Joyful Noise Day Care -- 2008 Archives

• Philosophy
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My Corner

Well, the tree is down and the living room seems unusually large and quiet without its' grand presence; kind of like the space that a jovial guest leaves when they end their visit and depart for home.   I'm sure tomorrow the house will again seem too small and anything but quiet as all the children return, refreshed and full of stories of what Santa brought them and the time away from us.   They grow so much in a week that I'm looking forward to new balancing tricks from the babies, new words from the toddlers and new sophistication from the three-year-olds.

In gathering the necessary paperwork for the training courses that I'm embarking on, I talked to my licensing worker and was gently reminded that my visit from her will be unannouced.   Oops.   Somehow I forgot that part, mistaking it for the visits from the Food Program worker which are sometimes scheduled and sometimes a surprise.   So, if the DHS worker shows up while you're dropping off or picking up a child, please bear with us and realize that I didn't plan it that way!

The beginning of a new year is always a fresh feeling.   While I have had enough experience with ambitious resolutions to discourage me from hanging any hopes on them this year, I do wish us all a year of strong resolve to be ambitious enough to reach beyond our grasp and in the face of discouragement, hope.   Happy New Year.

Time sloshes on or, on these cold days maybe squeaks and crunches as this snow today is quiet noisy!   I had my inspection this last Tuesday and already received the paperwork in the mail saying I passed with flying colors and my license will be renewed so thank goodness the suspense of that is all over.   My worker, Jeannette, is so professional and kind; she is a real partner in assuring our day care is a quality one and I truly appreciate her help.   You can see my licensing study report at the DHS website but you'll need to give them a some time to get the new one on line; right now the old one from 2006 is there if you're curious.

I'm back in Spanish class again.   I'll be trying to speak more Spanish around the children and maybe even read them some books in Spanish, so if they seem to start speaking in tongues you'll be prepared.   In no way will I be "teaching" them as I believe that they need to learn their mother tongue before they are taught one that is not spoken at home or in their neighborhood.   But I do believe that it's beneficial for children to hear languages that they are in no way expected to understand and I also think it's very beneficial to repeat simple things like counting, songs and rhymes in multiple languages.   It give children's facial muscles practice with a wider variety of gestures and stretches their brains a little in different directions to foster open mindedness.

The Syracuse Cultural Workers fund raising products are still available if anyone wants to purchase any, but I've removed them from the entryway as there just isn't much room out there with all the winter gear.   There hasn't been such a good response to that experiment so if there's not much interest shown in the next few weeks I'll quietly discontinue it.

Speaking of winter garments; if the weather is near 20° or warmer we have every intention of offering the children 2 years and older the opportunity to go outside.   If you wish your child to be able to partake in the beautiful white fairy land that is our back yard right now they must have two boots, snow pants, jacket, hat and two mittens.   Any missing components to that list means they must watch their friends through the window.   I do have some spares of a couple garments stashed away, so if you expressly do not wish your child to join the others, please mention it when you drop them off.   However, if they're too sick to go outside then they may benefit from a day of rest at home.   Fresh air and large motor exercise is important even in the cold.   Sometimes the little ones only go out for ten minutes, but the experience of getting out from under the roof and into the wide open spaces does them a world of good.   They eat and sleep better and their young brains need the stimulation to grow in all the proper directions.  

This coming Saturday I'll be teaching the first of my provider training classes for other daycare providers.   I feel fortunate that enough brave souls signed up for the class so that it can go ahead and I'll be having lots of fun sharing some of my hard earned knowledge (I'm a little reluctant to call it wisdom...) with those who are just getting their feet wet in the child care field.   I'm really very excited about the knowledge that I'll gain from these folks with beginner's mind and I'm sure the quality of the day care will improve as I get my feet wet in this new area of caring for the caregivers.

Just a quick note at nap time while we have some peaceful moments; how many is never certain...   I forgot to mention in my last post that we have a new member of our extended family; Genesis, or Jenna for short.   She joined us with the new year and most of you have met her already and know what I mean when I say it seems like she's always been here!   Her smiling little face is a welcome sight and she's made lots of friends already.

Another reason to write is that quite a few people have been asking me about the appropriateness of preschool; the pros and cons on that subject.   As with every other aspect of child rearing it seems that there is no shortage of concerned friends and relatives with lots of well meaning advice, or not so well meaning meddling pressure to do what they think is the proper thing for your child.   I'm preparing an Ask the Nanny column on it but it's a huge subject and takes a lot of work to write it well.   However, in the meantime the Wall Street Journal has just published a very good article based on a study at Stanford University.

In the end, every parent has to choose for themselves, but please think clearly about this.   Saying that you have to go to school to prepare to go to school is like saying that you have to start drinking beer when you're a teenager so you'll be ready to drink whiskey when you're an adult!   There is a certain age that a child is ready for specific milestones and trying to push that age ahead with the logic that the child will then be better prepared is very faulty logic indeed.   Too much too soon wreaks havoc on their delicate systems and will have long term effects.   And I'm not just saying this to keep my clients.   They're all leaving sooner or later and I have a long waiting list ready to fill their spots.   I am saying this because I see a dangerous trend of stressing children at early ages and then labeling them with 'disorders' when the only disorder was in their parent's choices for them and the environments (including their diets) that they were thrown into.

Enough anyway.   Read the article and watch for more passionate expounding soon in the Ask the Nanny column.   Naptime's almost over and I've got a bit of paperwork to do!   Just know that if I didn't care so much for these little angels napping all around my house this wouldn't get me so worked up.

