Joyful Expressions with "Grandkids"

 

    

Nothing brings me greater joy than being with these little people of mine.  I love every single one.  I look forward to the time we get to be together. I want to cherish every moment because I have learned how fleeting time is.  I hope to post some of our fun adventures in grandparenting here.  Just so I can remember these sweet precious days. 

Farewell to all my Daycare Friends

The time is now here for me to end my fun adventure in Day Care/Preschool and begin a new chapter in our lives.  My last day open for business will be Thursday March 21st.  Thank you so much for all of your support and for sharing your cute little ones with us all. They will always hold a special and dear place in my heart!

 



                                                                        Best Wishes,

                                                                           Tracy

Nurturing the Child

Caring for young children is a joyful experience for me.  Each child is a unique gift to this earth. All come with their own personalities, gifts and abilities. I believe home child care to be far superior to commercial day care centers. Enrollment is always limited so that I am able to personalize each child's experience and give them the best possible care.
 

Children thrive when they know that they are loved and cared for. Consistency in their daily routine, helps them to feel secure and can build their confidence in the world around them. In a child's earliest years it is essential that they learn through both play and varied life experiences. To help fulfill that need I have created a curriculum which incorporates day to day life skills along with fun creative learning activities for each child based on their age and individual learning styles.

Caring for your children is a joint venture between me the teacher/caregiver and you the parents. That is one of the reasons I have created this blog. To keep you aware of what your child is doing each day while you are away. It also is a good place for me to share ideas that may help you as a parent be an active part of your child's learning and growth.   I hope you will enjoy all of the experiences we will share together.

For a Fun Creative Twist

Children at young ages learn most of what they know through play.  At Joyful Expressions we focus on celebrating that playfulness, as we learn we take advantage of their adventurous spirit by participating in fun interactive activities and varied life skills.

 My curriculum is always designed to help engage the learning style of each individual child.

I utilize a mixture of philosophies, combining aspects of Play-based, Emergent, Montessori, and Kumon methods.

Each day we participate in programs that help your child learn a good balance of basic preschool skills along with important fundamental values such as peace, respect and empathy. These skills will help to prepare them for the Kindergarten classroom and beyond.

Hands on activites help your kids discover creative-joyful ways to learn to express themselves.  Here are just a few examples of what I teach. . .

In Art- Fine motor skills are developed as we learn to use our imagination and artistry. A variety of fun art projects will help to spark your child's creativity as they become "Art Smart".

In the Kitchen- Each week we "Cook with a Book". This fun literature based program incorporates a kid friendly recipe and learning activities around the theme of a book. Sometimes we will post the recipes on our blog for you to enjoy at home if you wish.

In Nature- When ever possible we go on daily nature walks and spend time outdoors. As we explore the world around us the children learn about the seasons, the weather and an appreciation for the earth and all of its bounty.

In Music & Movement- Important early childhood concepts are taught through the use of movement, song and dance. These experiences occur daily and are as varied as learning actions to a favorite children's song or participating in kid friendly aerobics, yoga and active games.

In Literature- From early on a child first learns to love reading by being read to. This is a simple but important stepping stone to help build a lifetime love of books.  Each day we take the time to read.  Felt boards, children's books and puppets are just a few ways the children become engaged in a story.

Our Daily Schedule

Following a daily schedule helps children feel secure because they can depend on a consistent routine and predict the events of the day. The daily schedule is a basic framework that helps you understand how your child spends his or her day.






A Joyful Expressions Day:

 9:00   Arrival Activities
  9:30   Creative Learning Centers
10:00   Circle/Calendar/Story Time
10:15   School Readiness Skills
10:35   Snack Time
10:45   Music & Movement
11:00   Projects/Activity
11:30   Friendship & Free Play
11:55   Gathering and Goodbyes

12:00   Pick up Time from Preschool
12:30   Lunch Time
12:50   Book Look
 1:00    Naps/Quiet Time
 3:00    Educational/Kid Friendly Television
 3:30    Snack Time
 4:15    Games
 5:15    Story/Gathering
 5:30    Goodbyes

Springtime Expressions

Wow, so much going on in our lives right now. All good things!   But I thought our cute kiddos deserved a post.  We have been having an exciting year.  We added two new children who seem to be blending in well with everyone.  A brief review of what we've done the past few months:  We had a week celebrating everything "Dr. Seuss" ( the kids loved having their feet painted for this project because it tickled), we made colorful tye dyed cupcakes (YUMMO), rainbow rice, fun squishy bags and the kids created some great looking cards to celebrate their awesome mothers!

