We dont have much of a schedule, but more of a routine here. I like to keep the kids entertained and stimulated, but we work mainly around their personal schedule.
For instance, here is how a typical day went last school year:
- 7:30 am...drop off
- 7-8:00 am...quiet time...children are just waking up, tv is usally on.
- 8 am...everyone gets ready to drop off at school.
- 8:20 am...after getting settled back after school drop off, we get ready to eat.
- 8:45 am...toddlers/preschoolers get ready for activites. We clean our plates, wash our hands and get ready to have some fun.
- 9 am(give or take)...infants takes morning nap
- 9:15 am...group activity
- around 10 am or when the activity ends...morning snack
- during morning snack, infant will usually awaken from her nap and be ready for her snack(a bottle).
- 10:30 am...outside play.
- 11:45 am...come back inside and wash hands. Get ready for lunch.
- noon-12:30...lunch is prepared and served
- 1 pm...quiet time/naptime. Infant will usually be ready for an afternoon nap anytime.
- 3 pm...school gets out...quiet time is over, everyone, including infant, is awake and ready for some fun.
- 3:30-pick-up time...outside play agian.
This is just a sample of a typical day. Things happend during the day that may change our routine. Somedays the baby does not want to nap early and will take a later nap. We work around the childrens schedules here.
List of Possible Activities
Depending on the ages of the daycare children, there are many fun activites you can do. Some of our favoites are:
- Inside, free play activites
- Playdough...allows children to be creative and use thier imagination.
- Painting...this should always be supervised! Newspaper for a table cover comes in handy.
- Crayons/markers and paper...again allows children to be creative and use thier imagination. Not recommened for children under the age of 2, unless directly supervised. Marker caps are a choking hazard! Direct supervision is strongly suggested.
- Crayons and coloring book...I made this seperate becasue it does not require as much imagination. Coloring allows children to use and help improve thier fine motor skills.
- Building with blocks...fun for all ages! Does not require direct supervision, this is a good activity to allow children to do while you are tied up with an infant. Big, bulky blocks are recommened to reduce the risk of chocking.
- Puzzles...Wooden puzzles for the littler ones, and jigsaw puzzles for the older childrn.
- Learning Activites for older children/preschoolers
- Printable Worksheets. A good place to get them is here. They have many different options.
- Cuttng shapes and different things with safty scissors. Must be a surpervised activity. Here is another great site that offers free printables. You can find a varity of different things.
- Making shapes with craft sticks or other objects. This is a great way to have fun and learn the different shapes.
- Counting objects, such as money(for older children), crackers at snack time...ect.
- Sorting ojects by color, size, or catagory is a fun way for children to learn how things are alike and how they are different.
- BOOKS! Read to your children every day! Stop and ask questions about what you just read, or ask the children to point out objects in the book to help get them involved.
- Outside activites
- Balls are always fun! So many different types of activies can be done with balls, and children love them!
- Bubbles...fun for all ages
- Walks are always fun, when you have the opportunity to take them. There are many fun things you can do on walks. We like to find pine cones and see how many we can collect. Fall is a great time to see how many pretty leaves you can find. Make a game out of who can find the most different kinds of leaves. Of course, you are going to want to help, so no one feels left out.
- Do a nature hunt. Look around the yard, and see if you can find different things. Nuts from the squirrels, or squirrels themselves! Try to find butterflies, different color flowers. If you do a theme of the week, it would be alot of fun to incorporate this into nature hunts.
- Tag is fun, but must be supervised. Kids will be kids and sometimes get a little rough.
- A local park is fun way for kids to get rid of access energy. Make sure you have a transport permission slip if one is not in walking distance.
- Sidewalk chalk...also fun for all ages.
There are many many more activites! If you have any other fun activites and would like me to put them up here, with credit given(of course :), email me! I would love to hear from you.
I am also going to include some recommened supplies. Please, feel free to email me if you have anything you think I shoul add, and I will include them.
- For infants
- Pack and Play
- Baby monitor
- Bouncy chair
- Rattles and other noisy infant toys
- Toys that the infant can lay under and play with. Some make noise when the infant touches them.
- Changing mat
- For Older babies/toddlers
- High Chiar and booster seat.
- Sleeping mat
- Odds and Ends
- Child size table and chairs.
- Craft supplies...washable crayons, markers, playdough, paper...ect.
- This may sound silly, but make sure you have fire extinguishers on hand!
Holidays offer great ways to include craft activies into your daycare. There are many many pages on the internet that offer printable templates and instructions. Here are a few of my favorite:
ABC Teach. My personal favorite. Moslty printable worksheets.
DTLK Printalbes for Kids
Enchanted Learning. Many different special occasions to choose from on this site.
Kids Domain.
Crayola's website
Those are my favorites. If you have any to share, please email me and I will add them.
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