Tizzy

Yesterday we worked on recognizing the letters in our names and putting them in order.  

We have some neat puzzle alphabet stickers.  The kids stuck the letters of their names onto the lines in the correct spots.  It's hard to see, but that piece of paper is a piece of construction paper folded over and stapled into a pocket envelope.

It's good for the kids to have to put the letters in the correct order!  I could see his mind working as he sorted the letters out.

The next step was for the kids to color some popsicle sticks brightly.  One for each letter of their names. 

They added another set of letters to the popsicle sticks. 

Since the stickers were wider than the sticks, to avoid any unwanted sticking together of sticks, we dunked the sticker on the stick into some craft sand to take away the extra sticky edges.  Seahawks blue.

Who knew that part would be so fun?

Once that was completed, the kids could jumble up the sticks and then sort the letters out into the correct order.

They could tuck the sticks safely into the envelopes!

It was a fun and different way to incorporate name recognition into our schedule without the lined paper and pencils.

The heavy rain kept us inside.  It was nothing that a little playdough couldn't handle.

This is what defeat looks like.  It really takes a lot for me to get boiling mad-- the blinds did it last night.  My licensor came this week to check the blinds because of a new standard implemented by the Department of Early Learning.  All week we have been trying to figure out a decent way to secure them.  It's awfully difficult with a tile windowsill.  No matter what we did, they wouldn't be secure enough.  I just knew it.  In a fury I ripped them all down and rushed to the store to buy curtains and rods.  The Sweethearts were a comfort food buy because I have a never ending sweet tooth..  I would then proceed to stomp around with my ripped apart blinds blabbing about how much I hate that ugly  living room window and that one day I will close this center down just to decorate the house how I want to.  Stomp stomp stomp-- rip rip rip-- I threw those blinds into the ugly pink bath tub in my garage and didn't look back.   I actually threw a tizzy.  At 35 years old.  I can laugh now.  It's over.  No more blinds- no more headache.  Take that.  I was sad to have to go back to curtains again, though.  My cats will now proceed to rip them apart, just like they did before we put blinds in.

I cannot see the ugly window, but I can still see through it enough to know what's happening outside.  Grrrr. I realize that the sheers didn't even match.  (See the top?)  Fred Meyer was having a curtain sale and they were all mixed up. I rearranged them so they at least look even and now I am not touching them ever again.

♥♥♥Happy Friday!♥♥♥

Home Depot Day

The two of us went to The Home Depot yesterday.  I had a pretty sizable list and am up against a deadline.  It was POURING rain. 

My father-in-law brought over a tv for us.  (Can you believe that?  He just brought one over.)  Adam built a new entertainment center for us to replace the old one.  The only problem this created was that the lamp is no longer sitting on top of the old entertainment center, and that corner was too dark now.  This old house has the strangest wiring.  There are no overhead lights in the living room.  

The main reason for our Home Depot trip was some L brackets to secure the window blinds at the bottom.  Ugly- but necessary to meet the rules for having a daycare.  The ones I got didn't work.  Today is the last day for us to figure something out or I will be ripping them all down and purchasing curtains.  I also purchased some pendant lights, a swag kit, some awesome paints for the wall in the play room, disposable trays and a new paint roller.  (I got lazy after painting the house last summer and let the roller dry up on the roll and felt it wasn't worth the effort to reclaim the roller.)   

Look at all of the beautiful lighting!  Some day, I will have a beautiful light over the dining room table.  Maybe.

Off we swam to the bus stop- our path was a small creek, so we had to walk on the road.  It was pouring, the camera on my phone didn't capture it.  Just the two of us all morning- it worked out nicely because I had so much to do!

 I know nothing about wiring.  NOTHING.  Thank you internet, because the swag kit did a terrible job instructing me on how to install it.  A swag kit is a kit designed to transform a hard wired light fixture into one that you can plug in to an outlet.  

It can be a pretty confusing mess.

I did it- barely!  I think that small light is just enough to brighten the dark corner.  I'm satisfied.

It was a good day!

