Monday, August 26, 2013

all hands on deck

It was all hands on deck today as all of my full-time staff (3 caregivers) were in for the first time to start the next step: putting everything in its place! It's finally starting to look like somewhere children would like to spend their days! Still lots of work to do, but it's certainly shaping up :)
What we really need to warm the place up is some area rugs!

The "quiet" side for the preschool/kindergarten area: 


Art table and art supplies: 


The reading/puzzle corner: (hopefully to come with some nice children's couches/chairs or bean bags)



Small loose parts (many of which would make for excellent items used for art):


The "louder" side:
Sensory tables in the back - one for wet, one for dry and one for 4 of anything!

Dramatic play area: 


Dolls, tools, (coat hooks will go on the walls for dress-up clothes), dishes, food, etc.: 


Larger loose part: 



The infant area: 


Don't worry..the bookshelf won't be staying there up and out of reach!










 I know it still needs some work in order to have all the caves, watering holes and camp fires that we should have, but it has been quite difficult when there is such a limited amount of resources here (and the fact that we are using only shelves as walls to separate the infants from the older children). Hopefully we'll get everything on our wish list through funding. What we could really use is a loft for the older children to give them a private area underneath, and a nice separate area up top to escape from everything.

I'm completely open to your ideas for anything... set up, fundraising, what have you.

Friday, August 23, 2013

Sneak peek

The curfew siren sounds every night at 10 pm now that school has started again. Children are off the streets during the day, and home much earlier at night. The temperature has dropped from the high 20s to hovering just above zero. The hot breeze has turned into a cold, cold wind blowing snow around gusting at 50 km per hour. The sun sets before midnight and doesn't begin rising until almost 6 am.

With all of the changes happening so rapidly in the community, it feels like that is being reflected within the walls of the Daycare. We finally started painting Wednesday, and only have two small rooms left to paint once the main area is set up. It feels so refreshing to finally be able to see all of my hard work making a difference. Since you are my special audience, you get a sneak peek of the new walls. I thought about holding out and making you wait until everything is cleaned and set up, but the volunteers we had in today did such a great job cleaning the floors that I just have to show it off.

Before:


After:


Before:


After: 


Before:


After:


And a bonus shot from a brand-new angle: 


We still have to set up all the shelves that are gathered in the giant mass on one side of the room, then getting all the materials in place before we can paint the office and the sleep room, but we are well on our way!

What do you think??

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Make it better

Despite all of the hard work over the past 3 weeks to get the renovations going, it doesn't look like we're going to meet our target to open by the end of the month. We've only had a few volunteers here and there, and with all of the repairs needed on the building, progress is way too slow.

I haven't been doing much aside from work, and life has been fairly uneventful since Mom & Dad left just over a week ago.

The teachers did get to town last week, so hopefully I'll get to know a few of them and maybe make some friends.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about how I can bring the best of who I am to my new position. One professor told me before I left that since she's known me, she noticed that I was always able to take something and make it better. I hang on to that now as I feel the struggle with the slow progress and I have to force myself to think about how it will be better, even if the process is taking longer than we expected. It's important that I keep in mind that change is an extremely slow process, and that not all change is going to happen when or in the way I would like it to.

There are some changes that are happening quickly. It's starting to get darker earlier (around 9:30), and the sky even gets completely dark for a few hours during the night. The sun still starts rising around 5 am, but the day and night light is becoming much more like what we're used to in the south.

I'm anxious to get the programming done for at least the first month so that I feel at least somewhat ready for when we finally get to re-open. I'm also anxious for staff training. It is so far out of my range of experience to do week-long training on every aspect of working in an early learning setting. I definitely have a lot that I need to learn before I can train the new staff. The training is such a crucial part of implementing a new program and making change, so I'm definitely open to any tips or advice from those of you who have experience in this area!

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Long weekend

I haven't just had a busy work week, it was also a very busy weekend. With all of the beautiful summer weather and the Civic Holiday, I had plenty of time to spend with my family, and a lot of that time was spent out on the water. 
Saturday morning we went out with some friends to do some fishing. Most of us ended up catching cod, which we battered and fried for dinner, along with homemade chips and some veggies. 





Sunday we managed to get Mom out on the water to see some nets getting pulled out. We also enjoyed a nice picnic on an island. 


Courtesy of brother



Courtesy of brother

Monday, the holiday, we were invited to boat up the river and hike to Bloody Falls. We pretended to fish for a little while, even though the fish weren't biting. The hike was gorgeous.


The water was so glassy, we had a nearly perfect reflection.



Ran in to some bear paws!





all the nasty

We've been busy, busy getting the daycare ready to paint! All day yesterday and today was spent removing staples, scrubbing and cleaning the walls, pulling out all the major appliances to be cleaned and replaced, and sorting through hiding storage areas. The mud and mudding equipment was dropped off this afternoon, so we will be getting straight to it in the morning! We also got internet set up, which is pretty exciting!

Here are some examples of all the nasty that I had to scrub clean:

Under the filing cabinet - before


 Under the filing cabinet - after


Under the fridge 


Beside the stove - before


 Under the stove - before


 Beside the stove - after



Friday, August 2, 2013

Changes

We had a VERY exciting day today at the Daycare. There's quite an expensive list of repairs and aesthetic changes to be made before we're able to reopen, and today we were able to cross off many items from that list!

This morning I got a call from one of the members of the Board, announcing that we've received a donation of 10 gallons of primer and 10 gallons of white paint, and that if we needed more, it would also be donated. This was great news, since the sale we had this afternoon was meant to raise money to buy the paint. Only about 15 minutes later I got another call from her saying that one of the mining companies up here is donating a brand new fridge and dishwasher (and paying for shipping, which would have been REALLY expensive for us). This is SO exciting because the dishwasher we have now is not functional and we don't have an in-house cook, so the caregivers are responsible for washing all dishes. When it's tricky to meet ratios, the least amount of time spent on dishes is exactly what we need.

Then this afternoon we had our sale! Within the first half-hour, almost half of everything was sold! We ended up raising almost $500, which will be used to pay for the paint tint and any of the materials we need for painting, like the rollers, painter's tape, etc. Another company is donating the mud we need to fill the pin holes in the walls, so this weekend we are getting started on that in order to get painting!

Here are some pictures of the time just before and just after the sale:

 Before: 







Woohoo!! A really terrible photo of the paint and primer donated to us today!! 


The room where we are storing what we're keeping:


After! 




It's almost a blank canvas! Just a few more books and outdoor toys to sell (and some pretty old and dusty construction paper..) and we'll be well on our way! 


This weekend we are starting to get ready for painting, which is so so so exciting for us!

If you have any ideas about how to set up the space, colours to paint the walls (I'm thinking 2, and maybe painting a mural at some point), things to put up on the walls, etc., please share them!

P.S. if you read my sister's and BIL's blog, you could check out my guest post! (theirs is an invite-only blog)