Learning Centers

I just got back from a Saturday training on how to create learning centers for preschoolers. Funny, I always complain about having to go to trainings, but they are awesome for getting me refocused and excited about my job all over again. This one was really tailored to classrooms of all 3 and 4 year olds, so obviously there's some adjusting I'll be doing. Still though, lots of cool ideas to take away from it, as well as some interesting research. For example:

• Occupational therapists say that it's better for kids to color with crayons rather than markers because the pressure and friction that's required helps motor skills much more. Markers are too easy and don't demand the shoulder strength. (plus it's a lot easier to color on things you shouldn't...)
  
• When kids choose to spin around in circles, it's incredibly helpful for their brains. Here we thought it was only fun, and like to laugh when they get dizzy and fall down, but it's caused by a need in the two hemispheres of the brain. Crossing the mid-line and spinning is an educational and productive activity.
• Hands-on experience is the number one way kids learn things until age SIX. Forget worksheets and rote memorization- give them concrete objects to connect to and they're going to learn it a lot more completely.
• The lack of child-directed play in today's society has largely contributed to delays in all domains of child development compared to previous generations. Let them explore, talk, work it out with each other, and decide how and what to play, preferably without electronics involved.

Pretty cool, huh?

Poor Kanga is going to have to deal with me wanting to move every item in the playroom four times over the next few weeks while I work through these new ideas to create fun spaces for all the different ages we serve right now. I drive her crazy with that, I know, but new stuff is FUN!

Blue Tube, Bones, and Skin

We bought a puzzle awhile back, thinking that soon the kids would be big enough to work it. It got put away for a few months and just recently returned to the playroom. Tarzan, Aurora, and O'Malley are now LOVING it. They still need a little help with it, so I do it eight or ten times a day while we sit and talk about it and they hand me pieces.

I've never seen this brand before, but now that I'm looking it up, there's a whole set. Very cool. There's even a pregnant lady one. We have the girl layered puzzle. The bottom layer is the skeleton, then organs, muscles, skin, and clothes. It's led to so many interesting discussions and teaching them about body systems. They started out with thinking the skeleton was gross- I guess their only frame of reference for it is Halloween and gory stuff. So we talked about how everybody has bones inside and how they protect your squishy parts. :) Tarzan is excited about his skull to protect his squishy brain and goes around knocking himself on the head and yelling about his hard skull. It's pretty funny.

O'Malley's favorite is the organ layer. It shows all the main organs with the systems in different colors. You can trace each color through and see the functions. I love it. At dinner the other night he choked on his food and then told me how his food went down the blue tube to his lungs, instead of going down the green tube to his belly like it was supposed to.

We haven't talked much about muscles except to poke their biceps and talk about how muscles make you strong.

The skin layer weirded them out a bit at first too. Such the stigma on being nekkid. The puzzles are anatomically correct so we talk about how it's a girl and how everybody has skin to hold all that other stuff inside.

I love finding cool stuff like this. I never would have thought about teaching preschoolers the digestive system, but with this puzzle they really get it, on their level. It's so fun!

Friday Focus- Stitch

Stitch does not enjoy opening her eyes for pictures lately. But she very much enjoys hunting for spring eggs.

She finds many and she is highly pleased. :)

Did I mention she likes to eat? On Monday I was making baked french toast and it was taking a little longer than she felt was reasonable. So she had two bowls of rice chex while she was waiting. When the toast was done she had two big bowls of that too, with cut up strawberries and several glasses of milk. She was really annoyed with me when I told her she couldn't have any more because she was eating so fast some of her friends hadn't even finished their first helping yet. Then at lunch she had SIX bowls of the chicken soup that everyone loves. Granted they were kind of small bowls, but still. Six. Usually the first thing I hear from her when she walks in the door is, "I so hungry!! SO hungry!!"

mmmm.... cookeh.... i can haz cookeh.....

We got a sit-n-spin finally! I've been wanting one for awhile to go with the letter W. Because that makes perfect sense, right? :) We had a big discussion this morning about it to explain it- we're going to put it inside a big box and let them spin around in there and pretend they are in a Washing machine. Hence the W. But we did talk about S also. Plus I don't have a box yet. She got about half an hour to work with it all by herself today before the other Pink Ladies showed up and she was super excited.

I took video of her spinning and I waited seven hours for it to upload but alas. Blogger hates me. I give up.

She's making some progress in the potty training area. Aurora's mom brought an incentive chart and some stickers and it has worked wonders for both Stitch and Silvermist. Aurora could care less, really, but the other girls are in love with the idea of getting Aurora's stickers before she can do it herself. Mostly she's still in the sitting and not producing anything stage, but every now and again she does earn a sticker. :)

Dog Days Of Summer...

I got a new transportation playset a couple weeks ago and everyone is loving it. They played with it for over an hour the first time we got it out. It has boats, cars, ramps, helipads... all kinds of things. It's set up where the blue part can be filled with water to actually float the boats, but we haven't done that yet.


