About ten children were able to keep their medals all week. Each of them received a gold bead for their medal chain. Parents should keep abreast of these gold – soon to turn silver – beads. There should be three. If there are not, you need to find out what your child’s stumbling block is.

Remember, we only take medals for disobedience, disruption, and making another child cry on purpose. If your child takes time away from the group’s ability to learn, he is disruptive. If your child is asked not to or to, and refuses, he is disobedient. As an example, “Hubbard, please don’t touch your neighbor’s plate.” If Hubbard continues to put his fingers into his neighbor’s plate, he will lose his medal on the third refusal.

In the afternoon Miss Dayna made Moon Mud which feels like raw chicken liver. It’s hilarious and the kids really loved it.

Miss Nita read a lot to the little kids and the children enjoyed her comical voice. It’s always nice to have a voice that knows how to read.

The day was splendid and we were very grateful for the nice temperature.

Cheap Literacy Materials By Loooking Glass

The early years (during preschool) are important to the development of literacy. Exposure to literacy materials encourages awareness of print, phonics, narratives, and development of oral language. Supplies for your daycare business do not have to expensive. Starting a daycare business can be expensive which is why many daycare owners search for daycare grants and other sources of funding.  There are many sources for low-priced literacy materials and remember: A little creativity goes a long way.

Inexpensive Literacy Materials:
Crayons, chalk, markers writing paper, index cards, construction paper, tissue paper, playdoh, magnetic Shapes, letters and numbers, sponge letters, play dough, tempura paint, yarn, and pipe cleaners.

Finding Inexpensive Children’s Books:
Used children’s books can be extremely inexpensive. Thrift stores and garage sales. Many garage sale holders will sell an entire crate of used children’s books for an incredibly low price. Your local library may hold a Friends of Library used book sale which is another great resource for cheap children’s books.   Also try buying used book from amazon.com which can be purchased for as little as $.01 plus shipping.

Preschool Literacy Activities:
Here are a few literacy simple literacy activities using inexpensive materials:
Prop Boxes for Dramatic Play
Prop boxes for dramatic play can support literacy learning. Children can set up scenes using the contents of the boxes to create environments such as an office setting or post office setting or a restaurant. In these settings children will naturally practice or mimic writing and handle a variety of literacy materials.

An office dramatic play prop box might include: Paper, pens, pencils, stapler, memo pad, junk mail, typewriter, old laptop, rolodex, phone, stamps, and calculator.

A Post office dramatic play  prop box might include:  Pens, paper, pencils, Envelopes, postcards, stamps, packages made from empty boxes, junk mail, scale, stickers, hole punch, cash register, postal worker uniform, and packing tape.

A restaurant prop box might include, among other things: Pens, menus contain food pictures with the words beneath the picture, ordering pads, pencils, and restaurant signs.

Creating and Practicing Letters
Children can practice making letters from a variety of very inexpensive materials. Paint, pudding, sand, rice, chalk, and shaving cream are all very economical and can be used on a variety of surfaces. Children may make letters out shape letters out of items such as felt, construction paper, blocks, pipe cleaners, clay, and playdoh.

Dry Erase Board Activities
A magnetic dry erase board and dry erase markers are great, reasonably priced literacy tools for a variety of literacy activities. Children can practice writing letters, tracing letters, drawing pictures and scenes which they can then narrate. In addition children can use magnetic letters on the board to create words and sentences.

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Photo: titlap, Flickr

On Fridays, we list the links we love and point to the hot topics at our favorite sites.

Is the safety of your family a top priority for you? Might want to head on over to San Francisco, the third safest city for kids.

If you love social networking, you’d be wise to keep the topic of your job off limits. One teacher just got fired for bashing her job on Facebook.

One of the greatest inventions ever for fruit-loving adults and kids: the cherry pitter.

Another fantastic find: a PB&J spreader. I like!

myGloss is a great site, and I’m thinking you might really love it. Try browsing their baby category.

]]> http://www.child-care-directory.info/?feed=rss2&p=464 0 http://www.child-care-directory.info/?p=463 http://www.child-care-directory.info/?p=463#comments Fri, 03 Sep 2010 04:02:06 +0000 admin http://www.child-care-directory.info/?p=463
When people ask why a preschool focuses on something which sounds as if it’s Medieval (and is) – the liberal arts – the answer is a question: What else is there? And why would any parent want anything less for their child? Liberal arts are life’s free treasures, the product of free people thinking and doing free things which set people free from the tedium of life’s banalities.

