Outdoor daycare/preschool

[Anonymous]

Anyone have experience with an outdoor program?

[Anonymous]

I work at a part time preschool. We run during the regular school year: Sept to May. We are getting ready to open in a few weeks. We normally spend quite a bit of time outside. In the fall and spring, we sometimes spend 75% of our day outside: story time, crafts, snack all outside. This year, we going to be 100% outside this year. The only time the children will go inside will be to use the bathroom. I plan to report back after we open to let everyone know how it is going.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work at a part time preschool. We run during the regular school year: Sept to May. We are getting ready to open in a few weeks. We normally spend quite a bit of time outside. In the fall and spring, we sometimes spend 75% of our day outside: story time, crafts, snack all outside. This year, we going to be 100% outside this year. The only time the children will go inside will be to use the bathroom. I plan to report back after we open to let everyone know how it is going.

Curious to know how this will work when it’s very cold or really rainy out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work at a part time preschool. We run during the regular school year: Sept to May. We are getting ready to open in a few weeks. We normally spend quite a bit of time outside. In the fall and spring, we sometimes spend 75% of our day outside: story time, crafts, snack all outside. This year, we going to be 100% outside this year. The only time the children will go inside will be to use the bathroom. I plan to report back after we open to let everyone know how it is going.

Yes, please do!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work at a part time preschool. We run during the regular school year: Sept to May. We are getting ready to open in a few weeks. We normally spend quite a bit of time outside. In the fall and spring, we sometimes spend 75% of our day outside: story time, crafts, snack all outside. This year, we going to be 100% outside this year. The only time the children will go inside will be to use the bathroom. I plan to report back after we open to let everyone know how it is going.

Curious to know how this will work when it’s very cold or really rainy out.

I'm the above poster. Yes, I voiced that concern to my director when she first asked us about operating 100% outdoors. We're only a half day program, so just 3 hours. And we already go outside when it's raining (light rain.) The fall is absolutely gorgeous so we'll be fine up until our winter break in the middle of December. Ask me again in late January!

[Anonymous]

08/29/2020 11:36 PP again.

We just finished our first week. As I said before, we are 100% outside, except to use the bathroom. I am working with the PreK group (4's and 5's.) We take their temperatures and the parent/caregiver has to verbally answer screening questions. The children hear the questions, so if they are taking fever reducing medicine, 4 and 5 year olds are not great at lying (which is a really good thing!) We meet the children in the parking lot and take them back to the cars at the end of the morning. So the parents never come onto the grounds.

We have a handwashing station outside - the chlidren wash their hands upon arrival. We have a bunch of different toys in individual boxes. We have the tables marked off with tape so the children can see where their space is. We are not allowing them to share toys and when they start to work together (building a tower together) we get another box of the same blocks and give it to the other child. Everyone has their own box of art supplies: scissors, markers, crayons, etc. We have marked spaces at circle so they aren't sitting on top of each other. For snack, we are using individually wrapped items: little bags of goldfish, bananas, single serve applesauce, etc. The children bring their own filled water bottles.

The hardest part is trying to keep the children socially distanced when they are playing on the playground. We had them put their arms out and reminded them to stay arms length away from their classmates. We don't require masks. Most of the children come to school with masks, but several take them off when they start running and most of them do not put them back on after we eat our snack.

Overall, it was a good start. The children all seem thrilled to be back in school. I'm not sure how its going to work once it gets really cold - trying to do anything manipulative with their hands is going to be difficult when they are wearing gloves.

[Anonymous]

Check out eastern ridge school in Vienna. They are open now and spend basically all time outdoors except naptime at this point. That will likely reduce some during winter but for the most part it will stay the same. It’s all about gear. My kid has way more gear than at previous schools. They have lots of great systems in place to make it work and be comfortable for the kids, it’s wonderful.

[Anonymous]

Country Day School in Mclean is open in-person with classes being held outdoors. I know they are currently full but it looks like its going well. The kids wear masks and hadwashing is enforced. They are hoping to stay open and outdoors, lets hope it works out.