ES ~ 5 Years Around the Sun

Staying in touch with friends while we are stuck inside is tough- especially when they hit huge milestones. Today is our friend ES's birthday. Joyeux anniversaire! What a lovely day to celebrate turning 5 years old. 

Happy Birthday ES. We love you and hope to see you very soon.
We hope you have a day filled with more wonderful surprises :)
🎈🎂

Love and Play in the time of Corona: Happy Happy Earth Day! Bonne journée de la Terre!

Wildrose's globe creation for Earth Day. 

There are so many things we can do to lessen our impact on the environment, from driving electric cars (my son is working on this for our whole family),  to using solar power and recycling materials, but the single most impactful way that we can all honour the earth starts right in our homes.

It is about loving our family. Appreciating the treasures within our communities, cities, and the larger country, and envisioning the impact of true dedication and love by looking at the world with around. 

From the tallest trees, the deepest oceans, and the wondrous sky. No matter who we are or what we do, we must share the Earth, and even if we cannot agree on many things, we must agree that the Earth is a very special place.

Don't you agree?

Moonface made a ship from recycled materials...minus the mini plastic people :)

Rainman's pixel Earth

What are your plans for today? We are going to roast marshmallows later on, and maybe make Italian hot chocolate.

Share your Earth Day Activities with us! 

Liam and Ethan made 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies. Looks yummy!

3 ingredient peanut butter oatmeal cookies shared by Liam & Ethan
Recipe found here.

Ingredients

• 3 medium bananas
• 4 tbsp peanut butter
• 150 g rolled oats

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 185°C/175°C fan oven/365°F.
• Mash the bananas in a bowl until smooth.
• Add rolled oats and peanut butter, and stir to combine all the ingredients.
• Add any add-ins if you wish.
• Use a fork or spoon to spread the cookie dough into cookies on a baking sheet covered baking tray. The cookies will not change shape when they cook, so shape them the way you want them to turn out.
• Bake the cookies for about 15-20 minutes, or until they are golden brown. The cookies will still be soft when removed from the oven.
• Move the cookies from the baking tray to a cooling rack. Allow them to cool down completely, which will also help the cookies crisp up.

ES took some photos of his neighbour's beautiful  garden. 

Celebrate Earth Day With the Children:🌿🐝🏡 🌷🌼 Go on a walk and try to find all the signs of the changing season, there's always something new in nature. Take note of what the animals and insects are doing. How can we be kinder to them? Create an easy Earth Day activity, or why not print yourself an extra colouring sheet and colour with the children. Talk about all the adventures you've had a a family in your community, city, country. Have you travelled outside the country?

Happy Easter! Joyeuses Pâques!

An Easter Surprise - poem story

An Easter Surprise
It was the night before Easter,
When all through the town,
The children were all sleeping,
But the rabbit gave a frown.
“There are no eggs, no eggs at all,

What will I do? Soon roosters call!”

The chickens heard, “oh sad, sad day,

We will have to lay, lay, lay.”

So many chickens gathered around,

To lay their eggs on hay covered ground.

“Cluck,” said the chickens, “cluck cluck cluck cluck”

“Oh,” said the rabbit, “we’re having good luck!”

For the eggs in the nests

Were certainly blessed,

With colors of the rainbow,

Red, yellow, green, blue,

And a pink one too!

The rabbit laughed and hopped away,

To bring the eggs for Easter day!

~by Suzanne Downs

To all our friends, Happy Easter! Joyeuses Pâques!
We miss you and we cannot wait to see you all very soon.

Have a wonderful Easter!

The Tale of Lady Spring and the Easter Rabbit

On Easter morning, it is snowing outside my window. It is a new day. A blessed day. Isolation still in place, the children have been tickled with all the signs and sights of celebration. 
Easter baskets, coloured eggs, reading stories about Easter, coloring and crafting, praying, and easter egg hunts around the yard, or inside the house - is a great tribute to each child's whimsy.

At dayhome we would have shared many stories and read many books. We would have celebrated our annual aster egg hunt as we had years before...here, here and here.
If the weather was in our favour, we would have had our Easter picnic in the park - also a wonderful tradition. This year we know and understand that it is different, and we are making the most of it.

I am so blessed to be with my children today. A child's s sense of wonder is the best gift in these unprecedented times. Here is a story that the children and I shared yesterday, just before they searched for Easter treats...🥕

Lady Spring and the Easter Rabbit

Once upon a time, Lady Spring awoke from her long Winter’s nap. Just like last year, and all the years that came before, Father Sun gently tapped her on the shoulder and shone his warm light down on her to wake her.

Lady Spring dressed in her finest gown of sky blue, with a silken ribbon in her hair, and she set out into the meadow to greet all of the animals and flowers. As she walked, she listened and looked for the for the sounds and sights of Spring—children playing in the sunshine, families sowing seeds in their gardens, people celebrating the return of the season … but she saw no one. The doors were all closed, windows shuttered, and the yards and fields lay empty. Where were all the people?

A robin lit on a nearby branch to share his song with Lady Spring. She listened kindly and then asked, “Where are all the dear people of the village? Do they not know that Spring has arrived?” The robin tweeted a reply, for he had flown here and there and had picked up this news in the village: “The Winter was so very long … and so very cold, and everyone has been tucked in tightly into their houses for so long—I don’t think they know that Spring has arrived!”

Lady Spring had an idea. She called out to all the animals of the forest, and they gathered in the meadow. She told them all that the good people of the village needed their help. Someone must share the news that Spring was here. Who would do it?

All of the animals began to shout “Send me, send me!” and Lady Spring announced: “We shall have a race. The animal that can run all the way around the world and return here first will be our messenger.” The animals agreed.