Other than that, there's not too much going on, really. Pretty much every summer I think I do at least one post where I talk about how hot it is and I feel like we're not getting any curriculum done and I feel guilty about art and blah blah blah...

Oh look, there's one here. And I know there was one on the old blog where I talked about them being addicted to watching the Aristocats and lying on the floor panting from heat, too tired to move while I said "Look kids, the Eiffel Tower..." like it was National Lampoon's European Vacation. Big Ben... Parliament... I cracked myself up and they just looked at me like I was nuts.

So I won't subject you to that again. But just know I feel like that again. I'm ready for cooler weather and back-to-school and ordering fall curriculum that I can stick to with some regularity.

We've been having lots of fun though, and learning is always happening whether I plan it or not. :) That's the joy of this business. The roster has been changing pretty frequently too- we've got a couple who are gone for most of the summer and then some who drop in from time to time. Sebastian and Ariel have switched to part time and we have a new set of siblings who are also part-time. Lots of little changes here and there.


Here are a few of the cutie drop-in girls we've had over the past month or so...


And our new sibling group. Disney names to follow, as usual. :)

This picture cracks me up immensely. Chip was not at all sure if he liked squash. He kept eating it though, so Kanga kept feeding him while I took pictures of him making variations of this face.

Simba sometimes wakes up with FABULOUS bed head. Reminds me of why I call him Simba in the first place!

And then of course, there's always getting a bucket stuck on your head for maximum entertainment purposes.

I love catching pictures of Roo in a big smile. Even if it does make her drool everywhere. It's awesome. :)

Cool!!

I love Lakeshore. It's my favorite place to go for ideas and toys and learning stuff. I keep the catalog by my bed for a long time when a new one comes out so I can look at things while I get sleepy. :) I've talked about it before, here for sure, and in some other posts where I was talking about new toys. In fact, Kanga and I were there just last night drooling and planning and figuring out what's priority for our next big shopping trip. So it was extra fun to come home and find this email in my box. Check it out- lots of good stuff!


Hello, Daycare Girl!

We can’t thank you enough for the wonderful things you’ve been posting about Lakeshore. There are few things as gratifying as unsolicited praise!

If you haven’t taken a look at LakeshoreLearning.com recently, we’d like you to know about our new Teacher’s Corner & Parent’s Corner! These FREE resources for teachers and parents are full of:

§ Fun activities

§ Engaging projects

§ Ready-to-print worksheets

§ Tips & advice from your peers

§ The chance to win a $100 gift card by submitting your ideas and projects

We have new FREE resources every month. To check it out, use this link:

www.lakeshorelearning.com/general_content/free_resources/freeResources.jsp

We want you and your readers to get involved! Feel free to post this information on your blog…we’d love to have your readers participate!

Sincerely,

Andrea Speck.

Lakeshore Learning Materials


So thanks Andrea! And if you're reading.... I got a magnetic Weather Watcher board on clearance at lakeshore.com awhile back- I love it, but it didn't come with magnets and I can't find any anywhere! Help! :) Is it discontinued?

25 Random Things About Us

This list is going around on Facebook, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to show off snippets and pictures and stuff that's happened so that I'll be caught up once and for all...

1. Snow White graduated and went to her new school at the beginning of January. We all miss her and the kids ask when she's coming back to visit. I hear she's doing fabulously well in her new place, which was never a doubt in my mind. She'd outgrown me. :)
2. Simba thinks he is one of the big kids now and I keep finding him in weird places quicker than I think he ought to be able to get there. He was trying to scale the shelves but got down when I went for the camera.
   
3. 
4. I've also found him on top of the table this week, but I was too busy running to get him before he leaped off the edge to get a picture of it.
5. I have a new part-time baby girl who comes on Fridays sometimes. I can't think of a good Disney name for her.
6. It is taking Aurora quite awhile to get used to the fact that she has been dethroned from the title of The Only Infant In The House Who Should Be Held All The Time And Not Have To Watch Anyone Else Be Held Or Heaven Sakes Fed!
7. The big kids divide on gender lines most days now. Duchess and Ariel want to have tea parties or play Sorry! in another room, and O'Malley and Sebastian like to hang out and smash trucks into each other.
8. Most of them have a Webkinz account and so when they go outside they want to dig for gems or else make "gak" or "gunk" and stir a bunch of mud and rocks around and paint it on stuff.
9. Ariel has become even more dramatic lately and will throw herself into sad-looking positions and whimper and peek out through her fingers to see if I've stopped the universe for her. Usually I laugh at her and take her picture. It bugs her, but most of the time snaps her out of the funk because she wants to see what she looks like.
10. 
11. Muffin Tin Monday has become a pretty regular occurrence around here and they like trying to figure out the theme. Today we had olives, cucumber slices, hot dog slices, carrot slices, cheerios, and string cheese slices. Circles. They were pleased.
12. 
13. Our curriculum theme for February is Blast Off! and we're all really excited about it. I've been finishing up random bits of leftover months that we never got around to, and haven't ordered a new theme box in a few months.
14. I don't think I have found one thing that Simba will not eat. The kid can put away some groceries.
15. On the flip side, most meals he eats more than both Ariel and Sebastian do all day long.
16. O'Malley and Sebastian are trying to potty train. It's in that stage where I despair of it ever happening, but I know that all of a sudden one day it just WILL and I should stop worrying about it.
    
