When I was growing up my sister and I couldn't wait for mom to bring home the Sears Catalogue!  We would literally pour over the pages seeking out the latest toys, the latest Christmas decorations and decorated trees, bright winter clothing, even the small kitchen appliances because everything was so colorful and NEW!  Then we would take to carefully marking the page and the item so our parents could clearly see what we wanted for Christmas.  

This was very serious business, needless to say! 

Well, if you're looking at what will be on your children's Christmas Wish List this year you might want to make room on their toy shelves for the new additions, by donating those well-loved and gently used toys to a thrift shop or to your local daycare centre. 

Susan Nafziger is the Executive Director for the Roots of Early Learning and Killarney Nursery School. She says now is the perfect time of year to think about your local daycare centres. 

“I know a lot of parents at this time of year like to clean out their kids’ bedrooms before they get a massive number of toys at Christmas,” she shares, “and if you’re looking for a place to donate those toys any local daycare would be thrilled to have those!” 

Nafziger adds that bags of buttons and spools of ribbon, colorful paper and other crafty-like items and tools. “These children love art and if you have a stack of paper, scissors, glue, tape, all that stuff, we love it!”  

If you’ve got a stack of old Christmas cards saved from over the past number of years, rather than recycling them in the blue bin, re-purpose them to your local daycare! 

Other items on the wish list for the Early Roots of Learning and the Killarney Nursery School are extra mitts, touques, socks and neck warmers.  

“We love going outside in all of our programs, including our school-age children, and right down to our infants. We love spending time outside!” explains Nafziger. “What happens though is that everything gets wet and cold, and we don’t want to be running the dryer all day, so we like to have a bin of extra mitts and touques and neck warmers.” 

Like most homes, these items disappear or there’s one mitt left from a pair, and the daycare centres have the same dilemma. 

“Neck warmers are something that not a lot of children wear, but it’s so important,” she adds.  

“Our school-aged children too, when they bring all their stuff down to our room from school, their mitts are often soaking wet, and they lost their touque. So, we’d like to be able to provide these items to the kids so they can go and enjoy themselves outside before they get picked up to go home. This would be wonderful!” 

More items on the ‘wish list’ is bags of ice-melt, sidewalk salt, to help keep their sidewalks and walkways clear of ice. 

For more information, contact Susan Nafziger ECEIII, Executive Director of Roots of Early Learning and Killarney Nursery School Inc. 

director.rootsofearlylearning@gmail.com 

204-554-8687 

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