Ms. Amy's Blog @Child Central Station

We're busy painting with our homemade "smelly" water colors! (you can find our original post about them here:  http://www.childcentralstation.com/2010/06/im-not-sure-that-i-will-ever-buy.html We use these paints all the time.... It's hard to believe that it has been about 2 years since I made the first batch!!!! (AND we still have some of the original ones- and they work fabulous! That's what happens when you make monster batches of paint!!!!!)

I've been swamped, and we have been enjoying all of the craziness that life brings! So, the blog has been neglected. Life is still quite busy, but here are a few random moments captured with photos of some of our learning fun!!!

Through the course of my education and Northern Michigan University, I was placed for field experiece in several different daycares or schools around Marquette county. Never once was I in one that was "child directed." That was until I began at Child Central Station. I met for an "interview" with Ms. Amy a few weeks before my summer internship was due to start. And she explained how her daycare was run. The things that she told me, the beliefs she had, and the way she said things were run, were exactly how I felt I could see my own daycare being run some day. So I knew right away this was where I wanted my internship to be. Starting at this daycare was  a new experience for me. But I never knew how different it would be from what I was used to. I was “warned” by Ms. Amy before I started, that the center is so child directed/lead. However, until I was actually in the setting and involved did I begin noticing the differences and seeing what she really meant. The

Hey! I'm Ms. Elissa. I'm a student intern at Child central station. I've been working under Ms. Amy and Mr. Allan all summer. I am working on getting my degree in early childhood education, and although it's been a long process, the end is near. I will be graduating in May, when I hope to joing the Americorps and move somewhere that I'm more needed. I loved doing my internship this summer and spending so much time with the kids. It was nice to finally be able to put all of the stuff I have been learing to use. For the course of my internship,  I had to create and perform 2 learning plans with the children. For my second learning plan, I did a week long lesson on teaching the children about pets. I started the week talking to the children about what kinds of animals can be pets, and what kinds of pets they have. The children and I  made lists of all the pets they could think of, and than we made charts showing their favorite pet. After talking with the children

This morning at the water table started out like many others. With the heat and humidity, I thought that I would fill the table with some cool water, a few turkey basters, a couple of cylinders for scooping and pouring. I also ran across the stack of plastic shot glasses that I bought at the dollar store to use for stacking on our light table.  I thought they might make an excellent addition this morning.  Like most teachers, I was staging the environment for play, but at the same time I had ulterior motives. A few of the children really need more experiences working on their fine motor skills, and I thought that stacking the small cups and having the opportunity to fill the cups with the basters would be great learning fun. However.... Most of you who work with children on a regular basis know, you can have the best plans and environmental staging BUT really, you just never know what great explorations and learning will happen when you allow children the freedom to investigat