Musical Instruments

The toddlers and preschoolers have been exploring musical instruments this week. They had a wonderful field trip to the Seattle Symphony on Friday. Today they practiced playing a trombone and made some instruments of their own.

As I watch the videos from today, I especially appreciate the open-ended musical instrument project because it allowed for artistic self-expression. In the early childcare field there is an art concept called "process vs product". With product art children create a project using the same materials in the same way to create a similar end product according to teacher direction. Art that focuses on the "process" rather than the end product, allows children to design, create, and explore using various materials and their own imaginations.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Dragonflies at Play

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Jackson and Ruby Make Lunch

Make a Smilebox postcard

Kindness and Firmness

I have recently re-arranged the schedule so that I have Monday and Thursday afternoons off. For many reasons; but mostly to save my sanity, get office work and run errands inside the workweek, and spend time just being with Layla. So, on Monday afternoon Layla and I went to run errands and stopped at the public library to get some new board books for her. While I was there I also checked out a book called “The No-Cry Discipline Solution” by Elizabeth Pantley. Besides being influenced by Adlerian psychology like the “Positive Discipline” series by Jane Nelson (that I already love), it is really easy to read and busy-parent friendly. I highly recommend it if you’re looking for a little positive inspiration in the discipline department and it emphasizes topics like: interrupting, hitting, sibling conflicts, restaurant behavior, sharing, yelling, and whining.
I’d like to incorporate some of the more helpful key points into my blog. The following excerpt is taken directly from the book:

It’s Okay to Have Fun, It’s Okay to Be Firm

You don’t always have to use clever skill (like singing and dancing with pajamas on your head- although sometimes that works wonders) to get your child to cooperate with you. There are plenty of times when you’ll just want to say it straight up. When you do, try to follow these basic rules:
• Get eye to eye. Try not to call from a distance or mumble directions.
• Say what you mean. Don’t make threats, don’t use empty words.
• Be clear and specific. Don’t make vague requests. Don’t make your child guess what you want.
• Be polite. “Please” and “thank you” are magic words for parents to use too.
• Stay calm. Anger just makes things worse.
• Follow through with action. Take him by the hand; give her the coat that you want her to put on, lead him back to the mess he left with the blocks on the floor. “Help” your child do what you ask them to do.
• Be consistent. The more you follow these steps the easier it gets for both of you.


Bonnie Brings in Musical Instruments from her trip to Guatemala:

Make a Smilebox postcard

Team Work

One of the aspects I appreciate about having a small group of kids is the opportunity for them to feel that they a part of a larger community while still remaining small enough to feel like an extension of family. They know each other very well and interact with each other much like siblings would. Here are the Centipedes working together to paint the picnic table for the yard. Giving young children meaningful roles builds their confidence and self-esteem.

Make a Smilebox postcard

Cooking is a great activity to do with preschoolers. They can contribute to the group in a meaningful way and they usually feel a great sense of accomplishment when they can serve and eat food they've helped prepare. They can learn about math concepts like seriation and discrimination. They are more adventurous eaters when they have prepared the food themselves.
Here is a great article about the benefits of cooking with kids:

http://kidshealth.org/parent/growth/learning/cooking_preschool.html

Make a Smilebox recipe

Max and Jackson sing the ABCs

Children of all ages love music and singing and they benefit from experiences with music. Music enhances learning, especially language development. Children's experiences with music build vocabulary, listening skills, and language acquisition.

Make a Smilebox postcard

Fun Friday

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Leslie is the best.

I think Leslie, Torry's mom, could just sense my exhaustion on the phone this morning because with Carrie gone in Iowa and Layla still being sick, I was geared up for another challenging day. However, she came to the rescue and spent the morning with Jennifer downstairs so that I could spend the morning with Layla. And thank goodness she did because my Food Program supervisor decided to make a surprise visit for breakfast. I would have been very stressed without her help, so thank you Leslie.

Walkin... are we cute or what?

Grandpa Chris plays the guitar

After last weekend's trip to see Scott's family in Los Angeles and a week visiting here in Seattle w/ my mom and dad, now Layla's fighting off a nasty fever and cough bug... I guess I am sort-of finally getting back to normal life and apologize for the mini-hiatus in blogging.

Layla and her friends had a great time with Layla's grams and gramps. It has been awesome to have the extra hands and laps around here and we're all sad that they had to go home.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

A Day in the Life

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Huge Slideshow of pictures from Jan- Feb 2009

Here's a slideshow of all the pictures taken over the last few months. As I watch it, I love that all of the kids are such a tight-knit family. The tiny-ness of our tribe is one of my favorite things about home childcare environments. The kids, families, and teachers are all really able to get to know one another well over a long period of time. Developing healthy attachments with primary caregivers in early childhood has lifelong benefits.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

This next video was taken this past Friday. Another reason why I like the mixed-age groups that home childcare can provide. Kenzo and Kaito, brothers who spend the day together in the classroom, learn to understand how their relationship with each other exists within the dynamics of the group.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Breakfast for lunch...

Today we had pancakes w/ blueberry sauce and scrambled eggs for lunch. It was a big hit and the kids want to have "breakfast for lunch" again soon! Finn also tried the pancakes and gobbled them up.. yum! Layla is just starting to try food this month but she has a pretty strong gag-reflex and so far everything we've tried comes right back out!
Our awesome cleaning person, Emily, came this afternoon.... she comes every other Thursday. I think Finn has a crush on her! He follows her around the house and yells at her through the labyrinth of gates to get her attention. When she stops cleaning to talk to him, he just beams! She likes him a lot too and is happy to have the distraction.
We have a little basket of stuffed farm animals that we've been playing a lot with today. Finn and Layla both think it's hilarious when I make the animals moo, baaa, cluck, and oink. I wonder if there is any real value in learning animal sounds or if the purpose of that game is just to make us adults look goofy? Anyway, I haven't met a kid yet that doesn't like it!