In a Childs Path Farm Preschool
We care when you're not there
The Sandy Post wrote a lovely article about In a Child’s Path Farm Preschool in today’s paper.
Please, go read it and share it with your friends and family, so they can be as proud of our beautiful Boring preschool as we are!
Special Thanks to Lisa Anderson at the Sandy Post for conducting the interviews and writing up such a great piece! We appreciate all the time you put into sharing our happy, nurturing preschool with families around Sandy.
You know how we feel about the Power of Play at In a Child’s Path. An article in the Missourian, says “Play helps your child develop physically, learn about the world, learn to express emotions, develop conversation skills, develop creativity and learn how to be sociable.” It also says, “The lessons children learn through playing are really more profound than anything you could teach them.”
So, how do we embrace this philosophy at In a Child’s Path?
1. We make an effort to be aware of our own feelings and are sensitive to others. When we play, we consider how our actions affect others.
2. The children are in charge of their own activities, seeing tasks through to completion. They can play any number of activities and determine when they have had enough of any activity and when they’d like to move on to the next activity.
3.We encourage self-regulation, controlling oneself. When children play, they learn how to play fairly and interact well with others.
Play is your child’s work, and we’re here to encourage them to play hard.
Read more from the Missourian and learn more about The Power of Play.
Has your child come home recently with a necklace made from lovely, bright pasta? That’s because we dyed some for the kids to use to help them practice their stringing, which is great for honing those fine motor skills. But, lest you think the only thing they can do with beautifully died pasta is put it on a string, here are some other ideas for fun pasta crafts.
For all of these crafts, you’ll want some nicely died pasta. For an excellent tutorial, check out this one by Julie Finn at Crafting a Green World.
Jewelry is the old pasta stand by, but you can do some pretty great things with the number of types of pasta you can find. Wagon wheels glued together can make really pretty tiaras when glued to a plain plastic headband, and bow ties make great center pendants on bracelets and necklaces. All you need is pasta and string! You can even decorate hair clips by gluing the pasta to plain barrettes. And, you can find some fun pastas like peace signs (made by Annie’s Organics – check the natural food section at Fred Meyer).
Lasagna noodles make great bases for train cars, and rigatoni makes some pretty cool lumber to tote in those train cars. You can of, course, use wagon wheels for tires on all sorts of vehicles. If you want some inspiration, this pasta train from Parents is pretty cool.
Gluing pasta on poster board or card stock is a great way for kids to create their own designs. And, you can always let them paint the pasta after it’s on the paper, instead of dying it ahead of time. Also, if your little one is learning their ABCs, alphabet pasta can be a fun way to reinforce those letters.
Just like stringing cranberries for tree garland, you can string pasta for pretty garlands to hang on your Christmas tree or around the house anywhere.
Pasta can add fun texture to a picture frame. Glue pieces of pasta on a basic frame and paint over them, or used the dyed pasta for a different look.
If you’re the type that prefers to learn by watching, Parents has a video about pasta crafts with some other fun ideas too.
No matter which activity you do with pasta, your child is sure to love it!
Bath time can be so much when you follow this recipe for bath body paints.
1+ Tbsp Cornstarch
1/3 cup mild dish soap or liquid bath soap
Food coloring
Add the cornstarch to the soap until you reach your desired consistency (If you like it thicker, it might take significantly more cornstarch). Separate the mixture into containers such as ice cube trays or other small, non-breakable containers. Add food coloring to achieve the desired color.
Let your kiddos go crazy in the tub with their fun bath finger paint. Then, you can just wash it away.
If your kids make something really cool that they don’t want to lose, you can press a piece of paper against it to transfer the image.
You could put the paint in ziplock baggies and cut off the corner, allowing them to paint with it like icing in a bag.
Give your child paint brushes to use with the paint and watch their little artist emerge. You could also give them sponges or other tools like washcloths to see what patterns they make.
Most of all, let them get messy. It cleans up really easily.
And, of course, have lots and lots of fun.
There are so many fun ways to use paint. We’ve got tons of ideas for ways to use paint besides with fingers and brushes.
Here are a few great ways to play with paint:
