Exploration

The bees love the giant hyssop in the garden and the children love to watch the busy bees.  Yesterday we were excited to have a new visitor who stayed for most of the morning;

The children have been busy too, there are so many new spaces to explore in our yard.  The toys and loose parts are now spread out around the yard so the storage area isn’t so congested.

One of my vacation projects was to re-purpose our old rain barrels into loose parts storage bins. The two that cracked this past winter are now located in the North-East corner of the gravel area;

The oldest water barrel – which has been waiting for years to get a new purpose – now stores all the larger pieces of scrap lumber.  It is located in the South-West corner of the yard by the tipi.

This ‘new yard space’ was created in what used to be the parking area and is now the children’s favourite space.

The toy bin is in the South-East part of the gravel area.  I’ve trimmed the lower branches off the cedars and this is where the babies like to play.

I took some close-up pictures of various objects in the yard and used them to create ‘Where-Am-I’ cards.  The children enjoyed searching the new spaces to locate each item on their card.

These are also useful for learning to recognize our plants by the shape/colour of their leaves or the texture of their bark.

Most recently the upper deck has been transformed into a outdoor art area.  Yesterday was the first time the older children got to use it during quiet time when the little ones were napping.

We’ve enjoyed exploring all the new spaces and are looking forward to many more adventures.

Looking Back

It is Monday morning and as I await the arrival of the first child I am reviewing on the things we were able to accomplish over the past two weeks.  First, I must admit that my ‘vacation’ actually felt very long. I think that is due in part to the fact that we didn’t just have one major project that took up a huge chunk of time.

This year we had several small/medium sized projects to tackle over the summer and chose to start with the biggest ones during my two week vacation.  The remaining items can be done on evenings and weekends.

We started by moving the fence to rearrange the parking and play areas.  This was the biggest job but it took only three days.  Really, it could have been done on a single long weekend.  I will write a separate post about the new outdoor space so for now there are no pictures.

The second largest job was the outdoor art area.  It is not entirely complete yet but the major work is done.  There will be no pictures until the finishes are complete.

We also planned to re-insulate the drafty basement wall.  This is a project we have wanted to tackle since we moved in here more than 17 years ago.  It meant moving all my toy storage so it was also the perfect time to re-organize the bins.  For all of the past two weeks the playroom and basement have looked like this;

This is the task that I disliked but it had to be done.  I didn’t get everything back in place until 9:30 pm last evening.  Now I’m eager for winter to arrive but only so I can feel how much warmer it will be down there.  I am happy that all the toys are organized now – just have to make new bin labels;

All the 25 of the quiet time and table toys mini bins are organized now too.  It was an ongoing project throughout the past two weeks.  I had planned to work on it only on rainy/cold days when we couldn’t work outside.  However, the weather was fabulous for almost all of my vacation so I had to ‘waste’ some time indoors.

Some of the smaller projects included rebuilding the library book shelves and the music/workshop area shelves.  There are still a few playroom modifications that I hope to complete in the next few weeks yet.  The biggest one will be the nature area mini scenes.

My vacation wasn’t all work though – in fact, I did absolutely no paperwork at all.  I still have plenty of paperwork to do.  My desk is covered in it but I didn’t do any of it.  Malta claimed my empty chair as her favorite kitty napping spot but I couldn’t persuade her to finish my work for me.

We replaced the two old cracked rain barrels with new ones from Fort Whyte Alive – which of course meant we had to go on a nature hike while we were out there.  I also got to spend some time working in the garden but I must admit that my native prairie plants really don’t need much work.

There are a few bare spots because the Fringed Brome and the Gaillardia didn’t come up this spring and the sawflies destroyed the Wild Columbine.  I missed the plant sales at Living Prairie Museum earlier this year and had hoped to make the trek out to Prairie Flora during my vacation but that was one of the things I didn’t manage to do.

Sadly I didn’t get out to Quality Classrooms either – they are not open Saturdays so I can only go there during my vacation.  I did make a trip out to Carman for a day.  It was for my Aunt’s funeral but it was nice to see all my cousins and reminisce about spending my childhood summers on their farm.

Also managed to get my hair cut – twice – so it is now shorter than it has been for the last 40+ years.  I had lunch with my mom and she loves my new hairstyle – it is similar to the pixie cuts she used to make me get when I was little.

That’s enough looking back for now.  It is time to go watch the children explore the new spaces and make discoveries.

Summer Holidays

So, today is the last day before my ‘holiday’ begins.  As usual I have a HUGE list of projects to complete this summer.  Some of them are smaller projects that will be done on weekends.

The ‘big’ project will involve rearranging the parking area, moving the fence,  and an overhaul of the gravel area and loose parts storage.  I wrote about the plans last Spring – read about it here.  We already built/moved the sheds but ran out of time last summer to complete the project.

I’ve had nearly a full week with my new summer group and it was wonderful.  Everyone is settling in to our routine and the lack of a school-defined schedule has greatly improved the ‘flow’ of the day.

Outside I have all the new stumps stored in the corner of the yard waiting until the yard project begins.  Interestingly, the older children have deemed this to be the ‘perfect cooking spot’.  Hmmm, I’ll have to modify my plans a little so we can continue to accommodate this;

The old stumps are still as popular as ever.  The lone boy in the group seems somewhat concerned about all the climbing and jumping about.

Later he put on the construction helmet and did this;

‘No climbing here’ :-)

I found a dead moth and gave it to the insect lovers.

Turns out it wasn’t dead – just injured – so it was rushed to the emergency room. For nearly an hour a team of dedicated medical personnel worked to save the moth – or at least make it a little more comfortable.  Here is his x-ray/chart;

As excited a I am about all the renovations I have planned for the next two weeks I am also going to miss these kinds of activities too.  However, I’m certain we’ll have many more adventures when we return.