Early Summertime Fun

Then followed that beautiful season… Summer…
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.
– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

There have been lots of giggles around here lately - not only have we been able to get the water table back out, berries are coming on! Yum! :)

All of us collect fortunes when we are children — a fortune of colors, of light and darkness, of movements, of tensions. Some of us have the fantastic chance to go back to their fortune when we grow up. Most of us don't have the chance — that is the tragedy.
-Ingmar Bergman

Daddies are important!

Dad's early connection with child 'writes script' for later school involvement

When is a Dad…a Mom?

Feminism, fathers and valuing parenthood

Preschool Play Camp: "Let's Go Camping!"

Camp was so much fun today!

• We read these books:

WE'RE GOING ON A NATURE HUNT by Steve Metzger
FIREFLIES, FIREFLIES, LIGHT MY WAY by Jonathan London
VERY HAIRY BEAR by Matt Phelan
LET'S PLAY IN THE FOREST WHILE THE WOLF IS NOT AROUND by Claudia Rueda
TEN FLASHING FIREFLIES by Philemon Sturges

• We went on a nature hike, and glued the treasures we found to make wreaths.

• We heard songs and rhymes about camping during circle time with Ms. Steph. We talked about camping and imagined what we would bring with us.

• We made our own trail mix for a snack.

• We went on a bear hunt. After we found teddy, we gave him a ride with the parachute!

• We played "Campfire Pokey!"

• We made rubbings of shapes.

• We went fishing for magnetic fish.

• We looked and listened for woodland creatures: birds, bugs, butterflies, chipmunks and squirrels in the trees.

NEXT PRESCHOOL PLAY CAMP: July 13 "Bug Safari"

View the flyer for Play Camp dates and themes

New Addition to the Aquarium...

Be sure to look for our newest critter, a scarlet skunk shrimp! He looks like this:

This little guy has yet to be named, though the kids are certainly making enthusiastic suggestions (Fred, Teacher and Rocky have already been vetoed.)

He joins our serpent sea star, pencil urchins, snails and hermit crabs. This weekend, we also added a new group of polyps. We are thinking about finally adding some fish again once we return from vacation. The sense of life the tank had before we lost all our fish in the power outage has been greatly missed and we are looking forward to having that back again.

jitterbug: music for hip kids

Great independent music videos for kids.

There are some fabulous artists on this site: Dan Zanes, Jack Johnson, Laurie Berkner, Lisa Loeb, They Might Be Giants, and many more... enjoy!

More Signs

book
car
diaper
gentle
no
off
on
outside
play
share
shoes
sleepy
sorry
want
yes

Preschool Play Camp: "Garden Adventures"

Camp was so much fun today!

• We read these books:

          UP, DOWN, AND AROUND by Katherine Ayres
          THE WIND'S GARDEN by Bethany Roberts
          GROWING COLORS by Bruce McMillan
          THE WHOLE GREEN WORLD by Tony Johnston

• We decorated flower pots and planted our perennial daisies.

• We heard songs and rhymes about flowers, gardens and growing during circle time with Ms. Steph. We talked about gardens and imagined what we would grow if we each had one magic seed that could grow anything we wanted. We pretended to be seeds growing up from the soil, tall and strong into plants with help of the sun and rain.

• We created our own "sunflower" snacks from pretzels, apple slices, bananas, peanut butter and sunflower kernels.

• We painted and stamped our own garden scenes.

• We played the game, "Seed, Seed, Sprout!"

• We looked for things growing in nature. We saw sprouting sunflowers, smelled and tasted herbs, and tried to find ripe strawberries on the plants in the garden.

• We made flowers from strips of paper.

NEXT PRESCHOOL PLAY CAMP: June 22 "Let's Go Camping!" - only ONE space left

View the flyer for Play Camp dates and themes

Gathering Together

I think everyone had a good time at the picnic, getting to know each other better and watching the kids play...



For all my enrolled families: Thank you! Your little ones are absolutely wonderful and I am so appreciative of the time I have with them. :)

Signing

We started watching the Baby Signing Time video during lunch prep, mostly for Cameron's benefit as we work on growing his vocabulary. Surprisingly, the older kids have been really excited about practicing signs again. :)

These are the signs we are using right now:
baby
ball
bird
cat
cracker
dog
drink
eat
father ("dada")
finished ("all done")
fish
help
hurt
milk
more
mother ("mama")
please
thank you
thirsty

Introducing: Project Grow!

Kinder Beginnings is launching a new literacy project: Project Grow!

The Project Grow children’s book giveaway program is intended to promote early literacy in our local area, to show support for the future of our community and its children. I believe that early literacy is essential to success in education and beyond. This belief is reflected both in the purposeful curriculum at Kinder Beginnings and in the practices of my own family. All children have the right to a bright future; it is my hope that through Project Grow, Kinder Beginnings can give our children a small token of that promise.

GUIDELINES:
Families that are enrolled at Kinder Beginnings will be automatically entered to win each month.

Other individual entries are welcome, provided the following requirements are met:

• Family must include at least one child under the age of 6.
• Family must reside within Hocking County.
• One submission per household each month.
• Entries must be submitted by midnight on the last day of the month.

Fraudulent information or multiple submissions will cause entries to be revoked.
All provided information will be kept confidential; there will be no selling or distribution of personal information to any third party.
One book will be given away each month, unless otherwise noted.
Sweepstakes winner will be chosen by random drawing, and will receive the book by postal mail at the address provided in their entry.

June's giveaway is Ladybug Girl by David Soman and Jacky Davis, a lovely 40-page hardcover. Visit the Project Grow page to learn more about this book or to enter your child to win!

Welcome!

Another exciting new change for Kinder Beginnings... I have decided replace the printed monthly newsletters with a blog.

Aside from the obvious benefit of saving paper and ink, it should be easier for me to post regular updates here rather than spending a chunk of time each month formatting a newsletter.

You will also be able to comment on posts and share them with your family and friends.

As always, I will strive to keep the lines of communication open - please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions!