Get started on your Valentine Crafts

When my children were in Day Nursery, Valentine’s Day was a holiday I looked forward to so I could do something crafty to give to my children’s teachers and center staff to show how much they were loved and appreciated by my entire family. Since Sunday is the first day of February, I thought it would be a good time to share one of my favorite sources  for ideas: Family Fun Magazine. I would highly recommend this Disney-owned publication if you are shopping for a magazine that has family-centered activities. If you don’t subscribe, you can still check their website out for ideas. Here’s a link to a cute idea they call “I’m Cocoa for You.” Let your child participate in creating the gift by having them cut out the heart using your outline. This is a great way to build fine motor skills so encourage your child to use age-appropriate scissors whenever you can. Your child will also enjoy assembling the gift for their teacher so make sure they are involved in the process.

Day Nursery Centers are open

All Day Nursery Centers will be open today.

Day Nursery Indianapolis Enrollment Openings

Here’s a list of the openings currently available at our seven Day Nursery centers. Each center keeps its own waiting list and openings change daily so if you are interested in enrolling your child in a specific location, please call the center directly. Day Nursery centers welcome government child care vouchers and offer a sliding scale of tuition assistance based on total family income and number of family members.
Avon Center 271-2603 Limited part time and full time openings for preschool children age 3 and up. Call for waiting list status for spaces for children under 3

Clarian Center downtown 21st & Senate 283-3838 Immediate openings for preschool age children 3-6.  Call for waiting list status for spaces for children under 3.

Federal Center downtown Pennyslvania & North St. 226-5487  Limited number of immediate openings for children ages 1-6.   Call for waiting list information about infants.

Ft. Harrison 377-7015  Currently no openings.  Call for waiting list information.

NW Indy-56th & Guion 291-8048Currently openings for 5-6 year olds only.  Call for waiting list info for other ages.

Ruth A. Lilly Center-3522 N. Central 926-1203 This center does not offer infant or toddler care.  Immediate openings are available for children beginning at age 2 through age 6.

State Government Center downtown  233-1776  Limited openings for Toddlers from 18 mos. to 36 mos.  they also have room for 4 and 5 year olds. Call for status of waiting list for other ages.

Young at Arts

Young Audience's teaching artist Meg Olsen with Day Nursery children at Ft. Harrison.

Imagine young children learning basic math, science, and pre-literacy skills by acting, dancing, and singing and creating.  That is what the Young at Arts program of Young Audiences brings to preschool classrooms around the city.  Day Nursery has been privileged to be a part of this program since its inception.  We have seen first hand how the arts motivate and engage children in learning, stimulate memory, facilitate understanding, promote relationships, and build competence.  This month, teaching artist Meg Olsen is visiting the Day Nursery Start Smart 4 Children at Ft. Harrison. During her residency, “Hand Building with Clay,” preschool-age students are learning basic techniques of working with clay as well as vocabulary specific to hand-building.  They also will make and paint their own clay creation. Meg begins each 3 visit session by reading a story to the children to spark their ideas about what their creation might look like—a great literacy connection!

Day Nursery Center benefits from “I AM CHANGE” campaign

Ruthanne Tsakrios, representing employees of Eli Lilly and Company gathered with the 3 year olds in Eva Johnson's class at Day Nursery after delivering a donation of books and puzzles.

Children at the Day Nursery center at 3522 N. Central Avenue welcomed a visitor this week representing the members of the Employee Health Services department of Eli Lilly and Company. Ruthanne Tsakrios and her co-workers at Lilly donated books and puzzles to Day Nursery as part of a national civic engagement effort that kicked off Monday, in coordination with the Martin Luther King holiday. Ruthanne hadn’t been in Ms. Johnson’s classroom of three-year-olds for more than 2 minutes before the children were climbing on her lap asking her to read from the 70 books she had just delivered. She cheerfully obliged jumping from book to book as each child pressed their favorite into her hands. Lilly is a sponsor of “I AM CHANGE,” a campaign that seeks to answer the call to service issued by President Barack Obama to meet the critical needs of the environment, education and the economy during this challenging time in our nation’s history. U.S. employees from more than 300 departments at Lilly have been engaged in service projects to collect supplies for local community organizations where the stock of essential supplies has been depleted due to the challenging economy.  In addition to the books and puzzles donated this week, Lilly employees also donated carbon monoxide detectors for the classrooms and made a contribution to the Day Nursery tuition assistance scholarship fund.

