OCTOBER NEWS LETTER 2012
The children are back at school and for me its a mixture of feelings. Excited for the children they are growing up but sad that some of my older children have left full time care as they are now in school full time and don't need after school care. One of the children are has now entered kindergarten which is a huge step for them. In addition to these changes we welcome two new full time children into the program,filling an infant, school age space.
We also have several families using the daycare on a casual basis. Again a super group of children and families.
NOW THAT FALL IS HERE
The children are encouraged to explore their environment in all weathers. This is a fancy way of saying we will be outside everyday regardless of what the weather is doing. Most days the children and I will be walking up to school twice a day to either drop off or pick up children for or from school.
Please make sure your children arrive at daycare with the following.
We also have several families using the daycare on a casual basis. Again a super group of children and families.
NOW THAT FALL IS HERE
The children are encouraged to explore their environment in all weathers. This is a fancy way of saying we will be outside everyday regardless of what the weather is doing. Most days the children and I will be walking up to school twice a day to either drop off or pick up children for or from school.
Please make sure your children arrive at daycare with the following.
- Warm sweater/ hoodie.
- Light mitts or gloves the dollar stores mitts and gloves are perfect as children and mittens seldom stay united all fall.
- One full set of spare clothes
- Extra socks.
- A hat
End of summer news
Summer has been a blast! It was unfortunate that we didn't have use of the Victoria playground this summer. However we made good use of the school park. We also took several field trips. Most planned some unexpected.We had a few to the vets as daycare cat Theodore had an argument with a car. We are pretty sure the car came away relatively unscathed however Theodore spent most of the summer in a cage while several broken bones healed. I have learned from this experience what an easy going cat we have and how kind everyone is at the Souris vet clinic. Kitty antibiotics are cheaper than children's. The children have learned how a cats temperature is taken, that Theo likes the liquid medicine but not pills and that even the sickest looking cat might get better. The vet had prepared the children for the fact that the cat might not make it.
We visited the butterfly museum several times. We enjoyed the games room/activities behind the plum. We also visited the new Railway museum.Where The children were lucky enough to be given activity books.
Our out of town field trips included a visit to the reptile house followed by a picnic at the discovery center. Neil and Alan came with us. Alan spent much of his afternoon hooking the children on to some spin-around contraption where they dangled and he spun them round. Neil was a bit more stationary but we begged and pleaded and make sad eyes until he bought us all ice cream on the way home. The children are very good at this style of pleading now so watch out at Christmas.
Four little girls and I made a trip to the Daley house Brandon. Kindness was shown to us as we were given a family admittance rate which was cheaper than paying individually. The little "darlings" called me mummy for the next hour. We all enjoyed the museum there`was a lot of history to see. We had planned to go to a sprinkler park but it was just too cold when the wind whipped up. This was another picnic lunch spent at the discovery center playground.
On a warmer day we made it to the sprinkler park, five children myself and my friends teen daughter Izzy as and extra pair of hands. Izzy is awesome with the children and they adore her!
We visited the butterfly museum several times. We enjoyed the games room/activities behind the plum. We also visited the new Railway museum.Where The children were lucky enough to be given activity books.
Our out of town field trips included a visit to the reptile house followed by a picnic at the discovery center. Neil and Alan came with us. Alan spent much of his afternoon hooking the children on to some spin-around contraption where they dangled and he spun them round. Neil was a bit more stationary but we begged and pleaded and make sad eyes until he bought us all ice cream on the way home. The children are very good at this style of pleading now so watch out at Christmas.
Four little girls and I made a trip to the Daley house Brandon. Kindness was shown to us as we were given a family admittance rate which was cheaper than paying individually. The little "darlings" called me mummy for the next hour. We all enjoyed the museum there`was a lot of history to see. We had planned to go to a sprinkler park but it was just too cold when the wind whipped up. This was another picnic lunch spent at the discovery center playground.
On a warmer day we made it to the sprinkler park, five children myself and my friends teen daughter Izzy as and extra pair of hands. Izzy is awesome with the children and they adore her!
June news letter
First of all a big thank you to all the families that have been understanding as I have found a sub at the last minute and gone sand-bagging. The community of Souris has done a fabulous job of pulling together in all different ways to ensure that our town didn't flood any more than it did. We are lucky with the location of our daycare so far we have not had sewage back up, been flooded or lived in an area where we faced evacuation. Our problems have been minor. We`have found plenty of areas to play other than Victoria park playground. I plan to extend the yard to a larger play area this summer.School is nearly out which is really exciting for the children as they will all be together and also means the school playground will be another place we can visit.
