Ms. Amy's Blog @Child Central Station

Today marks the end of the second week that our school aged friends returned and/or started school. It also marks the last day for our friends who are starting Head Start next week. It has been a time of big changes and transitions for us. The summer was a whirlwind of fun, learning, and memorable adventures. I'm sure many of you noticed that I opted to take most of the summer off. It was a nice, much needed break. In general- juggling a home based business, homeschooling, and family can be a bit challenging at times. I have often had people ask me exactly how I manage to do it all- and the truth is, sometimes you just have to let one or two things go in order to make the other things happen. This summer, I opted to let technology go. My presence on the blog and social media were quite minimal. I needed to stop juggling and doing- and to just be. Now that life is again changing, I hope to get into a regular blogging routine. I've missed sharing our adventures and ...

 Earlier this week, you were introduced to our Foamy Bubbles Water Table.   This table is great for your infants and toddlers, but it also tends to be a great place for exploration for older children as well. While pushing down on the foam to make bubbles,  it was discovered that the wet sponge/foam preserves your hand print! This lead to an intensive investigation-  If pushing your hand down in the foam leaves a print.... I wonder what else you could press down in the foam to make prints with? The children tried a multitude of toys, blocks, etc.  Each and every item left a mark or print in the foam! The favorite item found that kept  the children investigating for hours were.....   plastic cookie cutters! As you can see from the photos, the cutters left a dark imprint in the foam.  It "magically" disappears when you rub across it. Our foam is not a special kind, just plain old ordinary craft sp...

We talk about the weather around here a lot. It of course, impacts the way we do things and it changes a lot. They have a saying here in the U.P. (Upper Peninsula) of Michigan, "If you don't like the weather... wait five minutes, it will change."  Over our long weekend, we have intermittent thunder storms and rain. Today, it is 85, hot and muggy, with a prediction that tomorrow's high will be 62 . When it comes to predicting the weather, your guess is as good as any, and be prepared for rapid changes. We don't tend to let the weather get in our way.  When it snows, we pile on the clothes, when it gets hot we wear less. When it rains, we stomp in the puddles.... and when we have a nice hot day, we just add water! The children were a bit on the cranky side with the heat and humidity, until the hose came out! Buckets of water for splashing and carrying.... A sprinkle of water to run through to cool off, and then a nice pile of cool mud in the mud pie kitchen :). ...

This is a great summer project for a warm/hot day! It takes a little bit of preparation, as you need colored ice cubes. Put a few drops of different food coloring into each section of an ice cube tray. Slowly fill with water and freeze. After the cubes have frozen remove them from the tray and place them in a bowl for easy access. If you are like me and put too much food coloring in, you can add more water to the tray and place in the freezer again for a second batch! The the "cold" fun begins! We used card stock for our projects, as they can get quite wet as the ice melts, and a thinner paper will easily tear when wet. Allow the children to choose their own ice cubes and run them along their paper. The results are fabulous, the process is a ton of fun! Not only are they participating in an art process, but they are discovering how ice melts, and how the heat from their hands impacts that process. This is a messy project, as the food color stains hands- b...

It is a serious understatement to note that we are experiencing unseasonably warm weather. I am refraining from complaint, as our long winters have often left us with inches of snow at this time of year. However, with the children, it has been necessary to find ways to cope with the heat and humidity! We've been running through the sprinkler, playing in sudsy cool water, and misting each other with spray bottles. It is hard to believe that we had snow and hail just a few weeks ago! What is that saying again in regard to the U.P. weather???? Oh, yeah, I remember now: "If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes, it will change!"