The Importance of Newsletters

I have ALWAYS used newsletters in my child care program. Not only does it make your program more professional, but it also keeps your parents updated in our fast-paced world. Of course, face to face interaction is the best way to keep your parents updated and informed.; as well as parent involvement in your program (we'll save parent involvement for another blog entry). But as we know, life can get hectic for any and everyone. From extra-curricular activities, to homework, to groceries, to work and back again, some days might be "scoop up the kids and out the door" kind of day. I feel newsletters can help keep the parents involved with their children's days, weeks and months. If Mrs. Roberts scooped up little Susie today and quickly left, thanks to our monthly newsletter, Mrs. Roberts can confidently ask Susie "So, did you learn anything new about your senses today?". Susie can now be excited to explain to her mom about her lesson on her five senses. 

In the beginning of my child care career, my newsletter started with just words typed out on a piece of printer paper. It did it's job. Then I saw another provider's colorful and playful newsletter. So I decided to "fancy" it up a bit. My newsletter has visually evolved over the years, but the content has typically stayed the same. It always lists important dates, important reminders (no fevers over 100.3), and most importantly it lists our themes, ideas, letter, numbers & colors etc.. 

Newsletters are also a good way to address a situation without singling out a specific parent, child or group. For an example, when parent(s) start to slip on timeliness of payments, it's easy to note in the newsletter "Please remember payments on their due date. Please refer to your contract on payments and late fees. These will be strictly enforced. Thank you for understanding". 

I have to say that since I started using Funshine Express as our curriculum, newsletters have never been so easy, because they are included! The newsletters that are included are simple yet beautiful. It has everything regarding what the children will be learning that month. What I really love about the Funshine Express newletters is the "extras". They have parent involvement activities right on their for the parents. An example, on the December newsletter there is a cooking activity the parents can do with their children at home. We are learning about the 5 senses this month. The cooking activity is an apple/bread bake. It gives the ingredients, the recipe and EVEN gives tips as how to connect it to what their learning at preschool, their 5 senses. I will provide pictures of some recent newsletters from Funshine Express below.

December front:

 December back:

Buttercups Nov/Dec front:

As always enter the following code to receive $20 off of your first order!

Medieval Make-Believe!

Our theme for the first 2 weeks of November was Medieval Make-Believe. Oh boy did the the kids LOVE it!! We voted on our favorite parts of the theme and these were the 2 winners:

1. Creating our crowns

2. Reading the story "The Frog Prince"

Runner-Up: studying our "King" card

In the story, "The Frog Prince" we learned about a Princess who was not a very good friend. She didn't keep her promises and did not like to share with her friends. We were able to extend the story lesson into everyday experiences. When a friend here didn't share a toy or tricked another friend, it was a chance to remind the children how it makes our friends feel when we behave that way. Which led to multiple discussions DAILY about ways to be a good friend.

These were all activities done on different days of the week. Everything pictured in the pictures is included in the Funshine Express curriculum that I use. I can't praise the curriculum enough. Everything that comes in the kits is so kid-friendly yet tied into school preparation.

Update on our changing trees project: Well it's the middle of November and we have 80 degree weather...... so there hasn't been much change in the trees, or any change at all really. We are hoping to see some colors in the next week or two. We are supposed to be get into the 60s. FINALLY! Sweaters, boots and scarves.

Don't forget to use my code below to receive $20 off of your first kit! The only thing you'll regret about purchasing this curriculum is that you didn't do so earlier!

Rain Rain Stay And Play!

I had a slight hiatus from the blog, But we are back in business!

As Funshine Express is great about incorporating the weather changes in their curriculum, we decided to take a nature walk around the neighborhood. We concluded during our morning meeting, the weather was "sunny but there were some clouds" so our meteorologist told us it was partly cloudy. "Partly cloudy and warm" to be exact! While playing out back Andy noticed that our trees are still green but the neighbor's tree was changing colors. Perfect opportunity for an extension! We decided to go on a nature walk and compare the neighborhood trees. While we on our walk and collecting leaves that have fallen, it began to sprinkle! There was no lightning or thunder so instead of running back to the house, we enjoyed the rain.  Elizabeth decided to use a large leaf as her "brella". Then we found a puddle. We watched as the small rain drops fell in the water and created ripples. We tried dropping different sized rocks to compare the ripples. Then of course the kids got to jump in the puddle before we headed inside. We extended the water experiment more when we got back into the house. We used a deep cookie sheet filled with water and dropped items of various weights and sizes and it was a blast to see what splashed and what didn't. As well as what made bigger ripples than other objects. Usually, here in South Georgia, when there is rain there is also lightning and thunder, so boy did we take advantage of the rain-only rain! 

