Let's Promote Play!

Too Much/Too Little: What Do Families Do When They Make Just a Little Too Much To Qualify for Subsidy but Not Enough to Afford Child Care?

2012-01-20T22:10:00.000-08:00

I have been astounded and saddened by the number of families that have been recently dropped from the subsidy program they were working with to pay for their child care. The majority of the reasons were because the family received a small raise or got a few more hours a week in their position. While that is great for the family, it is certainly not enough of an increase in income to afford child care cost, especially in single parent families. A recent blaring example is a single father who was dropped from any assitance because the company he worked for paid him to get medical benefits. They considered this as income, even though the money went straight to provide medical insurance for him and his 5 year old son.

In the Early Childcare/School Age Care field, most recent conversations that have to do with the families we are caring for, there are a large number of families enrolled that are single parent families whose child care expenses are being paid by a state or county government agency. Consider these startling statistics:
· The poverty rate for female-headed families with children was 38.5 percent in 2009, compared with 8.3 percent for families with children headed by a married couple
· More than five in ten poor children (51.5 percent) lived in families headed by women
· More than half a million single women with children (12.5 percent) who worked full-time,
year-round in 2009 were living in poverty
To maintain employment and be able to provide for their families, women need access to affordable child care. Without affordable child care, many of these women have no choice but to leave jobs or school and sign up for cash assistance. There have been three families in the last two months leave our program and move with family because they didn’t make enough to afford child care but made just a little too much to qualify for assistance.
A report by Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity - Child Care Matters: Building Economic Security for Low-Income Women found that quality child care and education centers are often unavailable in low-income communities or impractical for women with shifting work schedules. Their research indicates that when a mother works a variable schedule, she is more likely to rely on informal care, which is typically provided by family and neighbors and is often less reliable than formal child care settings.

At Madison Street Church CDI/You’re Invited Children’s Center we strive to be able to offer a warm, quality program to families at an affordable rate. It is also important to be family friendly with our schedules, basing schedules on each families needs, flexible tuition costs, and we offer reduced tuition scholarships and we allow drop in care for families needing emergency/transitional child care. We partner with a women’s shelter to provide the children of the women in their program quality drop in child care while they are in a transitional phase of their lives. We are currently looking at more effective ways to meet the needs of those in our community and neighborhoods that are in a transitional time in their life and need quality child care to enable them to complete schooling and training, attend required meetings, go on job interviews and other necessary appointments that are not possible to attend with their young children. Madison Street Church is offering reduced tuition opportunities to families in need of school age before/after school care for families that make too much to qualify for subsidy but dont make quite enough to afford quality child care. Our hope is to partner with other agencies that have the same desire to walk with low income families through caring for their children, encouraging them as parents, and providing other services as needed.

Color Blue Preschool Activities!

2011-12-12T19:35:00.000-08:00

Graphing with preschool kids - "Do you have blue eyes?"

Develop math and prewriting development sorting blue poker chips with blue tweezers into blue bowls and encourage open ended creativity with blue items, making a blue collage!

Fun ways to encourage learning with the color blue!

Baking Soda & Vinegar w/ blue water color!

After School Care Makes Sense!!

2011-12-10T15:22:00.000-08:00

Did you know that statistics show that most juvenile crime occurs in the hours immediately following school dismissal? (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 1999). The rate of juvenile violence in the afterschool period is four times the rate than any other period of time. Why, then, have county subsidy agencies decided to abruptly to discontinue paying for low income children to attend afterschool care when a child turns 11 years old? That is, for most children, 6th grade! Families, most often single mothers, will most likely be forced to have these very young children home alone, fending for themselves, or be cared for by an older sibling. This is not how I feel is the best possible way for our government agencies to take care of the children in our community. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention study suggests that the potential for reducing a community’s juvenile violent crime rate is greatest in our efforts to reduce juvenile crime after school. Several studies have also shown that afterschool programs can decrease juvenile crime and youth participation in risky behaviors, the type which often leads to violence (Fox and Newman 1997). School Age Care by You’re Invited suggests as well, that afterschool programs, like ours, that offer students supervised and engaged structured activities during the high-risk period (e.g., 3:00-5:00pm), are necessary and it seems the cost of what quality afterschool care is, is substantially less than what it can cost our community in the long run. In our desire to promote the “it takes a village” philosophy at You’re Invited we are looking at starting reduced or free tuition scholarships for families with children ages 11-13 years. Our hope at School Age Care by You’re Invited is to continue providing a safe place for children in these very important years to be safe and develop social skills, character development. The greatest return on our investment in these children is to help them to grow the best they can and they return these skills as contributing members of our community.

If you are interested in more information about helping our low-income families keep their children in quality care or about any of our other programs please feel free to contact us.

*Fox, J.A., and S.A. Newman. 1997. After-School Crime or After-School Programs: Tuning in to the Prime Time for Violent Juvenile Crime and Implications for National Policy. A Report to the United States Attorney General. Washington, DC: Fight Crime: Invest in Kids.

Going Up The Slide The Wrong Way!!

2011-10-11T15:25:00.000-07:00

Many preschools (and public) schools have instilled these hard set rules about appropriate outdoor play. Kids cant swing on their bellies (great for proprioception), can only ride trikes on a path and the path is usually a circle (not very risky), cant move items outside their designated play space (not encouraging teamwork and creativity), and can't go up the slide the wrong way!

Have there been serious maming and disfiguring accidents that I dont know about or have we made decisions putting our possible legal liabilities and paranoia over the developmental needs of our children? I read an article recently that spoke of playground accident related lawsuits have actually increasing since this recent push of boring, static playgrounds with restrictive rules.

This picture taken at my school shows the beauty that can happen when children are allowed to "go up the wrong way on the slide." I think the joy on the face of the girl with the extended arm can be enough to encourage us to rethink our outdoor play rules. I wish I could have recorded her giggle! She is a 3 year old helping her older 4 year old friend up, modeling teamwork for the 2 year old friend next to her. Bliss!!

When children are supervised well and given opportunities to use outdoor equipment in ways that allow risk, creativity and challenge it will translate into positive self worth, confidence, and cooperation skills.

Monster Week!!

2011-09-23T12:38:00.000-07:00

Slime!

Math, science, sensory, fine motor, cause & effect, language development - all in one great Monster theme activity!

We combined 12 teaspoons borax with 2 1/4 cup warm water in one bowl and 2 1/2 cups glue with 3/4 cup warm water and green koolaid or food coloring in another bowl. We slowly pour the borax mixture into the glue mixture and excitedly watched the mixture form while one of the friends stirred!

the language used was so fun to hear!

"its lumpy now"

"oooh slippery"

"soft like gum"

"greasy"

"its slimy"

"Im gonna make a slime cake"

"its slippery and hard"

Monster Week!

2011-09-20T14:44:00.001-07:00

My coolest new find - Water Beads!! This bucket is four containers of these amazing waterbeads found at the dollar store. I added a little purple water color, some big googly eyes and lots of see through containers and scoops to create a great sensory/math/fine motor activity!

Monster week!!

2011-09-20T14:31:00.001-07:00

Big Green Monster!

I put number stickers on the monsters on the table, the kids turned them to find the number and thats how many items they got to feed the Big Green Monster! We used all sorts of things to feed the monster - plastic insects, cars, little teddy bears, etc.

Waking Up Full of Awesome!!

2011-09-15T12:56:00.000-07:00

If you are a girl, a mommy or daddy, aunt, gramma to a little girl, please read this:

http://blog.pigtailpals.com/2011/08/waking-up-full-of-awesome/

Engaging Babies with Photos!

2011-08-02T14:59:00.001-07:00

Our wonderful teachers at Infant Care by You're Invited posted these beautiful pictures taken of the children at the center.

Photographs help our babies feel more comfortable with these images that are familiar to them. They also help build language when our teachers are sitting down with them talking with them about what they see.

ARRRRRRR Matey, Pirate Fun for Preschool!

2011-08-02T11:35:00.001-07:00

Creating Pirate costumes for Pirate week!

Creating telescopes!!

More fun & learning with the Pirate theme!
Look, I made an ocean!" (playdough with boats & pirates)

Outside we had these activities:
"Cozy Area w/ pirate booksPirate Puzzle

Counting coins and cash from the pirates treasure chest!
The friends also learned and had fun doing these activities:

Created Pirate Hooks, borrowed from www.busybeekidscrafts.com/Pirate-crafts.html

Outdoor treasure hunt with treasure maps (learning the letter X)

Used a plank of wood and a kiddie pool to, yep you guessed it, "walk the plank"

The friend dicated pirate stories then they decorated page with Jolly Roger stickers (we learned how the Pirate flag got its name from Roger, the Jolly Pirate)

We read these great stories:
Do Pirates Take Baths, Kathy Tucker (our favorite!)
Pirate Girl, Cornelia Funke, et al
, Roger, the Jolly Pirate, Brett Helquist

Beach Day at School!

2011-07-29T20:24:00.000-07:00

We ended two weeks of Ocean themed activities (which included a field trip to a local aquarium with a Beach Day! Here are a few of the activities we enjoyed -

Sorting Sea Shells (recycled plastic tray from a candy box)

Parachute play during together time( most schools call circle time)with blow up ocean animal balls and beach balls from $ store

Cant have a beach day without LIMBO!
Kids with hoses Woo hoo! We turned our sand box into a mini-beach

Ocean Art!
Shaving cream, blue paint & glue makes a great texture for the ocean "water"

School Age Care by You're Invited @ Madison Street Church

2011-07-28T17:47:00.001-07:00

At School Age Care by You're Invited we commit to providing opportunities to school aged children they probably aren't able to experience. We are lucky enough to have experienced adults from the community sharing their passion in gardening and art. This activity combined both of these activities! Our Gardener Eric found wonderful discs of wood and our artist Ms. Janna helped facilitate the children painting. These wonderful items of nature will be incorporated into the community garden at Madison Street Church!

Babies playing and learning - Outdoors!!!

2011-07-28T17:16:00.001-07:00

At Infant Care by You're Invited our babies enjoy
our beautiful Southern California weather!

Babies painting on nature found around the school - rosemary, mint, lavendar and wood discs!

Our littlest ones participating in International

Mud Day too!!

October Orange!!!!!

2010-10-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

Although we dont celebrate holidays at You're Invited Children's Center we do use the colors and some symbols of the seasons to create learn by play activities. These are some of the Orange/Pumpkin activities we did this week! Counting and sorting with candy pumpkins. We used pumpkin scoops for fine motor development.

Pumpkin cookie cutters with orange paint mixed with glue and orange colored salt in shakers.

Outside we painted on small, medium & big

pumpkins with water color tablets.

Salt colored with orange water color in cookie sheet with sticks and other tools!
Potato Head peices with real oranges

All orange collage

Outside we did pumpkin sponge painting w/ green paint and yard for making a pumpkin patch Juicing oranges with hand juicers. This was great for large muscles and the juice was super yummy!

Another outdoor activity - Pounding golf tees into pumpkins with small mallots

Easel painting - red & yellow make orange :)

A Day at You're Invited Children's Center

2010-10-09T20:30:00.000-07:00

Splatter Painting at You're Invited Children's Center

2010-09-25T10:45:00.001-07:00

Child-led, fun creative experiences with no predetermined outcomes for young children!
We used plastic drink bottles with a small hole in the lid (I used a nail and hammer to put the hole in the lid), spray bottles, rubber band brushes (instructions to follow soon), toothbrushes and other fun splatter tools.

Definitely an outside activity, unless your like Teacher Tom and have space inside thats suitable for paint to splatter on the walls :)

Spread the kids out on the grass and let them express themselves!

I had paint all over my legs, shoes and the friends had paint all over them! So much fun! To make the paint go farther I mixed it with some water and liquid starch.

Ribbon, Yarn and Scissors!

2010-09-20T18:19:00.001-07:00

At You're Invited Children's Center we put out baskets of spools of ribbon and yarn and few pairs of scissors then watched to see what happened!

The friends spent all morning unrolling, rolling, cutting, wrapping, measuring, hiding, dramatic playing, matching and more!!

Who has the longest ribbon?

"how long does the ribbon need to be for my ninja belt?

Lots of "ninja" fun!!

Cornstarch and Watercolor!

2010-09-16T09:57:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share these pictures of two year old friends from You're Invited Childrens Center. We put out some containers of cornstarch, cups of water colored water with eyedroppers, scrapers and scoops and a bunch of small bowls. This activity is best done outside so the friends (and teachers) dont have to be nervous about a mess. As the pictures show, we didnt worry about the mess :)

What learning is going on in this activity?

Science - mixing, solid vs liquid, color combinations

Cause and Effect

Textures

Fine motor skills

Math - estimating, quantities

Can you help name more learning that is happening during this activity?

"MMMM this smells goooood!"

2010-09-14T03:31:00.000-07:00

Yogurt Painting

We mixed watercolor with plain yogurt for a different type of painting experience. I added tools (q-tips, combs, playdough rollers, etc) and used aluminum foil because I thought the colors would pop more than on construction paper or cardboard and its sturdy enough.

This is definitely a process art project, when the friends were done with their experience we threw the foil away and put out a fresh sheet for the next friend. I accidently deleted a great pic of one of the friends with both pf her hands all the way in the paint cups scooping the yogurt paint out. Who needs paint brushes right? :)

Squeeze bottles and Wood for All Ages!!

2010-08-27T17:52:00.000-07:00

Great three dimensional activity for all ages!!

The set up for this activity (and all activties we do) is super important. We use trays to help the friends know their boundaries and the table is inviting with baskets to keep the loose parts accessible and neat. Throughout the morning theteachers are constantly straightening, cleaning and refilling the baskets, facilitating the activity to be "inviting" when a child comes upon the table so then he or she will decide they want to engage in this activity. We have 2 year olds, three year olds and four year olds doing this activity, working hard, engaged in their creative process.

This friend tells me while he is working hard: "I made a bridge!" I asked him, "Whats the bridge for?" He says "For the people to walk across the lake and not fall in the water"

"Look, its a slide, for the bridge, WAIT I need green"
So much concentration and intentionality with squeeze bottles filled with white paint, a little glue and some water color.

