Host Movie Time

Watching movies with friends is always fun for children, and it can still happen without going to a theater. Simply choose a fun kids’ movie and send out an invitation to friends that can comfortably watch the video while social distancing. You can use your Blu Ray or DVD player or use Netflix. With your Netflix subscription, kids can watch movies together with a free Google Chrome extension. The film can be synchronized with the group letting kids interact in a chatroom. It is a secure service that only allows invitees into the chatroom.

Create a Craft Exchange

Crafts are always a fun and creative activity for kids, and what better way to connect with friends than to share their art. Just reach out to your children’s friends to create a group that creates craft projects and exchanges them with each other. To add to the fun, you can develop themes such as wildlife, Star Wars, or a sport they all participate in.

Hold a neighborhood I Spy hunt

You have probably heard about areas that decorate their windows with rainbows, flowers, or whatever for kids to find on their walks with their parents. When you connect with neighbors to engage in an I Spy game, your kids feel more connected with friends and have the bonus of exercise and fresh air.

Heaven’s Elect Christian Learning Center and Daycare is a Non-denominational Christian childcare center fully licensed by the state of Michigan. Our Midland daycare center has been serving the community since 2000. Please contact us at heavenselect.com.

Be open to the discussion about coronavirus

Children can’t help but be aware of the virus with shutdowns, online news, and people in masks. Don’t try to avoid talking about the pandemic because not speaking about it can cause more stress. The purpose of the discussion is to pass on facts that reassure the child in an open and honest format. As the crisis continues, keep having discussions to keep them informed.

Consider the age of your children

Keep in mind the age of the child when answering questions. Be careful not to overwhelm them with too much information. Remember that you don’t need to have all the answers. What is important is to be there for your children. Also, consider how much screen time is appropriate for your child to limit access to disturbing information.

Let your child lead the conversation

By letting your kids tell you what they have heard and the questions they have, you convey a sense of control in an uncertain situation. Be ready to answer questions with the goal of not reinforcing frightening and untrue stories.

Focus on safety and routine

Let your kids know the safety precautions that you are taking for their well-being and everyone in the home. These guidelines will help them know what to do to keep themselves safe. With school shutdowns and restrictions in get-togethers with friends, a sense of some routine is essential.

Approach it as you would summer vacation. Maintain structure through scheduled activities, lessons, mealtimes and bedtimes. Also, remind them that this is a temporary situation and you will all be fine.

It is up to you to set the behavior
Now more than ever, your child relies on you for guidance and comfort. Therefore, your behavior needs to be the model for them to follow. Wash your hands, maintain social distancing, and present an attitude of calm and control. These actions will help them to understand what they need to do and how they should react to these unprecedented times.

Heaven’s Elect Christian Learning Center and Daycare is a Non-denominational Christian childcare center fully licensed by the state of Michigan. Our Midland daycare center has been serving the community since 2000. Please contact us at heavenselect.com.

Playing with Sand

You might hesitate to allow your kids to play with sand because of the mess, but there are significant benefits. Sand play is an excellent way to enhance self-confidence as well as cognitive and physical learning skills in children. From digging and scooping to sifting and pouring, different play movements help in building their muscles and improve coordination. Moreover, playing with friends in the sand can be a perfect opportunity to develop teamwork and social skills.

Play Dough

Play Dough offers an incredible learning experience for kids. In addition to developing dexterity for writing, it strengthens fine motor skills, improves hand-eye coordination, and boosts creativity. To make things more exciting, try giving your kids some threading beads to turn the play session into a fine motor exercise.

Role Play

Who doesn’t love dressing up with fun props and clothes? Buy your kids some dress-up kits and let their imagination run wild as they try the roles of doctors, astronauts, teachers, or whatever they imagine! Dressing up and role-play help children understand the concepts of the adult world. They’ll learn about the different roles and interests of people. Moreover, these activities will reinforce the aspects of self-care when it comes to appearance.

These interesting activities for children will encourage learning through play and help them grasp essential concepts fast and develop critical skills for the future. Heaven’s Elect Christian Learning Center and Daycare is a Non-denominational Christian childcare center fully licensed by the state of Michigan. Our Midland daycare center has been serving the community since 2000. Please contact us at heavenselect.com.

Trained Professionals to Discuss Bullying with Children

The first line of defense against childhood bullying is to make your children understand what bullying is and the different forms it takes. With this knowledge, they’ll stand a better chance to recognize and fight it. When trained daycare professionals speak about bullying, it lets every child know it isn’t something that should be done, and it won’t be tolerated. Also, discussing bullying with children may make them comfortable and encourage them to speak up if they’re a victim.

Promoting Empathy in Children

The quality of empathy makes children less likely to hurt someone because they can understand how others will feel. This practice helps to prevent bullying. Assistants at a qualified daycare facility will design activities that build empathy in children. Ultimately, your children learn to be more kind and helpful toward others.

