Thanks to the beautiful fall morning we had, we were able to spend some time playing in the front yard! We drew turkeys with sidewalk chalk, played a bit of soccer and practiced moving in different ways (hopping, crawling, like a turkey, etc.).
The kids had a great time and it must’ve played them out because not a peep was heard during naptime after lunch!
On Friday, our dayhome had the fantastic opportunity to tour the Stettler Fire Hall. Our private tour was led by PFF Brysiuk, who also happens to be my youngest brother. 😉 My other brother and his girlfriend, both visiting from Victoria, came along for the tour and it was definitely a bonus to have some extra sets of hands!
The kids were SO excited to see all the big red trucks and wanted to go into every single one! I don’t think they learned a whole lot about fire rescue but they sure did seem to be in kid heaven! A very big thank you to PFF Brysiuk and the Stettler Regional Fire Department!
*Note: Special permission was given by the childrens’ parents to post photos showing their faces.
Future Stettler Fire Fighters
PFF Brysiuk shows the kids the truck specifics
Kids standing on the front bumper of a truck
Inside a Fire Truck
Inside a Fire Truck
Tower 10 :: The BIG Truck
The kids with PFF Brysiuk in front of Tower 10
Starting your child at a dayhome can be a big adjustment for everyone. It can be a stressful time for not only you, as a parent, but also for your child. The best way to help prepare your child for a successful dayhome start is to begin introducing him or her to the routines that can be expected in the dayhome.
Eating
During a typical 8 hour day, there will be three meal times — morning snack, lunch and afternoon snack. These meals will be provided in a designated eating area and your child will sit properly in their [booster/high] chair to the best of their ability. This means no running around, standing on the chair or eating in other areas of the home. The same, nutritious meal will be offered to everyone. This means that, if your child doesn’t want to eat the snack given, there will be no other option for that meal. Meals are a good opportunity to have a break from play and visit with one another but they aren’t a time to play with toys at the table, throw food or shout out. The children, that are able, bring their dishes to the sink area after they are finished.
Sleeping and Quiet Time
Most children dayhome age need either a nap (or two) or a rest period of some form. The children that nap will have a quiet, peaceful area where they will lay down at approximately the same time each day. Babies and young children will be laid down, in bed, with comfort items and perhaps some soft music playing. As many dayhomes have up to 6 to 8 children a day to lay down at naptime, there simply isn’t always the opportunity to rock or cuddle a child to sleep. It will help your child greatly if they are able to put themselves to sleep at nap time.
Older children that no longer nap in the afternoons will still have a period of rest. This may be a half hour lay down, quiet activities, like puzzles or books, or a movie. It’s important that young children have the chance to rest their bodies and their minds. It also gives your dayhome provider the opportunity to tidy up from lunch and prepare for afternoon activities.
Potty and Diapers
If your child is still in diapers, the routine from home to dayhome is likely very similar. Just remember to let your provider know if you regularly use a specific diaper cream, baby powder, etc. If you are using cloth diapers*, definitely let your dayhome provider know the procedure to follow with soiled diapers.
For potty training children, routine is everything. The key to success is to have the same training process at home and while at the dayhome. If you are taking your child to the bathroom every 20 minutes, make sure your provider knows this. If you are using the sticker chart program, bring extra stickers and charts to dayhome. Make sure that your dayhome provider is on board with potty training. Some find it to be too much to focus on one potty trainer while 5 other littles are requiring supervision and attention. My personal method of Potty Training can be found here. Of course, you could always attempt the Potty Training in One Day method on a day your child is not at dayhome!
If your child is coming to the dayhome potty trained, they will be shown where all the bathrooms are in the home and told to ask for help if they need it. However, as children are often shy during the first little while at the dayhome, please let your provider know if your child needs help with their toilet routine (wiping, washing, etc). By the time a child is around age 4, they should be independent with their toilet routine.
Behaviour
A dayhome houses a multitude of personalities and each time the group changes, there is somewhat of an adjustment period. Each child needs time to learn that they have a safe, valued place in the home. However, all children are expected to treat one another, and the provider, with respect at all times. This means sharing to the extent that their age allows, no use of violence and no hurtful words.
In our dayhome specifically, we always try to make use of our manners. “Please”, “thank you” and “excuse me” are phrases that are required in our home and even the infants are taught to sign them before they can say them. We believe that it is just another way to show respect to one another.
