Child and Infant CPR Class

At Smart Sprouts we require our staff to have CPR certification before working with small children. I've also talked to parents who have expressed interest in being certified. So we have decided to have a class taught by a pediatric nurse on location at Smart Sprouts for employees, potential Smart Smarts endorsed sitters and any interested parents. 


The class will be held here on Saturday, August 27th from 2:30-4:30pm.

If we have more than 10 people taking the class it will be $30 per person. We will max out at 30 people. Please call or email to reserve a space if you are interested!

615.712.6217

SmartSprouts@gmail.com

Thanks for reading,

Ann

Blog Love

I don't know about you but I could literally get lost in the Blog world for hours on end. Here are a few of my favorites:


Enjoying this new blog by 2 Nashville moms of 2 beautiful little baby girls. Today they have some great ideas for what to do this weekend.


Nashville Moms Blog
*Check out the "links we love" section for other adorable baby related blogs.

Always love this Blog from Tweed Baby Outfitter's creator, Maggie, for great new products, DIY ideas and more. 


Tweed Blog

Another one of my favorite's is Little Green Notebook. The author, Jenny, is an interior designer and a mom and always has inspirational posts of easy DIY projects and she just has great taste in general. Her posts on her girls rooms are adorable. 


Little Green Notebook

Last but not least is my personal favorite but probably because it's family. I grew up in Northern California and my siblings and parents still live there. I check my sister's blog daily for updates on my sweet nieces so I don't feel like I'm missing too much. 


Baby Heff

Happy weekend and thanks for reading,


Ann

A new project

This week I started a new job. No, I am not leaving Smart Sprouts or cutting back on my hours of reading to, playing with, feeding, and chasing after our little sprouts. I am taking a few hours a week in the early mornings, afternoons or weekends to spend time as the Program Coordinator of the Child Studies Masters Program at Peabody College at Vanderbilt. I graduated from this program in May of 2009 with my M.Ed. of Education in Child Studies and I had such a wonderful experience. The director of the program, Vicki Harris, was such an incredible advisor and friend to me and I am so excited that she has asked me to help her in this role. I will be spending time working in recruitment for new students, connecting with alumni, setting up meaningful field placements for students, and making sure the program is the best that it can be. 


I am most excited about diving back into the world of research. There is never enough time in my week to keep up on current research although it is one of the things that I really love to do. Now that I will be getting paid to do this I can continue to learn more about the best ways to support early learning and development. I hope to implement this new research at Smart Sprouts in our everyday play and watch all of our little sprouts learn and grow. 


Thanks for reading,
Ann

Elephant Finger Puppet

This is a fast and easy craft we've been doing at Smart Sprouts lately for campers. Every kid loves to color and this elephant craft can be adjusted to almost every age. The little ones can color all over them with crayons, older kids can draw with more detail in colored pencils and if you're brave and have an easy to clean work station kids of all ages can paint them. 

Right click on this image to save it as a PDF. Then print it full sized on a piece of regular computer paper. You can cut around the edges and let kids color or paint to their heart's content. When they are finished cut out the hole where the elephant's trunk should be and show your little sprout how to stick your finger through to make his trunk. 

We paired this craft with books about zoo animals. Here are some of our favorites:

Little Giraffe finger puppet book is a favorite of many of our 2-3 year olds. Mom controls little giraffe's head through the back of the book while your little one tries to help giraffe find "something blue". 


There is also a puppy, duck, crab, mouse, ladybug, cow, polar bear, bunny, snowman, butterfly, lamb, bee, panda, bat, tiger, kitten, lion, turkey and fish version in this series.



We also love Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann.


This one is great for all ages and we've found so many learning activities that can go along with this book. 


We love finding simple (and easy-to-clean-up-after) activities that will keep our little sprouts engaged and learning throughout the day.


Enjoy!




Thanks for reading,
Ann