What Type Of Childcare Do You Run?

[Ariana]

I would say I'm a bit of everything! I have circle time once a day, we go outside 2x a day for walks to local parks etc. I also encorporate some form of art each day as well. The 'rest' of the time is free play. It is a structured program in that we follow a schedule. I am flexible to an extent but the kids generally know what comes next.

I will do more structured activities with older kids who aren't napping, so things like printing pages and math work etc. but it's not every day because my oldest right now is 3. When I had a 4-5 year old we did reading, math and writing almost every day.

[daycare]

I just changed my program again. I think I change it about every other year.

Now I am only teaching M_W_F and on Tue and Thur its all about nature, exploring outdoors, and inventing. (the kids have to make their own toys)

I guess I would have to say that I am a little of everything.

We do circle time
Class time'
Projects
free play
discovery centers
Lots of sensory bins and more

I think we all set out with the idea that preschool is fun to teach like they did when we were kids at centers, just to realize that most of the teaching don't really let the children be children and explore their minds so freely...
I too spent all that time and money just to change it over the years. However, I felt horrible about all the money invested so I still incorporate small amount of circle time teaching into it.

[Lianne]

This is the exact same process I went through too! It took me longer than you to finally "get it" though...

Nice job!! Lianne

I was embarrased to talk about my guilty feelings for a long time. It was the different daycare forums that allowed me to give myself permission to just be who I am and that I am a good provider with or without a preschool program. It's nice to feel comfortable in my daycare provider skin

[Lianne]

Lianne...thank you, you brought tears to me eyes. Ya know, I have always highly respected you as well. I think you are a FABULOUS provider and a really cool person as well

Sorry for going off topic, OP.

We both rock!

[Sugar Magnolia]

Small center, multi-age approach to learning

Small center, not in my home, run by me and my husband. We are most like a large family daycare, but licensed as a center as we don't live here. We use a multi-age approach. All ages, 1-5, spend 75% of their day together. Twice a day (morning, afternoon) we split into two groups. Bigs do preschool activities, Littles do developmental activities. We have 3 rooms, a small room for smaller groups (6 max) a large room for the whole group (15) and a sunroom that is for creative play (kitchen, store, housekeeping, dolls, puppets, trains along the window sills). 7:30-12:30 we have a p/t staffer and we do small groups (1:5 ratio, UNHEARD of for large centers) and after nap we can do two groups (1:6 Littles and 1:9 Bigs). This is really a "hybrid" environment. Small group size and individualized attention you get in a home daycare, AND the curriculum and structure of a preschool center. Works so, So, SO well for us, our parents, our kids. I'm a big advocate of this approach. Of course, you can't do this approach if you are by yourself, you need a helper to separate into groups in separate rooms. You can pm me if you want to learn more or if you want to see my website or published article.

[hoopinglady]

Now I am only teaching M_W_F and on Tue and Thur its all about nature, exploring outdoors, and inventing. (the kids have to make their own toys

Could you give more details about your Tues/Thursday thing? It sounds right up my alley. Do you just put stuff out for them to invent with?

[Country Kids]

Now I am only teaching M_W_F and on Tue and Thur its all about nature, exploring outdoors, and inventing. (the kids have to make their own toys

Could you give more details about your Tues/Thursday thing? It sounds right up my alley. Do you just put stuff out for them to invent with?

Yes, please tell more of that. How do you do the nature, exploring outdoors. Do you take them somewhere to do that or just outside. What do you explore or are you just letting them play. What if they don't want to invent a toy?

[erinalexmom]

erinalexmom,
what is sing number rock? ((to count to 20)

Sorry we sing the song"the number rock" its a greg and steve song.They count to 20 in the song so the kids are learning to count to20
Im a terrible writer! Sorry about that

[hoopinglady]

I am super conflicted too.

I believe in play based. I do put a lot of thought into the environment and materials used.

I used lots of open ended stuff and very often recycled type stuff.

We have circle time most every day.

I have loose learning centers set up but they change all the time as I/we see fit including a workshop that is for sensory tubs, artistic creations, legos, etc.

I'd like to have more intentional planned stuff but it feels overwhelming and often forced.

