Fun Kid Stuff

Articles, ideas and news on how to have fun with kids in a daycare. Great information for parents, teachers, and owners to use to make daycare fun.

Lip Reading Babies

All Articles and News, Finding a Daycare, Fun Kid Stuff, Parenting

New research is suggesting babies learn to talk by watching how people speak and form words, and not just from hearing sounds.

Florida scientists have discovered that starting around six months of age babies begin to shift their attention away from eye gaze and start to study peoples mouths when they talk to them.

It does not take them long to absorb the information. . Generally one year of age babies start begin returning their attention to the eyes. However if they hear an unusual sound, like from a foreign language, they will return their attention to the lips in order to learn how to make the sound.

So what does all this mean.

Really it is just more support showing parents need to spend quality time with their babies, talking to them and reading to them. This is far more important than just giving babies something to do, or watching the TV. By taking the time and reading to babies so they can hear the words and see you speak, or just talking to them you can help your child learn to speak better and quicker.

When looking for a child care for your child you should also take this need into account when reviewing programs. Be looking for child care providers who read to babies, and that have a ratio low enough to allow them to talk to each child several times during the day.

It looks like learning to speak is even more complex than we had ever thought.

Balancing Family and Daycare

All Articles and News, Daycare Business, Finding a Daycare, Fun Kid Stuff, Parenting

Working at home with your own children as a family daycare provider offers many rewards and challenges. Having a positive attitude and operating a home daycare in a business-like manner plays a major role in the success you may or may not experience.

Your attitude can greatly affect how you act or react to the challenges you may encounter while caring for other children in your home.

Simply talking to your children or daycare children and being creative in how you handle certain behaviors or situations, allows you the opportunity to deal with those instances as they occur. Quite often, you can turn an unpleasant situation into something that is laughable or at least manageable.

It is imperative that your children feel special and loved. They need to know that even though they share you with other children during “Daycare hours” you love them and are available when they need you.

One great tip is to signal to your children when mom’s in “work mode” by wearing a special apron, visor, hat, or other clothing item with the name of your daycare & a cute logo. When you put your apron or visor on, it means the work day has started. Parents will also take you more seriously, and your kids will know it’s time to follow the daycare rules.

Following a daily schedule and being organized should allow the time needed to complete the necessary tasks of maintaining a home and running a business, while making quality time for your own children.

Enforcing strict hours of operation for daycare parents should reduce the number of early and late arrivals, which can greatly impact your family life and your children’s behavior.

It’s also important when you spend so much time at home, as a mother, provider and wife to make time for you as a person. Make a point to get out of the house every other night, if not every night. Go for a walk, go to the mall, the library, take a class, do whatever it takes to get away from the house on a regular basis and focus on you.

Scheduling ample “time off” not only for yourself but for your family to attend school functions, vacations and doctor appointments is also an essential element of providing home daycare. This allows you time to refresh yourself and spend more quality time with your family.

20 Tips for Summertime Fun

All Articles and News, Daycare Business, Fun Kid Stuff, Parenting

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

8) 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.

Shaping Children’s Attitudes toward Learning and Setting High Expectations

All Articles and News, Daycare Business, Fun Kid Stuff, Parenting

I came across a great article in the paper this week. The article is about which volunteer jobs are the most helpful to kids. Here’s the article: http://online.wsj.com/article

I like the information of where to volunteer and think parents may like it (i.e. something for your newsletter:-)). I found this section to be very relevant to those of us in child care as well as parents:

“Throughout school, the most important parental role of all is to shape your child’s attitude toward learning and school, communicate high expectations, and help him or her set goals and solve learning problems.

And setting expectations doesn’t mean telling kids, “We are bound and determined that you are going to get into Harvard,” Dr. Hoover-Dempsey says; it means sending a message that “doing the best you can is important for all the things you’re going to be able to do in life.” In elementary school, such coaching has roughly twice as big an impact on children’s grades and test scores as volunteering.“

As caregivers we have a massive impact on the kids in our care. We owe it to them and ourselves to do the best we can for them. Teach them to love learning, have fun with it, to do their best in everything they do, and to set meaningful goals in life.

Get Your Kids Up and Moving in Your Daycare Center!

All Articles and News, Daycare Business, Fun Kid Stuff, Parenting

It’s known that habits we form as kids tend to continue into adulthood. The habit of exercise and outdoor activity is especially powerful when taught to young children and maintained as a regular practice.
Here are some startling statistics:

39% of adults are not engaging in leisure physical activity
60% of Americans are not regularly active
25% are not active at all
The average American spends the equivalent of 60 days a year in front of the television
The average time spent playing video games has gone up 25% in the last 4 years
34% of children are overweight or obese

And we wonder why we are fat as a society.
It is important to teach kids at a very young age to get outside, to move and to be physically active. If it’s not taught as kids it becomes progressively harder to teach at older ages. If kids are allowed to sit in front of a TV or computer all day as a toddler, they don’t learn the mental skills and enjoyment of physical activity.
I understand you can’t have the kids out playing every minute of every day. That’s just not reasonable, there’s other activates, learning, napping, and just bad weather (I’m near Cleveland, Ohio – we can go weeks without being able to get outside). But you should aim for 60 minutes a day.
The “one hour a day plan” is a great place to start. You don’t need to do all the time at once, it can be broken up into several 15 minute or 30 minute time periods. In fact the NFL has a current campaign, their Play 60 program. If you go there you will see they have some great idea and helpful activities.
Here are some other ideas you can use:

Go for a walk/hike around the neighborhood. Even walking is good for you. Have the children all hold onto a rope as you lead them around. You can even use this time to stop and learn about things as you pass them.
Play the hokey-pokey or Hullaballoo Game. These are great fun and get the kids up and moving around.
Dance. Kids love to dance, put on some music and let them go. Go a step further and teach them some moves. Here’s a good search I did to get you going: http://www.ehow.com/search.aspx?s=kid+dance+moves&Options=0
Create your own TV shows. Do skits or plays with the kids. Again it is more important for kids to learn to get up and move not so much high levels of physical activities.
Have the kids clean up the childcare toys. Yes this may take a lot of time and you may still pick up most of the toys but in the process you will get the kids up and moving. You also get to teach the kids great responsibility life skills.
Let me know what other activities you do with kids to get them physically act every day.

Those of us in the child care industry have a responsibility to try and teach the kids in our care to be the best they possibly can be. One part of this is to teach them to be physically active.