Juicing with Josh and G!

I was at a party this weekend chatting with a friend who mentioned that she liked our projects but thought it would be helpful if I added some insight as to how we come up with inspiration for the things we do. It’s funny because before she asked the question I never really thought that anyone would be interested in hearing about the Willy Wonka think tank inside my head that churns out projects. That thing is always droning on and on and on.... even in my sleep!

The children sniffed lemon, ginger, oregano, basil and rosemary. We’ve had many conversations about how herbs have powerful antioxidants to clean out the insides of our bodies. Often the kids will graze on herbs from the garden during play in the outdoor classroom.

Truth be told, half the time I’m not really sure what we are going to do until I am in the midst of gathering supplies for a project and even then things are subject to change. Ideas just sort of emerge and take on a life of their own. Often one project gives birth to another and another and another until it fizzles out then I scavenge around for something new to explore. Sometimes our project plans are fantastic, other times they’re not - every once in a while things go dastardly awry and it’s an absolute failure. On those days we learn that failure can be a really great teacher of patience and persistence. We still end up learning something, just not the thing we set out to discover.

The actual inspiration for our projects comes from a variety of places; following the children’s play, observing other AMAZING teachers at work, stumbling across a long lost toy, surfing Pinterest, pictures in magazines, art shows, concerts, window displays at the mall, a gazillion books or some random thing I think the kids might find interesting from my own personal hobbies. Where ever I go I am always on the look out for unique things to share with the children, and when the right combination of elements come together, voila! a project is born.

Going to Arts, Beats and Eats had a lot of really great inspirational pieces for mixed media art projects. I met the coolest artist who helped me trouble shoot on some of our "failed" glass projects from last year.

The inspiration for this particular project came from watching the documentary Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead with my husband. It sounds like a depressing place for a children's project to be born but the documentary was actually pretty empowering. In the film Joe Cross goes on a 60 day juice fast to see if he can rid hid body of toxins and ditch the medications he relies on to keep his autoimmune disorder in check. He inspires a bunch people, who inspire a bunch of other people and pretty soon the whole thing takes on a life of it's own. If you would like to hear more about Joe’s amazing story you can check it out here. 

Kale, apple, carrot, ginger juice - looks and sounds disgusting but it's actually pretty awesome! The kids all asked for seconds.

In his travels, Joe spreads the good word about the harnessing the power of plants as a means to provide the human body with the ability to heal itself. The subject of nutrition is particularly important to us, because my husband lives with pancreatitis.  Josh has never had a drinking problem or any of the other pre existing conditions that can cause pancreatitis so understanding the underlying cause and management of his illness has been a challenge for both of us. Slowly we are making progress and working together to re-imagine our version of living happily ever after as we work together to find ways to restore his health. 
  

Washing, chopping and juicing veggies is a great way to explore new foods in a non threatening way.

Our personal story has this whole trickle down effect on how we interact with the children. We believe strongly in putting children in control of their own well being by educating them in ways that they can care for their own bodies. We talk about all the things our bodies are telling us so that they know they have the power to change the way they feel. For instance, our real life discussions such as: If you can't make poop, your body probably needs more vegetables, if your tummy is upset, it might be trying to get rid of some germs, if you can't sit still, your body needs to run and if your body is out of control, you might need a minute to "get it together" before you are ready work on your problem - happen on a regular basis.   

After hearing about Josh's cat scan the kids wanted to Google the procedure to learn more about it. Later they helped him practice for his appointment by pretending to be doctors then they built an ambulance in the dramatic play area.

In our little realm the kids know about Josh’s condition; we talk about it often so that they understand why he doesn't feel up for wrestling some days or why he doesn’t eat lunch with the rest of us. We all care about Josh so his health serves as a meaningful representation of what it means to take responsibility for your personal well being. Discussions about how he is working to heal his body by eating more vegetables, fruits, herbs and healthy grains are more meaningful because he is their role model. As Josh and I discover the nutritional value of foods we introduce into our diet, we share our new foods with the children. We also talk about other foods like hot dogs and chicken nuggets that are okay to eat sometimes but aren’t as healthy as a nice chicken breast or herb filled pesto. 

Pulp makes a great sensory experience in the outside kitchen. The kids made all sorts of “pies,” “salads,” and “soups”. They enjoyed smashing, mixing and sniffing it as they worked.

