Nursery School - New Year and New Program!

I am very excited about the upcoming Nursery School year. Over the past 6 months on my leave from A Gym Tale, I have spent a lot of time reflecting on the past 6 years of Nursery School as well as becoming a parent and my parenting practices with a preschooler. I have also taken a course on creating children's play spaces and creative learning practices. As a result I feel it is perfect timing to begin implementing some changes to the program. These will not be big changes to the overall program, but some little adjustments that I think will have a big impact. I have met with the Nursery School teachers this morning and I am really happy that they are just as excited and ready for some changes as well.

To begin with, we will be focusing on the very basics - our goals for the children. Some of these include fostering independence as well as instilling a sense of capability and confidence, increasing attention and involvement with activities and promoting social interactions and friendships. Many of these goals are the ones that I hold most important for my own children.

At home, I place a lot of importance on making my home completely 'child friendly' and encouraging Ewan to be able to do things on his own - for example we have stools at every sink, a learning tower in the kitchen for Ewan to help prepare his lunch and help with cooking, his own drawer for plates, utensils and snacks and clothes placed at his level so he can dress himself. These practices had a huge change on Ewan's level of confidence and he takes such pride in being able to complete these daily tasks all by himself. What better time to introduce these self help behaviours than now, when he naturally wants to do everything on his own!

As a means of increasing Ewan's attention span and encouraging him to bring his play to a deeper level, I have begun creating 'invitations' while he is napping or before I go to bed for him to wake up to. These invitations can be as simple as a hose beside a giant bucket with bath toys, an art easel ready with paint, or trucks outside his sandbox. But sometimes I will put more preparation in and leave out squirt bottles with coloured water or a variety of spices and baking powders with lots of spoons and bowls for mixing. I have also begun leaving out themed baskets that might include some jungle animals, along with the Lion King book (Ewan's new favourite), and a barrel of monkeys. When invitations for play are set up Ewan tends to spend more time playing independently and often goes back to the invitations over several days.

I am overjoyed with how social Ewan has become. It was exactly a year and a half ago that I did not think Ewan would ever leave my side. And now Ewan does not even look back and can make friends within minutes. Ewan has learned how to approach children at play as well as initiate play interactions. He doesn't beam any brighter than when he has met a new friend! I am so very excited for him to get to know so many more children this year in the Nursery School program!

With these goals in mind, myself and the teachers are set to get down to the children's level, see things from their perspective and act as co-learners and collaborators with the children in order to create a fun, play focused approach to natural learning.



 Over the next few weeks I will be doing a series of posts on further changes to the program and learning centres. These will include learning through play with an emphasis on writing centres, reading nooks, creative art, science and math as well as dramatic play, music and gym time.

If you are still looking for something for your child (between 2 - 5 years of age) to take part in this Fall,  I do still have several spaces free in the afternoon program. Please do not hesitate to send me an email with questions or call A Gym Tale directly.

Summer Fun!

I have not updated in some time as we have just been enjoying our days outside too much to stay in to use the computer! So far, the kids and I have filled our days with friends, visits to the splash pads & park, the farm, and lots of relaxing time lounging at home. It has been a wonderful summer so far!

Isla is also 6 months old this week. I cannot believe how fast time is passing. She is now sitting up, she can reach and grab things, everything goes in the mouth and is very excited about the prospect of eating - she repeatedly grabs food right off my plate! Isla and Ewan are also interacting so much more now. It is amazing to see her personality beginning to shine through. Here are a few shots of them being silly -

Lots of exciting things have also been happening at A Gym Tale. To begin with, the Canada Day celebrations in Barrhaven were so much fun - we had a fantastic day! I could not believe the show that Alan and some of our family and staff put on at the children's stage. It was a complete surprise to me! The put on an amazing musical show incorporating some Disney songs and songs of their own! We will be doing an encore presentation at A Gym Tale for a customer appreciation day in the near future.

The kids and I have also spent several mornings at the camp program - Ewan has had a ball with the teachers and kids and special visitors. It has been great getting to meet so many new faces and seeing everyone - staff and kids really enjoying themselves! Some of the special guests so far have included Rays Reptiles and Radical Science. We will also be having a Super hero, princess, Captain Jack Sparrow and many more fun visitors. The camps also include favourite activities such as the indoor playground, gymnastics skill building, arts and crafts and some outdoor events.

