Next week we will be leaving on a family vacation and I have been planning plane activities and some stuff to bring for L-Bug to do in our room so she isn't bored or always watching TV. I am super excited with the way these actives came out and how simple everything was to put together. It took me probably 30mins to gather all the stuff and put them in the bags! I ended up with seven activity bags but they can all be use multiple times and some have more than one game or activity. I used quite a few different bag types to fit the different materials. The left bag is a draw string bag. I needed a larger bag for this activity because of the size of the mail carrier. This is a simple lacing art activity from Mother Goose Time! Then it turns into a game Bug can play to deliver mail to all of our family and friends cruising with us. On the right I used a random bag I already had. Our vacation week we are working on reading -at words. So I included a Mother Goose Time "I Can Read" book and the Your Baby Can Read flash cards. We have been using these flash cards with our basic reading words and L-Bug has been doing GREAT!
I decided to throw in this fun travel kit I got at Costco. She used it on our last plane ride and it was easy and fun for her to play with. There are dry erase cards(numbers and letters), a work book, coloring pages, flash cards, etc.. It fold ups pretty tight and is easy to carry. Above are all seven bags packed with their activities! Everything fit nicely inside a regular size school bag and I had room in the front zipper pocket to slip L-Bugs Innotab and games into. I used another pencil pouch for all the game so they weren't just loose in there and added extra batteries too. I was inspired by this micro-training video that Mother Goose Time did a while ago! When I was watching it I immediately thought of our upcoming trip and the two long plan rides we were going to be on! Not to mention those times when we will be in our cruise stateroom getting ready for dinner or something and L-Bug will need something to do.
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This week I was inspired by our new set of manipulatives from the Mother Goose Time curriculum kit. These first few images you see the kids using the shapes mat and the magnetic manipulatives on our circle time board. They LOVED this activity and were crowded around the board for quite a while! I was shocked at how interested they were and how long they continued to stay engaged. So I made a shopping list to create a new interactive manipulatives board! I used the same pan that I made the Circle Time Board from. I got a new pattern of contact paper and when I hung the board up I used hooks at the top to hang buckets from. These are going to make it easy to change out what manipulatives I have available each month! I have a few ideas about creating different texture materials for the board as well. I just have to find the right supplies to execute the idea! I also have some magnetic strips that I plan on using to make it possible to use them on the board. For example I have a 6X6 foam puzzle I could attach the magnetic strips to and we can have a puzzle on the wall. I may also put magnetic strips on our words, letters and numbers from MGT so I can put them on the board here!
Exciting! Thank you Mother Goose Time for the fun magnetic manipulatives and the inspiration! I know, I know... I've been majorly bragging on Mother Goose Time curriculum these past few posts. BUT I am just so excited with the 2016/17 enhancements and additions! I had to share this awesome new Assessment System that Mother Goose Time has launched for this year. Here are mine! It took me about 15 minutes to put all eight together :) Everything (except the binders and the sheet protectors) came in the Mother Goose Time curriculum! Here is a micro-training with the info on how to set up and use the assessment system!
So my curriculum is ready to go and now I am working through my welcome packets and contracts! I never really realized how much goes into the "paperwork" for childcare. There are LOTS of guidelines for FCC (Family Child Care) providers, lots of papers to be signed. BUT I didn't want my welcome packets to just be all about the contracts. I wanted to include a way for me to get info about the child, their family, and for me to share with the parents what they can expect for the month and explain about my assessment process. I dug through some of my Mother Goose Time materials from my welcome kit this year and the online resources. I found some tools to include in the welcome packets! Above there are three awesome tools I can utilize! 1) Family Questionnaire: this awesome little booklet has some great questions that I can have the parents fill out and it will give me a little more info about their family and their child! 2) Family Newsletter: I get these awesome sheets each month for each child. I can send them home before we start the next curriculum theme. The newsletter has the theme web so the parents can have a good idea of what we will be learning AND there are lots of tips on how to include learning at home, some fun themed songs and even a book list if the parents want to check out the library! 3) My Baseline Assessment Overview: this booklet is all about the child who will be in my care. On the front the child get's to draw a picture of themselves and write their name. This gives me and the parents a great starting point at the beginning of the year (or when they first start care with me) for us to assess how they have grown and learned throughout the year! Inside of the Assessment booklet are the different skills from the development continuum. They aren't ALL here, but these are the four core skills (social, emotional, physical, language & literacy and mathematics & reasoning). This is the tool I will use throughout the first month the child is in my care to assess all of their different skills and see where their "baseline is". On the back of the booklet I have space to discuss the learning goals with the parents and make some notes to refer to later. Once I've filled out the book it will be put into the Child's Portfolio that I will be filling with work samples and assessment notes from each month! I LOVE this awesome tool that I found in the Assessment Section online. It gives me a great outline for what and when to collect children's work for the Child's Portfolio. And there is a great Assessment Tip's flyer that will help me to track what skills to observe each month throughout the quarter. I like these tools because they keep me organized. I can put them in the Child's Portfolio box with the Baseline Assessment booklet and each month as I do my assessments I'll be on track and at the end of the quarter I can compare the new assessments with the baseline to see how each child has grown! On the front of each Child's Folder I have a small label where I can put their names :) I also want to look at a scrapbooking store for cute little picture frames that I can put onto the front of the file. That way I can slip profile pictures into the from of each file! This is all starting to feel so real <3 I can't wait to meet the little ones who will be joining my program.
So if you read my last blog post you already know there are some big changes going on around here right now! We are going from the life of stay-at-home mommy and homeschool to Family Child Care Home! I've finally finished rearranging... and man did I rearrange :) I moved the entire school room downstairs, moved my daughter's room to the old-school room, moved our guest room to my daughter's old room and we moved our ENTIRE living room to the old guest room! Yeah... I rearranged! But it all worked out perfectly because one of the things so many providers kept telling me was that I needed to find a way to keep "Child Care Life" and "Home Life" separate. Basically we need a place that is just ours, the isn't taken over by in home child care. So moving the living room upstairs gives my husband the perfect get-away space when I have children here. SO! Now I have an entire area designated for my child care space. And I am in LOVE with it!! When I was making the plan and setting up my school room I put a lot of though into my set up. I LOVE the idea of "stations" or "areas". When reading through my Mother Goose Time Teacher Guide I really liked this explanation of Investigation Stations, " Young children benefit from an environment where they can make choices about their learning and can try out and explore different roles, responsibilities, emotions and problem solve through play. We believe that children are active participants in their learning journeys and should be given independent access to materials as well as space to interact with others." And I love the room model picture in the book as well. When I get a few more shelving units I plan to extend them into the room to have more space on my shelves and to define the spaces more. I set up my school room to include several different stations! Some are going to need toys and materials added, but for now I am VERY excited with how it turned out! Here is a panoramic image :)
So looking at it from the other angle you'll be able to see what was behind me in the first pano. Basically here you can see the dramatic play area in a little better lighting. Also here is my entry way for drop-off and pick-up, parent info boards and bulletin board (lots of regulations to be posted for us FCC providers) the entry into the kids bathroom and the kids cubbies! I really love the aesthetics that Mother Goose Time provides with it's curriculum so you'll see a lot of their themed posters, counting charts, alphabet charts, station signs, quotes, etc in my school area! One thing that was very important to me was to set up a space so the kids will have their own cubbies. I like having it right in my entry way so that when the parents are doing drop-off they can get coats hung up and shoes tucked in the bucket. This also allows me a place to put any papers or crafts that need to go home with the kids at the end of the day! I found some really cute colored wire baskets at Target, but I wound up using them in other areas in my room. So I will definitely have to go back for more because I want to have an easy way to store the kid's daily care items: diapers, wipes, toothbrush, lotion, sunscreen, etc! My bulletin boards have LOTS of papers required by the FCC office. I actually have THREE boards! The front one (pictured above) which has my certificates, training, evacuation route and menus and meal times. The other two boards (pictured below) are to the right of the sign in area. The right side has all of my required posted documents and info for the FCC home. The left side has my house rules, our daily schedule, my monthly Mother Goose Time theme web and below it will be my modified monthly calendar. I love that Mother Goose Time provides these! It is an easy way for parents to see what their child will be learning throughout the month with the curriculum. Below that board I posted the Development Continuum so if a parent has a question about progress we can easily refer to it! As I mentioned in the pano the left side of our room is mainly school focused. This is where a majority of our lessons will take place! Starting with Circle Time :D I'm excited to have so much space for our Circle Time area. I found this interchangeable calendar on Oriental Trading and I really like it! I've also got some great tools like the season bar and weather spinner. Kyle the weather man has his own bin with all of our weather pieces so nothing gets lost! I kept my original display board for Circle Time because I like how interactive it is! I can use all my Mother Goose Time monthly pieces here and the kids can have hands on experience with it. I created a fun art wall where I can hang the kids projects throughout the month's lessons! If you can't tell the reading area is one of my favorites! We've got our Reading Nook, book shelf and one other small seat here. I am so excited with how full the ABC tree is getting! L-Bug can identify SO MANY letters now :) She loves singing our ABCs and reading books like Chika-Chika, Boom-Boom by the tree! It makes it visual and hands on! Next to the reading nook is our Alphabet and Writing Station. I have put just about anything and everything that has to do with letters here! I feel like hands on is so important for kids and my daughter loves doing letter searches in this area. I will show her a letter flag (usually one of our new one for the month) and then she searches though the different baskets to find the letter! We've got our phonics alphabet sound toy, Melissa and Doug magnetic letters, Mother Goose Time popsicle sticks and Sassy foam letters for her to search through during that game! Next we have the Geography station. This is one of those that I feel I need to amp up a little! I have our Mother Goose Time world map, as well as a few Mother Goose Time games we've collected that have to do with geography. I also have our Little Passport Suit Case and some world wonder statues inside! Do you have any ideas or toys you can think of that are geography related to help enhance this area? Please share them below this post in the comments section :) To the right of the geography station is my Math and Manipulatives area! This area is probably second best to the reading corner ;) Mother Goose Time provides so many wonderful manipulatives every month that this area is BURSTING with great toys for the kids. In fact, I have so many that a few things are upstairs in a closet and I will have to rotate them in at some point! Along with those manipulatives I have our blocks, shapes, puzzles, matching games, etc here. Now this area is actually to the left of the art station, across the room from the alphabet and writing area. This is our technology and station.... it is probably the one that needs the most enhancing! Technology is on top and right now there is a view finder, tablet and play computer. Yeah... I know. BUT I do have a few things upstairs to go through and bring down! Below is the music box and there are a few play music toys in there, but I really need to get some drums, shakers and a play piano or xylophone! I've been looking at a Melissa and Doug music kit box, but I just need to order it already! One big enhancement I want to make to this area is to mount a small TV on the wall to watch the videos that go along with lessons, listen to our music as well as an easy way to watch our Dance-N-Beats DVDs from Mother Goose Time! So that is the run down of our "lesson stations" but another huge and important part of my school room is the free play and imagination station! Don't mind the deer in the corner.... my husband promises he'll move it to our living room upstairs so the kids don't want to play with it ;) I feel like imaginative play is a huge part of a child's growth, development and learning! So much of what they take in and learn can actually be observed in their free play time! Yes I have a three year old daughter, so a LOT of this is geared towards girls... BUT I have dinosaurs and cars as well as a car rug for the boys! Below to the left is the infamous Barbie Castle for all things imagination with Barbie dolls. My daughter got it from Santa this past Christmas... We also have a pony farm and van. One thing I plan on adding this area is a few boy targeted toys, male barbies, GI-Joes, etc. Below to the right you can see Barbie storage in the minnie mouse baskets, a baby stroller and a box full of baby dolls. I have a few puppets and puppet "stage" to bring down and add in once I have another small shelving unit to go here. Behind it you can see "house play". "House Play" as I call is basically anything and everything to do with dramatic play in a house. We've got the kitchen, food, dishes, table, cash register, shopping baskets, vacuum, dress up, etc. I do have a few boy oriented toys here! I have the pirate sword, the fireman's horn, cowboy hat, flash light toy, cell phone toys, key's etc. I do want to get a few boy dress up outfits too. Three stations that you don't see are Science, Sensory and Gym. Those are in my outdoor area and that is still a work in progress at the moment. I'm hoping to have it done next week though!
Phew! What a lot of info :D I am so excited about this space I think I could write all day... but I'll stop now. I can't wait to share more as the process rolls on! Oh! And I finally decided on a name :D How does "Welcome to Kiddie Korner" sound?! L-Bug loved this game so much I just have to share it with you! Thank you Mother Goose Time for the awesome idea :) This game is so simple you can easily DIY. You'll need 3D tangrams, a paper bag and some "feeling shapes" to go with your tangrams (grab some construction paper, scissors and a pen)! I started with all of the paper shapes in the bag and I let L-Bug pull them out and identify the shape and it's feelings: "Sad Rectangle", "happy Triangle", etc... Then she laid each shape on the table and matched the 3D tangrams to them. At first she was a little confused because she was trying to match the colors instead of the shapes, but she figured it out :) Next we moved all the tangrams back to the side and put all of the paper shapes in the bag. I had L-Bug pick out one at a time then she found the matching tangram and traced it on the page. After she was finished I would ask her "How does the rectangle feel?" and once she told me I would draw the face inside. After we did the first few shapes I had her draw the faces! She was so concentrated on drawing two eyes and one mouth, it didn't matter if it came out happy or sad she was just happy that she did it! I love how much time she took actually trying to trace her shapes! So simple, yet to a toddler... SO FUN!
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Proud supporter of Mother Goose Time curriculum!All the posts in this blog are from real life experiences. We've taken the activities and materials provided in the Mother Goose Time curriculum and modified it in different ways to fit our lifestyle. Enjoy the read!
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December 2023
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