::How Do I Do It?::

I've been asked many times from many people how I come up with my ideas for crafts. That's a slightly difficult question to answer because it's a process. I use many methods to come up with crafts. Because I have been doing this for so long and I have repeat kids every year, I try not to do the same crafts over and over again. That means after about my second or third year I had exhausted every single craft book we had on file. I had to start using the internet and my own devices to come up with projects.

A lot of times I come up with a concept that I want to use for my bulletin board and try to find projects that complete that idea. But that only works for so many days, I still have a lot of time to fill with projects. I always try to do at least 3 projects a week; that way I have one floating day to prep or just relax a bit. Plus there's other parts of our room to decorate (like the ceiling!) ;) (at our site Fridays are toy days, so we don't break up into groups like we usually do which means we have no time for projects) What usually happens after I've mapped out my plan of attack on my bulletin board I move on to the projects that I want to do for fun.

For either type of project, I come up with the idea. Sometimes I flush it out myself and come up with my templates to trace the project out. Sometimes I draw a blank and have to turn to other websites and blogs for projects. A lot of times I'll think "I want to make _______." We'll use a penguin for an example. I'll Google search "penguin crafts" or "penguin kid projects" and see what I can find. From there I'll either use what I find and make templates to trace out the project pieces or I'll combine 2 or 3 different images into one cohesive project. More often than not I don't like what I see and combine multiple things into one idea. Many times I'm just looking for inspiration and ways to flush out my own ideas, other times I'm lazy and want someone to do my thinking for me. ;)

With pintrest, things have become much easier. I can just search what I want and lots of things come up. I usually start there and then go to Google if I don't see something I like.

Here's some websites that I've used in the past, both for projects and time fillers like word searches or mazes. I don't really use them much anymore but they're a good starting point and wonderful resource to have on hand.

 The first and one of my very favorites is Kaboose, they have lots of fun and unique projects. They also have cooking projects if you're brave enough to try cooking with your kids. This is probably one of my favorite sites. The second is FamilyFun. They also have wonderful projects as well as group games and easy recipes. The third site I've used is DLTK Kids. This site is generally for the younger crowd. There's a lot of paper projects as well as mazes, word scrambles, and word searches (that could work for the older kids). The last is Coloring. It's a site chalk full of FREE coloring pages. Seasons, holidays, animals, and all sorts of people. The selection is endless for your kiddos. 

So that's how I do it. No rhyme or reason to it. Just good ole creativity and the ever faithful Google. I keep a sample of all my projects in a file box. I want to remember what I've done and it's always a good starting to point to see what I've done and how I can improve. I highly recommend doing this...plus it's always fun to look back. I'll show you how I do it later. :)

Happy crafting friends!
PS if you need more inspiration you can check out my "All Things Child Care" board or my "Bizarre Holidays Lesson Plan" board. Pin It

::Lesson Planning::

Part of my job description for a long while. When I first started writing lesson plans, my boss had pre-planned weekly theme's that I had to match my projects too. There wasn't too much freedom but I was OK with that because I had never had to write out lesson plans before. I did that for about a year before I transferred to another site. When I got to my new site (where I am now and have been for the last 7 years) we didn't write plans for a few years. But then we decided to revamp our program and began writing lesson plans. I had loads of freedom. I picked the projects, the games, and themes. From there I began to challenge myself to pick bigger and better projects. I wanted my parents to see how much I could do with they're kids and how creative they could be. That piggy-backed on my desire to do some slammin bulletin boards! I wanted our collective creativity to really come across.

Moving on to this year, we're doing something completely different. My boss decided he wanted to reinvent our program again and really make it an experience for our kids to come to child care. We want our child care to be fun. We want it to be worth the money our parents have to spend to send they're kids to our program. To us that means something going home almost everyday, that means fun games and things to talk about when they get home. We want to encourage parents and children to engage with each other.

That birthed the idea of our "Bizarre & Unique Holiday Lesson Plan." We divided up the months of the school year between three of us, my boss, me, and a fellow coworker (you can find the ideas for my months on Pintrest- you can find my other child care ideas on this Pintrest board). Each of us took a month and the list of holidays from this website and planned an art project and games for the day. Our schedule includes outside play time and an outside game. Then an art project and inside game. Our projects have to be relevant for kindergarten thou fifth grade and that's a rough spot to be in.

So far it's proven to work out pretty well and to be a little over ambitious at the same time. It's taken a little of time to figure out how to prep 50+ crafts daily. But we're working it out and the kids have been able to take home some pretty fun things. We post our schedule and weekly plans by the door so that our kids and parents can see it as they walk in. Several of our kids ask to stay a little longer so that they can do the activities we have planned and even bring in things that coordinate with the day!

Here's something we did in September for "mini golf day." 

Every kid made they're own mini golf hole. 

We used Styrofoam balls and Popsicle sticks as golf clubs.

Overall it's been a rewarding experience to try and launch this idea! When we really get this idea rolling we want to send home a daily or weekly letter to help encourage dialog between parents and kids. It'll include what we've done for the week and things to talk about based on what they've learned or done. Maybe even a kid written article.

So there's a little insight into my days and way we structure our site.
Laters! ;)

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