Winter is coming? Shhhhhh. I know, stop saying those words. With cold weather comes a whole ton of extra time preparing 14 toddlers with the proper gear to tromp in snow covered terrain.
If you have never experienced such things, it's a site to see. A majority of the little friends are experiencing their first winter as a walker/mover and have never worn boots. They do not like boots. And don't even get me started on the whole mitten issue. I have never said the phrase "Keep your mittens on. It's cold outside!" more in my life. Often, I get one kid dressed and start to help another only to find kid 1 has managed to remove all items except 1 boot. Baaaaahhh. I laugh....or else I will cry.
With the challenges of newbie toddler winter time prep, we must have a game plan. It does tend to get better with practice and by the end of the season, a large chunk of Tods are quite self sufficient. Until then we use a few tools:
I think I have talked about this chart before but it's worth mentioning again. Toddlers are visual learners and it helps to have something to refer to as we get dressed. We have also added a little 'what to wear' grouptime that we will refer to throughout the weeks (during times when we are not actually getting ready but can just talk about the process):
I found a picture of a former toddler (his mom is on our teaching staff, so she said we could use him as our getting dressed model) and printed out/laminated all the items he would need to be safe outside in the winter snow. We take the toddlers thru the process by dressing him up on a felt board and asking which item might go next. They love it...and hopefully are gaining some insight into the order of dressing:)
All ready for some winter fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment