Sunday, 29 March 2020

Favourite Activities in Junior Toddler

Junior Tots favourite activities!


Hi Everyone!
I hope that you despite daycares closure, you're enjoying your time at home while finding ways to reconnect with your nuclear family, enjoy the family time together and remain connected with those you love. 

Megan created a wonderful list of some of our the Junior Toddler's favourite activities. Many of these activities have photos posted to Instagram, and can be enjoyed by children of all ages!

Water bin:  
  • an empty tupperware bin or any empty plastic bin
  • Water and food colouring
  • Some water toys (can be anything, boats, barbies, bath toys) whisks are fun too, to make extra bubbles
  • Dish soap
Add a couple inches of water to your bin then add the dish soap and food colouring. I find it easiest to use a whisk to make it super bubbly. Then add your toys and let the fun begin! The juniors love this one; however it does get messy so it is best to do it on a floor, in the tub or somewhere where it is ok to get wet. 


Moon sand bin: 
Image may contain: one or more people
  • 2 cups of flour
  • Food colouring
  • ¼ cup melted coconut oil (baby oil, olive oil will also work if you do not have coconut oil!
  • Assorted fish, buckets, shovels, scoops, cups or bowls (you can add anything) Mix the oil, flour and food colouring together. Allow your child to play with toys (making roads with vehicles) or shapes with cookie cutters. Possibilities are endless


Q-tip fine motor
Things you will need:
  • An egg carton
  • Q-tips
  • Paint
Flip the egg carton upside down and paint each spot a different colour. Then paint the q-tips the same colours. Allow your child to paint a picture on paper. For older children they can dot along the lines of shapes or letters!

Messy Painting:
  • Image may contain: table and foodPaint brushes
  • Sponges
  • Q-tips
  • Baby oil
  • Shaving cream
  • Salt 
No photo description available.They love creating their own masterpieces, and it is exciting to see what their minds can come up with.  Another fun craft they love is process based art. In the class we tape a big piece of paper overtop of the tables. We then give each child whichever colour of paint they would like. To this even more fun you can add extra colours, things to stamp or spread the paint with!

Colour practice:
In our classroom we use our whiteboard and sticky colour circles; however you can do this with almost anything. It only involves asking them which colour we are holding up and they stick it on the board. You could make this at home by printing off colour squares (or making them) and adding sticky tack, tape or magnets to the back and sticking them on a wall or your fridge. Have your child try to find things that are the same colour as the square you have!

Animal fun:
No photo description available.Our juniors also LOVE animals. We have been working on animal sounds the last couple weeks. They really like when we hold up toy animals and ask “what sound does this animal make”. They also enjoy when we play different sounds and ask them to guess which animal it is. Another suggestion is to add blocks or our favourite, Magnatiles to create a zoo or animal houses!

Dance Parties:
When all else fails, turn off the lights, grab the flash lights and throw a dance party.
We use our “party light” but you could do this in your living room with flashlights or glow sticks! 



I miss each and every one of my children! I hope you are all staying healthy and happy and I can not wait to be back with all of you! Hopefully this gives you a few ways to keep busy until we can be back together. 
Love, 
Megan 

Thursday, 4 August 2016

We have keys!



I would never make it as a professional blogger... I have every intention of posting but between full time day home and evening daycare set up (coupled with two toddlers!) there are just not enough hours in the day.

However, I am ecstatic to announce that we finally have keys to our new daycare! We are working as frantically efficiently as possible to move everything in and have things set up for our Alberta Health Services and Fire Inspection on Monday, August 8th.

IKEA has become our best friend. In fact we have been there three time this week and I'm itching to get back - so many possibilities! All of our main shelving systems and cubbies have been assembled and just need to be secured to the walls. Some of our toys have been moved over while others remain here for our dayhome children to continue to enjoy. All of our appliances are in place and our kitchen is ready to go!

As we move forward, a part of me is sad that our dayhome journey is coming to an end. I started the dayhome when my oldest was four months old, but we knew that our dream was always a daycare. The dayhome hours are long, I start cooking breakfast at 7 am and have kids until 5. After I put my kids to bed there are always a couple hours of cleaning to be done. Splitting those duties with other fantastic staff members will be wonderful. The daycare is an amazing new adventure but I am going to miss our busy house filled with our babies. I call them our babies as many of our dayhome children started when they were just babies. Some have graduated to Kindergarten, others continue to come every day and we have been so lucky to spend our days with these creative, funny little people and their families. Our dayhome families are all moving over to our new daycare, which is probably the BEST part of all of this. Kaitlyn and I are both going to be full time at the daycare and we are excited to continue to watch our kids grow. It is just going to be a change - a great change.

We're excited to welcome new friends into our little daycare family. If you've applied, please be patient with me! I am doing my best to respond to an abundance of childcare and work applications. The response for both has been overwhelming! We are committed to finding good fits. We want families whose children are a good fit in our program and with our current kids and we are adamant that our staff must be the best there is. This is our lives, our children's lives, your children's lives and it's going to be nothing short of marvelous!

So, it's back to planning, organizing and trying to not pinch my fingers in the binders. I promise to check back in soon 


In the mean time... follow us on Instagram 

Alicia @ Tot Spot Academy 

Friday, 1 July 2016

We have walls!

Just a quick update on the progress of the Daycare before we head off to the Canada Day Celebrations! We have walls ... and the odd door!

The painter is heading into the building on Monday and all of the walls will turn a nice shade of calming green!

The bathroom is almost complete and the kitchen is taking shape. Appliances and cabinets will be installed as soon as the painting is done. It's hard to believe how quickly things are coming together.

With the help of some amazing friends, our new website is now live!

Check it out at www.totspotacademy.com

Talk to you later!