Inauguration Day Fun

Infant teachers Krystal Gardner (left) and Cheryl Knierim even got their little ones into the fun of Inauguration Day by making footprint flags.

The first Day Nursery director to chime in this morning with pictures of Inauguration Day activities was Joy McCall at our Hendricks County Early Care and Education Center in Avon.   The children from the infant room to the preschool classes were buzzing with Inauguration Day fun.   The colors of the day were red, white and blue from what the children wore, to what they ate for snack, to the activities they did throughout the day.  Thanks to Joy and her staff for these great pictures. A special shout out to Day Nursery Avon Assistant Director Jackie Williams for her help in the celebration.  Miss Jackie loves a good party and is a master at mixing special events with educational lessons . Watch this space for more Day Nursery Inauguration Day coverage.

Inauguration Day Menu

Today’s menu is brought to you by the letter “O.” In honor of Inauguration Day, Day Nursery will be serving a few of President Obama’s favorites. Patty Fisher, our Director of Curriculum and Accreditation is also responsible for overseeing our menus to make sure they are healthy, age-appropriate, within budget and in compliance with the federal food program (not an easy job!!) She shared with me that his morning’s snack is a bagel (shaped like the letter “O” ) with cream cheese and red and blue fruit to add patriotic colors to today’s theme. Lunch will be Teriyaki Chicken, Asian blend vegetables, white rice and pears to salute the President’s favorite type of food–Chinese. This afternoon’s snack will be tuna salad on a cracker using the president’s recipe which includes Grey Poupon mustard, mayonnaise and chopped gherkins.  In addition to using this menu to fuel the student’s bodies, the teachers will be using today’s menu theme to fuel their minds.  The lessons from today’s Inauguaral menu are in line with the Indiana Department of Education Foundations to the Indiana Academic Standards for Young Children from Birth to Age 5.  Included today will be foundations in Number Sense (President Obama is our 44th President), Civics and Government and Science (talking about the temperature in Washington DC today and our temperature here at home).

Martin Luther King Day

The Day Nursery administrative office and five of our seven centers will be closed Monday in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Day. Our two Clarian centers will be open during regular service hours. If you are lucky enough to have the day off, check out the listing of special events scheduled for January 19th in our city. Many of the events are free or ask for a donation of canned goods. You can find the list at Indianapolis Downtown, Inc.’s website.

Keeping track of recalls

Over 200,000 of these play yards have been recalled. Do you own one?

It seems like my email box has been filling up lately with notices of recalls. Many of them are products purchased by parents of young children.  For example, in today’s news, Fisher Price is recalling 200,000 play yards due to fall and entrapment hazards. There have been at least 1,350 reports of one or more rails collapsing. There were numerous reports of children receiving bumps and bruises when the side rail collapsed. There were five reports of injuries which included a broken nose, a broken wrist, a mild concussion, a cut to the hand which required stitches, and a chipped tooth.  The best way I have found to keep up with the notices is just a click away. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is encouraging people to sign up for their email notification system. As they say on their website, it is free, fast and it could save your life. Go to www.cpsc.gov to sign up and read more about the latest recalls.

Baby It’s Cold Outside

Artwork by Madison from the Day Nursery Federal Center

Parents often ask what guidelines we use to decide if it is an appropriate temperature for Day Nursery children to go outside and get some fresh air and exercise.   For the answer, I turned to Day Nursery’s Director of Curriculum and Accreditation, Patty Fisher who never has the state child care licensing guidelines out of her sight.  She was quick to quote the state guidelines which say that a licensed child care center must provide daily opportunities for children to use large muscle skills, learn about outdoor environments and express themselves freely and loudly, except when the severity of the weather poses a safety hazard, the wind-chill temperature is below twenty-five (25)degrees Fahrenheit,or there is a health related reason documented by a parent or physician for a child to remain indoors. (For a period exceeding three consecutive days a physician’s note is required.) Don’t you just love the “freely and loudly” part of that guide? You don’t have to look at the wind chill chart to know that today is too cold to go outside. But be assured that our children will be playing “freely and loudly” inside today, because we know that is an important part of growing up.