Monday, June 15, 2020

Summer Vacation Week 2


It was a short daycare week, as this was the week that a puppy joined our family and daycare! We had one last week of toys with small pieces (Barbie's), pool time, a birthday celebration, and LOTS of outside time as usual. The big thing (other than puppy Zeus) for the week was talking about racism, we watched the Sesame Street Townhall show, and talked about what is going on in the United States right now. It was interesting to hear everyone's point of view, but the overall feelings of the kids is "why do people care about the color of skin?" I love the way kids think and are so accepting of everyone!

Here's a few highlights from the week:

Elizabeth celebrated her 8th birthday with her friends by doing her favorite things. Read about her daycare party here.


Baking soda "snow" in the play kitchen is always a hit. The kids pretend to cook with it, serve it in bowls and on plates to each other and dolls. 


We haven't had the Barbie's up in quite awhile. The kids played with them all week long. We had a couple of rainy days, but I had to literally talk the kids into playing outside on the nice days!



We learned about the history of television, then I introduced them to a classic: I Love Lucy. I started with the grape stomping episode. They requested to watch an episode or two daily since that Tuesday. Their other favorite thing to watch are cooking shows. 


A journal entry that I had to get clarification on. Going from Covid to riots on the news every night can be a lot for kids to see and process. We then talked about how the riots and protest are to bring about a much needed change. This is why I love to have the kids journal every day. Their thoughts are important and sometimes they have questions they didn't even know they had.

This is how math time looks--cheating with the phone calculator. Every evening I have them do at least one subject a few nights a week just to keep things fresh in their minds.



I've been loving art time with the kids each Wednesday. We've done a couple of murals, but we're also learning various styles of art. This was a fun one on a rainy morning.

I love this picture so much. Despite various options all around, the kids are all crammed into one room, talking amongst themselves, happy as can be. I love little moments like this. This group of kids have known each other for years/their entire lives and it shows. They can fight like brothers and sisters, but that doesn't matter the next minute and they're back to being best friends.

Elizabeth didn't want to do science on her birthday celebration day, so we did it on Wednesday instead. We did an experiment using water, food coloring, and oil. The food coloring going to the bottom was suppose to explode like fireworks. I didn't see it, but according to the kids it happened for a bit. We then learned about water and oil properties and how this experiment worked.



Thursday consisted of lots of outside time, building a fort with the Waffle Blocks, cleaning up, and picking puppy Zeus! Best ending to the short week ever!


The kids build a zoo and they were the animals. Very fitting. I laughed as I was taking pictures because a group of 8 year olds stopped playing and pointed to a plane in the sky. I love how big and little they can seem at the same time.

Group reading time outside.






They did a slumber party with the puppy so he wouldn't be sad and whine. 

I'm anxious to see how daycare is in the next few weeks. Like many things, I have an idea of how I want things to work between the kids and the puppy, but I also know that could totally not work! No matter what, the kids will be kept busy between playing with Zeus, taking care of him, and regular daycare activities. It should be a summer to remember!