The last year has been a transformative time of growth for my child care program. I began to implement a curriculum and more structured day, and I think it’s been great not only for the kids but for me. It’s been a process of trial and error, and I have started to really develop a vision for how I want to further improve. Planning our activities takes a lot of time and energy and since we will surely have days in the coming seasons where we can’t spend as much time outside, I decided we’ll dial some of the crafts and indoor activities down, take a break from our lessons, and soak up all the sunshine and fresh air we can this summer. When school starts up again in the fall we’ll devote more time to the other things. We’ll take a slightly different approach that is more driven by learning through experience – or playing with a specific purpose in mind. We’ll also hopefully do a wider variety of sensory activities and crafting/art making. But for now it’s time to run through the sprinkler, have ice cream parties, play with bubbles and chalk, explore the outdoors and play make-believe in the sunshine.