Category: Daycare Lady

With plans set and the treats bought, everyone was wiggly with excitement. The clock struck 12:00, hugs were given, and laughter was like glitter in the air.

12:00 pm, the “New Years Eve” party, daycare lunch style 🙂 . My love for each family brought out my eagerness to emulate holidays with their children. We gave the children a sense of unity, through planning, preparation, and feeling included. Indeed, it was always the intention of my daycare to help the children feel like they were a part of any and all exciting holidays.

The children were complaining about how they never got to stay up to celebrate New Years eve. They didn’t realize it was because of their young ages. Before I closed down for Christmas, the children discussed their desire to have a New Years eve party, and my wheels started turning. The daycare closed for both New Years eve and New Years day, but I felt it was necessary to have a mock “New Years Eve” lunch on January 2nd. The intention of the party was giving the children the opportunity to welcome in the new year, in a way that didn’t cause any inconvenience to the parents.

The party included planning, and crafting 🙂 . We made New Years eve crafted crowns, toilet paper crackers, and a delicious daycare made dessert. As a result it was a very busy, but incredibly fun morning. Excitement began with an early lunch, and balloons hung from the ceiling. The timer was set and the count down began to welcome in our new year day together.

Their party was a wonderful way for all of us to start off the New Year together. We finished up the day with games and dancing. Overall, the first event of the year set the tone for the rest of the year, filled with crafts, baking, and fun uniting us as a daycare family.

My most prized possession as a child was a toy pony named Parasol. I received it for my 9th birthday. I loved her rainbow mane and soft pink fur 🙂 She was my favorite stuffy, and she came with me everywhere. One day I went for a walk with my father down to a soup kitchen near where we lived. One of his embedded rules was to give our time to help those less fortunate. My pony helped me clear empty dishes. She would join me to eat when my Dad felt we had earned a free meal. We would wash tables, and help stack chairs when lunch was over, always staying till the end. The kind Minister would give us some of the left overs to take home. “Otherwise they will end up in the garbage”, he always told my Dad. Those leftovers would accompany that nights supper.

I had an amazing Father, always giving my siblings and me his time. One day there was a little girl at the soup kitchen, younger than me, and we became fast friends. One Saturday after cleaning up the dining hall, I pulled out my pony for her and I to play with. It was just before Christmas and I was talking about all the toys Santa was going to bring me. I was devastated when my new friend told me her Mom told her she wasn’t going to get any presents this year because they had no money.

Tears streamed down my cheeks when I told my Father, and I asked if I could give her something for Christmas. He was a benevolent man and told me I could. Happily I searched my room for the perfect gift that would delight my friend. I settled on my most prized possession, my pony Parasol.

The following day I looked everywhere for my little friend, but she wasn’t there. Honestly, I never saw her again. My father could see the disappointment in my eyes, and saw me constantly searching for her as I held on to my little wrapped package. After a few days one of the volunteers at the soup kitchen told my father that her family had moved away. My Father gently asked me what I had settled on to give her, so I handed him the package. Through tears in his eyes he opened it to discover I was giving her my most prized possession, my beloved Parasol pony.

It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized we too were very poor, and we went to the soup kitchen because we had no food. My Father had picked bottles and did odd jobs to come up with the money to buy me my pony. He taught me wealth did not make the person, a good heart did. Possessions fade away and loose their luster, but teaching a child to see the value in giving of ourselves, its not only a good feeling, but it becomes a part of who they are, a part of who I am.

Although the daycare has never allowed hand held gaming devices, we have utilized technology in a constructive way.

We frequently use things like music, exercise, yoga, dance, and learning aids.

Technology is not an enemy if control and awareness are embraced. Its important to show restraint as adults, otherwise we loose our focus and attention, and set bad examples for our children. Children already have short attention spans, so making technology use mindful and engaging is a great way to influence limited use. Allowing chronic use of social media can aid loneliness, depression and anxiety. Even children become conditioned to dropping what they are doing in order to answer notifications.

Its important to understand that mindful technology just means avoiding wasteful technology. Using apps that are beneficial to your child, monitoring their time, being aware of what apps they are using, and ensuring they are using it by choice, not out of habit. There have been many times children in the daycare have voiced how their parents are too busy on their cell phones, and that they don’t feel seen by them. Your child should not have to compete with your cell phone for your time and attention. Help them by setting an example. Regain control over your own mind, health, and productivity.

Technology breaks, limited screen time, and utilizing parental controls are all useful aids in creating harmony. Valuing social interaction as well as providing creative boredom busters, encouraging physical activities, and actively being a good example of self control as adults is imperative. Remember digital technology is designed to capture our attention, so create boundaries, and use it intentionally.

Back before I knew better, (I say that loosely, because I still use it for popsicles), I use to make powdered juice for the kids as a treat. I justified it’s use because I could control the amount of sugar that got mixed in. It made me smile to see their little purple or red stained smiles as they thanked me for their treat on a hot summers day.

Communication is key between parents and I, especially if they don’t tell me something important.

Well on this particular day, the kids had been absolutely fabulous, stellar, most excellent, so a treat was in order. One of the best parts of this sweetened goodness was that they got to vote for their favorite flavor. The choices were purple, red, yellow, or blue, and purple won by a landslide! They got to help with the water, the grape powder, the sugar, every part. Apple slices, crackers, and grape juice equals happy children 🙂

All of a sudden a parent comes in earlier than normal, asking hurriedly for her children. Happy little purple stained smiles greats their Mother. “Oh my goodness!” she says, I look at her bewildered. “We have family pictures in half hour, there is no way those grape smiles are going to wash off.” Honestly I had no idea, and I felt terrible, but I didn’t know.

