Greetings from the Wee Care family!  We are certainly enjoying the warmer weather, especially that the rain has “gone, gone away” for a few days at least.  These nicer days are allowing more outside time for the children and staff, who are all appreciating the signs of spring and the promise of the coming hot summer and all of its’ adventures.

     We just had a very fun week (April 14-18) of special activities to celebrate “The Week of the Young Child.”  This national week, sponsored by the Association for the Education of Young Children, (NAEYC), highlights how early learning environments, such as day cares and preschools, help children to grow, learn and develop and how teachers in these settings encourage children’s social, emotional, mental and physical development.  We began our week by asking each child and family to fashion a paper doll into “What I Want to be When I Grow Up.”  These decorate our hall and give everyone an opportunity to see how special and unique each of our children is to us.  Donuts and juice were offered to everyone on Monday morning to give a pause and allow teachers, parents and students a chance to visit and talk with each other.  Tuesday had some crazy “Bubble Fun” with lots of running and playing outside.  We recognized our parents and families on Wednesday with a “Weenie Hot Dog” lunch in their honor.  An Ice Cream Social was hosted by the teachers for the kids for a special treat on Thursday afternoon.  We wrapped up our week with a “Teddy Bear Day”, with games and fun and even an outside picnic with our favorite bears.

     Our highlighted classroom this month is the 3’s and 4’s Room.  Ms. Heather, Ms. Raney and Ms. Jen work to encourage social and emotional growth.  This age can be very interesting because they clearly know what they want but don’t always know how to get it.  These teachers do a great deal of focusing on more positive ways to work together.  They are busy and active and most mornings you will find learning centers, art activities, and manipulative games and toys that are reinforcing basic skills such as letters, numbers and shapes while also encouraging social skills, taking turns and following classroom rules.  A big job to coordinate, but one our teachers take pride in doing well, especially when we see our children growing, learning and demonstrating these skills.

Miss Karin and the Wee Care Staff