Hope you’re having a wonderful day so far!

Books consumed our morning. Eve is doing a wonderful job at paraphrasing certain books. She remembers parts of multiple books and reads to herself. Even at infant age, literacy and book reading is important!

Smiles were on the faces of our babies all day long!

Lu Lu started a new game with her friends. She’ll crab walk up the slide, stop at the top, and then slide down backwards on her belly. While this is happening, all you hear is “Weeeee!” throughout the house .

Children went to the porch this morning to play with the Legos. We sure did have to use our fine motor skills to disconnect Legos from one another.

We spotted a butterfly outside. Friends observed it and we talked about the different colors that they saw. It must have been the morning for animals because we saw HUGE flock of birds fly over our heads.

For breakfast, children had cheesy eggs and peaches. Lunch consisted of Tami’s homemade cheesy cream of broccoli soup, corn, fresh whole grain bread, and banana. PM snack was string cheese and crackers.

Have a great night!

Learning to play together, work together, talk together, eat together and BE together is one of our primary goals at Wee Friends. Life Skills. This time of year is always filled with change. Mostly, we aim to cultivate these life skills throughout the day in moments of dialogue.  Sometimes, however, we gather a large group and talk about a specific life skill. Today we practiced soft, medium and loud voices and using kind words. We also role played what happens when we use our hands to hit.

Later we put our hands to great use squeezing, molding and working with ooey-gooey Floam.

Do you know the Wee Friends Anthem? Here are the words and listen to your Wee Friend in coming days for the tune!

Wee Friends, Wee Friends, mighty mighty Wee Friends,

We play games, we sing songs!

Wee Friends, Wee Friends, mighty mighty Wee Friends,

We grow friendships all day long!

And we do!!!!

Wee Sprouts: WF garden cucumbers. Breakfast: Cheesy scrambled eggs and cantaloupe. Lunch: Tami’s homemade cheesy cream of broccoli soup, home baked whole wheat bread, bananas and corn. Snack: Peanuts and pear slices.

 

Good Afternoon!

Maya, Tate, and Lucy continue to adjust to Wee Wee life! They love interacting with one another throughout the day.

The in’s and outs of the day—eating, nap time, floor play, and peer interaction are coming together. It’s amazing how adaptable babies are. We’re having a blast watching them change from day to day.

Really..is there anything better than a smile from a baby?

Friends noticed new sandbox toys. There are a couple long cardboard tubes. Friends investigated.

Keerthi looked through the tube and said, “Hi!”

Eve let me know, “I can see you!”

Emma smiled that BIG smile of hers through the tube!

Eve and Keerthi had down time this afternoon to read some books. Keerthi even kicked up her feet.

We had no visitors for breakfast this morning. Lunch consisted of whole wheat tortillas, tuna salad, cantaloupe, and peas. PM snack was pretzels and cheddar cheese slices.

Have a great evening.

*If you remember, please bring a baby photo of your Wee Friend!

Late yesterday afternoon Daniel expressed “I want a worm.” I walked with him to the garden and did what Elliott and Elizabeth always do: used my fingers to dig beneath the garden mats into the dirt. I saw up close and down deep what our friends spend hours looking at: the colors, textures, elements and life of the dirt! This morning, Mel, Lisa and I asked ourselves: “do we really see what they see?”  We set out today to answer that question. We checked our own perceptions, knelt down eye level and made a (wee unconventional) photo journal of what we think they see day after day. “What are you working on?” is one question we ask to our friends to get the conversation started. Routine play becomes the great work of pre-school and kindergarten, challenging their bodies, minds and emotions.

Do we really see what they see? We are all digging in deep, each day, talking, creating and inviting each other, in many ways, to look around and really SEE each other in our Wee World!

Wee Sprouts: Cherry tomatoes. Breakfast: Kix and peaches/plums. Lunch: Tuna fish on whole wheat bread, cantaloupe and peas. Snack: Cottage cheese and bananas.

 

Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Today, we welcomed our new friend, Lucy! Her older brother Elliot is next door at Wee Friends. He made sure to give her lots of kisses when he dropped her off this morning! We’re so excited to get to know Lucy and her family! Welcome to Wee Wee Friends!

As we headed outside, friends saw a new addition to our backyard! Over the weekend, Miss Tami and crew added a canopy to our sandbox. Now friends will be able to sit in the shade while in the sandbox.

We loved the new addition! Friends sure flocked to the newly buffed up sandbox . Children were very observant as they entered the outdoors!

For breakfast, children had kix and oranges. Lunch consisted of whole grain pasta with marinara sauce and fresh garden veggies, peas, and mixed fruit (banana/peaches). PM snack was string cheese and whole wheat crackers.

Have a lovely Monday evening.

-Mindy

Welcome back Jennifer and the Blue Bus! Here are those groups and times again!

9:00 – Finn, Elizabeth, Elliott, Lea and Ellie 9:30-Marina, Leo, Clara, Daniel, Sloane, Owen

Mel created music with the kids. They started by reading an Eric Carle book about a fox. They learned a days of the week song and then moved on to rhythm work, counting 1-2-3-4 as Mel played Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

We invited friends to look at themselves in the mirror and study the color of their eyes.

They matched their eye color with a piece of the same colored paper.

Zoe joined us today! Welcome Zoe to our classroom!

