days of our day care

 

 As a try-to-be teacher I have to admit that I hate it when I pick up a book to read it to the kids and it is really wordy.  Too many words and not enough pictures for two to four year olds is not a good thing.  And while I hoped that one of the Thanksgiving books that I waited for would fit the bill it really didn't.  Don't get me wrong, it was a great story, I just had nothing to keep them occupied past the first page.  Oh well... the craft afterword kept us busy even if I chose not to make them sit there and listen past the first chapter. 

We got through the first part which included talk about the boat Mayflower that pilgrims came to America on.  So we decided to make boats of our own.  I admit I actually looked up this boat craft and thought it was as cute and easy as can be.  Not to mention funny.

I took our pictures and cut them out.  I love Joe's face in his.

Taped them in the boat and forgot to take pictures of the cutting out of the sails.
Pretty simple to figure out though.

 

 If that don't make you laugh I don't know what will!



days of our day care

I truly love, as a hobby of mine, to peruse the internet looking for good books for children and go back and forth from websites to my library site, searching titles and authors and requesting the results to be brought to my library for my usual pick up on Saturdays after yoga.  I then have another slight hobby of going online again to find coloring pages to go along with the books that I read to the kids.  Coloring pages or activities keep us busy a little while longer after story time.  Especially on Mondays when it's time for our wormhole picture for the week.  I think I've explained my form of discipline I reverted to when time out stopped working.

Each week we have a coloring page on Monday, for each child, that gets put in their folder on the wall.  If a child misbehaves or gets time out or acts up when adults and parents arrive or uses bad language then I will ask them to go and get their picture and they get a "wormhole" or a hole punched in their picture which means that they don't get to choose a prize from the treat box at the end of the week.  If they do not have a wormhole in their picture then they get to choose something on the way out on the last day. 

This week we had a fun book called Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash.  A book which was right down my clothesline alley.  I pinned up a clothesline complete with sparkled clothespins over each folder for each child.  I then went online and found a simple picture of a sock and printed enough for each child to have one sock to color.  The kids we so excited to hang up their socks on the clothesline.  So far no one has a hole in their sock.  Hopefully it will stay that way.

Another day this week we read Harold and the Purple Crayon.  I dug out enough purple crayons, skinny ones for the older kids and little shorties for younger ones, and passed out white paper to each child when the story was over.  As they were sitting down they each asked me to flip through the pages to a certain scene they remember and wanted to draw like Harold did.  It was pretty fun and they were proud of their purple crayon drawings.

HERE is a direct to a preschool book search on goodreads.com.  Most of the time I put links on here for you to enjoy.  But a lot of times, especially with all the pc and internet trouble I have had lately, I find myself looking back and feeling safe that I have saved links here to refer back to.  Especially since I lost all of my browsing data and favorites more than once.

I also came across a really cute summer time backyard bingo, free printable that I quickly printed out two copies of and laminated.  Not real laminated... just the plastic overlay stuff.  HERE is the link to that.  You can play it with anyone I reckon!

dc craft room

In the three years of running my child care business in the house trailer at the front of our property there have been subtle changes.  Changes in seasons, changes in ages of kids that I accept, changes in decor, but truly one of the rooms has been transformed a couple of times.  It's the master bedroom of the house which is the biggest room other than the main play room.  At first I designated it as the nursery, obviously, for younger children or babies.  I have since decided that I prefer to have a different age group and realize how difficult daily life here can be when you add a baby to a few preschoolers.  So the room made a change when I took out the changing table and baby bed.

The room then sat in a sort of transition stage where the school age kids spent a little time.  I moved in some books, a bean bag, a table, and the tv/vcr combo for quiet time.  The room felt unused after a time.  Especially after I didn't have school age kids anymore.  So early 2014 I decided to make it our full time craft room.  We had more room and I could store supplies in there.  We used it a couple of times a week but still used the main eating table for projects too.  

This winter I decided to let it go... to give the kids the reign of the room so to speak.  I put in easy craft supplies, scissors, glue sticks, their journals and a gate on the door for privacy from the smaller ones who aren't quite ready to be turned loose.  I have two book shelves in the room.  One set of shelves houses puzzles, seasonal and educational games with numbers and letters, and the other set of shelves are the supplies.  I fill the baskets with cardboard tubes from paper towel and toilet paper rolls, styrofoam cups, cardboard, plastic bowls and even cereal boxes.  They have yarn, stickers and even their own roll of masking tape.  I have a good time coming across items, silently putting them on the shelves in the mornings and seeing what their minds come up with.  And boy do they ever come up with some stuff!  From airplanes to robots to thoughtful drawings, their minds are free to make whatever they can come up with in their craft room.  We still use it too for crafts that I come up with for them but on a daily basis.. it's their room.

BTW Our craft room does take donations!  We are getting low on scrap paper and are always looking for new, recycled supplies!

Talk about sparking creativity!  Check out this robot made with no help whatsoever from me.

I like this action shot of my kitchen helper.

the listening walk

I checked out this book from the library.

It is a terrific read.  I read it to the children at the day care and then we decided first to step out of the porch to see what we could hear.  Then we walked the perimeter of the playground to listen further.  We also took a tablet and pen and wrote down all of the things we could hear in our outside world.  

Mainly, we could hear the interstate.  It happened to be a particularly loud day for it.  But we also heard, as they pointed out, the wind in the trees, feet shuffling, crickets, grass moving, a swing squeaking, laughter, a sea gull and the pond.  Not sure how the last two were heard but I wrote it down anyway.  

It's nice when you actually sit still and take note to all of the things that can be heard.  Things that we hear every day and don't really pay attention.  You hear a lot more than you acknowledge most of the time.

Fall library books for wee ones

I absolutely never leave my day care kids out when I take a trip to the library... which is once a week.  I like to check out books for story time and keep a fresh mix.  I have come across several books (luckily) that teach and touch on Fall.  I have plans for crafts and coloring pages to go along with some of the books and even some magic pumpkin seeds!  Here's what we are reading over the next couple of weeks.

All of these were available at my local library.  I usually wait too late and all the good seasonal children's books are already checked out.  This year I was ready and have them for the next couple of weeks!

OH also I am trying to learn this song to teach to the kids.  I even bought a black plastic cauldron!

days of our play care

Some days, at the day care, I have more kids than other days.  Then there are the days when I have less.  And sometimes it's easier to do projects with less kids.  And sometimes it's more difficult when you are trying to do the same project with several different ages of kids.  Today, however, the simple project worked great and to my delight the kids I had today took part and went with it. We created simple journals from cereal boxes, paper and yarn.  I had cut up the boxes and paper a few weeks ago when a blog inspired me called growcreative.  The post for her cereal box journals is HERE.  I make it a point to not take credit for something I didn't come up with.  I'm not sure why I waited for the right day to make the journals with the kids but today as I was pasting pictures in my own journal outside when two of my kids got here I knew it was time to share the project.

We put the journals together and all went outside with our heads full of ideas for our pages.  One wanted a leaf taped on to a page, another found a caterpillar and drew a fantastic picture of it and another was busy making "letters" while the other was tracing blades of grass.  It is so much easier to feel an at-ease of control when little minds aren't focusing on being wild... which is ok sometimes too.  I like for the kids to be themselves here while also trying to help them find themselves creatively.   By nap time one of the boys wanted to sleep with his journal... awww... I didn't let him.  

I loved this little project and loved watching their minds wrap around the pages outside.  They are all growing up so fast and I have the pleasure of watching them do so.