Giving children the wisdom to understand how their bodies work is a gift they will carry with them throughout their lives. Putting it in real life context and practicing every day makes it something they are likely to pack away in their little tool belt for success when they venture out in the world beyond our doors.

If I had three wishes for every preschooler.....

I recently wrapped up a few interviews with prospective families and somewhere in the middle of my 2 hour long spiel parents of older children always say, “Your program looks great but do you offer preschool?” I feel like it’s a trick question, if I say “yes” will they be waiting on pins and needles for that first number / letter worksheet? If I say “no” will they think the children are wandering around bored out of their tiny skulls losing I.Q. points by the day? My response is usually something along the lines of “Yes but it looks a whole lot more like kids just having fun than a preschool curriculum.” 

Then I hope they aren’t too disappointed when their child’s first art project is a massive glob of paint that gets tossed in the trash once it’s served it’s purpose of demonstrating color transformation of many shades of brown.

This year's first official art project made its way to the trash when we were finished. While there was no tangible evidence that any learning took place, by day's end we made some really great observations about the color brown.

I could have given the kids a squirt of brown paint and a cut out of a bear with the instructions to paint a brown bear for the letter B but then they would have missed out on some valuable opportunities.  For instance, brown bear cut outs don’t engage children for forty minutes as they practice the ability to focus on their work, cooperate with peers in a small space or refine their ability to manipulate small objects without frustration. Working on those globs of paint also opened up a wealth of descriptive dialogue and opportunities to hone their skills of observation in a way that was specifically meaningful to them. They shared at least fifteen different musings on the subject of "things that are brown" as they observed shade transformations in their own work and the work of peers. 

Defending children’s rights to play as a valid means of investigating the world and learning is an exhausting endeavor. For some families it’s very visible right from the get go and for others it’s a You’ll believe it when you see it kind of a thing, thankfully I am a part of people who value this method of teaching because many of them are teachers by trade.

I am SO thankful for them everyday, they are SO supportive and wonderful to work with.

I’m not a traditional girl pedaling a traditional program; I don’t believe your baby can or should read, I believe Baby Einstein is a load of crap and toddlers should not have unlimited access to ipads or other electronic gadgets. I also believe that our society’s obsession with pumping children full of facts gets in the way of fostering true creativity because true creativity is unpredictable, messy and a little bit quirky. 

After a few failed attempts at building an airplane with these tricky blocks we separated the blocks to make it easier to hunt down the correct pieces for the project. Then we hung the blueprints so we could match them up. After several attempts to follow the directions we decided to make our own simpler designs. 

Most of our preschools (and schools) are being pressured into churning out children who are “good listeners” making “good choices” instead of good question askers making lots of messy mistakes in the relentless pursuit of feeding their insatiable curiosity. 

I like children’s curiosities; I think children should be fed great big heaping servings of delicious information as often as the they desire. I also believe that only information that is relevant to the child’s interests and methods of learning have any value to them so we should be mindful in our teaching practices.  

Sadly our society has bought into the idea that memorizing all the basic symbols for reading and writing are the most important markers for time well spent in preschool and so that is where the curriculum goes. The problem is that preschool is actually meant to prepare the body and mind for school, not force children to hurry up and learn “school stuff” so they can get to school and learn more “school stuff.” 

After building a stage and designing outfits for a fashion show we googled "runway shows" for a behind the scenes look at the fashion industry.

If I were to have three magic wishes for every child under the age of five my first wish would be (drum roll please) ...... no more circle time! 

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of sitting in circle time you would understand why children twitch uncontrollably and want to poke the daylights out of each other. It’s mind numbing and in my personal opinion circle time is the beginning of sit down and be quiet teaching practices that are so pervasive in our system. All that sitting and listening to someone else yammer on and on about something that is completely uninteresting seems like a huge waste of time. Not all children are ready for the same information at the same time in the same way. 

Some children are not great at sitting still and they need to move to process. Some children need to bounce from one task to the other taking in little bits of information before they are able to process the whole. Some children are great sitters and like to have a quiet space to work, others blabber on and on about completely unrelated topics then bust out with great ideas when you didn’t even think they were listening. Teaching children to resist their own true nature in favor of someone else’s idea of what “listening” looks like only leads them to believe that they are incapable of interpreting and fulfilling their own needs. 

