Ms. Amy's Blog @Child Central Station

This Halloween is bound to be a MAMMOTH one!!! I actually finished Dane's costume a week early this year.... Which was perfect! He has had the opportunity to wear it twice already and Halloween is not until tomorrow :).  For all of you who join in on all of the festivities, Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

It's fall here in Michigan. We've been busy...... It has been quite a wet and rainy season for us, but that doesn't stop us from finding some fun things to do, both inside and out! One of our favorite books to read lately has been: (photo from Amazon.com) So, I thought...why not create a discovery bottle to go along with it! We took an empty 2 liter bottle, and started to add pieces of pipe cleaners to it. We added small clippings of green and we made 16 pumpkins: To make each pumpkin, we took a short piece of green pipe cleaner and wrapped it with orange pipe cleaners until it looked right. (Most of the time it took 2 full orange pipe cleaners to give the pumpkins the shape we wanted.) I also added numbers to the bottle. After I printed them out, I added a paperclip to each number to make them magnetic. After we were all done, I sealed the top with some hot glue, and reinforced it with a couple of layers of duct tape! Viola- Magnetic Discover...

I apologize once again for my absence here.  Life has been crazy, great things are happening.  Good questions are being asked, and real life has seriously kept me out of the virtual world.  There are really only so many hours in a day.  So, with that..... I want you to know that I'm not disappearing forever, but you probably won't see much of me around the blogosphere.... However, you may start to see some new posts from my wonderful husband and business partner, Mr. Allan. In addition to a few posts here and there from our assistants!   AND... don't forget, we have archives and a wonderful blog list for you to check out!  I've been writing a zillion blog posts in my mind when I'm on the road... So when the time comes, I'll have oodles of new things to share with you!   Until then,

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 ...

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 talkin...