Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Small Wonders Licensed Family Child Care

In the public service notice category, I have this email text from Joanne Basile:

Small Wonders Licensed Family Child Care has Part Time Openings 2010/2011 for the 2010/2011 School Year:
Hope you're all having a great summer, and I just wanted to post a quick note for those of you that are beginning to think about Back to School Planning...
- Have older kids in school and a little one at home?
- Do you have a little one that misses the preschool cut off?
- Do you need an opportunity for your little one help manage on separation anxiety, or play and share with peers?
- Would you like a few hours a week to do some errands on your own, take a class, or even just clean up?
Small Wonders Family Child care is a fully licensed family child care - I have been in business since 2003, and have many sweet little friends here in Franklin that have come to play. The children enjoy puzzles, board games, dance parties, baking, coloring, sing a longs, walks around the block, story time and more.
I am CPR and First Aid certified and as a mother of two young boys with severe food allergies, trained in the use of an Epi Pen. As a licensed provider the state has performed a background check and safety inspection.
I have many happy references available from both current and former clients.
Only three spaces remain for my 2010/2011 school year, spaces available Tuesday and Thursday from 9-12 or 9-2 depending on your needs.
Please email me at basilefamily@comcast.net if you'd like more details.

Franklin, MA


Monday, May 24, 2010

HMEA: 5K, Walk and Family Fun day!

HMEA held their 9th Annual Independence 5K Run/Walk in the Park on the ground of EMC in Franklin on Sunday, May 23. 297 runners completed the 5K and hundreds of walkers came out for the event where the sun gradually brought thought the clouds.


Many volunteers came out early to set up for the family fun day. The mysterious Mr Cone Head Man even made an appearance:


Once the set up was complete the volunteers were busy distributing race day packages and t-shirts. The opening ceremonies were held on the main field then everyone moved out to the balloon arch for the start of the 5K and walk. Gene Lavanchy was master of ceremonies:


After the race and walk finished, the clouds looked like they were going to rain on the festivities. Franklin Fire Dept's Tower 1 unit was sent up to check out the situation.


Many kids were attracted to the fire truck as it reached great heights. They lined up to get a view from the tower platform when the unit returned to ground level.


The kids race on the field awarded lollipops to the finishers. Soon the full set of 5K Race age category winners were announced.


WalMart presented a donation. Derek Bergeron of the Plainville Redemption Center program was recognized as the winner of this year’s Kelly Mendall Spirit award.




All those who participated in Franklin on Sunday had a great day. Why?




"We believe in the power of dreams and not the limitations of disability."


If you have not made a contribution to HMEA yet, there is plenty of time.


If you'd like to contribute as part of my fund raising, follow this link:  http://www.firstgiving.com/stephensherlock



Or go directly to the HMEA website here HMEA.org.




Franklin, MA

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Tooting the horn for books, a family day in Franklin

The combination of the Library Book Sale and the DPW Open House drew quite a crowd on Saturday.


The Friends of the Library paid for the overtime of the DPW workers. The food and drink provided at the DPW Open House was donated by Weston & Sampson.


The bucket truck authorized for purchase as part of the capital plan in 2009 was on display looking brand new. It is over ten years old. The new look comes from the paint job that was part of the purchase price. DPW Director, Robert (Brutus) Cantoreggi is walking towards us in the photo.


The DPW garage had four mechanics. One just retired this year and due to the budget cuts, the position won't be filled leaving three mechanics to take care of more than 300 pieces of equipment. Which of these two units looks like it is three years old? and which looks like it is sixteen years old? (Answer at the end of this post.)


Most of the equipment that I saw on display had a sign telling the year and use for the unit. The purpose for some was easy to recognize, some were not. This batwing mower is over 10 years old and still doing duty cutting the grass on our athletic fields.



The weather cooperated for this nice family event. If your son or daughter was one of the horn tooters, they probably walked away with a smile. Your smile came from the fact that they at least stopped blowing the horn!

Iqbal Ismail is show below taking pictures of his daughter Zeba and son Faraz in the front seat of the truck.




Note: In answer to the question above: the unit on the left in the picture is 3 yrs old; the unit on the right is 16.
My thanks to Brutus Cantoreggi and Dave Allard for providing the information to share here.

Franklin, MA

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Fall Family Day - moved to Sunday, Oct 11

The New England Center for the Performing Arts 2nd Annual Fall Family Festival will be held on Sunday, Oct. 11, 12-4 p.m., at 1350 West Central St., Rte. 140, Franklin, the site of their future new school and presentation facility.
The New England Center for the Performing Arts posted the change to the schedule on their events calendar.

Updated 11/4/09, due to the weather postponed again until next Sunday, the 11th

The original notice was found in my Wicked Local Franklin RSS feed.




