Housekeeping (Shoes, Potty Training, Pick Up Time)

Hello Parents!

Our first full week was terrific and the kiddies are adjusting beautifully to Casa T. We have a fun month planned ahead of us!

Some housekeeping:

Shoes
Upon entering, I'm asking the the children (and parents) remove their shoes and the children place theirs in the shoe basket in the foyer. This is an effort to help keep the house clean for the children.

Potty Training
I'm happy to help work with your child on potty training, if they're ready. If so, you're welcome to send several training pants to the casa daily, which will be stored in your child's backpack. Please include a small wetbag (to store any wet/soiled training pants, and will go home daily). While we're outside for morning play and activity, I am going to try and keep Sophia in her training pants and will place the potty seat outside as a reminder. Others are welcome to join in on the 'potty fun', but no child will be forced if they're not ready.

Pick Up Procedures
I'm open until 4:00pm, but do ask that parents try to arrive several minutes before, so that their child's belongings and hugs & goodbyes are said in time for me to close no later than 4:00 p.m. This will help me be prepared for time with my family in the late afternoon and evening.

Thank you all for everything you do!

Andrea

Puppets, Playsilks, and Paint

HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR DAY

Dramatic Play
Today, I introduced the mini puppet stage and the finger puppets. The kiddies got a kick of the 'show' I put on for them, and then Austin quickly jumped in following me and then Lulu finished.





Gross Motor and Outdoor Fun
Lulu busted out the playsilks and took them outside for some running and chasing fun.







Austin learned how to push Sophia in the swing and more importantly, to quickly get out of the way when the swing returns! This will really help me (as I have to continually stand there to push whoever is in the swing). Is that being lazy? Hehe.



Art



Spanish (and Music)



José-Luis Orozco is a recording artist, composer, author and radio host of children's programs and has been working with children, parents and teachers in the field of bilingual education since before I was born. My mother was a bilingual Pre-K teacher, so she introduced me to his work many years ago. Today, we sang La Granja (The Farm).

I was trying to decide how to have the children participate with this song. After a few times of hearing it, if we have a group of three or four kiddies here, they can all make the sound of a particular animal in the song. For today, I used the Schleich farm animals that I have to make the sound at the right time in the song. I was just missing the dog, cat, and donkey, so I 'improvised'. =)

La Granja

Vengan a ver mi granjaque es hermosa.
Vengan a ver mi granja que es hermosa.
El patito hace así, cuá, cuá.
El patito hace así, cuá, cuá.

Oh, vengan, amigos,vengan amigos,vengan, amigos, vengan.

Vengan a ver mi granja que es hermosa.

Vengan a ver mi granja que es hermosa.
El gatito hace así, miau, miau.
El gatito hace así, miau, miau.
Oh, vengan, amigos,vengan amigos,vengan, amigos, vengan.

Vengan a ver mi granja que es hermosa.
Vengan a ver mi granja que es hermosa.
El pollito hace así, pío, pío.
El pollito hace así, pío, pío.

Oh, vengan, amigos,vengan amigos,vengan, amigos, vengan.

Vengan a ver mi granja que es hermosa.
Vengan a ver mi granja que es hermosa.
El perrito hace así, gua, gua.
El perrito hace así, gua, gua.
Oh, vengan, amigos,vengan amigos,vengan, amigos, vengan.

Vengan a ver mi granja que es hermosa.
Vengan a ver mi granja que es hermosa.
La vaquita hace así, mú, mú.la vaquita hace así, mú, mú.

Oh, vengan, amigos,vengan amigos,vengan, amigos, vengan.

Vengan a ver mi granja que es hermosa.
Vengan a ver mi granja que es hermosa.
El gallito hace así, kikiri, kí.
El gallito hace así, kikiri, kí.

Oh, vengan, amigos,vengan amigos,vengan, amigos, vengan.
Vengan a ver mi granja que es hermosa.
Vengan a ver mi granja que es hermosa.
El puerquito hace así, oinc, oinc.
El puerquito hace así, oinc, oinc.