We took our buckets, ropes and clamps on the road to build a pulley system for moving wood chips at our local park. Along the way we found these awesome flowers so we compared the size of the small yellow flowers with the gigantic Sunflowers and other naturey stuff.

My suggestion? Long walks and long talks about things that are relevant to the children.   If you must do circle time, do it during meal times and let the kids lead the discussion. They never fail to take the ball and run with it. I once had the most fascinating conversation about the inner workings of a legless woman’s intestines with a group of children under the age of five, you won’t find THAT topic in your pre-k teacher’s theme book! 

Don’t make everyone sit for discussions lasting more than five minutes. If what you have to say as a teacher is riveting they will hang on your every word, otherwise you are wasting their time. Back off, let them make a few discoveries in their play, watch them, learn what interests them - then form your lesson plan around that. You will be astounded at how engaged they can be!

Which brings me to my second wish.....dump thematic teaching and worksheets! 

Nothing sucks the life out of teaching and learning like a canned curriculum slopped over the children year after boring year. Lots of preschools are using the same stuff handed down from one teacher to the next because it’s what they’ve always done. You know the drill.... Apples in September, Pumpkins in October, Turkeys in November, on and on it goes. It’s SO predictable and SO boring. It’s not fun to teach and it’s probably not fun to learn especially when you consider how many children are attending the same program EVERY year until kindergarten. 

Yawn.

Don’t we owe our children more? Isn’t the purpose of education to encourage children  to follow their own interests, ask questions, develop ideas, imagine things that don’t exist and learn to self educate so they can contribute to society in a meaningful way?!? I’m sorry to say it folks but repeating the same old Apple, Pumpkin, Turkey routine year in and year out is not going to get us there. 

A pulley system built by a group of children who wanted to make "an elevator" for pet shops and pirates.

There are so many things to learn and early childhood is the time when we need to pile kindling on the flame of curiosity rather than suffocating it with lackluster, teacher-driven, outdated drivel. How about building a stage for a fashion show, researching how accordions are made or exploring simple mechanics by building a pulley system?

What is a fashion runway without dramatic lighting? These guys conjured up a catwalk from old planks, Christmas lights and sheer fabric. It was fabulous and a little terrifying to watch them teeter across it in plastic high heels but it was great fun!

My third and final wish...

Make all classrooms multi aged, give teachers a few years to work with the same group of kids and drop ratios to a rational number with parent volunteers.

O.K. I guess that last one was a three in one so it’s kind of cheating as far as wishes go but the point is in twenty years of working with little ones I can say that it all boils down to this simple equation: 

Child spends lots of time with a creative teacher who understands her as a person + child participates in a community of learners on a sliding scale of capabilities = child becomes compassionate, emotionally grounded, wildly creative person.

Learning about taking care of the environment and healthy eating by growing our own food and composting in the back yard.

Simple equation, tricky to put into practice but it can be done. I assure you we are living proof of that.

My favorite thing about the way our program is structured is that I get to keep my kids for several years and we are a small tight knit bunch. I get to learn what makes them tick so I can help them go from low man on the totem pole (the youngest among us) to the problem solving leaders of play (the oldest). Also there's a certain social responsibility built into the hierarchy of our little society. It’s expected that the children will be patient with less capable peers, that they will trust me to back them up so that they don’t need to get physical and that they will help each other out because that is what good friends do. It’s the sort of thing that gets better each year the kids are steeped in the energy of the group and it makes them better people.  

First Day Jitters

Ahhhh There’s nothing like the first day of school to conjure up feelings of excitement and new beginnings! For some of our littles it is the first time they are meeting all the children of daycareland and for others it’s a reunion of friends they haven’t seen since the beginning of summer. 

This little guy needed lots of extra hugs today even though last year he was one of my most confident leaders during play. 

As a teacher I know the first few weeks are likely to be filled with laughter, tears, nervous new parents, tots who haven’t figured out how long a daycare day really is and lots of change for everyone. It’s as exhausting as it is fun and in a very short time everyone settles in, but the first day has it’s challenges.

Our newest little friend! Took to daycareland as if he's always been here.

It’s not always easy to know how the children are going to adjust to the routine so for our first few weeks together our curriculum and rhythm of our day are pretty laid back. Some of the kids exuberantly hop right back into the group setting as if they hadn’t missed a day, while others need a little more time and reassurance that we are all friends here.

