Currently on holidays

It has been a while since I have updated my blog, must be a combo of Christmas/ working more and just general chaos around here!

I am currently closed until after Christmas though I am already missing all the kids!

I have also just recently received my new license and am now licensed 24 hours, 7 days which means for anyone needing weekend care I can do it and you can still get your CCB/ CCR. And as before I am still available for casual weekday care too.

Not much else to report but have been busy trying to get things back in order so the kids can pull it all back out and disorganise it on the first week back lol!

Excursions

So we have ventured out on 2 excursions recently, the first one to the zoo with some help from our resource worker.

I loved the Perth Zoo as a child, they used to tell us if you caught a squirrel you could take it home, so I dont think I spent much time looking at the animals but more so searching for squirrels lol! Regardless it holds some fond memories for me and when I found out my daughters class was going it was a great opportunity to share the joy with some small ones!

The 2 kids we took got to see a baby orangutuan, go through the noctural house and visit the african savannah. We had a lovely picnic on the lawn before we left and they also went on the carousel.

We also went to the Cuddly Animal Farm which was a stack of fun but no photos as they all have kids in them! It was a great day out though and I highly recommend it.

During this week we have also had a very special birthday and we made a wonderful birthday cake. Our birthday boy requested a blue cake with pink icing so that is what he got!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GORGEOUS BOY, HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT DAY!!



In keeping with our open ended play experiences and another fantastic idea from my sister we wet our backyard bricks, gave the kids some chalk and set them free:



New waterwall

Had a wonderful suggestion by my sister to build a waterwall and of course Pete got right down to it and I was extremely impressed with his creativity (will have to put that to further use!)

School Holidays

We are in the middle of school holidays here, always chaos with kids on different days than normal. We are also getting ready for our daughter's 12th birthday so it is extra mad!

Still moving forward with my open ended play experiences and the tyres have proved to be a big hit. We are just waiting on a new order of paint and glue which I hope arrives soon as we had to resort to white paint on coloured paper last week.

Open ended play experiences

It has been a while since I have updated my blog, I have just been much too busy!

A lot of recent training and research has led me to try and go in a different direction. Our focus is moving towards more open ended play experiences and child led play. We are hoping to have a bigger percentage of natural, unconvential play experiences and less plastic, battery operated stuff!

One of the most exciting new things for me are our new tractor tyres!!! Good for climbing, crawling, hiding and who knows what else?

Arent they cool?? Pete did such a great job of digging them in!

I have also revised my philosophy and am working it into my new set of programming which is up on display:


Pegrum FDC believes that children learn and develop through the ability to explore open ended play experiences that are led by their interests.

We believe in inclusion of all children and an attitude of “how can we” rather than “why we can’t” when meeting children’s needs.

Educator’s roles are to expand play interests, track developmental needs and to provide a stimulating environment that creates a sense of wonder.


We try to minimise our impact on the environment as well as creating a low chemical environment for children whilst maintaining accepted health and hygiene practices.

At Pegrum FDC we endeavour at all times to provide safe, hygienic and positive learning experiences whilst at the same time allowing children to develop skills without restriction.

It is still a work in progress as it will always be but I am much happier with it.
 
Study is moving along well especially now I have discovered I have much less work that I thought I did! I can start to see the end of Cert III, hello Cert IV lol!
 
We also managed our first excursion, to the Zoo! Only a few hours and with some helping hands but we survived and a lot of fun was had by all!
 

Using unconvential materials

The outcome of training I have done recently is to provide children with open ended play experiences rather than trying to shape their play for an end result. The idea is to work within children's interests and then look at the skills they are working on. It is all dependant on providing an environment that gives children a "sense of wonder" so that is my new goal.

Here is an interesting link I found today.

Garden week next week

We are having a theme week next week. A month ago one of the kids helped me plant hollyhock seeds and they have finally sprouted enough to plant them out so firstly we are going to plant them into a planter along with a little stake with each child's name and photo.

In conjunction with this we are planning some related craft activities and are making collage snails, painted ladybirds, painted sticks and pet rocks.

I am also planning on setting up some exciting play areas around our theme so when the kids arrive next week there should be some new things.

Isnt it great what happens when you dont have a busy weekend!!

Foggy Morning

We woke up to this last week, really eerie!!

Nearly all full

It has been a full on couple of weeks, I have filled all but one vacancies and I must say they are just a lovely group of kids and families. Now we just have a few weeks to settle the new ones in and we can really get into some new and exciting experiences.

New outside area

We have had a very busy weekend redoing both the playroom and the outside area as well as babysitting (me) and going to the fruit and vege markets (P and T)

Firstly we have purchased some metal shelves to replace our yukky old cupboard which was getting wet and just being impractical. We also put up some reed blinds to provide a bit more shade, replaced our broken shade sail and made a new, huge blackboard. All we need now is to attach some bulldog clips to the blackboard for painting and put in new sandpit.


My new outside book area:

New blackboard complete with paint pot holders, isnt my hubby clever :)

New shelves filled with stuff, I just love them!

View of the whole lot

A very relaxing weekend

P and T have gone away for the weekend and I spent the time blissfully doing nothing! I have watched Twilight, eaten wonderfully unhealthy food and reading.

Yesterday I headed to Yahava Koffee Works, oh my gosh the best place in the world possibly better than churros! They have coffee tasting and I got some delicious coffee from Bali, so good it doesnt need sugar and chocolate coated coffee beans.

I have finished programming for my first group, one more to go. Menu and Program is done for next week and is printing out. Just need to tidy up and work out my personal schedule for the week.

