January Recap

Seems like I just never get to all the blogging I want to do. I'm going to try a once monthly recap to go back and cover anything I didn't get a chance to make its own post. :) Maybe this will be the only month it happens, who knows, but I'll try.

Comings and Goings:

We've had quite a bit more turnover this month than we usually do- many of our bigger kids are ready to graduate and move on to an older program, especially since the new ones we've been getting are tiny.

Ariel and Sebastian have found a new school and are doing well, of course. :) It's very different not to have them around, since they've been with us for almost four years. We got them when Sebastian was just past six weeks old and Ariel was around sixteen months.


I can't believe they were that small! I've basically known them their whole lives. Ariel will be going off to kindergarten this fall. Sniff....

Mulan has moved on as well. She was originally a drop in for the month of September and ended up staying through January, which has been lots of fun. She and O'Malley are very close in age and she gets along well with everyone. Hopefully she'll be back to drop in again from time to time and stay in touch with everyone.

I have had trouble lately getting a good picture of her. She's about to blink. Oh well. Imagine a big smile, because she's got a great one. :)

Esmeralda started at the beginning of January. She is nine days younger than Tinkerbell and it's been really fun to watch the two of them eye each other suspiciously.

Last week we got an unexpected new addition- cutie blonde 18 month old whose big sister is in Duchess's class at school. I'm still trying to come up with a pair of names that will work for them, since I'm sure big sister will pop up too on days off and random summertime afternoons. Little sis still isn't quite sure what to think of us, but she's beginning to settle in quite nicely.


This month we are scheduled to receive a six week old little boy, who dropped in for the day. I cannot remember when my kids were this tiny. I know for sure O'Malley NEVER was.


and before too long I'm going to have to graduate Boo. She's ready for more structured education and field trips and all the fun stuff big kids do. That means probably Sully too since I'm figuring they will want to stay together. So more changes are in the works. It's just the nature of the business...

Curriculum Activities:

January's theme was called Dinosaur Dig and the kids really loved it. The music was incredibly catchy this month and I still find myself singing "Flying Pterodactyl" at random times. We had lots of cool discussions and talked a LOT about herbivores vs. carnivores and what kind of teeth they had. Lilo kept trying to poke in my mouth to find my "meat" teeth and "plant" teeth. We had a couple of fossil digs in the sandbox and even built a volcano.







It was hard to get good pictures of their faces, but they all really enjoyed this.

February's curriculum is called Furry Friends and it's all about mammals. We have a week each to study Land, Endangered, Aquatic, and Nocturnal animals. Should be lots of fun too.