Every Day a Photo Op

You know, every day provides photo opportunities. Today was no exception.

#1. Nellie reminded me of the value to children's imagination that free play time provides. She came running out of the play room, excited to the gills, "Look, Paully! Look what I can do!" She laid four little cardboard"Noddy" books on the floor then proceeded to lay one hand and one foot on each, sort of like an upside down Twister position. I clapped and asked if she could do that again as I reached for the camera.

You would be disappointed if you expected to see the alphabet letters taped to the wall for children to learn or art work that required a lot of prep time on my part, instead of original paintings and collages done by the children that reflected their individuality. The important thing for very young children is PLAY. That is their work. If I had the children engaged in activities all day that were directed my myself I would miss out on precious moments like this.

You can do a google search for "The importance of play for young children" so this is all I'm going to say on the subject. Just know that I am a strong advocate for letting children be children while they're children. We all need play in our lives. We all need children in our lives, ha. Every day I think how lucky I am. Many women my age are bored and lonely...I have these delightful beings grace my life five days a week. The best entertainment the world can offer comes right to my door every day and I love every minute of it.

#2. Cody woke first from her nap. She didn't come out of the nap room right away so when I went in to get her this is what I saw. She had thrown all the stuffed animals, even her beloved Teddy, on top of Nellie. Probably in hopes of waking her, but short of a bomb blast that won't happen until she's good and ready to wake up.

#3. The girls played with magnets after we came in from outside, while I fixed lunch. I was surprised at how long this held their interest. See the tray? These come in so handy for bead work or any of the small manipulative toys they love. The trays keep the materials from rolling off the table (my kitchen seems to slant) as well as giving each child a defined space for her own work. The table is sturdy and low for the children. Adult guests never complain about sitting there in the little blue chairs. I'm so used to it after all these years.

Don't Do This!!

Recently I saw a blog where a parent set up her young daughters with mixing bowls, measuring cups and spoons and beans to "cook." I'd never used beans for this purpose so immediately bought a ten pound sack of pinto beans and set up the activity for my children. I try to have a rich sensory activity for them every day and this seemed like a good one. The girls loved it and measured, poured and stirred most of the morning. I took pictures and we laughed a lot. The activity also provided opportunities for conversation and for planning what to do next with the beans. When they finished, the beans swept right up, unlike play dough which sometimes sticks to the floor.

About an hour later, Nellie's nose started running and she said she didn't feel well. It looked like she was catching a cold and it was coming on fast. I thought about calling her mother at work to come get her but it was so close to nap time that I decided to go ahead and lay her down and see how she felt when she got up. But after her long nap Nellie didn't feel any better. Her cheeks were flushed and by now her snot had turned milky and she looked like she was getting a fever. Her mother would arrive soon so I gave them a snack, which she ate, and put on a movie for them so Nellie could lie down. She seemed fine, wasn't crying or anything. She just looked flushed and I had to keep wiping her nose.

As soon as Nellie's mom arrived, about three thirty, Nellie burst into tears. Her mother expressed amazement because Nellie was fine in the morning when she dropped her off. I've seen colds come on this fast so didn't think that much of it.

But the next morning Nellie's mom told me they had spent hours in the emergency room during the night. Nellie had pushed a bean up her nose and it took five people to hold her down in order to get it out. The bean had turned mushy so getting it out wasn't an easy task. The doctor told her that beans have something in them that irritates, one of the worst possible things to put up her nose. Even a rock would have been better and easier to get out.

I felt so bad. In all the years I've watched over children I've never had anything like this happen. I'd never heard that about beans. Who would have imagined such a thing?

So, I hope others will read this and take heed. No more playing with beans for my children. They still love to "cook" and they make individual portions of play dough and like that activity just as much. So I will include the recipe for the play dough.

No-Cook Clay Dough (Individual Portion)

1 cups flour
1/2 cup salt
1/4 c. water
1 tablespoons alum or cream of tartar (optional)
A few drops of food coloring

The child measures and pours into a medium bowl, all the ingredients.
Child stirs with a large spoon until the ingredients become easier to mix and the food coloring is well-mixed with the other ingredients. S/he may need help the child adding more water or flour, a tablespoon at a time, until the mixture is firm, not too wet, and sticks together.

3. Have child knead and squeeze the mixture until a smooth dough is made. At first, you might need to spread a small amount of flour on the table to keep it from sticking.

An Early Spring Morning

Early this last spring. I write these observations of our mornings for the parents of the children in my care. I also send home lots of pictures. It means a lot to the parents to see what their children do here everyday.

To the left is a fort that took a half hour for the children to put together and they played with it all afternoon. The girls are inside.

Here's how the morning went:

“I’m gonna take a GOOD NAP today!” Four year old Evie tells me as she follows me around the yard. I am gathering the morning’s dog poop before somebody steps in it.
“Yes, didn’t that feel good last week?” She surprised herself and fell asleep last Thursday for the first time since October. She never naps.
“Don’t you just love this beautiful day?” She asks. I do, I really truly do love it.
“Everybody got up an hour earlier today because now we’re on Daylight Saving time,” I tell her. “So maybe you’ll be tired enough to take a nap.”
“I already slept for such a long time. I slept for SIX MILES!” she exclaims into the sunny sky.
I smile all the way to the lilac bush and beyond to lean the poop shovel against the fence.


I’ve arranged a new set of sturdy child sized lawn chairs in a semi-circle under the tree. There is a pink one, a bright blue, a white and a green chair. I didn’t buy two of the same color because I could hear one of the older girls saying as she hangs onto the two of the same color, “you can’ t sit in that one; it’s for my best friend and you’re not my best friend.” So I only bought four, not five, because there were four different colors. That’s the way one starts to think after forty years in this business, sort of like a four year old. But sometimes it’s easier to control the environment than the child.
“Look at these chairs! We can relax!” Evie tells the others. They each sit in a chair, Carrie, the baby, swinging her feet because they don’t reach the ground.
“Take a deep breath.” Evie tells them. “If only we could just talk together.” And they do for several minutes.