I was a little late with the new recipe this month and the new poem for the season, but now they're posted along with a new store on the shopping page and the updated calendar, so all's back on schedule here at Joyful Noise Daycare.com.   Also, my updated licensing study report is now posted on the DHS website.   I taught my second, eight hour daycare provider training course yesterday and I have the first of four Music with Children classes tomorrow evening so I've been working on curriculum like a madwoman.   I'm loving this new journey and relating with other providers in this way has certainly given me new energy toward my work with the children.   I'll be talking more about that in the days to come, once I have this flurry of organizing behind me.   For now, I'm heading to the couch to enjoy a well deserved movie and a bowl of popcorn with my patient husband who has spent quite a bit of this weekend being very supportive in big big ways!   So for now, enjoy the new entries in the other sections!

It's hard to resist the urge to make an entry on leap day, the rare day that only appears once every four years...something like Brigadoon on a shorter time line.   Tomorrow I teach the last of the daycare provider trainings that I've committed to for this first quarter and so March will seem more like a lamb for me than the whirlwind of February, regardless of the weather.   I've really enjoyed teaching the classes and I'm sure that I've learned at least as much as my students; definitely more than some of them!   Now I have some catching up to do on the website so watch for the new features to appear; two Ask the Nanny questions have been patiently waiting, some new additions to the community section as well as some new activities pages.

I've pretty much implemented most of the changes that were suggested in my website challenge last year except for a couple.   One of the requests was that I post more information about the families in my care on the website as there's such little time to get to know each other during drop offs and pick ups, yet the children are forging strong friendships with each other.   Unfortunately, that can't happen, for privacy reasons.   I suggest that if you want to get to know each other better but can't seem to connect in the passing, write your phone number and email on a piece of paper and tell me who you want to give it to.   I'll be happy to act as the go between and then you can set up play dates on the side.

Naptime is all too short so my time has run out already.   Sorry for those of you who thought you'd have one more day of the January recipe; I'm going to do all my March 1st posting today as I'm heading out for Houghton Lake at the crack of dawn for 7 grueling hours of discussing listening skills and cultural awareness.   Good thing I've baked chocolate cookies to help keep us alert.

Nothing like a little cold to humble us, is there?   Just as I was driving home from Houghton Lake last weekend, after teaching the last of the daycare provider training classes that I had committed to for the first quarter, I started to feel a little scratchy throat and stuffy nose.   My body obviously figured that it was safe to finally protest the extra added pressure I had placed it under coupled with exposing it to all the wild and woolly bacteria and germs that y'all have been bringing into the house from all the coughing and sneezing that's been going on at every workplace in Traverse City lately.   So for the last week all the good intentions that I've had for getting caught up have been summarily ignored while I've blown my nose and coughed and rested my sloshing head every chance I got.   The common cold lasts approximately 7 to 10 days so it's on my schedule to be completely healed by about Tuesday and back on track.   Check back with me to see how well nature has cooperated with my schedule.

Some of you may or may not know that I'm quite passionate about early academics for children in general and specifically for children under age 7.   So it will come as no suprise that a bill in the Michigan legislature that would make full time kindergarten for persons turning five years old before December 1st mandatory is something I'm opposed to.   When the Record-Eagle came out with an editorial (sorry, the link is now dead) in favor of the practice, it was the last straw and I had to write to them.   Even the nice lady who called to confirm that it was really me who wrote the letter said that she was glad I wrote it; that her daughter was in child development and couldn't believe that our government was going to do this to little kids.   My letter was finally published (sorry, the link is now dead) this week, so I had my moment on the soapbox anyway.   If you agree with me, take a moment to write to your congressperson, the education committee or Governor Granholm, who is pushing this bill.

The day care is closed but we're hard at work here, doing our taxes and getting caught up on all the odds and ends (like the website) that we can't do when the kids are here.   We're thinking about all of you though, and holding all the big shining eyes and chubby little cheeks in our hearts as we listen to the silence around us.   We enjoyed watching the Tigers play their first game of the season on television yesterday afternoon, though we didn't enjoy watching them lose!   And the snow that we're watching right now seems like an April Fool's joke, but we know it won't last.   In fact, I'm planning on getting all those chubby little cheeks out in the back yard when they return on Thursday, so please be sure to come with appropriate foot wear and jackets, etc.   Cabin fever has taken it's toll and we're ready to go find those first crocus poking their brave heads up in the raspberry patch.

With the new month comes the new recipe and an updated calendar page.   Some people don't seem to understand that the vacation days on the calendar page are not the ONLY days we're going to be closed in the next year, just the ones that we are already aware of.   As we make our plans for future days off they will be posted on the website first and then you will be given written confirmation within the two weeks that the handbook specifies.   Sometimes I may post a day on the website that will change as life happens, but once I give you written notice then it's pretty much permanent, barring any unforeseen tragedy or weird event.   Then, once I've given you written notice you can always refresh your memory back on the calendar page when you lose you little slip of paper.   That's important for me, because if you ask me to give you a second written notice, especially if it's in the middle of a busy time, I may actually get the dates wrong and then we'd both be quite upset!   So please take advantage of the website; the internet is such a wonderful tool!

Most of you are aware that baby Mason has started to join us on a regular basis now, so we look forward to watching him as he begins to defy gravity and rise into uprightness in the next few months!   He's the only child in the daycare who is under one year old now, and Whitman leads the children in crossing the threshold out of the 'threes' this month!   An exciting time for all of us!

There are a few little changes in the weblog archives here and more planned so keep checking back.   I've got so many ideas I hope to try and I love getting suggestions about what you think would make the website better or more interesting, so please let me know!   For the month of April my website challenge is a repeat of one from last summer.   Write down one thing that you love about the website and hope I'll never change, and then write down one thing about the website that you would like to see; either a new feature or a change to an existing feature.   Your answers MUST be different than the last ones you gave for this challenge, and don't think I won't remember; I take all of these suggestions deeply to heart!   In case you've forgotten, here are the rules for the challenges.   As your reward for accomplishing these two tasks you will win a child's t-shirt.   Only one prize per person during the month of April, AND my supply of t-shirts and choice of sizes is very limited, so, first come, first served.   When the t-shirts run out there are consolation prizes of bookmarks, bumper stickers or pins.