Parent Involvement

Professional daycare centers always get parents involved. They conduct workshops and educational sessions to seek parents’ support and cooperation to prevent childhood bullying. Moreover, trained assistants can identify any bullying behaviors or victim signs and directly talk to the parents to put an end to it.

These are just a few ways a daycare center can prevent childhood bullying. The key is to do your homework to ensure that the facility you choose is capable of taking care of and nurturing your child.

Heaven’s Elect Christian Learning Center and Daycare is a Non-denominational Christian childcare center fully licensed by the state of Michigan. Our Midland daycare center has been serving the community since 2000. Please contact us at heavenselect.com.

Build Relationships

Attending daycare gives children a chance to interact with other kids and make new friends. While this interaction works for children with brothers and sisters, children with no siblings at home find it especially beneficial. Daycare offers an excellent opportunity to build essential social skills that will carry them through life. It allows them to learn the importance of empathy and sharing and teaches them how to be a part of a team. When they spend so much time with other children, they learn how to get along with each other, play together, and be tolerant of others.

Reduces Anxiety

Experiencing separation anxiety is common for children. This issue usually triggers when they turn one year old. Eventually, it can make it difficult for them to attend school. Children who attend daycare find it easy to handle this transition because they’ve already dealt with the separation from their parents. Spending time outside of their home setting makes them more adaptable, and therefore, they don’t find it challenging to be in new situations with new people.

Encourages Independence

Children who attend daycare are pushed to be on their own and away from their parents. This fosters a sense of independence and reduces the fear that comes naturally with trying new things and interacting with new people. This ultimately makes them more confident, which is key to achieving success as an adult.

The Heaven’s Elect staff is committed to helping the children in our care to build and strengthen social skills. Heaven’s Elect Christian Learning Center and Daycare is a Non-denominational Christian childcare center fully licensed by the state of Michigan. Our Midland daycare center has been serving the community since 2000. Please contact us at heavenselect.com.

Improves Your Child’s Behavior

Contrary to popular belief, a daycare center may actually make your child better-behaved than children who don’t go to one. Studies show, spending more time with other children under the supervision of a friendly adult improves the ability to interact with peers and develop their social skills. Moreover, exposure to a positive daycare environment during the early years helps in your child’s cognitive and emotional development. It can also prevent emotional difficulties later in life and encourage prosocial behavior in children.

Promotes Effective Communication

Daycare helps to make children effective communicators. By learning to adjust how they communicate with different people, the skill soon becomes intuitive. This skill is also enhanced because they are exposed to various social situations regularly.

Improves Overall Development

According to a seminal study conducted by the National Institute of Childhood Health and Human Development in 2006, the development of children attending daycare isn’t hampered compared to those who don’t. In fact, it was shown that language skills and cognitive development were better than other children. Not only does this happen during the first four or five years of their life, but it tends to last through to at least 15 years of age.

The next time you feel a tug at your heartstrings while sending your child off to a daycare center, remind yourself of these benefits. The Heaven’s Elect staff and program are focused on every child’s development. Heaven’s Elect Christian Learning Center and Daycare is a Non-denominational Christian childcare center fully licensed by the state of Michigan. Our Midland daycare center has been serving the community since 2000. Please contact us at heavenselect.com.

Fill a Box for a Food Bank or Homeless Shelter

The Christmas season is the perfect time to do something for the less fortunate. When you fill a box with food for charity, you teach a valuable lesson in giving while helping your community and remind them what the season celebrates.

Make a Festive Wreath

Who doesn’t love Christmas wreaths? This year, you can ask your kids to join in and display their creativity by decorating it with ribbons, bows, and other Christmas ornaments. Another option is to take a quick walk outside to gather pinecones and tree branches with your children. This option will give you exercise and add a natural element to the wreath. Once you have your decorations, take a wire ring, or simply bend a wire hanger to make a circle. Then ask your kids to decorate it with the items you’ve collected. Your children will feel a sense of accomplishment when you hang the wreath on the door for every guest to see!

The Holiday Tour

For kids, Christmas lights and outdoor displays are a particular delight of the season! They’ll love a light tour to see Christmas light displays in surrounding neighborhoods. While on the roads, don’t forget to enjoy your favorite Christmas tunes to keep the holiday spirit up. You can also turn the tour into a game by having the kids count the different items they spot, such as reindeer, snowmen, or nativities.

Candy Cane Hunt 

This is the Christmas spin on an Easter Egg Hunt. All you need is a box of candy canes and a group of kids to find them after you’ve hidden them. You can make the hunt more interesting by setting some rules. These guidelines could include excluding any canes that are hanging or setting a time limit to see who finds the most the fastest.

