I am trying something new once a month I am doing a Friday interview and this month I would like to introduce to you LaDonna Woolsey She 0wns a preschool in Missouri called Woolsey Academy for Young Learners. 1.What are the three questions asked of you from a prospective client? It's not what they ask, but what they usually WANT to ask. Since I have been established in my area for a long time clients do not normally ask what they want which is, "Will my child be safe and how can I know." Since I know they want to ask this and that it truly is their most vital and pressing question, I answer it in a variety of ways. 1. I let them know that they are always welcome to contact my State Licensing Rep and I give them her name and contact information. I tell them that all state licensed childcare facilities have public records and that I encourage them to look at mine. Further, I let them know exactly what they will find.....nothing.... 2. I encourage them to ask around. Ask on social media for others that have had their children in my care and for their honest opinions. 3. I encourage them to look at independent childcare review sites. Word gets around these days...good or bad. 4. I never take on a child without having 1. a phone interview, 2. an in-person interview with the child present, 3. any follow-up interviews that either I or the family wish to have. 2. The second question families want to know is education. I let them know that I use a variety of methods for education. My primary is Mother Goose Time. It is a research-based preschool curriculum that is drenched with songs, chants, literacy, math, science, social studies, and social/emotional skill building. 3. Third questions families want to know is, "How do you discipline." I use Becky Bailey's Conscious Discipline. I recommend that the families look up her website and follow her on facebook. This is a positive self-directed method of teaching children to be aware of their choices. How to be helpful and make choices that are beneficial to themselves and others. It also helps them develop their inner voice as positive and understand that they have the strength to speak their choices to others. www.consciousdiscpline.com (I think that answers question 3 also). 4.What is a typical day like for you? Busy.....always busy. I begin my day at 6 am and my assistant arrives at 8:15. She is full-time which I love and is the best investment I have ever made. I love my work and want each child in my care to have the very best education, relationfiltering in until 9am. Cleanup and bathroom time. We begin our preschool time at 9am with circle time, then arts and crafts, story time and another snack. Another cleanup and bathroom time. From there if the weather permits, we go outside for an hour of outside games and free play. If the weather does not permit we have indoor free play consisting of center time, more arts and crafts, individual story times, Dancing Beats, Zoo, Librarian, Yoga, Karate (depending on the day) We then come back inside for a small snack (and bathrooms) while lunch is being prepared and we have lunch around 11:30am. This leads us to cleanup time of lunch and all the children participate in cleaning chairs and tables, hands and faces, putting away cups and plates. We then get our beds ready and have another song and story time. From this point, we are ready for nap from 12:30p-2:30. Upon waking we clean up our beds, go to the bathroom, and put shoes back on and sit down for snack time about 3pm. After snack, we have afternoon free play as the children begin leaving at 3:20. From 3:20-5:30 we read, play, discuss the days events, paint, play dough, sing, dance, etc!
Thank you LaDonna for sharing with us if you want to find out more about her check out her blog at http://www.woolseyacademy.com/ships, and care. Having a full-time assistant teacher helps to ensure that. From 6:30am-8 the children are arriving, greeting one another and usually engaging in table activities, reading books, play dough, free play. We have breakfast at 8ish am-9ish am. We still have children
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The experiences you give your infant will help your infant’s developing brain. Experiences are essential component of brain development. Experiences determine which connections are strengthened and expanded, experiences can also be eliminated. Connections that are used repeatedly become stronger and connections not used are lost to pruning. Repetition is important because it provides a child with multiple opportunities to straighten connections. When I talk of experiences for healthy brain development I think of three things 1. Speaking- Infants need to have lots of interaction. Babies can distinguish between sounds of a foreign language within the first few months in A English speaking home. By the end of the first year they will not be able to distinguish these sounds. The language spoken at home has wired the brain for English. A two year old child’s vocabulary will quadruple between first and second birthday. At two years old a child sees a reflection in a mirror. He will begin using his own name as well as personal pronouns like I and me. Here is where it’s important to talk to your infant, when playing on the floor show them objects and tell them what it is. 2. Toys make sure there is an assortment of things to play with. Infants love shaking rattles and dropping them to see what happens next. Mobiles are great for tummy time activities. 3. Exploring and experimenting. Make sure there is a safe area with lots of room to explore and experiment. Make sure there is the infant can pull down, sockets are covered and furniture is out of the way. These things will help the developmental development of an infant’s brain because you know what they say a mind is a terrible thing to waste. I hope this helps remind parents of the benefits of talking to your interacting with your infants because of the benefits that come out of this interaction. |
AuthorHi, I'm Marcie Kenny, the women behind this blog. I am not a mother, but I am number seven in a family of nine. I worked in childcare for many years before retiring; now I enjoy blogging about all that I have learned along the way. Archives
October 2020
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