A Child Care Day

No…I’m not going back to full childcare.  I do have a few childcare days though.  I regularly have Carver, Gannon, and Georgia on Mondays and Fridays.  A couple of my former childcare families have asked if they could join in on those days…and sometimes they do.  I love it.

This past Monday was one of those days.  There was no school as it was a teacher in-service day.  I ended up with five kiddos here and Gannon was the youngest.  We had lots of fun.  I didn’t make any plans in advance like I used to.  We had a “go with the flow” day and boy it was fun for us all.

Here are some of the things we did….

I have this butterfly puppet and it’s a real favorite.

The kids were having some trouble finding a way to share so I tried to think of a way we all could have one…This is what I came up with.

I started with a toilet paper tube.  I cut it in half and cut those in half.

Then with the hot glue gun, I glued it into a tube essentially making a smaller tube.

I folded a half sheet of white construction paper in half and then in half again.  Then I cut out a butterfly shape.

The kids decorated the butterfly and I hot glued them to the tube.

This one is mine.  I love crafting with the kids.

When they move their arm up and down the butterfly wings “flap”.  It was a fun simple craft…and virtually cost-free.  Try it with your grandkids or your own kids.

They asked to go to the park…and why not go?  So we did.  They all challenged themselves to walk backwards for a while.

They LOVED the park.  It’s so fun to see these kids playing that have grown up together playing.  This was the first time they ever really used their imagination.  They were pretending the play equipment was a pirate ship and they were trying to capture one of the girls.

How can you not feel joy listening to kids squeal in delight?  While they were playing there…Gannon was…also making me smile.  Just look at that face, so happy to be swinging away.

I love when the kids come…It’s so stress-free.  I feel like my grandkids are visiting not a drop like I’m working or trying to keep to a schedule or pushed to do things.  I let the day take care of the day.

I asked the kids what they wanted to eat and the consensus was pizza.  I said sure but then looked in the cupboard.  Darn.  No pizza sauce, not spaghetti sauce.  I didn’t want to disappoint the kids so…Stewed tomatoes to the rescue.

I drained off a bit of the liquid and then used the immersion blender on them.

I added garlic powder and Italian seasoning.

I put it on the crust and hoped for the best….

It was a MAJOR success.  In fact, anytime I need pizza sauce again, I’m going to do this same thing.  It was so good.

Back when I was doing childcare before there was a stress to it all…more kids, more work.  More parents, more expectations.  Younger kids, more physical work.  Official childcare, official regulations.  Monday was fun…carefree and just wanted I needed…a day to hang with my friends.

I wish I could have been more like this when I was working full time….if I ever go back to full-time care, I’m going to do all I can to keep my days just like Monday with the kids was.  It was a great day.