Artistic Inspiration

It has been more than two weeks since I renovated the sunroom and I still haven’t managed to get around to writing about it.  You can read about the history of the space here.

I had hoped to have photos and a detailed description about all the areas in the new and improved sunroom but for now I’ve only got this overview photo;

One photo doesn’t show how flexible this space is now but here is one of a portion of the room ‘in use’;

And here’s some art work that was created there;

 

This is a drawing of a ‘bug hospital’ that this child dreams of running some day.  Here they are describing the various insects that are in the hospital, what is wrong with them and how they are being treated.

Here’s another special piece of artwork;

This one was created by a child who doesn’t like to draw in school because the Kindergarten teacher complains about the quality of their artwork.

Sometimes the art environment makes all the difference.

A Lesson in Infant Development

It was 6:40 am and three children – aged 6, 7, and 9 – were in attendance. They were discussing activity options in an effort to find one that they all agreed on.  Much of the discussion centered on competition and power.  These three do not like to play independently but they all want to be the leader in group activities.

They ruled out dinosaurs because they couldn’t agree on who would control the strongest dinosaurs.  They briefly played with cars but there was a disagreement about which vehicle was the fastest.  I tried to explain that it didn’t matter what speed the vehicle was capable of because none of them would be allowed to drive over the speed limit I had set.  They just stared at me and then decided to switch to another activity instead.

No puppet show, no music band, no restaurant, no crafts.  It was beginning to look like they would never agree on one activity and then someone suggested ‘Let’s play Babies’ and there was a unanimous cheer – well, almost unanimous, I cringed and tried to look busy with other work.  If you want to know why ‘Playing Babies’ makes me shudder you can read about it here.

Once the ’parent’ role was assigned they began to negotiate the age of the babies in the game.  When they play this game they consider the power role to be the youngest of the babies – probably because they think that excuses them from more rules and therefore they can be more disruptive.  Sigh.

They decided the babies were both one month old and as the parent was attempting to care for them the babies were crawling around and fighting.  I intervened.

“You can’t do that” I said

“Can’t do what?” they asked

“Crawl, sit, argue, throw things – pretty much anything”

“Why?”

“You said you were only one month old and a one month old baby can’t do any of that stuff”

“What can they do?”

I printed off an infant development chart like the one here.  They read the list for the first month and the ‘babies’ tried to imitate each item. Their favourite was ‘Strong grasp reflex present’ the parent almost couldn’t escape.

The babies were now two months old and were practicing lifting their heads to 45 degrees when lying on stomach.  They began making noises other than crying and their cries became more distinctive.  The parent lamented “I can’t wait until this crying stage is over”.

Through my tears (from laughter) I informed them that it was time to get ready for school.  Playing Babies will have to continue later.  Maybe I don’t find this game so annoying anymore.

Transforming the Sunroom

Last weekend I did it again – I changed the configuration of the sunroom.  Earlier in the week I planned to write a post about the new and improved sunroom and I wanted to include a ‘before’ picture.

Of course I hadn’t taken one at the beginning of the weekend project so I began looking through some of my old photos…..Even I was amazed at how many times I’ve restructured the sunroom.  So here is a little history of the most significant changes:

2002

Here the sunroom is used;

• as an art area – counter along back wall,
• for quiet time – toys & games are stored on shelves under the counter,
• and for meals – the real dining room was the playroom during this era.

Main issues included a lack of floor space and the furniture was too big and bulky – most of the preschoolers used booster seats and needed assistance to get in and out of chairs.

2004

Sunroom is still used for meals, quiet time and art activities. Four small square tables can be rearranged easily if required.  There is also a smaller table and benches for the preschool children;

2006

New chairs and a round table for the preschoolers.  Smaller chairs for the older children can be easily moved from dining table to art area (back wall) as needed.

2009

Playroom has been moved to the living room which allows meals to be served in the dining room.  The sunroom is now used exclusively for art and quiet time activities.  Much more open floor space is available.  Toy bins are easily accessable by all and may be used on floor or table.

Main problem – too many toys – not enough art.

