2013 Wishlist

Lots of talk about change with the New Year. I was wondering what big changes people had planned for their daycares this year? I have read that some people are relocating, going on mat leave or coming back from Mat leave and changing from after school programing to full time. Aside from these changes, is anyone looking at making some changes to their program, adding an additional regular activity, a special toy/piece of furniture or finally accomplishing that task on their daycare to do list?

Here are my plans...

Having just moved house in August, my daycare room is upstaires in the master suite. This room is 100% daycare and its simply that the location works better until our mainfloor renovation is finished which will result in a sparkly new daycare room for me. Mid February I am hoping to be relocated. 2 best things about that will be the main floor location and that it will be behind French doors so at the end of each day it will be shut away :) Oh and not to mention I will get to sleep in my bedroom for the first time :)

To mark this exciting event, I am "treating the daycare" to a couple of things. I am buying a toddler table and 6 chair set with adjustable legs. I have used ikea furniture and other stuff previously and its great to a certain point until kiddies get to big or arent big enough and its also far to easy for them to move around. I look forward to this "classroom style" table for activities and mealtimes.
Also I have been using trays and a step 2 sand table for sensory play and I am going to splurge on a sand and water table with adjustable legs and cover. I have wanted one of these for years and think that this will be the year.

I am going to try to make some changes to my program this year. I have started a preschool program for my soon to be kindergarten kids to try and aid them in transitioning and also to help them with some preschool skills. I have found some great resources that help to build fine motor skills and muscle strength to really enable to become better with handwriting in the future and also some great fun programming for letter and number recognition.

I love treasure baskets and have lots of sets put away in shoe boxes which I rotate on a regular basis. In addition to this though I plan to make themed sensory boxes which are a little different. I will make them up to nicely conencide with whatever theme we are working on and put them into the new sensory table for the kids to explore together. I can't wait.

I hope to have a great 2013 even though my numbers are down, I know new families will come my way and what better time to freshen up my programming alongside the welcoming of fresh faces.

Happy 2013!! :D

That sounds great Bright Sparks. It is good to make changes and improvements. The kids will love it but, even more so, you will find your days are so much better once you get things the way you want them and have a daycare space you can feel good about.

I needed an operation last fall and I was closed for 8 weeks. Once I felt better/stronger I tackled the daycare space. I looked around at everything and decided what worked and what didn't. It was really good to have that time to stand back and look at everything and make that decision and then carefully think about what I wanted to improve and do it piece by piece without the pressure of thinking the dcks were coming the next day or so.

I put in a ikea expedit shelf on its side. It holds a lot of toys and the top is low enough to function as either a bench or for the kids to use as a play surface. It is my fav addition to the room.

I put up new removable wall stickers for cat in the hat. They were a hit with the kids.

I removed a lot of toys and toy bins that really didn't get played with and would just end up cluttered on the floor. I found hanging shelves for the closet to use to store learning activities like our file folder games, etc

I also had time to make a bunch of flashcards myself for colours, letters, file folder games on patterns, etc. I am so glad I did. They have been used a lot and helping to get my preschoolers ready for September.

Overall for this year I am trying to do occasional themes that are for 1 week. This week we are doing snow/snowmen. Too funny that the temps are rising and the snow is melting though. lol I won't do a theme every week though. Once a month maybe and then there are holiday themes in between like easter, Valentine's etc so we do those of course.

And I am doing tons of fun crafts/learning ideas from Pinterest. I have made some great learning activities from there these past two weeks and the kids love them so far.

I also have to prepare more scissor and gluing activities for this year to prepare the preschoolers for JK.

I also just invested in a felt board and some felt board stories. We are two days into the felt board and so far it has been great. I am glad I invested in it. The kids seem to enjoy it and play with it independently at times and I can also use it for circle time.

I really am trying to set a goal for myself to cut back on buying things. I tend to spend $150 on average for craft supplies i.e paints/stamps/paper/colour printing etc/learning things/toys/dck birthday presents etc a month and I think I need to trim that a lot. I think I spent a lot for 2012. I need to try to be more budget conscious in 2013 and use things I have already or think of ways to make things cheaper .:p:p

Have fun with all your changes Brightsparks, changing things up is always exciting. I'm going to be running my daycare pretty much the same as usual but I've had a complete turnover in the past year and I have an all new group of 5 so they are very young. It dawned on me that I can recycle craft ideas, haha. The biggest change for me this year is that I will have 5 full-timers so I'm going to be very busy. I've always had one or two part-timers so some easy days during the weeks, but no more. On the plus side, my income is going to be great!

I am returning to the daycare lifestyle after almost a whole year off! Well, 6 months of only having p/t kiddos and 6 months totally off.
I am still in the process of redecorating the playroom. It was a big job. Painting paneling from circa 1980something... sucks!
Really got a handle on toy storage/organization. I set up the "centres" they way I wanted, with a couple things left to do/add. I will gradually be bringing in a more structured program. Nothing that I would call a preschool program, but a few more focused activities. I have been wanting to do this for a while, but did not really have a good set up. And that brings me to my favorite part!! MY DAYHOME NOW HAS A SEPARATE SPACE!! I am just a little excited. LoL
We had family living with us, in a basement suite, for a couple years. They moved out in the summer, and I can now run my dayhome down there. Kitchen, eating space, bathroom, etc. We put in a doorway, so there is direct access to the playroom. And a separate entrance, which I love.
I have 2 interviews this week, and a number of other responses, so I just have to gain the clientele now! ;)

Good luck filling your spaces mom-in-alberta and welcome back. I wondered what happened to you! The new daycare space sounds great.