Have a Toy Drive

Donating toys to underprivileged children is a simple act of kindness that will brighten someone’s Christmas. Of course, you can always buy toys for the drive. If you don’t have the time to go to the toy store with your kids, you can ask them to pick a few new or rarely used toys from their collection and set them aside for charity. It will be a poignant lesson of selflessness that they’ll remember it for years to come.

Heaven’s Elect Christian Learning Center and Daycare is a Non-denominational Christian childcare center fully licensed by the state of Michigan. Our Midland daycare center has been serving the community since 2000. Please contact us at heavenselect.com.

Pumpkin Jars

First up is creating a pumpkin jar! Pumpkin jars are not only fun and easy to make but also make for the perfect Halloween décor! All you need is a few glass jars, glow sticks, and pumpkin stickers. Start by emptying the contents of the glow sticks into the jars and close the jar lids tightly. Then, let your kids enjoy decorating the lanterns with Halloween stickers and other craft supplies. Once the jars are ready, shake the jars and enjoy the excited looks on your children’s faces as the come to glowing life! And these fun glowing lanterns will make great nightlights for them.

Halloween Slime

What’s Halloween without a little slime? To create your own slime, you’ll need a ½ cup of washable school glue, 4 tbsp of liquid starch, and 1 tsp of washable liquid watercolor. Simply shake the liquid starch and pour it into a tub before adding the glue. Mix until they are blended. Add the watercolor of your choice and mix again. You can even get some googly eyes for a creepy effect! That’s it –the gooey slime will keep your kids entertained for hours!

Poke a Pumpkin

Poke a Pumpkin is one of the most engaging Halloween activities for kids. To create this mystery prize game, take a few plastic cups and fill them with trinkets. Wrap them with orange tissue paper and then glue them to a poster board in the shape of a pumpkin. Then line up the children to poke a hole in the tissue pumpkins to see what’s inside and whether they win a trick or a treat!

With these Halloween activities for kids, get your family in the Halloween spirit and make the occasion memorable! Heaven’s Elect Christian Learning Center and Daycare is a Non-denominational Christian childcare center fully licensed by the state of Michigan. Our Midland daycare center has been serving the community since 2000. Please contact us at heavenselect.com.

Raking leaves

While it may sound like a chore, raking leaves can be fun and gratifying. Your kids will love getting outdoors, the spectacular fall foliage, and the obligatory leap into the leaf pile. See if there are any elderly or disabled people in your community. Your children could volunteer to rake leaves outside their home. They will have fun and also get a sense of accomplishment and community pride. Most importantly, if you volunteer to help a neighbor, it will teach them the valuable lessons of kindness and concern for others.

Planting a fall garden

If you like gardening, you can get your kids involved in growing a garden with you with colorful fall flowers, such as mums. Or plan ahead by planting spring bulbs. This great activity is both exciting for the kids and beneficial for the environment.

Baking Halloween cookies

On chilly weekend nights, you can get your kids in the kitchen and bake together!

They’ll enjoy the baking and frosting process – and will love eating fresh cookies while they snuggle in for a movie night! To make things even more interesting, you can choose a Halloween theme for the cookies and let your kids embrace their creativity.

Doing handprint crafts

Using your child’s handprint in a craft project is simple and inexpensive. A handprint can become an autumn tree. By tracing their hand on a white piece of paper, it can be the tree trunk and branches. When you cut out small pieces of colorful tissue paper and glue them to the fingers of the handprint, you have the leaves. And don’t forget the tried and true handprint turkey at Thanksgiving!

With these fun activities for children, get ready to make the most of your family time this fall season! Heaven’s Elect Christian Learning Center and Daycare is a Non-denominational Christian childcare center fully licensed by the state of Michigan. Our Midland daycare center has been serving the community since 2000. Please contact us at heavenselect.com.

The Program

It is never too early to start age-appropriate learning, and your child can begin at a very young age. Therefore, when choosing a daycare facility, going through the program and the curriculum is essential. Make sure that the center you choose has age-appropriate programs and curriculums. Interact with the staff and ensure that what they teach is designed according to your child’s developmental stage.

The Environment

You must review the daycare’s environment as your child will spend most hours of the day in that facility. A warm and welcoming atmosphere will be attractive to children and be comfortable surroundings for them. The environment must give friendly vibes. Moreover, choose a daycare facility that is located at a safe location. Be sure to check whether the building and the equipment are maintained and secure.

The Staff and the Materials

The teachers and the other staff are a vital factor to consider when choosing a daycare center. It is important because your child will interact with these people daily. Make sure that the teachers are trained, verified in CPR, and have experience in dealing with children at the ages they are supervising.

Heaven’s Elect Christian Learning Center and Daycare is a Non-denominational Christian childcare center fully licensed by the state of Michigan. Our Midland daycare center has been serving the community since 2000. Please contact us at heavenselect.com.