What I love about teaching!

Sometimes one wonders if they are truly making a difference in a child's life, especially when the children they work with are very young, 5 and under. Masha Allah, today, I got confirmation that I really am. One of the parents to a child that has recently moved up from my class said, "Never think that what you are doing is not making a difference. My daughter still talks about you all." Also, I went to see another child who was happy to see me. He ran up to give me a hug and sat in my lap. His new teacher asked, "who is your teacher?" he answered with her name, she asked, "Who is your friend?" he answered with mine. My heart melted! Yes, teaching is my life, a life worth living!

Quote of the Day: if you want to be happy......

If you want to be happy in life, 

   be grateful for everything in your life, 

both the good and the bad.

Friday Quote of the Day: Time flies....

~ time flies when you have a lot on your plate~

This week went by really fast!! not that its a good or bad thing, it just went by really fast.

Hazards of childcare

One of the many hardships that teachers and childcare teacher have to grow through is being sick a lot. I get really nervous when flu and cold seasons creep around. Children, especially the very young tend to spread germs more since everything goes in their mouths and they are still learning proper hygiene techniques. 

A few things I am doing to keep the doctor away, other than eating an apple a day:

*Hand washing (for myself and the children). I make sure that hands are washed after pretty much everything.

*Sanitizing mouthed toys. I try to stay on top of what goes in the mouths of the children and immediately put the toys in our classroom dishwasher or in the laundry basket to be washed at the end of the day.

*Feverish children go home. I love them dearly but children with fevers of 99 and over are sent home.

*Have loads of kleenex around the room ready to chase down running noses!!

*Teach little ones to cover mouthes when coughing or sneezing (more like being ready to block coughs and sneezes in my face LOL)

*Taking extra vitamins to keep my immune system up.

Lets hope and pray these precautions keep us all healthy and happy! 

Sunday Quote of the Day: Children are our most valuable resource

Children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future

~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy_

Apple Week!!

Today is Friday and ohh a happy day it is now that it is over. Looking back at this week, it was fantastic, therefore it is no wonder that I was totally exhausted today with little energy to keep up with the little ones. But I managed. 

This week, we studied the ever so tasty fruit, the apple. We opened up a whole new experience for them. They saw pictures of where apples come from (trees), we read stories about apples and apple harvesting, I cut open 3 different apples (yellow, red and green which they got to taste!) and they saw the insides as well as the seeds, we made apple seed shakers (they loved shaking the shakers,) they made paper mache apples, and they made an apple tree collage. From the apples we used to see the apple seeds, we did an art project of apple printing! We even had an apple party of dried apples, applesauce, apple chips, apple wedges, and apple juice. 

Apple Printing

Paper mache apples

We had quite a week in our classroom! It was a lot of fun, worth the exhaustion.

Yay!!! I'm officially CDA-ified!

Yes, that is correct! I received my certificate in the mail after what felt like FORVER! but yes, i'm officially certified child development associate. My certification is good for 3 years :) and now I feel like I can really give my students the best I can:) though, I have never done less than that! but it is nice to have a certificate. Now, I'm motivated to move on and finish my degree in early childhood education!