May is the month we like to celebrate family child care and our family child care providers! National Provider Appreciation Day is on May 12th this year.  

To learn more about Child Care Provider Day and its history, visit https://nationaltoday.com/national-provider-appreciation-day/

As family child care providers you impact each child in your care, their families, and the communities that you serve. Thank you for opening your heart and your home to provide great care and education for Kentucky’s littlest learners.

-The Family Child Care Network  

To celebrate family child care this month, we decided to share some great ideas to incorporate into your monthly lesson plans.

Following The Child’s Lead

Child-initiated interactions or child-led play involves play that is led by the child rather than the adult. As children follow their motivation during play, often it is a true reflection of the child’s interests, language skills, and passions which can tell the adult much about the child. All you need for child-led play is whatever the child is interested in at the time. This might be a toy or something in the environment, like a bird or a fire truck. It might even be you and the funny faces and sounds you’re making together. One of the family child care providers in our area let her children take the lead on a study about outer space. Lisa Lee (Butler County) noticed her children pretending to be astronauts. She let them further explore the subject by setting up an area all about outerspace. 

For more information, ideas, and tools, check out these websites:

• https://ecpcprofessionaldevelopment.dec-sped.org/interest-based-child-learning-practice-guide/
• https://ectacenter.org/~pdfs/decrp/PG_Ins_FollowingtheChildsLead_prac_print_2017.pdf#:~:text=Following%20a%20child%E2%80%99s%20lead%20involves%20planning%20and%20adjusting,choices%20to%20transition%20from%20one%20activity%20to%20another.

May 1^st is National Mother Goose Day! No doubt we all remember the rhymes and songs like Humpty Dumpty, Baa Baa Black Sheep, and Hey Diddle Diddle…..and long live the beloved stories of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and the Little Red Riding Hood! Fairy tales and nursery rhymes offered us endless hours of entertainment and were catalysts for our overactive imaginations. When we share these with our children today, we are swept back into memories of our own childhoods. 

National Mother Goose Day honors Mother Goose and the collection of fairy tales and nursery rhymes that we loved as children. There are so many ways to celebrate. If a field trip to the library is possible, most libraries host a story time hour! This could be great fun for you and the kiddos. You could also dress up like Mother Goose and share some rhymes, songs, or stories. It would be fun to extend the celebration throughout the whole month!

Here are some websites that can help you find activity ideas to incorporate into your lesson plans:

• https://affordablehomeschooling.com/mother-goose-day-activities/
• https://www.sightandsoundreading.com/mother-goose-crafts-activities/

Did you know that May 18th is International Museum Day? Museums tell so many stories about our ancestors and the history of our world. There are all kinds of museums out there that take us back in time! Kentucky has a wide variety of museums that celebrate the history of our state including those dedicated to the Kentucky Derby, John James Audubon’s love of nature, Muhammad Ali’s life, and even the history of baseball bats.

Although there are museums everywhere, there are millions of people who have never visited one. Maybe they think looking at old stuff is boring, or perhaps they have just never been interested in looking at the past. International Museum Day gives us a chance to celebrate the past and help educate others in the process.

Museums are great places to go on field trips. However, we know that field trips are not always easy in family child care homes, so we thought we’d bring the museum to you! Below are links to two children’s museums that you can visit and tour from the comfort of your home child care center. The websites offer play and learning activities as well as virtual tours!

• https://bostonchildrensmuseum.org/museum-at-home/
• https://www.cmhouston.org/virtual-field-trips

With summer quickly approaching, it’s a good time to think about extending your classroom to include the outdoors. Many times, outdoor play is free play time….which is great! Children need that! However we can also create opportunities for learning outside. Here are some daily activity ideas that can be done outside:

Small Groups: Science, language/literacy, math, and art can all be done outdoors.  Science is easy, because it’s everywhere……trees, flowers, dirt, weather, wind, pinecones, shells, rocks, etc…..they all offer endless opportunities for science learning. For language, you can expand vocabulary by talking about everything you see. For literacy, sand or mud can be used for writing. For math, you can use sticks, leaves, or pebbles instead of plastic counters. Think of the patterns you can find or make. Use spatial words such as over, under, beside, above, below, and around. For art, children can use chalk on cement or asphalt. They can paint on walls or the pavement with brushes and water. You can also put big sheets of paper on the wall and bring out paint and markers.

Check this out for more ideas:

25 Easy Nature Play Ideas for Preschools (hhs.gov)

View the WKU FCCN Training Calendar for more information and to register. 

The WKU FCCN delivers comprehensive, high-quality, and cost-effective face-to-face professional development opportunities. Our training focuses on topics of ongoing interest, recent innovations and initiatives, and current best practices in all content areas.

May 27th - Creative Expression for Infants and Toddlers - Bowling Green, KY

June 5th - Using Assessment Tools In the Classroom - Henderson, KY

June 10th - Sign Language for Classroom Management - Madisonville, KY

This 6-hour course fulfills the mandatory orientation requirement for early care and education professionals in Kentucky. Successful completion of this course satisfies the Division of Child Care’s (DCC) new regulatory requirement for each center to ensure that every staff member has received training on first aid and CPR.

Upcoming Dates:

July 18th & 19th - Online via Zoom

Funded through Family Childcare Support Award SC 7362100001482

www.wku.edu/fccn