The Value of Play

I found this poem that I think that all of you should read :)
I gives a good perspective of what the value of play really is for children.


The Value of Play

You say that you love your children,
And are concerned that they learn today,
As am I, that's why I'm providing
A variety of kinds of play.

You are asking what's the value
Of having your children play?
Your daughter's creating a tower,
She may be a builder someday.

You're asking me the value
Of blocks and sand and clay.
Your children are solving problems,
They will use that skill every day.

You're saying that you don't want your son
To play in that sissy way.
He's learning to cuddle a doll,
He may be a father someday.

You're questioning the interest centers,
They just look like useless play.
Your children are making choices,
They'll be on their own someday.

You're worried your children aren't learning
And later they'll have to pay.
They're learning a pattern for learning,
For they'll be learners always.

~NAEYC

Early Childhood Education Advocation

Hey Everyone!

I know I haven't written in a long long while but that's besides the point :) I am very excited to say that I have started a facebook page to advocate that children learn through their daily play. Being a student in the Early Childhood Education program i've learned so many amazing techniques and concepts to foster young children's development. Although this is a little sidestep from the actual purpose of my facebook page (The importance is play based learning) I feel a real need to voice some things in regards to caring for children that I think are great things to know :)

While doing a bit of research tonight I found two websites that I am so excited to have found!!! As a student of the Early Childhood Education program i've been taught alot of new concepts in regards to caring for children, respecting children and fostering the development of young children with best practices. Concepts such as validating children's feelings, time away rather than time outs, encouragement rather than praise, positive direction, positively guiding children's behaviour, asking open ended questions and having open ended developmentally appropriate play materials and so so many more. The majority of them were new to me and new to many parents and child car givers. I've seen the value in them from them being put into practise by other educators and putting them into practise myself. I've come to know these concepts as important and these I've found two websites that support early childhood educations philosophy and concepts that come from a mothers and educators perspective. 

I hope that you take some time to take a peek at these websites and let me know what you think about them. 

Thank you!

www.notjustcute.com

www.janetlansbury.com

Night Cleaning Sessions

I have a bit of a problem... It's two am and I am still not sleeping... I would love to be alert to help out in nursery at church in the morning so I better get to sleep ASAP! Here's a short back story about me. I don't like cleaning my room when I am supposed to; wether I tell myself to do it or I hear it from someone else lol But for some reason I love to clean my room when no one is watching to see if i'm actually doing it and this time usual comes very late at night and unto the wee hours of the morning.... Being a night cleaner has it's pros and cons. There is actually room on my bed for me to sleep in it and my room is well on it's way to not looking like a tornado hit it :) but I always end up staying up way later than anticipated. My plan is that once my room is totally cleaned and organized that I keep it that way as much as I can help it, just so I don't have to do my night cleaning sessions very often. Good night!!

My Sweet Summer and The Start of Another Year of College!

 Well it's that time again... Summer is coming to a close, people are starting to head back to school and the fall routines start.

But before I get into talking about the start of college and the fall season, I'm going to re-live the sweet hot summer and i'll tell ya about it!

My summer was so amazing! :D I was so excited that my summer started at the end of April and that I had a summer full of fun and sun ahead of me! I got to go on some weekend and day trips to Calgary for shopping and fun times. I went to Waterton on Canada Day for the day with Chris to see Red Rock Canyon and also to hike up to Bertha Lake! That was a great experience and it was while worth the exhaustion afterward :P 

Bertha Lake is BEAUTIFUL!!! :D

The rest of the July long weekend was spend camping. I got to go camping one more time after that for the September long weekend, which was alot of fun and we had awesome hot weather but it got to below zero at night! :S (Not so nice when I slept in a tent). And go on an amazing vacation to Michigan, USA! I miss it so much, just as much as all of the people that make it an awesome place to be :D Another big part of my summer that I was blessed to experience was working at the Bibles for Missions Thrift Store! I had such a great time working there, I made some new friends in some retiree's and learned alot from them!

Okay now to the wonderful season of Fall. Last week I started my second and final year of Early Childhood Education! :D I am so excited and hopeful about the upcoming year! I am excited to see all of the awesome ECE girls almost everyday again. I am excited to learn and grow as a student and as a future Early Childhood Educator. I hope to become a more efficient and organized student. I hope that I can do my (MANY) assignments to the best of my ability. I am excited to start my practicum where I will put my knowledge and passion for working with young children to good use!

While going to school I hope to still be able to do the many craft projects that I have bouncing around in my head and update my blog often! I hope to read a book that isn't a text book every once in a while and to organize my room and living/craft room. Organizing my time is also a huge "must learn to do task" so that I finish my school work on time as well as to still have time to hangout with my friends and still have some craft and me time!

My Amazing Michigan Adventure!

