After all the excitement of Christmas and the wedding of my youngest daughter – and the sheer hard work of sorting all the resources from , loft, garage and playroom, and putting them all back in a much more organisation way, Penny set up the environment last night ready for an early start this morning.
This included changing some of the continuous provision – small wooden block, magnetic cars, trains and planes all put away. Heuristic type play things re organised – and Triangle Mirror house put up.
At 6:30am Penny set off to fetch Erin from her home – now usually Erin – who is not a morning person at all – would be either on the sofa watching TV or protesting loudly about getting dressed when Penny arrives, but today – Erin ran down the hallway and flung herself at Penny – clearly very pleased to see Penny.
Within minutes Erin had her coat and boots on and was ready to go – when she remembered something very important ‘You need your change Penny’ she said pointing at the weeks fee that her mummy had put on the kitchen work surface for Penny. Perfect a happy child wanting to come to play – and understanding that it is Penny’s job and so Penny needs paying.
Once at Penny’s Place Erin plays happily exploring all the new things and discovering what was in the storage baskets – and chatted non stop about going to see Granny and Granddad. (Erin’s mummy had told Penny that Erin has packed her suitcase with clothes – even though they are not going to visit Erin’s grandparents in Poland until – February!
While playing with the heuristic stuff, Erin discovered two wooden semi sphere’s – ‘same’ she told Penny, then holding the two together and grinning ‘ Look I made ball’
As soon as Alex and Shona arrived, Erin wanted to show Shona the mirror house and both she and Shona lay down in the house looking up at their reflections. (which was a good opportunity for Mummy and Penny to have a quick catch up before Mummy went
Alex and Shona were full of news about about jumping in the muddy puddles. Alex was a little reluctant to go and play – until Penny mentioned that the duplo train set was out in the lounge- and off he went happily to find the trains.
Chinzia was next to arrive with lots of news about her holiday to Egypt and Santa riding on a camel – mainly relayed by her mummy with nodding from Chinzia. (Later on Chinzia told Penny about the presents that Santa had brought her)
Mia was last to arrive today – a bit clingy to Daddy but nevertheless went into play – as soon as Daddy had gone to work, Mia joined Erin in the non stop chat – but in Mia’s case about her Barbie dolls and home and how she can change their clothes
After some rather loud ‘drumming’ by Shona, Erin and Chinzia (wooden spoons on the metal dishes) Penny decided that it was a good time for outside play – luckily all the children agreed with Penny and rushed to put on their boots and coats.
Chinzia and Shona continued drumming outside – on the saucepan musical instruments (and later on Alex had a go as well)
Interest in chalking appears to have survived the holiday period, with all the children doing some chalking – Shona in particular experimented with getting the chalk wet in a puddle and was surprised at what happened – and called Penny to see the ‘pink puddle’
Some of the children spent some time making arrangements of pebbles, cones, and shells, and some just enjoyed putting the things in and out of the containers
Then occurred one of those situations where the children seem to communicate without speaking! They all sat on the wooden circles and told Penny they were on the train – much waving goodbye and train noises. Then Alex said ‘The train is stopping – people want to get off – and Chinzia and Mia stood up – waved goodbye and ‘got off the train’
After outside play the children did some interlocking puzzles – or at least tried to do some – and also played with the tactile dominoes matching shapes that were the same (or in some cases just making patterns)
Then it was lunchtime, followed by nap time and today all 5 children had a sleep.
A lovely morning with lovely children. It is good to be back after the holidays.
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