Now participating in Quality Stars NY
We provide the basics that we feel all Daycares should provide, We participate in the CACFP (Food program) which allows us to serve healthy food. Children are safe in a clean environment during care hours.
But we go WAY Farther than that!!
Physical Health, Well-Being, and Movement Skills
I incorporate things like Riding bikes, walking on different surfaces, playing on our playground, sand and water table play, ball play and many more activities to have the children use and learn there motor skills Keep active and have fun. These activities helps them use, control and coordinate movements of their physical needs and fitness.
Along with the food program we also make the connections between foods and their vitamins and minerals and how they interact with our bodies. I encourage a child to eat healthy food by telling them what that food does for them and and in and animated way that is our super hero food system we give the foods the super powers they truly have but in a fun way.
An Example: A child that is ANTI BROCCOLI. We talk about it and act out the advantages to eating broccoli. “Broccoli is know as a SUPER food!! Anybody know why?? Because it is a Antioxidant rich food which means………… it can GOBBLE UP all the bad cells in our body and help keep us healthy and strong.” We also back it up by making it a pride thing the children see in time through the garden that the food is not scary and in fact without the childrens love and support the Broccoli in our garden wouldn’t be able to grow.
Social and Emotional Development
This is an area that often gets over looked. It is an important and life changing need! I strive for a child to feel safe, loved and they belong to our family. My NYS registered home daycare has an advantage, we are able to hug give kisses, hold and praise the children! Supporting all the emotional things a child needs to thrive, feel important, have self worth, feel love and community. We encourage social relationships with other children and adults.
We read books, act out our feelings and use mirror play to help children understand their feelings, give them the words to validate and communicate their feelings and give coping skills to help then with self control.
I help the children in care build independence through confidence building. We learn proper bathroom , clean-up and dining routines. We Give the children age appropriate things we know they can achieve like Teeth brushing and clean up. Then also give them things to work on like dressing and putting on shoes and we CELEBRATE when the achieve the harder goals. The pride they show in themselves when they achieve the smallest goal or even one they have worked for is so priceless and important!!
Approaches to Learning and preschool readiness
No two children learn the same and no cookie cutter method will help them learn. I believe as a daycare provider it is my obligation to help these children with preschool readiness and also life lessons that will encourage them the freedom and confidence necessary for growth and learning. Each child and (human being) has strengths and weakness and I make it a priority to learn each child and accommodate them so that they can have the tools necessary to work on their weakness and flourish! We believe in positive reinforcement and independence!
I also believe that children learn best by being allowed to explore through experiences. I hope to inspire them to want make the adventure into learning. The best way I have found is to provide a well rounded curriculum filled with hands on experiences that offers them the curiosity, the freedom to be just that, curious. Although we do have Subjects that we study the “Play learning” itself is flexible enough to go in depth when children are really into a subject. Some of the things we have done in support of this are:
- Hatching Eggs from start to finish
- Appreciation of and Caring for animals (Chickens, Cats, dogs, Turtles, Goats, Fish, rabbits, Prarie dogs, fish.)
- Growing a garden from seed to greenhouse to harvest and even eating
- Reading under our Reading tree
- Finding shape in clouds
- Shadow puppet plays
- Nature walks
- Circle time
- and many more!!