We won The Versatile Blogger Award

2010-08-27T17:15:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Room to Grow: Making Early Childhood Count for giving me this award!!

I am the owner of a child care center for children ages infant, preschool and school age. My children, ages 18, and two at 23 are wonderful productive adults and my husband is an amazing elementary special ed teacher. I have a Masters from Pacific Oaks and have been working in Early Childhood for over 20 years.

Other blogs I give this award to are:

Teacher Tom

Chasing Cheerios

Color Color Color

Progressive Early Childhood Education

Artful Parent

Get Your Mess On

No Time for Flash Cards

Whole Grain Baby

Sippy Cup Central

Growing Up Our Style

Centers and Circle Time

Bev Bos Blog

Out2play in the Garden

Playful Learning

Kid Activities

Great Shape Math Activity!

2010-08-18T12:36:00.001-07:00

$ bin at Target has some great treasures! I found these great little square, cylinder and triange foam blocks and created these boards with cereal box cardboard and construction paper. The friends at You're Invited worked with these materials for the whole morning :)

There are so many skills these friends are working on!

Patterns, eye-hand coordination, sequencing, estimating, color matching, counting, seriation, cooperation...

Can you list more skills this super low cost but great activity provides?

Ocean Snack!

2010-08-06T21:30:00.000-07:00

We had fun with graham crackers, blue tinted frosting and colored goldfish! One of many activities we have been enjoying to go along with our field trip last week to Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific!

A completely self-help activity as the friends smoothed on the frosting, we counted out the goldfish and create ocean snacks!

SUMMER BUBBLE FUN!!!!

2010-06-25T19:05:00.000-07:00

SUMMER BUBBLE FUN!

Our little friends worked hard on this activity for the longest time (some stayed at this table for over an hour!)

Punch a hole in the top side of the cup to fit the "bendy" straw in, stretch cheesecloth over a plastic cup filled with Dawn (its the best soap to use) dish soap and water) then wrap a rubber band around it! Let the friends know not to suck in (although some will at first but it doesnt hurt them and they learn quick)! We talked about the size, texture, what happens if we blow softly, hard, slowly, quickly, we even tried to cover the whole tray, then the whole table!

I love how this friend is moving her body so the bubbles dont go in her face, thats problem solving!! This is also great for teachers because our floor and table get super clean :)

Stained glass fun!!!

2010-06-23T19:00:00.000-07:00

Tissue Shapes and a Big Window = Stained Glass!!

Im always looking for ways do an old activity a new way! Thanks to Filth Wizardry I decided to turn our big window into a place of creativity for my friends. A great way to use arm muscles, divergent thinking, using tools in new ways, creative thinking and it makes a beautiful window that we got tons of compliments on.

I cut tissue paper into different shapes, clear glue in cups, paint brushes and our big window!

2010-05-26T12:10:00.000-07:00

COMING SOON!! SUMMER DAY CAMP OPENING JUNE 14!!

* FIELD TRIPS

* THEME ACTIVITIES

* DANCE/GYMNASTICS TEACER

* MUSIC CLASSES

* COMPUTER

* SO MUCH MORE....

AFTER SCHOOL ELEMENTARY CARE NEXT FALL!!

CALL (951) 351-1023 FOR MORE INFORMATION

2010-05-26T11:55:00.000-07:00

SPLATTER PAINTING!!

1, 2, 3 SPLAT!

Knee hi stockings full of sand, paint on trays, paper and somewhere to climb equals lots of fun and learning

Standing or sitting, its all fun!

More Spring Activities!!

2010-04-09T13:55:00.000-07:00

The children at You're Invited loved creating these flowers! I wish I could remember which blog I saw the use of the paper towel rolls (I promise to remember next time I post a borrowed activity) as flower petals. Flatten the paper towel roll before you cut it. Use water/milk/soda bottle lids and any fabric or construction paper for stem and leaves. It was great to watch the friends concentrate their eye-hand coordination to get the glue on the thin sides of the paper towel roll petals.

Im constantly asked by preschool teachers about 3 dimensional art activities because it is required in the ECERS Art item to get a 7. This is a great spring art idea!!

Be prepared for a lot of glue to be used :)!!

Spring Activities!!

2010-04-09T11:29:00.000-07:00

I love Spring!! It's my favorite season because its not too hot yet here in SoCal but its definitely warm enough to spend all day outside if we want! Here are some of the fun we've been having the last few weeks!!

Using styrofoam shapes and baskets of pipe cleaners, feathers, straws and plastic flowers the friends made some beautiful creations!

We also used the plastic flowers for some counting fun!

We CAN'T do activities with plastic flowers unless we also provide real flowers too! Every year we do spring gardening!! This year we did lots of herbs, strawberries, a butterfly garden and some mystery seeds :)

Learning with a Pendulum!!

2010-03-05T19:51:00.000-08:00

Gathering blocks for pendulum play!!

Measuring for success Ready, Set, Swing!

Pendulum Play!!!
I am so blessed to have a dad that is kind and gifted enough to make almost anything I need him to. His wood talents have not only saved me money in the last 5 1/2 years but has provided hours and hours of learning opportunities for our friends. My dad's latest addition to our preschool is this great Bev Bos design made with a few items he already had and few items I purchased at Kmart.

Providing lots of learning and fun!

Op-Ed Contributor - Playing to Learn - NYTimes.com

2010-02-02T20:10:00.000-08:00

Op-Ed Contributor - Playing to Learn - NYTimes.com
overhaul the curriculum YES!!
An environment rich for everyone to learn!

Never too Young to Show Compassion!

2010-01-16T21:07:00.000-08:00

We sure did miss Miss Courtney our first week back after winter break. Our wonderful infant/toddler teacher left us before winter break. The bright side for me is that I get to be with the most amazing little ones every afternoon. It was a blessing last night as I watched this friend display kindness and empathy with one of her friends.

This adorable 2o month old LOVES her babies! Sammy truly is a little mommy as she cares for her babies all day, every day. One baby doll in particular has captured her heart. I wondered what her response was going to be as I watched another little friend pick this baby up to play with. She walked over saying "my baby, my baby" with her hands out. Her friend immediately complied and handed over the baby. Once Sammy had her baby back, she took it over, placed it in the baby stroller then something beautiful happened. Without prodding or direction, Sammy walked over to the basket, picked up another baby and took it to her friend. So thoughtful! And the look on her friends face when Sammy handed her the baby was precious. What an amazing display of kindness and empathy.

The unprompted desire to meet the needs of a friend. It reminds me of what happens when we live in community (You're Invited is definitely a community), we instinctively gain the ability to meet the needs of those around us and find our needs being met too.

Teacher Tom: A Place They Are Confident They Belong

2010-01-03T14:08:00.000-08:00

Teacher Tom: A Place They Are Confident They Belong
Great insight on multi-aged preschool! Teacher Tom's thoughts mirror mine so well!

Teddy Bear Picnic!!

2009-12-16T18:14:00.000-08:00

Teddy Bear Picnic!!!

We've been talking about bears a lot at You're Invited so we thought having a Teddy Bear Picnic would be a great way to make a great book come alive!!

We spent the day doing some of these fun and developmental activites-

We made the cutest little pillows. It was such a pleasure to see all the children work hard to sew their own pillows I cut several peices of 8" x 8" fabric and batting, used large plastic sewing needles (Discount School Supply) and yarn, the children did all the rest. Even the two year olds worked their small motor skills as they maneuvered the needle through the holes I had prepunched (with a simple hole punch!) around the fabric. As children finished their pillow the took them as they moved on to other activities. I found two of them being used later in the morning as pillow for the stuffed animals they children brought for our teddy bear picnic!

A creative activity for children! We put Ivory Snow flakes in the white paint to give our teddy bears some texture (and the smell was great!).

When doing art or creative activities I think we must always provide the children with lots of textures (minimum of 2 different textures) and when possible add scent! The strongest connection to children's memory is their smell.

Our Teddy Bear Picnic!

What a great finish to the day, this four year old friend napping with her teddy bear that she had brought from home for our teddy bear picnic, notice her teddy bear napping on the pillow she made!!!

Magnet Fun!!

2009-08-24T19:13:00.000-07:00

3-D magnet fun & learning!

We used coffee cans, letter magnets,
magnet wands, magnet marbles and a bunch of random magnets for fun! The next time I offer this activity I am going to use even bigger coffee cans and I am on a hunt for different types of magnets!
This activity provides letter and number recognition, creative expression, small muscle development, cause and effect, and is a science activity!

Noah puts all the letters of his name on the coffee can above and Kaleb finds his letter on the right :)

Math Activities for Mixed-Age Groups!!

2009-08-18T12:59:00.000-07:00

I found a pack of colorful small bowls at Ross Dress For Less for under $4, used decorater gems bought at a yard sale for $1 and printed number cards with dots. For older children I used dobbers to make the addition problems seen below and used small bowls I purchased at a yard sale too. This activity can be teacher assisted or the children can work by themselves. The great thing is that there is no wrong way to do this!!! If children count and sort like the 3 year old boy above is so excited about completing or if they match the dots and do one-to-one correspondence or if they just want to pick up the gems and put into bowls - its all good and so much learning is going on!!

