Putting kids in the same boat

I have been reading Positive Discipline by Jane Nelsen.  It is a great book with lots of really good suggestions.  I recommend it to anyone.  Dr. Nelsen has put together a set of 52 "tools" to use with kids.  They range from scheduling special time to family meetings to using silent signals.  At The Learning Tree we've been following her blog and taking one tool each week to focus on with the kids.  Last week the tool was "Put kids in the same boat".  I read her blog post here and I gotta be honest....I wasn't super excited about this one.  I can't exactly pinpoint why, but it just didn't seem "fair".  However, I put my best foot forward and looked for a chance to use it.  I got my chance one afternoon during clean up time.  One little 6 year old boy (we won't mention that it was my own son...haha!) was LESS than excited about helping at all.  He never really likes clean up time and does whatever he can to get out of it.  In the meantime, all the other kids are working and before you know it the job is done and he doesn't have to do any of it.  

I decided it was the perfect chance to try "putting kids in the same boat".  I asked everyone to stop and come hang out on the couch with me.  I explained to the kids that it didn't really seem right that some kids were cleaning up while others were not and so we would just hang out together until we were ALL ready to help.  And while we were sitting there I saw the perfect opportunity for an impromptu class meeting (another tool in the Positive Discipline playbook).  Instead of telling them what we were going to do, I asked for their help in solving this problem. It took a bit, but eventually we came up with a solution together.  Ultimately it was the "problem child" that came up with a solution that worked.  I smiled about that for the rest of the day!

Also, if you haven't already - don't forget to check out our improved Facebook page.  We have lots of recent pics and information there!

Africa

This last week was a BLAST! We visited Africa all week long. Here's some of the fun ideas we came up with:

*We made African Masks and put them up in our very own "Museum Display". They will be coming home with the kids next week!*We sorted pictures of safari animals and played games while learning about all the types of animals that live in Africa. A few of the kids even put together some cute felt finger puppets of animals you would find on safari, like those seen on the here on The Idea Room Blog.

*We made binoculars and safari vests.
*But the HIGHLIGHT of the week was African Dancing! My sister Kember is a phenomenal dancer. So I asked her to come up with something for the kids. She was amazing with them and they got SO into. Everyone from the 18 month old girl to the school age girls AND boys. They used traditional type moves to tell stories about their lives here! If I can figure out what I'm doing I'll try to post a video here or on our Facebook page.

Next week it's on to Australia and Oceania. Wish us luck and safe travels!

Earth Week

We thought we'd begin our trip around the world....with the whole world! We did Earth Week last week and it was a big success. A few of the activities included:

*Gardening Day - Planting seeds for a pumpkin patch (if we can ever get the dirt in the backyard ready ;)

*A visit from Amelia the puppet who told us all about recycling

*Recycling treasure hunt and field trip to drop everything off at the bins!

*Making paper beads from scraps. Instructions found on this awesome blog!

*Garbage walk - the kids picked up trash on a walk around the neighborhood. We recycled what we could, threw away what we was useless and use the best items for "Garbage Art", which was a huge success :)

It's an igloo, just in case you were wonderin...

Around the World in 80 days!

Hello world! We have been so busy setting up the daycare in the new house and navigating LOTS of changes that I have completely neglected the blog. Going to try to do better, if we can do so without letting other more important things go ;).

Summer is just about 80 days long. We needed a theme to build our summer camp around and "Around the World in 80 days" seemed like the perfect fit. It has been so fun so far!

Our first week we spent getting to know all the campers and getting our school age kids used to the daily routine. A few things we are doing over the summer:

*Older kids get an hour of reading time every day. Some kids love this more than others, but it's one of the most important things we can do to keep them sharp for school in the fall. Plus it gives them some structured "down time" in the middle of the day, which is important for all kiddos. To help keep them excited about this we are also...

*Taking trips to the library once or twice a week. We usually go on Mondays to check out books to read for the week and have been trying to make it to story time on Thursdays if we have the manpower. We have also signed up the kids for the summer reading program.

*We take field trips to see the PTA movie every week for some of the older kids. It has been a lot of fun and a nice diversion.

*Water days! Enough said ;)

*Lots of outside time: picnics, walks, sidewalk chalk, bubbles...

*Indoor and Outdoor Art projects coordinated with our themes

I am also SO SO happy to announce that due to the generosity of Joey's brother and a little overordering on his part, we now have a few patches of grass in the backyard! Once the sod is established in a week or two we should be able to spend more time out there now much more comfortably. We'll move the picnic tables back there and start using the sand and water table for different sensory activities outside. You can also see that the block wall on the south side of the house is now complete, which gives us much more room to play and explore.

We still have a long ways to go. That will take a lot of time, hard work and money so the progress might be slow. But I think that you would be surprised and how much fun dirt and a big old tree can be. I thought it was so ironic that we finally got a little green back there and all Maren wanted to do was still just play in the dirt!

We've Moved!

These are the new digs! More pictures to come of the daycare set up. We've been busy busy these last few months and having as much fun as ever! More to come...sometime ;)

Shaving Cream Blocks

I got this idea from my most recent Child Care Conference I attended here at SUU. Simply put = Shaving Cream + Blocks = HOURS of entertainment! Now, I didn't use my nice unit blocks. These are just some I've had sitting around that are too small to have out on the floor much because they include a lot of small pieces that could be chocking hazards. But the older kids had a great time building with these. The shaving cream makes a really neat kind of glue so they can have a little more freedom in building. They also had fun adding in marbles and other small items. Clean up is a little bit of a pain because you do have to wash/rinse everything off. But it doesn't get everywhere like some other sensory play...it was basically contained to the table. And it kept them busy for literally HOURS several afternoons in a row. You should try it...might like it!

"Picnickin"

The older girls made a list of all the things they wanted to do this summer. It included a request for Picnics..."Lots!". So I guess this is the first official picnic of the season. Yes it was 90 degrees outside. Yes we had a picnic anyway. It's a great way to get the kiddos to drink their milk! ;)

Summer Pretty much rocks around here :)

Do I have to really say anything about this picture? It makes me seriously giggly inside :)

Want a quick and EASY activity to entertain the kiddos for an afternoon? Grab a bowl of water and add a few drops of dish soap. I put it on a dish towel just to keep the wetness from going everywhere. Give them a straw...just make sure they know not to drink it! My mom let us do this when I was a kid. I love it now because it's SO easy and clean up is a cinch.

Must be doing something right!

I have always loved reading and tried to pass that love on. We do story time every day here, at least before quiet time, but often several times in between. Imagine my giddiness when we sent the kids over to pick their book for story time and they sat down together and started reading to each other. It was the cutest thing I've seen in a while. I especially love that this is happening more and more!

Tired Boy!

You know it's been a fun playful morning when....

Picasso in Training

Today was SO cool! We pulled out a large heavy sheet of paper and let the kids all paint together. The picture started out completely different than it ended up. Everyone was doing their own thing, but they decided they wanted to COVER the paper with color instead. It was really cool as the picture blended together. I then saw the perfect opportunity to talk about color blending, but they taught me something instead! They told me all about the volcano they made (the purple part) and how it was exploding (red colors) into the ocean below (blue at the bottom of the picture! How cool, creative and expressive they are! I hung this one up for about a month before the tape finally wore out :)

Little Authors

Miss Carrie brought us books and stickers so we could write our own stories! The kids had a ball with this activity. They "wrote" their own stories using crayons, stickers...whatever. Then they told us the stories and we transcribed the stories into their books. Their favorite part? Reading the stories back to us!

Snowman Building

OK, so I know it's April and probably not Kosher to post snow pictures, but since it's supposed to snow again this week....what the heck!

The kids LOVE to play in the snow. We try to go out as often as we can. On this day we had the perfect snow for a snowman! It was great fun to jump in there with them and bring Frosty to life in our own backyard!

3D Art

Kids love to do art with just about anything! 3D objects are especially fun. And it's so neat to see what they can come up with. This particular day we did art with contact paper. The kids put whatever they wanted on the sticky side of clear contact paper. We then covered it with another clear piece and voila...they have their own version of a stained glass window! It's so valuable for kids to have the freedom to create art how they want to!



The older girls, ever my creative ones, decided to make bug playgrounds! I would have never thought of something that cool, but the detail was fabulous and they had a grand time putting it together!Cass loves the camera! Whenever I pull it out she's the first in line to give me a grin! Let it shine sweetie!

Fun with Ramps!

Who knew a few pieces of wood and a bunch of ping pong balls could be so much fun! The older girls especially loved setting up the ramps in various configurations all over the living room. This would be a great activity to get the whole family involved in and you could use almost anything lying around the house. There is also a lot of potential for discussions on science here! Plus you have to admit the kids would probably much rather play with "found items" than their toys on any given day....at least that's how it is here! Just beware, you'll be finding balls in the strangest places for weeks!

Twinners!

Tyler often doesn't want to get dressed in the mornings, especially when he's wearing his BumbleBee PJs. I love it though when Bronson comes in his Lion shirt, because Tyler's all for being twins with his buddy!

Merry Christmas!

We got a new addition at the daycare...Miss Kristy had her baby and the kids are all so excited about meeting the little one and getting to know her. They all helped paint this super cute sign as a surprise for when we arrived home. The rest of this month will be very slow as most everyone is taking time off for the holidays. I will try to post at least one more before the new year on some of the things we've done in the past few weeks.

So I just read about a fabulous idea we'll be sure to do for next year....Polar Express Day! Can you imagine the fun possibilities??? PJs all day, an adventure to the North Pole...hmmm....

Say Cheese!

A lot of the time when I take pictures the babies are sleeping...so here's a few cute pics of "Jasy". The kids LOVE this little one, especially her brother who always takes great care of her! :)

November in Review

November was the perfect month to talk about fall. We learned about how fall is kind of funny. Sometimes it warm, sometimes it's cold. We went on nature walks and looked for signs of fall, gathering leaves for counting and sorting. Did you realize even your preschoolers can start picking up on math concepts if presented correctly? One activity we did included putting small numbers on paper plates (1-5) and letting the kids put the correct number of leaves on the plates. We also talked about Thanksgiving and the things we are grateful for. The apple turkeys were a huge hit. We also made turkeys from handprints and indian headbands while talking about the first Thanksgiving Dinner. We even did our very own "parachute pow-wow" in honor of the first celebration. The kids love moving to different types of music and the indian drum beat was especially fun.

Indian Summer

Snow one week...70 degree weather the next! November weather was beautiful much of the month and we were able to spend a lot of time out in the backyard and at the school park. Outdoor play is SO valuable for kids and we try to go out at least once a day if possible. Another daycare provider I know says "There isn't inappropriate weather, only inappropriate clothing".

Also providing HOURS of fun this month was "the box". The kids had a great time for weeks in this. A great book, if you can find it, is "Christina Katerina and the Box". The story is so fun for kids, but also teaches a lot of good lessons. It reminds us of the creativity that is possible for each of us. There are also some good examples of how we should and shouldn't treat our friends in the book. It is currently out of print, but you can get it on Amazon.com for a reasonable price through a variety of sellers. This is an especially valuable book I think for the 4 or 5 year old and older set of kids.