Maddie's First Week at Day Care!

We signed Maddie up to attend a local newly opened Day Care!  She is attending the JCYS Michael R. Lutz Family Center – Wicker Park location, they just opened up this fall so the facility and everything inside is shiny and new!  We love the location (just a quick 10 minute walk away), the facility and the staff! Everyone is so nice and welcoming!

Maddie will be attending Tuesdays and Thursdays for the full day. We can drop her off as early as 7:30am but so far have tried to drop her off by 8:10 so she can get her (second) breakfast of cereal, raisins and milk! It's a good transition for her to be able to sit down and eat (her favorite thing) and we can leave her easily since she is distracted by food.  She then goes into her main room (Room #4) at 8:30am and they play some more.  On Tuesdays they do yoga!  They usually have a mid-morning snack, story time, song time, more play time. They try to get some outside time in (regardless of the weather) before coming back in to have lunch. They nap from 1-3 (Maddie struggled a bit the first week but I think she will adjust soon), and then wake up for an afternoon snack and more play time!  We can pick her up as late as 6pm but have been getting her around 5pm.  Speaking of outside time, the facility has a rooftop deck and a long side yard for going outside if they don't take walks to an outside park. Right now Maddie's room is too young for the rooftop deck but they are working on getting them approved for it.

So far she is loving it and doing very well.  Her teacher Ms Shira called the first day to let me know how well her first day went!  She sounded surprised that it went so well!  She said it feels as if Maddie has been there the whole school year. She explored and examined all of the toys and the books in her room and said the puzzles were her favorite toy.  She's getting along well with all the other kids and the other teachers in the room. We have found a great fit for her!

Each day they have a sheet where they write down the activities for the day. We forgot to take a photo of it her first day, but will be taking photos going forward to share what she's doing at day care.

First day of day care! She sat down to eat some cereal with raisins and observed her new surroundings and the other kids playing.

This is at the end of her first day when we went to pick her up. This is the hallway. We did not get a picture of her in her Room.

So nice! They put this picture of us up on the door of her Room!
(A family picture was one of the items on her list of things to bring to school)

Here is what she did on Thursday, her 2nd day of school. I forgot to take a picture on her first day.