♥♥♥Happy Thursday!♥♥♥

Jellyfish

I love ocean creature art.  This crab was made by Ethan last year at school.  Maybe it's that the ocean creatures can seem so alien.  We don't usually see them.  Every time we work on the letter J I like to have them create jellyfish.

First we worked on gluing the letter J onto the paper.  I usually wait until the end of the project to do that, but I know that by the time we get to this part of the alphabet the kids start to forget what the letters are.  They are all brilliant about the letters A through E, but the further we get that harder the letters are to remember.  We looked at the Jj, traced them with our fingers and repeated the J sound.  Will it work?  Who knows.  I tried, though. :)

The kids chose one hand and it was painted white.  To create a jellyfish, place the hand print in the top half of your paper. (Upside down.)

The kids can then add tentacles by using one finger to extend them from each fingertip.  

We hopped over to the computer to look at some real jellyfish.  They really are beautiful!

I love the internet.  I know I've reiterated that to you over and over.  What a great teaching tool!

Jj is for jellyfish!

Today I get to go the The Home Depot with the kids!  It will be the best time ever! (My favorite store.)  I've got to get some stuff to secure my blinds so I can put them back down.  My licensor will return on Friday to see what I have done. 

♥♥♥Happy Wednesday!♥♥♥

Getting Over It

Yesterday my licensor showed up for my surprise visit.  It had been 18 months.  I knew she was coming- all of the Washington state licensors made a promise to check every child care provider's blinds to make sure they were secured properly.  Above is the giant new pack of rules and regulations that I must abide by at all times. 

It is full of rules implemented to provide safe childcare facilities for children.

The stack on the left is the last stack I received.  The stack on the right is my new stack.  Overwhelmed?

No.  Annoyed?  Maybe.  Listen- I will do whatever is required of me to continue my job.  This is the best job I have ever had- I truly love it.  My licensor is wonderful and she had good things to say about Henle House.  Only a couple of changes had to be implemented.  Other childcare centers in my area have given up and just closed down.  I have to admit- I do feel like the Department of Early Learning is like a dragon breathing down my neck all of the time- and all of these rules and changes that we have to make to our personal home can feel daunting.  My handsome hubby reminded me last night how lucky I am to be doing this great job that I love so much.  He was right.  I am truly blessed.  I was just feeling the weight of that packet again.

I think our pets can sense my frustration.  I'll bet that you have your own stories of when a pet came to snuggle with you when you were sick.  Smudge knew something was eating at me.

He knew it was that packet and he decided to just sit on it for me.  Good boy!

He stayed there.  It was time for me to just get over it and suck it up and move forward!

He truly is my best beast.  He knew exactly what to do!

Meanwhile, our art project sat unfinished because a visit with my licensor takes a couple of hours.  We will complete it today!  I'm over it now.

♥♥♥Happy Tuesday!♥♥♥

Winter Cardinals

Paint a red hand. For this project, we have to keep our fingers together with our thumb tucked into the side.  That can be a challenge. :)  The hand print art that I have from Ethan when he was an infant in daycare is among my most treasured art.  If you are painting an infants hands for art, keep baby wipes handy.  Paint, print and immediately wipe the paint off.  There is nothing sweeter than looking back on the tiny size of your baby's hand print.  They grow so fast.  I will have to share photos of the cute art that was made with the help of his care givers. 

Once everyone had two hanprints placed upside down onto their papers, we began as a group. 

I gave the kids each a piece of brown construction paper and they began the job of tearing some tree branch strips.  This is really fun for kids to do!  If you ever need a quick sensory project, tearing paper is a good choice.  They love the sound and feel of destroying something on purpose.

The idea was to create some branches for the birds to sit on.  This was not my brilliant idea, I saw it on Pinterest. 

Add a black triangle for the black feathers, add a beak and two eyes.

 "How do we know that it is winter in our art?"   "No leaves on the trees!"  Smart kids.  Smart smart smart!

We added some snowflakes to finish off our winter scene.   We used tissue paper squares, balled up.

I love the results!  Cute winter cardinals.  They didn't stick around. 

♥They flew off the line at closing time. ♥

We have been thanking God for the sunshine lately.  It has been so beautiful in Washington!

♥♥♥Happy Monday!♥♥♥