Ms. Amy's Blog @Child Central Station

Painting seed pods to hang as ornaments on the Christmas tree- Craft. Anytime you have a preconceived idea of what you are making, it is no longer truly about the process.  Regardless of how "open ended" you think you are making the craft, if it has a purpose or an expected end product, in my mind... it is no longer child-centered art. One way or another because you have given it a name or a specific outcome you drive the product. I don't think that you can always separate art from craft or craft from art, because the two are so delicately intertwined. I think that rather than a definitive black and white separation, we are dealing with various shades of gray. I am by no means saying that craft has no merit, as you will soon read, sometimes... we craft, but most of the time, we strive for process art. Rolling paint on plexi-glass - art There are a lot of things I see other educators doing with children, that simply do not fit with my philosophy. For example, I don&

Yep, it is that time of year. Time to nominate your favorite blogs for the 2011 Edublog Awards! You can learn all about the Eddies by visiting their website: edublogawards.com I learned about this wonderful opportunity to nominate blogs last year when some of my favorite blogs were nominated and won in various categories!  This year, I decided to nominate a few folks myself (and you can do the same by visiting the site and creating a blog posts with your nominations!). I have been considering my nominations for a couple of weeks now, and let me tell you, there are so many wonderful blog out there, coming to one nomination for each category has been a bit painstaking. I have grown so much from the influence many of you wonderful bloggers have imparted through sharing your passion and joy of early learning. So, before I move on to my list, I just want to thank you all! Now, in no particular order... my nominations: Best Educational Use of Social Network:  Deborah Stewart - Teach Pres

I'm swamped. It will all be done on December 14. "Normalcy will then resume." I'm still posting occasional photos on our Facebook page,  but don't anticipate having time to post much here until   I'm done! I will be happy to share my work with you when it is complete. If any of you have worked on research comparing online and traditional/classroom style training sessions, I'd love to hear about it!

My first contribution to the PreK and K Sharing blog has some tips for working with mixed ages of children and has posted this morning, hop on over and check it out!

I know that some of you are dying to hear what I have to say after spending the day with Bev Bos and Michael Leeman a couple of Fridays ago. Don't worry, I will have plenty to share in good time....  (that master's project is almost done... I'm just a few weeks away.....) That Friday was a great day, I traveled to Chicago to attend the training session.  Who wouldn't have a great day when it starts off in a place like this?  I don't feel like I necessarily learned a lot of new things while I was there, but it was very affirming. We have very similar philosophies on a lot of topics, and it is always nice to cross paths with folks who share your love and concern for the children and those who work with them. (I did pick up a great resource book, a book on finger plays, and 5 new cds! All of which are being heavily used!) One thing that Bev encouraged us all to do right away on Monday was to set out some supplies and let the children mix..... Glass Jars Cups of Oil

I'm getting closer to the end of my final project. I can start to see light at the end of the tunnel.... and that means that I'll be back here more often! (Trust me, I would much rather be blogging than writing up an annotated bibliography.... ) I have oodles of photos and activities to share with you, and I will get back to that soon! I wanted to let you all know that I am expanding my reach and will be working on a number of collaborative efforts in the near future. Watch for my first post on this collaborative blog to publish on Wednesday: If you are not already following, please hop on over and check it out! This blog will have a different author each day of the month and will offer many different topics and interests for those of you who have or work with young children. Also, just an FYI- If you didn't know already.... Our backyard butterflies were featured in the Fall Edition of the Connections for a Great Start publication. Hopefully, the online version will

This year, we planted sunflowers.  Unfortunately, one of my flaws happens to be that I cannot for the life of me keep any flower alive! I don't know how I manage to kill them, but for some reason, I am not very successful when it comes to flowers!  (Now, vegetables on the other hand... I have no problem with, go figure!)  Fortunately for us, the birds and critters happened to help us out this year!   We had three wonderful sunflowers sprout and SURVIVE in our rock garden!!!  (It is probably a good thing I was too busy to take care of them and just let nature run it's course!) A couple of the flower heads disappeared. I set them out on the front porch bench. Perhaps they were carried away by our feathered or furry friends. Fortunately, one of them remained for us to investigate. We checked it out with some magnifying glasses,  and then we decided to tear it up... I wonder what it looks like inside....... What are all of these little black things?

The deadline for proposals for the 2012 UP Early Childhood Conference to be held April 13-14, 2012, at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan is approaching! You have until December 16, 2011 to submit your proposal!   Hop on over the to conference website for more information! I'm going to make this really easy for you, and embed the form for you right here! ( But you can also find it on the organization's page!)    If you are having trouble viewing the form on this page, please visit the form link .  I hope to see you at this year's conference! <p><p>Loading...</p></p>

We have done this activity quite a few times, but I have never blogged about it! We always have so many fun things going on, that often you only get a small glimpse here! I first saw this at the U.P. Early Childhood Conference from Dr George Forman during a showing one of the Videatives .  The concept is quite simple. You use a piece of clear contact paper, sticky side up. Sometimes I have used duct tape to hold it down and sometimes I have used clear packaging tape. It doesn't really matter, you just need something to hold the paper down with.  The tactile contact with this sticky paper is wonderful sticky business for little ones to explore! This little guy kept going back to explore the sticky surface. It kept him engaged in learning exploration on and off for almost two hours! He wasn't the only one there to explore. Even the older children stopped by to play with the sticky patch.  Will my sock stick? How about a few of the toys? How strong is this sticky paper?  Debora

I've had a lot of questions in regard to our pvc pipe sensory tables and plexi-glass table top. I actually made a handout for one of my training sessions in regard to both our sensory tables and our l ight tables. You can download a pdf version of it here . (I don't have dimensions, as it will all depend on the bin you choose for the table. Perhaps I will get a better tutorial up soon with the exact dimensions if you order your tub from Home Depot.) We actually have 3 tables. The one you have been seeing recently with the plexi-glass on top of it is made with 1 1/4" diameter pvc pipe and has a little bit different design than the one shown on the handout. (When I switched to a different cement mixing tub, I also switched the design a little bit). I found a lot of inspiration from other sites, and merged ideas to come up with my design. This version is a little more like a wheelbarrow... It is going to have wheels on two of the legs.  It is also a bit different beca

We have a climber! I'm sure you know what I mean, a child who has determined that everything.... tables, shelves, you name it... is meant to be scaled......  So, what is a provider to do?  Well, some people might say "no climbing" but not here.....  Rather than saying no to a perfectly developmentally appropriate behavior, we rearranged the environment and added a slide for safe climbing. By giving children a safe way to explore their body development, we are encouraging them to grow, learn, and explore through their interests! And, if you are going to have an indoor slide... you might as well have an indoor ball pit too! A swimming pool makes a great ball pit ( and group sled too! ). But, sometimes you need something bigger than a plastic pool.... So, we used our giant waffle blocks:  The blocks made a great barrier to keep the balls from rolling all over our floor. Although, some of our friends had a lot of fun tossing the balls out over the sides..... Some of our frien