Kids and Childcare

I've been around children for as long as I can remember. My  little brother is 8 years younger than I am and I was babysitting him all summer long from the time I was 13 until I got a job. I have two kids of my own and I run a small daycare. I've pretty much seen and heard it all.

If I had a chance to give all the parents I know a few words of advice when sending their children into the care of others, I already know what I'd say.

For the love of all that is holy, watch what you say and do in front of your children. Kids repeat EVERYTHING.

Just because they can't speak doesn't mean they don't hear. I can't even begin to tell you how many different children I've had here that say things they really shouldn't.

Recently, I had a child here who used to say t-w-a-t  all. the. time. He was only 1 and had no idea what it meant of course, but it got a reaction. That was fun. Taking a child to the park to play and having him call other kids words that you never want to hear from a child. Good times.

Yesterday, the same child  called his mother a different very bad word. He's 3 now. He knows better, but he heard it somewhere, and like I said, kids repeat EVERYTHING!

Kids don't just repeat words, they repeat actions too.

I have a 2 year old here who picked up a Nerf dart while ago. He held it between his fingers and said, I'm smoking. And he was. He's also picked up a toy phone, pretends to smoke while talking in mostly fast baby gibberish but every once in a while he'll throw in a colorful word to mix it up.

Its not always bad things. Kids are super funny, anyone who has ever spent time with the under 5 crowd knows this. I've had a potty training child tell me his pee-pee was like a squirt gun and he had to shoot the potty with it. Hey, what ever works!

It can be fun to watch kids in the dramatic play area because they come up with some of the most random and silly things. I never really know what they are going to say, but you can sometimes get a sense of what goes on at home by the way they play.

The kitchen center for example. One child with be the mom and pour herself a glass of wine and then bring me a glass with pretend beer because I'm the dad and we've both had a hard day. Or a child will pretend to be mom while cooking dinner and mumble something about not being a restaurant. Things that I know all moms have said at one time or another.

So just remember, kids will copy you. They will act like you. And that's not always a bad thing really. Because you want your kids to follow your good example, right? That's what we strive for, raising children who use manners and are polite.

I'm just saying, if your going to smoke while talking on your cell phone using your sentence enhancers, remember your kids will repeat you.

And hopefully who ever watches your child for you has a sense of humor because sometimes all you can do is laugh.

A fun giveaway

This is one of my favorite giveaways to enter. I haven't won yet, but I love a good party theme, and they have tons! They have a new contest almost everyday, and that makes momma happy!

This is a Facebook post, you may have to like them to enter, but I've found that some of the best contests to enter are on Facebook!

Over the winter, I won $400 in Spafinder giftcards from a Pricechopper facebook contest! It definitely pays to enter as many contests as you can!

Good luck!

Post by Nicole Marie.

Summertime and Getting Ready for School

Hello lovely world of bloggers! I'm baaaaaack!

Ok, so its not really that dramatic, but I decided I wanted to write again. I deleted my other blog, so this one is missing way to many pictures.

Please excuse the mess around here.

So, summer is almost over here and I'm getting ready to jump headfirst into our preschool routine. I run a small daycare and this year I will have the perfect age group, I hope, to have a fun and creative year! I'll have one 1 year old, three 2 year olds and a 4 year old who will be at a school centered preschool during our main learning time.

I'm really looking forward to using MotherGoose Times again for our curriculum. I've tried a few different ones over the years, some cheaper ones, some more expensive ones, and this curriculum seems to work the best for us. Plus it comes in a cute school bus box that the kids think is just the coolest thing.

So we have that to look forward too. Lots of posts with our projects coming soon!

What's that? What have I been up to? Why thanks so much for asking :)

I've been entering a lot of giveaways lately. I search everywhere for the best ones I can find, with low entries and fun prizes.

I'm sad to say, I've almost giving up on my  beloved twitter parities. This makes me sad because I really enjoyed them for a long time. But, they have become almost repetitive lately, seeing the same names come up as winners over and over again. No, its not jealousy on my part because I've won my fair share of great prizes, and I do win still. It just seems lately that you can guess the winners before they are even announced, and that just gets old.

<<<Huge sigh>>>

I've been catching up on my shows instead. But I do miss seeing the UPS man out front so I've been searching out more online giveaways to enter.

And of course there is my cooking and gardening. I've been trying tons of new recipes and I hope to be able to share them on here too. We just picked our first cherry tomatoes over the weekend and we are waiting patiently for the big ones to turn red so I can start to can them.

That's about it. Thanks for reading.