While the names on our roster change from year to year the beginning of the year is pretty predictable. 

Counting cucumbers and preparing to cut them up after helping Josh gather them from the garden.

There will be teary goodbyes and sadness that will most likely continue until all mommies and daddies clear out for the day. Sometimes teacher hugs make the sadness better and sometimes teacher hugs make it worse. Sometimes kid hugs make the sadness better, sometimes kid hugs make it worse but we all try to be welcoming and patient with our new friends.

When I’m approaching an emotionally fragile child I try to imagine things from his / her perspective. I wonder what it would be like to be hugged by a towering stranger while I am feeling REALLY upset and uncertain? I think depending on the situation it could be either reassuring, terrifying or a serious invasion of space so take that into consideration and follow each child’s nonverbal cues. I respect their need to observe and be alone if my presence is overwhelming, or I let the clingy children hang out on my lap as much as they need to until they are ready to enter play confidently.

Almost always, even the toughest cases calm down in time for breakfast.

Josh trying to cram his butt in a highchair to lighten the mood, what did I ever do without him???

Once we are seated the room is quieter, calmer and a little less intimidating. I usually prepare something sweet and cinnamony to remind them of home. The kids who have been here a while know just what to do to cheer up a sad kid, inevitably someone will crack a joke, share a story about their family or just a smile a silly smile...

We talk about the sequence of our day so that everyone has some reference for how long the daycare day is. We think about which fun things we would like to do during project time, then we find something the new child really likes to do.

As the morning rolls along I snap a picture of each child once they settle in, then shoot the new moms a text and update them on how their child is doing. Then we get ready to head outside.

Sometimes preparing to go outside is a reminder that the moms are gone for the day and the fragile kiddies start to sob. That’s when the veterans of daycareland offer a back rub or a sympathetic look as they recite the sequence of the day in a soothing voice: “ Remember? First its breakfast time, then it’s project time, then it’s outside time, then it’s lunch time, then it’s nap time, then it’s snack time, then your mommy will be here!” 

Sometimes it works, sometimes they need more snuggles or alone time before they are ready to calm down. The anxious ones always lets me know they are sleepy and they want it to hurry up and be nap time because after that the mommy can come. 

Anything with paint is a hit! For this project we examined nature items in various shades of brown then mixed blue, yellow and red to make our own shades of brown. Afterward the gloppy mess got trashed but it sure was a good time!

Instead we go outside and do something fun.

The vastness of the great outdoors calms the children and helps them manage their emotions so we spend LOTS of time outside. As the day unfolds they take an interest in the all new toys, projects, people and freedom they have to explore new things. Slowly but surely they begin to trust the new people who will soon be and extension of their family.

Everybody loves knives right?!? Getting to do big people things is a big deal so we chopped up some extra cucumbers just to see what was inside, then we had some for lunch.

Before you know it, the day is done and they discover that daycare is not so scary after all ........ until mommy leaves again the next morning :)  

Puttin' on a fashion show

Today was a happy reunion with a bunch of the littles who have grown up and left daycareland. Generally speaking I don’t plan too many things on reunion days since our time together is precious and the kids just want to hangout with old friends. Mostly it’s a time for catching up with each other and sharing how much our lives have changed in the time since we last visited with one another.

That being said, the kiddies who land on my doorstep during the summer program are a random collection of kids from years past so the energy of the group is very different than it is during the school year. It can be tough for the graduates and the newer littles to click if their interests and ages are too far apart. In those situations I keep a few activities on the back burner to fill out any rough spots during the day or to bring everyone to a place of connection so we can move forward in our day happily. 

I should have known better than to even bother with any alternate plans with this group because they all seem to share a passion for fashion, pop music and pop culture. Shortly after breakfast two of my older daycare besties requested some “dance club music” and they informed me that it  needed to be loud, really really LOUD so they could dance. I offered up Queen and Abba knowing that the lyrics are not too questionable but they shot me down in favor of REAL dance club music. Then they busted out singing the lyrics from LMFAO’s Party Rock Anthem in harmony and asked for me to find THAT song. A quick search on Pandora under the Cardio Dance radio station turned up just the right booty shaking music. 