The wild stag went first. “I am the fleetest afoot. Surely I will win the race.” And off he went. But when he got to the rocky hills, he started leaping from rock to rock and ended up playing there for many hours and forgot all about the race.

Next was the salmon. “I can dart through the water and swim with the tides. Surely I shall win the race.” The salmon began swimming as fast as she could, but soon the sunbeams dancing on the stream caught her eye, and she thought the sparkles of light were little flies. For the rest of the day she leaped here and there trying to catch them.

Then the hawk called, “I am the swiftest of all the creatures who circle the earth. Surely I will win the race.” He shot like an arrow into the sky and soared above the meadow, until down in a field, he spotted a mouse. He swooped straight down to get it and forgot all about the race.

The little rabbit went quietly on his way. He never looked left or right, but gazed straight ahead and held steadfastly to his course. Just as the sun was setting, he returned to Lady Spring in the meadow, completing his circle of the earth.

Lady Spring gave thanks to the humble rabbit and asked him to visit the village that night, sharing news of the arrival of Spring. The little bunny asked, “How will they know it’s true?” Lady Spring thought for a moment and then took a small egg from her pouch. She gently gave it to the rabbit and said, “Show them this egg. Just as the golden yolk shines inside the hard shell of the egg, so the light of the sun shines again and warms the earth in Springtime, so that new life can begin.”

The little bunny set out on his way with joy, and every year he journeys from house to house, village to village, bringing beautiful eggs to all the families and sharing the news that Spring has returned.

Story by Suzanne Downs

Stay tuned to see some of our photos from Easter. 

Love and Play in the time of Corona: April 10, 2020

Staying in touch with friends while we are stuck inside, is not easy, but we are finding ways to keep everyone engaged.

Amidst all the stress and uncertainty, we cannot forget that the most important thing is to take it one day at a time. Moms and dads need to work, but guess what? No matter their age or stage,  children of all ages need to connect + play + most importantly, feel loved. 

Let's see what our friends are up to today:

LL and EL decoarated their window for Easter 🐣:)

Share pics of your day with your friends. They will be happy to see you :). Visit our project blog and see what your friends are sharing right here.

Love and Play in the time of Corona: April 9, 2020

Staying in touch with friends while we are stuck inside, is not easy, but we are finding ways to keep everyone engaged.

Amidst all the stress and uncertainty, we cannot forget that the most important thing is to take it one day at a time. Moms and dads need to work, but guess what? No matter their age or stage,  children of all ages need to connect + play + most importantly, feel loved. 

Let's see what our friends are up to today:

Liam planted tomato seeds

Apple seeds planted.

in a glass of water  for a month or so sprouting  before planting. By Ethan.

When Rainman was trying to take photos and Wildrose wouldn't let him.

The boys Easter crafting.

Moonface coloured a unicorn picture from our Monday circle time story - The Easter Unicorn

I also noticed that LL and EL got haircuts. You look so handsome boys :)

Share pics of your day with your friends. They will be happy to see you :). Visit our project blog and see what your friends are sharing right here.

April 2020 Quick Update

I hope this update finds you all healthy and happy. Thank you for your continued support in this busy time. There has been a lot of adjusting and readjusting in these past weeks. Thankfully our children are as resilient, if not more resilient than we are.

I have working behind the scenes to put some programming in place for our children, to keep them engaged and encouraged. At home we are learning online. It's more than a learning curve - it's not for every child, especially one who's on the spectrum. We are trying our best.

Zoom/Story (Circle) - The children and I will share circle time in Zoom on Mondays. It will be nice to meet with other friends and connect.

Invitations to Create - At Small Wonders the children are always encouraged to explore with various materials that are arranged so that it “invites” young children to explore, investigate, question, examine, participate, touch, feel, and manipulate through as much independent play as possible. We call these invitations to play. While we will not be able to replicate that kind of play, I would like to drop off Invitations/ Challenge items on the Thursday before the next week's meet up (Monday). 

There will be weekly a theme,  however, I don't mind if the children simply create what they want with the materials. At Small Wonders the children are open to create their own work- there is no one size fits all, in fact I always encourage each child to create based on their individuality, so our work rarely looks like another. 

Daily Photo Challenge - Please continue to send photos for our daily photo challenge. Please have your child take the photos - not an adult. Years from now, they will appreciate seeing their own work.

Please also continue to send us snaps of your days and I will upload to the blog. 

Weekly themes:

Monday April 6th Theme:  Easter

Tuesday April 14th Theme:  Explore Seeds

Monday April 20th Theme:  Earth Day

Monday April 27 Theme:  Butterflies

Please visit the Earthschooling page here for projects and other information.

Love and Play in the Time of Corona: Playing catch up

Staying in touch with friends while we are stuck inside, is not easy, but we are finding ways to keep everyone engaged.

Amidst all the stress and uncertainty, we cannot forget that the most important thing is to take it one day at a time. Moms and dads need to work, but guess what? No matter their age or stage,  children of all ages need to connect + play + most importantly, feel loved. 

Let's see what our friends have been up to in the past 2 weeks

 ...at home Wildrose helped to put our spring nature table together.

... a bouquet ES made for our neighbours who just returned from Arizona and are self isolating.  He wanted to brighten their day! 

...cookies that ES made with dad.  It was the first time either of them baked cookies so it was a real learning experience for both of them.  Moms says, "...they were delicious!"

 ES was very proud to make extra garbage cans out of yogurt containers to use with his garbage truck. It only came with 2...which was not much fun. We now have 8. ES did all the stapling and taping. Mom helped with cutting.

 EL and LL's dad shared photos of a recent trip they took to Canmore. They visited the cemetery of mom's sister a RCMP officer who died in the line of duty 15 years ago.

Share pics of your day with your friends. They will be happy to see you :). Visit our project blog and see what your friends are sharing right here.