EEEK! We Have Mice!!

The 3 cutest mice I've ever seen!

No rat infestation here! But October began our Mischievous Mice theme from Funshine Express. This craft we did was amazing. We read the book "Hickory Dickory Dock" which came in the curriculum for the month. The kids loved the story. In fact they asked for me to read it again. Then we went into the mouse ears craft. Our 4 year old was excited to practice his cutting skills.

As that kept Andy busy for a bit, I was able to help the girls glue their pink circles on and measure each others' head. When the ears were all complete, the kids wore the head bands ALL DAY! I mean we went on a walk around the neighborhood to explore the changing trees and Halloween decorations and they had their ears on. At one point the girls insisted on wearing their headbands backwards. 

LEAF ACTIVITIES

I absolutely love doing leaf activities. While on our walk on Friday we collected leaves from different trees around the neighborhood. Then we did leaf rubs and the kids found it to be coolest thing. I'll post a picture of their rubs later this week. Today we will be sorting the leaves. We will sort them by color. Then sort them all by shapes. Then we can sort them by the type of leaf. Then the kids will get to create their own leaf collage.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Our Tiny Treasure Maggie Grace welcomed her baby sister into the world just after midnight this morning! Baby Emma Lily will be joining us November. Congratulations to Chris and Ashley Greene!

Remember! If you would like to begin using Funshine Express use my unique code BBT15 at checkout to receive $20 off of your first kit. This is for NEW CUSTOMERS only.

OCTOBER IS UPON US

October is my FAVORITE month of the year. Fall is my favorite season in all aspects. I love the cooler weather (sweaters, boots, scarves oh my!). I love football season. I love the colors. I love decorating. I love families spending more time together. And I love the fall activities that are possible with the kids! 

October's Extended Project:

The Trees Are Changing

The trees and plants change so much during the month of October. Two weeks ago the kids noticed more leaves on the ground out back. So it started our discussion of the leaves changing. We decided to document the trees changing out back. We will take a picture of the same spot in the back yard every Monday and print the picture out and place it on a large poster board. By the end of October, it will be so much fun to see the difference between the first and last picture. Below is the first picture we took on September 21st.

We will share our results after the project is done.

Our October curriculum from Funshine Express looks incredibly fun. The preschool theme is "Mischievous Mice On The Farm" which, of course, ties in perfectly with the Toddler themes of "Busy Mice and Farm Fun".

We cleared our school wall to make room for our October things.

I decided to display our previous month's items where we can regularly review and revisit them. 

We have a "counting garden" that we use and I've have added our acorns over the corresponding number as well as put our color and shape above. The kids love it. They feel so accomplished when they confidently remember each thing.

Happy Fall Y'all!

Our Daily MORNING MEETING

With the help of our curriculum from Funshine Express, we have a wonderful "morning meeting" to start off our school/play day. Before I get started, I would like to welcome our newest Tiny Treasure, Blake!

Sweet "baby Blake", as all of our girls call him, started here with us September 24th. Everybody is in love with him already!

Now back to our morning meeting! All of our friends have made it to school by 9am. As the children arrive there are usually cartoons on, and they get free play at stations or get to color. We eat breakfast at 8:30. Then we clean up, take a potty break and brush our teeth. Then around 9am we sit down for our Morning Meeting. 

We first do our "Attendance Chart":

I love the display that Funshine Express sent us for the attendance chart. Each child has a little mouse with their name on it. We sing our "welcome song" to each student and they get to put their mouse in the woodlands field to "play with their friends". As each child puts their mouse in the woodlands, they tell us something they did the day before at their home. 