[kendallina]

I run a preschool. It's only a 3-hour/day program, so obviously very different from someone who is doing all day care on top of that, but I did want to say that we don't do 'teaching' for the whole 3 hours. I believe that preschool needs to be a mixture of child-led activities (free play, outside time) and teacher-led activities (small group time/circle time/etc). Here's what my routine looks like if it helps at all:


9:00-9:20 Morning meeting

9:20-9:45 Small group

9:45-10:15 Outside (generally free play and/or a walk)

10:15- 10:45 Snack

10:45-11:30 Free play (in playroom)

11:30-12:00 Circle time/story time

Morning meeting is where we talk about what our topic of study is, we have discussion about anything else going on (like, we're doing a can food drive right now), we play a game or sing songs or make a chart about something or other.

Small group is generally the time that we're at the table and painting, making books, doing playdough, whatever...

Circle time/storytime--songs, books, fingerplays, dance, etc.

Every preschool classroom that I've worked in has a similar kind of set-up, where you don't 'teach' the whole time as that's not appropriate for 3- year olds, but rather there are times when they make choices and times when I make choices and guide the group.

Not sure if that helps or not, hope it does!

[daycare]

here is some of what we do on tues & thur

Yesterday example we went on a treasure hunt.

I planned a map, drew one out, did the whole presentation in the morning. I tied a bow around the rolled up paper and we opened it up during breakfast.

It was nothing amazing that I did, but the kids thought that it was the greatest thing ever.... love that they are easily impressed. Gave the kids bandannas and we drew on an eye patch on our faces... Pirates arrrr

I took all of our lessons that we have been learning about fall and made up a ton of questions to go with the map.

LIke: This grows on trees...and dogs like to ______. so they can talk to us.

We then collected tree bark off of the trees at the park. We go to this park all of the time, so I knew the bark was peeling off the trees already.

So we found a huge list of items that all led us to the tall pine tree at the end. It was the big X that marked the spot. At the end we found a basket of paint supplies, paper, and some yummy snacks. (lots of painting stuff)

We then used all of the items we found in nature to paint with or to be painted on:

leaves
pine needles
moss
rocks
acorn
pine cone
tree bark
twigs
feather
small berries (not sure what they are actually) but we painted with them.

Now this was more of a nature outside day.

SOme of the other days outside tue & thur (again weather permitting)

are shadow painting
Really anything that is just too messy to do indoors
gardening
Field trips, we just went on a nature hike lead by a forest ranger... She brought out animal pelts and showed all the animals that live in our local parks. this was way fun.

Our invention days usually consist of the kids building things of their own.

make your own play dough
we built a house out of large pieces of cardboard. Even had a roof. We made windows, doors and painted everything. Even had a set of keys we made to open the front door.

I normally take out all of the toys (which is not much in my DC room) and they have to make them. We use all sorts of cardboard boxes. Shoe boxes.
We built an Igloo out of them and were Eskimos.
we make tents out of sheets

I guess just think of when you were a kid and did not have all of these silly electronic stuff like today...

Basically I supply them with items that forces them to use their minds and creativity to make something.

I wish I had my lap top, I would share our invention days with you.....I took lots of picks of our toys we made.

Right now, the kids are standing right behind me at white goo table.. they have been at it for almost an hour.

yoy take two parts constarch with one part water...waaa-llaaa Goo..
then we added food coloring into each different pan...
Now it is one big brown mess....

[Heidi]

I am play based.

I, personally, could never sit in a circle and teach "at" kids. It's just not me. everything we do is hands-on type of learning. We're learning as we go.

I can't over plan anything. I pretty much fly by the seat of my pants depending on what the kiddos are into that week, or day....

I am all about "teachable moments".

People think child led or free range means the kids are in control and run a muck in your house, but thats not true. My kids still have structure and rules to follow.

They simply "choose" what area to play in, and what topics we are learning about.

Some days we have big projects going, some days are too beautiful outside to do anything but be out there, some days we just play, some days are just like being home and they see me / help me around the house (weeding gardens, folding socks, etc) and some days we say heck with it all and snuggle on the couch.

Then there are some days when full bellies, clean bottoms, and the fact that no one lost a limb or any hair is considered a GOOD day.