Children will be shown where toys, books and other play items are kept. They will put away the things they are done with and help at “clean up time”.
Developmental Level Expectations
Of course, every child develops at his or her own rate. However, there are common growth milestones that, barring any known delays, a child of a certain age would be expected to achieve. For example, one would expect that a 16 month old can crawl across the room or that a 3 year old can put on simple clothing alone.
Your dayhome provider knows what development stages children are commonly reaching and, unless you express differently, will expect that your child has reached them.
Literature on growth and development stages can be found at your local Community Health Centre or at MyHealth.Alberta.ca. If you have any questions concerning your child’s healthy growth and development, please contact your community health nurse.
Each dayhome will do things differently so your best bet is to ask your provider, during the interview process, what their daily routine looks like.
*Note that not all dayhome providers are willing to accept clients who are cloth diapering. If you cloth diaper, be sure to discuss this during the interview.
After our insect weeks, we started our two week Colour Theme! Unfortunately, I didn’t get many photos of the other colour day activities.
Our first week, we did Red, Blue, Yellow and Orange. We learned that Red, Blue and Yellow were Primary Colours and that Orange was a secondary colour, made by mixing Yellow & Red.
Our second week, we continued with our secondary colours with Green and Purple then finished up the week with Black, White and Rainbow Days! We learned more about colour mixing to create new colours, how some colours are associated with certain thoughts or feelings and why you see rainbows after the rain.
On our purple day, we made Purple Cow Milkshakes for snack! First, the kids coloured their recipes, then they got to shake their very own ‘shakes! (Big thanks to Amy K. for giving us our fancy shaking containers!)
Purple Cow Milkshake Recipe
Purple Cow Milkshake Ingredients
Shake, shake, shake! (It’s hard work!)
We continued our second week of “Insects” with Spiders, Grasshoppers, Worms, Flies and Mosquitos. We used our “Head, Thorax, Abdomen” song to help us once again determine that Grasshoppers, Flies & Mosquitos ARE insects but Spiders and Worms are not.
We also learned a new version of “Little Miss Muffet”, that grasshoppers sing with their legs, that worms help the earth and that fly & mosquito life cycles are very short!
Little Miss Muffet*
Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet
Eating her curds and whey.
Along came a spider
And sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet away.
Little Miss Muffet went back to her tuffet,
Looked that thing square in the eye.
“See here, you big spider,
Miss Muffet’s a fighter
And you’re the one saying bye-bye.”
Spider Day
Snacks at the Park before heading to the Library
Worm Day Lunch
Spray Park
Apple, Peanut Butter & Granola Sandwiches
With our two week “Insect” theme, we learned what classified a bug or animal as an Insect and which animals did or did not fall under that category! We sang “Head, Thorax, Abdomen” (to the tune of Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes) to help with our discovery. It goes like this:
Head and Thorax Abdomen, Abdomen, Abdomen
Head and Thorax Abdomen
Six Legs, Four Wings, Antenna too
With our song, in our first week we learned that Ants, Bees, Butterflies and Lady Bugs ARE insects, but Caterpillars are not. We also learned about ant tunnels, how bees help flowers, the butterfly lifecycle and what lady bugs eat!
Our Ant Day was a bit rainy but we did manage to find one or two!
Bee Day
Caterpillar Day
Making Butterfly Wings
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Choosing a dayhome that is the right fit for your child and your family can be exciting, intimidating and frustrating.Where do you start looking for available spaces? How do you know that your child will be alright with this new person? What if you can’t find a place for your child? Here are some tips to help get your started with your search.
Do Your Research
You have to start looking somewhere and you’re already here on the internet so why not head back to google and type in “[Your Town] Dayhome” and see what comes up. Next, check Kijiji, Facebook (look for Mommy or Babysitting groups in your town) and Twitter (search hashtags with your town name). Chances are some of the dayhomes will have some kind of web presence and you’ll be able to find it.
Don’t stop there, though. Not everyone is online so check your local paper, places around town where flyers are posted (Post Office, Grocery Store, Recreation Centre, etc.) and look up your town’s family services office or dayhome/childcare co-ordinator’s office.
After that (see, there are many ways to find dayhomes) ask around! Head to the park and chat up the other moms about dayhomes in the area. Ask your co-workers, your cross fit mates, your child’s teacher. Someone is bound to know of a dayhome for you to contact!
