It's a Playing Kind of Day!!

It's raining outside right now.  I thought it was going to be a wash out sort of day and had lots of indoor activities planned... Foil Hearts, Play Dough, Rice Table, Pin the Heart on Henrietta (Again & Again & Again) and of course Free Play is always an option.  Instead the rain held out and so out we went!!!

First we had snack outside....

Yum!!!  Can you see Scamp eyeing those goldfish!!!

I brought the play dough I had planned on using inside, outside.
This is exactly how it stayed :)
Not one kid stopped what they were doing and played with it. 

Sprout trying to convince Roo to come play "Witches" with her.

 Weighing the risks of going up, maybe??

Taking a drink break

Whose in here???

Don't you just wish you could read their minds at times like this ;)

Sometimes the need to be flexible outweighs the planned curriculum.  The joy of running outside, turning over rocks, trying to find a wet mud puddle (which was to funny watching Roo & Sprout doing just that), feeling drops of rain on our faces every now and then, using our large muscles to climb, run, and push, and navigating the world of friendships, is all the learning and teaching you sometimes need :)

Hope you enjoyed your day as much as we did!!!

Snap Shots of our Day

Another new week is upon us, our first full week of child care. It is a challenge to get a routine down when we still have our school age friends still home, but they will go back to school soon :)

My friends did a little of this and a little of that today...

Getting our own water has been a real treat!!

Ok, this photo was from last week, but Lil Bit here kept turning her head today and I couldn't get ONE picture with her looking at me today :)

The big kids did some paper mache bowls today, but some of them decided to take the cones from the water jug to make witches hats... cute!!

Working together

This one L!!

I like this Miss Michelle!!

Great Work O!!!

I was getting snack ready this morning and I could hear giggling coming from the bathroom and when I took a peak, these two were in there having a ball in the sink!!!

I taped this shelf to the sand table this weekend, hoping it would provide a little something extra to the kids play... I keep meaning to add some things like Tom from Sand and Water Tables, but I go looking around the house and can never seem to find anything... I'm working on it though :)

This little Scamp loved the shelf because she could touch the sand, move it and most of all swat it all over the room :)

What's Up at Shell's??

Just a little of this & a little of that!!!

Friends having a Birthday Party for the D-Man... No, it's not really his birthday, but who needs a real birthday to celebrate!!

These girls are really starting to play well together, not just along side of one another. There newest thing is to play babies. I (thankfully) have 2 strollers and they put "their" babies in and walk around the house, feed them and use the doctor's kit to check them out. All the while jabbering away to each other.

We have been learning about shapes (along with other things, of course) and I realized that last year I spent a lot of time having the kids identify shapes, but not really try to draw them. So, out came the chalk boards... I think they did a lovely job!!!

Just this little bit of practice and I already see a noticeable difference in their drawings, especially the Princess. Before, the drawings were very random and open ended, now I am seeing an attempt at people, animals, trees and even cars. The chalk boards are really great for this kind of practice too, we can always erase what we don't want and then take a picture of the the pictures we want to keep forever.

Outdoor Friday Fun!!

Take a look at what we did on this Beautiful Day!!!

Another slideshow design by Smilebox

A Rainy Friday

No photo's today. My afternoon helper is doing a project at school and took my camera to use some of the photo's from yesterday. I missed it!!

Today we did some painting with our Construction Vehicles and Orange Paint. We had Show-n-Tell, and counted to 30. We always do our Calendar, talk about the days of the week, and review our letters and numbers. I will usually read a book or two, we do some sort of jumping or dancing, and then go off to our center work. I had available the Sm, Med, Lg activities, a Bob the Builder Sequencing Sort that helps the kids with sizes (you can see it here) and the sensory table. So it was a busy morning.

We have been inside a lot this week. Between the rain and snow my yard is a huge mud pit. I don't mind getting muddy or wet, but muddy, wet and cold does not make for happy kids. So, it was kinda loud in my house today. We did some games, there was dancing and twirling, sliding and crashing, and singing. Lots of singing. We wash our hands to the tune of Itsy Bitsy Spider, and I usually can hear the kids singing softly while they wash up, but today it was a free for all. There was singing to beat the band. I am glad it is Friday.

This weekend I will be spending some real thoughtful contemplation on how to keep my free and open art/science/math areas up and running with Little Miss M around. She is getting so big and interested in the materials that she is digging right in. This is great, except she does still use her mouth as a real detective tool. She thinks by tasting it, she'll know what it is :)

So, I want to make the "classroom" open to all the kids. A place they all can enjoy and explore without any safety issues. But that leaves me with the question on how to make certain material accessible to the big kids, but not causing a safety issue for Little Miss M. Huh... see, it may take all weekend, but I will come up with something. If anyone with a mixed aged group has any ideas... I would love to hear from you!!! Thanks!!!