Ok, Ben's waiting for me to finish up our taxes; the first year that we're filing jointly, so it's quite a production as we literally combine all the details of our two lives in all those little boxes. Yikes!

Twenty-eight years ago today I gave birth to Elizabeth Marie and have not once regretted it.   Happy Birthday Elizabeth!   That day was Easter Sunday, so she has two legitimate birthdays every year, lucky girl.   She is celebrating the day by being a busy Mom, but at least it's a Sunday and she can enjoy playing with her charming children.   I am celebrating the day by blatantly ignoring everything on my 'to-do' list (now that we have our taxes mailed) and alternately surfing the internet and wandering around the back yard which is showing itself from underneath the snow at last.   We opened all the windows in the house today for the first time and are loving the stirring of the air around us as we listen to the sounds of the neighborhood loud and clear once more.   There will be no more need for snow pants or boots from now on; only jackets, tennis shoes and hats!   Hooray for spring!

On April 2nd there was finally a letter of rebuttal (sorry, the link is now dead) to my letter in the Record-Eagle.   I'm afraid that the link will change tomorrow as it enters the archive section of their website, so I'll try to remember to check and change it if that's the case.   The rebutter is a Montessori teacher and so has a vested interest in increasing the customers in the school system and also is understandably biased toward believing that school is a good and beneficial place for children.   I find it interesting that given all that, she still concedes the undeniable fact that academic pressure has many harmful effects on small children.   However she goes on to argue that kindergarten doesn't equate academic pressure when even the Michigan legislature states "researchers note that since the U.S. standards and assessment movement of the 1990's, the kindergarten experience has shifted from a play-based curriculum to a curriculum focusing on the formal teaching of discrete skills.   Increasingly, kindergarten classrooms have begun to resemble first grade classrooms in their emphasis on formal reading and math instruction rather than play and socialization."   Sounds like academic pressure to me.   However she honestly points out that having the kids for more time makes it easier for the teachers to fulfill the requirements of their jobs (individualize curriculum and perform assessments) and provides then with a smoother transition into first grade, (since the children are already trained in the rules and routines of school life.)   She concludes by reminding us that most 5 year olds love school, which of course is true for a few weeks.   But if it were true for the whole school year, there wouldn't be so many crying children in the morning, parents would never have to cajole their youngsters to get up to catch the bus and we wouldn't have so much damage control to do at the end of the school day now, would we?

There are no long term studies done on children who have been subjected to these more rigorous academic expectations for five full days per week, since this is all a fairly recent phenomenon in childhood education.   But there are some studies that show that by about third grade all children are at about the same level, no matter if academics were introduced earlier or later.   And we do know that since the 1990's our children, preschoolers through teenagers, are increasingly displaying and being diagnosed with stress related psychological disorders at an alarming rate.   They're experiencing all kinds of physical and mental ailments, like diabetes, obesity, hypertension, that used to be limited to adults.   I don't think it's rocket science to begin by putting our foot (or collectively, feet) down as parents and caregivers when the government wants to mandate increased academic production and stressors in the lives of our children.   It sounds like child labor all over again, doesn't it?   Just say "no" to forcing children to do grown up things before they're ready!   Lord knows, it all comes at them soon enough.

The sun is out and spring is really here.   We've been outside quite a bit lately and the children all have rosy cheeks and hearty appetites to prove it.   The grown-ups are a bit less harried looking too, though we're still trying to get used to the new routine that comes with moving our operation primarily into a new realm for awhile, with picnics and bugs and sunscreen and babies who are just getting their land legs on uneven ground!

I'm teaching another class for the 4C's in May so some of my free time is going to go toward writing curriculum this week and not too much to the weblog, but the research I put into building these classes strongly enhances the quality of the daycare.   I hope you all got out in this beautiful sun this weekend; we sure need to build up our inner solar stores after a long winter.   There's a new book review feature up and running in the Nanny section and a new Featured Pick in the Community section this week.   Hope you enjoy them!

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers and surrogate mothers everywhere.   Though today is essentially a Hallmark holiday that often inspires as much stress and guilt as honor and respect, it's part of America nonetheless so we may as well do our best to mark the day and the work of motherhood.   For my part I was totally surprised and honored by my own two strong daughters who are wonderful Mothers in their own right; yesterday they showed up with two little children in tow and a load of fresh new sand for the sandbox.   When Ben asked them "Where are the men?" they just laughed at him.   I was so proud.   (For the record, their men were at work or home with the other two kids, respectively.)   Not to mention how wonderful our sandbox looks with that clean sand filling up the big hole that had eroded in there.   Today Ben and I will visit both of our Moms who we are so lucky to have close at hand.   We are also lucky that his Mom loves to watch the Tigers on t.v. so that's how we'll spend our time with her!   My Mom will be getting about seven long distance phone calls today, so we know that it's best to drop off her gift a little later and not count on an uninterrupted conversation with her; but the joy of living close is that we can have a 'qualtiy' chat with her another day.

I'm teaching a training class this month so my weblog entries are a little spare as I've had to write some new curriculum again.   I gain so much from these classes that the time spent is like gold, but the website does suffer from it.   This current class is mostly workers from centers, so I'm gleaning some good insight into the practices that go on there.   This is also why my latest Ask the Nanny question is taking a little longer to complete; the question of sending children to preschool as a preparation for kindergarten.   It's a vast subject with unfortunately very little research to support it so I'm having to search far and wide to present an objective picture of the whole practice to temper my personal opinion.   The information from the workers at these local centers and preschools has been so helpful and has changed my article on several counts.   Stay tuned!

