Los Porchs

There are certain perks to having a schedule that rotates.  Every other week, I close the center and work 9:30-6:30.  Those days have their challenges because I get home later and can sometimes feel rushed in the end of the day routines.  But they're also amazing because we get extra time in the morning in which I can sip coffee, stare at my kid, and occasionally find things to keep her busy.   Last year, I cut a bunch of tissue paper into squares and let her take on the job of putting them onto Contact Paper that I had taped to the fridge.  This year, she was more than willing to do the cutting.  I gave her these scissors and some construction paper and let her get to work. A crafty Charlie is a happy Charlie :) She got it from her Mama Then, it was time to find shoes and head to school.  Just a nice little project for two crafty gals this morning -- and an awesome fine motor skills practice for her!  One of my goals t...

Yep.  I'm basic.  And I made basic play dough for my basic two-year-old.  Because if you can't celebrate the seasons out loud, what's the point? I did some research (thanks, Pinterest) and went with this recipe because it's quick and easy.  And it smells amazing.  We didn't add any color to it and it's a pretty nice light brown that smells just like pie.  Charlie has been enjoying it.  I like that it's soft and doesn't have that Playdoh smell.  And I like the natural coloring as opposed to neon pink. Our house is filled with all things pumpkin spice and we are happy to live in an area that affords us four gorgeous seasons to enjoy and celebrate.   We still need to get over to the pumpkin patch... maybe next weekend.  October has just kind of gotten away from us. xo Mama Porch

Huzzah. I once engaged an entire preschool class for our entire 40 minute outside time with 3 simple resources: 1. Paintbrush 2. Cup or bucket 3. Water Go nuts, kid. They spent the whole time "painting" the playground, marveling at how it made things so clean and sparkly. I figured I had nothing to lose and decided to give it the old toddler try.  Charlotte loved it. She especially liked using it over her chalk art. And I was all like... damn. That's an awesome unexpected teachable moment. Chalk is a pretty great medium. In short, we spent most of our day outside blowing bubbles and painting everything with water. That Wisconsin spring is legit! We hit 70 degrees today! Woot woot. With all that fresh air means early bedtime for Mama. I am exhausted! Xo Mama Porch

Unemployed ECE mama here....  I love play dough and the important skill building opportunities it presents my daughter. That being said, one can really only roll so many balls and snakes before slipping into madness. As an early childhood warrior, I am also a hoarder (in its best sense) by nature.  Today's fun play dough addition? A plastic egg carton that was on its way to the trash. We now spend hours rolling and ripping dough to put into each section and count as we add them.  My sanity lives to see lunch, thank goodness! Mama Porch

I found a roll of contact paper in my "teacher stash" downstairs and remembered having my kiddos put tissue paper onto the paper. I looked around and couldn't find any tissue paper that wasn't red and green (no offense, red and green, but I wanted something brighter).  I brought the contact paper upstairs and left it on the table for about a week. I quickly noticed and appreciated the 3 pieces of tissue paper the kind ladies at Victoria's Secret put into my bag to wrap my new investments.  I also spied a piece of white paper with golden dots and whipped out my scissors to cut those bad boys up. I taped a piece of that contact paper onto the fridge with the sticky side out (obviously) so that we could experiment with putting the tissue paper onto it. finding the perfect spot! She's got that crazy look in her eye. I sincerely don't know how it's possible that I didn't expect her to do what she did next.  In my 8 years of professional ...

When I was at the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) annual conference this fall, one of the sessions spoke about building character and how we need to focus on instilling character in our young children.  It was quite interesting to me because it seemed to center around the concept of teaching children that their actions have reactions (logical consequences, if you please).  As a component of the discussion, they shared their ideas for activities to build such character and one was paint in a Ziplock. I cringed as they spoke about it and then eagerly passed around several small canvases that had been placed into Ziplock baggies w/ small blobs of paint on them.   This is so lazy , I thought.   This is something only a teacher who can't handle messy art would do , I snorted to myself.  I wondered if it was too late to walk out of the session.... the door was too far and I didn't want to be rude so I leaned back and waited for the b...

If you follow me on Instagram , you know we made some homemade finger paints today that Charlotte was all about.  I had some washable paint but questioned whether she'd attempt to eat it since I haven't really done much painting with her.  One quick Pinterest search lead me to Red Ted Art's recipe and it was too simple not to try! 3T sugar 1/2 C corn starch 1/2 t salt 2C water Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan and warm until it thickens; cool, then pour into small containers.  Add food coloring. Looks pretty similar to frosting ;) Add tiny human. I prepared this while she was enjoying her morning nap.  It was cooled and more than ready for her to enjoy in the afternoon.  The texture ended up being similar to Vaseline and caught me off guard.  But watching Charlotte use them, it was allllll good.  Really good.  Like let's do this again every day for the rest of my life good.  I had to wrestle the tray awa...