Most of our days are sent outside and together we have been working on the outside play environment. The plan for the yard will be to have have a fun educational outside rooms so far we have a frogbog in the childrens flower garden varius pots growoing veggies an art area where i try to use as any natuaral products for art as possible such as fetahers grains twigs leaves etc. an eating area self exlanitarty relly we eat there. and a mudbog
May news letter (yep its been a while)
At last we seem to be having some nice weather.... that is until today hence the time to sit at the computer and write a news letter.We have been very busy. We finally completed the rainbow this week. The last color band painted with the fly swat method. We drew flies on a long roll of paper then painted out fly swats with various shades of purple paint the we swatted the flies as hard as we could. So to summarize how we made our rainbow.
RED
printing with apples and potatoes
RED
printing with apples and potatoes
February News Letter Issue # 6
Building a Rainbow
RED RED RED RED RED RED RED
I am sure you have heard the children talking about color weeks. We are gradually working our way through the rainbow learning about primary, secondary and complimentary colors. Matching sorting and classifying.
As all good rainbows do we started with Red. The sock interest table was taken down various socks reunited with their buddies and I sent the children all over the daycare to find red things to put on their "RED" table. Much to the horror of Alan we used his favorite red T shirt and Neils Teddy bear Fred was placed in a prominent position wearing his Manchester United soccer strip. We used apples,feet and hands to print with and hunted the art area for scraps of anything red to put on our background picture.
Orange was even more messy as we were given a pumpkin by Helen Stuart and family, A huge pumpkin and beautifully ORANGE. We used the pumkin gutts to dye a cloth orange and proudly displayed the pumpkin on our color table. The seeds have been saved and dried to be roasted or planted when we start green and growing weeks. Now that we had mastered dying cloths we dyed a cloth red (really it came out dark pink) we used beets for this which non of the children liked the taste of however they ate them up quite happily in muffins. It was one of the children suggestions to make pink muffins.Te beets used for dying and eating were not the same ones!!!!
One day we had a Orange meal. We headed off to Bigway and choose only foods that were orange for our lunch. Cheating a little with Tomato soup (which is orange even if tomatoes are red) honey dew, cheese, carrots, cheese stick crackers, orange pepper Oranges and orange jello for a desert later that day the children helped make pumpkin muffins which were scrumptious. for the rest of the week we had at least one orange food on the table.
YELLOW YELLOW YELLOW YELLOW YELLOW YELLOW YELLOW yowl!!!
The children had been looking forward to yellow week as they all like bananas. They had discussed the chances of having ice cream amongst themselves and concluded quite rightly "not a chance" Gill was too mean. I do believe the "mean" comment was actually some failed attempt at reverse psychology. However being wise to the ways of young children I decided to go along fully with the mean comment as I personally cant stand ice cream! We had a lot of sweet corn that week and yellow squash. We tried it cooked and raw.Only half of the children liked it but everyone did try it eventually.
Again we tried dying with natural dyes this time it wasn't as straight forward as to get a fairly decent yellow color you need to use vegetables that break down into yellow pigments but are not often yellow to begin with. Our yellow dye was created with onion skins and spinach. The children certainly had a workout of their olfactory senses as the smell of the both cooking together was disgusting!! After this experience the children want to try peas for green!!
If you look closely in the photo you can see the school buses are being driven by the children.
Again we tried dying with natural dyes this time it wasn't as straight forward as to get a fairly decent yellow color you need to use vegetables that break down into yellow pigments but are not often yellow to begin with. Our yellow dye was created with onion skins and spinach. The children certainly had a workout of their olfactory senses as the smell of the both cooking together was disgusting!! After this experience the children want to try peas for green!!
If you look closely in the photo you can see the school buses are being driven by the children.
GREEN GREEN GREEN GREEN GREEN GREEN GREEN GREEN GREEN
Green week will focus on growing and go green ideas. On the 17th March we are heading out on a field trip to the recycling center. For children recycling means so much more if they can see what happens to the cans and paper etc they collect.
MAKING A TRUCK AND A CAKE
Getting creative!
Painting the front of the truck
The truck started with the two little boys dragging the art table over to a chair and pretending it was a truck.They played happily until the need for a "real that we can turn handle." was apparently needed... then a front and a roof. Using the daycare motto of "team work,team work and the children's flattering faith that I can make anything and boxes we indeed made a truck from the boys original idea.
"WE HAVE TO HAVE A DOOR!"
"Gill...... how do we get in?"
well this couldn't be a real question as the children had been 'getting into' the truck all morning.
"I would 'get in' how you have all morning."
"No no we need a door."
So we talked about it came up with a plan and as you can see from the picture painted the door of course it would have been smarter to paint the door before we taped it to the chair...oh well that is why garbage bags were made, to protect furniture, right?
FRONT IN PLACE
By adding foil and some very carefull painting by all te children the truck was really taking shape!
TRAVELING THE HIGHWAYS AND VISITING FRIENDS
Adding coffee canister lids for steering wheels and the truck was completed. When you think the "truck" started out from a two and three year olds idea and grew into a center the children have continually played with it is easy to understand why i love my work!
THE BIRTHDAY CAKE ......... no words needed just look at the picture lol
.
