A Letter Per Week

Creative Projects: Learning at Home Whether the little ones you care for attend school part- or full-time or not it’s fun to encourage learning at home. One really easy way to reinforce learning with preschoolers and young students is doing fun projects on one letter each week at home. I like focusing on one letter […]

“The Tiny Seed” by Eric Carle and What Direction Does a Seed Grow Project

Weekly Trip to the Library “The Tiny Seed” By Eric Carle is the perfect book to read in the Spring. The short board book follows the life of a seed. This mini-book includes a piece of detachable seed-embedded paper housed on the inside front cover. Readers can plant the entire piece of paper and watch as their […]

Teaching Kids Opposites

Creative Wednesdays Teach children opposites to help them understand that not everything is the same. Go to the library and borrow the children’s books about opposites, sing the opposite songs, and play the opposite games for preschoolers we have listed below. Once they have a grasp on the concept of opposites, help kids make an opposite […]

Planting a Garden

Fun Science: Creative Project Wednesday Gardening is a great way for kids to learn science. Planting a theme garden can make the learning experience even more fun. One great theme idea is choosing vegetables, herbs, or flowers that start with the letters that spell the children’s names or friend’s name garden. You can try making a herb/scent […]

How to Encourage Learning at Home

Success In School Requires Support at Home Success in school requires support at home. As nannies we have a unique opportunity to teach children in important ways that cannot be taught in school. It is up to us to make learning experiences in everyday activities. We can even help children too young for school to develop […]

Color Mixing: Making a Chem Lab in the Kitchen

Fun Project to Do With Kids Here’s a quick way to make your employer’s kitchen into a junior chemistry lab. Provide containers of various sizes, bottles of food coloring, and various “lab” implements such as eye droppers, turkey basters, spoons, measuring cups. Before turning the kids loose in Chemistry 101, though, be sure to explain […]

A Blizzard of Snow Lesson Plans for Nannies and Au Pairs

Teaching Kids About Animal Tracks One of the greatest joys for kids is when they first walk outside after it snows and they leave footprints in the snow. Kids love comparing the different size and shapes of the footprints of their family members. So this week we recommend borrowing The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack […]

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 […]