The heat is on and summer is in full swing. It’s an engaging, activity-filled time of year as we Torontonians take full advantage of the season. Amidst summer parties and lazy afternoons, somewhere in the middle are days filled with opportunity for exploration and discovery around every corner, regardless if you’re an adult or a child.  Memories are just waiting to be made and at Atelier Kids Childcare Centre in Toronto, we encourage you to take advantage of this time to slow things down and enjoy all the beauty that is summer.

What do you recall when you think of your childhood summers?  Was it the smell of fresh strawberries, the feeling of the sand beneath your feet, the warm breeze that stuck to you like the sunshine’s heat, or the cool watermelon that drenched your parched throat?  At Atelier Kids Early Learning & Care, we hope you still have these moments and relish them with all the joy and lustre you did as a child. And perhaps more importantly, we hope you share these memories with your own children, encouraging them to do much the same at any age.

My wish for you is to splash in muddy puddles, to run through green fields, to feel the sun on your skin, to make special friends, to find the end of the rainbow, to sleep under stars, to spread your wings and fly like a bird. — Anonymous

As patterns demonstrate, summer and sunny skies depart as quickly as they arrive, so we fill our days with outdoor activities and as much fresh air and joy-filled gatherings as possible. Summertime can easily become a metaphor for childhood with its parallels to precious days filled with the sunshine we cherish and non-stop activity to exhaust us with sheer joy in the making, yet we yearn for what’s ahead. Atelier Kids Early Learning & Care in High Park is taking full advantage of each blue-skied day as we prepare for the fall, eagerly awaiting our opening day when we welcome our families and children into the Toronto daycare centre.

Summer was our best season: it was sleeping on the back screened porch in cots, or trying to sleep in the treehouse; summer was everything good to eat; it was a thousand colours in a parched landscape . . .  ― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird 

We hope you will join us on Saturday June 9th at the RoncyRocks Fest to experience a Reggio-inspired classroom. Come and enjoy this wonderful summer fest!