Well it seemed like a good idea at the time three children at the bench where they could reach and the forth shortest child sitting (closely supervised) on the table where he could reach ...... I forgot about toes!!!
January News letter Issue #5
A BIG THANK YOU!
Thank you very much for the kind Gifts at Christmas.
SOCK WEEK
.
Sock babies snuggled up in the doll bed
Sock week started, I'm sure, when some one was trying to be "smart".Of course I would not mention names but I'm pretty sure it was one of the girls. I had decided to introduce the idea of an interest table. An area with a table that focuses on a topic of interest . This can be anything. One of the children suggested socks! The other children thought this was an excellent idea.
I must admit I thought this wasn't going to go as well as it turned out. Sock week will extend into sock fortnight ( English phase for two weeks)
Did you know you can use strips of socks to make ponies (hair bands)? One of the children made fingerless gloves for them selves and several friends by taking a wide strip of sock and cutting a thumb holes in them.They were really cute.
We also worked on sock puppets and sock babies.
To make a sock baby follow the directions on the fun page
One day we had the great sock hunt each child had one half of several pairs of socks and had to look for the mate of he one they held. This was hampered slightly by varius odd socks turning up in the hunt and confusing everyone.
I must admit I thought this wasn't going to go as well as it turned out. Sock week will extend into sock fortnight ( English phase for two weeks)
Did you know you can use strips of socks to make ponies (hair bands)? One of the children made fingerless gloves for them selves and several friends by taking a wide strip of sock and cutting a thumb holes in them.They were really cute.
We also worked on sock puppets and sock babies.
To make a sock baby follow the directions on the fun page
One day we had the great sock hunt each child had one half of several pairs of socks and had to look for the mate of he one they held. This was hampered slightly by varius odd socks turning up in the hunt and confusing everyone.
The snow experiments!!!!
- The first one Finally we had a nice enough day to go out and have a long walk I took the children to the lookout tower paths. My learning objective was for the children to find and identify tracks. We discovered ...Deer, slide marks from deer jumping, children and adult boot marks, dogs of all sizes a possible cat and a Lion paw print I'm sure it was a large dog but the children were pretty convinced it was a Lion. What the children discovered ... Bottom prints!!!!! I think the first one was an accident but you can never be sure. However besides many of the pathways near the lookout tower are child size indentations. The children were greatly amused by this discovery. There are a few hand prints too but apparently these do not hold the same appeal. The Second One. We were heading out to the post office, bank and a snack at forbidden flavours. We discovered nice smooth snow both outside the old ag building and next to the post office. In the snow near the Post office the children made snow angles. What the children discovered not every one appreciates what it is like to be a child a certain lady of distinquished years seemed to object to the snow angles and waggled her hand at the unaware children scowling at them (they were busy and really didn't notice) The Youngest child did notice and mistaken this for waving and cheerfully waved back shouting Hi Hi Hi. As for the Ag snow ... we were passing and the children as one stopped and stared at the snow. It was smooth, untouched and perfect. A small voice said "wow" ... The children stared. "Gilllllllllllll?" I know there is trouble when my name is extended! "Can we mess it up?" well being the responsible adult that I am i said of course they could. Many passer-byes noted how much fun the children were having and children are only children once. Admired there pattens and the train track created as they followed each other round in a figure eight track. Plowing though thigh deep snow is an excellent exercise. The third one "Giiiillllllllly" (Gilly? what are they thinking now?) "Can we take snow home in the sled we want to keep it." "You don't think we have enough in the yard?" "No this is better snow it's in lumps." "What are you going to do with it?" "Melt it, see how long it takes to melt." My objective by this time was to show the children how dirty clean looking snow really is when melted as they keep sneaking samples how ever often I remind them not to eat it. (yellow snow they get and don't eat that) what the children discovered. A sled full of snow in the house cools the entire house down. It takes over night to finally melt the snow Hidden in teh clean snow is grit, bits of leaves and dirt teh water from melted snow is " I'm never eating snow again"
DECEMBER NEWS LETTER Issue #4
The build up to Christmas.
Oh my! the build to Christmas was noisy and busy! We have been singing Christmas songs at the top of our voices. Cookies on a plate and Rudolf the red nose reindeer being the favorites this year. The Teddy bears have been recruited when we have needed more people/bears for songs and I have noticed that on several occasions little bears have crept on to little laps to join us for circle time. The bears are welcome to stay as long as they listen nicely and don't start playing around. A few bears have been reprimanded for wriggling and jumping. Of course the children have nothing to do with this and are quite shocked at poor bear behavior!
We made Christmas cards using our feet as snowmen and hands as Christmas trees. We also made or own Christmas tree I drew the basic outline and gave the children dark blue,yellow and white paint to "color it in with" the children quickly discovered that as they painted they created the green tree that they thought was a more fitting color. Using recycled Christmas bows and ribbons the children decorated their tree and are very proud of it. They have great ideas, such as grouping colors and one child making a tree trunk with a strip of tape and a row of bows.