I came home about two weeks ago from my two week vacation to Big Rapids, Michigan. Coming home I felt completely exhausted, I was majorly sunburnt and I was very grateful that I had arrived home safely along with Chris, his Mom, his Dad and his brother Alex. I was also very appreciative that I had the privilege to spend two weeks with the amazing family of eleven while in Michigan. While in Michigan we stayed with Chris' Uncle Bernie and Aunt Sherri along with their nine wonderful and fun children; Grace, Ellen, Meron, Anna, Edilam, Mirium, Lideta, Issac and Bereket. I had such a great time with them on their beautiful farm and on our many daily adventures. I experienced so many new and exciting things that i'd love to share :) My trip was off to a bumpy start to say the least. We all woke up on Saturday morning early to go from Calgary to Chicago at then from Chicago on to Michigan. We were supposed to be there in Michigan around mid afternoon but instead we were told that Chicago had a big storm the night before and our flight had been cancelled. To make a long story short we waited for 4 hours in Calgary Airport to fly to Toronto and spent the night there.

Sunday

We didn't fly out of Toronto to Michigan until the next morning. The first flight from Calgary to Toronto was long and boring but the second flight from Toronto to Michigan was like an adventure lol We flew on an itty bitty 18 seater plane! It was fun and because I had to walk up stairs to get on, it felt like I was walking onto my own private jet haha!

My Private Jet! :)

Chris and I in row 9 = very back of the plane!

We arrived to the farm and immediately were met with hugs from everyone, they were all very welcoming :) Some of the girls took me for a tour of their house and their farm. The minute I saw their horses in the pasture I knew i'd have so much fun there! Because of my apparent excitement the girls thought it was a great idea to ride horses right away and I happily agreed. That was the first time that I had been on a horse in 6 years. It felt so great :D After riding we went to Hungerford which is a lake a few minutes down the road from the farm then came home and did some quadding with Chris. It was an amazing event packed first day in Michigan!!

HORSES!!!! :D (I bet you can sense my excitement lol)

Monday

I started off my day with shopping in town with Chris' family. We came home and the guys started to work on a fence that had been knocked over and needed to be fixed. I was content with just helping move some fence boards but then Uncle Bernie asked if i'd like to drive the tractor!!! I took out the bend fence post (on purpose lol) and moved some dirt into the right place. It was so much fun! After that I had another new experience. Picking up hay... Like alot of hay lol We went to a field down the road and picking up rectangle bails of hay and loaded them into the trailers and then unloaded them into the barn on the farm. I'm not sure how many bails we did that day but i'm guessing around 300. It was definitely hard work but with all the help that we had it went by fast. We came home and did some more riding :)

That's right! I'm on a tractor! :D

Tuesday

Today we started cutting some of the dead trees and branches on their land for the bonfire that we were going to have that night. I did some quadding back and forth from the orchard (a big batch of apple trees on their farm) to the house and then a bunch of us went to Hungerford to go swimming and came back home for a big yummy supper. We started the bonfire and then played games in the orchard like Camo Tag and Kick the Can all night! So fun :)

Wednesday

Coming for a vacation wasn't the only reason that we came to Michigan. Chris and his Dad came to be apart of the staff of the International Cadet Camporee that happens every three years. This year it was in Michigan about 30-45 minutes away from the farm. Chris' Mom and I went with the guys to the camp to drop them off and say our goodbyes until Sunday when we could visit for family day. We went back to the farm just to say some more goodbyes. Chris' brother Alex along with Uncle Bernie and Cousin Grace were leaving to go on a mission trip to Haiti. The house of sixteen had been reduced to eleven. Some of the girls and I went on a relaxing horse ride and then went to a friend of theirs across the street to play some card games. For supper that night we went to a restaurant called The Rock Cafe. The Rock Cafe is an all you can eat restaurant that has so many choices it's impossible to try it all lol It was so much fun to try everything and hangout with the girls. As well as laughing uncontrollably at times :)

Anna, Me and Ellen!

Thursday and Friday

Thursday some of the girls and I took a 2 ½ hour long ride on the horses and then swam in the pool. On friday Chris' Mom and I spent most of the day shopping in Big Rapids :) I went to a few stores that I had never been to, found some pretty cute tops and had a really great time!

Here is me riding Ka-Bang! O and another thing that I forgot to mention is that the girls mainly ride their horses bare back so I did too :) Hard and scary but definitely do-able!

Saturday

Today the girls and I went into town and did some shopping for movies and junk food :) We came home and went to get more hay; about 350 bails of it! Boy we sure missed the hard working guys that day lol We were so tired so we all sat and relaxed to watch a movie.

Sunday

I was so excited on sunday morning because it meant that I got to see Chris :) We have gone days without seeing each other before but having absolutely no contact kills! Lol I missed him alot and I was very thrilled to get to see him and spend the day with him at the Cadet Camp. Some of the cousins along with Chris' Mom and I went to the Cadet church service and then had an amazing lunch! There were so many cadets and people their at the camp for family day and it was so fun to see what what the Cadet Camp experience was all about. Chris and his Dad took us on a tour of the camp and met some of the guys that Chris and his Dad had become friends with during the camp. When the time came that we had to leave we all said our long tearful goodbyes and we reassured ourselves that we would see each other in a few days. We all came home and had a relaxing night watching movies.

