What Have We Been Up To??

Now that we are in summer mode it has been laid back and fun times around our house. I lose most of my kids for the summer, their parent(s) are teachers, and have D-Man only part-time. This means we can do a lot more, or nothing at all :)

We have had some fun Field Trip though.... The Children's Museum...

I took some of the boys on a road trip to see my sister and her family in Buffalo, NY. We got to swim in this awesome indoor-outdoor pool!!! Loads of fun!!!

We also have gone to an amusement park, movies, baseball game, and firework show!!! I am trying to keep my boys, as well as D-Man, busy this summer, but mini-camps, baseball and tutoring are making it hard to leave early in the morning, then we have to get back early for baseball practice, all this in the high 90 degree heat. So, we try to get some mini-outings in when we can.

I am also trying to organize our curriculum for next year, throwing out old, broken toys, fixing walls, replacing supplies, and just that all around clean up you need to do after a school year of putting things off. I will try to keep you updated on how things are going... maybe I'll change some things up and post a picture or two. Until then... Happy Summer to Everyone!!!

Last Day of School

Yeah... it's the last day of school!! Um, I think that's good, right?? :)

Summer break brings with it its own set of challenges. Keeping my own 4 school age children busy, keeping the little ones I still have busy, along with vacations, summer baseball, and keeping cool. Hmmm.... maybe school isn't so bad.

I read parenting magazines about how to make the last day of school memorable... throwing ice cream party, swim parties, big signs welcoming summer, etc... and I have every intention of creating one of those things. Then all of a sudden the last day of school is here and I realize not only didn't I plan a great end of school memory for my own children, I didn't create one for the daycare kids, I forgot the teacher gift, the award ceremonies, and the water balloons for the water balloon challenge!! Oh man...

Thankfully I always get things better the first week of summer. We will have our sign, we will have our ice cream, and we will definitely have water play... lots of it!! So, to all of you Mom's, Daycare Providers and Teachers... WELCOME SUMMER!!!

Summer & Boys

These past few weeks, with my own school aged children home, I have been experiencing a period of brain freeze. I love that my daycare children have access to all sorts of materials, that they can delve into the joys of mud, sand and water, the wonders of bubbles are magical and dynamic... not so with BIG KIDS.

I have found that putting out play dough, goop, slime, etc... is fun for about 10 seconds. The sprinkler is fodder for many, many silly antics and jokes. Board games are great... until someone decides to change the rules. When asked to find something to do... It is always to hot, to cold, to much, not enough or just plain boring!! My summer is getting to be very long :)

I was looking through some photos from last summer, and the kids all were so engaged... I am realizing that these BIG KIDS need to be challenged a little more. I decided to start with putting out the slime, but they had to make it. Read the recipe, gather the material and equipment, and finish the project. They loved it. It made it there own and like the cornstarch and water goop last week, they loved working with the Little's. (And it gave me 25 minutes of no whining)

BIG KIDS need to be challenged, given risks, and opportunities just like the daycare kids, but at a different level. This is my first summer that the BIG KIDS didn't WANT to be outside playing, running, water balloon fights, relay races or group games. So, I am scouring the Internet for ideas that will bring together 6 boys ranging from 4 to 12. Opportunities for modeling behavior, problem solving, sharing, communication, and leadership. There are so many ideas out there, now just to sort them out and find a place to begin...

TGIF

Well, our week is coming to an end. We have had a lot of fun getting wet, playing with our friends and hanging around these hot, humid days.

We got to use a friends water slide this week. I took photos, but I can't find the camera to download/upload them. HUH?? Where did I put it down?? Anyway... it was a lot of fun, lots of giggling, taking risks, and of course, getting muddy!! My yard is the best for mud... the bigger boys experimented with their weights to see who could go fastest, and keep going off the end, into the mud. Gotta love it!! The little ones loved watching and trying their hardest to keep up. A huge shout out to Ms Lisa & Adam for the use of the slide!!!

Yesterday, we had a more quiet day. I got out our tent, set it up in the yard, and the kids had fun running around in it and playing games. The big kids got to zip the little ones out and then I let the little ones do the same to the big kids... but they would rather have them in there so it wasn't long before those pesky big kids were sneaking in (much to the giggles and delight of the Little's!!)

We got out the cornstarch, water and chalk for the kids to experiment with. I laid everything out on an outdoor table and the kids had fun experimenting. One of my son's loved it and really got the Little's into it. The grating of the chalk was the hardest part for the Little's, so the big kids helped them, which got them into the project as well. I love to see them interact with each other.