Needless to say they are the proud recipients of two family pictures with three little grape smiles, one for them and one for me! Gratefully the photographer had touched up the other photos so not all was lost. Communication is key 😉

Some days a person needs to embrace the simplicity of how a child thinks. Rainbow ice cream became a great start for teaching diversity. Differences and acceptance were taught and celebrated in my daycare.

One of my favorite “mistakes” was when one of my littles referred to another child as a chocolate person. We were having rainbow ice cream for dessert this particular day, and they were commenting which was their favorite flavor. As it turned out, the ice cream would become an amazing learning experience. This child genuinely wanted to know if they could lick the other child to find out how they tasted, and that they too wanted to grow up to be a chocolate person. Many of these opportunities helped me teach them diversity and that differences are wonderful.

Chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, all flavors of people are beautiful in their own way, the same but different. Although I never taught kids to be color blind, they were taught to acknowledge difference in a positive way. We embraced all races of people through stories, discussion, recipes, and art. We are all different and the same in many ways, and everyone should be celebrated. Rainbow ice cream, so many colors, and flavors coming together to create a tasty treat. Racism is taught, no one is born racist.

How did “No” become such a hated word? A word that our world has decided should be disgraced? There was a time I put in an effort to not use the word “No”. My thesaurus was completely exhausted lol 🙂

A particular story comes to mind that helped shape my resolve on the word “No”…

As a long time daycare provider, my daily life revolved around little people under the age of five. Admittedly most of my time was spent sitting on the floor playing games with the children, and refereeing. One particularly challenging child was working on “being gentle” and sharing with me. As a result I found myself saying “No” way too much, so I began looking up alternatives. Zed is not the child’s name, but for obvious reasons …

“Hey Zed how about instead of hitting our friends we go play with a puzzle, we have to remember to use our words when someone upsets us”, I took a deep breath, Zed was angry so maybe this diversion would work.

“Zed, please explain why you broke the toy? Now it is garbage. Lets get a different toy, try again and please be gentle”, pleased with myself he selected a different toy.

“Zed, are we making good choices, how about coloring?”

The days turned to weeks. Zed continued down the same pathway, constantly being corrected. Finally after being mentally and physically exhausted, I sat Zed down with his parents. The conversation included everything the daycare had done to help resolve the the problem, all of the deterrents. Finally his weary Parents ask Zed, “Why didn’t you just stop misbehaving so you could play with your friends?”

Zed takes a deep breath, smiles and says “Well she never said No, every time I did something wrong, she gave me something new to do instead”

25 years of running a daycare equals many children passing through my door. It also equals lots of heartaches, tears, joy, and many good-byes only shadowed by the love for each child.

Most families would start and finish daycare with me. For some, that could mean 13 plus years of working together to raise their children. No matter the amount of time, all the children are etched securely in my heart. It’s a love that is quick and plentiful. You can’t spend time with children and not love them.

The downside to my job is eventually I become a memory. It use to bother me, but you get use to it, most of the time, sometimes.

Social media has afforded me the luxury to watch many of them grow up. But it also brings a loneliness of knowing even though you spent a great deal of time with them, you are no longer an important part anymore. No more invites, no more visits, no more phone calls, no more mentions of your time with them. Just a memory.

Every year during Graduation I look in the paper to see how many of “my kids” graduated. My pride soars with every award they win, scholarships, and class Valedictorians. Every year I feel forgotten. Every year I cheer for them from the sidelines.

One particular year, a group of my daycare children graduated. I had decided instead of mooning over the lost years, I was going to “partake of some spirits” with my family around our backyard fire pit, leaving my phone in my pocket. It was nice, needed, and it took my mind off of everything.

The fire was crackling, and the conversation was good for the soul. My husband turns and says to me, “you might want to check out your phone you were tagged in something”

For the first time my little group of graduating children remembered me. They posted a picture of them all standing together in their grad outfits with the title “This one is for Kathy”. I have never cried so hard.

Every child loves stickers. The children at my daycare are no exception, stickers are awesome. Given a piece of paper and a bunch of stickers, the children could craft for hours.

Character stickers change over the years, and in the earlier daycare years, Winnie The Pooh was the coveted stickers of choice.

The craft of the day was a printed scenic picture for them to color, telling them there was a surprise after. I had purchased stickers of the beloved character, hiding them for later use. I encouraged the kids to do the best work on their coloring pages, telling them there was something special coming. Smiles spread across their faces, the delight in their eyes was everything I had hoped for. I couldn’t hold my excitement any longer, as I pulled open the bag for them to see, stickers flew everywhere 🙂

After cleaning up the mess, pictures were adorned with Winnie the pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, and Christopher Robin. The children were all very pleased with their masterpieces.

Knowing the amount of time and concentration put into their art work, as a result their energy was overflowing. Exercises, and stretching were in desperate need to help bring them back down.

Exercises are greeted with excitement, but this time they were being just plain silly. Giggling, stretching, running in place, laughing, on the floor for deep breathing, hysterical laughter rang loud. At this point I was admittedly a little annoyed, so I ask them, “I am glad your are all enjoying the exercise break, but can you please share with me what is so funny?” Through giggles and snorts one of the children say “Because you have Pooh on your sock, you stepped in Pooh”.