Mud and More

June 29th is International Mud Day – something we celebrate every year.  This year the school-age children were thrilled that there was no school so they were able to join in the day’s activities.  I had the water table set up full of dirt – it was up to the children to add the water and make the mud;

I also put out another bin with plain water for hand washing but some of the children enjoyed making repeated trips from mud to hand washing and back so really there were TWO mud bins.  I cleaned the hand washing bin and added fresh water several times but it always looked like this;

Because of this;

We were outside all morning and the children took breaks from mud play to build bridges;

play tag, and capture things like this;

There was a five minute downpour which was very exciting after I reassured the children that we would NOT have to go back inside.  We do often play in the rain but because we didn’t have raincoats and boots some of the children were concerned that we were not properly dressed for the weather.  However, it was Mud Day and everyone had clean clothes waiting inside so  all that rain was just a bonus 🙂 It created some muddy puddles and the tarp became a slip and slide;

and the mud table got soupier;

Then, one of the children notice that the first tomato has begun to grow.  Three of the children decided to ‘watch’ it for nearly 20 minutes ‘waiting for it to turn red’.

I think maybe it will be ready when they return in two weeks – after my vacation.  I wonder if they will remember to check, or will they be too interested in exploring all the other new things – my ‘vacation to-do list’ is two pages long.  I love vacation time but the return of the children is so exciting too!

Confessions

There are some things you may not know about me.

First:  Even though I’ve been a family childcare provider for 17 years and LOVE outdoor play, I’ve never owned a pair of rubber boots.  Puddle jumping was something I watched the children do.  This summer I finally bought my first pair of rubber boots so I got to jump in puddles too;

Second: Taking pictures with a phone, in the rain, while jumping in puddles is not easy.  Mainly that is because, as technologically savvy as I am with a computer, my ‘smart’ phone baffles me.  I owned the thing for three months before I successfully answered a phone call before it got sent to voice mail – and I still can’t figure out how to retrieve voice mail.

While I was trying to get the puddle pictures from my phone to my computer (don’t ask how long that took) I found some other pictures that I had forgotten about – here is one of them;

Three: I forget a lot of things – it is scary sometimes.  If anyone out there is still waiting for me to do something…you might want to send me a reminder.

Four: September was a tough month for me.  Getting back into the school routine is always rough but this year ALL my babies turned two and I had an empty space which turned out to be very difficult to fill – and then suddenly several people wanted it and I had to say no to some of them.  That is hard.

Bookkeeping was hard too.  Three infants moving to preschool, three school-age children moving from full days to just before/after school, and one empty space meant that my September income was almost half what my August income had been – and I worked the same number of hours.

My husband got another pay increase this September.  As a school bus driver he is gone for  about 7 hours per day including his travel time to/from work.  That’s about half of my workday.  In September he made just $2 per day less than I did.  I found that depressing.  Luckily I don’t like driving and I love my job more than money.

I don’t have to deal with traffic and I get to play outside.  Jumping in puddles, collecting leaves, laughing – those things are worth more than money.  Just look at this;

That structure hasn’t fallen – it was built like that on purpose and I got to watch every step of the process.  That is pretty amazing.  Those are the things that get me through months like September.

Confession Five: I love the short days of fall and winter.  I love getting up when it is dark outside.  I love the cooler temperatures and cozy evenings.  I love the time to reflect and the time to plan.

Fluffy Rain

One of my fellow family childcare committee members coined the term ‘fluffy rain’ in reference to the white stuff falling from the sky during our meeting last Thursday.  Maybe it was positive thinking or maybe it was just denial – none of us wanted to believe that it was snowing again at the end of April.

There was no school on Friday and although not all the children were here we still had a larger than normal group.  The ‘fluffy rain’ did not dampen anyone’s mood – outdoor play in any type of weather is still preferred over being stuck in a classroom all day.

Most of the morning there was an elaborate dramatic play activity involving an eccentric designer, an art exhibit, and various other characters.  I was assigned the role of ‘photographer’ to document the event – perfect because I was taking pictures already.

There was artwork everywhere;

Then someone discovered the steady stream of water running out of the rain barrel overflow spout;

Eventually we had to go back inside because it was too cold for soaking wet toddlers (my decision, not theirs).  Before that though we still had some more time to play with wet fluffy rain – on the plexiglass;

One toddler was super excited to discover ‘flowers’;

Hmmm, those ones might be remnants from last summer.  However, the pasture sage has been eager to get growing this year.  It has been active for a couple weeks already.

