In the meantime

You can’t just stop existing because you don’t feel well. The general summary of life has been fairly bleak of late, but we are still living our lives and doing plenty of laughing, playing, and dancing. What else can you do really?

In just a little over a day, we will be on our way to our happy place to spend time, just the three of us. School is out for Break and my shoulders feel lighter already. Looking forward to long, slow days and lots of lovely down time. I can’t wait to post pics and recaps of our trip—the last as a family of three—but in the meantime, I’ll share a fun adventure we had this week.

The College where I teach held a Kids Day event on Tuesday evening. I had no idea exactly what that meant or what to expect of this event, but decided that since it started just as I’d normally pick Amelia up from preschool, we could stop on by and check it out. It was hosted by the Early Childhood Development Club on campus and geared towards preschoolers. Oh and the best part—it was totally free! Nice. Not only that, but I have a strong desire to have Amelia on campus as much as possible as she grows up. I love that I get to work at a place where people are standing around talking about Shakespeare and political theory. I want her to take in the college atmosphere for all of its guitar/bongo-circle glory.  I think she’s so lucky to grow up with that as her mom’s office, surrounded by bright, inspiring young people. But I digress.

Kids Day totally rocked! I had no idea what to expect and it was just fabulous! The ECDC had student-run booths of various learning/developmental categories throughout the theater lawn. Everything was free, age-appropriate, creative, and just plain FUN. The students put together some really cute ideas for the kids, all of which were very simple and doable at home too. I didn’t take my camera, but I took lots of pics with my phone.

 

This is Amelia’s friend Molly. Her mama teaches too and the girls go to school together. They’re buds. These are their crowns, made out of paper plates and decorated by the girls.

 

Then there was the water table. There was a whole system of PVC piping sitting in a kiddie pool with water. They had funnels, water bottles, cups, and other containers for the kids to filly up and poor into the ‘tunnels.’ It was definitely the most engaging booth for Amelia, who likes nothing more than to fill a cup with water and poor it into another. We stayed at this booth for a long time, until Miss Pants decided to clothesline a much smaller baby girl in order to reach a container.

At this painting booth, there were panty hose full of sand (large) and then dipped in paper plates full of color. The kids could swing and drop the socks to make paint splotches. Yeah, it was messy. And so much fun!

I even got whacked with a sock newly loaded with read paint. Eh, what are you gonna do?! When at Kids Day, you get paint splotched.

 

MY personal favorite activity was this one. They painted the kids’ feet with rollers and then let them walk the runway of paper to make footprints! Love! Oh and yeah, the girls LOVED it too. They ran up and down that paper table many a time.

Look at me Mama! I’m painting with my FEEEET!

How stinking cute is that? This activity was over once they accidentally got paint on the TOP of Amelia’s foot. She’s not down with that and had to immediately clean her feet. Game over. She got a lot of good runs in though, so no worries.

Which reminds me—They also had a couple booths related to tactile learning. They had a booth where kids could feel ‘slime’ and play with the wonder of Corn Starch ‘melting’ playdoh. Amelia wouldn’t even go near those booths. The babychild despises having her hands dirty. HATES it. “Amelia do you want to touch that cool slime.” “No.” And on we went. I love that kid and her weirdness. She doesn’t even love finger painting much at all. She spends the whole time washing her hands. ha.

Anyway, back to Kids Day. They had another fun table where they had bowls of various noise-making materials (rice, dried pasta, beans, etc.) set out for the kids to load into toilet paper rolls to make shakers. They sealed one end, let the kids fill the tubes, and then sealed the other end. FAB. As it turns out, making your own noise shaker is some serious business.

And lawd how that noise shaker made the girl happy!

But her very favorite thing? Of the whole event? OH my goodness.

Toilet-paper-tube-and-yarn BINOCULARS. Woot! Can you see that smile? She was quite the explorer with her “eye-nock-uh-lers".”  Oh and note the shaker in the other hand. She’s set!

Once she had her binoculars, I was a fit of giggles for the rest of the evening. She used them for everything! Like she couldn’t see without them. Hilarious.

Here she is watching the Storyteller—who was about 10 feet away. Love. It.

 

Kids Day was fantastic! I can’t wait to go again next year. It’s the perfect combination of my role as mama and job as an educator. The kids got to have a fabulous time and the students got to put their learning to practical use and to gain experience with children and teaching themselves. All good things. And fun was had by all.