Tis the Season!

We are creating new traditions this year at Susan Cares 4 Kids. We have decided to turn over the Christmas decorating to the kids. As previously mentioned we had three of the kids engineer the putting together of our Christmas tree. We were so proud of them we wanted to continue on the pride of creation and allow the kids to decorate the tree almost entirely with their own creations. Susan and I strung the lights, placed the star, as well as placing our porcupine in our pine tree and the rest has been up to the kids! We made sure to make two ornaments, one for Susan's and one for home. We couldn't not include the parents in our wonderful creations!

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Reindeer All Around!

There is one song every year without fail that we hear at Susan's: Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer! There is something about this song which resonates with the kids. We created a reindeer paper bag puppet to help the kids along in singing one of their favourite songs.

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Christmas Trees!

As November comes to a close and December begins one of our favourite things that bring in the Christmas season are Christmas trees! We decided to create our very own Christmas trees. After painting and cutting out the tree we handed the kidlets a set of sticker ornaments. The two and three year old boys were not quite sure if they were ready to deal with the stickers all on their own, but after a few moments of trying to figure out the best way to remove the stickers with their tiny two and three year old fingers, they were off creating their beautiful Christmas trees. We were lucky to have a couple of engineers this year who were able to set up our first ever fake Christmas tree. Make sure and look for their proud Christmas tree parent photo!

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How Many Sparkles Do We Want to Lick?

The letter I is our last stop along alphabet highway. We are taking a much needed Christmas break! If you are just joining us on our alphabet journey please make sure and start from the very beginning with letter A. Letter I proved to be one of my favourite crafts because, wait for it... Susan let me pick the craft! I is for Ice Cream Cones! The kids and I really enjoyed making our ice cream cones. Susan asked if we could put some glitter on the ice cream, like sprinkles and I was very happy to oblige her. Once I start glittering there is no going back! I should also mention that our lower case i was for insect. But obviously it was not my favourite of the two. It was fun but not as fun as ice cream!

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Horsing around at Home!

The letter H has found us. We enjoyed created homes with the capital H and horses with the lower case h. We even found out that I can not make the best horse sound in Susan's house. This created a lot of laughs from the kidlets and a Whitney who will never nay again!

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Goats and grapes!

Picking a craft for each letter of the alphabet can be a piece of cake but it can also prove to be a bit elusive. This not being our first alphabet rodeo, Susan and I like to switch up the craft from the previous round. For a few letters this can be an easy feat but for a few it can be tricky. The capital letter G proved such a case. We deliberated and went with G for Goat! 

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Fishy Frogs!

The letter F this week created a lot of fun for the kidlets at the daycare. We turned the letter F into a fish and a frog. We were pleasantly surprised to find a few of the kids could make fish lips! While writing this blog post a particular song from my childhood kept playing in my head, "That's What Makes the World Go Round", from The Sword and the Stone. The flick of a fin creates movement. Right, left, right, left. One, two...

Left and right

Like day and night

That's what makes the world go round!

Hope you enjoy having that one stuck in your head! 

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Oh the Letter E!

I have managed to keep on taking pictures of the lovely alphabet crafts we are making. Yay! We have now arrived at letter E-ville which is populated with Elephants and Eggs.

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Dogs and Dinosaurs who get confused for Dragons!

We have arrived at the letter D! I was hoping that I might persuade Susan to do D is for Doughnut or at least allow me to buy some but there was no such luck!

For our upper case letter D we decided on D is for Dog and as per usual at Susan's, it ended up turning into D is for Dog, Dog house and Door!

When it came to our lower case letter D we created Dinosaurs, which promptly started a debate on whether they were in fact dinosaurs or dragons. I think by the end of the day we had given up and allowed the lower case letter D to be either a dinosaur or a dragon.

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C is for Car and Cat

We have continued on in Alphabet land and our next destination was the letter C. We had a lot of fun with this letter and the kids enjoyed making the roads for their letter C cars to drive on. I really enjoyed when they realized that not only were their cars the letter C but the road was as well! We then went on to create a cat for the lower case letter C which in turn made Susan's house very noisy with a lot or meowing and purring!

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Sing-A-Long-Songs

So what happens when some of the kids are finished tidying up and are ready for snack time but Susan and Whitney are not? Well they sit in the living room and entertain one another with song! I managed to get them to pause long enough to get them on video. Our first song was quite polished, our second one might need a little work. 

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We Count While We Craft!

