KIDS INFO: Adventures that await your child at BLHFCCC. BLHFCCC let's your child experience the world through their own eyes. Where a new adventure awaits them everyday. Starting with a warm welcome and discussion of the evening's events and activities of the day. A hug, kiss and a wave good bye out the window to mom or dad. Then your child's adventures start for the day. A day full of choices. If your child is in need of breakfast they can choose from a variety of nutritious foods being served. If your child is capable of serving themselves, they do so. If not assistance is given. A prayer of thanksgiving to God starts each meal and snack. Conversation is then continued with our friends. Child chooses where they want to sit. When they have completed their meal or snack they help clear the table. Hand washing is a necessity before and after each meal, snack and toileting. Then it is time for free play. Where the child can choose from an array of play toys, books, puzzles, games or coloring and art supplies for creative play. School age children are transported to school, while younger children continue their adventurous play with their friends. Children are also involved with creating snacks. They put on their baking hats and help measure, pour and stir. Some snacks help them to learn their alphabet, numbers, colors and shapes. We discuss where the ingredients come from. Using our 5 senses as we create our snack is fun. Tasting is our favorite part. After snack we walk downstairs to the playroom. We start out with circle time. Each child chooses their own colored rug to sit on. We then sing our "Good Morning" song. This is followed with individual greetings and hugs. The children identify the weather and count for the date and fill in the calendar. Days of the week, month and season are also sung, spelled and discussed. Then we move onto our theme for the day. Stories are presented in various ways, games are played, songs are sung along with finger plays. With art projects and writing skills that are also practiced. And lots of good conversation through out the activities. Themes are also extended through music, food,dress up for free play, outdoor activities and field trips or visitors. Here are just a few examples of adventures our themes take us to. We begin with a walk to tour Johnson Bus Station to become a bus driver for the day. To help us understand what it is like to drive a school bus, we get a ride back to the child care center. Next we dress up as a firefighter on our tour to the fire station. Daniel Boone takes us on a hike to the Milwaukee River exploring nature wearing our paper coonskin hats. Our Christmas adventure takes us out to a tree farm. As we become lumberjacks and cut down just the right size tree for the child care center. When we return we decorate it with homemade ornaments. Our eyes are very important on all our adventures. So a trip to the local optometrist office to celebrate Louis Braille's birthday is a good place to visit. A walk to a local dentist office reminds us to take good care of our teeth. A hike around Mauthe Lake has us using our fingers, hands, arms and friends to measure trees for Arbor Day. We have lots of fun getting our hands dirty as we become gardeners by planting seeds in the dirt in a real garden. Katie at the library also takes us on adventures every week. We walk to the library for storyhour. There we meet new friends. We check out 2 books to bring home to share with our family. On two Fridays of each month we take a trip to the Ice Age Center for Nature Storytime. This may take us on a trip to the moon, a ride on a snowflake and raindrop or on a hunt for food or a place to live for all sort of animals or where ever the wind may blow. This adventure is followed with a snack at the Mauthe Lake play area, where more adventures await us. A trip to a local play group helps us to round out our play adventure with new friends. Getting back to finishing our day a the center, we left off after circle time. Again we have time for a choice of play at many activity areas. Next is outdoor play in the spacious backyard that provides many opportunities for all kinds of fun things to do for all seasons. The front yard and driveway give us another large area to play with numerous choices of activities. The garage is a great place to play on a rainy day or if the weather does not permit us to go outside. After all this activity we sure have worked up an appetite for lunch. Not only is a nutritious meal served but table manners, respect, patience and good conversation are worked on. After the children help clear the table quiet and rest time are in order. The children assist to prepare their sleeping bags and pillow along with anything else that may help them to relax after a busy day of adventure. The children make one more choice of what story they would like me to read as they nod off to dreamland. Upon awakening from their nap the school children have arrived, we enjoy one more yummy snack. Again the children have time to choose from an array of activities indoors or outside if weather permits, until it is time to greet mom or dad, whom they share their day's adventures with. Betsy's Little House Family Child Care Center children learn outside of the box. They learn while exploring God's big beautiful world around them. I will leave you with a quote from one of my past graduates, "Thank you, Shirley, for showing me that there is more to life than my DS or X-Box games," as he balances across a downed tree in the winter on one of our many hikes we take in the Kettle Moraine Forest.