Project Know How: 

Rainbow Rice: Fill 6 ziploc bags with 1 cup rice each. Add 6 drops of food coloring ( we did 6 different colors here, one per bag) and 1 tsp. of rubbing alcohol, or 4-5 pumps hand sanitizer if you're in a pinch. Seal and shake. Let dry and have fun mixing it all together in a plastic tub or pan. Kids love this sensory bucket and ask me to bring it out over and over. Clean up is easy and kids even like to help me with that job. It's fun to add in a few measuring cups, spoons, bowls, cups or pitchers to practice pouring skills. Some days we hide coins or different small toys in our rice and have fun digging for treasure.

Rainbow Stew: 1/3 c. sugar, 1 c. cornstarch, 4 c. cold water, food coloring kit. Simmer all ingredients together except for food coloring in a sauce pan until thick. Divide into 4 parts. Color each part with a different color from your kit. Let cool. Place a little of each color int a ziploc bag. Seal with a wide piece of shipping tape to avoid messes. Let kid knead the stew in their bag and watch the colors blend.

Dr. Seuss: On March 2, 1904 Theodor Geisel (a.k.a. Dr. Seuss) was born.  To celebrate this famous author, we read many of his fantastic books and included some fun activities with each.  One of my favorites is "The Foot Book" (my oldest daughter learned to read this at age 3 because of the magical way that it rhymes and flows).   Our footprint art (above) included a rhyme from the book.   These can even be made into placemats if you want to laminate them. We also piled our shoes together and had a race to see who could find the most pairs. Other great ideas to spark your imagination can be found at this fun link- Seussville.com click on educators then classroom activities and printables. And many more throughout the internet.

Carle style Cards: A favorite card I like to make with children are these Eric Carle style art cards.  To make it simple I just let the kids go to town painting each page a different color and with a different technique.  For instance sponge paint a page in pink, then ask them to color another page green and run a comb through the paint to create different designs.  You can get as creative as you want with tools used from around the house to create texture and design.  After this is done I help cut out the pieces for their card.  I look for areas of their paintings that would be most interesting to use in the card.  Then help them to glue their masterpiece together.  I pre-print the words on most of my cards, since most of the children I teach aren't writers quite yet.  Then let them use their pretend writing to make a sweet message inside for whomever they like.

Tie Dye Cupcakes: These were a little time consuming but really fun.  To create I followed this post found at the Bird on a Cake blog or another one your might try is Sandra Lee's post here. You could make these as simple at you want. The kids may even just enjoy decorating these fun cupcakes with their favorite colorful sprinkles.  Use this as you talk about and learn colors with your child.

The 5 a Day Challenge



 

I loved reading  about this challenge recently and have been incorporating it with the preschoolers that I care for.  It encourages a child to learn to get really familiar with a book that you are reading together and then helps them to develop a love for some favorites of their own.

 

My oldest daughter first learned to read as we read her favorite books over and over to her.   Two she just loved at the age of 3 were "Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown and "The Foot Book" by Dr. Seuss.  Both books she memorized  by linking the rhyming text with the fun illustrations.  Even though she wasn't technically reading the words, she had gained something significant and perhaps even more important...Her CONFIDENCE!  And a great love for books was born. She would read these books over and over to us and anyone else who came for a visit and was a willing audience.  She learned to love books simply by being read to.  Surprisingly by the age of 5 she listened with great intent to the entire Chronicles of Narnia series as I read it to her and continues today to love reading.  I know that this may not be typical but it is a great start in our busy world to simply set aside 10 to 15 minutes a day and read with your child. (Added bonus is the chance to snuggle with your little one and truly connect!)

 

To give you a brief synopsis, here is how the 5 a day program works (you can also click on the icon at the top of the page to direct you to more details).  You simply choose 5 books from your collection or the library for the week. I try to select some books that have a simple text or a rhyming sequence so that children can easily pick up on them.   I place mine in a basket on the lower shelf of our room so that the kids have easy access throughout the day.  Each day during our Book Look time we choose to read these 5 books.  I like to ask the children if anyone would like to read one of the books to me. Most of my preschoolers are eager to try reading in this way.  I never discourage or correct a child I just allow them to read to me the book the way they remembered it.  If they want my help they will ask and I am always more then willing to assist them. I also have fun letting them fill in the words they may remember or being silly by tricking them with a wrong or absurd word when they know the text and they will always laughingly correct me.  By the end of the week they are feeling really confident with some of the books we have read. Try it with your kids, you just may find your child embracing reading at a much more rapid rate then you expected before. 

 

 

 

P.S. Another good and easy read on this subject is Mem Fox's book, Reading Magic.  It is packed full of great  and inspiring ideas on reading with your children. Very inspiring read!!!