Everyone Needs A Space of Their Own

The little one has been showing interest in colouring, using crayons and playing with play dough.

I posted on a swap and shop Facebook page that I was looking for a child's table and chairs.

A lovely lady, who use to come to my StrongStart program, offered me this one for free.

My daughter cleared a space in the kitchen, for the table, as that is where there is space and where it's important that the little one feels included and has something to do while mom and dad are preparing meals.

She loves it! 

She spends time contentedly drawing, crayons on paper, or using play dough.

I found the stool at IKEA.  It's not idea but works for now.

Everyone needs their own space!

Millie’s Corn

               Back in March Millie wanted to grow corn. 
She started by putting some kernels in paper towel inside a plastic bag.
 
After Spring Break she took it down from the window to see if anything changed.
  
We saw one little sprout.  So she wrapped them again and got the paper really wet before putting it back in the bag and taping it back on the window.
 
During her next visit this is what she found when she unwrapped her kernels.

It was time to plant.

       
               She placed them once again on the window sill

    and created a sign to let everyone know what she was growing.

                 
The corn grew very well in the cup but it was time to plant them out doors.
   
          
Millie’s mom invited our program to help plant a garden at their home.  I’ll save that for another post.  But here is where we transplanted Millie’s corn.  We'll see if her ambition and perseverance pays off with cobs of corn.

Gingerbread Toast

This time of year when your usual level of energy is a little low
it's a good idea to change plans rather than getting yourself any
lower. 
Which meant, for me, deciding not to make gingerbread cookies
this week but substitute making toast that looked and smelled like
gingerbread.
         
Making toast has to be one of the easiest foods that we can teach
our children to make. 
It’s relatively safe as long as they are cautious about not touching
the top of the toaster – that’s where the teaching comes in.
   
Each time we make toast I encourage the children to make it themselves. 
I talk them through each step, if needed, and talk about safety. 
I provide utensils that are easy to use and harmless.
   
If help is needed with the spreading then I do it with them,
hand over hand, instead of taking over.
     
I encourage them to cut out their own shapes and give them
a choice of what size they would like to use.
         
Because some children do not like to eat the crust we called it the
gingerbread man’s house.  That seemed to interest them and there was
less crust in the garbage can.
 
Some decided to decorate their gingerbread toast with our snack items,
like cheerios, craisins and carrot sticks.
         
While others were quite happy to jump right in and bite a body part off.
      
For the wonderful smell we used a cinnamon spread. 
It is fairly soft so easy to spread.