In honor of Mother's Day and spring and the merry merry month of May, I have a new website challenge.   There is a page on my website that reveals the names of my grandmothers and great-grandmothers.   Tell me their names and you will win your choice of a child's t-shirt (some are left from last month's challenge,) or a Body Shop Body Butter.   Offer good while supplies last, so if I run out of those two items then you'll be offered a substitute prize.   And remember, the day care is closed for several days this month which reduced your time to claim your prize.   But don't spend all your time in front of the computer and for Pete's sake, don't let your kids spend any time in front of a computer.   Get out an enjoy this great weather before it gets too hot!

Well my little vacation is almost over and of course all the things on my 'to-do' list are still not crossed out but I do feel a bit rested and ready to see how grown up everyone looks after a week away.   One thing that did get done is a new Ask the Nanny question on the pros and cons of preschool.   Several people have asked about this and it's taken me longer than I thought to compose the answer, but it's finally done, thanks to a few extra days off and time to work on it.   My gratitude for the patience of my readers and I hope my thoughts and links are helpful as you make this important decision for the future.

We're back from Detroit and our excursion with Grandma Rita and her charming friend Doris to Comerica park!   I'm happy to report that Rita and Doris brought the Tigers great luck but we're not sure if it will hold.   We've done all that we can do though, since we really don't want to spend the summer anywhere at all that far south.   Now we're settling in to our three day weekend with yard work, website work and a couple of Memorial Day celebrations to attend.   We're hoping the wonderful weather holds out and that all who are reading this will be blessed with some peace and joy to add to their memories.

We've had some sad news that Pilar will soon be leaving us to spend the summer nice and cozily at home with her sister Lily being cared for by their grown-up cousin.   Just as we've been missing Lily, we will be missing Pilar so for the next couple of weeks we have to try to soak up as much as we can of her sweet sweet spirit.   The consolation is that they'll still be here in town and their parents promise that from time to time they'll stop by to visit or maybe even to stay for awhile.   Through all these years of caring for children I can say that I've learned to get used to letting them go, but I have NOT learned to like it.   In the meantime, the children will keep growing and leaving and new children will keep arriving and our hearts will get their share of excercise, hopefully keeping them fit and flexible.

June already, and this nice, long, cool spring is beginning to languish into those humid, hot summer days that those of us who care for little ones do not particularly love.   Toddlers don't have the sense yet to play in the shade, so not only do they still need lots of cuddling even when we're all hot and sweaty, but we have to be extra vigilant for heat stroke and sunburn with their tender little bodies.   It does us all well to remind each other that until children get their second teeth they are still very much babies, no matter how tall they are or how grown-up they might act.   As our two and three-year-olds bloom into their graceful and eloquent personalities, we often are charmed by that growth into expecting more of them than we have a right to, which ends up in disappointed parents and frustrated pre-schoolers.   Patience is its own reward, and hopefully no one told you parenting would be easy.   If they did they were lying.

In that realm of confounding toddler behavior is the topic of biting and we have more than one biter in our two-year-old cohort right now.   Though we discuss this crime at pick-up time when we have to report to the perpetrator's and victim's parents on the day that we have an event, there is usually not sufficient time to educate the novice parent about this normal behavior, so I'd like to do that here.   Especially since it's no secret that one of the biters is our grandson, I fear that some clients may think I'm being a bit overprotective or cavalier when I tell them that biting is typical and a child will outgrow it usually by the time they're three.   I assure you that around here when the culprit is a member of our own family it means that I handle them more sternly than the other children, not less.

It also means that in the interest of full disclosure we tell you who bit your child, which has always been my policy.   This has been a topic of debate in the classes I teach and until now I have held that a parent has a right to know exactly what happened to their child.   But as you see, in the article Biting: Dracula at the Day Care, Tim Graves, M.S.Ed, disagrees with me and advises that providers should keep the names of the children to themselves, as the parents of the victims may "denigrate the biting child if they know who it is." I have lately had to admit that this is also a very real problem.   I hope that by educating parents we can avoid any disparaging remarks they might make about the other members of our day care family, but I also realize that this could be an overly optimistic expectation and that I have a responsibility to confidentiality that I need to consider.   I would love some input on this; not only from current clients, but also the objective opinions from my wider audience of readers.   If your child gets bit, do you have a right to know who did it?   If you know the identity of a biter in your child care setting are you likely to say negative things about that child to others?

As for the education aspect, I will reiterate that biting in two-year-olds is a perfectly normal behavior.   Each child comes to this world with a personality of their very own.   Those of us who have several siblings know that the same two parents can produce an endless variety of personalities and when it comes to child-rearing techniques, one size does not fit all.   While parents can influence certain aspects of a child's behavior and are certainly to blame for teaching them many bad habits, biting does not fall into that category.   In my experience, every child has their own technique for handling challenging social situations: some children are screamers, some are whiners, some children push, some hit, some lay down and throw tantrums and some children bite.   As caregivers our best tactic is to stay in close proximity to the biter to deter challenges and teach them less hurtful coping skills.   The problem is often compounded when their peers learn that by provoking the biter they can end up with the coveted toy or extra attention.   While it seems that this is unbelievably sophisticated plotting for a preschooler, I've heard many hilarious stories to confirm this from other caregivers and witnessed it first hand as well.   Never underestimate them!   While staying close to your child in social situations is relatively easy for parents, in a group care situation it's understandably more difficult.   While we make every effort to give each child the individual protection and attention that they need, there are always times where we must pay attention to the larger group as a whole and inevitably that's when the occasional accident happens.

