This week the boys started a new daycare. The place we had them at before just didn't live up to my standards. Living in North Carolina gave us a wide variety of "child development centers" to choose from. They were costly, but I never doubted for a second that my children were well cared for. That is just not the case in the area of WV we moved to. I have no idea why there aren't more childcare facilities in this area, but the fact is, there aren't many to choose from. There was one close by that we decided to try, but after a full month of tears from Logan, stories of teachers using words like "idiot" and "fool" around the kids, lots of tv watching, and my own witness of things that just weren't up to my standards... we made the decision to pull the kids out and find someplace else. We decided that we were willing to drive further to take them to daycare if it meant they were happy - I'll interject here that my husband is taking online courses from home, and I work from home, so the only driving we do is to-from daycare. We found a place that was more like the centers in NC that we were used to. My only grief was that Brenden, who starts school in the fall, is considered "school age" and thus is in their summer camp program. Summer camp consists of taking daily field trips to the pool, to the park, bowling, etc. I'm quite nervous about my son being taken to all of these places with people he's just met, but I am trying to have an open mind. The daycare is a local chain so there are actually 4 centers that go on these field trips together. Logan has improved by leaps and bounds since starting the new daycare. He doesn't cry anymore, he even behaves better at home. So I know they really do a good job with teh kids there. Being the proud mama that I am, I consider both of my boys to be super smart. Brenden was reading at 3, Logan doesn't have the same focus that Brenden has so reading is something he's not interested in, but he knows how to spell and write his name. He has good letter and number recognition, etc. Anyway, in 30 days of the old daycare nobody ever said "hey your kid is very smart" but after 1 day of the new daycare, we heard stories of how he wrote his name in sidewalk chalk, and how he was at the top of his class with letter, number, color, shape, etc recognition. I really like hearing these things because it tells me that someone is paying attention to my child!
Yesterday the daycare gave us a great opportunity for a familly fun day. There is a local amusemant park called "camden park" ... Its more like your run of the mill county fair, BUT the rides and size of the park were absolutely perfect for a 3 and 5 year old. Parents were allowed to volunteer and get in at the discounted group rate.. but once inside, we were told if we wanted to just take our kids and do our own thing, that they were fine with, and encouraged it. So I took the day off of work and we made a family day of it. The boys LOVED it. The rides were great for their age. There were no lines at all and just about everything they could ride as long as a parent went with them. They LOVED the haunted house! I really didn't think they'd want to go near it but I'm thinking we rode that thing about 4 times!! I had a blast just watching them smile and squeal! It was a very much needed adventure for us all. I spend so much of my time indoors because I work from home so I just loved being out in the open for the day. It rained quite a bit on and off, but even the rain was fun for the kids. It really was a great day for us!
They had a kid sized roller coaster. Brenden got off and jumped in the air and said "that was AWESOME!!"
Before we got there I told them there would be rides - Logan said "I want to ride a fire truck" and sure enough when we got there... they had a fire truck! He was SO happy!!!
Soaking wet from running around in the rain - and passed out within 5 minutes of leaving the park!
