Ms. Amy's Blog @Child Central Station

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 ...

This week, we have been trying to add some color to our outdoor winter wonderland. First we spray painted the snow, and then we painted the snow with giant paint brushes . Today, instead of just painting the snow, we are painting with the snow! Everyone who lives in a climate where winter snow is the norm knows that there are all kinds and variations of snow. Some snow is powdery, some is super sticky, etc. The best kind of snow for this project is sticky, wet, snow. I've been itching to try this, and considering that we didn't have "the right kind" of snow and that the temperatures are too cold to hope for sticky snow in the near future, we brought this activity inside! We collected some snow and put it into our sensory table. The indoor heat turned the fluffy powdery snow sticky rather quickly! Then we used our spray bottles filled with colored water (food coloring and water) to paint the snow in the table. I provided the children with the primary colors and ...

I'm a big fan of open-ended, child-driven projects. Today, the children decided to use colored paper, scissors, shape punches and glue to make their own creations. We don't have a lot of glue that isn't colored here. When I first opened my daycare (5 years ago this week!) I purchased a large quantity of small glue bottles. I labelled them with various colors and added a little bit of liquid tempera paint to the glue. (I recently learned that you can use the markers that don't work to color glue too!) I'm not a fan of giving children glue in a container and using a qtip or other utensil to use the glue. I like to give them the experience of having to squeeze the glue out of the bottle. It is great for their fine motor skills. We use a lot of glue here. I know that children will need to use glue to stick things together when they get older, and that they will probably hear things like "a little dab will do you!" Later, not here, and not from me. Glue is inex...

This post has been transferred from our previous blog. It was originally posted in April. Everyone talks about the volcano experiments, using vinegar and baking soda.... but have you ever tried the same experiment to teach how to make the secondary colors???? This is one of my favorites, and the children's too: Prior to the children becoming involved fill children's test tubes with vinegar- add food coloring (I use the Wilton pastes as they are much more vibrant) to make red, yellow, and blue. Also, mix food coloring into the baking soda (in bowls) making red, yellow, and blue. You can have older children help with this part of the activity, but I've found that for younger children, it is helpful to have this part complete prior to beginning the activity. Gather the children, making sure to give each child goggles and lab coats, as they are going to be scientists for the day. (Old oversized white shirts work well for lab coats, but make sure if they are going...