Some child care centers have the policy of expelling children for biting and other hurtful behaviors.   I can't imagine adopting this policy and am supported in my stance not only by Mr. Graves but by most child care professionals.   While a publication from our Michigan Division of Child Day Care Licensing (sorry, they moved the link to this and I can't find it...) does say the best thing for the child may be to move her to a new child care setting they also say that this should be the last resort.   I can see that if a child was biting to the point of drawing blood and didn't seem to be outgrowing the habit as they matured well into their threes I might be pressed to the point of asking them to leave, but in over a quarter century of child care I have only expelled one child and that was for an undisclosed medical condition that I felt I could not attend to properly in a group setting.   I don't think that I could bring myself to expel a child for exhibiting age-appropriate behavior, so those of you whose children are a little rougher than others, don't worry.   While I don't have much patience when adults act like children, I have plenty of patience for children who act their age.

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads and Grandpas out there and all the Moms who are both Mom and Dad.   Even though it's a Hallmark kind of holiday it's a good excuse to think about the mysterious role that fathers play and our relationships to them and to the children in our lives.   I'm one of the most fortunate people in the world when it comes to parents; not only are mine fantastic, but they are both still alive, well and living just a bike ride away.   So we all spent the afternoon together watching the Tigers win a nail-biter, complete with rain delay so the Grandpas could take a little nap.

It's been a busy week at the daycare.   Pilar had her last day; much sadder for me than for her, which is how it's supposed to be.   We'll miss her and hope she and Lily come back to visit us before too long.   Whitman has dropped a couple of days and is now a part time kid, so you won't be seeing him around as much anymore.   In his place, for awhile, you will be seeing the welcome old familiar face of Will!   Yahoo!!

Summer always brings a little shake up in the schedule so be sure to check the calendar to remember the days we're closed.   Also, get out and enjoy the beautiful place that we live, now that the roads are free of ice and we don't have to bundle up to brave the elements (unless you count sunscreen as part of your bundling.)   Some people work all year just to save up for a couple weeks of the view that we get to see everyday.   Take time to look at it, breathe deep of this wonderful air and smile to yourself.

'Tis the time of graduation parties, baseball, family reunions and visitors from the flatlands who come north seeking solace in our cool breezes and soothing landscapes.   All of them take time away from this weblog, but what welcome diversions they are.   The page on the calendar will turn this week bringing some vacation days (and the new recipe,) so take note!   Ben, Ashlee and I all have birthdays in July, giving us cause to celebrate with some rest time.   (Ashlee had the good sense to be born the day before a holiday involving fireworks!)

Life in the daycare has taken on the pastoral pace of summer now; outside for most of the day, every day.   We're starting to notice the effect of sunshine, fresh air and unrestricted running on the children as they become rosy-cheeked and sturdier on their legs.   The three-year-olds are one by one leaving behind their 'terrible' two years and blossoming into conversational 'fours.'   Their stride when they run is stretching out, becoming surer as they race after butterflies and each other, learning how to use the whole yard, branches of trees and corners hidden by the bushes.

Of course the two-year-olds are chugging right behind their mentors, taking notes and imitating the best they can.   We're also seeing a slow improvement in social skills as they negotiate in the sandbox and with the balls.   The little one-year-olds are perhaps showing the biggest changes.   They're revving up their toddling into sure-footed running now, and insisting on going barefoot which is supremely beneficial for the development of their neurons as the uneven surface of the yard and multitude of textures stimulates their soles.   Baby Mason is the mascot of the group and all the children are showing amazingly cute nurturing skills with him as he struggles to find his upright stance so he can get into the action going on around him.

You may or may not have noticed that the mowing of our yard seems a bit haphazard and uneven.   Be assured that this is intentional and serves a dual purpose in our daycare.   First and foremost, we leave some 'meadow' space in the yard furthest to the back unmown so the children can experience the wildflowers, moss and long grasses that naturally grow there.   We mow around any milkweed that volunteers to grow as it encourages monarch butterflies for us to observe.   And any unusual wildflowers that pop up we preserve so we can enjoy them, even if they're in the middle of the lawn.   The second purpose is that a yard so well used as ours needs a little different management to keep it from deteriorating than a regular, pampered lawn would.   So we encourage clover and yarrow, which are hardier than grass, to grow tall, flower and reseed themselves in hopes that they will strengthen and nourish our play area.   We use absolutely NO poisons of any kind on this lawn as they are one of the most prevalent causes of cancer, both by direct contact and by polluting the groundwater, and we strongly encourage you to boycott these horrible products.   This year, with all the extra rain and cool spring, we are truly enjoying the results of our careful cultivation; the yard is lush and green, though definitely not looking like a golf course!

Even though the children don't play in the front yard, our practices still spread out in that direction; we just can't help letting the beautiful alfalfa, milkweed and violets come up in the driveway and that long patch of grass over by the garage is our second year of working on a Queen Anne's Lace garden.   In Matthew it says if you pull out the weeds, you may pull out the wheat with them, and the same goes for wild flowers, so we're letting them all come up together over there until that wild carrot gets well established.   We're slowing working on making our terrace by the street a garden, knowing full well that the harsh sun in summer and salt in winter may undo our best efforts.   Still, those flowers and ground covers look nice right now, don't they?   May you have as much fun as we do making your surroundings beautiful by letting what grows naturally take root and flower!   Remember, a weed is only a plant you haven't learned to love yet.

I am officially a year older and happy to be able to be here to celebrate it.   Unlike many other women in my peer group, I have no problems with birthdays.   I think having them is much better than the alternative!

Ben and I are enjoying our summer break by visiting with friends, watching our monarch chrysalis, sitting by the water, catching up with our housework, yard work, paper work and web work.   A few clients asked me where we were going on our days off and seemed a little confused when I answered nowhere.   Though we love the children, caring for them takes up so much of our lives that it's imperative to call a halt to it on a regular basis in order to get our bearings and keep current on all the details of our lives, including rest and good health.   Running this kind of business in your home is quite intrusive, so in order to get a real break we just have to lock the doors now and then.   Nothing personal!   Besides, we live in one of the best summer vacation spots in the world; why would we leave it now?

