The Makeover

I regularly make changes to our learning enivironment. Sometimes changes are necessary to address a problem we are having within one area.  Sometimes the changes are due to the addition of a new item.  Whatever the reason for the modification these little changes add up over time and occasionally an area looses its functionality and it is time for a complete makeover.

This was the case in our workshop area.  Originally it had been just for tools. The tool racks were pegboard doors from an old cabinet — I reuse/recycle whenever possible.  The size of these doors determined the height of the shelf for the piano keyboard.  The width and depth of this new storage area were determined by the size of the cots which are stored behind the tools/under the piano.  It always bothered me that there was unusable empty space above the cots.

Over time, the small musical instruments were moved here when the sunroom became the ‘quiet time’ area. The tools and musical instruments were combined in the same area.

Later, the large piano was replaced with a smaller one to make room for the indoor garden and home to our stick insects too.  What was once ‘the worshop’ had become ‘the worshop/music/science/garden area and everything was unorganized.  It was time to fix this.

During my ‘vacation’ I reorganized this area to make it more functional.  Now it looks like this;

 

 

Tools and musical instruments are separated.  The extra space between the cot storage and the science area became a shelf for the piano.  The pegboard hooks were rearranged to display the tools and musical instruments more efficiently.

In case you were wondering how I get those pegboard hooks to stay secured to the boards — I use plastic coated wire on the back of the boards like this;

 

  

  

Now everything is organized again — at least until the next time I change something

The Rope

Today I planned to write about some of the changes that I made to our learning environment during my vacation but when I checked through the pictures on my camera I realized that there were still a bunch of pictures from the last week before my vacation.  So, before I forget again, here’s the story of the rope…

My nearly 17 year old son has been enamoured by the Wilderness Survival book we bought and has been practicing various knots.  He joined us outside one day and showed the children how to measure distance using a rope with knots tied at one foot intervals;

 

Then the children asked him to tie the rope to one of the logs — they had a plan;

 

The log was on one side of the yard;

 

And they stood on the other side — and working together they pulled really hard;

 

And successfully tipped over the log;

 

But what were they looking for?

Aha! The prize;

It's the Little Things

My vacation is officially over and the children return today.

I think my vacation was successful – The fact that I haven’t written a single blog post for more than two weeks should give you an idea how busy I was.  Seriously some days I didn’t even check my email until 11 pm – and I didn’t do any paperwork at all!

I know, many of you think I’m crazy to ‘work’ through my vacation but really, isn’t the purpose of a vacation to take a break from your regular routine and do something that you enjoy?  That is what I did.  For me, swimming or relaxing on a beach is a form of torture – as is any type of spa treatment.  I’m far too independent to tolerate being catered to – I have difficulty letting the clerk bag my groceries for me. As much as I enjoy gardening, hiking, exploring, and visiting museums etc, those activities are not ‘different’ from my everyday routine.

So, what did I do on my ‘vacation’?  My list was extensive. I knew I probably wouldn’t complete it all but I didn’t want to run out of things to do and end up being bored   One by one big jobs got completed;

• Tear out two poorly utilized closets.
• Take down built in shelving.
• Frame new storage unit.
• Install storage bin system.
• Build new kitchen cupboard unit.
• Paint, paint, and paint some more.
• Install knotty pine ceiling.

Busy, busy, busy. Cleaning out the pantry was a bonus since there was little time for grocery shopping so when we were hungry we were forced to use up the miscellaneous items we could find in the cupboard or freezer – or order pizza.

Most of the big jobs were completed in the first week.  I started dropping hints that maybe we’d have time to do the floors too.  The scowl and “Can we finish this job first before you plan something else” retort let me know that he wasn’t ready for that comment.  I’m not sure he’s aware that I’m usually planning several new projects as we are working.

By the 13^th of July there was nothing left but the ‘little things’ – the touch-ups, the odd jobs, the things I didn’t plan for in advance.  I started dreaming of the new flooring again – after all we still had five days. But those little things really add up. Sigh.

After two days of working on those little things I hardly made any noticeable progress.  It was depressing.  Everywhere I looked there were more odds and ends to put away, small jobs to finish, and I had things to prepare for ‘back to work’ too.  The little things are hard but they are so important.  No matter how impressive the big project was it is not complete until the little things are done.

I don’t have any new flooring – yet. There are only two weeks until the next long weekend and I have big plans….

New Chapters

It has been less than a week since my last post but it feels like much longer than that.  There is a lot going on around here.  The school year is nearly over and new adventures are on the horizon.  We are saying good-bye to several of the children – some will be returning in the fall but two will not.

For some of the younger children this will be a big change since some of these familiar faces have been here as long as they can remember.  It will be very different without them here. We are also meeting some new friends who will be joining our group for the summer.

Some of the children have already been on various summer excursions with their families so attendance has been sporadic.  Occasionally we’ve had only two children here – it seems so quiet.  My teen-age son and one of the school-age children spent one of these quiet mornings perfecting their hoop tossing skills.  First they practiced spinning the hoola hoops as they threw them away which results in the hoops rolling back to them.

Then they increased the game difficulty by using two different sized hoops and intricate timing so that when the two hoops met one passed through the other.  It looked like this;

My photgraphy skills do not fully capture the magnitude of this feat. The preschooler and I had neither the patience nor expertise to compete but we provided the cheers to encourage the game players.

My ‘vacation’ begins in just a few days and I will miss observing activities like these.  My list of things I want to accomplish on my ‘time off’ is much longer than the two weeks I have allotted.  I’m not sure how much time I’ll have to write but I hope to keep you informed about some of the projects as I work on them.

