Home Daycare Kids Return!

I had been on holidays for nearly two weeks until this past Monday. It was fantastic to spend family time with Noah over the holidays; I was able to give him more of my undivided attention. Sometimes, as a home daycare provider, I have wondered if the fact that I am sharing my attention with 4 other children might be unfair to Noah. But, by the end of the holidays, I realized that the home daycare situation is really more beneficial to him than having me all to himself. The group of kids I have is small enough that everyone's needs get met, and I am able to give attention to all of them. Yet, it is a big enough group that demands are sometimes not instantly met. Toys, attention, discipline, choices and praise are shared. I believe that the home daycare is helping Noah (and all of the children) to take turns, be more patient, empathize, share, and of course, socialize. 

But I digress. Let's get back to business! The other children returned this week and it was as smooth as if there had been no break at all. Over the holidays, 3 of the children turned 2 years old, so now they are all 2. The kids have been enjoying playing with all the new toys Noah received from Santa. Aidas barely ate the first day back, choosing the exploration of new toys over food.

We have been continuing to brave the cold for about an hour each morning. Pictured above is the children enjoying some hot chocolate after an outing. Luckily, I do not have any addicts, yet.

One of the toys Noah received for Christmas was a huge bucket of playdough, and tools to go along with it! The kids had a blast!

We had a little lesson about colours at morning snack this week. I am also using any opportunity throughout the day to teach about colours, until everyone in the group is an expert.

The kids always have afternoon snack after waking from their naps. This is often rather close to dinner time, so I have had to take measures to ensure they don't fill up too much on graham crackers and spoil their appetite for a nutritious dinner. They are now allotted a limited amount of carbs for this snack. After that, they are allowed to eat as much fruit or vegetables as they please. One day this week, I had cooked some broccoli (to serve with Noah and Aidas's dinner) while they were napping. I offered this as their fruit/veggie option. Well, they scarfed this down and kept demanding more! (M. was especially ravenous for it!) 

I took some pictures in transit, from the apartment to outside. Here are my usual 3 walkers. They are holding hands while we wait for the elevator. Although it is bitterly cold outside most days, it gets very hot before we get out there. So, I have the process of dressing them for the outdoors worked out to a science!

A few of them know to press #1 on our way down. Sometimes a couple of other numbers are also pressed!

I am happy that we finally have some snow to play in, though it's not yet packing snow. Here are my little polar bears enjoying the great Canadian winter.

I think the most exciting part about going outside, for them, is when we see the garbage truck emptying the big apartment garbage bins. That and the little tractor that is used to do work for some of the apartment buildings in the area are the current wow factors. I get excited just watching their awe. It is so precious!