The kids got to work showing each other dance moves they learned from music videos and dance classes. They worked together to come up with a few new moves by merging what they knew and what they saw other children doing until their “moves” morphed into a new routine. Seeing that everyone was interested in the dance theme, I offered to get out the disco ball and flashlight to make an official dance floor.

You would have thought I had just promised an actual real live performance by LMFAO. The girls squealed with delight as they rushed around looking for the perfect outfits to wear to the “big dance”.  As I gathered up the supplies for the dance floor they swarmed my feet shouting out ideas for outfits and transforming our little room into a dance club. There was quite a commotion as many glittery skirts were tried on and tossed aside until each dance participant had found just the right outfit. Meanwhile Sam, our only boy who does not share the girls passion for fashion or disco dancing watched for a while then decided to do his own thing with the marble tracks at the train table.

Once everything was set up the girls paired up and got to work choreographing a dance routine together. Not wanting to miss out on all the fun, Sam decided to put on a fuzzy scarf, back pack and some green goggles to join in the festivities. He even found a way to work his favorite thing ever - rope into a dance routine. He wrapped it around each girl’s waist then pulled it and as he did the girls went spinning across the room like ballerinas. Everyone wanted a turn with Sam’s rope dance and eventually the girls took over the idea and he moved on to dancing on the jumping spot with another friend.

In another area the oldest girls worked in pairs pulling each other through their legs footloose style then they danced with waltz like motions. The younger girls studied their movements and waited for turns to give it a try. Later all of the kids made a little conga line, followed by a coordinated group wave, that went up and down the whole line of children several times.

Somewhere along the line the group focus went from developing new dance routines to creating the most outlandish fashion statements. The three oldest girls decided they wanted to be “fashion models” and “designers” so they claimed the fairy den as their “backstage area” for designing dresses. 

They flipped on the lights and got to work fashioning outfits for themselves and each other. Some of the kids draped spare bits of fabric and scarves over themselves then attached loose ends with binder clips or asked me to tie them to create dresses. All of the kids worked together choosing outfits based on specific elements of the fabric or style they were working on. They discussed which colors went together and how much sequence or fuzz was a fashionable amount. When the largest girls came across dresses that didn’t fit, they simply tucked the tops of dresses down around their waist to transform them into skirts then they added fuzzy scarves or draped fabric across their chest to make a complete the outfit. 

The kids decided they needed a stage to complete their fashion show so they built one out of scrap wood and dubbed me the photographer / audience. It took some time for them to decide on the proper direction and height for the stage but once they did the construction was pretty quick. They laid wood planks on top of each other by staggering them in a double height pile, then they covered the “stage” with various textured fabrics and ran Christmas lights along the sides.  

I introduced the children to the term “catwalk” then demonstrated my best model walk complete with a hand on the hip and an exaggerated swagger. I explained how models do a little turn for the audience so that everyone can see all of the details of the garment. The kids ran with it and had a blast taking turns walking up and down the catwalk, hamming it up for the camera and switching up the outfits then taking another turn. The “models” waiting backstage helped each other change clothes quickly and line up again so there was no lag time between models on the catwalk. 

When all the fun was over we cleaned up and went outside for a little break.

Later as we ate lunch we looked at a slideshow of our project and revisited some ideas about designing clothes. We talked about our favorite elements in each outfit. We discussed the shape of garments, how we made them and which texture / color combinations were our favorites.

Then we viewed a video clip of real models on the runway in Milan including behind the scenes artistry involved in getting the girls ready. We watched as the make up artists, hair artists and designers all worked very quickly on the models to create a certain look in a very short period of time - just as we had done. As the models made their way down the runway, we discussed the colors, textures and shapes of their garments. We considered the materials the designer used to create the outfits, how the outfits were accessorized, which outfits we liked and which outfits we didn’t like. The kids even had some ideas about what they would have done to improve the designers concept.   

Just as we were wrapping up our discussion about how fashion designing, make up artistry and hair artistry are all related forms of art, Isabel noted that “Models are like a living canvas for designers” - How awesome is that? 

Designing With Interlocking Blocks

This morning I set out a set of wooden interlocking blocks for the kiddies while I put together the project I thought was going to be the highlight of the day: Drip Drop Painting. It was a rainy day  so I thought it might be a fun way to experiment with color and medicine droppers. 

