Wednesday's seem to always be the kid's "off" day, not to mention how hot and humid it was, so we managed some indoor fun! Half way through the morning, the girls got out the instruments which led to a couple of hours of band playing, singing, and drumming. Yes, there comes a point where my ears hurt but for the most part, I love seeing the kids getting so involved in it! All of the kids love trying out the different instruments and get very creative making up songs or recreating ones they have heard. My favorite music time was when Max taught the kids the words to "Call Me Maybe" and had them do a concert.
Many days, I put on educational kids music while they play. My favorite is Leap Frog Songs from all of the Leap Frog movies. I won't get into my love for Leap Frog, but
Leapfrog Learning Songs is a fantastic purchase for both parents and children! I love playing background music like this because the kids are learning without even realizing it. I have noticed kids memorize their favorite song and each kid has a favorite song. They spend their time here playing, singing away, and unknowingly learning from each other. This reaffirms my belief that kids learn more and best from each other by simple play (also another post for another day).
While the kids were beating away on the drums, guitar, symbols, and tambourines, I was dying pasta for the sensory bins (in between running interference, reminding them of the no hitting rule and such). Later this week, I plan on putting all of this colorful pasta into a large tub and burying the letters of the alphabet. The goal will be to have them dig through, finding all of the letters, and then the older kids can help the little ones put them in order. Now, this is how I have it pictured in my mind, but how this activity turns out has yet to be seen=) To color the pastas, I used food coloring for the green and blue (pictured) and Kool Aide for orange (also pictured), red, and yellow. Months ago, I used Kool Aide to color rice. It looked and smelled wonderful! Hopefully it will work with the pasta too. I soak the pasta in the colored water up to a half hour, drain, and lay it flat on a tray for about 12 hours to dry it out. Luckily it's sunny and hot out so that should speed up the process. I bought multiple sets of foam letters from Dollar Tree for the Letter Dig. I will be sure to update how this project/activity turns out.
The weather seems to be staying hot and humid, so it looks like tomorrow will be a water day for the kids. They thoroughly enjoy this while I oversee things from the patio, sweating my arse off. We have just about every water toy you could think of but the kid's favorites are the water table (we have a Little Tikes, but Step 2 makes decent ones as well) and sprinklers (our cheap $3 sprinkler from Target seems to be their favorite for some reason). Yesterday the kids spent 2 hours running through the water and squirting each other with squirt guns, which meant nice long naps!
They will also be ice painting. Ice painting has become a new favorite activity for all of the kids this summer. I simply freeze paint mixed with a tiny bit of water in ice cube trays (I like to use shaped ones-stars, flowers, etc. all found at Dollar Tree and Target dollar section) overnight. When the kids are ready to paint, I put the bottom of the trays in warm water for a few seconds to loosen the paint cubes. Then I put the paint cubes on our cement patio and the kids paint while the cubes melt. It can get very messy, but the kids have a blast with it and as long as you use washable paint, it's no worry. [Mom tip: I have tested numerous brands of paints in the past few months, and while it can be one of the more expensive children's paint, Crayola is by far the best. Crayola paints have the brightest colors and it's the easiest to wash out of clothes, skin, hair, or any other surface or body part a child can manage to get paint. I was attempting to save some money on paints, but several completely ruined outfits later, it wasn't even worth the try].
As usual, after the daycare kids leave, my typical night ensues: dinner, off to summer activities for the kids, home, baths, playtime, bed for miss E (our youngest named Elizabeth, but you will also find her under the names: Bup, Buppy, Lily, miss E, Lil Girl), sanitizing toys, bed time for boys, laundry, cleaning, activity planning, errands pretty much all nights, and previewing/pre-reading any movie/books/toys to ensure they are in fact suitable for any and all children until the hour comes that I can no longer keep my eyes open. I am told that these are the crazy years I will cherish the most, and while I can definitely see and appreciate that, there are many times I would just like things to slow down....but then again, what fun would that be?!!??
