Sorting Games

Teaching Classifying, Comparing and Patterns Children benefit from having lots of experiences sorting, comparing, and classifying objects before participating in patterning activities. Provide opportunities for children to sort or group things by shape, number, color, or texture. As children play sorting games, vocabulary such as classifying, groups, sets, categories, same, different, fewer, longer, heavier, lighter […]

Art with Kids

Kandinsky Tree I love the subject of Art History and hope to inspire my Nanny Kids to appreciate art as well. I introduced my three-year-old charge to abstract art by showing her Kandinsky Trees. Wassily Kandisnsky was a famous Russian artist who had a gift called synaesthesia cognate which gives him the ability to hear […]

Autumn Leaf Lesson Plans for Nannies and Children

This week I visited the Scholastic web site for lesson plans about leaves in the Fall. I recommend going to the library and borrowing Fall Leaves Fall,  Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf, We’re Going On A Leaf Hunt and Leaf Man. In Fall Leaves Fall by Zoe Hall, two brothers enjoy everybody’s favorite autumn activities: chasing leaves through the […]

Match It Puzzle Games

Product Review Sunday All professional nannies help the kids in their care to learn. The best way to learn is by playing.  The preschoolers I care for love The Learning Journey Match It Puzzle Games. These games feature a wide range of award-winning educational titles including: Alphabet Match,  Addition, All About Me, Animal Words, Colors  and Shapes, Counting, Opposites, Rhyme,First Words, Subtraction, Mathematics,  Heads […]

Peter and the Wolf

Weekly Trip to the Library One of the challenges of working as a nanny is finding activities my three charges (aged 3-years-old to 13-years-old) can all enjoy at the same time. But this week I remembered my favorite childhood classic Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf with the CD of musical themes. All three of the […]

Summer Learning with The Lorax

Weekly Trip to the Library: The Lorax by Dr. Suess Over 40-years ago Dr. Seuss published The Lorax . In his search to find a real Truffula Tree a boy must find the Lorax who is a forest guardian who speaks for the trees and protects the forest. The Lorax tries to save the environment […]

Summer Learning with Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst

Weekly Trip to the Library for Nannies and Au Pairs Read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. This story describes a day in which everything goes wrong for a boy named Alexander. When Alexander got up in the morning, he found gum in his hair, tripped on his skateboard, and accidentally […]

Summer Learning: Africa, Anansi the Spider and the Ashanti

Weekly Trip to the Library I care for three kids all of different ages. The three-year-old girl I care for was frightened of spiders so I borrowed the following books from the library to help her face her fear and now she loves spiders. Her 10-year-old brother is obsessed with the rain forest, while their teen brother loves […]

Activities to do After Reading “Harold and the Purple Crayon”

Weekly Trip to the Library Harold and the Purple Crayon is a timeless classic that has delighted readers of all ages for over 50-years. In the book, Harold goes on a moonlight walk and draws himself a landscape of wonder and excitement with an over sized purple crayon. Like Harold in the book, all children begin […]

Teaching Styles for Nannies

How Do You Teach the Kids in Your Care? Whether a nanny focuses on the children’s education formally or informally, each day she is teaching the children in her care about themselves and the world around them. While how involved a nanny is with a child’s formal education will vary based on several factors, such […]