17. Ariel is beginning to drop her nap and I let her stay up two days a week and work on school while I do kindergarten with Duchess. They are learning to skip count by tens, fives, and twos. Duchess is annoyed that Ariel is picking it up as fast as she is- she wants to be the smartest one. :)
18. Duchess loves to hold Aurora and pretend that she's her baby sister. I think she wants to keep her.
19. 
20. I wish I had a wardrobe as cool as Aurora's.
21. I'm really excited about the supply fee this month- it's been awhile since I bought a lot of new things for the playroom.
22. I'm looking at getting this for the babies. It looks like something they will enjoy. You put them on their belly and they can spin around and play with all the different parts of it.
23. I'm not sure what direction I want to go for the big kids- Lakeshore is such an awesome place! There are a million cool things there that would make our days more fun. I think this may be at the top of my list though.
24. I'd also really like a sand and water table that I can use for moon sand, but I'm not sure how practical it would be and if we could keep the area clean enough to not drive me batty.
25. I finally feel like I might be caught up on all our goings-on!
    

Splashing

I remember now why I don't do water days very often- MAN they are a lot of work. :) Getting everyone changed, into swim diapers if they need it, finding towels and sunscreen, getting the equipment set up, supervising during the water play, dealing with some who hate it and want to go inside immediately while others love it and scream when it's time to come in no matter how long you've been out, tracking in mud and grass, getting everyone dried off and changed, being behind schedule on making lunch.... I was very glad my sister showed up to be an extra pair of eyes and hands. :)

We are very feast or famine with the water play- either they LOVE it or they very much do NOT. This year it's pretty much big kids vs. little kids- 3 and up love it, anybody younger would rather stand on their head in an ant pile than be wet.

Highlights from the HAVE NOTS:
(not much interesting going on when you're sitting on the sidelines... )
Sebastian stayed like this for a really long time, then gave up and tried to go sit in one of the cars. By then the yard was really wet and he got mud on his toes. He lost it. He hates to be dirty, and he was freaking out about the mud, but also about the water, and he wouldn't let me put him in the spray to clean him off. Poor kid- can't win for losing. :)

Supervising from the porch...

O'Malley gave up on us completely and left the area- he digs the sandbox.

Highlights from the HAVES:
(water! lots of water! stay in it till we're pruny and muddy!)


I had to pry them out of this pool with a crowbar when the water looked like lentil soup. They were in there FOREVER.
Showing off her cute new swimsuit.
Snow White and Ariel- I had to take four shots to finally get one with their eyes open, but didn't it turn out cute?

As far as a review of the spray park, I think it's a pretty good time for forty bucks. It took me almost two and a half HOURS to blow up all the stupid huge animals by myself- I really recommend using a pump of some sort. The only one we have is for our tires and plugs into the car lighter- so I couldn't really go out there and use it. Blowing up three ginormous toys with your own breath power is a lot of work and I had a headache the rest of the day. Also, it says you need to use the hose and put water weight in the bottom of the elephant and giraffe, which I didn't do because they were impatient to get started. The elephant did okay without it, but the giraffe really does need it. It kept falling over and we couldn't get it to work right. But that also might be because I ran out of breath and maybe didn't put enough air in it. Other than that the whole thing was awesome and worked well to keep 12 kids occupied for over an hour- that's a good time. :)

Sesame Street, Old School

*updated with link- apparently he's mostly retired and was one of the main monsters in the late 70s, which is exactly when I would have been watching. :)*

I dug a big box of puzzles out of the attic this week for some variety. Most of them are at least twenty years old, some are thirty. I remember owning them as a child or watching my sister work them. One is called "Four Monsters" and it's Herry, Cookie Monster, Grover, and Oscar the Grouch. I'm not sure if this group of kids doesn't watch Sesame Street at all, or if they've changed it so much since I watched that they only know Elmo and Zoe. We don't watch newer episodes of SS around here- the only time we ever have it on is the video of the 25th anniversary special, and I think it's been on 40 years now. So I have no idea.

But anyway. None of them recognize Herry and most of them think he looks mean and scary. We've had a lot of discussion about his name and his shaggy eyebrows and his agenda. Snow White has done this puzzle about 30 times today and she keeps saying, "Who is this again? Why he looks like that? Where you get this puzzle from?" I tell her it was mine when I was a little girl and she says, "OH! That's so sweet!"