Oh, vengan, amigos,vengan amigos,vengan, amigos, vengan.

Vengan a ver mi granja que es hermosa.
Vengan a ver mi granja que es hermosa.
El burrito hace así, íja, íja.El burrito hace así, íja, íja.

Oh, vengan, amigos,vengan amigos,vengan, amigos, vengan.

Sophia had fun reading our borrowed Diez Pequeñas Mariquitas book to us all.



Phrase of the Day:
When we were eating lunch, Austin (who usually takes his time to eat), ate most of what was on his plate, told me he was finished, so I asked, "Already?" On his way out to the porch (toward the play kitchen) he says, "I need to go cook."

Puzzles, Folding, Napmats, and Mud Smoothies

Today was Sophia, Mia, and Lulu's first day together. Mia and Lulu took a few moments to get to know each other and then were off to play. Today was Mia's first day to stay all day, which meant naptime here! She arrived with her napmat, cover, and pillow. Before nap, as soon as I pulled out her napmat, went to grab her a blanket, and came back to find Mia already laying tummy down on her mat. Tucked her in, gave her some gentle pats on the back and she was ready for sleep. Not a whimper! I turned around to get Lulu set up, and discovered she had not only grabbed her mat, but got her self situation and covered. Sophia asked to sleep with them, so I suppose I'll be getting her a napmat as well.

HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR DAY

Sensory
Today, I introduced the Montessori Geometric Cabinet that I recently purchased. The set comes with 6 drawers, and today we worked with 3 of the trays (circles, rectangles, and triangles). What's really cool about this set, is the shapes come with removable frames, so there's even more opportunity for manipulating, sensory work, and learning of the shapes.





This was Mia's first day to use the Cylinder Knobs and she thought they were awesome.

Practical Life Skills
We worked on learning to set the table for lunch. I'm still not finished sewing the placemats, so we improvised today and used the cloth napkins (that Mama Allison helped me stitch and also donated the lovely batik fabric). The kiddies watched as I demonstrated shaking the crumbs off the napkin and folding it in half, then returning to the napkin basket (if it's still clean). Mia helped fold while Sophia and Lauren helped clear the table. Teamwork at its best. =)



Spanish
Words we discovered today:

Uvas (Grapes)
Agua (Water)
Pelota (Ball)

We sang La Araña Pequeñita (The Isty Bitsy Spider) and the girls LOVED it! We did it in English several times as well. Here are the lyrics if parents want to practice it at home too.

La araña pequeñita subió, subió, subió,
Vino la lluvia y se la llevó.
Salió el sol y todo lo secó.
Y la araña pequeñita subió, subió, subió.

Then back to the outdoors for the fun active stuff!

Lauren taught us how to make mud smoothies. She even made several 'straws'.

Phrase of the day:
After Sophia fell outside and was done crying, Mia exclaims, "Now, she feels better!"

Oh, and puppy had new company today. Meet Kitty.

Lulu Returns

Today, was 'Lulu's' first day back from summer vacation. She arrived with longer locks of beautiful curls, new freckles, and a boatload of new words! She wasn't sure about her Mama leaving to go to work, but after a few minutes of some cuddle time with me, she was off to explore the added materials!

HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR DAY

Exploring a Material: Glue

The kiddies explored the properties of glue since they don't have much experiene with glue. I simply offered glue to the children on a covered space to allow for exploration. They experimented with paintbrushes, small spoons, and their fingers. They realized it was sticky, and when semi- dry, it can be rubbed off their skin. The kids later mixed in Red, Blue, and Yellow powder paint and turned their glue different colors.

Later in the day, Lulu discovered dried glue on her arm and noticed it could be peeled off with her fingers (she wan't too keen on this idea because she kept saying "owie, glue"). It was pulling on her little arm hairs. Sophia then began searching her own body for dried glue to peel off, and found some!

They were definitely engaged and had fun exploring how glue works. We're going to continue exploring glue over an extended period of time to deepen their understanding of this material and its properties in preparation of when we begin 'collage' work.

Gardening: Since we're still in the heat of the summer, the only thing we're harvesting in our garden are tomatoes, so we picked the ripe ones, and I'm trying to convince Sophia to leave the green ones attached!

Spanish: Austin brought a book to share, Diez Pequeñas Mariquitas and it was a HUGE hit! Sophia recently learned how to count to ten in Spanish (she often forgets the number 7 though) so she basically took over the counting portion. Thanks Austin (and Mama Allison), for bringing this fun book to share today!

Materials for Next Week

Next week, we're going to have fun reading and learning about squirrels and nuts. If you have any of the following nuts at home, please feel free to send some. We'll also be making nut butter!

Pecans
Walnuts
Peanuts
Acorns
Chestnuts
Almonds

Crafting List: If you have any cardboard, please send it to the casa.

THANK YOU!

*If your child has any nut allergies, no worries, we won't make the nut butter on that day. =)

Old Fashion Play Builds Serious Skills

There are benefits of imaginative play and research shows, it's not a waste of time.

Listen to the story on NPR

Mia's First Day

Today was Mia's first day with us. She was here half the day, but beginning next week, she'll join us for full days on Wednesdays. And she did wonderful! Today was spent getting familiar with the casa, the materials and toys. We practiced how to use the new step stairs to get sippy cups back to their designated area on the counter. I've known Mia for over a year, but this was the first time I was actually 'with' Mia. I was floored by the amount of speech and talking she does! I've seen her at playdates, so she's usually quiet amongst all the controlled chaos, so this was a different side I saw today.

Highlights of our day: Austin did lots of stacking, Mia played with our new waldorf dolls and thinks they should be called 'Mommy' and 'Daddy', (they even gave each other lots of kisses), we all explored in the sandbox, which was super fun because the sand was moist from our recent rain, so it was more like beach sand and very easy to mold. Mia taught us all about making sandcastles (she even knew the word for them). This seemed to be Mia's favorite pick of the day. Sophia kept calling Mia to come back to the kiddie pool, but Mia preferred the sandbox. =)

For art exploration, they did printmaking with sponges cut into different shapes. They each got to pick one color, so we had Blue, Yellow, and Purple and we talked about those color words also in Espanol. Mia saw how Yellow and Blue make Green.

Clean up with some water play and then lunch (Austin opted for some extended water play). And then back inside for some winding down time and independent play before nap.















I know her hair is a mess and all in her face, but I love her expression! She was SO excited to have her friends here.

New Materials: Cylinder Knobs

We picked these cylinder knobs up yesterday, along with a lot of other wonderful manipulatives from a local Montessori school clearing out overstocked items. Sophia and Austin tested them out, and immediately got the concept with very little modeling. I expected to have to demonstrate how to hold the cylinder by the knob, using the thumb and two fingers, and not touch the actual cylinder, so they could visually discriminate the size, but alas, they took turns figuring it out with very little help. I even added the 2nd set of (deep) cylinder knobs out, mixed them up with the shallow knobs, and after a few minutes, they were all returned to their correct sockets.

New Friends

We have a couple new friends who will be joining us. The girl on the left is a 'Latina' waldorf doll so I couldn't resist her.
And isn't the little guy on the right adorable? I love his wooly hair.
They just need names. Any ideas?

Magic of Creative Playsilks

Earlier this summer, my playgroup had a playsilk playdate in which we mass ordered white playsilks and dyed them ourselves (MUCH cheaper that way). Initially, I only ordered 5 for Sophia, but when I saw how cool they are, with their open ended creative play. I ordered more to add to the materials for the Casa T. kiddos. See the magic that playsilks inspires in this video, made by Three Sisters.

Fall is Almost Here

Decided it would be nice to have a blog dedicated solely to the kids and activities of Casa T.
With summer coming to an end, I'm very excited to have our friends return to our casita.

Lots of fun and learning to follow, and expect a boatload of photos!

Welcome!