Amanda's House Licensed Childcare

09/03/2026

09/03/2026

We had a busy, fun morning celebrating Owen’s 5th birthday! He requested a ball pit, so we stayed inside and made a ball pit obstacle course. He also made his own little birthday cake all by himself. Such a fun morning celebrating Owen!

09/01/2026

I recently started a four week advocacy program through the Nebraska Early Childhood Collaborative. I’ve been paired with a mentor, and part of the program is choosing an advocacy goal to work on over the four weeks.

I decided to focus on something that is very important to me, the value of family child care. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing three things that I think make family child care special.

The first is one of my favorites, having kids of different ages together. Sometimes people might see mixed ages as a challenge, but I see so many benefits to it.

The little kids are always watching the big kids and learning from them. They see how they play, talk, solve problems and do things for themselves. But the big kids are learning too. They learn how to be patient, how to help and how to care for someone younger than them.

Over the years, I’ve watched so many sweet relationships form between kids who aren't the same age. The big kids are proud when they can help a little one, and the little ones absolutely love being included with the big kids.

It's one of the things I love most about family child care. We aren't all the same age, but we learn from each other, help each other and become our own little daycare family.

08/31/2026

This morning the kids thought it looked like it was going to rain, so they decided we needed a dark dance party. We shut off the lights, got out the flashlights, turned up the music and had some fun!

08/27/2026

I have this awesome teepee that I’ve had since Kalleigh was little, so it’s almost 20 years old now! The frame is still in great shape, but the fabric cover is starting to fall apart and really needs to be replaced.

I actually found the exact pattern it was made from, Butterick B4251. Is there anyone local who is really good at sewing and would be interested in making a new cover for it? I would absolutely pay you for your time and work. I’d love to keep this teepee around for another 20 years!

08/26/2026

We planted cucamelon seeds this spring and I didn't think anything was growing. Then all of a sudden we had cucamelon vines everywhere!

The tiny cucamelons are really well camouflaged in the leaves, so the kids have to look closely to find them. They've been having so much fun searching for them, picking them, and of course eating them. Most of the kids even like them!

08/26/2026

The kids have been loving the sand table lately! Owen started adding water to it, so it’s become more of a muck table, but they are loving the wet, soupy sand. There’s been lots of talk about building dams and all kinds of ideas and collaboration happening. It’s been fun to watch where their play takes them.

08/26/2026

The water pump has been forgotten about lately 😢 Then the other day, one of the kids decided to give it a try and figured out they could actually pump water with it! Suddenly everyone wanted a turn and it became the thing to do for the day!

Sometimes it just takes one kid to rediscover something and everyone else is ready to join in.

08/19/2026

Last week we made homemade lemonade together! The kids washed the lemons, squeezed them, strained out the seeds, helped make simple syrup, and mixed everything together. It turned out really good!

Of course we couldn’t just throw away all those squeezed lemons, so they went into our sensory play. We added them to water with a little yellow watercolor and the kids squeezed them over and over again. Such a simple way to work those little hand muscles and build fine motor skills.

Then I froze the lemons over the weekend so we could explore them frozen, and today they made their way outside for potion making. We definitely got a lot of use out of one bag of lemons!

08/17/2026

One of the fun things about the last day before kindergarten is letting them choose what they want to do! Ellie and Wilson had two requests: potions and the ball pit.

This morning we made potions with baking soda, vinegar and watercolors, then got extra messy with shaving cream. This afternoon we finished off the day with lots of jumping in the ball pit. I think they picked some pretty good last-day activities!