Christmas Art: Catching-Up

Fingerprint candy canes and elf-shoe countdowns. Some day I will be able to find the rest of what we did for the holidays.

Aha Parenting

A friend pinned an article about repeating directions. That caught my attention! I do feel like a broken record around so many 2 and 3-year-olds.

(Article is here)

And while I was browsing I found a great reminder article about Special Time. I think we all know it is a good idea, but sometimes an encouraging reminder is helpful (Even though I spend all day at home with my kids, I needed one!).

(Article is here)

Explorer Week

Water color maps

Ship in a bottle

Popsicle stick masts and cheerio port holes

I remember celebrating Columbus day in Elementary school; we learned about the boats and the great discoveries. But over the years it seems that many of those ideas were reconsidered and most of what I learned wasn't accurate after all. I am a sucker for tradition, though, so we turned Columbus day into Explorer week. Thankfully, with the creation of Dora, the children seemed pretty comfortable with the idea of explorers and adventure.

Picture of the Day: Number Dash

This week we are working on numbers 1-10. At the park I chalked rows and the children took turns calling out numbers. Who ever dashed to the correct number first got a hooray. Mr. C loves the number 5 and Ms. H loves the snowman number 8.

Opposites Week

Grandparent's Art

Mr. C Turns 3!

Picture of the Day: Clouds

The weather this morning was better than I could have asked for. The breeze was refreshing and the clouds were so enjoyable.

"Those are mashed potatoes!"
"I see a fluffy bunny."
"A snake!"
"A shark!"

The black birds on the grassy hill were a big hit too.  The children loved running up and down, scattering the birds with each pass. Finally the birds had had enough- they found a safe spot on the neighbor's roof (all 50 of them).

CA Appreciation

Olympics: Week 2

Rhythmic gymnastics: The girls designed their own leotards. I had no idea that the leos designed for the US Olympic team are completely custom, one of a kind, and cost thousands of dollars and many months to design and create. Some ladies think of them similarly to a wedding dress (!).

We made ribbon wands and danced around the house. So elegant and fun.

The next day we watched a little bit of the shooting. We also talked about gun safety...

me) "What do you do if you find a gun?" (I was a little worried after I heard some of the replies!)

"Hide it in the bushes so no one can find it!"
"Play with it! Fight the monsters!"

I mentioned that we should never touch a gun we might find- they can be dangerous. We should tell an adult right away. If we find a gun and we don't know if it is a toy or if it is real, we should ask a big person before we touch it. Never point a gun (toy or otherwise) at anyone's body.

Olympics: Week 1

I love the Olympics! I am always amazed by the determination, skill and humbling stories from the athletes all over the world. So naturally we will spend the next few weeks celebrating physical fitness, games, and the olympic values (friendship, unity, respect, courage, excellence, determination).

We had to paint some olympic rings!

We watched a youtube video about the olympic torch and about some of the torch bearers. Then we made our own.

Color by letter flag printable.

We watched a few minutes of the cross country equestrian race at the Greenwich Park stadium, and a few clips of riders who couldn't stay on their horses. Then we set up our own obstacle course.

Medal stand!

Picture of the Day: Shady Snack

Ah the park was perfect for late July! A cool breeze kept the kids from getting sweaty after 3 minutes. I love the days when it works to eat outside- I don't mind letting mother nature take care of the crumbs instead of my floors.

Fire Safety {Printables}

The American Red Cross has so many great resources. I love this set of fire safety printables (and because I can only seem to find a PDF link, I can't pin{terest} it!) and wanted to keep the link handy. We will work through these over the next few months.

Today we talked about YELLING!

It is OK to yell if there is an emergency, if you smell smoke, or need help. We practiced YELLING INDOORS! (An activity I normal discourage here at daycare.)