Moon Dough

The children played with moon dough this week - this was a new sensory experience for us, and proved to be very popular - as well as very messy!


The moon dough feels lovely, it is very silky, soft and smooth, it can be moulded and squeezed into shapes, and it breaks up into pieces very easily.  It does not dry out - which is good in that it means we can keep using it again and again - although considering the mess that was created I am not sure I can stand it being used too often - bring on the nice weather and then the children can play with it outside!

Threading beads

Last week on yet another rainy day, I provided a few different activities for the children to take part in, one of which was threading beads.  The younger children have threaded big beads onto shoe laces before, but nothing as small as this.  They were great at it, each child sat silently concentrating on the task in hand, it was lovely to observe.  The fine motor skills displayed were great!  And the children loved the end result and wore their necklaces and bracelets with pride!

Making rainbows

After a day spent getting very wet at the park, and then marvelling at the clear blue sky and sunshine, I decided it would be apt to make rainbows!  I provided the children with a piece of white card, strips of coloured paper, PVA glue and spreaders.  I explained to the children that they need to put blobs of glue at the end of each strip of paper then hold them in place and count to 10 in order to make the glue stick.  There was lots of counting to 10 during this activity!


The finished pictures were lovely - I didn't tell the children that they had to put their paper in a particular order.

What should a 4 year old know?

Albie is starting school in September.  Albie has attended Starbrite pre-school for over 12 months now, which is a great way to get him ready for starting the reception year at whichever school he eventually attends.  I will be spending lots of time over the next few months making sure he is 'ready' for school.  By that I mean he has the ability (and confidence) to do the following:

• dress and undress himself
• go to the toilet all by himself
• open his own lunch box, open yoghurt pots, peel satsumas, etc
• put on and do up his coat
• undo and take off his coat
• hang his coat up

The above list are my main focus in order to make Albie's transition into school as smooth as possible - I know that Starbrite are dealing and have dealt with other important things such as:

• learning to play with his peers
• learning to resolve conflict with his peers
• listen to his teachers and do what he has been asked to do
• ask a teacher for assistance if needed
• understand there are rules and the need for the rules

I hope that the upbringing that Albie is enjoying is giving him the ability to:

• use his imagination in his play
• learn to assess risks
• have the confidence to take risks
• learn that books provide a magical make believe world
• realise that it is OK if he gets covered in mud/paint/glue/water etc, it will all wash off
• believe in himself, he can be anything he wants to be

I have always been very relaxed about children learning to read, write, recognise numbers, etc.  I firmly believe that they will learn, when they are ready to and when they want to, it is not a race!  

During my time spent with the children in my care, we will learn so many things by playing and hopefully having lots of fun along the way.

   

Here is a link to a wonderful post by A Magical Childhood  detailing a fabulous list of "what a four year old should know" - I think should be compulsory reading for all parents!

Farm day out

At long last the sun was shining, so we had a wonderful day out at the farm.