Mrs. Sandy's Family Child Care
My Journey
My program has undergone many changes over the past 15 years. Each time I have changed my environment, it has come from ideas I have learned through continued education. I have taken many early childhood courses and now continue to take online courses, online professional development modules, attend trainings through my local family child care association and my local resource and referral agency and attend a variety of conferences. Like all other professions, the profession of child care continues to undergo new research and we continue to learn new ideas about best practices when caring for young children. I use the information I learn to create a program that will best fit the needs of my enrolled children. I want the children to form relationships, enhance their social and emotional skills, develop their fine and gross motor skills, and enhance pre-literacy skills and language development skills necessary for kindergarten readiness. Continued learning and research has given me the tools I need to offer a successful family child care program.
2008
I moved my daycare room from a 10X10 bedroom, into an area of my home that was a formal seating area, which was only used 2-3 times per year. This was the best decision I ever made for my program.
As you can see in 2008, I used a lot of bright colors. I had a lot of posters on the wall and a designated Circle Time/Calendar Area. It was crowded to say the least. The cabinets in the back of the room contained all of my materials and they were stacked from floor to ceiling. When I look back at these pictures, all I can think of is, what in the world was I thinking. When I began doing daycare in 1998, it was common to have a "calendar area" for the kids. As I grew professionally and became more educated, I realized that calendar time is rote learning and isn't developmentally appropriate for all ages.
This was an environment of chaos. Too much for the kids to process because it was too visually stimulating. While there were items that were in reach for the children, not everything usable was at the child's level. I had a piano in the room because there was nowhere else in my house for it to go so many times is became a catch all.
2009
In the first year, not a lot of major changes were made. I did move the piano to another room and switched the cabinets from side of the room to the other. This allowed me to create more defined centers (like a block area, library area and dramatic play area). I utilized the back wall by putting up bulletin boards and still decorated the room with bright colored cartoon character pictures. Notice the sixth picture. Do you recognize what it is? It's a behavior chart. If they had a good day, they stayed on green, an OK day they moved to yellow and a bad day they were moved to red. I am ashamed that I ever used this and ever thought it was a good idea. It was shaming the kids. Everyone knew if they made it to red, their parents wouldn't be happy when they picked them up. And it was equally as shaming to parents that had to walk in and look where their child's name was. So glad I don't do that anymore.
2012
In 2012 I painted the room blue to take away from the stark white walls. I created a library area with a child-sized couch and chair and no longer used the mat and pillows. I had a defined science area and the dramatic play area looks similar just moved to the other side of the room. By this point, I had already taken down the calendar wall. I began hanging things from the ceiling (obviously I didn't have enough to look at already) and I had a lovely fake cartoon paper tree. I used this tree for several years. I would even staple leaves to it. The green leaves had the alphabet written on them and I bought fabric ones to hang in the fall. Oh and who could forget the bright yellow smiley face sun. The small bulletin boards were used to display art work and the larger one was used for monthly themes and holidays that I decorated up for the kids. I still continue to use brightly colored totes.
2015
In 2015 I made a few upgrades. My daughter painted some awesome Dr. Seuss paintings for me that I added to our library area. Yep still had the paper tree. I added an art shelf that displayed various art materials and had a new kitchenette. I changed out all the brightly colored cloth totes on the shelves and replaced them with plastic wicker baskets. I purchased a wooden ramp from a local business that went out of business. It was great at first, but the kids quickly lost interest because their play choices with it were limited. They eventually over time, just quit playing with it all together. I purchased new kid sized chairs for the table that would allow all of the children to touch the floor comfortably because they were different heights. I was still continuing to use the white shelving and plastic three drawer organizers.
2017
As you can tell by now, I am starting to get away from the bright colors. I repainted my room with a more muted blue and traded all of my white shelving for natural wood shelves. I created a hard surface in my block area with some plywood and sticky backed tiles. I took down the bulletin boards. The walls are much less chaotic and no cartoon character posters covered the walls. I finally got rid of that paper tree. I included more pictures of the kids on the walls. The art bulletin boards were replaced with natural twine and clothespins. I still continued to use the plastic wicker baskets. In the summer of 2017 I had my outdoor area Nature Explore Certified. So a lot of things were happening outdoors.
2018
I decided to go all the way and convert my indoor environment to a nature inspired play space. In the fall of 2017 I began collecting items at various flea markets and starting collecting items for "loose parts play". I still have defined spaces, but the layout is more open. I replaced all the plastic wicker baskets with real wicker ones of various sizes and shapes. I have begun to add houseplants and I have defined the library area with a soft canopy floating above. I used sticks to create a "window" in the dramatic play area and removed the large kitchenette that was just such a space hog. I turned the science center shelf upright and created a different dimension in the room. I will use my blog to show how various items were made and display some of the awesome flea market finds. Hard to believe that it took me 10 years in my current home to become a nature inspired program.
My outdoor space before becoming Nature Explore Certified
As you can see, I had very dull area. These pictures only show one playhouse, but I had two (the other one not pictured was much larger). I didn't enjoy the space and didn't enjoy being outdoors. As you can see there aren't many pictures, because the space was not picture worthy. Items were stored and stacked in my garage and I would take things out daily for play.
My outdoor space after becoming Nature Explore Certified
My space was opened by getting rid of the big bulky plastic play houses and my areas are defined and the whole area flows so much better. I added a lot more natural elements. Changes are constantly happening. In 2018, I will be adding a large raised garden and adding more natural items to deplete all plastic items. Close up pictures of my signs can be found under the blog portion of this site.
2018 Updates
We have added a new garden, a new block building platform, a new mud kitchen, a new chase lounge, a new picnic table, used different baskets in our storage shed and added a new boat for dramatic play.
2021 Updates
We added lots of plants and actually moved spaces. I swapped out the living room for my family with the play space. This allowed me to have more windows for the kids. It also allowed for more sunlight for all the plants and more fresh air for the kids because the windows are operable. The art and lunch table is now located in the kitchen so it makes clean-up and spills much easier (no more cream carpet, hello laminate flooring).
