Entries Tagged 'Fun and Kids Stuff' ↓

If you’re a childcare provider, here are some tips to get ready for summertime play:

1) Ask parents to bring cool clothing to keep on hand

2) Keep the children out of the sun during the hottest time of the day. Good times to play outside in summer are from 9-11 a.m. and 3-6 p.m.

3) Check all outside toys and play structures for loose or missing parts. Do regular cleanings of toys & play structures with eco-friendly cleaner, a scrubby sponge, & a spray hose.

4) Walk your fence line and check for loose or missing boards or nails

5) Check trees with low large limbs for splits which could fall if pulled on

6) Fill water bottles ¾ full the night before and freeze. Have the children make a name label put to on their bottles. Place the bottles in a box or on a tray outside and encourage the kids to drink 2-4 bottles of water each day.

7) If having trouble getting the kids to drink water, add some lemon or orange slices or make kool-aid or juice ice cubes to add to drinking water

Serve fruit smoothies, milkshakes or POPSICLES!

9) Coat everyone well with Sunscreen (Have a signed authorization form prior to application)

10) Fire up the sprinkler (if allowed by your licensing agency)

11) Keep a small first aid kit outdoors

12) Encourage bathroom use before going outdoors to prevent children being unsupervised.

13) Create a separate list of outdoor rules i.e. No one leaves the yard, no climbing on the fence, no throwing except for balls, shoes off before reentering the house, etc. Go over the rules the first few days of outdoor play.

14) Do not apply bug repellent to the children unless authorized in writing and requested by parents.

15) If you have your home sprayed for pests, check to make sure that it is safe for children and pets and confirm what precautions you need to take when the children go outdoors after being sprayed.

16) Do not fertilize your plants or lawn during the week, do this on the weekend to allow time for the fertilizer to dissolve.

17) Encourage indoors toys to stay in and outdoor toys to stay out.

18) Offer fun yet messy activities such as sidewalk chalk, finger-painting and play dough.

19) Provide safe outdoor activities such as a child friendly play structure, sand box; ride on toys and balls. Set up sporting stations with a mini basketball hoop or cones for mini soccer games.

20) Keep a cellular or cordless phone outdoors so you can be available to parents as needed, while being able to supervise outdoor play at all times.

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The winter holiday season is a GREAT time to promote your child care program.  Here are four easy ways to tie into the holidays, and get some great publicity for your center.  The key thing to remember is, it’s all about your community.  Learn about what’s going on in your community, and tie into existing events…or create brand new events that really get your name out there!

1)      Research all the child-related events in your local area, and choose one or two to tie into.  It helps if you can partner with a large non-profit in your town, like the Rotary Club or Jaycees, because the local media is more likely to pick up on your story if you are raising money for a good cause.

     For example, in our town, I just helped my child care center partner with the Rotary Club during its annual Santa on the Green event.  We held a raffle that raised $520 towards the Rotary Foundation, and a staff member dressed up as “Elf” handed out cookies to all kids waiting in line.  The cookies were given in cute bags with our logo on them.  We received 3 mentions in the local paper and one photo.

2)      Hold a canned food drive, a toy drive, or a clothing drive (i.e. used winter coats and boots).  Do a press release letting everyone know about the drive, where to bring the items, and who it’s benefitting.

3)      Host a party featuring Santa, at your facility.  Invite the community to come, provide refreshments, photos with Santa, etc. for anyone in the community.

4)      Give away a complimentary Holiday Gift, such as a children’s book or educational toy.  You can get cute postcard-sized glossy cards printed very inexpensively (I use VistaPrint), and hand out the promotional cards to local retailers’ for their counters.  We placed cards at our local bookstore, the children’s hair salon, Gymboree, and children’s consignment shops.

With a little creativity, you can find some really fun ways to promote your program and get a big boost in name recognition, leading to more enrollments in the long run.

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The ghosts and goblins will be out and about before you know it…Halloween is just around the corner.  This year it’s falling on a Saturday, so Friday, October 30 will be a great day for a party.  Then send the kids home all hyped up on sugar to let the parents know what your life is like all day.  (Okay, maybe that’s not such a great idea.)

