School Readiness: Birth to Three

Zero to Three is a great resource for researchers interested in the importance of early childhood education.  It is also an excellent resource for parents who want to find out more about how their child’s young mind is developing.  If you have a child under age three, I think you will find a lot of good information when you use their tool called the School Readiness Interactive.  This on-line tool is based on a booklet titled Getting Ready for School Begins at Birth, funded by MetLife Foundation.  Here’s what you can find there.

• Core information about how children develop school readiness skills and how parents and care givers can nuture and support these skills in young children.
• Video clips that show children learning these skills through everyday interactions with their parents.
• Parent-child activities which provide fun ideas for helping children develop school readiness skills.
• Frequently asked questions that offer answers to common questions about learning.

Happy Independence Day

Happy July 4th from the children of Day Nursery

Friday Feature: Day Nursery Hendricks County

The two year olds found a frog on their playground.

Yes, I know it is Thursday, but the Day Nursery centers (and many workplaces) are closed tomorrow so I thought I would sneak this in a day early.  This week, we are featuring the Day Nursery Hendricks County Early Care and Education Center in Avon.  It is located on the campus of the Clarian West Medical Center.   Joy McCall is the Center Director, Jackie Williams is the Assistant Director and Carrie Montgomeryis the Office Manager.  Day Nursery and Clarian partnered to build this center in 2006.  It is located on the northside of the Clarian West Medical Center campus. The center is open to the public Monday through Friday from 6:00 am until 6:00 pm.

Currently the center has a few openings for children in all age groups including infants and toddlers.  Call for more info at 271-2603.

Here’s what Day Nursery Hendricks County center parents had to see on our recent parent survey:

• My child’s vocabulary has definitely expanded outside of my reading to her every night. She also knows colors and songs that I had not taught her.
• My son and daughter have both had an enriched learning environment where it has been easy to see them gravitate from one center to the next. For weeks, my son may be at the sensory table letting noodles, rice, dirt, mud, water, corn starch run through his fingers. Then one day, he is moving on to the writing and art center… It’s nice to see that my children have so many opportunities for varying activities.
• I had to choose among several day care options when first enrolling my daughter, including on-site day care at my place of employment (Eli Lilly). I specifically chose Day Nursery because I was so impressed with the facilities and the staff. This was my daughter’s first time in day care, and she has flourished. I would recommend this center to anyone.

Click on each picture below to see a larger image.  Thanks to the staff for sharing these pictures with me.

This is our cook Miss Chris and her mother Rose who is a volunteer at our center. Miss Chris is very patriotic and our snacks have been too!

Day Nursery Hendricks County parent group sponsored a family night out in June.

The two year olds found a frog on their playground.

Water safety lesson at Natatorium

Two year olds making red jello

Zack and Nick working on a spaceship

Flying on the rocketship

Preschoolers making fireworks artwork

Even the littlest ones are showing their red white and blue colors

Day Nursery in Avon featured on blog on Thursday

Tomorrow we will feature the staff and children of the Day Nursery Hendricks County Center in Avon.  We’ll have lots of great pictures to share so don’t forget to come back to visit.

Red white and cute!

Debra Ballard, the Center Director at our Day Nursery Ft. Harrison center has been busy this week emailing me pictures of the red, white and blue activities in her center.  Here’s the latest from the infant room where the children enjoyed exploring the texture of cereal that had been brightened up with a little red and blue food coloring.

Best blog month ever

Preschoolers at the Day Nursery at Ft. Harrison sort out red and blue beads during Celebrate America week. Activities like bead sorting strengthen fine motor skills in children which lays the foundation for writing in elementary school.

Since we launched the Day Nursery blog in August of last year, our visits have been steadily on the rise.  I am happy to say on this last day of June that we have hit an all time high of 1,538 views this month as of this moment.  Thanks for your support!!

Red White and Blue Fun

Counting the stars on the flag made by the students.

The students decorated a fort

It’s “Celebrate America” week at all Day Nursery centers and the students at our Start Smart 4 Children Center at Ft. Harrison have been busy.  These pictures are courtesy of the Preschool5 classroom led by Ms. Tracey Wickware and her assistant Ms. Kim. 

Day Nursery Parent Survey

The Day Nursery 2009 Spring Parent Survey is officially closed.  Thanks to all the Day Nursery parents who took the time to complete this important document.  We had an outstanding response.  The survey showed that 98.9% of the respondents felt that Day Nursery impacted their child in a positive way. A Day Nursery Guion Road parent wrote: My children are able to receive great care and get a good education. You can tell Day Nursery has impacted their lives in positive ways daily (even on weekends) by the way they relate to people and the good manners they have learned and that have been reinforced by the Day Nursery staff.  

We are finalizing the results and plan to share them with you next week.  Here’s a comment from a parent at the Day Nursery Indiana State Government Center. “My child has been in Day Nursery since he was an infant and is now 3, so he has grown in many ways since enrolling. I especially enjoy him interacting with his friends and talking and playing together. He has learned songs and many self-help skills. I see him do things on his own at school that he wants help with at home. I like that he is encouraged to do for himself and be part of the group and activities. It has been great for his social development.”

The area where parents thought we need the most work was in parent communications.  This is an area for improvement which has also been identified by our center management and senior management.  In the last year, company-wide we added this blog, started Twittering and added a monthly email newsletter for parents and supporters.  At the center level, each center has identified a member of their team to represent them on the parent communication committee and this group meets to discuss ways to reach out to parents more consistently in each center.  This parent comment reminds us why good parent communication needs to be a daily priority: I would like to have updates on my child’s development more often. The conferences that we have every 6 months are great. In addition to this I would think there would be a benefit to having informal conversations as 6 months is a long time. Something as simple as a phone call from the teacher to each parent once a month to talk about how the child is doing and developing, what is going well and what needs to be worked on at home, etc. That is just an idea of how to do this. I certainly ask the teachers when I have questions but typically that is what it takes before I hear how my child is doing unless there is an issue. Personally I want to know as much as I can to help my child so I think more communication is better.

Although our official parent survey is done annually each spring, your comments are welcome everyday.  Thank you for your participation.

Weekend Project: Three Bears Bread

Instead of dinner and a movie this weekend, how about a book and some bread. I found this idea while clicking through a newsletter emailed to me by the folks at Highlights.com.  The recipe for Three Bears Bread uses frozen bread dough so you need a little advance planning for this project. The night before you want to make the bread with your children, put the frozen bread dough in the refrigerator to defrost.  For your bedtime story that night, share your favorite version of The Three Bears. I found 2,777 choices when I queried Amazon.com! If your child is just learning to count, check your library for Ten Bears in My Bed: A Goodnight Countdown by Stanley Mack for a fun variation of the story.

Friday Feature: Day Nursery State Government Center

Heading off to swim lessons at the Natatorium

The center's indoor gym, the INShape Indiana Fitness Funplace has child size equipment.

Every May the center has their own race on the playground

The Day Nursery State Government Center is located in the north building of the Indiana State Government Complex.  Day Nursery has been providing care at this location since November of 1998.  The center is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Deanna Saylor is the Center Director, Marti Thiery is the Assistant Director and Amy Cavin is the Office Manager. The center hours are 6:45 am to 5:45 pm Monday through Friday.  The center is open to the public and accepts children ages 6 weeks to 6 years old.  Currently they have openings for two year olds and, as of this writing, have one opening for an infant.  If you would like more information about this center, you can reach them at (317) 233-1776 or state@daynursery.org.

Preschoolers learn how to kick from their water safety instructor