In tidying up my computer files I ran across a blog entry about Poet's Night Out; the poetry contest that I judge at the library once a year.   Every April we have an informal reading for the past entrants and this first time attendee was moved to review it afterwards.   It was sure fun to read such nice feedback.   (Found out months later that this writer is Rebecca's Grandpa.   SMALL world.)

This vacation will be all too short to complete all the dreams and goals I have for my website, but keep checking in; I'm working on some new features behind the scenes that may be finished before the end of summer.

July has been our month for the arrival of out-of-town relatives, so barely enough time to do our laundry and paperwork and grocery shopping in between catching up with how the nieces and nephews are growing and all the news from the world beyond the woods.   One piece of exciting daycare news is that Collin and Mary are going to be moving right next door a week from today!   Once they're all settled in we'll take a day care field trip to see the inside of their new house, since we're already so familiar with the outside of it!   Moving days are always upsetting even if it's a good move, so we're doing all we can to help keep the little ones on an even keel while their toys and books and beds all travel in from Interlochen.   Collin is a little sad that he won't get to ride the bus anymore and some of the regular passengers have been giving him going away presents as they will miss their young friend too.

Another tender bit of daycare news is that yesterday Ben and I attended the wedding of Katy, one of our alumni.   What an honor to be included in that special rite of passage and to remember that spunky little girl who played here with her brother and cousins not so long ago.   Though it was a speedy ceremony, I still found time to drop a tear or two on the grass.

Two good news articles have come across my desk that I want to share with you.   The first, from theSouthtown Star, (sorry, this link is now dead,) is about a group of parents who were paying attention to what was going on in their school but still got the wool pulled over their eyes by Teen Screen which on the surface seems to be a good thing but when you turn it over, has a slimy underbelly.   As parents, teachers and caregivers we must be ever watchful and brave enough to question authority on behalf of our children.

The second article was a piece on CBS news about the financial ties between the drug companies who make vaccinations and the professionals who assure us that those vaccinations are safe.   There are so many wolves in sheep's clothing out there!

We are truly blessed with a beautiful summer this year and though the temperatures aren't forcing us into the lakes as they have the past couple of years, I hope you're all taking advantage of our sacred northern waters to baptize yourselves thoroughly and often!   We sacrifice in a lot of ways to live here, so we need to take our nose off the grindstone once in awhile to look up and realize why we chose this place to raise our children.   NOW is a great time to do that!

Well the trucks are all unloaded and Collin and Mary are now officially our next-door neighbors and boy are we excited!   Ben and I were gone camping overnight for the weekend but we got back in time for me to help get the last bit out of the truck while he took care of our camping gear so I could feel like I was a little helpful.   Now they go through the unsettling process of settling in to a new place, but at least the view out their windows is familiar.

We're entering the home stretch of out-of-town guests this week with more relatives and my kids that I nannied for coming and going on various days and times.   We feel doubly blessed that people we love so much take the time and effort to come all this way up into the woods to visit us; they're a sight for sore eyes and then our hearts are sore when they have to go home again.   But our daily routines and the peace and order that they bring us get all discombobulated with so much exciting activity and we so appreciate your patience as we do our best to keep the keel even in these wavy summer waters.   I know many of you in the daycare understand because you've told me that you too have more than the normal share of visiting friends and relatives packed into the summmer months.   Relax and enjoy yourselves; all those boring duties will still be there when they're gone, and you'll have some sweet memories to savor while you complete them.

Even though summer doesn't leave us til the end of next month we are bound forever to the school schedule that tells us Labor Day is the beginning of autumn and we're feeling desperate that we haven't been to the beach enough, haven't sipped enough iced tea in the shade, haven't watched enough baseball....ok, maybe some Tiger fans feel like they've seen too much baseball...

The forecast for this coming week should give us plenty of opportunity to have all those summer pleasures.   Personally, I love feeling a bit chilly and this warm humid weather is my least favorite time of year.   Still, my years in Chicago and Virginia taught me well that those of us in the North have nothing to complain about when it comes to heat and humidity.   If you don't like this weather, remember autumn is just around the corner.   Get out and enjoy our lovely waters now and soak up lots of solar gain for the winter.

Coming up in the daycare is the unsavory business of a rate increase.   It's been two years since the rates have changed here and even then it was more of a rearrangement, taking away my paid vacation time and shifting it to the regular fees to alleviate confusion.   This time the rates will truly go up as we just cannot absorb the rising prices around us any longer without passing it on to the consumer.   However the increase will only be $2 per day for full time and $3 per day for part time.   Hopefully this will be affordable for everyone enrolled.   If not, I try to give you plenty of notice so you can look around for something that will still fit your budget, as these increases will not go into effect until January 1, 2009.

An interesting musical tidbit came across my desk this week for those who like Gavin DeGraw (who I had never heard of before, being terminally not-hip.)   He has a song called Medicate the Kids with some poignant, powerful lyrics posted on YouTube so you can read and listen to them for free.

And if you don't walk the line
You can walk the plank
Your older brother (government)
Wants to control your mind
You're more useful blank

Oh, a vacation is always a good thing!   Yes, here I am on vacation and still working.   For those who wonder why we need so many days off in a year, or what we do on those days off well, here I am to tell you: we're still hard at work.   There are so many jobs that we just can't do when the children are here, especially in the summer when we're outside so much of the time.   The first day off I just cleaned and cleaned and cleaned the house.   Not that the cleaning is ever done, but I did get some of that sandbox soil into its rightful place and found quite a few of the toys that had gone missing.   We also had a little yard sale to try to supplement our income and find good homes for things that were just taking up a little too much space around here.   This house would be more than sufficient for two people, but when you import twelve extra bodies (albeit very short ones,) we need to try to find every square inch of space that we can to spread out into.   We made some new acquaintances including nice woman who is starting up her own daycare that happened upon us, so our spare porta crib lives on at her house now.

