Biking to Buddings!
In case you managed to miss our subtle hints, Buddings is very bike-friendly! Talia, Lawrence and Jenny are all commuter cyclists, the centre is full of bike imagery, and we’ve got tonnes of resources for families in need of information about increasing the bike-time in their lives. We’ve explored lots of ways to bike with kids, just ask us!
So, now that you know how committed we are to sustainable transportation, we want to up the ante.
Buddings Daycare is participating with HUB’s 5th annual Bike to Work Week competition from May 28 to June 1, 2012, and we want to invite all our families and friends to join us!
Biking for transportation is an amazing way to incorporate exercise, fresh air and time with family into your life, without actually adding anything. You gotta get around, right? Plus, you save money, reduce CO2 emissions, and get fit. There’s just no down-side. And Bike to Work Week is like a pair of training wheels to help get you started.
When you join a Bike to Work Week team, you get access to tonnes of great resources, the inside info on their Celebration Station locations (cheering committees, with free treats and prizes!), and a chance to win a new BIKE each and everyday that you ride in. Plus, by joining the Buddings Daycare team, you can share your route with other families, find riding buddies, and win hours at Buddings! That’s right, we’re raffling a 10 hour package to any family that logs trips for the week. So if you ride once, you get one entry, twice for two, etc. If we get enough new riders on our team, and enough logged trips, we could even place on the city-wide standings! That might be a grand ambition for our first year ever competing, but at least you know how high we’re setting our sights!
Our team is all set up, and you can join us by visiting www.biketoworkmetrovan.ca, clicking the Sign Up Here button and, once you’ve registered, Join our Team by searching for Buddings Daycare. Create your route and start logging your trips. You can track how many kilometres you’ve ridden, how many calories you burn, and how much CO2 you saved*. The prizes and fun starts on Monday May 28, but feel free to sign up now, and explore the amazing resources on the site.
* CO2 volume saved based on an average sized vehicle’s emissions for the same distance.
Separating Slowly
Being away from home is a sure sign of being a big kid – gaining some independence, meeting new people, and becoming a member of a bigger society. Way to go! Sometimes this new stage arrives before children are fully ready. Luckily, helping them get used to the idea is something Buddings is starting to do really well.
Over the past few months, we’ve been integrating lots of new buddies, and they come from all ages, stages, and experiences. Figuring out the best strategy for each child is like developing a personality assessment after 20 minutes of observations. And, one thing that has become very clear is that behaviours witnessed while a parent is present, no matter how comfortable or out-going, are not necessarily there after mom leaves. Anxiety about being away from family happens to lots of kids, especially if it’s a new experience, but the separation is rarely the whole cause. Most of the time, the deeper fear is that their parents won’t come back.
Even the youngest child understands when their parent is going to go somewhere. They may not know the words, but the basic instinct – to be close to their parents – is a powerful one. And when you disappear, it’s a big problem. On the bright side, when you come back, all becomes well with the world. 
So, knowing what we do, Buddings has created a toddler integration program that plays up all the positives. New families are encouraged to book three 1-hour visits, on three consecutive days. We even give you the 3 hours for free! Parents stay for 10 – 15 minutes on the first day, while our staff show the kids around, and begin nurturing the relationship that we know is the most important part of our jobs. When you tell them you’re going away for a short time, it’s totally normal for children to resist. This may involve tears, and we know that’s hard, but don’t worry, it will be okay.
When you come back after half an hour, they’re playing away! The tears are gone and when you ask about the visit, your child will be excited to share all their news. All the toys they played with, and everywhere they went in the centre are bathed in the radiant light of your returned presence. Our goal is to associate Buddings with fun and friends, of course, but also with a place that YOU come back to. Repeating this a few times in a short period of time is the best way we know to show your child that Buddings is a safe, fun place to play, and that you will always come back.
Some kids don’t need to repeat it as often, and take to the place on day 1. Some kids need the full 3 days, and sometimes it can even take a little longer. Over 90% of our kids have fully adjusted themselves by the third visit, but we never assume. We’re always prepared to give integrating kids extra attention for as long as they need it. It’s a big step, and we know that this experience will factor into their acceptance of new places and things from now on. We’re thrilled to be part of the process.
If you have any questions about our program, or suggestions you know of that have worked with your child, let us know!
Art Area Improvements
How frustrating! It took me 4 hours to get my Art Area Improvement Project finished, and the difference is so subtle, Jenny didn’t even notice!
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If you said, “There are 2 stations, now,” You’re right!
And that’s not all!
We took the easels off their stands and mounted them directly to the wall. It makes a bit of extra space on the floor, and lets the kids see what’s being painted on both sides.
In the first picture, the easel’s been pushed into the corner and only has one side available for work. It was taking up too much space! Plus, even when it was out in the middle of the room, the kids always wanted to see what was happening on the other side. Now, side-by-side, they can paint away.
We also decided to paint the wall behind the easels with a super-tough finish, so it would be easy to clean… in case it ever got paint on it. 
