We have had lots of beautiful frosty mornings recently, the children have been excited by the twinkly white frosting everywhere. Last week I bought some new books which I hadn't added to our bookshelf yet, one of which is called Jack Frost so I decided that it was perfect timing to read our new book. It is a lovely story about a boy who makes friends with Jack Frost, and they spend all Winter together having lots of fun until the first snowdrops arrive in the Spring, when Jack Frost disappears in the wind, whispering that he will be back again next Winter to play again. The children loved the pictures and laughed at the story.
When we were playing out we wrote in the frost with our fingers, but our hands became cold which the pre-schoolers didn't like!
The children made sparkly frosty pictures, we chatted about the frost and everyone agreed that they hope it will be frosty again tomorrow soon - I am sure they won't be disappointed!
E has been in my care a few months now, she has settled really well and makes her way about the house; she knows where the toys are that she can freely access and she does this when she chooses. Each day I get out a different resource for the children to play with to provide variety and interest.
On Tuesday I decided that I would get out the heuristic play objects for E - we were having a morning at home followed by swimming in the early afternoon. As it turned out E slept all morning, only waking in time for a quick lunch and then swimming. After we returned home from swimming E eventually played with the heuristic play objects.
E put virtually everything that she touched into her mouth - this was fine as everything was clean, a large enough size to not pose a choking hazard, and I was supervising her closely. E was particularly drawn to the CDs, she preferred the shiny side and became quite vocal when she was holding them. E also enjoyed banging the metal tins with her hands, creating quite a noise in the process.
I have J and O tomorrow who have never encountered the heuristic play - good job everything is still out in the lounge!!
I now have mainly very young children in my care during the day, which means that most of my celebration planning is now 'meaningless' - in that the children are oblivious to what we are celebrating and why. However I feel that it is nice to tie in our activities to the celebration if possible.
Had I had older children in my care we would have been doing lots of talking and activities leading up to Remembrance Sunday, Albie is currently very interested in it and we have been doing lots of talking about it and looking at old photos from World Wars 1 and 2.
I decided today that we could do a painting activity as we haven't painted for a few weeks. As E is 9 months old most things go in her mouth, so I decided to repeat an activity that we haven't done for a while - painting with home made puffy paint, which is 100% edible! To tie the activity in with Remembrance Sunday (very loosely) I coloured the paint red and green - the same colours as the poppies.
The first thing that E did was suck on the paint brush! Although the paint is edible, I don't imagine that it is tasty, so after the first time, E didn't attempt to taste the paint again! E then had lots of fun squishing the paint over the paper.
Once E had finished her masterpiece I microwaved it for a few seconds to make it puff up - however as she had smeared the paint on on the paper it wasn't quite thick enough to puff up, so it just became hard and flaky - yay, I invented flaky paint, I just need to think of a use for it now!!!!
Just look at that smile, E does make me laugh!
Today's activity was really good fun, and I think it might be top of my list of sensory activities - it feels DEVINE!
J helped to measure the soap flakes and water out and he poured them into a big mixing bowl. Then J helped me to mix the mixture using our electric whisk. J was amazed that the teeny flakes disappeared and in their place was a huge quantity of white fluffy soapy slime!
J mixed in some food colouring and then pronounced that he had made ice cream! Initially he used a spatula to mix the soapy slime and the food colouring, but once he got stuck in with his hands there was no stopping him.
The after school children also got stuck in to the soapy slime, they also loved squishing it with their fingers, and T enjoyed smothering it all over his arms too.
And the bonus of this activity was that the clean up operation was quite easy!!!
Over the past two weeks J and I have been doing quite a few different Autumnal activities which have either consisted of things we have done previously, or have been similar to things that we have done previously. I like to try new things with the children, and generally they enjoy doing new activities too, so with that in mind I decided that we would have a go at making wax crayon sun catchers.
J and I chose some crayons in Autumnal colours and then after a brief explanation as to why we have to be careful, J set about grating the crayons onto a sheet of greaseproof paper. This took a while!
Once we had enough grated wax I put a second sheet of greaseproof paper over the wax and with the iron on the lowest setting (and with J removed from the very immediate vicinity) I ironed the wax gratings until they melted. J was amazed at the blob that we created! I however wasn't - I had hoped for something pretty, but we had used far too much dark coloured wax and it just looked horrid! So we tried again with much brighter colours which produced a much nicer melted blob!
We covered the wax to clear contact paper on both sides, I punched two holes and J helped me to thread a ribbon through the holes so that he could hang his sun catcher up - all we need now is some sun!
It is lovely to welcome new children into my home, and into the group of children already here. Whenever I am approached by parents to care for their children I am mindful of how the new child will fit in, and being completely honest, I will not take on a child that I feel will not fit in well, or who could potentially upset the children already in my care; neither will I take on a child if I feel I will not get along with his or her parents - I have to be able to build a good relationship with these people so feel that us all getting along is very important.
Yesterday was J's first full day with me, and his first time with me on his own without Mummy being with him. During the previous two weeks I have spent as much time as possible with J in order that we got to know each other, we have been on days out together, J has come to play at my house, and I have visited him at his house. And I really think that us getting to know one another has helped a lot, J has spent a lovely 2 full days with me now and I am confident that he will continue to be settled and happy here.
I am a very happy childminder right now!
