Owen is a Teddy Now

We have been extremely pleased with the day care we selected for Owen. Brighton Schools in Folsom - for those of you in the area - we highly recommend it. Last week was Owen's first full week in the Teddies Room at day care. This is the first official toddler room. They have the babies split into two rooms - the Bunnies (non-mobile) and the Lambs (mobile). Then they have the toddlers split into two rooms - the Teddies (12-18 months) and the Puppies (18-24 months).



They moved Owen up a little late because they like to move them in groups of about four - which is awesome since that keeps someone familiar with him. This is a fairly big transition because in the Lambs room there's really not much structure. The kids are all on their own sleep/eat/play schedule. They have a few activities, but mostly it's free play. In order to move up a level each child has to be on 1 nap at school, sippy cups only, walking, and napping on a matt on the floor (instead of a crib).



In the Teddies room they eat and nap at the same time all together. And the day is very structured with activities (Circle time, outside time, art time, etc.). In this classroom they learn to line up to go outside, they have assigned seats at a table to eat (which they know to go to), they put their cup in the sink when they're done eating, they sit in a circle for reading time. It's amazing how much they're learning.



Owen is doing awesome in his new classroom. His nap at school has actually improved (instead of ~1 hour it's closer to 2.5 hours). A few observations from last week that we think are pretty cute to share...



- They learned where their noses are. So now if you say "Owen where's you nose?" he'll point right to it - so proud. Often he'll point to our noses if we ask where they are too.



- Every day we get a status report on what he was feeling that day - happy, snuggly, upset, etc. Every day it came back that he was happy, social, and verbal. :) We have quite a talker.



- Owen loves to have his shoes put on. And if our shoes are around, he'll try to put them on. Apparently another little boy lost a shoe. And Owen picked it up and took it to the right child. Apparently he even pays attention to other people's shoes.



- Owen also loves hats right now. And just about anything can substitute as a hat. So during outside time there's a sandbox that has a toy sand sifter. Owen not only puts this on his own head.... he insists that they other children also take turns wearing the "hat." Apparently he gets quite a few confused looks from the other kids. :)



- Robbie has taught Owen to jump. So now if we jump and say jump. He'll also jump. But it's more like major effort with the arms, but no air time. But he loves it!