Vaccine

Dear parents,

As some of you have already received the booster for your child I need a count as to how many will be receiving it on January 5. I need there to be at least 4 in order for them to come out. Please email me or respond here with a yes or no if you have not already done so.

Thank you!

Booster for the H1N1

The Yamhill County Health Department just called and scheduled the H1N1 booster for Tuesday, January 5 at 3:00. Forms will be delivered to me this week and I will get them to you asap. If you are able to come and be here at that time to help comfort your child it would be greatly appreciated!



I hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas and

Second dose of H1N1 vaccine

I contacted the Health Department today and my contact, Annie, said that they just finished the first round of the vaccine and will most likely be starting the second round late December or early January and will contact me at that time. She assured me that this is a booster and most likely the children are protected but if you have concerns to please contact your own doctors.

Rockin' Out!

Jocey and Addie brought Christmas tunes for us to share today -- the Littles were sooooo cute dancing together!

Trying out my new Flip camera!

Please let me know if you guys can view this!

Spider, spider...

Today the children made black spiders using their handprints. Nolan thought the whole thing was pretty funny...

Well hellooooo there! Post 1 of 2

Finally took the time to download, crop and upload the pictures from Den's camera....

We made pumpkins to hang in the window and even the Littles got in on the action. Here is Scarlett giving Grady a hand....:-)

Taylor saying "are you suuuuuurrrre you want me to tear this paper and crinkle it up? Because normally that just isn't an ok thing to do.......Hmmmmm......."

The kiddos working so intently on their project...

Post 2 of 2

Here are the spotty dogs that visited us during our Fire Prevention activities.....

Addie getting her family all set up....
Webs and spiders!

This one just doesn't need words! Too cute!

Another funeral

I heard yesterday that Den's uncle was put in the hospital for pneumonia but had heard that all vital signs looked good. Today, they are saying there is nothing they can do and he probably only has a day or two. I know that having to take another day off is coming at a very bad time for many of you so I wanted to let you know that this seems likely to occur. Unfortunately, my back-up providers would also be going to the funeral but I will do my best to see if I can find someone who can help.

This has certainly been a tough summer for the Fieger family.

Preschool updates....

We have enjoyed this first week of preschool! The preschoolers have been learning about the letter A and how it sounds and also "All About Me."

A new focus this year is I will be taking a particular book each week that is somewhat related to our themes, or a virtue (kindness, etc.) and they will do activities related to the story. This week it was the story "I Like Me." Yesterday the children looked at themselves in a mirror and then drew their face on a precut shape. Today we talked about what is the same and what is different as well as what makes each of them special.


The children also went on a red hunt and a circle hunt -- there are many, many, many, many red as well as circle shapes in our room! Did I say many:-)

The Littles are also going to be "learning" and the focus this week was on Trees. We will be doing lots of singing, fingerplays, large motor and sensory activities. There will also be art but as they are very young it is mostly an introduction.

Song/language development - Rock-A-Bye Baby
Large Motor - Tall as a Tree (the preschoolers LOVE this one too as we all do them together)
Fingerplay - Five Finger Trees
Sensory - Tickle Me Tree (feeling a leaf and tickle their chin)
Sign Language - Tree

In case you would like to do Tall as a Tree at home:

Tall as a tree
(raise arms high over head)
High as a house.
(stretch arms out wide)
Thin as a pin.
(arms next to body)
Small as a mouse.
(squat down and huddle, and you also have to use a tiny voice when you are a mouse or it just isn't as much fun!)

I hope to post our focus as the beginning of each week and the fingerplays and songs that are related so you can do them with your children at home as well.

And again, thank you all so much for the supplies. They will be WELL used!

Wednesday, September 2

September is here...can you believe it! We had a great, hot, fun summer but now it's time to get a little more structure to our day.

Thank you so much for all the supplies everyone shared. The children have decorated their crayons boxes and have been filled with brand new, sharp crayons. Something about new crayons that makes everyone feel inspired and creative!

A picture of the children with their boxes -- it was great fun to see how each one chose the colors of paint and markers and made their own designs! Marcus stopped by as well and created a box -- he is off to first grade next week! How quickly they grow up!

I purchased some new manipulatives for the Littles -- here is Jocey helping them build with the bunny blocks. Honestly, the big kids love them more than the Littles so I think I'll be purchasing another box!

Also, I had a great talk with my License lady during my inspection about illnesses, etc., and I'll be sharing with you some things I will be doing to make a healthier environment as well as talking about some things we can all do to protect our children and their friends in child care.

Picture of the kiddos today....

