Ms. Amy's Blog @Child Central Station

I'm blogging over at the collaborative blog, PreK and K Sharing today! My post is all about re-using and re-purposing! (There is a linky for you to share your ideas) Hop on Over and Check It Out!

I am teaching a 6-week online course introducing other early childhood professionals about creating basic websites and blogs. Our first week of exploration required my trainees to scour the web for inspiration. Each participant was required to post about 5 websites or blogs that they found inspiring for either their content, layout, or both. Here is the wonderful compilation of websites and blogs that they provided. (I removed the duplicates) Preschool Playbook Me & Marie Learning Teach Preschool The Polka Dot Patch Annie's Resource Attic Play Create Explore Local Fun for Kids Science Sparks Laguna Parent Participation Preschool Go Explore Nature Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas Play at Home Mom, LLC Childhood 101 Let the Children Play The Grass Stain Guru The Imagination Tree Annie's Alphabet Home Childcare Flights of Whimsy The Seeds Network I'm A Teacher Get Me Outside Here! Males in Early Childhood Education Hatch The Early Lea

"If you build this puzzle you would get a log" "No, it would be a tree!" Last week was the city's annual spring brush clean up. The perfect time for curbside collectors to stock up on logs, sticks, and branches!!! Driving around, I simply could not resist stopping at a number of piles to investigate. I found some trimmings from a soft maple tree and brought them up to my parent's house and my dad ran them through his ban saw. I thought about cutting them myself or with the children, but quickly realized that the logs would probably sit for a long time waiting for me to get to my "to do" list. I'm glad that I had that foresight, because the children absolutely love these new "cookies." We have two boxes filled with various sized wooden cookies. For right now, we have them all inside, the children have been playing with them for hours. They can't quite seem to figure out how to get this crazy puzzle back tog

We have been having a lot of I'm with our pool noodles.... And not just for rough housing!!!! Did you know that the noodles fit perfectly with 1/2" PVC pipe??? That are fantastic for adding to our building set ;). If you missed our rough housing fun, you can check it out here: Taking the Danger out of Sticks and Pipes For more fun with PVC Pipe Building check out these posts: A Plethora of PVC A Bike Wash Experimenting with Hydraulics Giant Snow Painting PVC Pipe Puppet Theater

I love to give children an opportunity to play with a vast array of materials. We have a GIANT pile of sticks in our yard of varying sizes.... and a pvc pipe building set, among other things.  During a number of my training sessions.... I often hear things like....... "Aren't You Worried They Will Hit Each Other With Them?" "Oh, I could NEVER use those, my kid would be hitting each other over the head with those!" "How do you keep them from hitting each other or using them as swords?" "My kids would be fighting with those, there is NO way I could use those in my classroom." Seriously folks.... my children are not "angels," they are really not that different from yours. However, what is different is my approach. IF children are using things in ways that are of concern we have to stop and ask ourselves... WHY? What developmental need are they trying to fulfill that we are not sufficiently meeting? If children ar

It was fantastic to meet Jeff A Johnson of Explorations Early Learning! My head is spinning from all of the recent inspiration! To steal a quote from my great friend and fellow presenter, Nancy Blackwell from Longevity of Success. .. "I am wired, fired, and freakin' inspired!" I have so many wonderful new things to share with you.... but tonight I just have time to share a few photos and videos.... So, bear with me as I work to catch my breath, regroup and regain a "normal" life pace! Rusty Keeler from the Earthplay Network is also a GREAT source of inspiration! This past Friday and Saturday was the Upper Peninsula Early Childhood Conference, and I had an amazing opportunity to meet some folks who have been a HUGE amount of inspiration to me in my life journey as an early childhood educator and professional. Deborah McNelis of Brain Insights was also presenting at our conference! She had an amazing session on brain development! Here are a

Today, we are participating in the Creative Challenge hosted by  Tinkerlab . (If you remember, we've done this before with paper bags ,   magazines  and  cardboard boxes .) This month's item to explore is Egg Cartons! To be perfectly honest, we have been super busy around here.... and I don't have any good pictures from our planting adventures this year.... but our favorite thing to do with egg cartons  is to use them as planters for our spring plants! Planting grass in a row from an egg carton looks an awful lot like a caterpillar!  It is also great fun and practice to trim the grass with scissors! Cut your carton into sections, add dirt, seeds, and water. Place somewhere safe. Water regularly.... and in a few days... your caterpillar will start to grow! You can decorate your caterpillars if you like, but we kept ours simple! Wondering what else to do with your egg cartons? All of these other sites are participating in the

Earth Day is just around the corner!  I'm super excited to be participating in this wonderful collaborative effort  on Earth Day books and activities today! Please make sure to hop on over and check out all of the great books and activities being shared! The book I am choosing to share is called, Why Should I Recycle? This book is a wonderful way to get children thinking about social responsibility  through  reusing and recycling! The book is a little long,  but with creative reading and storytelling,  you can shorten the story for younger listeners :). We recycle A LOT!  Today, I'm also recycling posts...  Here are a few of our favorite activities where we  "reused" "recycled" or "upcycled"  We love to recycle our own paper.  We have a wonderful multi-day non-electric process for recycling our paper.  It is a great process to engage the children in .  We have re-purposed laundry detergent bottle

Life is GREAT, but life is busy! I hope to be back with some new faces in a couple of weeks! I spent last week in Grand Rapids at the MiAEYC Conference.  I have so many great new ideas and things to share!  Yesterday, I was awarded as the Outstanding Graduate Student in Psychology at NMU.... and the UP Early Childhood Conference is less than 2 weeks away! We are upgrading our business from a family home to a group home and I'm hiring/training new staff. I'm busy. Life is GREAT! I'll be back to blogging as soon as I can.