Drip Drop Painting is the process of color mixing using medicine droppers. We needed to use up the remnants of paint from previous projects since we will be going on vacation next week :)

I was a  little concerned because we didn’t have enough painting spaces for everybody and judging from the swarm of kids waiting to paint, I thought a couple of kiddies would be disappointed at the prospect of having to wait. 

Turns out some of the kids were SO focused on block play that not everyone was interested in painting. So as some children left the block table for painting, others experimented with their abandoned designs. 

Notice the symmetry and balance of Jack’s structure. He was very careful to pick out pieces that matched so that he could create a more stable structure. As he worked he tested the durability of his “ helicopter car” by rolling it across the table and making adjustments as needed. He had an especially difficult time trying to get the wheels to stay on as he rolled it. Eventually he discovered that placing two support bars on the bottom of his car spanning both rods helped to keep everything in place.

As the children worked they stopped to examine each other’s structures to get ideas. Jack’s mobile structure inspired the children to build vehicles of their own, however we only had two rods for holding wheels in place.  I made an attempt to help everyone achieve their goal by improvising with bamboo skewers cut to lengths of the rods. Unfortunately the diameter didn’t work so they had to think up different ways to represent the idea of a car.

Sam and Logan made wheels for their cars by attaching disks to their structures in different ways. The wheels didn’t move but they seemed pleased with their constructions anyway. 

As they built and observed each other’s work the kids seemed to notice that symmetry played a part in creating a more stable structure. They represented their understanding of the importance of symmetry by finding matching pieces and discarding pieces that did not enable them to create symmetry on key parts of their structures. 

After they worked for a while I asked if any of the children wanted to draw a picture of their projects. 

Jack decided he wanted to draw "directions to make a car". We talked about how it would probably help him to draw the directions if he looked at the car as worked. While drawing he pulled off some of the pieces to examine them more closely. It was clear he was thinking about the individual shapes he used to create the larger piece. 

Addie also wanted to draw so she placed her block on the paper and drew her representation of it. Later she made a drawing device by adding a circular block to the end of her marker while drawing.

Will's first attempts at tracing his block involved making huge sweeping motions around the block. I showed him how to recreate the lines of his block by running the marker along the side of the blocks edge. After watching my demonstration he payed closer attention to the details of the block and made slower, more deliberate movements.

Sam set the two parts of his car on the table and drew his design for the wheels that didn’t move.

Carmen joined the table of children drawing their designs after she worked with the blocks. She listened to their ideas, watched their building and stopped to study their illustrations as she made a drawing of her own.

Some of the other children were more interested in constructing, deconstructing and experimenting with their ideas than they were in the drawing aspect of the project. 

When one child left his or her design behind, the other children experimented with the remnants. The simple act of positioning the project at a different angle or reshaping a few pieces had the power of sparking a new direction of play. 

When all of our inventing was done, the illustrators took turns sharing their concepts with the other children at group time. This generated an in depth conversation about all of the structures, including the ones created by children who did not choose to illustrate their designs.

Moving Centers Outdoors

The kids have had a super fun time getting used to our outdoor learning space. Every morning they start asking, “Is it time to go outside yet?!?” as soon as all the parents head out for the day. If we had a bathroom and some cots out there I’m pretty sure they would never come in. 

Setting up centers outside is a SO much easier than I thought it would be. It’s pretty great that the kids have much more space to work on large scale projects together or take a break and burn off some steam by running around the yard or pounding on stuff. That is a God send now that most of daycare land is comprised of boys with lots of energy! Some of the fun things we had planned this week were:

Dart Guns:

Dart guns and other target games have been popular with this super energetic group of kids. They especially love shooting dart guns at the acrylic easel because the darts stick really well. Unfortunately the guns I bought are VERY hard to use so I will be looking for something a little easier to manipulate on my next toy run. In the meantime these kids are likely to end up with Herculean hand strength and lots of patience from dealing with the current set!

Exploring Percussion instruments:

The kids set up a little “band” with some of our percussion instruments. One of the kiddies figured out how to rub two bumpy trays together to make his own instrument while some other kids experimented with sound by hitting different objects with mallets. We pounded cymbals and hit stuff with sticks. As they worked we discussed the difference in volume and sound as they hit solid, hollow or metal objects.