Hopefully it won’t be deterred by a little fluffy rain – after all, it is a hardy native prairie plant.  It, like the rest of us Manitoba prairie dwellers, should be used to this by now.

Sun and Rain

Spring has turned to summer.  The weather throughout Spring was extreme at times – periods of blistering heat followed by long stretches of cold, wet weather.  Some days it was difficult to choose appropriate outdoor clothing.  This weekend the forecast is warm and sunny — I hope it continues next week too.

The past week we returned to our mix of indoor and outdoor play.  Indoor  nap times have been shorter.  The children would like to have more meals outdoors — I’ll have to work that into our schedule more often.  It will be easier once school is out and we have fewer time restraints.

We continue to spend the majority of our playtime outdoors.  One of the changes I made to the back yard this year was adding the sun shade;

Unlike the tarp I used last year, this sun shade is made from mesh so I can leave it up even when it is windy or raining;

The children have discovered that although the sunshade does not provide a dry area to play it does slow the rain down — allowing the water to pool together and then form streams which make collecting rain drops so much easier;

In light drizzle it took about 15 minutes of cooperation under the sunshade for them to collect this container full of rain.

It is a multipurpose sunshade/raincollector – perfect for our unpredictable weather.

Our Week Outdoors – Day Four

Two days this week we have had a guest visiting us.  A student from the Red River College Early Childhood Education program has been here to do her final Practicum.  On day four of our all week outdoors she brought some stuff to play with.  She started by letting the children examine the cornstarch;

Then they added some water;

The children were a little unsure about the texture at first but after a few minutes they really got into it;

They played for a long time and experimented by adding more cornstarch or water and mixing and squishing;

Then we tried a game of bowling;

Which also included some counting, sorting and matching activities;

The baby has been a little unsure about having someone new around and has stayed very close to me.  Choosing to play with the basket of balls and cones he watches our visitor from a comfortable distance;

However she did get a few smiles from him when she played his favorite game — setting up the cones for him to knock down – just had to make sure she stayed on the opposite side of the beam;

In the afternoon there was a brief thunderstorm — the three youngest children slept through it. 🙂 The rest of us played in the rain.

To Water or Not

I have two water barrels that collect rainwater to use for our garden and planters.  Filling watering cans to water the plants is one of the children’s favourite outdoor activities;

The rain barrel that is located in the gravel area has also been used to fill containers with water for play and experiments;

The hot dry summer has taken its toll on our water supply and, even with some restrictions on the amount of water we could use each day, our rain barrels are now empty.  My husband asked if I wanted him to use the hose from the house and fill the rain barrels.  I said no.  Empty rain barrels is part of the lesson.

So yesterday the weather forecast predicted rain and the dark clouds looked promising.  We went outside to play.  One of my ‘newest’ children said “I thought we wouldn’t play outside if it was going to rain.” I laughed.  “But we love the rain, why would we stay inside?”

Then it started, slowly;

And the dust began to turn to mud;

The rocks look really pretty when they are wet;

And the children noticed all the droplets of water;

And they were quick to react;

Sharing and working together;

But sadly the rain lasted barely five minutes — not nearly enough to produce the results we wanted;

But that too is part of the lesson.

Rain

Tomorrow will be “Water Day” — an eagerly anticipated summer event.  Each summer I schedule at least one day with  a variety of outdoor water games and activities.

Today we went outside for our usual outdoor play time.  The weather forecast predicted a 30% chance of rain but a little rain doesn’t stop us from going outside.  We managed to get about 30 minutes of dry playtime before we felt the first few rain drops.

At first none of the children even paused  or appeared to even notice the rain. We often stay outside in light rain if it is not too cold. Only a few minutes earlier there had been bits of sunshine peeking through the clouds so we were not expecting the rain to last.  We were wrong.

Within minutes the rain became quite heavy.  The children began to giggle and looked to see what my reaction was.  I shrugged and said “Let’s stay out a bit longer”.  They were thrilled.  They ran and jumped and laughed and got wet.  They were children having fun.

There was no sign of the rain letting up and none of the children had extra clothing so reluctantly we went in.  Several hours later when their parents arrived to pick them up every one of the children had the same story to tell. “We had an early water day — we played in the rain and got wet but we’re dry now”.  Until tomorrow….