• Address: 834 NE 189th St., Shoreline, WA 98155 (map)
• Date Posted: 10/13/09

Blue Sunshine Preschool opens in mid-December!
Enrolling now!

I cannot even tell you how excited I am to be opening my own preschool! My mom has had one for 30 years, my aunt for 15, and now my cousin has one as well. I’ve worked at child care centers and babysat for years, but it’s always been my dream to open a preschool! Now I’m ready to live out that dream. I’ve submitted my application and am currently going through the licensing process, which will be complete in mid-December.

I’ll be open 7am to 6pm to 3-5 year olds, taking kids all-day, half-day, or drop-in. Sign up for anything from one half-day per week to 5 full-days! I will provide healthy lunch and snacks, and will be on the City of Seattle Child Care Nutrition Program. My home is located in Shoreline on NE 189th St. between 8th Ave. NE and 10th Ave. NE. You should check out http://www.BlueSunshinePreschool.com, my website-in-progress. I’ll be working on it, so keep checking back for more info! Until my website’s more informative, here’s a little about my school.

I believe in caring for children through building strong relationships with them. Only once this is achieved can any learning be done. If the children are excited to come see me, they will associate that excitement with learning, which will stick with them through their school years! The child-teacher relationship is often lost at centers, which was disheartening to me when I worked at them. In a warm home environment with only 6 children, being in tune with every child’s needs is so much easier!

I believe in learning through play. Now that doesn’t mean I put toys out and set them loose and hope some learning occurs along the way! It means carefully choosing learning opportunities that they can experience on their own simply through their natural form of learning: Play.

For example, I may set out a tub of sand with different sized measuring cups and cooking stuff in it. Without me even going near the table, the children can learn math through noticing the different amounts of sand that fit in different measuring cups. They can learn social skills through pretending to cook something together. When I do come over to their table and play with them, I can extend their learning even further by making small suggestions and letting them go with it, or asking questions like “I wonder what would happen if...?”

While individual activities such as the sand table are key to children’s learning, group activities are equally important. I will have a group activity planned for each day. These may be anything from a group game to an open-ended collaborative art activity to a group problem-solving activity, such as a treasure hunt using a map.

This child-guided learning philosophy is also key to my curriculum. I don’t have a set plan of activities for the entire year- I plan my group activities and learning centers based on what I see the children are most interested in at the time. I may have a group of kids that’s really into building stuff, and we’ll have a lot of activities based around that. We might have a contest to see who can build the tallest tower and draw pictures of our dream building. I would also go out and get some kids books from the library about construction and buy more blocks!

I believe a warm home environment is the best place for preschool children to learn. Child care centers can feel somewhat like an assembly line with their 15 kids per classroom. It’s often hard for children to build relationships with the adults there because the teachers in the classrooms are always changing. Children also feel safer at a home preschool because it’s similar to their own home. A new caregiver, 5 other kids, and a new different environment should be enough of a change without throwing all those other variables into the mix. And a yummy home-cooked lunch will make them feel right at home!

While my school is not completely set up yet, you should give me a call or e-mail to schedule a visit! You can come here, I could come to your home, or we could meet somewhere. I'm even doing some babysitting if you want to test me out that way! I have excellent references from people I’ve babysat for. Just ask! I look forward to meeting you and your child!!

Jamie Day
834 NE 189th St.
Shoreline, WA 98155
(206) 949-6689
Jamie@BlueSunshinePreschool.com
http://www.BlueSunshinePreschool.com

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Schedule
* -7:00- 9:00 Center Time (Indoor Play).
* -9:00-9:30 Snack Time.
* -9:30-10:30 Circle Time and Group Activity (Art Activity, Science Experiment, Game, etc).
* -10:30-11:30 Outside Play.
* -11:30-12:30 Lunch Time.
* -12:30-1:00 Story Time.
* -1:00-3:00 Nap Time.
* -1:00-1:30 Rest time for non-nappers
* -1:30-3:00 Quiet activities for non-nappers
* -3:00-3:30 Snack Time.
* -3:30-4:30 Outside Play.
* -4:30-6:00 Center Time (Indoor Play).

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