Decide What You Want
You’ll probably already know what days of the week and hours you’re looking for (if not, firm that up first) but you should also stop to think about what kind of dayhome you’d like for your child.
Would you rather have your child in a dayhome with 2 other children or 5?* Think about what kind of activities you want provided for your child; if you want an educational curriculum or a play-based schedule. Should the dayhome have on-site play equipment or is a nearby playground fine? Are you ok with your child travelling in a vehicle with the provider or not?
Your final decision will be easier to make once you’ve decided on these types of things. Have a picture of your ideal dayhome in your head when you go to interview.
Interview and Tour
Once you have your list of dayhomes it’s time to book interviews. You’ll contact the providers with available spaces obviously but, also contact the ones currently without spaces! Give them a call and tell them that, although they don’t currently have any openings, you’d still love to meet them, tour their home and, if all goes well, be put on a waiting list. That way, if you find your perfect dayhome, you are already on the list for when they do have openings. (More on that further down).
When you go to the interviews, it’s ok to take a list of questions! You can google for examples of questions to ask or check out this great article. Be prepared to answer a lot of questions, too. A good provider will ask about your child’s sleeping & eating habits, relationships with other children, experiences in school and other dayhomes, etc. Remember that as much as you’re interviewing the provider they are also interviewing your child and your family to see if you are a good fit for their dayhome.
The provider you’re interviewing should take you on a tour of the home, at least the portion used for the dayhome. If they don’t, definitely ask for one. You’ll want to see the main play areas (inside & out), the bathroom/diapering areas, the napping place(s) and the kitchen & dining areas. Some dayhomes use all of their home for childcare and others have a designated area, like a basement, for it. Either way is fine but, again, is something for you to consider ahead of time.
You’re looking for a dayhome that is clean, safe and organized and a provider that is knowledgeable, informative and kind. Be sure to look over the contract and, if possible, take a copy home. If the provider doesn’t have a contract, you can run into all sorts of situations without a precedent on how to handle them.
Contracts should include rates, hours of operation, payment schedule, probation period, illness policy, discipline policy, meal information, etc. If there is anything not in the contract or anything you want to change, discuss and agree upon it with the provider, write it into the contract and have both parties sign and date.
Go With Your Gut
You know your child the best. You know what he or she likes to do, how they handle different situations, in which manner the learn best. As a parent, you need to trust your instincts. Avoid the dayhome you didn’t get a good feeling at, pass on the dayhome that was a bit too “noisy” for your shy-guy or call back the provider that offers a learn-to-read program. There are different dayhomes and childcare options for each different child. Some children, like my own ;), like to be active and loud so a dayhome with music time and regular playground trips is best. Other children prefer sitting down with a book or playing quietly one-on-one with another child. A dayhome with less children might be a good option for those situations.
Don’t settle. It’s easy to get caught up in the “ohmygosh I start work in 2 weeks and I have NO childcare” mentality. There are other options outside of dayhomes. Check out your local daycare centres, nanny websites and high school babysitters. Go back to Google and ask the park moms again for referrals.
If you do find a dayhome that you think might work well for your child, you can start slow. Try half days or part weeks to start and make sure to get lots of feedback from your provider on what is and isn’t working for your child. It’s better to smooth out all the wrinkles during the probationary period.
If you didn’t find the dayhome that is right for your child, keep looking. You never know who might have an unexpected opening on their waiting list just at the right time!
Our last week of an “official” day home was a ton of fun! Lucky for us all, there was wonderful weather so we played outside, had picnics and did a TON of bug hunting! On K’s last day, the boys, she and I took a road trip to Red Deer for Babycakes Cupcakes, a play at the park and lunch out at Montana’s!
I will miss seeing the kids regularly but my new job is such a perfect fit and I’m enjoying it so much! The odd days that I watch the kiddos, I will definitely keep you updated on what they get up to!
~ M
Swingin’ at the Park
Picnic at the Park
Tunnels in the Front Yard
Dump Trucks
Sidewalk Chalk Fun
Sidewalk Chalk Fun
Sidewalk Chalk Fun
Sidewalk Chalk Fun
Filling our pots with soil
So. Much. Dirt!
Up to the top!
Up to the top!
One of our tomato plants
Planting
Team work!
Time for some water!
Time for some water!
Zimmermann Family Day Home 