Reflecting Rainbows

Everyone loves rainbows. This is a quick and easy science project to have children make rainbows by a sunny window or outside on a sunny day. By tilting and rotating the mirror the kiddos can catch the sunlight, which will be refracted through the water to create a little rainbow.  You Will Need: Small MirrorGlass […]

Outdoor Nature Sorting

Summer learning has never been so fun! Read “Hello Hello: Opposites” by Brendan Wenzel with the children In your care then sort items you find in nature into opposites outside.  “Hello Hello: Opposites” by Brendan Wenzel is a vibrant and engaging picture book that explores the concept of opposites through a wide array of animals. […]

“Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons” and Craft 

After reading, “Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons” by James Dean make a simple button craft with the toddlers and preschoolers in your care.  Pete the Cat puts on his favorite shirt, which has four colorful buttons. He loves the buttons so much that he sings a simple song about them: “My buttons, […]

“The Three Little Pigs” Story and DIY Puppets 

My Nanny Kids love puppets and puppet shows. Puppetry is a great way to promote story telling and to foster language, imagination, communication, and more.  Using construction paper, white and pink paper plates, jumbo or extra large craft sticks, crayons, markers, glue sticks, and hot glue, I made a few quick puppets for the story […]

10 Things to Do When You Lose Your Nanny Job

Getting laid off from a nanny job is always stressful. Losing income is scary when you have bills to pay. Missing the children can be devastating. The best way to pay bills until you find a new job is to apply for any state benefits you are entitled to. The best medicine for missing a […]

“Too Many Carrots,” Origami, Carrot Cookies, and Worksheets

Lesson Plans “Too Many Carrots” is such a cute story about kindness all children love. Rabbit loves carrots and that’s a big problem! In this phenomenal bestseller, Rabbit loves carrots a little too much. In fact, his carrots are crowding him out of his cozy burrow. When his animal friends offer to help, they’re just […]

Phonics Wheel

Creative Wednesdays Phonics are an important method of teaching to read by correlating sounds with letters or groups of letters. Phonics Wheels are a fun, easy to make, and engaging activity for young learners. Allow children to create wheels by using word families or make a variety of real and nonsense words. Click here to […]

Cardboard Roll Butterflies

I found this easy project on the patchwork parent blog. For little kids I recommend putting primary colored paint close to each other on a paper plate so they can play with mixing the primary colors to make secondary colors when making these butterflies. Older children can decorate the tubes with paint and markers in […]

Scissor Skills and Practicing Cutting

Creative Wednesdays It’s easy to make cutting worksheets on your own for your nanny kids. The photo shows some cutting strips I made myself. I simply drew lines, dashes, and dots on colorful paper with a permanent marker to draw lines where the kids should cut the paper. But if you prefer to print out […]

Mondrian Sidewalk Chalk Art

Creative Wednesdays Known for his Modernism abstract paintings, Piet Mondrian used the simplest combination of straight lines and right angles, creating geometric shapes of bold primary colors. After showing the kids paintings by Mondrian and reading “Coppernickel Goes Mondrian” go outside to make similar art using sidewalk chalk. Of course on a rainy day you […]