The summer is also the best time to review the past year - the ups and downs, the successes and areas we need to address and alter. I am excited to be taking a course on creating children's spaces to maximize imagination and learning through play. I am sure there will be several ideas I will be able to incorporate into our Nursery School and School age programs.


I hope all of you are also enjoying your summer!

Our first CSA pickup from Riverglen Farm!

Yesterday was our first pickup of our veggie box from Riverglen Farm (http://riverglenfarm.ca/intentonal-eaters-community-supported-agriculture/). Over the past few years we have become much more conscientious about what we are eating and where are food is coming from. We are still growing some of our own summer veggies in our back garden - tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, beans, peas, carrots, peppers, lettuce, spinach, onions and cabbage - our little 12x4 garden patch can actually grow quite a bit! But we decided this year to supplement our garden with a bi-weekly box of organically grown veggies from a local farm - this service is called Community Supported Agriculture. It helps farms sustain their business and it offers your family the freshest and healthiest food options. It is a young couple that run the farm and are trying to make a go of their business. Everyone is so very friendly and really puts an effort into getting to know the people supporting their farm. They are so great with Ewan and he absolutely loves getting to see their animals and people actually working the farm.

Yesterday, our basket of goodies had lettuce, salad greens, peas, onions, garlic scapes, turnips, radishes,  herbs, and swiss chard. The farm also sells eggs year round as well as chicken three times a year - so we also added some farm fresh eggs and three huge chickens to our order. The radishes, turnips and garlic scapes are the three veggies that we are not familiar with so I spent last night coming up with some new recipes to try.

I am excited to be sourcing almost all of our summer - fall foods locally and knowing exactly where our food is coming from and how it is being grown. I think it is a great experience for Ewan seeing exactly how food is produced as opposed to it magically appearing in the grocery store. As well as beginning to understand that different seasons and weather bring around different types of foods. In fact our grocery store trip this morning was so very short and sweet with only one bag of dried goods and we were in and out in only a few minutes.

My only dilemma is how to explain to Ewan that we are eating his beloved chickens. As I was putting the chickens into the cooler, Ewan said "you don't have those chickens over there, right?" I said those chickens over there gave us the eggs that we have and these are eating chickens in the cooler. I didn't have the heart to tell him that we were going to eat the chickens that he had just spent 30 minutes running around and playing with.

Getting Creative!

So over the past few weeks I have been feeling a lot more creative - probably because Alan has been travelling for work a lot and I have had more time on my hands. I have been working hard again at my scrapbooking and Ewan's book is now up to date as well as a scrapbook that I made of 'Just the 3 of us' - between Ewan's 1st birthday and up until Isla was born. I have also been making some good progress on Isla's baby book. After Isla's baby book I am definitely going to be making yearly books online with a digital album - they are not nearly as time consuming and easier since all of my pics are organized online.

Besides scrap booking, Ewan and I also made stepping stones and a 'children's garden' for him to take care of and play in any way that he would like. In the garden we included lots of different 'feely' plants, colours, smells, logs and rocks, and a little place for him to plant seeds. Ewan absolutely loves being in this garden and can water it from the rain barrel all day long. The stepping stones were a really nice personal touch - we used the plastic tray for under pots, cement and then made footprints in them. Word of advice - make sure you have someone quite strong with you if you are buying a bag of cement. I definitely did realize how heavy cement is and had to wonder around the store and parking lot for some one to lift the bag for me - I couldn't move it at all!

Another artsy thing we attempted was dying play silks ourselves. If you have never used scarves or play silks I highly recommend them. They are a great sensory activity for babies and toddlers and then turn into a great imaginative tool for older kids. the are simply scarves of all different sizes that can be dyed lots of fun colours. Isla loves sucking on the scarves and playing peek a boo and Ewan dances with them, uses them as grass when playing with his farm, water with sea animals or as part of a costume. I will be placing another order of these soon - they are quite reasonable when ordered in bulk, so let me know if you are interested in placing an order with me. Again, a really great open ended 'toy', a perfect addition to any playroom.

