Our First Pre-School Open House

After the CPR class this morning we went to the open house at Creme de la Creme and really liked the facility. It's a state-of-the art place for childcare and school. Creme will take babies as early as 6 weeks and although our sister-in-law Lidija will be watching the baby early on, we are thinking about putting our name on the wait list for this pre-school.

Creme is designed to be a little village and each little storefront in the village has learning rooms. This is a small glimpse at the computer room. When the children are in the room they are each on their own computer. They also have dozens of other audio/visual options for the children such as Leap Frog games.


They also have a room with a Smart Board so that the little ones can drag/drop images or letters using their fingers or writing instruments on the board for learning exercises. For example, the bottom of the screen may show assorted letters and numbers and then the kids can drag the letters into the letter bucket or the numbers in the numbers bucket. This can all be recorded for the parents so that at the end of the day you leave with a DVD and see what your child did in school.



One of my favorite parts was the TV studio. This is another one of those areas where you can see your child's performance as he/she reads or presents. (I had to wait until I went to college to use one of these.) Often times children are shy or don't like to be in front of cameras and this makes them more comfortable in front of the camera or simply speaking in public. Frankly, I thought this place was so cool I would like to go there. LOL.



There was also a little math room, indoor playground, fitness room with tricycle size exercise machines, science lab, art and language rooms and even this cute little place to get haircuts.


This place has an on site chef so all meals are provided once the children eat solids. Creme also provide diapers and wipes as part of the fee.

If you are thinking about a day care or pre-school check it out. We will likely check out others but really did like this place and I believe it will be tough to beat.

Baby Class #2

We went back to Prentice Hospital today at the Northwestern Campus for Infant Safety and CPR. We learned the do's and don'ts of installing car seats and how to handle infant and child choking. It was only a 2-hour class and a great fresher from the last time we look CPR, which for me was probably in high school or college.

PARENTS

It's official... we've subscribed to our first magazine and opted for PARENTS. Jason was wondering how long it would take me to add another magazine subscription to the mail. Well, I waited 31 weeks-- not bad seeing that the first issue can take up to 12 weeks to receive and by then we'll definitely be parents.

Here's a special offer for anyone thinking about getting the magazine. Log on to their website, PARENTS.com, and you can sign up for 2 free years of the magazine. You end up getting 3 years / 36 issues for only $12. For those of you worried about spam or solicitations, I read the find print and the offer says they do not share their subscriber lists with 3rd parties.

Creme de la Creme

In honor of back-to-school season, this Saturday Jason and I are going to tour a school for the baby. The school is called Creme de la Creme and they offer classes for little ones as old as 6 weeks. I'm not sure that we would start our nugget that early, but school will be here before we know it. I am a big fan of a school with a water park and tennis courts but they also offer music, Spanish and a whole lot more.

Baby 411

Last night we attended our first class, Prenatal Care, at Prentice Women's Hospital at Northwestern. The class covered everything essential to know from about 35 weeks pregnant until the age of 1 year old. It was mostly conversational but we covered many topics over the 90 minutes. Additionally we received a must read baby handbook.

Our next class is Saturday and we'll have a scheduled class every weekend for about a month. I hope that's enough schooling. :o)

Wagner Farm

This blog comes courtesy of my co-worker James VanOsdol who took his family to Wagner Farm last week while on a stay-cation. He said this place is a great place to take the family for a free day of entertainment. They have an old fashioned general store, a farmer's market and of course lots of farm animals. You can learn more about this Farm by clicking on this link.

Where did the weekend go?

The countdown is on. Less than 10 weeks to go. At this point we have a nursery theme, have signed up for all our classes, have registered for baby items and are starting to clean out the guest room so that it can be made over for the baby. Jason begins his last class for his Master's this week. He goes back to school right after Labor day so hopefully we'll have the walls painted and decorated in the nursery before he's back to work.

On an unrelated note, we know nine couples currently pregnant. Our little nugget will be in good company but for those expectant parents that check out our blog you must go to BUY, BUY, BABY. It's a store in Lombard, IL that is a massive baby super store-- think Bed, Bath & Beyond full of all baby goods. We were there for the first time today and overall it was overwhelming. We believe it has more high end and low end items than Babies R Us so it's definitely a place we'll probably go to again.