THE GINGER BREAD HOUSES AND ICE-CREAM CONE CHRISTMAS TREES
Circle time.
Now the really cold weather has arrived we can not get outside every day and circle time has become a daily event we all look forward to. During this time we cover the days of the week and months of the year. We are learning this though song and dance.
The song we are using for the days of the week is today is Monday
Today is Monday, Today Is Monday
Monday is string beans (stretch hands apart as if pulling string )
all you hungry children come and eat it up (Mime eating)
Today is Tuesday, today is Tuesday
Tuesday's Spaghetti ( wind hands around each other)
All you hungry children come and eat i
...Wednesday is soup Exaggerate soup to sooooooooooooooooooooooop ,(pretending to eat with a spoon) slurp loudly and smack lips with a satisfying arhhhhh.
... Thursday is roast beef (motion cutting along forearm with flat hand like a knife
... Friday is fresh fish (swim flat hand as fish in front of you)
... Saturday is chicken (bend elbows and flap arms as chicken wings)
... Sunday is ice cream ( pretend to hold a ice cream and lick and slurp loudly)
The learning of the months of the years is also a lot of fun and keeping us active and fit.
We sing and dance the months of the year to the Macarena song I'm not very good but the children are excellent and the bears are quite a site (not quite as good as they think they are)
the Macarena conveniently has twelve movements to it which fits each of the months of the year. Storm being the vainest bear demonstrates the our slightly different moves in the following slide show. Please forgive his lack of talent but it does give us the basic idea!
Now the really cold weather has arrived we can not get outside every day and circle time has become a daily event we all look forward to. During this time we cover the days of the week and months of the year. We are learning this though song and dance.
The song we are using for the days of the week is today is Monday
Today is Monday, Today Is Monday
Monday is string beans (stretch hands apart as if pulling string )
all you hungry children come and eat it up (Mime eating)
Today is Tuesday, today is Tuesday
Tuesday's Spaghetti ( wind hands around each other)
All you hungry children come and eat i
...Wednesday is soup Exaggerate soup to sooooooooooooooooooooooop ,(pretending to eat with a spoon) slurp loudly and smack lips with a satisfying arhhhhh.
... Thursday is roast beef (motion cutting along forearm with flat hand like a knife
... Friday is fresh fish (swim flat hand as fish in front of you)
... Saturday is chicken (bend elbows and flap arms as chicken wings)
... Sunday is ice cream ( pretend to hold a ice cream and lick and slurp loudly)
The learning of the months of the years is also a lot of fun and keeping us active and fit.
We sing and dance the months of the year to the Macarena song I'm not very good but the children are excellent and the bears are quite a site (not quite as good as they think they are)
the Macarena conveniently has twelve movements to it which fits each of the months of the year. Storm being the vainest bear demonstrates the our slightly different moves in the following slide show. Please forgive his lack of talent but it does give us the basic idea!
November News letter Issue # 3
BEACH DAY 26th November
With the weather -29* with the wind chill it was a perfect day to have a day spent in swim wear!
SWIM WEAR WHY WOULD ANYONE WEAR SWIM WEAR WHEN IT IS SO COLD!!!
Well your children come to Teddy Bear Day Care where having fun is an activity that is encouraged. We cranked up the heating, set up a net strung between the TV and the room divider used the beach ball that one of the children brought with them and Robert joined in with the children teaching them some of the rules of volley ball.( I am not sure if he knows all the rules him self but as he is twice their hight he was appointed leader and we went with Robert rules. The bears surrounded the children cheering on which ever team was winning at the time. Bears do not have strong alliances to any team but are united in their wish to win.
We had our own beach including beach umbrella and a pool.(Imagine a beach made of two fluffy yellow blankets and one blue fluffy blanket.)The children changed into swim wear. They posed by the tree for pictures. The older girls strutting with attitude the younger boy trying to obtain attitude and the other girl looking very cute. We sat down and discussed pool rules.Now understand this the paddling pool is very small may be a diameter of three feet a little over a meter for Metric parents. The first rule the children came up with was no diving. I had not anticipated this as being a problem in three inches/7.5 cm of water but we wrote it down any way.
I encouraged the children to think of listing rules in a positive way instead of no running to rephrase it to walk carefully. I took a while but the children did come up with some rules written positivity.
The rules
We did change the getting hair wet rule when I realized with the heating as high as it was wet hair was not going to be a problem. the children were a little crammed but happy.
Now when you are a the beach you can have a juice box these are a huge treat at Teddy Bear Day Care we don't have them very often at all. this time they were drank while the children were in the pool. After a yummy lunch of spaghetti we made home made strawberry ice cream in mini cones which meant every one had two ice creams each!!
By the end of the day my own family who had dressed as one does in winter were pretty hot the daycare family was just right as we were still in shorts or swim wear it was a very noisy, hot day and i don't know about the children but the bears and i slept very well that night.