There is still a pile of the neverending paperwork waiting for me on my desk that I hope to tackle yet this evening, and then there's a long list of things I hope to do on the website, but for me this is just as much fun as it is work.   Yet it is still work!   Of course we have some fun things planned too, or what would be the point?   Besides, in such an intimate relationship as we have with the children, we ALL need a break from each other now and then.   Burnout is one of the biggest reasons that child care workers leave the profession; the demands that this job makes on us are huge and we must be aware of them or we're goners.   Over the years I've learned just about where my limits are and try to schedule our breaks accordingly.   I can tell that it's time to step back and take a big breath when I feel like I'm scolding more than laughing, when the children all seem to be on edge, instead of just certain ones, and when I feel like I'm never rested, no matter how much sleep I get.

So, here's to Labor Day!   To all of us who labor, may we know when to rest and when to keep going.   And may we be ever grateful for the honor of toil and the rewards that it brings; like a well-deserved day off!

Oh my gosh, how can one month go by so quickly?   Well, I know I'm in good company when I say I've been so busy that I hardly noticed it had been this long since I've written here.   What working Mom (or Grandma) doesn't see time slip through her fingers like soapy dishwater?   My excuses are legion: friends in the hospital to visit, birthday parties to attend, third quarter paperwork and most of all, canning season.   The problem with canning is that once you have all those beautiful, shiny jars sealed and wiped off and labelled, then you have to find a place to store them.   So that means reorganizing the basement... like Roseanne Roseannadanna always said, "If it's not one thing, it's another."

To prove the truth of that, this post is ending as abruptly as it began, because we are still in the middle of several things.   Still, to make it up to any loyal clients out there who are doggedly checking this blog, I'll give you a long overdue website challenge here and now.   For a one-time $5.00 discount off any payment made during the month of October, write down your favorite, easy to make recipe that contains no refined sugar and no pre-packaged ingredients.   Also include on the recipe where it came from and permission to use it on the website.   For you steadfast readers who aren't clients I can only give you my undying thanks.   You can send me your favorite recipes anyway if you want!

Now, I have to get back to work but I PROMISE that it won't be a whole month before you hear from me here again.   And I also promise to get the Ask the Nanny page back on track.   No rest for the wicked!

Ah, autumn is truly here!   So many people in this neck of the woods will tell you that this is their favorite time of year, so we meet up with lots of folks who are cheerfully walking around with their sweaters and jackets zipped up, gazing at the magnificent way nature leads us off to winter slumber.   Thank you all for the nice week off for our wedding anniversary.   We had a lovely trip to the U.P., the most romantic place in the world as far as we're concerned.

Speaking of sweaters and jackets, please be sure to dress your child warmly with all the extras, as we will go outside in the fresh air and sunshine at every possible opportunity.   We are only too aware that soon the temperatures will be dipping down to frostbite range, so we want to give the children lots of chances to run and jump and yell before we have to start polishing their quieter social skills.   We've had a few runny noses and an ear infection already, as the indoor heating systems kick on and bless us with all that's accumulated in the vents over the summer.   We can look forward to more immune system flare ups in the fluctuating temperatures of the months ahead, so let's give them all the support we can by keeping little heads and hearts warm.

October is a big birthday month around here, with Mason turning 1, Keira turning 3 and Collin and Pilar (who is no longer with us, but is not forgotten,) turning 4.   Along with birthdays we head into the big holiday season, beginning with Halloween which is thankfully on a Friday this year!   (I will swear on a stack of Bibles that the day after Halloween is the worst day of the year to be running a day care.)   We don't make much of a big deal about Halloween around here for two reasons: First, most of the children are just too little to understand what the whole deal is all about.   Dressing up in a costume, rarely of their own choosing, and being encouraged to beg candy from strangers is pretty confusing to someone who has barely mastered the fundamentals of their mother tongue or conquered gravity. Second, for the children that are beginning to get it, the rest of the world makes a big enough deal of the day that we really feel our job is to keep the children calm in the midst of all the chaos, rather than to help stir them into an even bigger lather than they already are.   However, we will reverently hang our skeleton and ghost on the porch to honor the spirits of the elders who have gone on before us, and we do love to be the first house that the children can "trick or treat" as they leave on Friday.   I already have my special treats waiting in the pantry.

We're trying out Scholastic's new on-line ordering feature this month.   Those of you who use it, I'd love some feedback to see if it's user friendly and works well.   So far I have raves from one parent, anyone else?

It's that glorious day that comes once a year where the gods of time in the United States government deem to give us the fictitious "extra" hour to our day they stole from us in the spring.   We feel relaxed and slow and slightly confused as we struggle to adjust and our eyes tell us that this darkness means something different than the hands on the clock tell us.

As if that wasn't enough, some of us are on pins and needles as we wait for Tuesday night to come so we can find out who will be the lucky successor to George W. Bush and all the mess that comes with that job.   I try not to discuss politics with my clients, but we proudly display our preferences on the front lawn so that they know what they're getting into, and some of us have been getting a little vocal together at pick-up time as the suspense rises.   Sorry.   After the last two elections and the unresolved corruption that took place in them I have no delusions that this race is won until the votes are counted, the parties have conceded and all the swearing is done.   Then the chips will fall where they may, we'll all cry tears of sadness or joy and start getting ready for Christmas!

The scholastic order for November has gone in but if you missed it, never fear, another is on my desk and waiting to be distributed.

The weather has been unbelievably beautiful the last few days and promises to stay warm at least until Thursday.   Don't be lulled into complacency and neglect to bring proper outerwear.   This is still Michigan and the mornings are quite frosty until the sun peeks over the pines, which is later and later every morning.   Little ears and fingers need protection and we hope to keep those holiday colds at bay so that as we march steadfastly toward winter we can enjoy each other and the weather without painful infections or hacking coughs.

