Ms. Amy's Blog @Child Central Station

I don't remember where I first heard about the fabulous "plunger painting", but it is a wonderful activity for the children. I don't have the plungers available all of the time, so that when they do appear... they are a treat!  I apologize  for a few blurry photos here. (I didn't realize that the camera was switched to auto-focus). I casually set a couple of plungers in the play room.  "Ms. Amy, what are these?" "I don't know, what do you think they are?" "Can we play with them?" "Of course you can play with them....." The children find all kinds of ways to play with them..... It is great fun if you have different types of flooring for them to explore. It took very little time before they were able to investigate enough to realize that the plungers stick to the linoleum floor if you push down on them: But, they don't stick to the carpet..... Hmmmmm..... I wonder?  Can I get two of them ...

Who said outdoor swimming pools were just for use in the summer time? I know that up until this year, we only used our pool outside in the summer. After a great workshop from Dan Hodgins , I learned that you can use swimming pools outside in the winter too: They make great winter sleds! Their size gives children a great opportunity to work together. We are still in the "testing" phase with this wonderful idea! So far, we have learned that the pools work best when the trail is made from really compact snow. The pool does not slide as fast as some of our other sleds. Our " butt" slide is much steeper than the hill we sled on at the park, and the pool works much better on the "butt" slide. Have you ever used a pool as a sled? If so, we'd love to hear your recommendations as we continue to test and perfect our pool sledding technique :).

I usually reserve my Monday posts for Monday Memories, where we take a photo walk down memory lane, but we had way too much fun with our "newsed" blocks today to keep it from you! I've wanted to invest in some large hollow blocks for sometime, but I had a hard time justifying the expense and then to determine where to store them. Fortunately, a friend of mine who also runs a home based childcare was selling hers! So, for a mere $5o we now have a set! So, the blocks are used, but new to us "newsed." The children spent a solid three hours playing with them this morning, and then took them out again this afternoon! First, the children spread the blocks out all around the playroom. The blocks instantly turned into chunks of ice floating in the ocean as they walked from block to block. Our blue carpet provided a great ocean! Then, with a little bit of reorganization, we had a road for walking and driving along. The set of roads was almost instantly turned into a m...