One thing we are very proud of with our daycare kidlets is as we craft we make sure and count at least to ten in order to make sure our glued pieces have the best chances of staying put. We know that as soon as they are done and after I attempt to get a quick picture, they are off tearing around the house wanting to, "show their friends!" So here are a few quick videos of our two and three years old boys displaying their affinity for counting while they craft. I definitely had an enjoyable time trying to video them counting. One little one in particular was counting all the way to ten UNTIL I starting videoing. He then decided that 1 to 5 was sufficient enough for the blog. Hope you enjoy!

B is for... frankly a lot of things!

This week we started on an alphabet theme! (Please see the previous blog for the letter A) Once we finished with A we decided to keep it easy on the kids and continue on with the next letter in line: B. Our craft included the upper case B, being made into a bear and the lower case b made into a blue bird. And here is where Susan and the kidlets (our double B boy in particular) got a little carried away. I think we ended up with: Bobby the blue bird beneath the bubbles bathing with double B boy (you know you are) resting on the bottom of the bathtub. I know that there were many more included one double B came up with on his own: a blue bird eating a brown bug. Phew! Say those ones three times fast!

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Let's Start At The Very Beginning!

Now that Halloween has past we needed a new theme at Susan Cares 4 Kids. With Kindergarten in full swing for our older kidlets we decided that maybe we should tackle the dreaded alphabet! Definitely looking forward to separating the conjunction that is MNOP which, when song by the kids, is one letter in and of itself. There might be a lot of forehead slapping on that one by Susan and myself. But we get ahead of ourselves, like the title of this blog states, let's start at the very beginning with letter A!

P.S. And yes I have been humming that oh so famous song from Sound of Music since I came up with the title for this blog. I would say that I am sorry but that would not be accurate so please hum along with me... when you read you begin with A, B, C!

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Mummies, Superheros and Jack O'Lanterns Oh My!

Firstly, my apologies for the lengthy absence of blog posts. Our lovely blogger has moved to a far off place for many wonderful adventures and we have missed her presence in more ways than one. This blog being one of those reasons. While she has been away the little kidlets as well as Susan and myself have been at play but alas not sharing any of it with you. That is about to end here and now. Why not end the dry spell of blog posts with my favourite holiday, HALLOWEEN! Our day was filled with tons of fun: TP mummies, pass the flashing Jack O'Lantern and a lot of spooky dancing! By the end of the day we were all tired (Susan and I mostly) but the kids were ready for the round of treats awaiting them on their evening adventures. Here is the beginning of our new adventures with a new blogger. Hope you enjoy!

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Crayon Resist Art

Our spider theme continues as we make crayon resist spider webs today. First, the kids used white crayons to draw a spider web on cardstock. Then they used cake paints and with watered paint painted over their webs. The crayon resisted the paint so the spider webs popped out. 

Learning to Play with Others

Someone is learning to play with others now.  Unfortunately, attention is still a little short and the "godzilla" effect upon others play/creations occurs after a few minutes.

Spider Week

We are hard at work at Susan's this Monday morning as we busy ourselves with a spider themed craft.  Cutting, painting, using marbles, and more as we create a beautiful webbed masterpiece.

Beading

Keeping up practice of our fine motor skills with beading necklaces.

A Summer Day

What do you do on a beautiful summer day? Why, grab your sneakers and hat and head to Scoops for some scrumptious ice cream. Yum!! 

Squirmy Worms

The children had fun with a squirmy worm project today.  They made worms that were squirming through the earth.  The earth was texture filled with coffee grounds - a new medium for the kids with which they had a lot of fun (and made for a great smell in the house).

Saskatchewan Fun

Although the weather has gotten a little chilly at times, it doesn't stop us from enjoying our outdoor time. In true Saskatchewan fashion, what do you find the children spending their time doing when the hockey season is over? Well, playing ball hockey of course! ;) 

Easter Bunnies

Easter bunnies have invaded Susan's.  Hippity hoppity Easter bunnies are on their way to cause a little trouble and have a little fun. ;)

Easter

Well Easter is two weeks away and you know what that means........Easter crafts / theme galore at Susan's!! Yay!!  We love our theme weeks and have so much fun with the cool activities Susan and Whitney find for us.  For our Easter week, we have started with Easter bunnies.  So far we've made Easter bunny stick puppets.  One website found some really cute names that we used for our bunnies, such as Worf, Izzy, Pop, Buttons and more.  You'll fall in love with these bouncy little creatures. :)

Purple

Last week the children were busy bees learning, reinforcing and working with their colours.  From red to blue to yellow to green and more, the children work on a daily basis to identify correctly their colours using various objects to show that colours are all around us.  It also helps them become aware of their environment and make observations.  One of our favourite days was the day the colour purple exploded upon the house.  Here were are with our purple octopuses.

