Ms. Amy's Blog @Child Central Station

Through the course of my education and Northern Michigan University, I was placed for field experiece in several different daycares or schools around Marquette county. Never once was I in one that was "child directed." That was until I began at Child Central Station. I met for an "interview" with Ms. Amy a few weeks before my summer internship was due to start. And she explained how her daycare was run. The things that she told me, the beliefs she had, and the way she said things were run, were exactly how I felt I could see my own daycare being run some day. So I knew right away this was where I wanted my internship to be. Starting at this daycare was  a new experience for me. But I never knew how different it would be from what I was used to. I was “warned” by Ms. Amy before I started, that the center is so child directed/lead. However, until I was actually in the setting and involved did I begin noticing the differences and seeing what she ...

Hey! I'm Ms. Elissa. I'm a student intern at Child central station. I've been working under Ms. Amy and Mr. Allan all summer. I am working on getting my degree in early childhood education, and although it's been a long process, the end is near. I will be graduating in May, when I hope to joing the Americorps and move somewhere that I'm more needed. I loved doing my internship this summer and spending so much time with the kids. It was nice to finally be able to put all of the stuff I have been learing to use. For the course of my internship,  I had to create and perform 2 learning plans with the children. For my second learning plan, I did a week long lesson on teaching the children about pets. I started the week talking to the children about what kinds of animals can be pets, and what kinds of pets they have. The children and I  made lists of all the pets they could think of, and than we made charts showing their favorite pet. After talkin...

This morning at the water table started out like many others. With the heat and humidity, I thought that I would fill the table with some cool water, a few turkey basters, a couple of cylinders for scooping and pouring. I also ran across the stack of plastic shot glasses that I bought at the dollar store to use for stacking on our light table.  I thought they might make an excellent addition this morning.  Like most teachers, I was staging the environment for play, but at the same time I had ulterior motives. A few of the children really need more experiences working on their fine motor skills, and I thought that stacking the small cups and having the opportunity to fill the cups with the basters would be great learning fun. However.... Most of you who work with children on a regular basis know, you can have the best plans and environmental staging BUT really, you just never know what great explorations and learning will happen when you allow children the freedom to i...

Our square foot garden is growing like CRAZY! (One of our sun flowers is somewhere between 9 and 10 feet tall! I think we need a ladder to measure!) The cauliflower is growing.... We have PUMPKINS growing vertically!!!! Fresh broccoli is also on the way! I would have never imagined that crowding things in a square foot garden would be so productive! Look at all of these fresh tomatoes! We've already harvested a couple of cucumbers, summer squash, and beans! YUM! Yeah for summer, and yeah for square foot gardening!

Summer tends to be quite short around here.... So, we've been doing what we can to enjoy it! There is nothing quite like cooling off in Lake Superior when the weather is hot! Fortunately, this year most of our friends are old enough that we can manage the ratios needed for beach bumming and the city provides lots of life guards to make it safe and with-in regulations for us to explore :). How are you staying cool in the summer heat?

We're back from our summer vacation.  It was a great time on the road..... AND, coming back, we made a BIG decision... We aren't going to close Child Central Station. We're going to stay open! There are going to be some changes... and Ms. Shannon is coming back to help us! More information will be coming soon, and we will be starting to interview folks from our waiting list as we are now a GROUP home instead of a FAMILY home!  This means that we can care for up to 12 children at one time now :). As we are in the middle of transitions and figuring out all of the changes, I don't anticipate having much time to blog, but know that I'll be back when I can!

I'm creating a new training for folks in Michigan, as we are going through a Quality Improvement Program. One of the "point" areas in the assessment includes using one state approved curriculum.  The list of approved curriculum is currently as follows: Bank Street Creative Curriculum (PreSchool) Creative Curriculum (Infant and Toddler) Creative Curriculum for Family Child Care High Scope (PreSchool) High Scope (Infant and Toddler) Jackson Early Head Start Curriculum Guide Parents as Teachers Project Approach Thematic Approach from MSU (Mississippi State University) Montessori Partners for a Healthy Baby Reggio Emilia Tools of the Mind I would love to share insight from folks who are actively using one of these curriculum in your center/program/home. OF course I will give you credit and send folks to find out more from your websites/blogs (if you have one). I intend to make this training session available online for those looking to make a change in order to meet a hig...