Somehow, in all our adventures building, painting, and renovating, we always seemed to use water-based paints. I always look for low- or no-VOC brands, and even for trim and doors, it seemed to work fine. So, when I went to wash the rollers, I pulled them off the handle with my bare hands, and headed for the sink.
Whoops!
Oil-based paint doesn’t come off under water! Not even with soap. In fact, it spreads itself into a thin coating over your skin in the manner of an alien appropriating your body as its own. It was actually kind of scary.
We don’t have paint thinner, or turpentine, for obvious reasons (namely that we try to avoid noxious chemicals in the daycare), and I didn’t have a good feeling about Law’s suggestion of pouring bleach over my hands. Luckily for me (and all mankind), the internet had a solution. Did you know that olive oil and coarse salt can be used to rub paint off your hands? It’s true! Trust me.
Free Vison Screening for 3-Year Olds
Packing your Buddy Bag
At Buddings, we pride ourselves on having a good supply of all the things your child needs to have fun, explore, and be safe. After all, that’s what Buddings is all about! But there are still a few things that families should plan on bringing with them. We hope the check list below is useful, and we’d love to hear any other creative additions that you don’t leave home without.
Make sure you have:
Having a backpack or bag keeps everything together, and if you don’t have one yet, it can be a super easy, low-stress shopping trip with your child to pick out the one he or she likes the best. We’ve been seeing a very fun resurgence in metal lunch boxes with fav cartoon characters. Mine was My Little Pony for years. Do you remember yours?
Mastering it all!
One of the most common things I read in parenting advice books, websites, columns and magazines is that you shouldn’t worry if there are variances between your child and the kids at daycare, the park, or playgroup. Kids grow and develop at their own rate. Makes sense. There are so many things they need to do, from growing, to strengthening their grip, learning to communicate, and achieving their goals, whatever they be. Like emptying all the pots out of the drawer and then crawling in. Or moving all the crayons from one place to another, and then back again.
Of course, development does happen at a somewhat “normal” rate. Once they reach school age, each year brings measurable new skills, higher learning, and greater capabilities, but in the toddler and preschool years, the milestones come at super-speed! Month by month, there’s something new to see, and periods where a skill is discovered, practiced, and perfected in a weekend! “They grow up so fast,” is more than a nostalgic longing, they are literally growing up at a record pace!
Two of the most common questions parents have about their child’s development are around language and mobility. The experts tell us that these skills share a time-line, starting among front-runners at around one year, or even before, and late-bloomers getting the idea around two. When you think about it, that means that the two most important human characteristics, walking and talking, happen at the same time, in the first two years of life! It shouldn’t be too surprising that the children who master one of these skills early on may take a little while longer before they turn their attention to the other. Kids who are quick to develop their physical strengths are often slower to start using words. They do a lot of pointing, and have one or two sounds they use to mean just about everything. But that doesn’t mean their not soaking it all in!
We can help children with their language development by saying the words they’re looking for before handing over the gestured object, narrating the actions they are so quick to accomplish, and literally filling their heads with words. It may feel silly to keep a running monologue of daily living to an apparently disinterested toddler, but rest assured, when your child does take to speech, it will be in leaps and bounds, just like her ability to climb the furniture.
Time for some structure
With more kids coming in every week, I’ve been spending more and more time on the floor, more time singing, dancing, making up stories, telling jokes, and generally expending my time and energy in places other than my blog. In fact, on at least a dozen attempts to write a post, when I sit down, I don’t know what to say. Writer’s block? I think I’ve just used up my creativity.
Our program operates under the Emergent Philosophy, where the children’s interests guide our curriculum. We love it because it embraces the children as individuals and teaches them that they’re opinions and interests are important. Talk about generating a sense of self-worth! … but I’m getting drained by the constant spontaneity. (In this picture, for example, everyone is facing a different direction, busily working away on different projects!)
Well, after 3 months in operation, I think we need to implement some structure.
The mornings at Buddings are starting to fill up, and the children are really into Free Play. They love playing with the kitchen set, having tea parties, cutting and flattening play dough, and most of all, playing in the lentil table, scooping and dumping containers of beans. Everyone has a tonne of fun, and we are not going to change a single thing about it!
What we are going to do, in the afternoons, is prepare a “highlighted activity” that we know the kids will love. It’s all about planning in that case, and our idea is to have a recurring activity each day of the week:
Monday – Concoctions (Cooking and Science)
Tuesday – Imaginarium
Wednesday – Stories & Games
Thursday – M&Ms (Music and Movement)
Friday – Messy Art Day (my personal fav!
The highlighted activity will be in one area, and the rest of the space will still be set up for Free Play, as it always has been, so the kids who don’t have the patience yet to sit through a whole story won’t have to. But, who knows, maybe if they come in for M&Ms one week, they’ll love it so much you’ll never have to wonder which day to schedule again!
We’re new at all this, so there may be some tweaking as we move along, but this is our plan, and it’s starting on Monday, so here we go!