The cool air and light sprinkle sure feels good! Here is a picture today of your children -- Den's camera seems to be working now as last week I couldn't get pictures off of it for some reason.

Next week, Sept. 1 we will be back to preschool activities. The summer has been fun but it's time for a little more structure. There are lots of deals on school supplies right now so if you are able (no requirement) it would be great if you could purchase anything that the children would use.....glue sticks, crayons, paper, washable markers, double sticky tape,(I use a particular kind of paint so no paint needed), etc. As you know :-) the children go through tons of paper so even recycled paper (where something is on the other side) is great for those days they want to color and color and color. There is a great deal at Staples if you ever go there....you can take up to 10 empty printer ink cartridges a month and you will receive a $3 credit for each cartridge which can then be used for supplies.

Pictures from last week!

Sorry for the delay in posting.....

Artists at work....

Nolan and his car track....

A very special treat for Nolan's birthday! A big, big thank you to Nolan's Mom and Dad!

Closed August 5

We were notified yesterday that the funeral will be August 5 -- I will be closed for the whole day. Thank you so much for understanding.

Upcoming closure...

We had a close family member pass away today so I will be needing a day off to attend the funeral - most likely this week -- and I will let you know as soon as possible.

Thank you.

Everybody is busy!

Build a helicopter at Lowe's

Just a fun thing you might be interested in doing with your kiddo(s) on Saturday, July 25, 10:00 - 11:00...

To find out if your Lowe's is participating go to Lowe's Build and Grow Clinic, you will be able to sign up as well. On August 8th the project will be a power boat. I checked and it seems McMinnville is participating but I did not check on Tigard and Hillsboro.

Where are the children?

I've looked and looked and looked....and called and called......they are nowhere to be found!

FINALLY...............

Did I scare you?! haha!

They have spent most of the day in this tent!
Do you guys want to come out and play with the cars? Nope.....do you want to go play with the kitchen? No......books? blocks? draw? No!
Outside? YEAH.....for about 20 minutes and then it was back to the tent, LOL!

I'm glad they are enjoying it!

Thank you all so much....

I always brag about how wonderful my child care families are......and you really are the best! Thank you so much for making today very special.

Here is a picture of the yummy cupcakes we are going to share after naps. I'm so mean....not letting them eat yet, hehe.

Room in progress....

I have a little advice should you decide to tackle a home project....do not choose the hottest weekend of the summer unless you have air conditioning (I do not)!

After lots of HEAT, STEAM and good old fashioned elbow grease the wallpaper border came down, new paint, wood trim, etc....almost all in place. OH, never, ever paint a wall DARK BLUE. We still have a lot to do but it is already so much brighter. The walls are a bit bare but I hope to get things in place the next few weeks. We brought in the new equipment as well for the children to enjoy.

Our fun movie day...

The kids were excited about movie day today! They had forgotten (and I wisely didn't mention it) until I reminded them of it after lunch! My original movie choice didn't arrive from netflix in time so last night I ran to Redbox at McD's and got Stanley the Stinkbug Goes to Camp. Cute little movie and only about 35 minutes which was perfect since we had spent the last two hours playing outside and they were exhausted.

Can you guess what the best part was? Yep....getting to have yummy treats while watching the movie. I bought these cute popcorn containers at the dollar store and put some little crackers, teddy grahams and popcorn in them -- it was a hit! Luna thought it looked yummy too!

Just sharing a cute picture of Taylor who loves to find little places to hide...

Ladybugs hiding in the grass....

Sorry for taking so long to update but if you only knew how frustrating it is to try to upload anything on my dinosaur of a computer.....grrrrrrrr. I get almost all done and then everything freezes!

Pictures of the children creating ladybugs...we used potatoes and lots of messy paint, glue, and cutting.

Friday Movie Date

Hi parents,

The children have been talking about movies all morning and I was thinking it would be fun to have a "movie" day this Friday here at my house. I know the children would love it for two reasons....they get to watch TV and it would be in "the other room" (LOLOLOL) as that is the only place we can watch DVD's. Anyway....I would like suggestions of movies that you all feel would be appropriate and then I'll ok it with each of you. I need to order from Netflix pretty soon to get it here by Friday so today and tomorrow for ideas would be great! Thanks!

A quiet week.....

Well, it's been a quiet week without Ali, Marcus and Riley. Last week we said goodbye to Riley as he makes a transition over the summer and heads to second grade! We may see Marcus and Ali a time or two during the summer (Mom and Dad are teachers). We will definitely see Ali back in the fall and Marcus has now finished kindergarten and is off to first grade!