My next project is going to be making a mobile. I have all of my supplies and I am hoping to begin this week. My thought is that it might make Isla like her crib more. I know I am just grasping for straws here. But it is also really beautiful.

I have also been thinking of some great craft ideas for the kids at the summer camp program. There are sure to be a few new ideas in addition to some A Gym Tale classic art projects this summer.




What have you been crafting?

Strawberries!

This week Ewan, Isla and I ventured to Miller's farm in Manotick to do some Strawberry picking. This is the first time that I have taken Ewan strawberry picking and he absolutely loved it! We chose the largest basket (which didn't look that big at the time) and Ewan picked away for a good hour. He loved digging through the bushes and walking down each of the rows. I had picked some, but my back was in a lot of pain having Isla in the sling while picking - I sure wish my baby would sit in a stroller! So Ewan actually picked almost all of our berries. He also enjoyed walking around the farm and looking at all of the tractors and helping to water some flowers.



Since then we have baked some strawberry muffins, made strawberry smoothies, strawberries in yogurt and on ice cream and just eaten a whole lot of strawberries! Any other strawberry ideas? Send them my way:)



We will definitely try making it out a few more times before the strawberries are out of season. It was really a great activity for the whole family and created a positive experience about growing our food and eating healthy.

I can't wait for raspberries next month!

Family Vacation:)

I am so happy that we were able to take a family vacation just after Ewan's birthday. Although Alan and I have both been off work more this year with the arrival of Isla, it was a much needed getaway! We decided to make this vacation all about Ewan since he has had to adjust to so much with the his baby sister. And so without a doubt, meeting Mickey Mouse would most certainly make his dreams come true! We left for Florida just after Mother's Day and spent a fantastic week just steps from the Magic Kingdom where we could see Mickey each and every day.


Although the trip was a lot of fun and it was incredible seeing Ewan's face when he met Mickey and all of the other characters, it was also a very exhausting trip. In fact, it took all of last week for all of us to recover! Three years old was a magical time for Ewan to meet his beloved Mickey, but it was also very overwhelming for him. And the tantrums he had were bigger than anything I've seen! We learned very quickly to shorten our trips to the theme parks and to spend either the morning or the afternoon relaxing by the pool and splash pad.

By far the best part of the trip was that we had planned a character meal each day - so one of our meals would be hosted by a group of characters which meant we could sit and eat while the character went from table to table to meet the kids and take pictures with them. So much better than waiting in line to meet them! Besides meeting the characters, Ewan also loved seeing the Mickey Mouse clubhouse show live at Hollywood Studio's as well as the Lion King theatre show at Animal Kingdom.

And how did we manage with an infant - just fine! Isla was quite comfortable in her sling or stroller and woke and napped as she pleased. It was an ideal time to go before she starts wanting to be put down and move around on her own. And Disney caters to all ages, so she was welcome on any of the rides that Ewan was able to enjoy.

It was really a great trip and we made so many wonderful memories. Here are a few of my favourites:)

Happy 3rd Birthday Ewan

A letter to my Ewan,

Happy 3rd Birthday Ewan! You are a smart, well spoken little guy with quite the sense of humour. You love being the centre of attention -whether you are dancing, singing or playing an instrument or simply telling a story. You exude confidence and sadly, for me anyway, have no problems leaving your mommy as you participate in your independent activities, such as gymnastics and swimming. You have an incredible memory and you love 'reading' stories to everyone. You are very big into music as well as letters and rhyming words. You also love your electronics and have begun a new passion for photography. Your favourite way to pass the time is definitely outside with your dog - exploring the yard, working in your garden and collecting rocks - and chasing the dog with your lawn mower. Your second favourite activity is playing chase with your friends, you absolutely love playing with friends. You are still such a cuddly boy and we still snuggle in bed as you fall asleep each night. You can never give enough kisses to everyone and will always fill the silence with an I Love You to bits and bites and pieces.

It has been such an incredible year with many changes and you have taken them all in stride. The biggest change being that you have become a big brother and you love this role so much. You are so kind and gentle (most of the time) and simply love watching your sister and teaching her things. She has an amazing smile that I am sure she got from you.

We love you so much and are so proud of the little boy that you are growing into. We cannot wait to see what this year hold's for you and to see your personality continue to unfold and grow.