Me and My Family

Yep...that's one of my little "family" members!

This little guy loves dress up.  He loves the Hulk and princesses, and Thomas.  He loves to play.  

Exuberant, energetic, joyful;  even at nap time!

One of the things I love about Family Childcare is the "family" part of it.  There are opportunities each day for togetherness, conversations, and connections.

With a mixed age group we get to watch the babies become toddlers, then send them off to "big school" filled with pride and excitement.  

Often, we get to remain in a child's life well into their adult years (showing my age ;) ).  That's the way a community should be.  That gives children a grounded center and memories of good moments shared that builds trust and confidence that the world is a good place.  This is the way I want to raise my children AND the children in my care.

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Me and My Family unit study is one of my favorites...

Another one of my little "family" members and me!!

I love beginning the new school year with a study of social/emotional skill builders and awareness of ourselves and our family units.  

Children LOVE their families and families are all unique.  Welcoming new little students each August means that we get to know new friends and their families.  Our curriculum partner, Mother Goose Time understands how vital it is to validate a young child, their emotions, and their unique family units.

We do this through songs, games, conversations, and language arts, science, math, and creative arts!  We do this through lots of opportunities for solving conflicts and understanding that tantrums, conflicts, and the presence of emotion does not mean the absence of a good parent, good teacher, or "good" child.....it is simply an opportunity to teach and that is a VERY good moment!

What you focus on you get more of...

One of our favorite games this month was the "How Are You Feeling?" game.

We have an awesome game cube with replaceable picture pockets from Mother Goose Time and we have used it again and again.  

It's soft smallish size is perfect for even the tiniest of hands!  

We replaced these with our emotions faces and took turns passing it from person to person observing and discussing how the child on the cube felt as we rolled the "dice" and it landed on sad, happy, scared, etc.  

​We then discussed what makes us feel that way and made some dog-gone cute faces!!

This little learner has "angry" down!!  We then talk about how we can help ourselves feel better.  We decided that we don't like feeling scared, angry, sad, or lonely, but we WILL feel that way from time to time and it's o.k.  

What is not o.k. is to STAY feeling those emotions.  We like feeling happy, excited, and surprised (in a good way) better.  We made a list of ways to help our friends and ourselves feel better.  We observed that singing, hugs, blankies, and taking time away from others to play alone all can help with feeling mad or angry.  We also discussed that we can play WITH a friend, a teacher, a pet, or parent when we feel scared, lonely or sad to feel better.  

As usual, as we moved throughout the day there were many opportunities  (tantrums, conflicts, and power struggles ;) )  We used these as teachable moments to try out our list.  We made choices between singing a song or hugging a friend; waiting for a turn or taking time to self; asking a friend to play or playing with teacher.  

We noticed that when we made choices, they worked and we felt better.  We also made a very concentrated effort to record, "Caught ya's!"  We "caught ya'" sharing!  We "caught ya'" taking turns!  We "caught ya'" being a helper!  As we focus more on the "caught ya's" and less on anything else, the "caught ya'" moments become more and more contagious, fun, and sought after by each age group.  The children's moods switch from "self focused" to "others focused" and we had a board filled full of "caught ya's!"

Why?  Because what you focus on you get more of!  

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We use our game cube for letters and numbers too!

Children loves games so this little cube gets used by all ages and for many uses!  Here we made a letter recognition game that we played over and over day after day this past week.  

Our letters this month are A, M, and T; upper and lower case.

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Games beat flashcards hands down!!

We also use our dough cutters with corresponding letters A, M, and T for hands on letter play.

Both our new game cube and our alphabet dough cutters came with our Mother Goose Time curriculum! What a fun treat!!

Our Creative Arts and Language Arts embraced social/emotional skill building as well!!

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Our Many Colored Days by Dr. Suess is one of our favorite books.  It teaches colors and emotions in a safe and accepting manner that little readers can understand and identify with.  

After reading this recommended book we used our Invitation To Create example and many colors as we discussed and painted how we felt.  The resulting artwork was beautiful!

We had colorful rainbows and murals of black with swirls, shapes, and figures.  We also had lots and lots of excited chatter as they each explained their masterpiece!

Bunnies EVERYWHERE!!!

Part of our Me and My Family study included pets that make up our families.  We have many, many types of pets.  Some have cats, dogs, birds, fish, even bunnies!  

I think bunny day was a hoppin' success!!

Giving them more...

Part of helping children understand their emotions is giving them special ways to learn how to positively calm themselves and express their energy in a safe manner.  

Our very own Mr. Ninja is beloved by our children!!  This is the perfect way for our littles to use their muscles to feel strong and empowered!  It works, just look at these sweet faces. 

Ms. Melissa comes to teach us yoga with songs, dances, stories, and special poses that correspond with the seasons and our thematic units!  We practice these poses  during each week when we need a brain break or as a calming transition to another activity.  Even our little 2's know "Tree Pose!"

This is such a small sample of the week.  We love, laugh and learn together.  There are challenges and victories.  We grow a bit taller and a bit stronger with each passing day.  

Providing children with a solid basis of learning is a small portion of what we do.  

Giving them more....making a difference in their lives daily is where the reward lay for me.

Yoga, Karate, Zoo Encounters, Librarian Storytime, and Community Visitors all comprise our whole child educational program.  I believe that when we give children an safe environment where they can experience the world around them that we, as a community become an extension of "family." 

This is a vital part of healthy children and healthy families.  

As always, I wish you well and I hope you get to play today.

​-L

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