Next week I have another physio appointment which will hopefully fix the spot in my back that is bothering me, planning on also dropping off some flyers to the child health centre, taking L to the movies and I am babysitting next weekend. So combined with working and finishing the book I am reading that should keep me pretty busy.

Facebook Page

Link to Pegrum Family Day Care Facebook page

Update from me

It has been a very hectic few weeks so I havent updated my blog!

Tomorrow will be my first late start (8am) in a fortnight other than last Friday when I woke up at 5.30am vomiting and then continued to do so for the next 2 days. Not really what I was planning! So I am looking forward to getting back to a normal timetable with my early starts officially finished yay.

However I managed to fulfill a few of my goals:

House plants - I found a rubber plant ie ficus at Bunnings on the weekend which is the start of my push to increase air quality through indoor foliage.

Other planting - Also while we were there I picked up some coriander and an interesting plant called a soapwort which I am planning on making soap (obviously!!) out of . Carrots and Cucumbers have sprouted, they just need to get a bit bigger and T can plant them. We have a big head of brocolli that I am about to go and harvest and the celery is also almost ready.

Organisation - I managed to label and organise the shelves in the playroom and found a spot to hang up our bikes outside which has freed up some space.

There is more but I am tired so I will come back and update the rest later

What are we up to?

Well as always I have grand plans, we will see which of them come to fruition!

Firstly I am planning on investing on some indoor plants after reading in one of the AVN mags about the vast improvements that can be made to air quality. I just need to work out where to place them so little ones cant access them, which ones are non poisonous to children and then actually get off my butt and buy them!

Second grand plan is to plant a sunflower garden with the Family Day Care kids including doing little stakes with their photos on next to their own plant. I have yet to work out where we would actually plant them though lol!

Also this week I am starting to learn a bit about programming. I am hoping to have a bit more structure and goals now that we are starting to fill up and I feel a bit more in control of things.

I made a very exciting discovery today - Jettys in Hillarys does a $20 buffet breakfast and it is superb. We spent a lovely morning with some fantastic friends over from QLD and will definitly go back again.

New Vacancies Page!!

Another week

Well it has been a hectic week with lots more enquiries (some of which I am unable to do) and a new family starting. We have had visits from friends and scheme staff.

I am about to start proper programming which seems a daunting task when I have not begun yet! But I am sure it will get easier.

I am hoping to take on another new family next week which will mean some very early starts but should work well.

My favourite quote today

Each of us, in the most silent part of ourselves, has always known who we are. The eyes that look into ours from the image in the mirror recognise something that does not change with time or age.

Lamb Pesto

I am really looking forward to eating this tonight, it is from the 4 ingredients cookbook and I will use fresh basil from the garden!

Place Lamb cutlets in foil, put on top pesto, lemon rind and butter, wrap up in foil and cook for 30 mins.

I have also added a new page to my website here, it contains websites I love and also find useful, check it out!

More Veges

Our first broccoli which I have hacked a bit off to put in tonights soup, doesnt it look beautiful though?

And capsicum, not the first- we ate that when it was tiny. These ones have lasted a bit longer but are almost ready to pick!

Ok she is not a vegetable but she does lay around resembling one quite often. This is Beans trying to work out why there is not more food and milk available to her at all times of the day!

Brand new vege patches, courtesy of a very kind freecycler down the round. One has coriander and thyme in it and the other has strawberries and pak choy. Tiff also just planted some carrot and cucumber seeds that will go in when they sprout.

Shepherd's Pie

Made a delicious shepherd's pie last night. Just some chuck steak, carrots, celery, garlic, beef stock, paprika and ground coriander seeds in the slow cooker for a LONG time. Then I put it in a pie dish covered in mashed potato with some finally grated cheese on top. Just delicious!

On the Family Day Care front I am now offering a pick up service in the mornning though it is limited to the number of children I can fit in my car so if you are interested get in quick.

We are starting to fill up

Another week almost finished and we have at least 1 new child starting next week which is great as it is giving our current enrolments some new playmates :)

I made a delicious lemon and coconut slice that I probably shouldnt have eaten as much as I do of! But gosh it was good.

I have added a new page to my website here which I thought might be a good way to answer some of the questions that I often see about Family Day Care.

It is surprising to me that I still encounter parents that have no idea what Family Day Care even is. I guess quite often people just go with what is familiar.

It is freezing here and a soup recipe

It is so cold here today!! It is after 9am and I still havent made it out of bed though I am considering a hot shower.

Made a beautiful Vegetable soup last night so thought I would share the recipe:

3 zucchini
3 carrots
1 onion
3 garlic cloves - peeled
3 sticks celery
vege stock

Throw it all in the slow cooker until all mushy then put it in the food processor (it will still be a little lumpy), then at the end add some cream and season. mmm delicious. Really you could use any veges, I was thinking potato might be nice, might need to be cooked separately though.

Also wanted to add my family day care website link here

Project one done

Made this for T: http://www.caron.com/projects/q/q_Q6_beret.html except I skipped a few rows and made it smaller as the one I made for myself was a bit puffy at the back. I am now making her a scarf out of the same lilac wool to match :)

Knitting

It is almost winter and already very cold here so I have started knitting again, well I have done 4 rows! I am knitting a beret for DD and a beanie for DH. Lets see if I can get them finished before winter finishes!

Family Day Care is up and running

I have just completed the first week of my Family Day Care and am really loving it!

Here are a few pics of my set up







Currently I have vacancies Monday through Friday in Long Day Care, Before/ After School Care and Occassional Care.

See my website for more details http://pegrumfdc.weebly.com