At their ages, I'm also more teaching self help skills and social skills first. IMO, that is more important then if they can read in Chinese or do algebra. If they can zip their own coat and say excuse me, the rest is all gravy.

This is me, too. THere is a general schedule of meals and naptime we go by each day, but sometimes times are adjusted. I try to introduce supervised activities for the children, but rarely "teach" them anything structured. I am also about the teachable moments. Today we made brownies (from a mix), and I just narrated what I was doing. I showed them the cup measures, and how 4 1/4 cup measures fit into one whole, or 2 of the 1/2 fit into a whole. I demonstrated with water at the sink.

We colored with pencils. Some fell on the floor. At clean-up, I said "hey, we started with 12 colored pencils, how many do we have now? (count them out aloud) We had 8, so we are missing 4. Can you help me find the other 4? Now do we have 12? (count again out loud). "yes, we have them all!"

My group isn't particularly creative. They need a lot of help playing, and I've noticed they do better with smaller spaces of free-play. Today I noticed that the 3 & 4 yo sibs were actually playing nicely together, using the duplos in creative ways. It felt like such a victory!

Other things I do:
-put the babies pants on my head when I'm changing a diaper and pretending to be a dog.
-sing wierd songs when people are being naughty (my favorite is "You can't always have what you want" by the Rolling Stones. but if you cry sometimes, you get, you get what you need, oh yeah"
-everyone has a color assigned to them. That is their cup color, and there are lots of ways to mess with the kids on that. THey LOVE catching me confuse the cups.
-finding Raffi tunes on Utube and having a dance-off. Or, some good old butt-wiggling disco or rap music (appropriate lyrics only).

I absolutely do housework when the kids are here, too. Sometimes they help, sometimes the older ones play while the younger ones are stuck in a safe place (clip on chair or baby zone) and I do it alone, or sometimes at nap time. 3 and 4 yo's are are great slave labor if you need socks matched up! Of course, the toddlers are usually throwing them on the floor, but that's ok, too!

[kendallina]

A little note on the posts that talked about just allowing children to play. I think this is extremely important---it's OKAY to just let them PLAY!! I have a couple of girls that I watch in the afternoons as well and during this time they just play, I don't do preschool stuff with them. We'll usually do an art activity while they're here, but that's it, the rest is free play. And I cannot express how INCREDIBLE it is to just watch them PLAY. I can't play with them like that. They aren't going to learn the same skills that they learn through play as they learn when I'm interacting with them. I have started really loving my afternoons with these kiddos and I don't feel any pressure to 'do things' with them. Generally, I'm doing laundry, cleaning up, prepping for the next day, etc. The parents know this and are fine with it.

Now, I'm like you in that I really like doing the preschool stuff. And it's definitely what my clients want. But, I don't think providers should feel like they have to do that part. Just being with a group of children, having some sense of routine, and being exposed to proper materials, the children are going to learn A LOT!

[youretooloud]

We do a very little bit of preschool, with a play based day.

I'm very free range. If the weather is good, they can go out or come in. We do a lot outside in the cold weather, but not in the hot weather.

I use a combination of "High reach" preschool curriculum, and my own stuff. I almost never give them a "craft". It's all creative free art. Once in a while, I'll print something for the kids to do to appease the oldest kids.

[Danielle]

Mine is more home environment style. I keep very few kids...as of now, I have my kids and depending on the day, only 1-2 daycare kids. Meals, snacks and rest time (my son doesn't nap) are scheduled but that's it. We do arts/crafts, story time, outside, etc but it's not scheduled. We kinda just play the day by ear. I've taken daycare kids to the store but rarely do that. I don't keep the TV on all day but I don't feel bad that cartoons are on and my kids are sitting on the couch in their PJs at drop offs. I love that the kids don't need me by their side all the time. It's pretty normal that they will all be playing in the livingroom while I'm folding laundry etc. It works for us but I think my numbers is one of the reasons why it works. Another reason is the way my house is. The front of my house is the livingroom and kitchen and that's mainly where daycare is. The only part of the back of the house that's used for daycare is my daughters room (baby nap area) and the bathroom...my house isn't huge so I'm within hearing at all times.