Ms. Amy's Blog @Child Central Station

(Please note the blog is under construction. If links are broken or not working for the tabs and if things start to look a bit different, please be patient! New Updates and Exciting Happenings Coming Soon!) Because of the snow day today, the children’s ages spanned a decade.  I get a lot of questions from people just starting off in the home daycare business or considering working with young children. How does it work, how do you manage with mixed ages? I don’t think that a mixed aged classroom has any more challenges than that of a large classroom of children the same age. After all, children develop at different stages and each one has unique abilities and strengths. Each child comes with their own needs and experiences.  I think that some of the challenges may be different when working with mixed ages, the benefits of working with such a wide range of age and development far out weigh the struggles. ( I posted some more tips and things that have worked for me when dea...

  I once heard someone remark about homemade blocks….. something along the line of making sure that you create them so that they are level or the children get frustrated with the fact that they don’t stack well……. I beg to differ with that remark. Although we did not make these blocks, they were handcrafted by B&B Blocks in Arnheim, I LOVE the fact that the pieces are not perfectly level and they provide an opportunity for learning to balance and stacking that commercially made blocks just don’t have….. Crafting castles and building up is more challenging, and requires extensive thought and problem solving…. Maybe if we flip it this way, or what happens if we put this one here? Maybe we can make a pattern…… So many ways to try…..

In a recent issue of Birds and Blooms they featured a bird feeder made with a piece of wood and plastic caps. We opted to adapt their version to make ours more unique and personable. The children had the option to choose which caps to use and how they wanted to decorate their boards. Some chose to use paint, others permanent markers. After the boards were decorated. We added caps with either screws or nails. The children had the option to decide which tools they thought would be best. We also added screws or nails as perch points near each cap for the birds. Each feeder was completed with the child’s own preference and flair! With the extra paint, I put one together too! The feeders in the magazine were filled with peanut butter. We opted to make a sticky treat for the birds made from peanut butter, sunflower seeds (from our Mammoth Sunflowers this summer/fall), and air popped popcorn! I wonder what birds we’ll attract this year with these??? Have you been bird feeding/w...

Last week, we were short on snow. In fact, it has been an odd winter here in Upper Michigan. We went for quite a few days with little or no snow at all. We are usually well into our snowy winter fun, but alas this year, we have had to make due with some alternative winter activities. One of the things we put into our sensory bin (Which by the way is just a washing machine pan. You know, the kind you find at the DIY store to put under your washer), has been packing peanuts.  We love the biodegradable kind, made from corn starch. These “peanuts” are perfect for scooping and pouring…… They are also lightweight, and float through the air when you toss them up! Just like snowflakes, but much bigger!  (You didn’t really think that we would keep them in the bin did you?) We also found out that if they get wet, they start to dissolve…. and when the ends get gooey, they stick! So, we added some water to the mix for further experimentation….. Turning ourselves into sno...