We ended with another wet day today... the kids love getting wet and had a ball splashing, shooting, and soaking each other. It tired them out and now it is time for a movies for the Big's and nap for the Little's :) I get to post finally and finish cleaning up for the weekend. I love my job, but I am looking forward to the weekend :)

My Mom comes in tomorrow and the kids can't wait to have a visit with their Nanny!! I can't wait to just spend some time with my Mom!! So, it may be a quiet week next week.... I will try to post about what we are up to :)

Summer Photos

We did lots of great things this week... we had an array of friends come to play and did a lot of end of the summer cleaning and prep work for the new school year. We have had fun playing and exploring with a lot of different things this summer, but it will be nice to get back to a routine and some structured activities.
I took some random photos this week of a little of everything. We Welcomed a new Friend to the Daycare and we are so excited Little N is here!!! I know he will fit in well and have lots of fun. We played outside, in the sensory table, made kites, and just had fun with our friends!!

Little N showing us his Climbing Skills!!

New Friends!!

Kite Making... Will we have enough wind to fly them??

(Unfortunately we didn't)

We built lots of building, and had fun knocking them down :)

We went on a walk to the "Nature" Park in our community

We had fun running up and down the hills, finding leaves, twigs and just running in the "woods"

Oh... We had lots of yummy snacks!! This Little One loved the chocolate and had fun eating it on her own :)

We had fun washing tables

We set up the water table for the Tot's and they loved it!!!

We did some water painting... always a favorite activity

Fun in the Sun!!!

Lazy 5 Ranch

We have a great attraction right in our own backyard. It is The Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville, NC. We decided to pick that as our 2nd Summer Field Trip. I took so many great photo's, I wish I could put them all up. But I didn't want to take up all the space. Someday I will figure out how to do a collage or something... or maybe a slide show... but for now I only know how to add photo's into the post.

This guy was unbelievable... The tongue was huge and the kids were amazed at the texture. They wanted to see if their own tongue was as rough, but I had to quickly put a stop to that since we had touched this guys tongue first!!

This beautiful giraffe was so friendly... they had about 5 giraffes in the enclosure... one that had been born 5 months ago... and one was pregnant and would deliver in about 5 months... It was very sweet. A lot of babies were around for us to Ahhh over.

This Ostrich was huge, but his feet is what caught the kids attention. They couldn't believe that it could walk on only 2 toes... To cute :)

We had lunch in a perfect pavilion, nice and shady, and wonderful animals to look at close by. Of course our favorite was the playground.

The playground was great... the kids were able to run, hide and slide!! It was great to get out that energy from all that sitting on the wagon... hahahaha!! The kids were hot and tired within 10 minutes and we hadn't even been to the petting area yet.

We made a mad rush through the petting area and got a few pictures of some baby ducks, and peacocks. They were beautiful. That didn't stop the kids complaining of being hot and thirsty (they couldn't buy soda in the vending machine, so they complained quite a bit), so we left shortly after that. All in all we had a great morning... and next time we will remember to bring extra water... even though that's not what the whining was all about. Now I have to think of a way to top this trip next week...

What Have We Been Doing??

The week is finally over and what did we do?? I tip-toed my way through organizing the playroom and getting things ready for the summer kids... I didn't do a good job of it. My mind has been mush lately. I have been lurking on some blogs... that if you get a chance you should take a look at Teaching 2 & 3 yr olds and Annie's Alphabet Home Childcare. They are great sites. They have both given me some really great ideas and I want to implement them so badly!! I just haven't been able to wrap myself around it yet.
Tomorrow I am going to finish the window treatments, get that darn bulletin board up (I went to the Teacher Store and purchased the borders: yeah!!) and get the supplies out on the shelves and on the tables for the week. I spend a lot of time with the kids each day, but this summer we haven't incorporated the music, dance, craft or gardening aspect of my summer programs. So I have decided that I must change it this week... I think tomorrow I will come up with a theme for the week... Well that was easy since 4th of July is next Saturday... and I will complete that theme for the week. Not sure what yet, but I will let you tomorrow!!
I feel better... even when no one reads my blog I think that just getting it down on "paper" making it real helps me to focus and get going... I am getting excited. I think we will make the firecracker craft I found on some one's blog... just have to go look for it and get the instructions. We will have a picnic on Friday. I think the kids will love to do some cooking this week... hopefully the weather isn't to hot and we can spend some time outdoors, maybe go on a nature hike at the local park... see the idea's are flowing now. Good... now on to those curtains.

Getting ready for the summer

I have decided to dedicate this Blog to my Family Home Daycare Business!!

Kozy Kids Family Daycare

A little about me... I am a 39 yr old Mom, Wife, Daycare Provider!! I love what I do!! I started out in the Fall of 2007 with 1 child. I quickly added another... but thought that was enough. I added some toys to the front room, a few crafts and "preschool" songs and lessons... and the rest is history. One parent told another, who told another and I am now the proud Provider to 8 full time and 2 part time children. I have hired a co-teacher to help me out with the Preschool part of our day and with our little one... who will be 1 next week... How time flies!!!

