McDonut and the Shotgun Wedding

When Teacher was in college he had a fraternity brother affectionately called McDonut. They were both members of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the music fraternity. One afternoon, a week or so after classes started, McDonut went on a fraternity “meet and greet” mission. Armed with a list of freshmen who…

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Family Child Care Policy Book – Structure

Since I’ve had requests to share my family child care policy book I thought I’d post some of my policies now and then. I do request that out of professional courtesy and compliance to copyright laws you don’t copy any of my policies. However you are welcome to use them…

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Brain Dead

I’ve been working on my child care policies for weeks and my brain is so numb I can barely think. Every fall I update my policies before distributing them to the parents, but this year I accidentally ended up giving them a major overhaul. You’re probably wondering how something so…

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Art as Self Expression

For children, art has no boundaries, no rules, no should-be. Children see nothing wrong with painting a purple cow or birds and hearts flying together across a pink sky. One day a child may fill the paper with splashes of bright color, then use only black or brown the next…

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Tree Blocks

I don’t remember the first time I saw tree blocks – it may have been on Pinterest, or at last year’s WECA Conference Yes, that is me on the far right in the first slide. or who knows where. In any case, I wanted some. The problem is that since…

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Accentuate the Positive

“You’ve got to accentuate the positive, Eliminate the negative, Latch on to the affirmative, Don’t mess with Mister In-Between” Being a child is a difficult job. Children are busy learning new skills, testing their limits, and actively exploring their environment. Parenting is also a difficult job. Parents are busy teaching…

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Garden Stones – a Perfect Gift

  It recently occurred to me that I hadn’t written about the garden stones the children made for Father’s Day gifts this year. Oops! Obviously Father’s Day is long past, but since garden stones are a great gift for any occasion I decided to write about them anyway.   But…

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Seven Back to School Shopping Tips

I hate to admit it, but fall is quickly approaching and that means back-to-school shopping. It’s not my favorite time of the year, but it’s inevitable when you’ve got kids. When I was a kid my parents hit back-to-school shopping with the “Full Frontal Assault”– buying new shoes, new clothes,…

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Homemade Chicken Nuggets

One of the ongoing goals for my child care program is to provide extremely nutritious meals and snacks. Along with that goal came the challenge of finding foods that the children will eat; it doesn’t matter how healthy a food is if no-one eats it. Homemade chicken nuggets to the…

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