Tender Spirits Childcare

Our tuff tray was the site of some serious scientific discovery this week! 🧊🔍
​The children engaged in an Ice Excavation to find hidden gold coins. Activities like this are fantastic for:
​Problem Solving: Figuring out the best way to melt or break the ice to reach the treasure.
​Hand-Eye Coordination: Using small mallets and tools with precision.
​Sensory Exploration: Learning about temperature and states of matter (solid ice vs. liquid water).
​Who knew mining for gold could be such a great workout for the brain and body? 🌈💪

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Children are increasingly afraid to fail. But what we’re really seeing is a fear of trying. Somewhere along the way, we decided childhood should be comfortable—protected from mistakes, struggle, and failure. But failure isn’t the problem. Failure is how children learn to understand risk. It’s how they discover what they’re capable of. When children try, they sometimes fail. They adjust. They try again. And through that process they build judgment, confidence, and resilience. Yet too often we design environments—and expectations—that remove those opportunities. Children don’t need protection from failure. They need safe opportunities to experience it. When children can test limits, assess risk, and recover from small setbacks, they learn something far more valuable than success: They learn to keep trying. Failure isn’t the opposite of growth. It’s where growth begins. #NaturalPlaygrounds #ChildDevelopment #RiskyPlay #ResilientKids #OutdoorLearning

Yesterday, our Tender Spirits family had the most magical St. Patrick’s Day tea party! 🍀☕
​A huge thank you to our wonderful practicum student, Francisca, for bringing in such a thoughtful spread of cupcakes, icing, fresh fruit, and "gold" coins. The children were so excited to dive in!
​Beyond the tasty treats, it was a fantastic morning for learning:
​Fine Motor Skills: Little hands worked hard squeezing icing bags to decorate their cupcakes—a great way to build hand strength and coordination! 🧁
​Creativity & Color: We "built a rainbow" using different fruits, exploring patterns and healthy choices. 🌈🍎
​Thank you again, Francisca, for making our day so bright!

🍀 No Instructions Needed! 🍀

​When we set out an invitation to play, we don’t give a manual. We just provide the tools and let the magic happen!

Today’s setup featured:
✨ Clover pop-its
✨ Shimmering mirrored trays
✨ Tiny glass vessels and pipettes

​Would they fill the pop-its drop-by-drop? Pour from the little pitchers? Or maybe just enjoy the reflections in the "golden" tray? It was so rewarding to step back and watch their different approaches to problem-solving and sensory exploration.

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🍀🌈 Learning is in the Bag (and the Bin!) 🍀🌈

​This sensory invitation is all about those fine motor skills! Our little learners have busy scooping, pouring, and exploring textures with this vibrant green rice.

​Activities like this help children develop:
✨ Hand-eye coordination (aiming for those funnels!)
✨ Pincer grasp (picking up those tiny gold coins and shamrocks)
✨ Language skills as we describe the sounds and feels of the rice.

​The "luck of the Irish" is definitely with us in the classroom this month! 🌈✨

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At Tender Spirits, we love a multi-day project! After our deep dive into mixing and naming custom greens (hello, "Light Green" and "Dinosaur Green"!), we transitioned our custom liquid watercolors to the art table.
​What are we learning here?
​Scientific Inquiry: Predicting how colors change with more or less pigment.
​Literacy: Connecting names and labels to specific shades.
​Fine Motor Skills: Using pipettes for mixing and brushes for intentional strokes.
​Aesthetic Awareness: Exploring the many variations within a single color family.
​Our little artists were so proud to use the "special" colors they invented themselves!
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🍃 Science in the Wild: Sink or Float? 🍃
​Our latest inquiry took us from a nature walk to the water table! The children carefully collected a basket of "natural treasures," each chosen with a specific theory in mind: will it sink or will it float?
​Some results took us by surprise! We were certain the red berries would float, but they plummeted to the bottom. Meanwhile, some tiny flowers closed their petals tight when they hit the water; we changed our guess to "sink," yet they stayed bobbing on the surface!
​Neel even connected our experiment back to a book we read recently, sharing his observations about density and why certain objects behave differently in the water.
​There was a moment of "scientific clashing" after Neel and Jaxson teamed up to carry the basket. Neel was ready for the "big dump" method, while Jaxson wanted to test them one by one. In the excitement, 90% of the basket ended up in the water at once! It was a fantastic lesson in physics, teamwork, and the joy of being surprised by nature.
​Does your little one have a favorite "treasure" they found on our walk?

❄️ Making Magic: When the Snow Melts, We Build Our Own! ❄️
​Today’s surprise snowfall disappeared as quickly as it arrived, but the curiosity it left behind was just heating up! When Jaxson asked if we could make our own snow, we skipped the "how-to" lecture and let him take the lead as Chief Scientist. 🧪
​Through a wonderful dialogue about what snow feels like, Jaxson brainstormed his own recipe. We talked about how "concrete" might be a bit too heavy and hard to fall on our noses, leading him to a much softer theory: white sand, water, and wool! 🧶
​Since we were fresh out of wool, we pivoted to cotton balls, and Jaxson was thrilled. By following his lead instead of just saying "that’s not how snow works," we turned a weather event into a masterclass in problem-solving and sensory exploration. The children got straight to work mixing and dipping to create their own "indoor winter."
​It wasn't "real" snow by the thermometer's standards, but the learning was 100% authentic! 🧤✨

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🌿 The "Green Lab" is Open! 🧪
I set out an invitation with recycled jars, pipettes, and various paint cards to see what the children would discover.
​The boys became "Color Scientists," mixing watercolors to match our green paint samples. It was a masterclass in collaboration: when a large glass milk bottle became too heavy for one, Jaxson asked for a hand and Neel jumped right in. "I can help! Where do you want me to put it?" he asked, and the two worked together perfectly. 🤝💚
​Our Custom Collection:
​🦖 Dinosaur Green
​🌿 Mint Green
​💧 Light Green
​To make it official, we created labels for our jars. Neel even took the lead and wrote his own label! We love seeing those early literacy skills shine through during play. 📝✨
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Sharing is Caring (and Rewarding!) 💖
As a member of our Tender Spirits family, you know that we strive to provide a safe, nurturing, and joyful environment for every child. We believe the best way to grow our community is through the families who already know and love us!

Know a friend, neighbour, or coworker looking for exceptional care? Refer them to TSCC, and everyone wins:

For YOU: A $50 gift card as a huge thank you from us! 🎁

For THEM: A $100 discount off their first month’s tuition! 💸

Help us spread the word and welcome a new friend to the TSCC family.

🌸 EXCLUSIVE SPRING BREAK OFFER FOR OUR PREVIOUS CLIENTS! 🌸
​We miss you! Since you've worked with us before, we want to give your child priority for our 2-week Spring Break program this March.
​Thanks to FRI funding, you can secure two full weeks of care for just $150! 💸
​📍 When: March 16-27, 2026
📍 Who: Previous clients only
📍 Price: $150 total (after funding)
​Spots are extremely limited and filling up fast. Don't wait—call us today to lock in your child’s spot!