2010

Still using the small table and the floor for play but there are more art supplies available for the children to access independently.  This is getting closer to my dream of having a dedicated art room.  The older children also have a desk area where they can sit to work with more advanced art supplies.

Although this 2010 photo was taken before we did the  floor in the sunroom (read about that here) it is the most recent photo I could find of the space and with the exception of a few minor changes it is a fairly accurate ‘before’ photo.

Stay tuned for the complete description of the newly updated sunroom space….

Snow and Sun

After a long stretch of cloudy, cool, damp weather we are ecstatic to finally have some snow.

Mounds of glorious snow to use to create trails around the yard;

And the sun has joined us – finally – adding some sparkle to all the fresh snow;

Even Mindy enjoys checking out the new paths we’ve made.

The little ones are learning to walk all over again – so much to explore;

Learning to move around in all that extra clothing;

The older ones just wanted shovels – to move snow all around the yard.

It’s the perfect start to winter and we’re looking forward to much more.

Pumpkin Pie

Early last week I cut our pumpkin in half and let the children remove the seeds and stringy inards;

I asked if any of them had ever tried roasted pumpkin seeds and if they would like to make some.  They were excited and then one of them eagerly announced that we would also be making some pumkin pie. Hmmm, I hadn’t planned on that.

We discussed the steps involved in making pumpkin pie and the children thought that it would take a very long time but they still wanted to try.  The first day though we just took out the seeds and roasted them;

We ate them for afternoon snack when the older children were back from school.  That evening I steamed the pumkin so the following day the children could work on preparing the pie filling.
They mashed the cooked pumkin;

then added some milk, eggs, and spices;

Eventually we had our finished product;

What a delicious end to a three day project.  We also have enough pumpkin puree in the freezer for future projects too

Trees

It started as a competition.  The school-age children were making pyramids with blocks.  The five of them were each building their own structure and they began bickering and complaining that there were not going to be enough blocks.

The arguing began to escalate and then one of the children suggested that they should combine all the blocks and work  together.  A few minutes later they announced that they had made a ‘tree’;

Later in the day, during quiet time there was another tree;

I was informed that this one was from ‘The Lorax’.  A detailed description and re-enactment of the story followed.

All this tree talk reminded me of the funky yellow thing we found at the park this past summer – I assumed it was some typed of fungi. It was growning on a tree and the children were fascinated;

Yesterday at circle time we looked at the trees in the nature guide, discussed their simalarities and differences and picked our favourites;

Then I read ‘Signs Along the River‘ by Kayo Robertson.  The children were getting restless so we went outside to run around and of course look at trees;

Later we looked through the items in our nature treasure box;

And sorted the items into two groups – ‘Parts of trees’ and ‘Not from trees’.

Trees (and children) are amazing.

Painted Pumpkin

Halloween 2012 is now history.  It was a very quiet Halloween night – we only had about on third of the trick or treaters that we normally get around here.

I will admit that Halloween is my least favourite of all the holidays but that doesn’t mean that we don’t celebrate it.  I did have most of my decorations up early this year – three weeks ago.  I also bought the pumpkins early but we didn’t do anything with them until yesterday. Part of the problem may have been that, of the 11 full or part time children that attend, the ones that are most interested in Halloween activities are not the ones who are here much.

I like to use pumpkins as a sensory activity for the children and we like to bake with them too.  We usually choose a pumpkin decorating activity that doesn’t involve carving it so we can still use the innards for food.  I found some really amazing pumpkin decorating ideas here.

However, with mostly just infants and toddlers here for the day any elaborate decorating techniques would not be developmentally appropriate.  So, instead we simply painted a pumpkin.

I found it amusing that the biggest problem I had with this activity was getting the little ones to stand up to paint.  Usually the messier the art activity the more likely they are to want to run around.  This time however  just sat, holding their paint brush, and stared at the pumkin on the table.  When I stood them up so they could reach they promptly sat down again.

Eventually they caught on and started painting the pumpkin.  The red paint did not show up well;

The blue was vibrant against the orange of the pumpkin;

We even managed to do some color mixing;

Of course by the end of the activity the pumpkin was mostly greyish brown but we were most interested in the process not the product.