Ms. Amy's Blog @Child Central Station

We talk about the weather around here a lot. It of course, impacts the way we do things and it changes a lot. They have a saying here in the U.P. (Upper Peninsula) of Michigan, "If you don't like the weather... wait five minutes, it will change."  Over our long weekend, we have intermittent thunder storms and rain. Today, it is 85, hot and muggy, with a prediction that tomorrow's high will be 62 . When it comes to predicting the weather, your guess is as good as any, and be prepared for rapid changes. We don't tend to let the weather get in our way.  When it snows, we pile on the clothes, when it gets hot we wear less. When it rains, we stomp in the puddles.... and when we have a nice hot day, we just add water! The children were a bit on the cranky side with the heat and humidity, until the hose came out! Buckets of water for splashing and carrying.... A sprinkle of water to run through to cool off, and then a nice pile of cool mud in the mud pie kitchen :).

I don't have anything new prepared to share with you tonight, so... I thought I would share with you some of my "playing" favorites that we have done.  If you would like some insight into other people's ideas that I find interesting and enjoy, I encourage you to hop on over to www.childcentralstation.tumblr.com where I save all of the great inspirational ideas I find around the web.  For tonight's post I'm going to pick 5 "favorites" from my archives - I'm taking this to mean that they are from sometime in 2010. (Ask me tomorrow and you would probably get a different five).  In no particular order..... The World Is A Stage.... And We're On It! I love how the children created their own stage and started their own band. I have to add that on this day, all of the songs were original! (those are always the best!)  Fire in the Hole! Predicting Distances with Catapults     This catapult creation was really only the beginning of our adventur

 (Our mud pie kitchen, in the very beginning) Ever since Jenny over at Let the Children Play posted about Mud Pie Kitchen s (almost a year ago), we have had the "madness" The mud-pie kitchen madness that is :). I immediately found a few things and spiffed up a section of the yard into our very own mud pie kitchen .  Like all things in an indoor or outdoor classroom, the play and space has continued to evolve.  Over the last week, we have done a little "renovation" in the kitchen.  Look what I found for FREE at a yard sale!!!! You can't beat a free shelving unit for your kitchen renovation! The more free and inexpensive things you can find the better ;). With the new sand filling in our sandbox, it was the perfect time to do a little bit of rearranging, and stocking. The hanging baskets received a fresh helping of long grass, and the bins have been collecting every rock we find mixed in with the sand. We put a few more hooks

In addition to some of the purchased feeders we have around, we made a couple of our own this spring with recyclable items. We found the idea for this one made from a laundry detergent bottle here .  (It is decorated with flashy duct tape) This handy hanging feeder from a juice carton was inspired by this post from another blogger.. I'm so sorry, but I lost track of exactly where that post was! (If it was you, please let me know so I can link to you!) Then, after making the first two, we used a crystal light container and an old plate to put this one together. We have been using our handy field guide: to identify a number of our visitors. Some of them have been very easy to identify and "shoot" a photo of, while others have been extremely camera shy! The front feeders have been attracting some starlings.  The juice feeder has been frequented by a number of chickadees. We've seen quite a few Robins in the backyard. The sparrows have really enjoyed our feeders

We have a substantial sized sandpit/sandbox in our yard. When we first built it, the dump truck delivered 19 tons of sand.  I know it sounds like a lot, and it is, but not nearly as much as it sounds. (This photos was from 2009, you can see that it takes up a large part of our yard.)  Considering that the sand was delivered to us quite a few years ago, coupled with the fact that we installed a new play structure , it was time to have another load delivered to top off the box. I know that our little ones take sand home with them by the shoe full on a daily basis! (Well, when the sandbox isn't covered in snow!) The children had a great time moving sand around in anticipation of the big truck's arrival. There was a lot of buzz. I wonder what color the truck will be? Will it be able to fit on the driveway? How much sand can fit in a dump truck? Will there be a mountain in the yard?  Finally, the truck arrived (quite a bit later than anticipated). It was a long red dump truck.

Welcome to this week's edition of What Would You Do With It? Wednesday. This week we are featuring plastic milk jugs! (I decided to jump all of the items I was behind and go to the scheduled item for the week. Don't worry, at the end, I'll go back to all of those things I missed!) We made these fabulous milk jug skeletons like the one pictured here from Family Fun Magazine : (The photo isn't the greatest, but you get the idea.  I know we have photos of this project somewhere, but I'm not sure where at the moment!) Another idea from Family Fun Magazine that we tried are these spirit lanterns. You can make them in a wide variety of spirits, jack-o-lanterns, and/or critters:  (Photo from Family Fun) We have been collecting milk jugs since last fall to create one of these amazing milk jug igloos. I first heard about them as part of a discussion at Teach Preschool on Facebook. We have great plans for our igloo. It will be outside and incorporates another

If you remember, awhile back we opted to test out a couple of slime recipes to determine which one we liked best. (If you missed it, you can read about it here: The Great Slime Off) . Today, we decided to test a few stove top slime recipes to decide which one makes the best slime. Contestant/Slime Number One: Fiber Slime 6 c water 6 tsp Metamucil Fiber Mix ingredients in a large saucepan. Cook on high heat, bring to a rolling boil. Boil for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and place in a bowl. Stir occasionally as the slime cools. Cool completely prior to children's use.  Contestant/Slime Number Two: Super Sweet Slime  I found this great recipe over at Habeebee Homeschooling. 1- 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk 1 TBSP cornstarch 10-15 drops of food coloring Mix the sweetened condensed milk and cornstarch in a saucepan. Stirring constantly, cook on low heat. The mixture will thin as it is heated and then begin to thicken again. When it begins to thicken remove from heat. (Make