The Day After Valentine's Day

Does it ever seem that the day after a party day is sluggish and the kids can be unmotivated?? Coming off all that sugar can cause us all to be a little out of sorts, I think. Yet, Little Man was having none of this sluggish business... he was movin, he was shakin, and he was playin!!!


Do you think babies evewn have a slow button?? Not this guy. I think what annoys him more is that he can't keep up with the big kids yet. He can't run after them outside... he is always yelling and trying to get down when we are outside. I think he'll be walking soon.

Today was a great day to build in the foyer, where all the sunshine just poured into the house. Even though the kids were not so motivated to do any of our learning activities, they had no problem building this Dinosaur/Zhu Zhu Pet Castle. They worked together, counted out blocks (so everyone could have an equal amount), problem solved when Sprout wanted to sit right in the middle of the castle, and a lot of communication between all of them. I even overheard D-Man giving Little Miss M the words she should be using when she wanted something from someone else. Ahhh, you have to love those moments.

Dress Up Time!! They wore these little dresses all morning. Through Circle Time, Snack Time, Play Time... they only took them off when I told them we were going to walk to the park.

Reading Books... Little Miss M told me she was the Mommy.

While Little Man took his early nap, we enjoyed circle time. We reviewed our ABC's (forward and backwards), Princess went through all the letters and gave the sound for almost every letter. We counted to 11, forward and backward... we found 11 things around the room and made patterns with some of the things we found.

Then we had a real treat, Little Miss M brought her Mixed Up Chameleon to school. Her Mom must have bought the Kohls book and stuffed animal for her and she brought them in to share with us. We got to read the book, while Mr. Chameleon watched from his perch on my chair. We even were able to move him around the room and pretend that he was sitting real still, waiting for his Fly to come by. Then we pretended we were Chameleon's and sat real still and quiet, only moving our eyes. Then we found a fly, out shot our long, sticky tongues... Yum, Yum!!

When Little Man woke, we got ready and took a nice walk to the neighborhood park. I love our park because not only does it have a nice climbing structure, but it has enough room for the kids to run in the grass, explore trees and dirt, and roll down little hills to their hearts content. That was how we spent the rest of our morning... now I am exhausted. They all get to take a nice nap after lunch... I have to wait until bedtime... they don't know how good they have it!!! I hope this weather lasts awhile :)

Letter Hh and Blocks

We did lots of learning today, but my camera only caught these great learning opportunities...

"Look what I build Shell!!"

"Shel,l it is a person, just like me"

We talked a lot about being Happy today... So we thought it would be a great idea to put Happy Faces all over our letter Hh's.

"Hmmm, which one??"

(She really was saying that, I loved it)

There was so many to choose from... they came out great.

What a great week. Next week we will be learning about the Letter Ii... one of my favorite letters. You can't learn about the letter Ii without tasting some tasty Ice cream!!!

A little of This... A little of That

We had a full house today... play dates going on with the school agers, child care kids making their way back into the routine of coming to Shell's House, and the odd neighborhood friend coming to the door... Wow.... I love being busy!!

We didn't really have a "Play Plan" today, we just wanted to get to know each other again... so we just did a little of this and a little of that!! And we had a lot of fun doing it too!!

We got the blocks out and made some great block buildings, cities, and even had a go at connecting some of the foam blocks together.

Painting has always been a favorite of Little Miss M, and she was very happy to find them in the same place as when she left. Once she got them out, we all had to have a go at it!!

We also got a great idea from Miss Tracy, who ,she wants me to say, got it from another source... but, it is a Special Paper board. I will take a picture when it dries, so you can see the finished project... Lots of fun, glue, glitter glue, and foamies.


I think that this was one our favorite activities today... the preschool boys (Little Miss M had a go at it, but quickly gave it back over to those silly boys) made a large block city and then proceeded to run and jump over it (Like Spider Man) landing in the large bean bag chair, all while holding and throwing the infamous Kitty's. A lot of laughter and camaraderie going on between 2 boys who haven't seen each other in quite a while.

We also went outside and played in the sandbox, on the swings and spent quite a while collecting tiny plastic BB's from the ground. We have been gone for the past 3 weeks and the yard became totally overgrown. Of course our lawn mower is on the fritz... must get that done, we will be spending most mornings out there, while it is still relatively cool out.

Having Fun with Curriculum

I have been thinking about why I do what I do... I don't mean why am I a Family Daycare Provider, but why do I use the curriculum I do. I have a degree in Elementary Education, but have gravitated to Early Childhood Ed for as long as I can remember. So I guess I learned that I should have certain activities set up for the kids, why they should be exposed to certain things, etc... but I don't know. It still seems second nature to me that my kids should be able to play with play doh anytime they want (at the appropriate place, of course), have paint and crayons to experiment with, blocks of all sorts of shapes, sizes and textures, water to splash, logs to jump from, well you get it :)
I am finding out that not everyone thinks like that. Some providers don't want the mess, or the noise. It's not just in homes, I visited a preschool classroom where there was a sand table and the teacher laughed and said, "No, that's a book shelf!! Way to messy as a sensory table" Of course I decided that I would pursue the Daycare License instead of putting my son in that class. I wanted to provide for my children as well as others those experiences. So, each day I come up with activities that they can excel at. I follow a lot of different curriculum's, I love the blogs I read because there are so many wonderful people out there providing such unbelievable experiences for the kids in their care, that I get side tracked and have to do what they did :)
So I can't just follow 1 curriculum, I have to be flexible and be able to use whatever seems best at that moment.
As you can see below, we are really into blocks lately. Right now we are loving making ramps, towns, hills, and buildings for our Monster Trucks to go over, under, and through (at high speed and noise!!) I am glad I have a center based set up, this way they can move about the room and do what they feel their body is ready for that day.
We are also into reading. I have found some great emergent reader books that you can print from Hubbards Cupboard(http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/) that the kids really love. I put the sentences on sentence strips and in our pocket chart (Target $1...Yeah) and the kids use the pointer (lots & lots of fun with that) and read it whenever they want. We go over it each morning at circle time and they read with me and then by themselves. They are very simple and they memorize it quickly, but oh the looks on their faces the first time they "read" it on their own... PRICELESS!!!

My favorite picture.... We came in from the yard to find Shea with this trash can lid around her neck... We thought it was very funny and had a great time wondering what could have been in that trash can!! Lucky Shea!!