is located on a quiet cul de sac in a family neighborhood in Bellingham
Massachusetts. The areas in the home used for daycare are child-proofed
and safe, well lit with lots of toys and activities for structured and
unstructured play. Judy's Daycare
is located on a quiet cul de sac in a family neighborhood in Bellingham
Massachusetts. The areas in the home used for daycare are child-proofed
and safe, well lit with lots of toys and activities for structured and
unstructured play.
The primary daycare area in the house is a separate room on the lower level of the home, which is a split-level layout. The play area is well organized with many bins of toys, books, educational videos, puzzles and activities that the children are quite familiar with. They are encouraged to play with any appropriate items, but also taught to return toys to their proper places when they are done with them.
In the main room there is a play kitchen area where the children will "cook"
meals for each other,
while off to the side is a real kitchenette area
where Judy can prepare snacks and lunch for the children while staying nearby.
All of the real food preparation items are on a high shelf well out of the reach
of inquisitive little hands.
In addition there is a picnic table for the older children
and highchairs for the little ones providing comfortable seating for all at
mealtimes and for activities that might be more comfortable at a table.
Toys available to the children include large play-area toys,
riding toys and other active items that encourage gross motor skill development
and good exercise for the kids. In addition there are cars, building
blocks (large for the little ones and small for the big kids) and other
fine-motor skill activities at hand at all times.
Just off the main play area is a quiet room where two cribs provide a nice nap area for infants while the bigger children have quiet activities or rest time in the main playroom.
We like to spend some time outdoors as often as weather permits, each day
that the children are here. The backyard is set up for the children with
three main areas. The first is a playground area (the home page photo).
There is a playhouse and gazebo for "visiting". For climbing around there
is a multi-stage stair/tube/slide system where the children can climb through
holes into different chambers and slide down and out. In front is a
geodesic dome monkey bar set
that the kids love to climb all over and around.
At mealtime, if the weather is nice, there is also an outdoor child-sized
picnic
table in this area as well.
The entire play area is set on four inches of play mulch providing a soft and safe surface for the occasional misstep on the climbing toys.
The second area is a large swingset
with strap swings for the older children and molded seat swings for the little
ones. The children are encouraged to learn to make the swings go with
their own motion, but some pushing is usually in order.
The final area is the backyard lawn
where the children play ball, ride their bikes, make snow angels and snowmen in
the winter, and a myriad of other activities.