Evie tags Kenna then jumps up and runs across the yard yelling, “you can’t catch me!” Then they all run to me, “we want ‘ready-set-go!” So I do the chant: “One for the money, two for the show.....” Kenna’s miles ahead of the others, even though she has shoes that are both for the left foot, both ‘Dora the Explorer’ shoes, one pink and one blue with fur inside. Carrie’s pink ones don’t stay on so I’ve taken them off and now she can get some negative ions from the still wet grass. They ask to do the race again....and again....and again.

“Hey, it’s cold over here.”
“That’s because you are in the shade. Come back in the sun and see if you can feel the difference.”
“Look, we can see our shadow today!”

Carrie and Cody giggle behind me as they pull the mesh cover off the sandbox. I bring out a container of plastic dishes, a round table and their combo sink and stove set. So now they are all ‘cooking’ with sand. When they finish I’ll bring out warm sudsy water for them to wash the dishes.

Everybody’s happy. What a glorious day!

My mind wanders. Where’s Nellie? She’s missed too many days lately. And I’m half expecting a visit from the woman who checks up on us from the food program that reimburses us for food expenses.

Oh, oh, the first tussle of the day. Cody has taken a cup from Kenna’s hand and run away. Kenna chases her but I see she needs help or Cody will soon be flat on the ground.

Evie brings me a sand birthday cake and tells me, “Take it from my hand. Blow out the candles first and make your wish come true.” I obey. You never know....

Now Evie has pushed Cody down. I give her a dirty look so she says, “I did it because I didn’t want her to crash our sand castle.” She and Kenna are now making a sand castle on top of the table and don’t want the other girls to come near. They carry the table closer to the sand box. “Careful, careful,” Evie tells Kenna.
They’re giggling now. Evie tells Kenna, “I’m the server and you are the spanker.” Giggle giggle. “We’re both the spanker.” Giggle glggle, as they both spank the pile of sand on the table.

It’s ten thirty and now they’re all peeling off their shoes. I instruct them to put their shoes on the stairs so we’ll remember to take them up when we go in. Evie barely makes it to the stairs before she’s crying, “Oh! My feet are really really cold! Can you put my shoes back on?” So I do.

Now they’re playing T-ball with a bucket of balls. Tennis balls, white plastic baseballs, colored plastic balls, small rubber balls. It’s still kind of chilly. Carrie has a tennis ball that Maggie, the dog, wants. Maggie jumps and gets it. Carrie looks at me with a shocked expression like she might cry but then she laughs. I’m relieved. It’s a full time job keeping Carrie out of the line of fire. Evie hits the ball over the fence and into the Daisy bush. “Hey, that’s a cool one!” she yells.

Kenna brings me a hula hoop to hold as she jumps through it but before she can begin, Evie grabs it away and runs across the yard with it. Kenna cries, “what’s his doing?” Then she starts crying. It takes a minute to convince Evie that she needs to wait for a turn, then Kenna starts doing her somersaults through the hula hoop. Evie dances in the background singing, “I pooped, I pooped, I pooped.” She’s really into bathroom talk these days. That is developmentally on target for a four year old.
Nellie finally arrives. She lies down on the grass away from the other children so I lay down next to her. There is something so calming about this act. She points to a cloud that looks like a star. Evie joins us and finds a cloud that looks like hair. "Look, there's an 'E'." she exclaims as she points it out to me. It does looks like the “E” that she makes for her name, except the “E” she makes has six points instead of four like this one.

Carrie’s pooped. It’s time to go in to change diapers and fix lunch. Kenna has already gone in to go potty and Evie peed her pants so is inside changing. Good time to make the move inside.

Artist at Work

I absolutely LOVE children's art and watching each child's developmental progression as she journeys from scribbling to representational drawing. Even the same child fascinates me as her styles change in respect to the orientation of the paper and the materials used. For instance, if I hang paper on the easel to paint, her style is completely different from when I lay the paper on a table to paint. Her (I have only had girls for months now, so please forgive the feminine gender bias. This will change when I again have little boys.) paintings differ dramatically from drawings with color pens as well as the watercolor pens from work with crayons. When I give a Sharpie pen the children add more details and draw images that are recognizable to me as an adult.

The children hate drawing with crayons. They are used to the easy slide of watercolor pens, that take no effort at all to make scribbles. I regret this because using crayons works the hand muscles and get them ready for other skills such as writing and cutting. Besides, I have fond, meditative memories of coloring on rainy days with my own children. Crayons are wonderful for creating different shades of the same color. The red crayon creates shades from pink to dark red. I remember outlining images first before coloring them. One can get lost in the act of coloring a picture. No thoughts, just the movement of the crayon, adding just the perfect amount of pressure to attain the desired shade. The only decisions one need make is choosing the color and shade for each image.

The orange picture is an example of a number of skills children learn by the time kindergarten rolls around for them. Skills they learn through play, by having free access to materials and choosing their project, not by being "taught." Kenna did this. The paper was already cut into this shape but Kenna drew inside and was able to imitate the shape exactly. Then she drew the figure inside. When she finished the drawing she chose her favorite scissors and cut all the way around the outside of the line she drew. You can see that she had control over the lines she wanted to draw as well as the scissors. This is pre-writing in action. She worked on this project for more than a half hour, planning what she would do then going for it. When she told me the story about her picture, that it was her new puppy, Little Man, inside his cage ~ his crate ~ she reviewed what she had done. This too is a valuable skill. Planning, executing and reviewing.