FunShine Staff Favorites: Materials, Projects, and More!

August 28, 2019

Each winter, the FunShine team gathers to plan the new curriculum year. At that time, we discuss customer feedback, our themes, purchasing art materials and books, and of course, any curriculum redesigns. We are regularly immersed in planning, writing, designing, and editing. When we’re busy, it’s hard to find time to discuss what we love about our work. In addition to the many new features you’ll see in our curricula this year, we wanted to share a few of our favorite components with you. Read below to learn more about why we love what we do and what makes our work exciting!

Promoting Community in a Preschool Setting

August 20, 2019

A tenet of developmentally appropriate practice is establishing and nurturing a sense of community in your classroom or setting. This sense of community should encompass your relationships with the children, their families and caregivers, and with your colleagues.

Vegetable Recipes for Preschoolers

August 9, 2019

Healthy food choices can’t start early enough. If children participate in the preparation of meals, they are more likely to eat the foods. Other tips to get your little ones to enjoy vegetables include familiarity, satiety value, social context, modeling, and “hiding” vegetables. You can learn more about these tips here.

Let Children Play Freely!

July 25, 2019

There seems to be a push in recent years to make sure children do not sit idle. With so many state standards to cover, many providers feel pressured to make sure they are maximizing every learning opportunity. While we live in an age where knowledge and information are constantly at our fingertips, children may be lacking opportunities to explore, sit and daydream, and play on their own.

Rain Boots and Mud Pies—Gearing Up for International Mud Day

June 21, 2019

As early childhood professionals we know that learning can be messy. Children often seem to be at their happiest when they are digging, painting, or creating. In fact, if each of us paused for a moment and thought about it, we could probably easily recall a time when the children in our care were consumed by swirling paint colors and painting over the same area on the page, piling sand into large mounds, or collecting an assortment of sticks and rocks. In each of these activities, children are honing many skills—fine motor, gross motor, cognitive awareness, and math and counting. Help children and families in your setting embrace messy play by getting outside and celebrating International Mud Day on June 29.

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