February 24, 2008 "Last Week"

This last week we spent our time working on the letter 'G' and the numbers 7 & 8. We colored pictures, completed worksheets, practiced our counting with counting bears and did some flash cards for recognition. We also made a Super Grape Man with the letter G on his chest. I thought that this craft was fitting, given the fact that the kids are sort of into playing super hero games right now!
By the end of the week we were able to complete our alphabet up to the letter G and count up to the number 8.
This next week we will be working on the letter 'H' and the numbers 9 & 10. This will be our last big learning week until after the baby is born.

My next appointment is Thursday Feb. 28 at 1:00. Assuming that I last to my induction date of March 5, my days of being closed will be Wed. March 5 - Friday March 14. I will be reopen the following Monday the 17th. If you have any questions about this, please don't hesitate to contact me! Please also feel free to contact Sheila and Laura if you are planning on using their daycare services, they are expecting your call. They still are more than willing to watch your kids as needed.
I will see you tomorrow!

February 15, 2008 "Pregnancy Update"

I just came from my OB appointment today, and I am not as far as she would like me to be, so she has decided to try and go beyond the 29th of Feb. So I'm sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you, but my mom and sister will be here Tuesday to ease your mind for if I go into labor on my own. Be rest assured there will be other adults here to assume care of your children. They are not going to let me go past March 5. So he will be here before or on the 5th. I will be open until then of course.
If I have to be induced on the 5th of March then the days closed will be March 4 - March 14. I will be reopen Monday March 17. If I have him on an unscheduled day then my vacation will start that next day and I will let you know the for sure day I will reopen by that day. Please still feel comforted that Sheila and Laura are more than willing to take your child (ren) at the start of my vacation until needed so you have an immediate backup, whenever that start may be.
Please let me know if you have any questions, but I will be speaking to you all in person as well.
Have a great weekend.

***My next appointment is Wednesday Feb. 20 at 1:15***

February 14, 2008 "Valentines Day"

Today was our Valentines Day party. The day of Love turned out to be a very fun day. In the morning we sat down with a bunch of craft accessories and each kid got to pick one person to make a Valentines Day card for. Then they started creating. Each kid was very creative. The only part that I helped on was the gluing and the precutting of the heart shapes. They did all the rest on their own. They had a blast. This project took up the entire morning. After nap time we had a Valentines Day cookie treat for snack and then colored a bunch of Valentines themed pictures. They also watched "Clifford's Valentines Day".

On the way out the door, each kid got a special hand made Valentine from me and the boys. Hopefully the heart shaped chocolate on top was okay to the parents. This is why I wanted to give the Valentines to you, in case your child wasn't allowed to have the candy.

The beginning of this week was our time to review the letters A-F and numbers 1-6, which we've been working on over the past few weeks. With themed weeks and Holidays, we kind of got off track so I wanted to do a review week to refresh everyone's memories. Each week from now on we will be doing one letter and one number for the week. This does not mean we will be spending every second on these two things, because there are a lot of hours in our day and we'd quickly run out of things to work on. :) So while these are our letter and number for the week, we are also working on other things like colors, shapes, ideas, etc.

We also have a lot of free play time, because I have learned in my training that free play is crucial to the development of a childs mind. They get to interact with one another and learn how to socialize and work out problems, they learn while they play (large motor skills, fine motor skills, colors, numbers, shapes, letters, you name it), and they get to express their creativity and belive me they do! The kids in my house are always making up very creative games and activities. When talking to other daycare providers, they are impressed that the kids I watch can be so creative. One of their newest games is pretending to be sucked into a book that they choose from the book shelf and then they act out what's going on in the book and they are trying to figure out how to get out. I'm always impressed by their ability to be so creative at such a young age!

So that pretty much summarizes our week. It was busy and fun and the kids wear themselves out in the new play room. I think moving it upstairs has been great for them. It is much more accessible and therefore is used a lot more!

Have a great weekend.