The Big Stage

Chris' Mom, Lideta, Chris, Me, Anna, Ellen, Meron and Edilam at the Cadet Camp

Chris and I at Cadet Camp :)

Monday and Tuesday

On Monday we watched a movie, rode horses and then went swimming at Cran Hill Ranch for a few hours. On Tuesday my artistic side made it's arrival lol One of the guest rooms in the house is called “The Prayer Room”. It is called that because of the bible verses that are painted on the walls. I was really excited when Aunty Sherri give me the go ahead to paint on of my own! I decided to do one of my favorite verses; Proverbs 3:5-6 :) I spent most of the day along with Ellen penciling on and painting our verses on the wall. That night we went grocery shopping for the family, which equals, a whole lot of food! Haha

Ellen painting her verse (Love never fails, another one of my favorites!)

Here's me painting my verse :)

Wednesday

Wednesday had come! Yeah! We got to pick up the guys from the Cadet Camp today but not until 6 so I finished my bible verse on the wall along with the help of Chris' Mom who added some awesome shadowing to my designs!!

All Finished!! :D It turned out way better than I first expected!

We were very excited to see the Chris and his Dad :) We stayed at the camp for a while and talked with the guys and some of the other men that were on staff at the camp. We were surprised to found out that the night before they had gotten so much rain that a river had formed where the stage on sunday used to be. We had to ride a quad/cart/thing that I forgot what is called across the water with the guys luggage. I even got to ride it :) and then made our way home.

This is where the stage used to be! Crazy different from a few days ago lol

The newly formed river :P

Chris and I on the 'quad thing' (totally forgot what its called lol)

Thursday

Today we went to the John Ball Park Zoo in Grand Rapids, Michigan!! Before going in we ate some lunch and had fun watching all of the geese, ducks and squirrels that ran free in the park outside of the zoo.

Anna, Bereket, Ellen, Issac, Mirium, Edilam, Me, Meron, Lideta and Chris at the Zoo in Grand Rapids (from left to right)

It was alot of fun with everyone and seeing all the interesting and cute animals :) One of the neat things that we did is pet sting rays! Yes, PET sting rays! Lol I was scared at first but I got used to the idea quick. They felt so cool and they loved being pet! They would swim right up to your hand so that you could touch them :)

We saw eagles, monkeys, tons of reptiles, cougars (that were three feet away from me!), bears, wallabies, lemurs and one of the cutest and photogenic otters I have ever seen! It would swim from one side of the tank to the other while twirling around and then jump up on the rocks the standup wait a few seconds and jump but in the water! It was very cute!

All I can think of when I see this picture is that the otter must be thinking "And.. Pose!"

After the zoo we went to a store called Hobby Lobby which was a huge craft store that I could have spent HOURS in :) We then spent a few hours in a mall that was in Grand Rapids.

Friday

Early friday morning Alex, Uncle Bernie and Grace had come home so when we woke up we all welcomed them home and then spent the morning looking videos and photos and hearing stories of their trip to Haiti. We all went to Cran Hill again to go swimming and play beach volleyball. When we got home we picked up another 300 bails of hay. We were all very tired after a fun filled day :)

Saturday

Today was our last full day of our trip so we decided to make good use of it and go to Lake Michigan! It was beautiful! White sand and cool water :) We spent the day swimming and walking along the shore.

Beautiful Michigan Lake!!

Grace and I

Meron and I

Chris and I

We were near a town called Ludington so we went to the Pier, looked the all of the neat sail boats and ferries and ate some yummy pizza!

Beautiful Sail Boat!

Over the past few days we had played a game called Kung-Fu it's kinda complicated to explain but it's really fun so when we came home from Lake Michigan and Ludington we played it for a few hours :)

Sunday

We had to leave early on Sunday morning and after we tearfully (at least I did lol) hugged everyone and said goodbye and then we headed for the airport. All of our flights went well and we made it home safely and on time.

Well I guess that's my trip in a very big nutshell! :) I can't wait until I can go for another visit and see everyone again! :D

My Peaceful Coffee Shop Morning

This picture has everything I consider important ingredients for a perfect peaceful morning :) To start off a well known Lethbridge coffee shop 'Esquires' where there is quite a few perfect spots to sit and beautiful giant windows to let all the sun that we've been getting lately in! They have amazing drinks and food; that leads me to my breakfast. A cold raspberry Italian soda and a warm buttered bagel. Lastly my laptop which means I get to listen to some pretty sweet music :) Perfect morning in my opinion!

A Daily Reminder

I need this reminder every day. Every. single. day. I need to remember the blessings that I have in my life. We always think of these simple needs including clothes, food, clean water, a house to come home to but another basic need that we may take for granted is shoes. Seen from this picture above he has created shoes from bottles and makeshift rope and most people in third world nations don't even have this 'luxury' of created shoes.. They simply don't have any. That's why I feel the need to be thankful and appreciative even more so that my needs are met. Be thankful for everything around me. The opportunities that I have available. What I have and who I have in my life and most of all that I have an Amazing God that has done this all for me!