Our Week Outdoors - The End

The last day of our week outdoors started with me making the ‘trail mix macaroni salad’ – pasta, bacon, raisins, grated carrot, sunflower seeds, and salad dressing (I used ranch).

The flavour was good but I’m still not a fan of pasta salads — it is the texture of cold pasta that I don’t like.  The children all ate it but no one begged for more.

I received some gifts from the children when they arrived;

When we got outside I set up the tunnels.  There were several items I had handy just in case the children got bored – they rarely get bored outside so most of the items didn’t get used.  I wanted to get the tunnels out because we haven’t used them for a long time.  The children cheered;

I left them out all day and they were used for a variety of activities but the favorite one involved the balls – of course;

We also did some crafts — these children prefer active play so getting them interested in crafts is sometimes a challenge — messy crafts are the best.  I suggested that these might make good Father’s day gifts but left the decision up to them;

Later in the afternoon I noticed that there were pieces of bark neatly arranged in the tipi;

When I asked what the bark was for they informed me that it was ‘jail’ and they continued playing.  Some arrests were made, there was an attempted jailbreak – involving a pinecone ‘knife’ – everything ended peacefully.

So, here’s the evaluation of spending one whole week outdoors;

• Nap time outdoors is AWESOME even (especially) in the rain.
• Eating meals outdoors is ok occaisionally but eating every meal for a week outdoors is tiresome.
• No one complains about being bored.  No one misses the indoor toys.
• I discovered that I would not survive if I had to work any place that required me to wear shoes all day.
• All the ‘little things’ I normally do in spare minutes throughout the day – loading/unloading the dishwasher, checking/responding to email, miscellaneous paperwork, prepwork and cleaning-up etc don’t get done during the day.  They add an hour or two to my workday after the children leave — I normally only work 12 hours a day, this week it was closer to 14 hours per day.
• I miss my coffee pot.
• I have absolutely no trouble falling asleep at night.

I highly recommend it!

Our Week Outdoors - Day Four

Two days this week we have had a guest visiting us.  A student from the Red River College Early Childhood Education program has been here to do her final Practicum.  On day four of our all week outdoors she brought some stuff to play with.  She started by letting the children examine the cornstarch;

Then they added some water;

The children were a little unsure about the texture at first but after a few minutes they really got into it;

They played for a long time and experimented by adding more cornstarch or water and mixing and squishing;

Then we tried a game of bowling;

Which also included some counting, sorting and matching activities;

The baby has been a little unsure about having someone new around and has stayed very close to me.  Choosing to play with the basket of balls and cones he watches our visitor from a comfortable distance;

However she did get a few smiles from him when she played his favorite game — setting up the cones for him to knock down – just had to make sure she stayed on the opposite side of the beam;

In the afternoon there was a brief thunderstorm — the three youngest children slept through it. The rest of us played in the rain.

Our Week Outdoor - Day Three

The children have settled into a comfortable ‘all day outside’ routine.  Day three was very similar to the other days — chalk drawing, ball games, tag, a walk through the neighbourhood, gardening, digging in gravel etc.

The baby has surprised me.  He has absolutely no difficulty being outdoors all day.  The biggest difference has been nap time.  He actually stays up a little longer – not falling asleep earlier but definitely sleeping longer.  His naps have been about 3 hours each day.  Even though I have his playpen set up in a high traffic area between the back door/upper deck and the lower deck/yard he is not disturbed by our passing by or by the various sounds in the neighbourhood – including lawnmowers and sirens!

Probably the biggest change for me has been the lunch menu.  Tuesdays are always sandwich days so nothing had to be modified for that day.  Many of the other days had lunch items that required cooking and since I don’t have access to the stove I had to modify the menu this week.

Monday should have been ‘French Fries and Meatloaf’ but instead we had ‘Potato Salad and Garlic Sausage’.  Wednesday would have been ‘Mexican Chicken with Rice’ but in the morning I made ‘Chicken and Cheese Quesadillas’ before the children arrived.  They were served cold and the children have declared that they would like them added to the regular menu.

Today would regularly be ‘Ham and Mozza Biscuit Bake’ but instead I will be baking biscuits this morning and add cheese and ham when I serve lunch.  Tomorrow would be ‘Sausages and Parmesan Pasta’ but I have a pasta salad recipe that I am going to try.  We’ve never had a pasta salad on the menu – mostly because I don’t like cold pasta – so this will be a new experience.  I’m very curious to see how it goes over with the group.  Maybe we will be making some permanent menu changes.

Our Week Outdoors - Day One

This is our first ‘week outdoors’.  I call this our practice week because attendance will be lower due to the fact that several children in school for all or most of the day.  We are also not spending the entire day outdoors – just the period from 9:00 am until 3:30 pm.  The ‘practice’ part is my ability to coordinate meals and nap time outdoors.  In July, when all the children are in attendance we will be spending all day from drop-off until pick-up outdoors.

So, last week was blazingly hot and humid and I made sure that I got all the sun shades up for this week.  Of course that means it will rain all week.  The rain itself doesn’t concern me but when I read the forecasted high of just 9 degrees Celsius I almost cancelled the event.  One of the children would have been pleased — the rest would have been devastated.  We continued as planned and even though it was cloudy and damp it did not rain much at all.

Now for the highlights of day one – Chalk and water;

‘Driving’;

Lunch;

On the covered deck – nap time for the youngest;

The older ones continued with the chalk;

Creating impressive artwork;

But even they couldn’t resist an outdoor nap;

Today is supposed to be warmer and maybe there will even be some sun