After attendance we move onto the calendar. One child is picked as the calendar helper. They come up and we count how many days have been in the month so far and they add the current date onto the calendar:

We sing the "Days Of The Week" song and the "Months Of The Year" song. After the calendar we move onto the weather! One of the older children get to be the meteorologist and they also get to pick an assistant (one of the toddlers). They go together and inspect the current weather outside:

They discuss how the sky looks and the older child moves the weather chart arrow to the right weather and add the weather card to the day. The younger child has their own weather chart (bottom chart) where they add our friends to the appropriate weather. Funshine Express did an amazing job on the weather chart organization. I love that I have 2 separate charts accommodating both age groups. Here is a close up of the charts:

Then we move onto the current color, shape, number, and letter. We also have an assigned helper for this too. We have a pointer that the child gets to use to point to each item when we talk about it. Below is the wall display for this part:

At this point, we have a smooth transition into a "practice sheet" or another provided activity that "piggy backs" on our monthly studies.

 Funshine Express has really made our entire day run smoothly. I am beyond satisfied with the quality of the displays and how the kids have gotten into a great routine every day. They are just as excited about the curriculum as I am. And the parents are loving how much the children are learning. 

If you are interested in enriching your (or any) child's life by adding Funshine Express to your daily activities, be sure enter BBT15 at checkout to get $20 off of your order! This is for NEW CUSTOMERS only! 

First Week of Funshine Express

We started using our new curriculum Funshine Express during the first week of September. I have used other curriculums in the past and none of them were "bad", but I have to say, Funshine Express is definitely my favorite. It works perfectly for my small setting child care program and the age groups that I care for. I especially like how versatile ALL the kits are. Fireflies is geared towards the older children I have that are 3 to 5 years old. Buttercups is for the younger children aging from infant to toddler. I have children in both age groups and what I like is that Funshine Express seamlessly ties both curriculums together. So my older toddlers who aren't quite ready for the full Fireflies curriculum are still able to complete the activities with more open-ended results while being challenged yet leaving the children feeling successful in their work. From our first week of "school" in September the children's favorite activities were the "Mirror puppet" activity and the "Aa" practice sheet (both shown below). I can't wait to continue enriching the children's lives through Funshine Express and track each child's results.

New Beginnings With Funshine Express

There is a sense of new beginnings here at Tiny Treasures Preschool! And that, of course, is the introduction of Funshine Express Curriculum! I am so excited to start using this curriculum. It is COMPLETE and easy to set up and use. The kids helped me clear our learning wall of EVERYTHING! The day before we received it in the mail, we as a class watched the video Funshine Express has on their website about what comes in each box. So when the kids saw the box come in they couldn't wait to help me sort through it all. After the kids went home I was able to explore the items in depth and boy did I get excited! I just couldn't wait to put it all to use. I laid everything out and read through a week's worth of the curriculum guide to understand what everything was for.

Once I reviewed the teacher's guide and the items that came in the teacher's kit, I was ready to put it all up on our learning wall! Here is a before and after of our wall in the preschool room:

Before:

After:

We just couldn't wait to use it all! Here are some close-ups of the wall set up.

Now we can't wait to share our favorite parts of the curriculum soon! Stay tuned in!

Remember to always imagine, play, create, & learn,

Miss. Sharla

The Start of Something New

The Start of Something New

As my first blog post, I want to introduce myself and what I do!

A little about me! My name is Sharla Hodges (or commonly known as “Miss. Sharla”). I was born and raised in Sacramento, California. In 2004 I married my high school sweetheart and joined him in South Carolina where he was stationed in the Air Force. Shortly after we received the exciting news that we were expecting our first child, Braedon, born August 2005. I went back to work afterwards then became pregnant a short time later. Our daughter, Lillian, was born November 2006. I decided to stay home after we had her and I absolutely loved staying home with them. I began to watch friends' children as well and the rest is history. I have been providing licensed home child care since 2007. The Air Force moved us to Moody AFB, Georgia in 2010 and we have been here since then. I still run an in-home child care program and care for children of all ages. My program has since become Nationally Accredited and I am now 3-star quality rated in the state of Georgia (which is the highest rating you can receive).

As our new school year has kicked off here at preschool, I can’t wait to share with you our adventures with you all. We are using an AMAZING curriculum from Funshine Express and I just can’t say enough good things about it. We currently have friends ranging in age from 6 weeks to 4 years old and this curriculum has EVERYTHING for EVERYONE. I will write a separate post about the excitement of opening our Funshine Express box and putting it all to use!

Remember to always imagine, play, create, & learn,

Miss. Sharla