• Meet our New Friend, Tip Tap!
• January and February Schedules
• Benefits of Rough and Tumble Play
• Smoke Alarms Give You Precious Time to Escape a Fire
• Events, Links and Resources for Parents and Caregivers
• Public Health Nurse Visits at Kimbourne
• KEyON: every adult needs to sign in please
• Save the Date: WalkN'Roll 2024 Street Party is on June 1st!
• Meet our new Placement Students!
• What is Draiser and Who is Andrew?
• List of Local EarlyON programs
• Procedure and Protocol Reminders
• Land Acklowledgment
• Stroller Parking at Kimbourne

Help Your Child Sleep Better With Rough & Tumble Play

"You’re probably wondering how it could possibly make sense to get your child all worked up before bedtime.

Honestly, I had the same reservations before I understood the benefits of rough and tumble play before bed. It seemed counterintuitive to encourage my child to be active and excited right before settling down in bed, where she needed to be calm and relaxed.

What I learned is that rough and tumble play has several benefits for children’s sleep. This blog will explain the benefits of rough play before bedtime, and offer specific examples of rough and tumble play that can promote better sleep for kids." read more

From Toronto Fire Service: In 2023, Ontario experienced the highest number of fire deaths in 20 years, with 133 fire deaths, 13 of which occurred in the City of Toronto. 58% of residential fires in Toronto occurred in homes with no working smoke alarms. In addition to being required by law, smoke alarms are the only effective early warning devices that provide individuals and families with as much time as possible to safely escape a fire in their homes.

read more about SMOKE ALARMs and fire safety

Ahem....We're noticing that when both parents attend a program, one parent signs in and often the second adult does not. When we pursue that individual to register and sign in, there is sometimes resistance.

This means there will be missing data in our attendance reports to our funders. Data drives programming, internally and system wide. See they problem?

KEyON is a tool that saves us 3 hours a week of admin time! Is it perfect? No way... but it only requires 5 minutes of YOUR time to get registered. After that, you use your QR code to sign into our programs on every visit - so easy!

We need each adult to use their unique QR code to sign in each time they visit. If you are bringing a guest such as a grandparent visiting as a one-off, we can sign them in as a guest, but there are no other exceptions.

What is Draiser and Who is Andrew??

Draiser 2024 (You bring the Fun) is a fundraising page set up to collect donations for 12 wonderful charities, including East End Children's Centre!

Who is Andrew?? A mystery! Truthfully, we have no clue who Andrew is and it's kind of bugging us because we would love to say "thank you for being that person who creates a fundraising page to support small charities!"

Here is what Andrew wrote on the page and we think it's a lovely and relevant message: "I've seen the need and the good done by many of these organizations first hand. Donating is an excellent way to support their work. That said, a healthy and full philanthropic life isn't complete with money alone. It also means volunteering your time and energy. My challenge to you, as always, is to think of the ways that you can make concrete, positive changes the world around you. Investing in your communities is about showing up as well as paying up. You don't have to fix everything, but what are things you can fix? (Nobody's good at everything, everybody's good at something, etc.)"

If you feel inclined to encourage Andrew, please donate to EECC via Draiser. It's a completely legit page on the Canada Helps site, which is our primary fundraising platform.

East End Children’s Centre is located in Tkaronto, now known as Toronto, which in Mohawk means ‘where there are trees standing in the water”.

Today, Tkaronto is covered under Treaty #13 and the Williams Treaties. It is the traditional territories of many First Peoples, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnaabe, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples.

Today, these nations continue to experience ongoing colonization and displacement– where land acknowledgements are offered in place of land itself.

This territory is part of ‘the Dish with One Spoon’ wampum, a Treaty made between the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas, and Haudenosaunee, where nations entered into an agreement to protect the land and responsibly care for its resources in harmony together.

As settlers, newcomers, refugees, and Indigenous peoples, we have all been invited into this treaty in the spirit of peace, friendship, and respect. We are also mindful of broken treaties that persist across Turtle Island today and recognize our responsibilities as Treaty people to engage in a meaningful, continuous process of truth and reconciliation with all our relations.

We remember those who came here involuntarily, particularly those brought to these lands as a result of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and slavery. This city was built on stolen land and stolen labour of Black, Indigenous, and racialized people. What we now refer to as Canada was also built on the labour of many immigrant and migrant communities. From the transcontinental railroad to farming and food production, the country heavily relied (and continues to) on the talent, skill, and hard work of racialized people. In exchange, many of them are denied residence, and they continue to go through punishing immigration experiences and perpetuating racial disparities.

By being on this land, we are all responsible for upholding its treaties. Treaty agreements were made to last as long as “the sun shines, the grass grows, and rivers flow.”



We invite you to learn about the Indigenous Nations that care for the land you are on, and where you might come from, visit native-land.ca to learn more.

• Masking is RECOMMENDED by Toronto Public Health at this time. We have a limited supply of masks currently, and ask participants to bring their own. LINK
• Please self-screen and STAY HOME if you or the children are not well. Our organization has always required self-screening for cold, flu, gastro-intestinal symptoms, conjunctivitis (pink eye) and any suspected or confirmed communicable illnesses. We ask for the same vigilance you've shown all through the pandemic.
• Please be sure to scan your KEyON tag when to arrive at program. Be sure to let us know if you have lost it, so we can give you a new one. Hack: take a photo of the QR code on your tag!
• We will continue sanitizing high-touch surfaces and baby toys daily.
• Please place toys that have been in a child's mouth into the labelled container for toys that need immediate washing.
• Please clean your hands and your children's hands on arrival at our programs, after blowing or wiping your/your child's nose, before and after playing in the sandbox, before and after snack and after using the washroom.
• Please take home your used diapers (we have bags!) and please never flush wipes down our toilets.
• EECC is known for our sense of community. Thank you in advance for being welcoming and supportive of everyone, including parents and caregivers whose choices differ from yours and children who may be neurodivergent and need accommodation.

Stroller Parking Tips

• Please be prepared to park your stroller on the lawn on days when the stroller room at Kimbourne fills up and bring a lock so you can lock it to the railing way up on the hill. Sadly, a stroller that was not locked was stolen from our lawn the past spring.
• If you're able to secure a spot in our stroller parking room, please park with BRAKES OFF, to make it easier for us to manoeuver strollers as needed.
• Please... NEVER leave your stroller on our ramp at Kimbourne, as this disrupts accessibility and evacuation procedures.