During this morning we were also doing activities that encouraged learning about "Bears" - I didnt connect this activity with the theme until I saw a bag of Teddy Graham crackers in my office. I switched out the gems with the little bear shaped crackers and even the children that had already done this activity wanted to come back and do it again. I explained to the children that the crackers weren't for eating but I saved some and they would get them at story time. The bowls and number cards can be used over and over again with different counters depending on your theme.

Hope your children enjoy this activity that cost less that $5 and is rich with so much fun and learning!

Water Play!!

2009-08-12T20:22:00.000-07:00

What does an old vinyl sign, water and dish soap make?

A slip n slide or "slippy slide" as the friends called it!!!

I was looking for items to add to the pool of water outside and came across an old vinyl sign that we dont use anymore and wondered what the kids could do with this! I laid it out and another teacher suggested adding dish soap to make it slippery and guess what - so much fun!!!
One of our favorite water tools are a simple hose from Home Depot attached to a funnel (you have to find a funnel that fits snuggly into the hose)!
You can see all the different uses the children find for this great tool, including some team work!

More Preschool Bug Activities!

2009-08-12T19:27:00.000-07:00

Children need real experiences to build optimal foundations for learning! We provided real crickets, meal worms and red worms to look at, talk about and write about!
I realized after I took this picture of friends at the table of worms that it showed the beauty of mixed-age environments. The children exploring the worms with tweezers and magnifying glasses are two, three, four and five years old and they
discussed and explored for almost 30 minutes together!

A writing table with different writing tools, bug stickers, paper and staplers to make homemade books , etc
Working with the different ages, some children told their bug/insect stories and some wrote their own!

Bugs & Insects

2009-07-04T12:13:00.001-07:00

At You're Invited Children's Center we have had some great experiences learning about bugs and insects in the last few weeks. These are some of the activities that were successful and easy for you to provide for your children too:

Gummy Worms & Coffee Sand
You will love the reaction your children (and you!) have when you smell the coffee sand and gummy worms used in this activity. The main goals for this activity are to strengthen their small muscles (important for pre-writing) with the tweezers and develop eye-hand coordination. Coffee sand is easy to make and the aroma is wonderful. There are baskets in the middle for children to place the gummy worms.

Coffee Sand recipe: 4 c. dried used coffee grounds 2 c. cornmeal 1 c. flour 1/2 c. salt
Dry coffee grounds either by placing in cookie sheets and put in oven for about 20 minutes or leaving out over night. Once coffee gounds are dry mix all ingredients in large tub.

You can get the children involved in preparing this by letting them pour ingredients into large tub then give them potato mashers to mix (great for large muscle development)! There is a lot of mixing involved because the ingredients clump.

Entomology Kits
These bags are easy to put together and great to have around for children to use any time their curiousity leads them! An entomologist or a bugologist (Bug-hunter) is a person that studies insects!

With this kit, your child can be a true entomologist?

You need:
1. Small bag (u can use canvas bags found at craft stores, my friend quickly sewed these for us)
2. Clear small container with holes in it - we reused our
3. Notebook with pencil
4. Tweezers
5. Magnifying glass

Children use the notebooks to "write" about their findings and teachers can also dictate what the children talk about. One of our teachers heard:

"We picked up with the tweezers, we found pincher bugs. Wow little worm, easy little worm, you're just a baby. Take it easy little guy, I won't hurt ya, I just want to look
at ya." - Andrew, age 5

Spider on a Web
I love activities for children that involve several steps. Two years olds and the older kids can do this activity.
It starts with the children marble painting a black circle with white paint (put a little glue in the paint) - this is the web!

The second step is making the spider for the web

1. Provide pre-cut circles and put out hole punchers. The older children love using this tool while the younger children might need some help. You can talk about how many legs spiders have and thats how many holes they need to punch.
2. Children fold pipe cleaners through each hole
3. Glue eyes on

Third step is to glue the spider on the web!!!

Mortar & Pestals

2009-06-15T15:03:00.000-07:00

One of our favorite activities at You're Invited is working

with mortar & pestals!!

We provide the children with bowls of different textures, smells & tastes and the children experiment with their very own "creations." There is so much learning going on with this activity! The friends are experiencing science because they get to determine the mixtures and combinations. Also being developed is their creativity and learning cause and effect. Also, all of their senses are being engaged.

This is an easy activity to provide for children and not very expensive once you've invested a small amount into a collection of mortar & pestals and trays.

We found the mortar & pestals on Ebay or at Worlds Fair Market for around $7 each!

The "ingredients" are seasonings from your pantry (or the 99cent store) and we added fresh rosemary, gardenia petals and mint from our own garden.

We also have salt and flour, each each with a koolaid packet mixed in for scent and color. Other great ideas are brown sugar, oatmeal, cornmeal, cocoa, peanuts (watch for allergies), bacon bits (very scentful) and we combine water with a flavored extract in paint cups with droppers!

Notice the mortars are on trays. This is done to give the children their own space and keeps the mess to a minimum!! When a child is done with this activity we either empty their mortar into the trash or back into a bowl for another friend to use.

Mortar & Pestal activites also give children agreat opportunity to develop a sense of their own power when they pound, mush, combine, determine how much and what ingredients they will use for their "creation"

For a list of mortar & pestal ingredients and activity ideas, send me an email at

youreinvitedchildrenscenter@gmail.com

2009-06-10T21:51:00.000-07:00

We haven't had a early two year old at our school in a awhile. Our new friend Kaleb just turned two and is so great! He looks up at me, raises his arms and says "Hold you, hold you" - he melts me

I love when kids still want to be held and I think it is so important that as early child educatiors we do not get so caught up in the schedule of our days and forget that our children need to be held, and hugged and loved all day!

Block play builds life skills

2009-06-02T12:28:00.000-07:00

At You're Invited we have a whole room dedicated to honoring the importance of block play. These are some pictures of our friends exercising a variety of skills through their construction process, without even knowing it. The "dinosaur town" was built by two brothers and their process lasted about 2 hours.

One of our wonderful teachers saw the beauty in their process and left it standing during lunch and naptime so the boys could continue when they woke up, and they did!

After naptime the boys constructed bridges!

Block play provides children with opportunities to exercise a variety of skills that will help them as the grow and develop. It may look like they are just building but so much more is going on!

Block play encourages social and emotional skills when they work together in their construction. It is amazing to see the team work, compromising and respect children exhibit when they are working on a common goal.

Block play encourages cognitive skills. Children do lots of problem solving in block play. They also experience concepts of physics like gravity, weight, balance and stability.

Block play offers children opportunities to develop math skills such as spatial awareness, shapes, sizes, area length, and patterns.

Physical growth is developed when children are lifting and moving blocks (and rocks) of all sizes.

Creative thinking is also encouraged because of the planning that is involved in block play.

Block play is easy to offer to children without spending lots of money! I purchased most of the equipment in our "construction room" through yard sales and ebay. Our rocks are a wonderful mothers day gift that my daughter collected from the beaches of Santa Barbara.

Block play is important play for "building" healthy children!

2009-05-11T13:11:00.000-07:00

Will they be ready for Kindergarten?
By Jami West

AT YOU'RE INVITED CHILDREN'S CENTER (SEE LINK) WE DO NOT SPEND OUR TIME WITH THE CHILDREN MAKING SURE THEY KNOW LETTERS AND NUMBERS OR THAT THEY KNOW HOW TO WRITE THEIR NAME, OR IDENTIFY COLORS. WE KNOW THAT THESE THINGS WILL COME. HOW DO WE KNOW?

BECAUSE OUR ENVIRONMENT IS SET UP TO PROVIDE MORE THAN ENOUGH OPPORTUNITIES FOR WRITING, READING, COUNTING, FIGURING THINGS OUT, MUSIC, BECOMING FAMILIAR WITH PRINT, SEQUENCING AND MORE. WHEN THE CHILD IS READY IT IS THERE FOR THEM TO ENGAGE AND EXPERIENCE
.
WHAT WE DO, ALL DAY, EVERY DAY, IS HELP GET THEM READY TO BE SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE. HOW DO WE DO THAT?

BY LOVING THEM TRULY AND UNCONDITIONALLY

BY KNOWING THEM AND RESPECTING THEM

BY ENCOURAGING THEM TO TAKE RISKS

ALLOWING THEM TO DIRECT THEIR OWN LEARNING AND OFFERING ACTIVITIES WHERE THE END RESULT IS NOT DETERMINED BY ANYONE BUT THEM. BY GIVING THEM FREEDOM TO BE WHO THEY ARE

BY OFFERING LARGE AMOUNTS OF FREE TIME, AND BY KNOWING THAT, DEVELOPMENTALLY, EACH AND EVERY CHILD IS EXACTLY WHERE THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE.

"Say Im sorry"

2009-03-21T15:06:00.000-07:00

Hello friends, sorry I have neglected this blog, I am knee deep in writing my Masters thesis but have been thinking about this hot topic (especially since my last Challenging Behaviors workshop) so I will just give some bullet points for thought:

1. Young children have not developed empathy yet,

2. Young children are not able to see things from other children's or adults points of view (remember, egocentric)

3. When we help young children label emotions (particularly if their behaviors caused the emotions) we help them to develop these skills

4. When children are forced to say "Im sorry" it is difficult for the child to trust that adult really knows them

5. When a child is told to say "Im sorry" they are being told to be insincere and that these empty words are the easy fix.
- how many of us know children who automatically say either "Im sorry, Im sorry" or "I'll say Im sorry" when an adult has caught them offending another child?