If the liberal arts become a way of life at the preschool age, you can guarantee that the whole of a child’s life will be greater the rest of their lives because they will know how to enjoy what is truly free. Unfortunately, many people including early childhood educators have trouble defining just what the liberal arts are, so let’s review.

Art is a liberal art. It always amazes me that art is the thing many teachers do last because they just don’t have time. When art is reduced to something as offensive as the proverbial “coloring page” the liberal part of the “art” is damaged by very narrow limits.

Art is an expression of the soul. Like other important things, it takes time and a treasure of ingredients that begin with multi media and teachers who are equipped to teach the love of fusing incongruent things as well as teaching spatial concepts and visual esthetics.

Music is a liberal art. Music has many avenues for exploring sound like singing, playing, dancing, creating instruments and making music through a variety of sounds. Music should be fun. Music should lift the spirit and give breath to the heart as children begin to understand the exchange of hearts that goes on between cultures when music is shared.

History is a liberal art. History is a treasure of real life stories that come to life when the teller has some insight into the human condition now and before. Explaining the richness of a smaller life takes a gentleness towards others most people can’t muster – it’s called historical perspective.

Very young children love history and geography because since the beginning of time, people have loved travel. History and geography become mind travel when the teacher opens a story about people with an intention of bridging differences and understanding.

Literature is a liberal art. Perhaps literature best defines the liberal arts because literature is all the above. It’s the music of words, the story of life, the picture of people, things and places told over and over again. Literature is written as well as told. It’s as old as the first story told. It’s cross cultural, and without limits.

Telling stories, reciting poetry, acting out the theatre of life is all connected to literature. Children love to do these things when the enthusiasm and interest of the loving adult is not only aware but able to show these things to children.

Mathematics is a liberal art. The understanding of numbers, groups, shapes, sizes, colors, and patterns are all a necessary part of learning the world’s dimensions. The understanding of space and distance and quantity comes early.

Science is a liberal art. In a modern world so distracted by unnatural things, science should be a refreshing and interesting avenue of study of how things work – naturally –in the world. It should be hands on and active rather than passive. It should touch and see and taste and hear and smell the forgotten things and the things we hardly know anymore.

Top notch preschool activities will be the liberal arts. Teachers who teach them will know what the liberal arts are outside the text book by life experience and the desire to be fully engaged in the world. They will have some knowledge about art, music, literature and history, math and science. It’s called being educated. It separates babysitters from teachers.

Mouse Preschool Lesson Plan by Bascom Hogue

Enjoy this simple preschool lesson plan about mice. The activities below will introduce children to the mice through fun facts, activities, books, and a song. This lesson plan works well in conjunction with a daycare center unit theme about animals or pets.

Basic Facts about Mice
Here are some fast facts about mice for young children:

• A mouse is a rodent.
• There are at least 125 species of mice.
• Mice are herbivores but may eat almost anything.
• Mice like to eat about 15 to 20 times per day.
• Mice usually live in gardens, fields, and other places with vegetation and crops.
• Mice come in over 50 different colors and shades.
• Mice run very fast and live about 2 to 3 years.

Mouse Literacy Activity
Create a mouse booklet. Read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff  and Felicia Bond to the students. Next, give each child a piece of construction paper with the words: ‘If you give a mouse_____, He will ______.’ Encourage the children to fill in (or dictate depending on the children’s development) the words and illustrate their choices. Together create a cover for the booklet.  Bind all of the pages together to create a mouse booklet.

Mouse Cooking and Snack Activity
Pear Mouse
Ingredients: Pear halves, almonds (check for nut allergies!!!!), raisins, maraschino cherries, and red or black licorice strings.
Instructions: Place a pear half, flat side down. Decorate the “mouse” using almonds for the ears, raisins for the eyes, cherries for the nose, and licorice for the mouth.

Preschool Mouse Song
Teach the children the song “Merry Mice”*:
“Merry Mice”
“Five merry mice were born in May (Hold up five fingers.)
The first one said, In the Mud, let’s play (Grab thumb.)
The second one said, No way, Hosea (Grab index finger.)
The third one said, In the middle I must stay (Grab middle finger)
The fourth one said, I am mad today (Grab ring finger)
The fifth one said, Our Mom we must obey (Grab Last finger)”.

Recommended Preschool Books about Mice
Here are some great books about mice to share with students:

• Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh [Sandpiper, 1995]
• If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff  and Felicia Bond [HarperCollins, 1985]
• Library Mouse by Daniel Kirk [Abrahms Books for Young Readers, 2007]
• Town Mouse, Country Mouse by Jan Brett [Putnam Juvenile, 2003]
• Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young [Putnam Juvenile, 2003]

There are unlimited activity possibilities for a lesson plan about mice. Daycare providers and preschool teachers may add math or science activity, visit a pet store, or create a scene in the dramatic play area in order to extend the lesson plan.