SWIM WEAR WHY WOULD ANYONE WEAR SWIM WEAR WHEN IT IS SO COLD!!!
Well your children come to Teddy Bear Day Care where having fun is an activity that is encouraged. We cranked up the heating, set up a net strung between the TV and the room divider used the beach ball that one of the children brought with them and Robert joined in with the children teaching them some of the rules of volley ball.( I am not sure if he knows all the rules him self but as he is twice their hight he was appointed leader and we went with Robert rules. The bears surrounded the children cheering on which ever team was winning at the time. Bears do not have strong alliances to any team but are united in their wish to win.
We had our own beach including beach umbrella and a pool.(Imagine a beach made of two fluffy yellow blankets and one blue fluffy blanket.)The children changed into swim wear. They posed by the tree for pictures. The older girls strutting with attitude the younger boy trying to obtain attitude and the other girl looking very cute. We sat down and discussed pool rules.Now understand this the paddling pool is very small may be a diameter of three feet a little over a meter for Metric parents. The first rule the children came up with was no diving. I had not anticipated this as being a problem in three inches/7.5 cm of water but we wrote it down any way.
I encouraged the children to think of listing rules in a positive way instead of no running to rephrase it to walk carefully. I took a while but the children did come up with some rules written positivity.
The rules
- Walk carefully
- Keep your hair dry
- Water stays in the paddling pool
- Everyone has space
- Feet first when you go into a pool (this was the no diving rule)
We did change the getting hair wet rule when I realized with the heating as high as it was wet hair was not going to be a problem. the children were a little crammed but happy.
Now when you are a the beach you can have a juice box these are a huge treat at Teddy Bear Day Care we don't have them very often at all. this time they were drank while the children were in the pool. After a yummy lunch of spaghetti we made home made strawberry ice cream in mini cones which meant every one had two ice creams each!!
By the end of the day my own family who had dressed as one does in winter were pretty hot the daycare family was just right as we were still in shorts or swim wear it was a very noisy, hot day and i don't know about the children but the bears and i slept very well that night.
Fire Drill 26th November
Each month every licensed Day Care is expected to have a fire drill. I do mine at different times of the day and with different children. Since the first fire drill in the summer the children have no idea when I will spring one on them. I also do not tell my family. I yell fire drill and instruct the children which entrance we are to. In winter we go to the exit and pretend to go outside especially the day we were in swim wear. My family is usually upstairs and are expected to evacuate the building too. The children have been wonderful each time they have left what they are doing the children more familiar to the routine have instructed the children who had no idea what to do. The children have all shown remarkable maturity in taking this seriously. I have also been proud of my own teen children who have supported the importance of being an example to follow. Over the year we will be doing a shelter in place drill. This would be used for extreme weather condition such as a tornado. I encourage every parent to familiarize them selves with all the exits in my home. Also to check out the location of the basement. This is on the main floor next to the wall air-conditioner and red wall. we will also be doing a drill exiting though an alternative exit either a window, French doors or back door.
Each month every licensed Day Care is expected to have a fire drill. I do mine at different times of the day and with different children. Since the first fire drill in the summer the children have no idea when I will spring one on them. I also do not tell my family. I yell fire drill and instruct the children which entrance we are to. In winter we go to the exit and pretend to go outside especially the day we were in swim wear. My family is usually upstairs and are expected to evacuate the building too. The children have been wonderful each time they have left what they are doing the children more familiar to the routine have instructed the children who had no idea what to do. The children have all shown remarkable maturity in taking this seriously. I have also been proud of my own teen children who have supported the importance of being an example to follow. Over the year we will be doing a shelter in place drill. This would be used for extreme weather condition such as a tornado. I encourage every parent to familiarize them selves with all the exits in my home. Also to check out the location of the basement. This is on the main floor next to the wall air-conditioner and red wall. we will also be doing a drill exiting though an alternative exit either a window, French doors or back door.
We welcome another child into our Daycare bringing our numbers up to six most days and eight on days off from school. This is a wonderful group of children and they make my days special every day.
This is a self portrait they drew of themselves.
This is a self portrait they drew of themselves.
Off school, Friday 12th November
Well the children were asked for suggestions of what special thing they would like to do when they were all to be together. Robert overheard and suggested a worship Robert day with him being looked after and a cake. To my horror the children thought this was a really good Idea. Especially the decorating a cake bit. There was also a suggestion of crowns and bowing at the waist to the leader but I'm pretty sure those came from Robert himself.
Friday rolled around and the earliest arrival that day and I were making a cake shortly after 7:00am... when i say making a cake what I really mean I was bleary eyes squinting at the recipe book and said child who was full of beans was following my sleepy instructions, measuring, stiring and tasting. Having the foresight to allow for the weight of the vast amount of decorations we made pound cake.