Looking forward to new faces, new spaces, and new adventures.

Water Play

Without a regular water supply the childrens’ free play with water has been limited to  whatever water they can find in the yard after (or during) a rainfall.

Every summer we have at least one ‘Water Day’ where there are various water stations set up but these are somewhat structured water activities.  It has been one of my goals to incorporate water as a permanent feature of the loose parts area and by moving the rain barrel, phase one has finally been completed;

 

Water has become the ultimate ‘loose part’ and the children have been busy experimenting with it.  There was the familiar ‘soup’ which sometimes becames a swimming pool;

 

My son tried an experiment with sound and water;

 

One of the children expanded on it;

 

Those plastic jars with lids became very useful — shaking makes bubbles!

 

The jars also provide a way to transport the water to where you want to use it;

 

And you can ‘pour’ water down the slide without loosing the water;

 

Water and tubes and soup together — there were some issues with using dirty outdoor toys to blow bubbles (some of us were more concerned than others);

 

We practiced the ‘scoop and fill’ technique;

 

And experimented with obstacles in the path of water;

 

Taking turns trying both roles;

 

Since I was just wandering around taking pictures I got enlisted to hold the hose so it could be filled with water — I had to follow very specific instructions;

 

So the water ultimately got from jar to hose and then to another jar;

 

And of course ‘clean-up’ time has a whole new meaning now;

 

We have to make sure there is enough time to dry the toys too;

 

Good thing it was warm and sunny.

Patience

Impulse control and the ability to delay gratification are often difficult for young children.  One thing that gardening has shown me is that I may have some issues in this area as well.

In the past we have started our seeds indoors and then moved the seedlings to the garden once the weather was better and there was little chance of frost.  Last year we started our seeds far too early—twice — and they outgrew their containers.  Many of the seedlings  died before we could plant them outside.

With our unpredictable weather this year I was hesitant to start planting so we only did our grain seed experiment indoors. When the outdoor garden beds were ready we planted our grain seeds;

and some bean seeds and sunflower seeds were put in the planters around the yard.

Then we got busy with other projects until suddenly I realized that we had no vegetable plants or seeds to put in the garden!  Well, at least I can’t complain that we started them too early. Besides, Dave over at Sage Garden Herbs says that in our climate early June is the best time to start planting outdoors.

I made a quick trip to the store for some of our favourites – tomato plants and seeds for corn, peas, cucumbers and zucchini.  We finally start planting our vegetable seeds directly into the garden.

We used toilet paper tubes to mark the spots where we placed seeds so we wouldn’t accidentally pull the sprouts thinking they were weeds.  Hopefully the tubes would also help to prevent the cutworm damage we have experienced in previous years.

It rained for the next few days so we started some herbs indoors.  Since these were leftover seeds from last year or from our winter indoor garden project we were not sure how well they would grow.  So far they seem to be doing well.

I guess I shouldn’t always be using the term ‘vegetables’ since our tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers and green beans are actually fruits.  We’ve also learned that the soybeans are also considered to be fruits even though we have included them with our grains.

Now comes the really difficult part for me – waiting.  Every day, when we go outside the children and I head to the garden first.  We marvel at the progress the grains are making – getting taller every day.

Then we check for any signs of other sprouts.  The children seem unconcerned when there are no visible signs of growth and they go off to play elsewhere.  I stay in the garden, waiting and wondering.  Were the seeds not good? Did we plant them too deep and the sprouts can’t reach the surface? I (barely) resist the urge to go poking around in the soil looking for them. I consider secretly planting more seeds in the same spots – more is better – right?

Why are they taking so long?  I know the seed packages say ‘7-14 days’ but the beans sprouted in just 4 days and a week later they looked like this;

Then finally, near the end of the advertised germination period we find the first zucchini sprouts.  By 2 ½ weeks we have corn, several cucumber and zucchini plants and just one of the peas.  You have to look very closely but they are there peeking out of the tubes.

 

The children are thrilled – they looked, cheered and went off to play again.  I inspect each new plant and then stare at the empty spots.  Why don’t you grow?  I notice all the vacant spots seem to be in the shadier parts of the garden.  That could definitely be a factor but still; it has been nearly three weeks now.

The children are content to wait.  They enjoy the whole process. I expect instant results.  I want to plant seeds one day and be eating fresh veggies by the end of the week.  I am an impatient gardener.

Just the Highlights

This weekend I planned to write a post about our recent gardening adventures but since I was enlisted to help with sheeting and shingling the porch roof I didn’t have enough time left to write.  Suffice it to say I will never take on roofing as a career and this week’s post will simply be a few pictures of some of the children’s activities last week.

Early in the week the bugs from the nature area were the toy of choice — I don’t know exactly what they were doing, sometimes I think it is better that I don’t ask.

 

The children also initiated a storytime session in the nature area;

 

Outside they helped my son create a unique sculpture;

 

They called the finished product a “Northern Branch Turtle”

 

It rained overnight which meant there were some more activity options;

 

And there was water for our soup but when too much ‘stuff’ was added we had to try to get it out without losing any of the precious broth;

 

In the past they have just dumped it all out but we are learning to conserve water since it isn’t always available.

We played in the tunnels;

 

And found a dead dragonfly in the garden;

 

We love dragonflies and hope this one didn’t die as a result of the city spraying to kill cankerworms.

We ended the week with more water fun when we got to clean the old plant pots;

 

It was a very productive week.