*“Merry Mice” from Everything Preschool

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Holley East, one of our product managers, also uses our very own service and found that our college caregivers ”have really flexible hours, are extremely reliable and serious about their jobs.” Holley also added that both of her caregivers happened to be majoring in Early Childhood Education, which was a great experience for the caregiver and her family!

We’ve added College Caregivers to the site because we want to make it easy for you to connect with current students from local colleges or universities to best fit your family’s needs. All of the profiles on the College Caregivers site are still thoroughly reviewed and prescreened by our MomForce, and members can view background reports on caregivers and check their references to make sure it’s a good fit for the family.

The College Caregiver service will also help a lot of people in communities surrounding college and university campuses. It’s a great way to connect local families or alumni to caregivers from particular schools, and it’s also helpful to students looking for jobs. Students can post profiles on our site, find jobs close to campus that fit their class schedules, and earn extra money to pay for books and tuition. College faculty and students with young children have an added resource that’s affiliated with their school, making it easy to find care right on campus. And every one of us has a die-hard, loyal alumnus among their friends who would jump at the change to hire a caregiver from their alma mater.

So whether you’re a resident of a college town, a student yourself, or one who bleeds school colors of a particular university, now you can choose your caregiver from Care.com’s College Caregivers!

Dealing with Bad Checks in Daycare

Many daycare business owners spend way too much time dealing with bounced checks and other collection issues. Dealing with return checks can be one very frustrating aspect of your child care job . However, by creating a solid returned check policy or preventing bad checks in the first place, daycare owners can reduce bounced checks.

How to Create a Returned Check Policy

It is important to make your payment policies clear in the event that a client’s check is returned. Many daycare providers list in their daycare contracts that the family is responsible for ALL fees incurred as a result of the bounced check. This means all returned check fees and overdraft fees if applicable.

A simple returned check policy might state the following:

“Checks can be made payable to XXX Daycare with a returned check fee of $35.00 per returned item.  Payments on returned checks (check total, returned check fees, and related fees) must be paid by cash or money order or certified check, immediately. If the client has written 2 or more checks that are returned to us for NSF (insufficient funds) you MUST pay all remaining school year fees by cash or money order.  There will be no exceptions to this policy.  Returned checks that are not paid in full will be turned over to the State’s Attorney’s Office”.

What to do When you Receive a Bad Check

The first step is to send a return check notice. This is one of several important daycare forms to have on hand. The notice might read: Your July 27, 2010 tuition payment of $400 was returned for non-sufficient funds.  Per our agreement, there is a $35 fee for any returned checks.  This fee is to be paid in cash by August 5, 2010. At XXXDaycare we allow 2 bounced checks before we insist on another form of payment. This is your 1^st/2nd returned check.  You may/may not continue to pay your tuition with a check. Please make your payment in any of the following forms: CASH or CREDIT CARD. Thank you.

If this notice is ignored and the client does not make good on the check, (even as early as 7 days in some states) you may forward it to a State Attorney’s office in the county where the check was accepted for prosecution. Contact your local State Attorney office regarding any forms that need to be completed. This will begin the process of prosecution/collection

Preventing Returned Checks

Rather than dealing with return checks, eliminate them completely from your daycare business. You can do this one of two ways: Collect payment up front or invest in child care software.

Payment up front means that the policy states that the client’s payment options are cash OR money order and are to be paid before the child can receive services. For example, your contract policies may that you will request payment every Friday for the upcoming week.  In some cases, daycare providers may choose request payment up front for the entire month. Monthly payments may not work for many families. However, to calculate the monthly fee, calculate the total number of working days in the month and multiply it by the daily rate you charge.

Child care or daycare software can help eliminate returned check issues. The software can collect payments in person or online using the following methods:

• Set up recurring ACH (Automatic Clearing House) transactions which are bank to bank transactions. In this way, payments are automatically deducted from the client’s checking or savings account and then deposited into your daycare’s business account.
• In person Point of Sale Transactions (POS). POS transactions allow you to process payments by swiping the client’s credit or debit card on-site.
• Set up recurring credit card transactions. In this type of transaction, the client’s credit or debit card is automatically charged on a recurring basis.

Above all, remember that first and foremost daycare is a serious business, and if you don’t get paid, your business suffers.  Protect your business. Be polite, yet firm, in enforcing all policies.

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