Sunday, September 13, 2009

Franklin Families with Food Allergic Children and Teens


Franklin Families with Food Allergic Children and Teens (Franklin F.A.C.T.) will hold a welcome back meeting in the conference room at

Franklin Fire Station #2,
600 King St.,
Franklin,

7-9 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 14.

Visit www.franklinfact.org for complete details and contact info. Parents only, please



Tuesday, March 31, 2009

remember the Harlem Wizards?

Do you remember the Harlem Wizards?
They did come to Franklin a couple of weeks ago.

Want to review some video highlights?
Click to play to enjoy!



The photo slide show of the visit can be found here

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

SchCom: The Charlebois' statement

The text of the statement presented during the Citizens Comment portion of the School Committee meeting 3/25/08. The text was scanned from a printed copy provided by Amie Charlebois.

Hi, my name is Amie Charlebois and this is my husband David. I wanted to come before you tonight to ask that you make an assessment of my current situation with the FX O'Regan Early Childhood Development Center. I have approached the principal, Karen Seyfried as well as Wayne Ogden with this matter. Before I go any further, it has always been my understanding that the school department has what is in the best interest of each individual child.

I have 3 small children 5 years, 22 months and 4 months. My 5 year old son is at the end of his second year in attendance of preschool at ECDC. He attended 2 afternoons his first year and has been attending 5 afternoons this entire school year. My husband and I have been truly happy with his experience at ECDC and believe that it has laid a wonderful foundation for his education. I have faith that when my 2 other children attend ECDC, that they too will have the same wonderful experience.

Unfortunately, my family has recently undergone a severe financial hardship. My husband was badly injured in an accident at work and has recently undergone surgery due to that accident. The insurance company that deals with workers compensation has denied our claim and we are awaiting a hearing date. We have had a dramatic loss in income.

I brought my situation to Karen's attention and Karen told me there were scholarships available that I could apply for to assist with my sons tuition. I was very pleased to hear that we qualified for the highest level scholarship available with tuition that would cover 2 days and a reimbursement of my June deposit of $305. With the reimbursement, I would be able to apply that to the remaining 3 days for April and May and keep my son in the 5 day program he has been in since August. At a time in our lives when the reimbursement would be very helpful to put toward other household expenses, our priority is put that money toward our sons education. Karen informed me that I could not do that according to policy. It never once entered my mind that if I qualified for the scholarship, my son would only be able to attend school 2 days a week when he is enrolled in 5.

I signed an enrollment agreement last year accepting the 5 day program, a signed agreement, which is a binding contract between 2 parties stating my son is enrolled in the 5 day program. I am upholding my portion of the agreement and the ECDC is not. The policy states that scholarships are given out for 2 days and does not say anywhere that if you qualify for the scholarship your child can not attend the other 3 days as well. I told Karen that if I had known that was how the scholarship program operated, I never would have applied because again my son is in the 5 day program. Karen also informed me that the policy needs to be adjusted for next year and that she is in the process of "adding language" for next years handbook. Karen has stated to me the intent of the policy but I do not believe intent can be enforced.

But at this time, with 38 days left in the school year I am being told that in order to accept a scholarship that we qualified for, we can only use it by taking school days away from my son. My son who loves school and asks numerous times every morning "when are we leaving for school". At a time in my sons life when things are turbulent enough, I am being told that there is help available but that it will negatively affect my child if I accept that help. I feel that it is an absolute necessity to keep my sons school structure in tact, now on March 25, with 38 school days left in the year. My sons education is a priority especially in these early years. He would be devastated and confused if I had to take school days away from him at this point and I know that trying to explain to him that there are unclear policies that must be followed, will not help ease his hurt. Doing this to my son at this time would hurt him. My son is not taking a spot away from another child nor does it have any effect on anyone except for him. If this were October or November I would consider having to make certain adjustments with it being so early in the year but it isn't, it is almost April. I'm asking to be allowed to keep my son at the 5 day level, accepting the financial help from the scholarship that I qualified for to put toward the 2 days and I am asking ECDC to accept my money for the other 3 days of the week to keep my sons education consistent. There have been 3 different occasions, prior to our hardship that I have talked with my sons teacher about her feelings toward him attending the 5 day program, and she has said numerous times, that she believes my son is thriving in the 5 day program, he benefits from it and he needs consistency. I know his teacher of the past 2 years, has my sons best interest at heart. I am deeply saddened that amidst everything going on at home, I am required to fight in order to keep educational stability for a 5 year old boy, in a school that he truly loves. The ECDC Mission reads "The Francis X O'Regan Early Childhood Development Center's mission is to focus on the whole child and their family..." and every time I bring the attention and focus back to my son, I am told to refer to a handbook. All I am asking is for you to do what you already do when you make your decision, and that is to look at what is in the best interest of my child.