After years of planning and months of construction, construction on our two additional classrooms for permanent care is DONE! We are SO excited to be welcoming smiling faces into these new spaces soon!

Start the enrollment process today to secure spots for permanent care. We now offer permanent child care for children ages eight weeks to 4 years old.

Online Parent Info Sessions will be held virtually every other Wednesday, including:

Visit our website and fill out our Interest Form to sign up for an Info Session and begin the enrollment process today.

For additional questions, please email Kate Hise at: khise@ywcaboulder.org.

This week wraps up our Virtual Dash & Bash event, but there is still time to join the fun!

For nearly three weeks YWCA supporters have been coming together - virtually and safely - to celebrate the YWCA's mission to eliminate racism and empower women. This year's virtual format means that you can march, run, walk, hike, bike ride with the family, walk the dog - anytime, anywhere until Sunday, 9/27 and fundraise to fuel the YWCA's programs, including Persimmon Early Learning!

Ballot Track - Boulder County

Ballot Track is a free service for Boulder County voters that can send you notification by text message, phone call, or email when your ballot has been sent and received by our Elections Division.

Make sure you, your friends, family, neighbors, coworkers and everyone you know has completed the Census! The deadline is next week on September 30th and an accurate count is essential to allocating funding for education, transportation, healthcare and more!

Get counted and respond to the 2020 Census online, by phone or mail by the Sept. 30 deadline.

Pictured: Trying Green Beans (left), Reading at Snack Time (center) and Exploring Outside (right)

The children in our Infant Development Center are always trying new things! Each infant

is able to make discoveries every day, based on their age and development, as they explore their environment and receive support from our devoted infant teachers. This may mean trying new foods, a new activity (like reading books while eating snacks!), or experiencing the changing seasons as they touch crunchy fall leaves outside. Offering infants many opportunities to experience new things helps to aid their brain development and language skills, preparing them for a lifetime of exciting discoveries! 

Pictured: Drawing with Crayons during Small Group Time (left) and Sitting Together in Fitness Class (right)

The children in our Toddler Program have recently been focusing on working and playing together. While most of the day in the toddler room is directed by the individual needs and interests of the children, they also have opportunities every day to come together as a group. This happens at circle time, during fitness and nutrition classes, and during their small group time in the afternoons. These activities allow the children to participate in shared experiences, build friendships, and create community in the classroom. 

Pictured: Cardboard Bridges (top left), Bridge Designs (top right), and Goat and Troll Masks (bottom)

The children in our Preschool Room have been exploring the story The Three Billy Goats Gruff using the Storybook Journey curriculum. The students have made their own goat and troll masks and have been acting out the story. They have also been busy experimenting with designing and building bridges, and have gone on some local field trips to study bridges. In the coming weeks, the children will be trying to build bridges out of classroom materials that can hold varying amounts of weight without breaking. 

To continue your child's learning at home, try sorting various household objects by size (large, medium, and small) or building a structure with blocks that is hard to knock down. You can also point out bridges when you are out with your child and ask them questions about how they think the bridge was built and how it stays up. 

You can see what activities we provide, access our activity calendars, menus, current growth in the garden, fun cooking videos for recipes you can cook with your family, resources, and a list of our current partnerships!

We would love to include more photos/testimonials of families cooking, exploring the garden, or implementing fitness activities at home. If you wish to share photos or testimonials, please email our Wellness Program Coordinator Tori Anderson at: tori@ywcaboulder.org.

Farm to ECE has partnered with many local farms to bring fresh produce to numerous childcare centers in Boulder County. This season we receive food from Ollin Farms, who bring us weekly boxes of fresh and delicious local produce. We are thankful that we get to support our local farms and give the children opportunities to try new, fresh produce. It is very fun investigating new foods with them. Based on the amount left over each week, we also make “veggie goodie bags” to send home with some families.

Click here to learn more about Ollin Farms.

We have started receiving Boulder Food Rescue donations again! Every Monday at 8 am we get food from local stores that would otherwise be thrown away. We make sure to sort through it due to the variety of age and edibility of the food given. Please take a look at what is available in the lobby when you stop by! 😊

Click here to learn more about Boulder Food Rescue.

We challenge each family to try something new with this produce. Introduce it to your children or incorporate it into a meal/snack. The more it is offered the more likely the kid will try it. Remember it can take a child trying something 10 times before they may like it. Don’t give up!  

Here is a link to a list of a variety of melons with some fun facts: https://www.greenandvibrant.com/types-of-melons

- Melons are an annual fruit and require a long growing season. Annual plants perform their entire life cycle (from seed to flower to seed) within a single growing season. All roots, stems and leaves of the plant die annually.

- There are male and female flowers on the plant, which require bees for pollination. On average, it takes about 10 to 15 bee visits to grow melons.

- They grow best under conditions with warm, sunny days and cool nights.

- Melons are members of the cucurbitaceae family, which also include cucumbers, gourds, squashes, pumpkins, cucumbers and luffa (among others).

- There are four main varieties of watermelon: allsweet, ice‐box, seedless, and yellow flesh.

Melons have a variety of nutritional benefits. They provide good energy with lots of fiber. Some are more abundant in certain vitamins and minerals than others. For example, cantaloupe has a larger amount of vitamin A than watermelon. Melons provide a rich source of carotenoids, such as lycopene (watermelon) and beta‐carotene (cantaloupe). Lycopene is an antioxidant that may decrease the risk of certain cancers and heart disease and also help to keep the immune system healthy. Lycopene cannot be produced in the body so it can only be obtained by eating lycopene‐rich foods. Beta‐carotene is a carotenoid – an antioxidant that give plants their reddish‐violet colors. Beta‐carotene is used by your body to make vitamin A, which helps keep skin, eyes, and the immune system healthy.

Adapted from:

Makes: 4 ½ c servings

2 cups watermelon, cubed

½ lime, juiced

1. Place cubed watermelon pieces in freezer overnight.

2. When frozen, place the watermelon in a food processor and pulse until slightly processed

3. Add lime juice, a little bit at a time and continue to process until it reaches sorbet like consistency.

4. Serve immediately. 

Source: https://thethingswellmake.com/5-minute-easy-watermelon-sorbet/