I wish I could show you pictures of the children's activities this week but.....you know.....Father's Day is Sunday so sssssshhhhhhh, it's a surprise!:-)

Thank you Nolan, for sharing homemade strawberry jam with us! YUMMMMM!

Scarlett reading her Ladybug books to Luna. OK so maybe she was more like protecting them from Luna but...it's a cute picture! hehe We enjoyed the books at circle - thank you!

Happy Friday!

The children playing a yummy beehive game I made. They put honeycomb cereal on the circles, roll the dice, count the dots and take that many off of the beehive mat. Then they enjoy a yummy snack of honeycomb cereal.

The littles looking....well...tired! We played and played and played outside and when we came in they were hungry and tuckered. I'm sure they were thinking "hey, could you just forget the picture and feed us some lunch!" (hehe)

Buzzy Beeeeeeeeeees

There's been a whole lot of buzzing this week! Here is the preschool gang with their bumble bees. I gave them a strip of yellow paper, wiggly eyes and strips of black paper and they went to town. They will look great next to their beehives!

The 8 Rules of Toddler Play

This is cute...and true!

The 8 Rules of Toddler Play (and maybe a wee bit older as well!)

1. If I like it, it's mine.
2. If it's in my hand, it's mine.
3. If I can take if from you, it's mine.
4. If I had it a little time ago, it's mine.
5. If it's mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way, shape, or form.
6. If I'm doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.
7. If it looks like mine, it's mine.
8. If I think it's mine, it's mine.

Couple more picts....

For some reason blogger won't let me upload more than a few pictures at a time -- here are a couple more...

Our finished beehives hanging in the window...

My grandson - just plain cute!

This week's BUZZZZZZZZ.........

Since I'm only open three days this week I thought I would recap with a few pictures.

Nolan and Ali with their Bee puppets we made on Monday.

Our beehives in progress....first they painted sheets of bubble wrap with yellow and a little brown paint. Then they pressed their beehive patterns to make a fun honeycomb design.

Stuffing their beehives with strips of newspaper.

The group having a yummy snack with watermelon Kiley shared with us (and Erin....Happy Birthday Erin)!

The littles enjoying fishy crackers (thank you, Scarlett and Maryanne)!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.....Sarah will be here on Monday and I will see you all on Tuesday!

Happy Friday!

Whew...we made it to Friday! What a beautiful week we have had! We have also had a fabulous month learning about caterpillars and butterflies. The highlight was definitely watching our very own caterpillars change into beautiful Painted Lady butterflies. I thought the children might be sad when we let them go but they were excited to see them fly.

I made some name tracers for the children and they will be bringing them home today. Using a dry erase marker they connect the dots and then it wipes right off with a paper towel. I had planned to purchase a dry erase marker for them to take home as well but I didn't get a chance - hope you have some (the thin line ones work best for the older kids)! I will be making more of these word cards to go with our current themes each month. As I introduce the words I will place them in a box with markers (our mini centers) and they can work on them as they wish (self-directed). This is purely just an introduction to letters and words and how letters "make" words.......words go left to right, etc.


Next month our themes will be Bees, Ladybugs, Strawberries, colors yellow, red and black. We will start off with bees - if you happen to have any books with bees, please share with us. I don't think I have a single one so I'll be searching this weekend.

Thank you, everyone for the positive feedback regarding this blog. I'm so glad that you are enjoying it and it gives me a chance to share a little of what your kiddos are doing during the day. I wish I had done this much sooner!

One little picture today.....just had to take one of that hat! :-) Would have taken more but they were convinced it was fun to chase "Julia" today. Wow...I can tell you that 1...I'm out of shape and 2....I'm OLD! :-) Have a wonderful weekend!

Thursday, May 28

We are finishing up with our themes for May - caterpillars, butterflies, flowers, purple, yellow. The children are practicing their cutting and small motor skills -- they cut out a simple butterfly shape and then decorated it.

Lots of fun outside! Please don't notice the tall grass...it's a jungle out there!

And this is what keeps me in this job....Ali and Nolan laughing hysterically because they are swinging backwards. They just thought that was the funniest thing ever, LOL!

Closed dates - revised

Just a quick note to let you know that Sarah will be able to sub for me on Monday, June 8. I will still be closed June 4 and 5.

Wednesday, May 27

Future architect!

Scarlett taking a picture of me taking a picture of her!

Ali in deep negotiation with Kiley regarding the red hat:-)

Kiley playing the part of her Dad's fire boss (yep, that' s what she said) and the boys doing what the boys love doing....trying to keep everyone out of the way of their cars zinging (is that a word?) against the wall.

Jocey and Addie all dressed up. Jocey trying to convince Addie that it would work better if she turned the smock around, LOL.