Swoosh Room 2010

Next week marks the start of the new “school year” for Vada’s daycare so today was the last day for her current classroom. The biggest kids will move up to the toddler room while Vada and her two little friends will stay in the Swoosh room for another year. They made a fairly big deal of the day with parents invited to a popsicle party. Photo collection type “yearbooks” featuring each child in the class and all of the activities they have done over the year were passed out. The kids moving on to the toddler room packed up all of their room supplies and walked them over to their new room. It was touching to see the teachers get teary-eyed saying goodbye to Vada and the other kids they were leaving – a nice reminder of how lucky we are to have such a loving, caring environment for her during the day. Half of the teachers are moving up with the toddlers while Laura, Vada’s primary caregiver, is staying in the Swoosh room with her and the other infants. It was more than a little weird to already start thinking about these yearly school transitions we will have with Vada. So before we start with some new faces and a new “school year” next week, here is a look back at Vada’s first (partial) year at daycare…

They do art projects in the room whenever the mood strikes. This first picture is Vada’s first piece of artwork.

Music time was every Wednesday morning for Vada’s room.

I frequently visit Vada during the day whenever time allows or I need a reality check from work. Priceless benefit of on-site daycare.

Here you can see Vada’s Family board up on the window. Each kid has one in the room to share with their friends and help when they are feeling sad.

Vada started the year riding in the strollers and backpacks for the many walks around campus. This summer she transitioned to riding in the carts.

This summer they transitioned Vada to sleeping on a floor mat instead of in a crib. So cute! Sleep was going so poorly at home in the crib that we went ahead and moved her to the floor here as well!

And lots of time spent playing outside. But really if you had seven or so kids to watch all day wouldn’t you send them outside as much as possible too?

The three musketeers. Vada, Max, and Parker will lead the Swoosh room next year as the “big kids”.