had pretty structured cleaning before, but now they have increased their cleaning, Lowenberg said. Toys are sanitized once children are finished playing; high touch surfaces are cleaned multiple times a day.

As for the outdoor play structures, in order to keep somewhat of a normal routine for the children, the day care has to sanitize the play structure after every group. They have scheduled their outside times to ensure each group gets equal time to play outside on the structure and do outdoor activities.

“We have been lucky enough to have some extra outdoor time by taking the children for walks through the valley behind the centre and around the neighbourhood,” said Lowenberg.

The kids learn lots of gross motor skills to keep their energy levels high. They love to do art and science experiments.

“We love to do lots of reading with them. We’ve focused a lot on growth motor skills. For outside time, we just got some new turf outside so we have grass for them to play soccer and baseball,” said Lowenberg.

Pickup and drop-off times have definitely different, and enrolling new families has been more difficult because they can’t have parents come into the building.

“We’ve been setting up virtual tours, rather than having our normal tour and walk-through … the centre for new families as well,” she said.

Lowenberg said many of the parents who send their children to the day care work in essential services, so it’s been important for the day care to stay open so they can continue to do their work around the city.

The day care’s annual raffle is underway, with tickets $5 each. Top prize is a 10-foot by 10-foot deck package and a $500 gift card for the Southern Plains Co-op, with a total value of more than $2,300.

There are a total of eight prizes available, with a total value of $5,374.88.

The goal for the funds raised this year will be to make small changes to their toddler outdoor environment and other small updates throughout the centre, such as possibly a new front door.

“We have and will continue to stay open and care for the children,” Lowenberg said. “We could not have done it without our great educators that have made this all possible during these uncertain times. They have all managed to keep up on all cleaning regulations and most importantly keep the children happy and safe.”