As you know, kids AND adults love Halloween, so spend a little time planning some fun activities, and you’ll be loved by kids and parents alike.

Here are some ideas:

• Host a costume party.  You can have the kids bring their costumes from home, or make new ones.  Help the kids make masks of their favorite scary animal, then let them march around in a parade pretending to be that animal.
• Read Halloween books and tell spooky stories.
• Play silly Halloween songs like “The Monster Mash” and have a dance party!
• Make decorations they can take home.  Here’s some websites packed full of great ideas.
  • http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts/season/specialfeature/halloween_ms_crafts/
  • http://familycrafts.about.com/od/halloween/Halloween_Crafts_for_Families.htm
• Sing some Halloween songs.  Here’s a great place to find some:  http://www.kididdles.com/lyrics/spookysongs.html

Now that I’ve given you a few of my ideas, please tell me when you plan to do for Halloween or great ideas you’ve done in the past.  Just use the comment section below, let’s see how many ideas we can come up with.

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Check out my family in this recent picture.  Can you pick out the one that doesn’t belong?  Yep, that’s my husband, die hard to his old team to the end.  Our family loves to dress up like this, and so do most kids, so have some fun with your local teams.

Check the schedule or the major sports teams in your town.  Find out when they are playing and what the major games may be.  If you’re not sure, ask the dads of a couple of your kids, they’ll know.  Then plan a day or week around the team.

If your baseball team made the playoffs, have a baseball week with everyone wearing team colors on Friday.  You can have hot dogs and caramel corn (Cracker Jacks has peanuts) for lunch.

When your football team has a weekday game or major rivalry, have a football week.

Some great ideas of things you can do:

• Use the sport to teach math and words.  Use the game as a basis for the learning.
• Create art and projects around the game.  Think painting helmets or a hand print.
• Use this as a great time to teach fair play and sportsmanship.
• Teach the rules of the game.  Kids love to know how to play, so teach them.
• Contact your sports team’s PR office and see if they can send you some “autographed” photos of players or the mascot.  Most teams have piles of these they will happily send to you.
• If you live close to a major team, you might even consider a field trip to the stadium if you can set up a tour.

Activities like this are a great way to grow your center and your brand.  Children love sports and teams.  They will get excited as they get ready for the week and the dressing up at the end of the week they will be bouncing off the walls with happiness.

The kids and their parents will tell friends and neighbors about the sports week.  Now you will be the daycare on everyone’s mind.  Plus all the art work and other projects come home and to the office.  Yes the kids love it, but it is also another great way to show off and remind parents why you are the best place for their kids to be.

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My daughter Maeve turns 4 next week, and we’ve got alot of fun things planned for her.  She’s at that great age where it’s all about princesses, fairies, Barbie, her stuffed animals (doggies), and helping Mommy in the kitchen and the garden. 

For her birthday, we’re hosting a “bear party” at Bear-On-The-Square here in our home town.  Kinda like Build-a-Bear Workshop at the mall, but even more quaint.  We’re expecting a total of 10 kids, a mix of boys and girls.  At the party, the kids will design & decorate mini t-shirts for their bears to wear, then they’ll make the bears, then cake & presents, and the grand finale is a Bear Parade with an actual human-sized bear leading the way!

I LOVE birthdays and celebrating my children’s special days have been a highlight of my mommyhood.  Please comment on this blog post if you’d like to share any creative ideas you’ve done or seen for this age group, girls or boys.  I’m sure we’d all love to hear eachother’s fun ideas and experiences on birthdays.

The other tradition we always do is a birthday muffin in the morning, with a candle, and the family sings a good morning “happy birthday” song.  Kinda fun, and a great way to start the day.  We also have a Mickey Mouse oversized birthday hat with candles on top that light up when you press a button (which of course we got in Orlando), so whoever’s the birthday girl or boy wears the hat. 

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Just a quick post to let you know how to find me on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/people/Kris-Murray/782608920

If you haven’t become member of Facebook yet, I highly recommend it.  It’s free, fun, and the best way to keep in touch with old friends, while making new ones.  Click the above link to become my Facebook “friend” and check out what I’m up to!

Looking forward to ”meeting” you there….

Kris 

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