The cake made and cooling in a secret location, kitchen cleaned and we welcomed the rest of the days children Our numbers had dropped from eight to four plus two small visitors and a mom.
Crowns were made and decorated with rainbow, silver and golden glitter. (Even three days later i am still cleaning up glitter a sign of a good time! )
Then came decorating the cake. We do have the rule that if you lick the knife you are spreading frosting with get a clean one before you spread frosting again and sneeze away form the table. I don't think anyone sneezed on the table. Children seem to have there own rules that govern cake decorating.
They go something like this:
Interestingly all the children seem to follow the same rules.
You may wonder what Bertrum and Storm are doing. After seeing the children lean over the table and lick up a few sprinkles they tried it for themselves. Just like the children they were quickly distracted to something new to do.
Following the cake decorating we went for a walk to wear off some of the frosting. We hiked up to the tower and
cracked open puddles. Until further notice teh children have had to face the dismantlement of not scrambling over the railway sleepers as thus wouldn't be very safe withe the build up of ice on them now. However now the rock pile near the sleepers has frozen it is easier to climb.
Friday rolled around and the earliest arrival that day and I were making a cake shortly after 7:00am... when i say making a cake what I really mean I was bleary eyes squinting at the recipe book and said child who was full of beans was following my sleepy instructions, measuring, stiring and tasting. Having the foresight to allow for the weight of the vast amount of decorations we made pound cake.
The cake made and cooling in a secret location, kitchen cleaned and we welcomed the rest of the days children Our numbers had dropped from eight to four plus two small visitors and a mom.
Crowns were made and decorated with rainbow, silver and golden glitter. (Even three days later i am still cleaning up glitter a sign of a good time! )
Then came decorating the cake. We do have the rule that if you lick the knife you are spreading frosting with get a clean one before you spread frosting again and sneeze away form the table. I don't think anyone sneezed on the table. Children seem to have there own rules that govern cake decorating.
They go something like this:
- How ever many decoration the cake needs I get an equal or greater portion for myself.
- Germs do not pass on if I eat frosting and Gill does not see me.
- Cakes taste way better before they are cooked.
- It is far quicker to use my socks to mop up spills than get a cloth.
- Wiping my hands on my pants counts as washing them until caught.
- using my fingers to scrape the spoon is not the same a licking it.
- You can never have to many sprinkles on a cake or in your tummy.
Interestingly all the children seem to follow the same rules.
You may wonder what Bertrum and Storm are doing. After seeing the children lean over the table and lick up a few sprinkles they tried it for themselves. Just like the children they were quickly distracted to something new to do.
Following the cake decorating we went for a walk to wear off some of the frosting. We hiked up to the tower and
cracked open puddles. Until further notice teh children have had to face the dismantlement of not scrambling over the railway sleepers as thus wouldn't be very safe withe the build up of ice on them now. However now the rock pile near the sleepers has frozen it is easier to climb.
Reverse Halloween
The reverse trick or treating was a great success the kids loved handing out muffins and had beautiful manners when doing so. It was loverly to see their enthusiasm and smiles as they got very real pleasure form giving. When offered candy one child said "No thank you we are just giving treats today."
Much as I love them and don't mind eating what they cook I made the muffins this time. Each child had a little basket with muffins in and took in turns handing them out. This is a great confidence boaster for the children. I had explained to the children that the Sunday, Halloween was their chance to get treats. They didn't come home completely empty handed as one Grandparent and Whitfield drugs kindly gave the children suckers. Also a thank you to one of our families that gave each child treats. Being a small group the children were very proud to show off their costumes. Everywhere we went the children were made to feel special.
Thank you Storm for helping hand out muffins and making sure the other bears did not eat any. Yes you look very nice in your super bear outfit.
October 2010, issue # 2
Halloween Party October 29th
As children get a lot of treats at Halloween I thought we would do a reverse Halloween trick or treating walk. We will go to the local businesses and give out treats instead.The children can still wear costumes if they wish. Please consider that we will be out side walking and children need to be able to see and move easily.up and down steps and though doors.Most importantly of all be able to hold hands
Below is Storm demonstrating how much fun you can have in night wear in the park
Pajama day!
It seemed like such a good idea, a pajama day, a Day in comfortable clothing and pancakes for morning snack. Then the children asked to go to the park. Well as the weather was warm and we hadn't been outside yet I couldn't think of a good excuse not to go. "I feel silly in my PJ's. " was not going to be accepted as an excuse by the children. All eight of us set out for the park (we took storm with us) much to the amusement of people passing by.
Rather than go to the nap room for rest time we has a sleep over in the living room. Every one made their beds up in the living area. I had expected giggles and talking but the children fell asleep quickly. when everyone was awake we watched one TV show and had a juice box and popcorn twists as the sleep over treats.
On the Days when all the children are at the Daycare such as school PD days we will plan to do something special. This way no one misses out.
