Ms. Amy's Blog @Child Central Station

Painting seed pods to hang as ornaments on the Christmas tree- Craft. Anytime you have a preconceived idea of what you are making, it is no longer truly about the process.  Regardless of how "open ended" you think you are making the craft, if it has a purpose or an expected end product, in my mind... it is no longer child-centered art. One way or another because you have given it a name or a specific outcome you drive the product. I don't think that you can always separate art from craft or craft from art, because the two are so delicately intertwined. I think that rather than a definitive black and white separation, we are dealing with various shades of gray. I am by no means saying that craft has no merit, as you will soon read, sometimes... we craft, but most of the time, we strive for process art. Rolling paint on plexi-glass - art There are a lot of things I see other educators doing with children, that simply do not fit with my philosophy. For example, I don...

Yep, it is that time of year. Time to nominate your favorite blogs for the 2011 Edublog Awards! You can learn all about the Eddies by visiting their website: edublogawards.com I learned about this wonderful opportunity to nominate blogs last year when some of my favorite blogs were nominated and won in various categories!  This year, I decided to nominate a few folks myself (and you can do the same by visiting the site and creating a blog posts with your nominations!). I have been considering my nominations for a couple of weeks now, and let me tell you, there are so many wonderful blog out there, coming to one nomination for each category has been a bit painstaking. I have grown so much from the influence many of you wonderful bloggers have imparted through sharing your passion and joy of early learning. So, before I move on to my list, I just want to thank you all! Now, in no particular order... my nominations: Best Educational Use of Social Network:  Deborah Stewart - T...

I'm swamped. It will all be done on December 14. "Normalcy will then resume." I'm still posting occasional photos on our Facebook page,  but don't anticipate having time to post much here until   I'm done! I will be happy to share my work with you when it is complete. If any of you have worked on research comparing online and traditional/classroom style training sessions, I'd love to hear about it!

My first contribution to the PreK and K Sharing blog has some tips for working with mixed ages of children and has posted this morning, hop on over and check it out!

I know that some of you are dying to hear what I have to say after spending the day with Bev Bos and Michael Leeman a couple of Fridays ago. Don't worry, I will have plenty to share in good time....  (that master's project is almost done... I'm just a few weeks away.....) That Friday was a great day, I traveled to Chicago to attend the training session.  Who wouldn't have a great day when it starts off in a place like this?  I don't feel like I necessarily learned a lot of new things while I was there, but it was very affirming. We have very similar philosophies on a lot of topics, and it is always nice to cross paths with folks who share your love and concern for the children and those who work with them. (I did pick up a great resource book, a book on finger plays, and 5 new cds! All of which are being heavily used!) One thing that Bev encouraged us all to do right away on Monday was to set out some supplies and let the children mix..... Glass Jars Cups of Oil...

I'm getting closer to the end of my final project. I can start to see light at the end of the tunnel.... and that means that I'll be back here more often! (Trust me, I would much rather be blogging than writing up an annotated bibliography.... ) I have oodles of photos and activities to share with you, and I will get back to that soon! I wanted to let you all know that I am expanding my reach and will be working on a number of collaborative efforts in the near future. Watch for my first post on this collaborative blog to publish on Wednesday: If you are not already following, please hop on over and check it out! This blog will have a different author each day of the month and will offer many different topics and interests for those of you who have or work with young children. Also, just an FYI- If you didn't know already.... Our backyard butterflies were featured in the Fall Edition of the Connections for a Great Start publication. Hopefully, the online version will...

This year, we planted sunflowers.  Unfortunately, one of my flaws happens to be that I cannot for the life of me keep any flower alive! I don't know how I manage to kill them, but for some reason, I am not very successful when it comes to flowers!  (Now, vegetables on the other hand... I have no problem with, go figure!)  Fortunately for us, the birds and critters happened to help us out this year!   We had three wonderful sunflowers sprout and SURVIVE in our rock garden!!!  (It is probably a good thing I was too busy to take care of them and just let nature run it's course!) A couple of the flower heads disappeared. I set them out on the front porch bench. Perhaps they were carried away by our feathered or furry friends. Fortunately, one of them remained for us to investigate. We checked it out with some magnifying glasses,  and then we decided to tear it up... I wonder what it looks like inside....... What are all of these ...