Ma-ma-ma-mess!

We had a large donation of  spices and a variety of baking ingredients that were past their 'best by date', and I wondered how we could use them in a 'creative' way. So... thinking back to my childhood concoctions of 'ingredients' I found in my family's bathroom cupboards the children arrived to a dress up area complete with  jars of REAL ingredients, along with a range of cooking tools and dishes. I stood back and watched it all unfold!

The ingredients just got dumped right in!

And mixed right up!

I threw a little hot chocolate powder in for a little surprise!

From the picture below, sufficed to say we had some fun! A few brave children took a little taste, and proclaimed it did not taste as yummy as it smelled.

This picture below does it no justice, but I wanted to show that much of the 'mixture' ended up on the carpet below, seriously, there was a LOT on the floor, you just can't tell! I took this picture because I wanted to show that it happens and how important it is that it happened. I will be honest I have a lot of moments that the mess gets to me... what I mean is, I would love to have a little cleaning fairy flit about and clean up after the children. BUT, then I remind myself that this space is created FOR THE CHILDREN. Although they are in my home, it is a space that is designated for them to play and have fun! Children are children and they ARE going to make messes. The space is designed for them to be allowed to make a mess. I want them to feel comfortable and welcome enough that they are free to play. If there is something that I don't want the children to play with, it is not out. Everything in the space is available for the children to have opportunities to explore, create, and play with. I have been in centres that, although the mantra was that the children were welcome to play and enjoy with all the materials, the space was not comfortable for myself, so how could it be expected that the children would feel comfortable to play in it? I am not saying they were not wonderfully designed spaces, and it was no ones fault but my own. Because they were not my spaces, I was uncertain of my boundaries, it was hard to communicate those boundaries to the children, if that makes any sense. I feel blessed to be able to have provided this space for the children, and I hope that my role as a caregiver reflects to the children that it is THEIR space. My image of children is that they are capable beings and caring individuals. So when I see the mess I understand that the children did not intentionally create it, but just got so caught up in the enjoyment of the moment to notice what had happened.

So with that being said, I will point out that these opportunities are provided to the children, and because I believe them to be caring individuals I trust them to clean up when the times comes. It happens and in the photo below you can see that the children took the initiative and brought tools and dishes to the laundry sink, and.... even spilled a little. So....

They cleaned it up, and moved on with their day.

It's also important to point out that when our laundry sink looks like this, we have had a FUN day!

'It's just so squishy'

We have never been ones to shy away from getting messy, and even getting right up to our elbows and beyond. Shaving cream sensory play is an activity we engage in quite often. It's fun, it's messy, it's smells nice, and well, it's just so squishy. 

Usually this activity is a whole table experience... right onto the table, and well, i'm embarrassed to admit... I wasn't feeling it on this particular day. This was my attempt at 'containing the mess' but allowing for the experience to happen. 

These photos are just the beginning of what happened this day. It started out as I had 'planned', but quickly, it became an experience, one that I did not want to miss out on, nor did I want to stop. These photos showcase the process that lead to me jumping in with the children, thus disabling me from photographing the experience. But, rest assured the shaving cream was even in our hair! Sometimes we just need to let go, and jump in! It was very therapeutic. If ever you are having one of those days, just spray a little shaving cream on the table, or the floor, or wherever and squish it, even squish it between your toes. The children can join in with you, or you can enjoy the moment yourself (I won't tell).

Chemistry

* Queasy mom's and dad's look away!*

We love to experiment at our little school and play around with different mediums. What started as drill painting quickly became an experiment with paint. One of my most fondest memories as a child was going in the cupboards in the bathroom and taking the different shampoos, baby powders, and toothpaste, or whatever new 'ingredients' were hiding in my little supply cupboard. *disclaimer* there were never any hazardous materials used... (I don't want to make my parents appear to be unfit parents, in fact they really were and still are awesome parents!) So today when the experiment started up, the memories came flooding back! 

This whole experience reminded me as well as the tall paintings a fantastic blog had mentioned a while back.

On our art shelf are some squeeze bottles to allow the children to choose their own paint colours as well as prepare their own art. This has enabled the 'less that enthusiastic about art' inner artist spring to the surface. 

This experience, was fascinating to watch, as the child discovered the smoothness of the paint, as well as the new colours he was making. 

The other wonderful thing about keeping the paint in the squirt bottles, is that when the process was over, we just scooped it all back into the bottle and we have a new colour to choose from!

 I should also mention that the soundtrack of all this exploration was 'Beethoven Lives Upstairs' (a favourite in  our group) and this sensory, chemistry experience was to the beat of some classics. The picture above does it no justice, but those hands were conducting to Beethoven's 5th! It was beautiful!

Our clean up became a secondary discovery. We have some plastic paper... i'm not certain of the source or the purpose, but those papers have been used for so many things. Today it was a scraper and as we were scraping a design appeared on the table. That was almost as exciting as the whole 'chemistry' experiment.