My Day Home

My family and I live in a two-story, single family home in the community of Coopers Crossing, on the SW side of Airdrie! Coopers Crossing is filled with many wonderful walking paths, parks and more. Our street is quiet and off the main roads so not a lot of traffic. Our home is clean and smoke free. It is also equipped with central air conditioning and a security system.

What do we do each day?

I offer a fun focused day home environment where your child will enjoy spending their days and will be excited to return! As an educator my goal is to provide a safe and happy place for your child to learn and grow!
I believe that children have absorbent minds and therefore I want children to have endless opportunities to play,
explore, experiment and discover! Children learn so much through play, both provider led and free play. I offer
activities that are developmentally appropriate for the children in my care as well as allowing them the opportunities to lead themselves and other children in a variety of experiences.

The children in my day home enjoy many different activities each and every day. Some are educator led and some are child led. We enjoy both free play and provocations where I surprise the children with a new way to enjoy something they have played with before. We love to dance and sing, we love to read story books and colour. We spent countless hours each week with sensory and/or gross motor type activities; like play doh, blocks, sensory bins, etc.
Another thing the children LOVE to do is science experiments. We use vinegar and baking soda in countless ways, cornstarch and water to make oobleck (this is always a favourite and has many many hours of play as it dries and can be reconstituted), we love slime and the ooeey gooey-ness that comes with it. I am always looking for more fun and exciting things for the children to do.
We love to learn! The children like to practice cutting and learning to recognize and/or write letters, numbers and words. We have varied ages of 1-5 in care, so offering activities in different ways is a common occurrence, based on the child's age and development. I sometimes will use flash cards or worksheets from my preschool program I purchased a few years ago. We also have laminated sheets with whiteboard markers to practice our names, numbers, shapes, etc.

Our busy board and stacking blocks I recently added to our ever growing list of Montessori/Reggio Emilia type toys!

Fall Sensory Bin Provocation I set up for the children.

Our daily schedule.

This schedule is a guide and does vary based on our plans that day.

7:00 am to 8:30 am: Arrival and free play
8:00 am to 9:00 am: Morning snack prep, eat & clean up
9:00 am to 10:30 am: Morning activity - either playroom or outside usually. Sometimes craft/sensory play
10:30 am to 12:00 pm: Lunch prep and eat, clean up.
12:00 pm to 2:30 pm: Diaper changes, nap time for nappers. Quiet time and/or outside, playroom or sensory play/activities
2:30 pm to 3:00 pm: Nappers wake and diaper changes. Bathroom breaks and washing up for snack.
3:00 pm to 3:45 pm: PM snack prep, eat and clean up.
3:45 pm to 4:30/5 pm: Free play, activity or outside play until pick up

Our playroom.

Our finished basement is dedicated to the day home and my main floor also has a place to play! I have a large variety of toys for all ages and I am always looking for new, fun and educational toys to add to the day home.
Since I started taking the course "Alberta's Early Learning and Care Framework Course FLIGHT" through MacEwan University last year, I have really been challenged to look at things differently in how I set up the environment for children and the type of things I include in my playroom. I have been focused on changing the theme of my playroom as a result. I am slowly and as I can, updating the things in the playroom in which the children utilize. I am adding more and more wooden toys and play pieces that are more Montessorie/Regio Emilia inspired while removing some of the plastic and least enjoyed pieces.

Our nap room.

We have a separate napping room upstairs that is away from the playroom to ensure a quiet and restful nap for the children.
I have cots, tents with little mattress' and cribs available for children that nap! I provide sheets, blankets and pillows for each child that are washed at the end of each week. (If preferred, parents can supply a sleep sack.)
I also use a video monitor system with multiple cameras to cover sleeping arrangements so I always have an eye on the children.

Outdoor play & field trips.

I have a fully fenced back yard with a variety of toys. There are gates to access the backyard and those are always locked from the inside for safety! We have a large wooden play structure, outdoor chalkboard, large sandbox, water table, water toys, dirt table, ride on toys, soccer net, baseball machine, and SO much more! We spend as much time as possible outside (weather permitting of course) and take advantage of the many nearby parks! We also have play dates with other day homes close by occasionally! I sometimes plan field trips (occassionally with other day homes) and we’ve visited the local Fire Departments, Police Station, Zoo, pet stores, bowling alleys, Library, Village Square Leisure Center, the Aero Space Museum & many more fun and interesting places!!

Celebrations at the day home.

We love to celebrate! I enjoy celebrating many different Canadian holidays with the children and I am excited to add celebrations from other countries and ethnicities.

At Shooting Stars Day Home we embrace each individual’s diversity, equity and inclusion in our community and beyond!
I would love to hear more about different celebrations within your family
and how we can embrace that in my day home!

Easter

Christmas

Halloween

Valentine's Day

Pink Shirt Day

Birthdays

National Day of Truth & Reconciliation

Remembrance Day

Crafts, sensory, messy & science fun.

Social media and brightwheel.

I have platforms both on Facebook and Instagram that I use for advertising and to share with my friends and family. The biggest takeaway from my public profiles on these platforms, is that the children's faces and names are NEVER shared. Faces are always blocked or blurred out and names are never added for security and privacy reasons.

I do however, have two ways in which I share photos and tidbits of our days with current families. First, I have a secret and accessible by invite only, Facebook group that I use to share updates, photos, etc of our days. This group is only for current, active clients and we have some grandparents on there too who love to see the photos of their grandkids. This group has been around for many years and holds thousands and thousands of wonderful memories for me.

Second, I have an app called Brightwheel that I use to share child specific updates of our day with parents. At the end of the day, it can be tough to give you a run down of how everything went during the day, how much they ate and if they slept, but this app gives me the ability to add meals, snacks, diaper/potty breaks, notes, photos, naps and so much more that goes directly to each parent.

Click the link below to learn more about Brightwheel.

Brightwheel