Their was huge excitement when we went outside! Friends got to play beneath the new sandbox tarp that was hung by Tami over the weekend.

Wee Sprouts: Elliott’s garden tomatoes. Breakfast: Wheat toast and pear slices. Lunch: Whole wheat pasta full of Cassie’s tomatoes, WF’s zucchini and Owen’s garden kale. With it, we served peas and peaches. Thanks you, everyone, for sharing your bounty! Snack: Pear slices and Monterrey Jack cheese slices.

Have a great day!

Happy Friday!

It was gross motor Friday. Emma started taking the blocks and jumping as high as she could off of them. Soon, Keerthi and Eve joined her. Emma liked the loud boom that the floor made once she landed on it .

The second part of our gross motor morning consisted of friends playing catch with one another. Eve threw the bouncy balls to Keerthi and Emma who were sitting in the cubbies. Once they were done throwing them, they rolled them. We worked on our hand eye coordination when we were trying to catch the balls.

When we headed outside, we saw that the Wee Teachers and friends were in the middle of picking plums off of the plum tree in the backyard. Our Wee Wee’s joined in to help and observe what was going on.

A few of our friends tried the plums. We made sure to explain that we don’t eat the pits. When Eve found her pit, she dug it out and handed it to a teacher! She loved them! When Lu Lu tasted a bite, she said “mmm”.

Mr. Tate joined us outside for a while. He sure was a hit! Sloane made sure to let everyone know that her baby brother Tate was outside! We sure do have some proud older siblings .

For breakfast, children had cheesy eggs and apples. Lunch was turkey and melted cheese on whole wheat tortillas, plums/oranges, and peas. PM snack consisted of goldfish and craisins.

Our third infant friend will join us on Monday. Stay tuned to meet her! Tate and Maya are soo excited!

Have a terrific weekend. See ya Monday!

REMINDER: The Blue Bus will begin bright and early Monday morning. Here are the groups and times:

9am-Finn, Elizabeth, Elliott, Sophia, Lea and Ellie

9:30-Marina, Leo, Clara, Daniel, Sloane and Owen

Before we jump into the weekend, we want to say goodbye to Caleb! Caleb will return to ECDC soon, after spending his summer at Wee Friends. We will miss you, Caleb! Thanks for being a great friend to us!

We also want to wish Sophie a Happy Birthday! Tomorrow Sophie is celebrating her Big 4!

As we come to the end of our harvest, we have to say another huge thank you  to our Garden Committee: Jen Tank, Lindsay Chadderton and Amy Crosson. I can’t tell you how much we have all loved watching the earth transform your seeds into food we can pick and eat, flowers we can study and smell and dirt we can dig!

Wee Sprouts: Carrots and WF plums. Breakfast: Applesauce Oatmeal. Lunch: Melted ham and cheddar on whole wheat tortillas, WF plums and peas. Snack: orange slices and pretzels. Food for Thought: http://families.naeyc.org/learning-and-development/child-development/10-things-every-parent-should-know-about-play

Have a great weekend.

Happy Thursday!

These pictures throughout the blog are from today and yesterday.

**We’re very short on grocery bags for dirty diapers. If you have any at home that you could spare, we’d greatly appreciate it!

Our baby friends, Tate and Maya, are getting into the swing of things. Naps, eating, and overall ins and outs of the day are becoming routine. We’re getting used to them and they’re getting used to us .

Going from home life to a multi age child care setting is sure a lot but with the help of our other friends, the transition is going extremely well!

After a nice rain this morning, friends went outside to play. Emma joined her friend Leo in the sandbox where they worked on building sand castles together. Eve hung out with her older brother Caleb!

Emma has this game she plays. She’ll run around growling at her friends. The Wee friends think it’s so funny! It ended up being most of the girls chasing the older boys. Friends sure did get their running in today! It sounded like the Wee Friend jungle in the backyard!

Eve stood on the side telling friends, “No screams! Be careful!” She sure was the monitor of the game!

It sure did rain/hail this afternoon. A few friends were up at this time and they were able to see it. We even opened the door so they could see and hear first hand what was going on outside.

For breakfast, children had corn flakes and banana. Lunch consisted of homemade chicken and noodles, fresh garden tomatoes, and banana. PM snack was string cheese and banana.

Have a great evening.

“This is the rock struck by the truck and this is the muck where the truck becomes stuck.”

It all began because of the sidewalk. The uneven sidewalk. There’s this little spot on our sidewalk that has a slight upward rake. It’s always been challenging for friends to navigate on bikes. Today, as Finn pulled two friends in his truck, he stopped at The Tricky Sidewalk Spot and said “My truck is stuck in the muck!” We ran inside to get the ever popular Duck in the Truck by Jez Alborough. We figured out how we could use our own environment to act out the story. And we were off!

Another group of girls decided the sandbox was muck!

We came inside and a group of friends created their own muck. We measured cornstarch and water, mucked it up, and added a variety of veggies, paper, salad dressing and paint to see if we could turn it into brown muck, just like in the book. We discussed the texture of the muck, the smell and of course…the changing color.

Lisa pulled out the mystery box and friends used their fingers as eyes to determine what object they were feeling.

Happy Day!

Breakfast: Corn Flakes and bananas. Lunch: Chicken and noodles, corn and carrots. Snack: Cantaloupe and yogurt.