Hazards of childcare

One of the many hardships that teachers and childcare teacher have to grow through is being sick a lot. I get really nervous when flu and cold seasons creep around. Children, especially the very young tend to spread germs more since everything goes in their mouths and they are still learning proper hygiene techniques. 

A few things I am doing to keep the doctor away, other than eating an apple a day:

*Hand washing (for myself and the children). I make sure that hands are washed after pretty much everything.

*Sanitizing mouthed toys. I try to stay on top of what goes in the mouths of the children and immediately put the toys in our classroom dishwasher or in the laundry basket to be washed at the end of the day.

*Feverish children go home. I love them dearly but children with fevers of 99 and over are sent home.

*Have loads of kleenex around the room ready to chase down running noses!!

*Teach little ones to cover mouthes when coughing or sneezing (more like being ready to block coughs and sneezes in my face LOL)

*Taking extra vitamins to keep my immune system up.

Lets hope and pray these precautions keep us all healthy and happy! 

Sunday Quote of the Day: Children are our most valuable resource

Children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future

~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy_

Apple Week!!

Today is Friday and ohh a happy day it is now that it is over. Looking back at this week, it was fantastic, therefore it is no wonder that I was totally exhausted today with little energy to keep up with the little ones. But I managed.

This week, we studied the ever so tasty fruit, the apple. We opened up a whole new experience for them. They saw pictures of where apples come from (trees), we read stories about apples and apple harvesting, I cut open 3 different apples (yellow, red and green which they got to taste!) and they saw the insides as well as the seeds, we made apple seed shakers (they loved shaking the shakers,) they made paper mache apples, and they made an apple tree collage. From the apples we used to see the apple seeds, we did an art project of apple printing! We even had an apple party of dried apples, applesauce, apple chips, apple wedges, and apple juice.

Apple Printing

Paper mache apples

We had quite a week in our classroom! It was a lot of fun, worth the exhaustion.

Yay!!! I'm officially CDA-ified!

Yes, that is correct! I received my certificate in the mail after what felt like FORVER! but yes, i'm officially certified child development associate. My certification is good for 3 years :) and now I feel like I can really give my students the best I can:) though, I have never done less than that! but it is nice to have a certificate. Now, I'm motivated to move on and finish my degree in early childhood education!

When babies (toddlers) have a bad day..........

When my little ones ( one-two year olds) have a bad day, it is not fun for anyone! Today was no exception. The really sad thing is that they don't really understand why they are having a crabby day. Sometimes they are just tired and cranky, or they are not feeling well, they don't know why they are not playing nicely with their friends or why the adults caring for them don't understand what they need, want or are going through. Not having words to express what they are feeling does not help much either. It is hard to help them resolve what is bothering them or agitating them when we don't know what the problem is. They are hard to comfort in this situation. The only thing that helps is to be comforting, caring, loving and patient and at the same time, give them some time and space to express themselves without letting them endanger themselves and others. 

Today, for example, one of my little guys was having a really tough day. He cried a lot throughout the day, any little thing would start him off crying. He was constantly having conflicts with his classmates and easily agitated by them. At nap, he was exhausted but fought tooth and nail to go to sleep. He tossed, turned, flung his body around and cried at the top of his lungs! I'm surprised the kids around him went to sleep with all the noise he made! It took me just holding him for a good 30 minutes holding him, rocking him and gently whispering to him (despite him not wanting me too) to calm him enough for him to finally fall asleep in my arms. I'm not quite sure why he was so upset, but it was definitely not usual for him to act this way (even if he was having a bad day! usually he just fusses.)

It was a tough day but in the end, he was okay. I realized that what he needed from me most was to just be there for him, comfort him, be patient with him, redirect him during testy moments with his classmates and lots of TLC! It is a wonderful feeling being able to be there for a child in need of comfort and care (even if you have no clue what is going on in their tiny little heads.) 

Book Review: The Story of My Feelings

I love this book!!! It is one of our favorite books in the classroom because no matter what is going on or how upset our children get, as soon as we turn the cd on and open the book, they all come sit and listen to the story of a little girl who pretty much reflects their lives and emotions. She gets sad, happy, angry and peaceful. The children love to point to the little girl's puppy friend as we go from page to page. Seriously, we call this book our 'magic' book! Sometimes children have really hard drop offs, after listening to it once, they begin to calm down and stop crying, by the second time around they either want to hear it again or are ready to go play and explore the classroom! It has a very calming effect on the children. I really like it! it has saved my sanity on many a rough days!!! :)