Mothers and fathers are usually the most central people in children’s lives, and Mother’s Day is a fantastic opportunity to recognise, celebrate and appreciate the things that mothers do and the people they are.
At Choklits Child Care, Mother’s Day is one of our favourite events to celebrate and is usually a top pick amongst the children too! We also make a fuss of fathers on Father’s day and have a special grandparents day (COVID permitting) at Choklits as well which is usually quite a hit.
Mothers are so very special, so it’s really important that we celebrate them. We love talking with the children at the Choklits about their Mums, and the things they love most about them, and the kids love to show how much Mums matter to them and this was demonstrated in the effort they made in creating this year’s Mother’s Day gifts.
Mother’s Day Craft Activities
Craft is a much-loved activity of educators and children alike at Choklits Child Care Centre, and we thoroughly enjoyed incorporating it into our Mother’s Day gifts this year. Arts and crafts provide excellent opportunities to develop creativity, individual self-expression, hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, colour recognition and naming.
The Mothers Day craft activities varied by age group, and we had several gift ideas, with a range of skills being put to use.
Some of the children who come to Choklits Child Care Centre are very young, and come to the centre five days a week, so from a practical standpoint we recognise that it can be really difficult for parents to prepare for Mother’s Day when they are working all day, so Choklits play an important role to help out here, as well as helping all our children to learn through these experiences.
Mother’s Day Ornaments
These included two types of ornaments, one of which was made with a soft dough. The soft dough was a favourite with the children enjoying experimenting by squeezing and poking the dough to change the shape and also immersing their fingers to explore the different texture. They used heart-shaped stamps to make an impression in the dough and then painted their ornaments once they had set, and, of course, added glitter as well.
Jodi, our nursery room leader and educational leader led the youngest children through their gift making. They made hand-print ornaments, which involved placing their hand in a tray of paint and then onto the flat ornament to make their handprint, and naturally adding glitter after it had dried. Glitter is really popular with our kids, maybe because it is so messy! Lots of the children particularly enjoyed interacting with the paint in different ways and were excited to use their fingers and the paintbrushes. Look at the concentration in the photos below!
Mother’s Day Cards
The children also made cards for their Mums using the stampers, which their educators helped them to write a message in. The educators then packaged up the gifts for the children to give to their Mums at our Mother’s Day afternoon tea.
In the nursery, it’s all about developing senses when we do craft. As many of these children are very little and not necessarily talking yet, we focus on talking to them about the activity, so they become familiar with the words and materials. We talk a lot about the different senses because its something that they can connect to and understand. When working with the hand printing, we look at how the paint feels on their fingers, whether it tickles or might be cold. We talk about the different colours and affirm their choices with the colour name.
Some children really enjoy the sensory aspect of paints, while others are more apprehensive. The positive relationships they have with the educators in combination with talking about the process really helps them to be become more comfortable participating in these types of activities.
Activities like these are setting kids up for their future years as they become familiar with things like paints, the different colours, textures and feel as well as becoming more open to new experiences.
Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea
Community is really important to us here at Choklits Child Care Centre, and getting people together as often as we can is one of our favourite ways to connect. We celebrated Mother’s Day with a special afternoon tea, where parents were able to collect a prepared snack box and spend time with their children participating in activities out in the garden.
We are thrilled to say that we had a fantastic turnout for this event, which is wonderful for a number of reasons. Having time to spend with your child in a structured environment, particularly outside of the home is hugely beneficial, as well as being able to watch your child interacting with their peers, educators and other parents. It’s also a great opportunity for our parents to feel part of the wider Choklits community and build connections with other families.
We certainly see that many of the children here get together outside of Choklits on the weekends and many parents are good friends, so events like these are really important for the social aspect they provide, particularly for parents who aren’t as yet in the local community as it introduces them to those who are.
We also took some wonderful pictures of our Choklits children with their Mums which turned out beautifully! The addition of signs and silly glasses was lots of fun. We love to be able to give parents mementos like these to remember special moments like Mother’s Day.
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you Mums! You are wonderful, incredible people and we’re so glad to help play a role in raising your brilliant kids. We hope you enjoyed your gifts and keepsakes. Happy Mother’s Day!
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