Rather than go to the nap room for rest time we has a sleep over in the living room. Every one made their beds up in the living area. I had expected giggles and talking but the children fell asleep quickly. when everyone was awake we watched one TV show and had a juice box and popcorn twists as the sleep over treats.
On the Days when all the children are at the Daycare such as school PD days we will plan to do something special. This way no one misses out.
Dress for the weather.
Its getting cold in the mornings and we are outside everyday. Please make sure that the children have warm clothing to wear outside, that they are happy to wear. Also easy enough for them to be independent dressers as far as possible. Once we get snow and rain the children will need more than one set of mitts or gloves and several pairs of socks. We are outside for up to two hours at a time.
For safety reasons please do not send scarves, These can easy get caught on play equipment or even be tugged by another child. Also watch drawstrings on jackets, hoodies and mitts on strings.
Another thing to consider is your own child natural activity level active fast moving children stay warmer than quite observant children. We can neither control weather or a child temperament so have to make allowances for both.
Thank you Adrian for showing us your nice scarf.Bears do not need more than ascarf and hat in even really cold weather.
For safety reasons please do not send scarves, These can easy get caught on play equipment or even be tugged by another child. Also watch drawstrings on jackets, hoodies and mitts on strings.
Another thing to consider is your own child natural activity level active fast moving children stay warmer than quite observant children. We can neither control weather or a child temperament so have to make allowances for both.
Thank you Adrian for showing us your nice scarf.Bears do not need more than ascarf and hat in even really cold weather.
we have been so lucky with the fall weather so far. The children and I have gone down to the park nearly every day.Spending so much time outside has meant we have taken some activities with us. We make good use of the natural environment making stick people and decorating them with leaves.
This is a stick person. The children make the basic person out of sticks and a stone for a head and then dress with leaves. This particular person is a man, you can see the beard ( the white rock) Although the picture doesn't show the detail this guy even has eyebrows made of tiny bits of dried grass.
Making Stinky powder
A clean out of crowded cupboard resulted in several packets of out dated spices grains and pulses. Rather than see these food stuffs thrown away I collected them together and dug out my little used pestle and mortar sets.I showed the children how to pound and grind and left them to create. STINKY POWDER. Just imagine the combination of chili, cardamom,fennel coffee beans oat meal, nutmeg, oats, salt and Bay leaves. Now imagine being five and under and how many of the senses are stimulated. New smells, new sights textures and words they may not have heard before. Every concoction smelled different and was a surprising different color. The children compared , poured, ground, stirred sifted and and stinky powder was born.
Thank you to Scruff for demonstrating how to make stinky powder
September 2010, issue # 1
THE LICENCING PROCESS IS COMPLETED
Officially licensed
As of September 22nd 2010 Teddy Bear Day Care is licensed.!!
As a licensed daycare, I can have up to eight children in my care, five under school age of which no more than three are under two years old and three school age.
Barb Baumung, who is the coordinator for this area, has been a tremendous help in guiding me though the licensing process.
One of the reasons I decided to go through the process of licencing is that as a licensed Home daycare, families who need to, can apply for subsidized care.
.
Theodore, the Day Care kitten.
Theo, Theodore,Teddy ,kitten ,baby cat... he has lots of names.
We have so lucked out with this kitten. He is exceptionally good natured and seems to genuinely like being around the children. He will even sit with them while they are playing floor games and circle time.
We already had three cats and while tolerant of the children were not really cuddly.
This kitten needed a home and I thought it would be interesting for the children to be involved with a cat care from the beginning and watch him grow up.
So far we have had two field trips to the vets while Teddy has his vaccinations. The vet explained to the children that just like they do, he needs vaccinations to stay healthy.
The children were collectively horrified when Teddy's temperature was taken.
However obviously recovered by the second visit when the same procedure was greeted by giggles.
Teddy is definitely well loved by all the children and quite a number of the adults.
We have so lucked out with this kitten. He is exceptionally good natured and seems to genuinely like being around the children. He will even sit with them while they are playing floor games and circle time.
We already had three cats and while tolerant of the children were not really cuddly.
This kitten needed a home and I thought it would be interesting for the children to be involved with a cat care from the beginning and watch him grow up.
So far we have had two field trips to the vets while Teddy has his vaccinations. The vet explained to the children that just like they do, he needs vaccinations to stay healthy.
The children were collectively horrified when Teddy's temperature was taken.
However obviously recovered by the second visit when the same procedure was greeted by giggles.
Teddy is definitely well loved by all the children and quite a number of the adults.
Our field trips
We have had several field trips though out the summer.
We have visited the vet twice with Theodore..
Critter dipping at the west farm was a lot of fun and our mini beasts have survived several weeks with us. The population in the tank change as they multiply or eat each other
Hartney has an amazing playground and we checked this out at the beginning of the summer.
Every Wednesday we go to Story time at the library.
We have just started going to shake Rattle and Roll on Wednesday mornings . This is a preschool, get children active program.
