Grant $$

Well as some of you may or may not know....I recently received The Quality Counts Grant from Child Care Resource and Referral!! This is HUGE for me! I wrote the grant by myself and within it, asked for money to buy some outdoor toys for the kiddos as well as some multi-cultural and diversity toys. I really wasn't sure how or if I was going to get it. This was the first time that I have EVER written something like this and to top it all off...I realized about two weeks before it was due that is was due in two weeks (I thought I had another month to work on it). Oops...
So with the grant money that I received, I have ordered all of the new toys and playground stuff for the kiddos!! Now we are just wanting for it all to get here and to put it all together. We bought a wooden swing set for the backyard, and sand and water table, a climber with a slide for the younger kiddos, some people for the kids to play with, a mirror center for the babies, some toys for the sand and water table, as well as a toddler swing for the swing set. I am so excited and so are the kiddos about all of the new toys and stuff we will have to play with and enjoy the nice weather (well except for today because it is raining).
So now we just have to prepare the yard and get everything ready for this wonderful addition to Creative Kids Family Child Care!!!!!

Where Kurt??

So today, after a month of being off, Kurt went back to work! However, over the past month the kiddo have really gotten used to him being around the house doing this and that and helping when I needed him to. So i knew that today was going to be interesting when they found out he was at work.
Madison (22 months) was the first to ask "Where Kurt? I told her he was at work. Madison said "Work?" Like why is he at work, he should be here. I told her that he had to go to work today and that she might get to see him later! Thankfully that answered her curious question.
Hannah (5 in June) was the next one to ask but it wasn't until around morning snack! She came up to me and goes "Why haven't I saw Mr. Kurt?" I told her that he went back to work and that she would get to see him when he came home for work. Than Hannah says. "Well I thought he was working here." I told her that he just had some time off of work and that that time was all done and that he had to be at work today. I think she understood and then she went back to playing.
Ayla (3 years old) finally asked me while I was cooking lunch "Where's Mr. Kurt?" I told her that he was a work and then she went back to cleaning up and getting ready for lunch and nap time.
I find it amazing how some children notice things right away, while others notice changes at the funniest or weirdest times. And the thing that I love about teaching children and observing them, is that no matter what has changed they always want to know why. Children amaze me!!!
On a side note, I was going to post some pictures today, however, my computer crashed on Friday and we are working on getting everything off of the Hard Drive, so I don't have any pictures on my new computer yet!!

WELCOME

Well this is totally new to me!!! But I thought that I would give it a try and see how is goes. I thought that blogging would be a good way for me to allow others into the daily like of me as I run my In-Home Family Child Care, Creative Kids. Is there any other adventure better than taking care of the daily needs, teaching, being creative, playing, laughing, crying, sleeping, feeding, changing, and enjoying the children that I provide care for?? I think NOT! I truly love what I am doing and wouldn't trade it for the world! I started my In-Home Child Care in August of 2009 when my husband and I moved to Bloomington/Normal. With my education back ground, and the fact that I knew it was going to be hard to find another teaching job, and knowing that I would love to stay at home with our own children (when we have them), opening my Child Care what the best decision.
So my that is how I started on this adventure into In-Home Child Care! I hope you enjoy following along with my adventure!!