6. When we force children to say "Im sorry" we are forcing children to LIE!

7. Children learn empathy by seeing empathy. It is okay for the adult to say sorry to the offended child

8. It is necessary to bring the child to the hurt child and label the emotions and make the connection that his/her behaviors led to that emotion

9. Provide natural, immediate & logical consequences for the child that offended ("I can not let you play with your friends, sister, brother, etc because you hurt him/her" an older child can be told that it is your job to make sure they are all safe)

10. An older child can begin to be given the option to say "Im sorry" not as an easy fix but as a means to help the other child feel better. This is an option to begin to help the child understand social rules, not exhibiting our power over them.

Id love for this to start a discussion, so let's hear what you think!!!

“you need to share!”

2009-02-10T11:17:00.001-08:00

Lets talk about "sharing" - I think this is one of the BIGGEST issues for children, no actually its a big issue for grown ups! Parents often shudder when they see their child not willing to give up their toy to another child, most times this comes from a valid concern that their child be caring and compassionate. It is important that we encourage the development of compassionate, giving children but perhaps a common response to this issue is doing more damage than good. Let us begin the discussion:

-Young children are at the developmental stage of being egocentric. They are only capable of thinking of their own needs and their own desires. It isn’t until 7 -8 years that children began to see the world from someone else’s perspective.
When adults expect/demand a child to share it is developmentally inappropriate and an unrealistic expectation. Children are negatively affected when they are consistently expected/demanded to do something they are unable to do.
Children will learn to “share” when they are allowed to complete their experience (have their beginning, middle and end). When they can trust they are going to be given the opportunity to meet their own needs. When children have completed their task they are willing to allow other children to use the materials. When adults do not allow the child to get the whole experience or complete the task, we are teaching the child not to trust the adult and really pushes the child towards not being able to let anyone else us the object. Think about what happens when a child is engaged with an object and another child comes up and wants the object. Often the adult response is “friend, you need to share” or “you’ve had it long enough” and forces the child to give it to the friend. Do you see how this actually encourages the child to hold even tighter to the object and be more wary when a child approaches them to play. Also, the child becomes more concerned about losing the object then even playing with it.

So, what to do:
Taking turns – I tell a child “when you are done with that it will be Amy’s turn okay, when you are done give it to Amy” I also encourage him to tell Amy “Amy when I’m done it’s your turn.” It really works! The child with the object is learning that he is being respected and he can trust his needs will be meet. Amy sees the other child is being given as much time as needed and knows she will get the same opportunity when it is her turn. I am also intentional about following through when I see that he is finished, to remind him when he said Amy could have it when he is done and ask him if he wants to give it to Amy now.
We are charged to develop in our children healthy relationships that consist of trust and respect and help them begin to develop the desire to meet others needs. My desire is that each child knows they can trust us, that we really know and respect them and will do everything in our power to make sure their needs are met.

Any thoughts, comments, questions?

You are your child's best advocate!

2009-02-05T18:21:00.000-08:00

I was blessed by Bev Bos's message I today. If you are not familiar with her name, I encourage you to read any of her books.

For the past several years I have encouraged parents to be their child (ren)'s advocate, telling them how special and unique their child is and how it is our job to encourage and develop them as special and unique individuals. Unfortunately our society (public schools) is most often providing environments where children are being taught in a "one size fits all" style of teaching and curriculum. I believe most teachers want to provide for individual learning styles and personalities but the requirements of the job do not make this so possible.

My son's Patric's school years experience, elementary and now in high school has been an ongoing struggle to help teachers appreciate who he is was and is, an energetic, super friendly, always happy, talkative, hard to keep focused, needing extra help kinda kid.

Bev's message shared a quote by Docia Zavitkovsky, some of you might remember Docia as a past President of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. She coined the line, “our job is not to get children ready for school, but to get schools ready for children.” I was so tickled when I read this because it is so similar to the truth I share over and over with parents and told myself (and many teachers) over over again in my sons life.

"it is not your child's job to change for the teacher, it is the teachers job to change for the child"

I encourage all parents - be your child's advocate. We certainly provide our children with clear, healthy and consistent boundaries with love AND nurture, develop and encourage the wonderful unique human being that your child is!

To Ms. Zavitkovsky and Bev Bos, thank you for sharing your wisdom

PS - I haven't forgotten about sharing and Im sorry!

Welcome Welcome

2009-02-02T00:47:00.000-08:00

Its 12:47 am and I had to get out of bed because I couldn't stop thinking about important matters of the world - "sharing" and saying "I'm sorry." As I sat here with a pen an paper and worked out how to share my thoughts on the detriment of forcing both of these expectations on young children I considered how often I find myself processing like this and it dawned on me ... I need to blog, so wooo hooo! Here I am and I am excited! But thats enough for tonight, I have to be up in few hours. Next time, more on sharing and sorry.