It was our last day at Scales Lake for the summer. It’s been a nice place to go. The children were really having fun yesterday, partially because it was not so hot, and partially because they have more or less learned to swim well enough to really enjoy the lake.

Savannah is really doing a nice job and so is Edan. Phoenix went down the slide with Miss Leigh, and his face said, “Oh! Oh! Oh!” as if a great curtain of life had been lifted and he suddenly understood what the whole world was about. I think he’s going to experience that again later in life. What a great little boy. Jack H flew down the slide as well as Sam and Jake. So proud, so proud!

We had a nice lunch and we brought the left over fruit from the luau the day before, and then when everyone had had their fill, we gave the rest to the animals at the petting zoo. It was great fun.

Then we went to investigate a new site of play. It’s a sprinkler park in Boonville, so for the next little while we all put our heads together and decided on a plan. TBA

We got back to school at 4:00 and had a cheese and cracker snack and then settled into the business of going home for the weekend. Truly a nice day.

When summer vacation begins to get old, what kids are missing is an intellectual life — no kidding.

Learning is what kids do best, so learning should always be part of a child’s day. Make it a big part — a parent-provider initiated time that really sweeps them off their feet.

Leave boring and mind deadening “reader to workbook” copy approaches in the dust. Do a summer hands on, go and do, think and write project instead. This is the way parents and providers can help children form ideas and keep them. That’s the whole point to learning.

Let’s invent a method: Let’s use three admirable figures parents can teach kids to relate to: Tom (To) Sawyer, Stephen (Step) Hawking, and John Updike (Up). These people are models for thinking and doing, and we could call this the “To Step Up” mode of learning.

To Step Up and away from a passive leaden lead copying to an active and productive learning leadership.

To Step Up means lots of doing, and no one better signifies doing to kids than Tom Sawyer. He’s a tough, durable figure both girls and boys can relate to.

Doing means risk taking and lots of trials and efforts, with any project. Stephen Hawking is a tireless and heroic researcher and experimenter. He is an idea man children should “step up” to know about and emulate. He makes dreams come true and so can they. Small dreams for young people grow into whole worlds of thought.

And John Updike’s expressive and creative writing about ordinary life causes the everyday world in his wonderful hands to become quite extraordinary. Children should learn to express themselves well about their own work.

To Step Up activities might involve making an in-depth study and collection of stamps, rocks, shells or wild flowers. Growing crystals or a vegetable garden requires research and doing too. So does hatching birds, butterflies or pollywogs. Putting a salt water aquarium together also requires research and thought. Even putting together a 1000 piece puzzle takes a kind of stick to it skill that requires sophistication of mind and will. There is also the play to learn and perform.

Our To Step Up method translates well into the arts. Helping to direct a play takes a lot of enthusiasm, and drama is fun or kids, but it takes research, and trial and effort. Watching and studying plays, reading and working out a play takes experimenting and practice — just like Stephen Hawking’s science. When the play is worked out. It’s time to perform it using the Tom Sawyer part. A gutsy, get in there and have fun approach which never fails.

Finally, no matter what you do, the UP part means writing about experiences so the memory is kept forever. Writing about something means you really understand what you did. It should be clear and concise. Children should keep a summer journal no matter what they do across the summer.

The main focus on summer vacation for children should be learning to really read for information, doing something real and worthwhile, and learning to write well about their experiences. Even doing one major project every summer from age three through fifteen means twelve great learning treks. By sixteen kids have car keys and they are more interested in other projects like finding the cutest girl or boy.

I thought these were wonderful.

Good Morning! A simple week! We are going to look at the Hawaiian luau. We will learn the hula and a couple of hula songs. We will do some Hawaiian crafts and then on Thursday, we will have a luau at school. The kids should love this. Anyone know where I can get local poi?

On Tuesday and Wednesday we will be swimming at Newburgh Pool. Hope it doesn’t rain us out!

On Friday, we will be going to Scales Lake.

Both days a picnic.

The children are really swimming well now. It’s a pleasure to watch them.

Have a great week!

Fresh Fruit Bars

With all the wonderful fresh fruit out, it’s always hard to decide what to do with it. We make jam, jelly, add it to muffins, cake, pancakes, waffles, and melt it down for sauces and creams.

