Ms. Amy's Blog @Child Central Station

Did you know that it is International Mud Day? I hope you are out playing in the mud!!!! We are on vacation. So, I have scheduled this post for you. As far as I am concerned, MUD DAY needs to be every day! Here are a few of our previous posts that have to do with mud: Our Mud Pie Kitchen (Most Recent Post with Renovation) Here is our "Clean Mud" (not really the kind of mud, MUD DAY is all about but still fun!) Marvelous Spring Mud! (With a bit of ice and snow...) Worms in the Mud Cave Painting (Paint made with mud/dirt) Indoor Colored MUD! We play in the mud pretty much any chance we get! How are you celebrating today? Being that our childcare is closed and we are on vacation, I am hoping to celebrate MUD DAY either on the shore of Lake Ontario or Lake Erie (depending on where we are on our road trip!). Thank you to Jaime over at Hands On As We Grow for setting up this wonderful blog hop!  If you have been playing in the mud, join in:

We are on vacation! I have scheduled a couple of posts, but don't plan on seeing much from us until we are back to work on July 11th :).

Last week, I gave you a sneak peek into the ins and outs of making your own light table .  (Well, at least our versions of them!)  There are oodles of different things you can do with a light table, but one of our favorites is to draw on it!  Sometimes we use sand and sometimes we use salt. Today, we covered our table with a layer of salt and then added a package of dry Kool-Aid to give the salt a slight tint and a wonderful smell! The children spent quite a bit of time throughout the day, drawing and writing.  Sometimes they would use their fingers or hands, and sometimes they used other tools like plastic butter knives or wooden dowels. I love how the light adds optical aesthetics to this tactile activity.  Even some of our younger friends found this activity to be intriguing.  Have you tried sand or salt on your light table? 

We have frogs! Our froglets have absorbed their tales! (We only have one that is still aquatic!) So, we invested in some moss..... And the tank is now more "land" based. We also started feeding our little froggies crickets today. It sure if fun to watch them hunt! We've been getting quite a bit of rain - so we have been spending a lot of time building forts.  I have a couple of posts scheduled and ready, but we are going on vacation in a few days an I won't be back to work until July 11th.  If all goes well with scheduled posts, you will still have a bit to read while we are on the road. Just know that I won't be responding to comments or doing much reading for awhile :).

I first learned of this nifty color separating trick over at Steve Spangler Science . The scientific name for this color separating is chromatography, and can easily be performed.  First, on an absorbent material (coffee filter, paper towel, etc...) draw a line or a dot with a water soluble black marker. We used coffee filters. They are absorbent and they fit perfectly into our art spinner! Then with a pipette or medicine dropper, add a few drops of water to the center of your dots or along your lines. Turn the spinner on and wait...... Can you see how the water pulled the colors out of the black pigment? Different types of markers made different color patterns. My little investigative art scientists wanted to know....... What happens if you use other colors? And off they went to investigate: Our other colors ran or bled, but they did not produce a rainbow of colors like the black did. While the children used the spinner, we tried another chromatography experiment. We drew ...

Living in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan means that you can see "critters" pretty much anytime you choose. We see chipmunks, squirrels, wild rabbits, and white-tailed deer on a weekly(sometimes daily basis). We also have a more infrequent opportunity to see some other animals in the wild. Yesterday, we saw this wild turkey crossing the road! Of course, the camera was not ready and he was off in the trees by the time we were ready for a photo! We thought he was a bear from a distance as he was strutting across the road with his tail feathers out! We were also fortunate enough yesterday to see a couple of moose! I know the photos are not the greatest, but if you look closely, you will see that the darker moose is the cow and there is a very light colored calf standing next to her. (In the photo directly above the calf is just to the right of the cow). They were grazing just off the side of the road near the highway outside of West Ishpeming!  What critters have you s...

There has been a lot of buzz about light tables over at Teach Preschool on Facebook . Deborah has collected some great ideas for light table play and has been experimenting with making her own table over on the Teach Preschool blog.   I thought I would share with you our two light tables and how we made them. This first table is one that we put together with some scrap wood pieces, an old plexi-glass door from an entertainment center, and a couple of aquarium lights. Total Cost = $0. (We had everything on hand.)  The table needs a little bit of tweaking. (It is on my to do list).  Basically, we made a frame of wood around the plexi-glass and placed the lights under it. Our DIY skills in putting this together were far from expert, so the frame has a couple of gaps (and the reused wood is warped). We plan to try a new frame and use some caulk to seal any gaps.  We also plan to attach the lights to the side of the frame instead of just placing them on the f...

With the beautiful weather we have been spending as much time as possible outside, and over the past few days we have been testing our outdoor bubble blowing! What does it take to make the best bubbles? First, we use a homemade bubble solution. (I've had this recipe for years and to be honest, I never measure...)  I only ever use Dawn dish soap for this recipe. The other soaps just don't seem to cut it, and make sure that you use the original without any of the added extras. 1/2 c light corn syrup 1/2 c dish soap  2 1/2 c water Heat your water and corn syrup (either in the microwave or on the stove top). Corn syrup is very thick and takes time to dissolve in room temperature water. Using hot water or heating it will allow for better mixing. Then add your dish soap, mix well and enjoy! Then, having a wide selection of bubble blowers is ideal. Here are a few of our favorites: "Foam"erators make fantastic long strings of bubbly snakes. Sometimes they break and ...