Tag Archives: Oxford Children’s Academy Myrtle Beach

A Winning Thursday Rundown

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Good evening to all! With it mid-December, I am starting to feel pretty jolly and I hope you have similar feelings as well. I am excited about this week’s Thursday Rundown so let’s get started.

First Place – Sloan’s daycare, Oxford Children’s Academy, is always offering fun events and community building activities. To celebrate its birthday (which was on Dec. 11), OCA challenged families to make a video commemorating the milestone. If you know me well, it will come as no surprise that I couldn’t resist. Sloan, Sidney, and I sat down and recorded a video from the heart. It was announced today that we won first place (and a $50 tuition credit)! To watch the video, click here. As we reflect on our many blessings this holiday season, one thing that sticks out is how fortunate we are to send Sloan to such a loving daycare.

As part of Oxford Children’s Academy birthday festivities, a photo booth was set up. We are so pleased to send Sloan to OCA and completely honored to have won 1st place in the video competition!

Sloan’s Santa Saga – As I mentioned last week, Sloan has Santa issues. This past weekend, we tried to make some progress with her phobia. We attended a delicious Breakfast with Santa event put on by the Knights of Columbus at St. Andrew. Unfortunately, the tears still flowed when we put her on Santa’s lap. But, there was a bright spot (other than the food)! The Knights of Columbus must have some type of “in” with Santa because he brought Mrs. Claus with him. It turned out that Sloan loved his better half. At the start of the breakfast, Mrs. Claus was guiding Sloan around the beautiful tree that was set up in our church’s community center, pointing out different ornaments. By the end of the breakfast, the roles were reversed! Sloan was taking Mrs. Claus by the hand and excitedly pointing at what was hanging from the branches.

Sloan didn’t warm up to Santa at the St. Andrew Knights of Columbus pancake breakfast but she did really enjoy Mrs. Claus.

Christmas Music Program – Last week, the 2nd graders at Palmetto Bays Elementary School staged their holiday music performance. Wanting to show our support, Sloan and I surprised Mrs. Reser a couple minutes prior to the concert. Sid was so happy to see us! Throughout the performance, Sloan danced her heart out and tried to rush the stage. It was pretty cute. Sloan will have her chance to be the center of attention tomorrow as OCA will hold its Christmas performance.

Sloan couldn’t be contained at the Palmetto Bays 2nd grade Christmas program! She just wanted to dance and rush the stage.

Another Holiday Comic Laugh – I can’t help but share these funny Christmas-related comics so I hope you don’t mind. Poor Santa, little does he know about the evolution of his image over the years. I just hope Amazon was able to exchange his purchase for something that will be a little more suitable for Christmas Eve.

Santa was definitely “off the mark” on this.

Interesting Articles – I wanted to share a couple of interesting articles I read last night. The first one is from the New York Times and tells the hilarious story of a Utah government worker who had an email disaster. Intending to send a holiday potluck email to her small unit of workers in the Utah Department of Corrections, she accidentally sent it to all 22,000 government workers in the state! The “reply all” responses that ensued are hilarious!

The second article was sent to me by Lindsay Hickman, a current grad student at CCU. The story describes a near-impossible assignment given by a professor at Missouri State University. The faculty member, holding the belief that it is much harder to go viral than people think (I agree!), challenged his students to do just that. He thought there was no chance that his students could succeed in reaching 7,000 people, let alone 7.75 million. To find out what this group did to get so many views, click here.

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It is crazy how fast everything is going. My last day at work for the year will be next Friday! Speaking of a year that is quickly coming to an end, be sure to make these last 18 days of 2018 count. Hope you all have a great weekend. Don’t Blink.

Spying on Sloan at Daycare

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When a “Big Brother” season is airing, Sidney and I will supplement watching the actual episodes with viewing the live feeds of the Big Brother house that are active 24/7. Watching the unfiltered, raw content is pretty entertaining.

However, it is the month of April and “Big Brother” won’t return until June. But don’t worry about us, we have something even better to watch than the Big Brother live feeds; we have the Oxford Children’s Academy live feed!!

You can see everything that goes on within the walls of Oxford Children’s Academy, even if you are miles away!

When we changed Sloan’s daycare provider, we entered a technological renaissance. We now check her in electronically, view her daily logs online, and receive notifications the second she enters or leaves the center. But the best modern tool we have gained with the switch is the live streaming service.

Whether on a computer or from my phone, I can check on Sloan whenever I please, thanks to a camera that is set up in her classroom that pans the entire area. The Oxford Children’s Academy partners with Watch Me Grow, a streaming video system service built specifically for childcare centers. Watch Me Grow is the industry leader and for good reason. The product delivered is not a rinky-dink, convenient store black and white shaky picture. Rather it is a colorful and comprehensive clear look into our daughter’s classroom.

It didn’t take us long to start taking advantage of the resource. The first time I logged in and saw Sloan’s vibrant classroom with babies crawling all over was pretty cool. Up until that point, I had always wondered what Sloan did and how she interacted with others at daycare. I now had an idea.

I didn’t know it before, but watching babies play together and do silly things is so much more pleasurable to watch than adults cussing at each other and engaging in drunken behavior (i.e. Big Brother live feeds). Better yet, having your baby daughter as one of the stars of the production makes it that much more entertaining…

Perhaps too entertaining.

Like with all good things, moderation is key. It is easy to become preoccupied with the live feed in a way that you are constantly signing in to check on your baby. If you lack will power or are just completely obsessed with your child, the streaming option could be your own worst enemy. Nobody wins when you sacrifice all productivity to watch nap time.

Even when we can’t be with Sloan at home, we can still see her at daycare.

In my case, I try to use the daycare live feed as a reward. I will challenge myself to tackle several items on my checklist before briefly scoping out the action in the Little Clouds (name of Sloan’s age group) classroom. If I work hard enough, this incentive usually allows me to view Sloan 3-4 times per day, with the lunch hour included in that allotment. I try to look for just a minute or so but it is enough to give me a boost. When I am done I find myself more motivated to get back to work because of the peace of mind and happiness I received from viewing my daughter in a safe and nurturing environment.

The live stream at our daycare is great for spouses. Sidney and I update each other on how Sloan is doing during the day. Because we sign in at different times, we help paint a more comprehensive picture by “comparing our notes.” Usually our updates tilt toward the humorous side (Sloan is stealing someone’s snack again/How embarrassing, she is eating her socks). The live feed even allows us to monitor each other! Yesterday evening I went to pick up Sloan. I started looking in her cubbie and around the classroom for her shoes. All of a sudden I had an incoming call. It was Sidney. Before I could say anything, she told me she didn’t send Sloan with shoes today. Because she was watching the stream, she was able to put me out of my misery before I embarrassed myself too much looking for shoes that weren’t there.

Despite all the positives I listed above, the most redeeming quality of the live feed is this: Sloan’s daycare is confident and transparent enough to install cameras that allow picky and protective parents to watch every single moment that occurs in those classrooms. In my opinion, that is comforting.

The Oxford Children’s Academy show will go on! I know Sid and I will continue to get plenty more laughs and assurances out of it. Move over “Big Brother,” we are watching something much better. Don’t Blink.