We have a new little girl at the daycare for the next few weeks! Her name is Riko and she is almost 3 years old. She has come all the way from Japan, with her mother. She speaks very little English, and so is quite the little warrior in a new land.
About our blogger: Charla
I am an elementary school teacher from Toronto who, for the purpose of enjoying my son's early years, runs a home daycare. I enjoy teaching children, and learning the lessons they have to teach me. I hope you enjoy sharing with me the ups and downs of parenting, and the adventures of teaching the very young!
Visit Charla @ http://www.highparkhomedaycare.blogspot.com/
Posts by Charla:
New Adventures in Daycareland
advertisement
Springtime and the Livin is Mucky
We are FINALLY enjoying more springlike weather this week! I love these pictures of Thomas and Leila on the swings. It reminds me of Noah and Aidas on the same swings back in the day, when I had just started the daycare. And Thomas is SO busted here, eating one of the cookies that a close fiend made for us. Life is sweet! Read the rest of this entry »
One
We had Leila’s family birthday party a week early, since it would have been difficult to get everyone together on the Easter weekend. It was a huge success, mostly thanks to a nice long nap she had had that morning. Read the rest of this entry »
Playin’ in the Rain
These pictures are actually from a couple of weeks ago. I completely forgot to post them, but they are so cute, I figured it was better late than never!
It was a pretty mild, spring rain on this day. When Noah and B.’s classes got out of Junior Kindergarten, all the other kids left to get out of the rain. Read the rest of this entry »
advertisement
Lazy Days of….Summer?
Between April and May, the season seemed to change directly from winter to summer. (We’re not complaining!) Much of the time it has been shorts and t-shirt weather. We have even started applying sunscreen.
As of late April, Oscar has left the daycare. Then last week, B. went on holiday with his family for one week. So, it has just been Noah, Leila, Thomas and me. It really seems like vacation time around here too! It is very quiet compared to the usual din. It’s not my style to keep it that quiet around here, but it’s been a nice little break!
One afternoon, when the babies went for their naps, Noah and I made some popcorn and watched The Wizard of Oz. Thomas woke up from his nap a little too early. Read the rest of this entry »
T is for Truck
We have had the good fortune of seeing (on more than one occasion) a total of 3, yes THREE cement mixers busy at work on Pacific Avenue. The kids always stare at the trucks and the workers in awe. I still remember a couple of years ago, mentioning to a construction worker that the kids thought of them as gods. The man turned to the kids in the wagon and said, “Stay in school kids. It’s not as fun as it looks.” No kidding! I don’t envy them, working out there for such long hours on the coldest and hottest days of the year!
B. came out of school the other week with a paper Chinese lantern he had made in class. Noah was envious and begged to make one at home. B. gave us the general instructions. It was super easy! Here they are proudly showing off their work. (B. made a new one after someone sat on his original.)
We got the dress-up bin out one day. Oscar enjoyed trying on the backpacks, and then we switched the bag to the front so he could wear a baby carrier. He thought it was pretty cool that he was carrying his baby the same way I carry “La-la”.
Thomas is always donning our firefighter hat, but he found a firefighter jacket to go with it, in the dress-up bin. How adorable is he?!
Noah was king for a day - oh who am I kidding?! Noah is king EVERY day!
On the March Break, we had the flexibility to do some different things. One day we went to Chapters book store in Bloor West Village, where they have a huge Thomas the Tank Engine train table. The kids also had fun looking at books and playing with other toys in the store. Oscar especially loved riding the plasma car down the ramp again and again. When it was time to give someone else a turn with the ride-on toy, he still enjoyed running up and down the ramp. We stopped for a little treat at Tim Hortons on our way home (a great incentive to finally leave the book store).
Another adventure we had on the March Break was going to the High Park Zoo. On our way we encountered gigantic snowflakes. It was the best part of the trip, in my opinion! The other day I had been reciting “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” when we were trudging through the mud. This time we did the part about the snowstorm. B. kept asking me to say it again and again. Here are a couple of our little adventurers. If you’re wondering where Thomas is, he is actually enjoying quite different weather, in a warmer climate, just for the March Break.
The zoo was surprisingly not busy, considering it was the March Break. The kids enjoyed seeing the animals, and Noah is a lot braver than he was the last time I remember taking him.
Oscar enjoyed his view from the wagon.
When we got to the Llamas, there was an employee of the zoo feeding them through the fence. He let both B. and Noah feed them peanuts and carrots. The boys were excited to help out!
It didn’t take long for the worker to pick up on Oscar’s affinity for trucks (Oscar makes this quite clear wherever he goes). He proceeded to dig out a pile of photos and found a picture of the zoo tractor to give to Oscar. He asked B. and Noah what their favourite zoo animals were. B. said “bison” and Noah said “Wallaby”, and the man gave them each a picture of their choice. This man really made their day. Apparently Oscar’s parents had to post the picture of the tractor up in his crib, he just loved it so much. Whatever gets you through the night, Osc!
Since we were one man down (no Thomas) and I had my help with me, we let the boys go on the castle playground (with my helper shadowing Oscar). I hadn’t seen the playground since it had been rebuilt. Wow! It reminded me how great playgrounds used to be before they tore them all down and put in those generic, plastic structures. This playground was one of the few that was better - wooden ones are, in my opinion. But the new section is even better than the old one because there is much more space; it used to be very narrow and a bit of a hazard for the very little ones.
Another day we went to Lithuania Park. It was fun but frigid! And yet another day, which was not as cold, we were able to enjoy one of the other playgrounds in High Park.
It was Leila’s first time on the swings. I think she liked it!
Oscar kept going down one of the big slides. He’d get to the bottom, and then say “‘gain!” (Again)
Here’s to hoping things warm up with Spring officially arriving next week!
Easter Crafts
The daycare has been busy with kids doing Easter crafts. One of the crafts we did last week was potato print Easter eggs. This is the same craft we did a couple of years ago.
I helped the kids to mix the paints to make pastel colours. Then they dipped cut potatoes into the paint, and stamped them onto Bristol Board, shaped like eggs. Read the rest of this entry »
advertisement
Star Wars Party: A Farewell to Aidas
Aidas started at this daycare when he was a mere 10 months old. He was our very first daycare member. I have watched this wonderful little baby grow into a busy little toddler, and now a super-hero and Power-Ranger loving little boy. But most of all, he loves Star Wars. Thus, there was no theme more fitting for his good-bye party than a Star Wars Party.
The first part of the party was Aidas’s favourite: The Droid Hunt. The scenario was that there were missing droids that needed to be rescued. I hid two kinds of droids in Leila’s room. Four of them were larger droids (made of 2 tin foil cups stuck together). I also hid 12 smaller droids which consisted of plastic Easter eggs wrapped in tin foil. All of the droids contained Star Wars stickers inside.
Before the kids entered the room, they were each given flashlights and glow in the dark bracelets. They also each carried a little plastic bag with their name on it, to collect the droids they found. I stuck 2 silver car sun visors together and hung them over the doorway to the room to make it look more space-like. I also played Star Wars music from a laptop and since it was part of a video, it distracted them a little, as you can see in the video below.
After we had found them all, we brought them to the living room to count them. Our mission was incomplete. We only had 11 out of the 12 droids. Finally, (after I remembered where I had hidden the other one!) we found the last one. We cheered that we had successfully completed our mission. Oh my goodness. The kids were so cute. They were genuinely very excited and proud of themselves at this point. Pure joy! Read the rest of this entry »
Little Leila Jane
On March 30th (her due date), at 10:27am, a wonderful, sweet little girl named Leila entered the world and joined our family. She weighed 7.13 pounds and measured 20 inches long. Her big brothers, Noah and Jacob, were excited to meet her, as was her big sister Emily.
My mother and father (her Oma and Opa) came to visit her right away. Her other grandparents, Nanny and Grand-Dad, would have loved to meet her right away but live in Kelowna. They are excited to meet her in May, when they come to visit.
Her Aunt Krista, Uncle Scott, and cousins Kacey and Mackenzie were also excited to welcome her. We all adore her. Read the rest of this entry »
Dirt is Good for Kids
I have to admit, I still cringe a little when I let the kids into the dirt. Our society is obsessed with cleanliness; and, like most of us, I have been shaped (at least to some degree) by the paranoia surrounding the issue of germs.
When I started running a home daycare a few years ago, I was committed to keeping the children relatively neat and clean. Sure, they acquired some food stains on their clothes or got a little dusty in the sandbox; but they were, for the most part, unsullied. As they grew and began to explore more of the outside world, trying to maintain this level of cleanliness was close to impossible. I began to realize that to attempt to limit their exploration of nature in all its dirtiness (I say attempt because I was largely unsuccessful anyway) was to deprive them Read the rest of this entry »
advertisement