Other trips have been local including making mini passports and getting each business around town to stamp them for us. The local businesses were very accommodating to our coming in and asking for stamps. This gave the children a good opportunity to wait turns and use their very best manners.
Occasionally if I have a fewer children we go to forbidden flavors for toast. This is our biggest treat day.
I hope to take the children to the pumpkin patch but this will be dependent of extra help and another driver.
Every day we are outside hiking around town, playing in the playground and just out side in the yard.
We also buy our groceries most days and fetch the Mail.
We have visited the vet twice with Theodore..
Critter dipping at the west farm was a lot of fun and our mini beasts have survived several weeks with us. The population in the tank change as they multiply or eat each other
Hartney has an amazing playground and we checked this out at the beginning of the summer.
Every Wednesday we go to Story time at the library.
We have just started going to shake Rattle and Roll on Wednesday mornings . This is a preschool, get children active program.
Other trips have been local including making mini passports and getting each business around town to stamp them for us. The local businesses were very accommodating to our coming in and asking for stamps. This gave the children a good opportunity to wait turns and use their very best manners.
Occasionally if I have a fewer children we go to forbidden flavors for toast. This is our biggest treat day.
I hope to take the children to the pumpkin patch but this will be dependent of extra help and another driver.
Every day we are outside hiking around town, playing in the playground and just out side in the yard.
We also buy our groceries most days and fetch the Mail.
Circle time
We will be having a more formal circle time once the good weather ends. right now we are incorporating the counting and shape recognition songs etc while we are out using our environment. Rocks come in many different colors and the sky is blue. We have had circle time in the park outside and at the top of the look out tower.
BBBBB
Nap/rest time is straight after lunch. We call it BBBBB this means
Bathroom
Blanket
Bear
Book
Bed
Thank you to Storm for modeling nap time.
Bathroom
Blanket
Bear
Book
Bed
Thank you to Storm for modeling nap time.
Our nap time routine
Not every child sleeps or needs too but i know from experience they all need some quiet rest time.
To the right you will see how we store our nap time bedding
each child has their own blanket and gets to choose which color pillow case or sheet they have for the week.
The ribbon that came around the blanket are tied to the bags so the bag and pillow remains constant to the individual child and the bedding can be stored hygienically during the week. The children have sleep mats that are sanitized between uses.
B1. Bed
Each child without exception helps make their bed. They work together if it is tricky. They also strip their beds and put bedding in the hamper for the weekly wash on Fridays. I am very proud of them.
B2. The Bathroom
includes the obvious and cleaning of faces from lunch and hand washing.
B3 Get a Bear
(or puppy or what ever it is that you sleep with some time there are so many bears in one bed it is surprising that the children have any room at all.
B4 Get a Book.
The children have their favorites and we make use of the books we choose form the library at this time. We all have stories together with calm music playing. This way I know that even if a child does not really rest after this they have had a good twenty minutes still and calm.
B5 Bed
children are expected to lay quietly or look at books while children that need it fall asleep have a chance to do this. This usually take less than ten minutes. For children that no longer need sleep they can play quietly in main area.
To the right you will see how we store our nap time bedding
each child has their own blanket and gets to choose which color pillow case or sheet they have for the week.
The ribbon that came around the blanket are tied to the bags so the bag and pillow remains constant to the individual child and the bedding can be stored hygienically during the week. The children have sleep mats that are sanitized between uses.
B1. Bed
Each child without exception helps make their bed. They work together if it is tricky. They also strip their beds and put bedding in the hamper for the weekly wash on Fridays. I am very proud of them.
B2. The Bathroom
includes the obvious and cleaning of faces from lunch and hand washing.
B3 Get a Bear
(or puppy or what ever it is that you sleep with some time there are so many bears in one bed it is surprising that the children have any room at all.
B4 Get a Book.
The children have their favorites and we make use of the books we choose form the library at this time. We all have stories together with calm music playing. This way I know that even if a child does not really rest after this they have had a good twenty minutes still and calm.
B5 Bed
children are expected to lay quietly or look at books while children that need it fall asleep have a chance to do this. This usually take less than ten minutes. For children that no longer need sleep they can play quietly in main area.
We had Teddy and Zippy visit
Thank you Teddy and Zippy for the visit
This is teddy, he came to visit with one of our kindergarten children. He seemed to like his day very much and we sent him back to Kindergarten with a few sweaters our bears had out grown.
Teddy joined us at the park and had his very own bed to sleep in at rest time.
The following day Zippy the rabbit came from the other kindergarten class Unfortunately he was very camera shy and we do not have a picture of him. Both stuffies were well behaved and their host owners took very good care of them.
Teddy joined us at the park and had his very own bed to sleep in at rest time.
The following day Zippy the rabbit came from the other kindergarten class Unfortunately he was very camera shy and we do not have a picture of him. Both stuffies were well behaved and their host owners took very good care of them.