Last Day (EVER)

In addition to today being the last day of camp, it is also my last day of doing home child care. Since just H and L were joining us today, I was able to take the girls to a local park that is well known for having lots of geese, and a play structure with water dripping down, therefore creating a lake at the bottom of the slide. K and C and their mom said that they would meet us there. It was a bit cool when we got there so we went for a walk around the park to the outdoor theatre stage overlooking a "pond". The girls sat like this for about 15 minutes before K and C came. They calmly watched the geese, seagulls and ducks. It was very serene.

A dragonfly landed on H

After a picnic lunch, we took a nice scenic walk through the woods to get to the "muddy splash pad". I took a few pictures of the girls going down the water slide. This play structure looks older than me but it seems to be holding up nicely.

The girls did not seem to tire of this park, and were very disappointed when it was time to go. After unsuccessfully trying to get all of the sand out of their bathing suits, we had them change and gave them notice that tonight would be bath night for sure. Everyone ate warm or melted snacks in the car, and we came home for some Friday afternoon TV.

Our last activity was slightly lackluster, but they loved it. I threw some marshmallows, candy eyes, and toothpicks on the table and they made whatever they felt like and then ate the marshmallows.

H and L went home shortly thereafter. I'm sure we will see them soon.

Not sure how else to end this, so....

The end.

Week 4, Day 4

Puppet Show Day! The girls came up with their own story line first thing this morning, and then set to work practicing the script. After one run-through, they wanted a break. Throughout the day, they did additional practices until they were confident that they would be ready to perform for their mothers when they came.



The power went out at around 1:30 so we headed outside since we couldn't do karaoke as planned. The first thing we did was go on a blackberry hunt. There were a total of 5 blackberries on the bush. Luckily, C did not want one. It was incredibly hot so we came back to have a freezie.

While I am not an aspiring photographer, I've had the urge the past few days to get a series of neat shots. The girls had fun with this pursuit:

At 4:00, the moms showed up and the girls performed their puppet show. It was all about ocean creatures who were tired of living under the sea and wanted to explore land (sound familiar?) In this case, it was a killer whale, a great white shark, and a tuna fish. Yes, we have all of those puppets. They met a grasshopper, a donkey, and an elephant, asked them "what are you and what do you do on land?" and then went on their way. At the end, they are too hot and go back into the water.

In addition to the play that they had practiced, there was a bonus show at the end which turned into part comedy, part tragedy. A girl gets eaten by a shark; apparently hilarious to puppeteering preschoolers. Despite this dark comedy, the moms loved the effort put forth by the group.

Week 4, Day 3

This morning's activity turned into a mission (to which we were somewhat successful). I got out all the bubbles and the girls found a bubble wand that made HUGE bubbles. They got a huge kick out of popping the bubbles with their head and nose! While they were doing this, I remembered that I have pictures of A and L when they were younger in just diapers in the kitchen in the middle of winter playing with bubbles - some with the bubble right in front of their face. I wanted to re-create this so I grabbed the camera and attempted to both blow the bubbles and take photos. The bubble solution mostly stopped cooperating and the bubbles seemed to fall to quickly before I got a photo - but I got a couple of good ones.


Here are A and L as toddlers:

Today's best pictures, although the best ones were with H and Z, as A and L got impatient with the activity:

This afternoon, we dusted off my brother-in-law's karaoke machine and sang a few songs. Z really liked Pour Some Sugar On Me, and everyone liked YMCA. H was really into the activity, as she can read and so she could sing songs that she didn't know well. Once our voices were tired, we headed down to the basement to work on scripts for tomorrow's puppet show. It's looking good!

Week 4, Day 2

This morning, we had a local teen come and teach the girls a dance.  Since the girls really like Taylor Swift, R chose to do "Shake it off" as the dance. She started by teaching the basic moves and then put it to music. After many snack & water breaks, the dance slowly starting coming together. I had not expected A and L to participate, and I was correct. L did the warm-up and tried  a few of the moves but then lost interest. A did not attempt the activity whatsoever. H was a keener (she is a dancer after all) and Z started out frustrated but once the choreography and the music were matched together, she was more motivated. K and C put their all in at first, and were downright exhausted by the end.

After lunch, all the puppet-making items came back out so that K and C could make one as they were not here yesterday. The other girls all wanted to make another puppet as well. I was thrilled that the activity lasted most of the afternoon, because there was a heat advisory and the group had no interest in going outdoors. Some of the finished puppets:

They are now ready to start planning their puppet show!

Week 4, Day 1

Today was H-O-T!! I told the girls that we would try to stay out until 10:00 and then go inside until 2:00. They had a lot of fun playing on the monkey bars this morning, and then found a caterpillar to "take care of", resulting in the imminent death of the poor thing. They spent about an hour building a "house" (cage) for it, and giving it a "bath" (drowning it in the pool). By 10:45, he was dead and we went inside.

This week is drama and dance week. Our first drama activity was to play some improvisation games. I thought that this activity would last about 10-15 minutes before losing the interest of the younger girls, but we actually played for about an hour. The girls really like playing the "family" game, so this activity gave them some more ideas about what their family members can do. We acted out going to a restaurant, going on the school bus, riding a horse, playing at the park, and shopping in a store.  The latter one lasted quite a long time, as they all wanted to have a turn to play the role of the customer and the shopkeeper.  The objective of the activity was to have the girls focus on how to do each action without having the object there, and to enhance language skills.

My goal for the end of the week is to perform a puppet show for parents. Ideally, I would like each girl to have 2 lines, memorize them, and be able to say them loudly and clearly with their puppet in the puppet theatre. We shall see how this goes. Today's art activity was to create the puppets. Here is L with her Zebra (the only pic I got today). Tomorrow we shall continue to make them with K and C here.

Week 3, Day 5

This morning I brought out water beads, which are normally used for flower arrangements, but make a great sensory experience for children (and adults too!) A and Z had picked out purple and green. I had envisioned having 2 separate buckets to play in but the 4 girls all wanted the 2 colours to mix, so I let it happen.

This sensory experience led the girls to make their own concoctions later on in the day. They asked for plastic bags and some pantry staples, mixed them with items from outside (mainly chalk dust) and voila! Pixie Dust. They were seemingly convinced that it was the real deal and that eventually, when spread all over their body, it would make them fly to Never Land. 

Week 3, day 4

I had planned on teaching the girls some frisbee skills today, but decided not to focus solely on one sport. I set up 7 activity stations in the backyard so that they could try each one and spend more time on the activities that they liked.

Station 1: Badminton. We only have 1 racket, so I challenged them to try to hit the birdie 2x
Station 2: Skipping. Again, I challenged them to get 2 jumps, and then see if they could beat their own record.
Station 3: Catch and Throw with tennis ball/velcro mitt. This one was very hard for all the girls, as the velcro on the mitt was so strong that it was almost impossible to remove the ball. I challenged teams to catch 2 in a row.
Station 4: Horseshoes. No challenge - just for practicing aim.
Station 5: Frisbee "Golf". I had the girls begin from a starting line and see how many throws it would take to get the frisbee into the skipping rope "hole".
Station 6: Rest stop & Throw ball for the dog. He needs exercise too! The girls really like playing fetch with him.

Some pictures of the girls having fun with the different activities:

This afternoon the girls finished their board games and I got to make one too! Once they finished the board itself, I helped them to write out the instructions so that they could take them home and play with their parents.

 

 The girls were still feeling pretty crafty so we got out some fabric and made dress-up dolls before going outside for water fun.