In November I'm teaching another class entitled Healthy Climate, Healthy Caregiver.   Right down my alley, eh?   Since it's a new class I'm extra busy writing the cirriculum so I'm using my "extra" hour to do that right now!   Happy November!

The daylight is closing in on us!   Ben and I have almost all of our outside chores done for the year, so you'll find us happily spending our free time in our cozy little house, reading, playing chess, cooking, working on our websites and sorting through all those pesky piles of stuff that just keep appearing every time we turn around.   Oh yes; and getting ready for Christmas!

The weather looks like it has taken its finally turn into the grey and white tones so be sure to send appropriate outerwear if you want your little one to be able to play outside.   This is not to say that they will ever use it, and I know it's a big pain to cart it back and forth.   But it is to say that if there's snow on the ground then they need snowpants and at least some good sturdy shoes, mittens and a hat and a warm jacket.   Later, when the snow is actually more than a dusting they'll need boots.     Outdoor play is optional when the temperatures dip down below 40°, so there are always friends inside if they don't have all the essentials.   Sometime it hardly seems worth it as it usually takes us about twenty minutes to get the children dressed and then in about ten minutes they want to come back in again.   But on some days, especially for the older ones, it's a blessed ten minutes that lets them blow off some steam and experience their familiar play spaces transformed to the fairy land of winter.

Remember that we have some holiday closures for the day care coming up.   Check the calendar page if you're not sure what they are.   Thanksgiving is late this year so Christmas and Hanukkah come up fast and furious behind it and we don't want anyone caught unaware.   Also remember that the rates will be going up in January.   With the economy the biggest headline in the news lately, we hate to do this, but unfortunately we've been feeling the pinch for awhile and just can't absorb it any longer without passing it on to the consumer.   Now that the election is over we cast our prayers to support our leaders, new and old, and hope that they can get this train wreck back on the track again before too long.

I was scheduled to teach a class this weekend but it was canceled at the last minute.   Though I love teaching the classes, it was like getting a snow day, which hardly ever happens to me anymore!   It was also a big blessing as this head and chest cold that's been going around finally hit me this last week and I really don't think that I had enough voice or energy to give to a six hour class.   But I did get a LOT accomplished around the house this weekend and am not only feeling rested right now, but a little self satisfied at all the items I was able to check off my list by the end of the day.   I think the trick is, make a list at the end of the weekend of all that you accomplished, and then cross off everything.   Viola!

We have much to be thankful for this weekend and we spent our time busily celebrating the blessings that have been heaped upon us.   Now it's Sunday evening and we're getting ready for the fast slide through December to the New Year.  It's easy to get too stressed out trying to keep up with our regular busy schedule while creating an ideal of the perfect celebration so my big advice to everyone is to let it go and just be humanly imperfect.   Remember the word celebration!

One tool for dealing with stress is called Shift and Shine which helps young children (and adults) shift thoughts and feelings that cause harmful stress and transform them to loving energy that can then shine out into the world.   I strongly believe that there are no "bad" feelings and that we need to allow children to feel angry, jealous, frustrated, lonely and to grieve.   We need to get out of the way and put our own control issues in a straight jacket when we think that any of these feelings have gone on "long enough" and are tempted to try to snap them out of something that's making us uncomfortable.   A great many emotional problems are caused by being told that we shouldn't be having perfectly normal feelings.   But I also think that we need to model and discuss with children tools to help them transition out of their strong feelings into peaceful ones when they're ready, as we all know how easy it is to get "stuck" in a rut and not be able to move on.   While I haven't tried this exercise with the children in the daycare, I am trying to practice it myself first.   Then I will be using these words around the young ones who I think are old enough to play this "game" and we'll see if it's helpful.   The best time to introduce these kinds of ideas is when everything is calm and it's just a fun exercise, not when the child is in the midst of a temper tantrum.   If you try it at home, let me know your impressions!

We do keep Christmas around here in a way that celebrates birth, infants, angels and lights.   This is about as much as preschoolers can really understand and embody wholly.   I feel that any extra religious meaning that individual families want to add or subtract from the basic Christmas story can be accomplished at home if we just keep it simple here and revel in my strong belief that every time a child is born, the angels sing.   For me, that is ample cause to bake, sing, congregate and joyfully observe at least once a year!   Also, we love the celebration of solstice and the opportunity to see how bright we can make our homes and spirits shine on the darkest day of the year.   So look out!   Here comes Santa Claus and all of that magical spirit of joy, generosity, childhood and comfort that he represents!   Scrooges and humbugs, just crawl into your caves and wait it out; it will all be over with way too soon.

My logic is that since I haven't had time to write in my weblog, you haven't had time to read it either, so you're not missing me too much.   Every year I promise myself that I'm going to be more organized for next Christmas, and every year I am.   Just not exquisitely organized, like I imagine is possible.   My goal is to soon have mastered the art of celebrating my favorite holiday so well that I will be sipping egg nog and waxing philosophic on the website to The Bishop's Wife in between leisurely whipping up two or three dishes for our open house, with gifts all wrapped, baking waiting in the freezer, gifts and greetings in the mail all well ahead of time.   It's good to have goals.

Winter solstice is my favorite time of year; muffled, frozen, dark and sedentary.   I love the hunkering down that comes with winter.   I love being able to work hard without getting overheated.   I love organizing the little nooks and crannies of the house that go neglected when the weather is lovely and we spend all our time outside.   I love curling up with a good book and I love working on the website.   So that is where I'll be spending most of my vacation time; right here in our cozy nest.   Darkness has its place and purpose and my wish for you this weekend is that you find your inner fire as you ponder this blackest time of the year.