One of the things we forget is the bar cookie. Bar cookies are easy to make and last a good week. They can be very nutritious and are delicious.

The recipe is easy:

In a food processor, put 2 sticks of butter; 1/3 cup sugar; 2 egg yolks; 2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour; 1 cup coconut; chopped nuts if desired.

Spin this until crumbly. Take 2/3rds of this crumble mixture and put it in the bottom of a 9×13 inch pan. Add a layer of fresh fruit. Combos are nice. Peaches, blueberries, blackberries, apricots, even melon makes a nice bar.

Sprinkle the rest of the mix on top of the fresh fruit and bake at 350 degrees until your crumble is golden brown. Cool, cut into bars and enjoy.

I love this house. It’s a dream palace. You can see the whole thing at HERE

Just a little dreamscape to think about when the day gets long.

We had a coooooooool day on Friday. Played a lot of games and did some painting and clay, and then we had “store bought pizza” for lunch with a big salad and lots of watermelon. It was scrumptious. We ate and ate and ate.

Then we played some games and finally, about 2:00, we went to the movies and watched “How to Train Your Dragon.”

This is a wonderful little movie about a boy who is sure he doesn’t want to kill dragons. He is thrown into a situation to befriend one, and he has the time of his life. But his family is shaken when he befriends the beasts they have battled with for so long. One thing leads to another, and there is a huge battle, and out little boy, Hiccup, is able to be the hero and keep his dragon as a friend and pet.

Lots of fun and lots of laughs without that obnoxious adult humor taking over the film.

We came back to school for a delicious snack of bar cookies.

A great day!

Busy childcare providers hear this all the time. Parents are often horrified to see their child just plain dirty. Child’s play is dirty, and if a child isn’t ready for a bath when he comes home from what should be playing, he’s been a bystander and not a doer.

A full day of kid play includes mess. Paper mache, paint, glue or clay are activities children love. Most kids love to get fully involved in “hands on” and that means “wipe ons” too. Art projects transcend the safety of a zip lock bag. If schools use aprons, you can bet they use them twice a year when they do art.

Any substantial childcare should include outdoor play through the day. One great activity causing parent cringe is the sand box. A sandbox can’t be fun if a child has to position himself from the outside. A respectable sandbox is a place where kids can build and climb and make inventing fun. It also produces dirty clothes, sand in shoes and engineers.

A great lunch is an “I can feed myself lunch” program that includes helping themselves to ketchup and dishing out their own fruit and vegetables. No matter how much the adult watches over a table, there are spills when young children help themselves because their arms are short and they can’t reach past their laps.

When lunch amounts to two of this and three of that all served on a plate the size of something from the family play station, it’s not lunch, it’s rations.

A good afternoon means spending time running, playing in the sand, having the freedom to tumble safely from the teeter-totter, sliding, jumping, climbing, and pushing cars and trucks through the dirt. It’s dirtier than napping or TV watching and it should be. Afternoons filled with doing can’t be accomplished from an unconscious position on a cot or chair.

Popsicles and ice cream don’t help clothes. Kids love Popsicles and ice cream, and they cheer the bowl of iced treats when they see them. Popsicles and ice cream are inexpensive ways to give kids a reward for just being alive.

By pick up time, kids should be exhausted and dirty. They’ve had a real day being kids and they nearly always want to return for another day just like it.

Kids need to play outdoors; kids need to play indoors; kids need to play. If childcare schedules offer children only a short few minutes to run, of course the kids will be clean, and the building will be clean as well. But by nature, children are outdoor creatures and that’s where everyone finds the dirt.

Programs that limit outside activities usually do because out of shape adults hate being outside. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter – duh.

On the other hand, teachers in good physical shape with active bodies love doing things, and going out doors to play and to move, just like the kids. These people bond with kids well because they are on the same wavelength; they have the same energy.

“Yes, he is dirty. He played outdoors three hours today, and he’s also exhausted.”

“But I can’t put him in my car.”

“We could have him delivered, or he could come home with me.”

Dirty clothes wash. So do children. God made children washable for a reason.