Just looking for some inspiration :)

What do you believe makes childcare fun for children? Do you have an activity that all children ask for/want to do all the time?

I am looking for some inspiration :)

Thank you :)

I think what makes it fun is the atmosphere and the kids that they are growing and playing with. My children are all between 1-3 yrs old. they love having music in the background during their free play, or participating in action songs such as head, shoulders knees and toes, If you're happy and you know it, the wheels on the bus, etc .
I think they also enjoy being part of a routine that they can predict and being served food that is different from what they get at home in a fun or different way.

I agree with Dayhome Mamma. My guys love when their sandwiches are cut up into crazy animal shapes etc with cookie cutters. We make celery into ants on a log with raisins, we cut up watermelon and other fruits into shapes. Its amazing how kids will eat something in the shape of a heart but won't touch it in its 'normal' form :) Its also a learning opportunity because we talk about what shape is ______ sandwich, (heart, circle, square) etc.

My guys also love music. We generally have it on all day in the background. We do the head and shoulders almost daily. Its good exercise and they have fun. My group also LOVE craft time. The messier the better.

My only complaint is that my guys hate the outdoors! They literally will just stand there for 2 hours. Won't play with the ball, don't want to blow bubbles, don't like the feel of the chalk, hate the slide and the swings. I'm working on them, but its a slow process!

I got a play house and kitchen, and my daycare kids go mad for it. Dress up stuff is fun too, as is play doh. My dck's love love love sensory bins. I just got a bunch of cheap white bins and filled them with things like lentils, water, sand, etc and put pouring and hidden objects in them. They'll do that for hours.

Thanks for the tip re shape foods! I actually have some sandwich shapers that I use for my older kids...never thought of using them for watermelon and such. Cool!

Wow me its the contrary, they do not like craft at all... they do it quick quick and then want to go back in the play room. They love outside as well... So I want to do learning crafting activities and spent a bunch of money for craft stuff, and they dont care for it at all :\

Mine aren't into crafts either. It takes me longer to get them up to the table and paper and crayons passed out than it does for them to scribble something , declare they are done and go back to what they were doing. We are woking on it. I also have a lot of boys and that tends to be typical. They just like the physical of play better.

Because of it being boys blocks, cars and animals are important to them. The girls use the same things too but play with the dollies where the boys if they did it would be to bash them with the trucks so they tend to get banned to anothe rpart of the playroom anyways.

My crew are right into circle time every day and they LOVE it! Songs and they are learning the movements and reading.
They are too young to go over the days of the week but we have songs for the weather and we go to the window and then sing our little song depending if it's sun, rain or snow and then stick the weather thing on our felt board. They love to take the last one down and put the new one up.
Goggle circle time and you can find lots of cool songs and activities. It's a part of our routine that the kids started to do itsy bitsy spider the other day as I was off course and hadn't started circle time-lol
We have a song to clean up for circle time and the kids run to help out to sit down! They love it

IME most kids enjoy what WE enjoy ... if we love doing art they are going to be drawn to doing art, if we love science experiments they are going to be willing to sit and do experiments, if we love to sing and have music on they are going to draw on that energy and sing and dance too ;)

When I was in centre care it use to be fun to 'watch' how children reacted differently to different educators/caregivers .... I had peers who constantly complained the kids were not interested in art so she was not going to waste time offering it - however in reality it was her dislike of mess and therefore her 'anxiety' that they would MAKE a mess that prevented the children from enjoying art when she presented it ... cause I could go into that classroom and offer a creative art invitation and every child would come and spend time at it and enjoy it ... I am not afraid of mess and I belief in my heart if you 'explain' to children how to properly use mediums they CAN and WILL respect them and use them ... I have 18 month olds who paint with a color palette and a cup of rince water and brush ... they learn to 'rinse' their brush between colors, they learn to 'dab' the water off on a towel and so forth and they will paint for 30 plus minutes ... my older kids will paint for over an hour some days!

My weakness is 'science' ... I suck at getting experiments to 'work' so therefore am afraid to do them with kids and therefore they pick up on my anxiety and will fidget or misbehave making it even LESS enjoyable for me .... but they will all sit for 20 minutes enthralled at the Children's Museum when an employee there does an experiment - cause they are passionate and excited and well 'skilled' at offering them.

I attended a workshop a while ago about 'building curriculum' where the presenter asked us all to list the things we remember MOST about childhood ... what was meaningful is what we RETAINED as memories as a result cause the rest gets 'pushed out' .... and than they reiterated that THIS is what your daycare days should therefore be filled with .... and of the 150 people in the room who had to stand up and share their most favorite memory of childhood - not one stated 'my favorite childhood memories is when the entire group sat down at the table and glued cotton balls on ducks for spring crafts or working on my ABC worksheets and so forth' .... and that is a real eye opener for me too - cause I always felt to be respected for what I do I had to TEACH children .... however you only get to a be child for FIVE YEARS ... you spend the next FIFTEEN YEARS being TAUGHT TO in the school system - and that is when I decided I wanted childhood to be MAGICAL ... I want kids to remember those magic moments of chasing dandelions in the field, or playing with their bug collection in the yard, or the fort they built on my deck to 'hide' from me outside.... I allow my crew a lot of 'say' in how they spend their day cause it is their childhood and they should have a hand in molding it ... my job is to help guide them to make positive choices and be strong independent learners with a strong social skills set ... academics and the rest are built out of that!

Honestly based on that 'pool' of the 150 people in that workshop children's memories are of making forts inside or outside and hiding inside them where parents could not see - aka some 'freedom' from constant supervision, playing house with things from around the house and dressing up in mamas shoes and costume jewellery or putting on plays or reenacting TV shows - aka role playing with REAL things from the home and make belief using imagination and creative thought, being outside in fields and yards and playing chase and hide n seek building places outside to 'hide' where adults could not see and collecting 'treasures' for in their forts like stones, sticks and other things places they could be 'silly' without getting in trouble, getting MESSY in mud / dirt outside, finger painting outside after the rain or puddle jumping, racing things like cars of boats or other things and so forth - figuring out how 'nature' works by collecting things .... basically everyone described child led days and long periods of uninterrupted PLAY cause that was life back then .... before we started micromanaging children out the wazoo with 'activities to prepare them for the next stage of life' .... they played and figured life out ;)

I agree wholeheartedly with Reggio and could not state it in any better way. Although I don't have nearly as much experience as she does, I have also noticed that MY mood and energy has an enormous effect on the kids! When I get silly and sing songs with enthusiasm (not just because I feel I have to), then everyone joins in and there is a kind of energy that comes from it. When I am feeling tired or off, I can feel the mood of the whole group go down a bit. It is actually a bit scary to have such a responsibility! However, I guess it's part of learning too that everyone has days when they feel tired and aren't as enthusiastic as other days. Then we have a quieter day and I don't force myself to do anything in p[articular. I also let the kids lead a lot...when they say they want to paint, we paint, etc. I don't pre-plan...just go with the flow :)