Board Games:

The kids are really into board games lately and Zingo was a huge hit. If you haven’t checked this game out, it’s a lot of fun preschoolers. The picture matching, letter recognition and finagling of small pieces in the bingo slider made it so that everyone found Zingo to be a fun challenge. Since Sam brought the game to share with his friends, he took on the responsibility of teaching everyone how to play. The kids took turns rotating in and out of the game for over an hour. 

Fence Weaving:

I’ve seen tons of great weaving projects on Pinterest so I thought we would put our own spin on weaving by adding it to our fence as an ongoing collaborative project. It turns out that weaving is kind of tricky. Moving the ribbon in and out of the fence was a challenge; often the children would work on a ribbon for ten minutes or so only to have completely unwoven their piece by the time they were finished. Even though some of their attempts of weaving did not yield the intended result, the kids were delighted to watch the wind send ripples through the ribbons.

The Gigantic Magnetic board:

We’ve used the garage door for letter play, magnets and a gigantic easel. The kids loved seeing how high they could push magnets by using their hands or climbing on the picnic table to get a little more height. We also used some heavy duty magnetic clips to hold paper in place for drawing. As they worked, some of the kids discovered that covering the paper in marker revealed a cool design from the imprint on the garage door. 

Outdoor Classroom

Our house has what my Aunt Sue calls a “tiny little postage stamp of a back yard”. It’s so small that when we moved here from our double lot in Royal Oak I hardly thought this teeny speck of earth was worth putting any effort into. I tried a couple of times over the eight years we’ve owned the house to get into the yard but it was no use. There’s no fire pit or swimming pool to lure me back there and every side of our lifeless little rectangle is closed off preventing neighbors from wandering over for a chat. To top it all off it’s hotter than hell out there!

Last year as I was surfing some of my favorite blogs I noticed all sorts of fantastic ideas for outdoor classrooms. Some of my favorite spaces started out so tiny and barren that they made my little yard look quite glamorous. It got me to thinking that MAYBE I should quit whining about all the things I don’t have and work with the things I do have.

So I quit whining and started pinning everything that looked like it might work for us. Josh and I got to work making the best of our space. We did a little reconfiguring by boldly pulling out some perfectly beautiful bushes to put in vegetable garden for the kids to tend. I'm not that great at keeping plants alive so I was super proud of all the veggies we harvested. I also created a mud kitchen out of an old cupboard  - that turned out to be a total flop but the kids had fun with it for a season before it collapsed in on itself. 

We rigged up a water wall, turned a wheelbarrow into a sensory bin and we had lots of fun with large scale building projects. My favorite backyard addition of the summer were the acrylic easels my awesome husband made out of junk laying around in the garage. The kids LOVED them!

This year we are kicking off the season with a much more positive attitude toward our tiny space and I’m hoping we will spend most of our daycare days outside in our improved outdoor classroom. It’s so much easier to work with the kids outside and they have much more autonomy since they don’t have to wait on me to clean up before they can move on to other activities.

Some of our learning centers include:

The gardening area:

The kids have been hard at work weeding and turning the garden with garden tools, diggers and dump trucks. We are also putting together an herb garden for future cooking projects and sensory projects....

Reading / Quiet Area

We’ve created a little reading nook in a tent that only cost 15 bucks at the end of the season last year AND it folds up neatly behind the kitchen area when we want to store it. It's currently Carmen's favorite place to hang out reading to her babies....

Dramatic Play

Our new and improved mud kitchen was found on the side of the road - the kids were thrilled to have “saved it from the landfill” We will be sticking with playdough in the mud kitchen until I can imagine some place to put the mud kitchen so that it doesn't ruin the grass. I do like to entertain adults here sometimes too :) For now we brought out some of the indoor play food, dolls and baby care items that can be stored outside .....

Music

We have a little music area with a triangle and wind chimes. We have lots of other instruments to add to this area later this summer....

Art

Of course there’s are acrylic easels from last year, hopefully next week we will have pumpkins growing behind them instead of weeds soon!

The garage door also makes a great magnetic board for working with letters...

Clean up

There’s even a little makeshift hand washing area complete with soap and a towel to clean up after painting or digging. Addie was having lots of fun taking her baby to dig then giving her a bath. Carmen thought it would be fun to dump the soft bodied babies in the water too - guess we’ll be needing some more babies that can be bathed outside!