Everyone walks to the beat of their own drum.

The beautiful weather we've been having in Nebraska the past couple days has urged us to go outside as much as possible.  The past couple days we've put "Gone to the park" signs on the door, loaded up the stroller with diapers, wipes, &  an 18 mo old and headed to the park.  Now we have quite a jaunt to the park but the kiddos are true troopers.  As I pushed the stroller today in the back of the line I made some interesting observations.  Maybe it's just my kiddos but the pictures in catalogs or magazines of groups of children out for a walk seem to be staged.  
First of all it's impossible for them to pair up. Two just isn't enough.  Our town needs much wider sidewalks to accommodate the groups of three, or four or five kids. We finally compromise on three kids.   Our walk begins.  My visions of a neat and organized group of preschoolers venturing on a fun adventure soon diminish.
The "pullers" begin pulling each other back and forth. 
The "independents" refuse to hold hands with anyone. They either run up trying to get in front of the leaders, or mosey along somewhere in the middle of the pack. 
Then there's the 'ground huggers.'  They focus on what is at their feet.  They carefully step, being sure not to step on a crack. They stop to examine every feather, rock or other bit of trash along the path.
We can't forget the "acrobats" who must balance on every curb we approach, leap off every step or tree stump, and jump up to touch the branches of every tree we walk by.
Last but not least we have the ' slow pokes.'    They are right in front of the stroller.  They are not in any hurry.  The stroller wheels often catch their heels, but they still do not speed up.  They complain of being too tired to go any farther, until they are reminded that they will probably be too tired to play at the park then.
All the kids, regardless where they are in line, must drag their hand along the white picket fence on the path.  Finally the park is with in sight. We come to the last intersection.  Look both ways.  Walking....walking...walking across street.  We have reached the grass of the park and away they go---finally able to 'run like the wind Bullseye!"

Winter Activities

In Nebraska this winter has seemed to drag on much too long.  Our little house doesn't offer much opportunity for the kids get up and run around.  It is a challenge to keep the kids engaged in activity without the activity getting too wild. 
When we had snow days at the beginning of January we brought snow inside and gave the kids old dried up markers.  They could sculpt the snow and color it as desired to create snow sculptures.  They had a lot of fun not just making the sculptures but watching them melt and observing the colors that resulted.

 

Using the dried up markers in the snow (or water) is much like painting with water colors.

 

The kids requested to leave the sculptures sitting out to watch them melt. They were fascinated with the rainbow that appeared on this tray. 

 We used our art trays that had dried paint from marble painting and glitter from Christmas ornament projects.  This gave the snow sculptures an interesting look (and cleaned our trays too! )

This kept the kids occupied for a good part of the afternoon and clean up was easy--just dump in the sink and wash the trays.   This is a great activity for multi-age groups. The younger kids learn so much from the older kids.

Penguin Games

The preschoolers recently made penguins out of pop bottles during our Penguin Unit. They were so easy to make.
1. We poured black paint into the bottle, closed the lid and shook. It took a while but the kids had fun shaking the bottle. We removed the lid to allow the paint to dry.
2. We 'marble painted' styrofoam balls for the heads. Once dry we added eyes and beaks.
3. We cut wings and feet out of craft foam and glued on. (We used tacky glue and had to tape them on until the glue dried. I later used hot glue).
4. We filled them with sand.
5. We used old socks and rags for hats and scarves.
6. We put them outside to play in the snow.

We later had the idea of making them on skis and giving them medals as if they were in the Olympics. Time slipped away from us and we didn't get that done. Maybe we'll try this again in 4 years.

We got this idea from a popular magazine and adapted it to the abilities of our children. I submitted a photo to NTV (a tv station out of Kearney, NE). They did show it on air.