We Don't Mind the Weather, if the Garden Grows

We have a song about marigolds that says "we don't mind the weather, if the garden grows," and this week has been a good one for that. We had a great week in the garden, preparing a bed, planting pansies and checking them for flowers daily, watering when the weather wasn't doing it for us (and some of the days it did), and checking daily for new flowers. Two have opened, little purple ones, and we'll see what other colors we see in the box this coming week. It's important to be gentle when we touch them, and I get a big smile every time I see two children talking to each other about being careful of the flowers. Exploration is important, too, and curious kids are active kids, so we brought a sensory table with some grass clods (dirt still attached), some dandelions, a tree root, and some other plants into the daycare for circle time on Monday. It's on the porch for friends to explore with their fingers and eyes. Our friends like taking apart the plants there, turning over the pieces that are too big to hold in their hands so they can see every side and all the different parts, but we're very careful not to hurt bugs or worms when find them. We'll be planting snap peas in the next two weeks, and more coming soon!

Other highlights of the week: counting games with dice, tracing names and imagining what words with sound like if they started with different letters, discussion about worms, and some lovely paintings of flowers done by the kids.
 
Hop up, my marigolds, two in a row
Hop up, my marigolds, two in a row
Hop up, my marigolds, two in a row
we don't mind the weather if the garden grows
for if the wind blows, the rain will fall
and the sun comes out, and the flowers grow
if the wind blows, the rain will fall
and the sun comes out and the flowers grow

Playdough and Pansies

Hooray for sunshine - this past week has been a blast! As the weather gets warmer, our solar-powered kids have turned on. This week has had a lot of great outdoor play, and with the sun, the bugs and the flowers have come back into our children's lives. This week has featured a lot of hunting for worms, finding the last of the puddles in the sun, and asking questions about the changes in the different plants in the yard, with more to come as the rainy weather comes and goes. Patti brought some fantastic work for the kids this week, with the kids painting butterflies working at one big table together, and coming back to the project with glitter and glue after the paint dried. You'll get to see those hanging up this next week. We had a great finger paint activity, which I hope to repeat soon. You may see some art coming home soon with rice the kids picked out colors for and spent time working the dye into inside Ziploc bags. And at the beginning of the week, we had a morning making green playdough, and working all the sticky out of it - ask your kids, they can tell you, sometimes it takes a long time to get it done!

I've just returned from around the corner with a flat of pansies to plant with our friends in the planter box behind the porch, and taking care of them is going to become another job I ask kids to help with. More plants are incoming, so keep this warm weather coming! I've picked flowers without more than buds, so watching them bloom and watering them on sunny days should be great fun, and everyone will have a turn digging a hole and placing a pansy, but the garden is there for everyone to enjoy and take care of. I will be heading out to the Thyme Garden this next weekend instead (rats!), but more suggestions for flower/vegetable favorites (edible/nontoxic, please) are much appreciated. Please make sure your child has extra clothing in their cubbies, and check with me to make sure we have their rain pants in the box and ready.

Some parents have volunteered to help out around the daycare (thanks!) and you may see them around helping out, too. Abbie has been a huge help this week, and will be working every day this coming week (maybe the week after, too) along with Patti and I.

Our Operating Philosophy

My philosophy and educational plan center around providing a rich, play-based environment to learn kindness, patience, the ability to be gentle or careful as required, the personal value of work, and skills to communicate and negotiate with each other and the adults at the daycare.

We will spend a lot of time outdoors, weather permitting, and I look to leverage the really lovely grounds with gardening and exploration activities.

Our child-to-staff ratio will never be more than 6 to 1. Staff will have proper training and criminal history background checks as required by state licensing. Staffing will be such that there will be people available to fill in case of illness.

Our schedule of the day will be consistent and rhythmic, including story time, circle time, art projects, and free-form play time. Children will have the ability to choose supervised quiet places or active places throughout the day.

I will provide nutritious breakfast, lunch and snacks daily. I am willing to follow special dietary guidelines if parents will help provide materials or reimburse for extra costs, and will use food where possible that works for everyone.

I will work with parents on their kids potty-training and nap goals towards the end of being consistent with their expectations outside of the daycare. Naptime will be divided into a group that rests on their nap pads with quiet activities, then is asked to put them away and try to sleep for a set amount of time before getting up, and another group in another room that is expected to sleep.

Rates for childcare will be as follows:

• $650 for fulltime care.
• $600 for 4 days a week
• $500 for three days a week

Half days and two days a week may be possible and will be negotiable dependent on staffing.

The daycare is a strictly no-weapons, no fighting, no capturing, no bad guys area. I do not permit the role-play of these kinds of behaviors when I am supervising. I acknowledge that these will be something the kids will need to process, but I feel comfortable insisting it happen in other parts of their day; at the daycare, I ask them to respect each other. This is a difficult lesson in a world that glamorizes violence. I am fine with kids at the daycare taking martial arts classes, but I ask them to cover their fists before coming into the daycare.

We're all on the same team, and your kids come first.