St Patrick's Day (continuation)

Although it was yesterday, here are a few more of the fun activities that the children participated in before and during St. Patrick's Day.  They also partook in some green beverages and snacks that day to really get into the spirit (and they were super yummy!!). :)

              

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Children at Susan's have been hard at work the last week working on St. Patrick's Day projects.  Between shamrocks, leprechauns, pots of gold and rainbows, the luck of the Irish has filled the house and eyes have been on the look out for tricky little leprechauns. ;)

S is for Snake

The children have just finished off the alphabet letter study (one day for 26 days).  One of their favourite days was when they did the letter S and got to make snake masks.  Not only is it the first letter in Susan's name, but it also is the first letter in the name to represent these slithering, snaky little critters.

Birthdays!

Well we've been a little behind the times on our blog posts here.  Our apologies!  When the cold weather (or should we say extremely frigid weather) hit, apparently other things (aka blog posts) froze as well.  We're back on track now!

Over the last couple of weeks we've celebrated a couple of birthdays at the daycare.  Our tiny tykes (the youngest gentlemen of our crew) both turned 2.  Happy birthday boys!! :)

Valentine Mailboxes

Every child needs a specially designed mailbox to hold their Valentines in.  So those who attend Susan's made their very own, special mailboxes in anticipation for the Valentines they'd receive from their friends.  Using a variety of items (stickers, heart cut-outs, markers, glitter, doilies, etc.) each child made a beautiful, personal Valentine mailbox.  These were sure filled to the brim from all the gracious treats and cards they brought each other today.

Valentine Cookie Pops

What's better than combining crafting fun with food?!?!  That's what the children did at Susan's this week as they created Valentine cookie pops.  First they took a cookie and lathered icing onto it.  The cookie pop stick was then carefully pressed into the icing and a second cookie placed on top (to create an "Oreo" like effect).  They then used icing and candy hearts to decorate their cookie pop.  They have some very creative designs and sure look scrumptious!!

Indoor Days

Well the Saskatchewan weather continues to wreck havoc on our outdoor fun.  The frigid cold temperatures have meant that many days we're stuck indoors.  This however does now quash our fun at Susan's.  There are many exhilarating indoor activities for us to do such as tower/block building challenges.  Using blocks, we've created fun, interesting structures as well as the tallest towers we can make.  Usually the height of these towers is limited to the height of ourselves though :p

I is for Icicle

Our alphabet letters have continued on (just like our cold winter weather).  The children got to use glue and salt for "I is for Icicle".  First they trailed a line of glue across a piece of blue construction paper.  Then, they got to understand how icicles form (a little science knowledge incorporated) and lifted their paper so that icicles formed / dripped.  Once the icicles were formed, they sprinkled them with salt to crystallize when it dries.  The part they enjoyed most of all was watching the icicles form.   It's amazing how dripping glue can hold the attention of youngsters. ;)

D is for Dog Sled

At Susan's the children have started working through "A Winter Alphabet" project.  Every day the children will focus on a letter of the alphabet (going in order) in conjunction with a winter topic.  To date they've done:

A is for Angel, Snow Angel

B is for Boots, Winter Boots

C is for Cold (Brrrrr!!!!)

D is for Dog Sled

E is for Evergreen

Their craft is centred around this daily theme and they also learn other words associated with the letter.  What a fun way for the children to learn/practice their alphabet in conjunction with our Saskatchewan weather.

Play & Painting

The weather this month has been quite up and down.  One day we'll have beautiful weather that allows us to get outside and enjoy the fresh air, then the next few days end up being so frigid we're housebound.  During these indoor days, the children keep busy with many fun activities such as creative play and free paint.  These are terrific times for the children to use their imagination and experiment with colour.

Snowflakes Are Falling

With the weather warming up a bit, we've seen a bit of snow fall from our skies.  This has led to Snowflake week at Susan's.  During today's crafts, the children made snowflakes using tape and paint.  First, they made the snowflake using tape.  Then, they painted the entire sheet (including over the tape).  Once the paint was dry, they removed the tape to reveal a snowflake.  They turned out very well!

Princess Week

With many of our families on holidays this week, we've been left with only our lady clients in attendance.  Therefore, we've dubbed this week "Princess Week".  Much of our time has been focused around well-known (to this age) princesses, aka Disney princesses.  Yesterday we decided to leave 2013 by crowning ourselves princesses.  In doing so, we made our own beautiful tiaras each created with personal designs.

Happy New Year

From all of us at Susan Cares 4 Kids we wish you a happy new year!  May 2014 be filled with love, laughter and many wonderful things for all our families. :)