I can't believe that I went from this little... "I'll watch some kids to play with Ry" to this full fledged Preschool/Daycare Business. I am loving it.

I would love to share our photo's from this past year, but I have not asked permission from some of the Parents to show their children on the blog. So hopefully when most of them come back for the fall we will get that permission and be off and running.

We decided the Playroom needed to be painted and overhauled for the summer... so that is what we did below... we had a Great time doing it and I think the kids will be very excited. We are still working on our "messy" room in the sunroom, and I will post photos as soon as I get that done. I am excited to make the space more kid friendly, and they can have more independence in getting their material and doing their work. I found the web/blog from Annie Look over at Annie's Alphabet Home Childcare.... and WOW!!! If you want inspiration as a Childcare Provider or anyone who works with small children... That is where you should go!! I got so pumped just looking at her space and what "her kids" do all day!! They are learning, entertained, busy, happy, messy, quiet, moving, & safe!! You can just see how much pride she takes in her business and she has the passion not all childcare providers have. A passion for nurturing the child in children... letting kids be kids and have fun. So, if you want some inspiration jump over there and take a look. You can find the shortcut under my blog list.








Here is a picture of us trying to get everything picked up, after the last day for my kids who's parents are teachers. So those kids won't be here to much for the summer. I will miss them. I wrote about that at my other blog... A Boys Life 4 Me. If you'd like to read about that.




Here is Beth... my co-teacher... trying to keep things organized. She is the organized one and I am the one who makes her absolutely CRAZY!!! I take things out to use them and forget to put them back... I am a spur of the moment kind of teacher and if the kids look like they may want to take a lesson another way than I had planned... I run with it. I quickly get things out for them to use and in the process make a mess. Beth is there is keep me on track and make sure I pick up things at the end of the day. We balance each other out I think... I bring out her inner child and she brings out my inner Mom :)




Here is our messy computer area. I am not a huge computer advocate for the 1 to 5 yr old range so it kinda collects dust unless an after-schooler asks to play a game on it. Then we dust it off and hope it will work. We store a lot of our Montessori Manipulative's under there in those boxes. I also put our paint, new curtains, and curtain rods under there until we found time to get this overhaul under way.

Here is the wood floor part of the playroom under "construction." We usually do a lot of our messy work there during the school year. We are rethinking that for the summer. Maybe moving the messy stuff to the sunroom... we'll see.

Here Ry is helping with the painting of the room. Ry is my 4 yr old... the reason I started this adventure in the first place :) He really loved helping us, it made the room more of his own I think.

Here Em (Beth's 4 yr old) is also helping. As you can see we picked a yellow for the walls. I was a little afraid at first, but when it was all done it wasn't a big Banana like I thought it would be. I was really worried at first though. I am glad it came out as nice as it did.

Here is a picture of it after we finished and put the summer furniture in.. We added the Kangaroo Climber, the trampoline, and a car table. We have always had the swing and we put the Baby Play area in on the little rug off to the side.

Here is a shot of our entryway... we have some cubbies I made off to the side when you walk in and I downsized the computer table so it won't take up so much room. Hopefully I won't let it get so cluttered now :)

Here some of the kids are playing in the new room. They really love the swing and slide. Although they did play with the car table quite a bit too...

Behind T on the swing you can see the brown shelf and white cabinets... we plan on putting our bulletin board back up there. We want to add another cabinet on top of the ones you see (there is another on the right hand side also) and put the bulletin board in between.

Here is C in front of the car table... It's not a huge room, but it seems to fit us all nicely.

Here is the Baby Play Area... always a hit... we use Beanie Baby Kitty's a lot instead of babies though.

So, I think that is it so far except for the stuff on the walls... we need to put up our shelves and organizational stuff. We also need to get some of our Art Work back up there. I am excited to get going on the sunroom. T can't wait to help too, she loves crafts and painting so she want to get it done as soon as possible so she can begin.

We spend a lot of our time at our community pool in the sub-division during the summer. Though we have begun the overhaul of the backyard sometimes it is just to hot here in NC to play out there in the afternoon. We try to play out there in the early mornings so avoid the hottest part of the day. But in preparation for our time out there, we added mulch under the climbing structure & swings, added a pretty neat sandbox, and some stumps to climb on. Annie gave me some great summer fun ideas to try with the kids and we will soon be adding some 2 x 4's cut up, and some nice planks of wood to build with. I think they will be great additions to the yard. And provide hours of fun for all the kids!!