February 7, 2008 "Library Day"

Today was our last day of fun-filled travels, where we found ourselves in a library filled with books! The kids got to learn about what a library is and how to be quiet so as not to disturb others reading. We got to learn about how many neat things you can find in a library and how many different stories are there.

We each took turns pretending to be the Librarian and checking out books. We read a lot of books and ate goldfish for snack to commemorate "One fish Two fish, Red fish Blue fish".

After snack time we had the unique opportunity to create our own picture books! The kids got to put coloring pages from the rest of the week in there and draw pictures about all the places they visited! I think they had a lot of fun being authors. I think their books all turned out very nice. So our visit to the Library wrapped up our week of travels, but hopefully it introduced the kids to some new and exciting places and ideas. It was a nice break from our normal routine of letters and numbers and I think it got the kids a little over their stir crazy winter feelings.

February 6, 2008 "Movie Day"

Today we took a relaxing trip to the wonderful world of movies! We all became movie stars. We created our own group movie about superheros and getting stuck in a Dinosaur book and we had to try to figure out how to escape from the book. It was full of adventure, action packed and we had to use our brains to problem solve our way out of our predicament. The kids were great actors!
We also made a film short of the kids' many talents. Each of the children got to get in front of the camera all by themselves and do something that they wanted to do. Olivia sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", Skyann danced for us, Jared wanted to jump, Christian wanted to laugh, Owen wanted to make funny faces, and Raymond wanted to be a cowboy. So they each got their chance at stardom!

At snack time we ate the traditional movie theatre treat of popcorn (fat free air popped with no butter :) ) and the kids of course loved that. After snack time we got to create our own film strips on paper. The kids got to color and draw three pictures on a film strip then they showed their movies to the rest of the group while telling us the story. It was a lot of fun and very creative stories!


Last of all the paparazzi arrived and started taking pictures of these new stars on the red carpet. They posed gracefully and let the cameras flash. They all had their star quality sunglasses on to prove that they had finally made it to the big screen! It was a fun-filled day.

February 5, 2008 "Zoo Day"

Today the kids and I took a fun trip to the Zoo. We got to eat animal crackers, make an elephant puppet, watch "Madagascar", and pretend to be zoo animals. We took turns being a zoo keeper and being different animals. We played a game where the kids had to guess what animal I was describing, and then they all had to pretend to be that animal.

I think the kids have been having alot of fun this week so far exploring different fun places to visit!Over the next couple of days we will be visiting even more fun-filled places. Tomorrow your children are going to become movie stars!

The kids have a lot of knowledge about animals and could always tell me the right animal that I was giving clues for. They also told me some of their favorite animals. Hopefully this summer we will be able to take another field trip to the zoo like we did last year!

As a reminder, I have two doctors appointments on Friday in the later afternoon. Tony will be watching the kids during that time. I should be home before pick up time, but there is a possibility that he will be here, just so everyone is aware. Have a great night!

February 4, 2008 "Circus Days"

Today the kids enjoyed a fun-filled day to the circus. Seeing as the weather has not permitted us to enjoy the outdoors much and the kids begin to feel cooped up after so much time inside, I decided we needed to pretend we were going different places. They loved the circus!
We had fun walking the tight rope, taming lions and tigers, being lions and tigers, juggling, being acrobats and most of all being clowns. We had fun red paper noses and clown hats with orange hair. The kids enjoyed the clown outfits so much they literally wore them all day (except when they were sleeping!) We also watched the movie "Dumbo" so the kids could see a better example of what a circus was.

The rest of this week should be fun as well, as we take time out of our learning schedule to travel to more fun-filled places like the Zoo, the Movies and the Library. We will have fun activities, crafts and snacks that correspond with each day!

On other news: my mom and sister will be arriving on the 19th of February and staying as needed in order to help out with my family and with daycare stuff. I am now going once a week to the doctors until Judd is born, so I will be able to keep you better informed of what is going on with the
pregnancy as well.

Please do not hesitate if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions for me! I welcome them all.