Our last day before summer vacation!

The flowers were given to me as a "thank you" from some of the children's parents. I have put them on the school table so they were low enough for the children to enjoy. Thank you...you are a great encouragement and your children are a blessing. I will miss them all during my vacation.

This little fellow lives under the bush by the pool yard and comes out every morning to see what the kids have left from their snack.....he has become very predictable and a little too tame.

A friend gave me a small karaoke machine. The kids have had a blast with this today.

Dancing outside today.....

Doing a little sponge painting before heading outside this morning....

Doing the bird watching work....we have a set of child-size real binoculars and a bird identification book...

One of the outdoor works available each day is washing the cars and bikes..

Soaping up the car.....

Hosing off the soap....

A caterpillar she found today...

Getting a closer look...

Lots of mud and water play again today....

Our garden could use a little more sun. The kids are doing a great job of keeping the weeds out of the beds. Now if I could find a way to keep the weeds from growing on the paths.

Playing soccer....

Making sandcakes today...

These two jugs were a freebie at a garage sale a few weeks ago....the kids play with them everyday

Today's painting mural...

Baking rhubarb muffins this afternoon..

cutting up stalks of rhubarb before we mixed up the batter. They were really moist and fluffy. We ate them warm with butter this afternoon for snack.

This is absolutely the favourite outdoor activity....it is mud and water cooking....I bought some old pots, jugs and large spoons at garage sales and the kids spend hours doing this everyday.....

Our outdoor painting area....

there is an easel...

a large piece of cardboard for painting a mural....

and the very popular....painting rocks!

having fun splashing in the little pool...the big pool is still a little cool after all this cold weather we have been having.

I only had two takers for craft this afternoon!

Our snack this morning...I took a picture because it looked so pretty...I have been leaving the snack available for the kids to help themselves throughout the morning whenever they feel peckish...

I have been weeding out the "work" trays and replacing them with summer fun trays but any work with water is still popular...this is using a garlic press

Playdoh is always popular....

Magnetic animal tiles

Building a zoo with blocks...

These pictures were all taken yesterday July 7, 09

Playing doctor seems to be the thing this week...here they are as fairy doctors.

Our Montessori materials are being put away for the summer and I am putting some craft trays, puzzles, and educational toys on the shelves....here is a mosaic art set.

Working on a puzzle together...

Art today....

Today we collected wildflowers during our morning walk...

Making our nature walk prints using the flowers and leaves we collected...

Pressing the flowers onto the paper

We still have some work on our summer shelves

Tracing a T on the sandpaper letter...

Practicing writing a T in cornmeal

Playing doctor this morning....this was pretty cute to listen to and watch...they took turns being the doctors and patient

One of our wonderful mothers donated a Lite Brite set for the kids......a great summer activity on a rainy day..lots of pincer grip practice with this..

Playing duplo together

Today is our baking day...everyone got their own dough to spread out and make their own Fococcia

Our Fococcia...we made one for everyone to take home and share with their families....yum!

The girls preparing their snack this morning...

They love this apple peeler....

Using the apple splitter to section the apple...