Once a month, I volunteer with the Angler's Monitoring Initiative - in short, it's just a group of fisherman who care about the quality of the local streams and do basic testing for pollution to make sure the fish thrive. When I go, I almost always take Isabella with me. The fisherman are very good with her and she loves getting her hands dirty. As a result, my three-year-old knows the names of bugs that I didn't learn until I was in college. Yesterday, we took a bucketful of bugs and small fish home with us so that she could bring it to playgroup today for a bit of "show and tell." It was a moderate success, and Isabella was certainly the most excited one of the group - she was the last one standing and put up a fight when it came time to clear up.
Playgroup this term has been going very well for her. It was only last term that I still had to promise treats and surprises for her to allow me to leave her there. But with the older four-year-olds now in reception, what the Brits call kindergarten, there are only the littlest kids left, which has been a big boost for her confidence. I also prefer it because there is more one-on-one time with the teachers/playleaders. She is also very much into art now and brings me home more drawings and pictures than I know what to do with. What do other parents do with all of the art that accumulates with kids?
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Gianna brings home so much stuff and then add that to all the crafts we do at home and at various kid's festivals, and it's too much to keep it all. We end up choosing the best 50% (she has a lot of pieces that are the same thing--two or three fish paintings etc. so I choose just one) and put dates on them and into a plastic bin about 16x10x8 sized. I also like to write down on the back what she tells me when she's making the art or what she says it is if I can't decipher it. I don't feel bad tossing the stuff that won't fit in that bin --but I do have another bin for the odd-shaped, odd-material type stuff. Like a wooden bird she painted and a plastic bowl she designed at school. We have two bins for the past three years. I expect to have one per year as she gets into school and that will just restrict how much will fit and therefore how much we can keep. Whew! Long comment for such a simple question. Sorry!
good answer! that is an excellent idea and one that i will put to immediate use! thank you for sharing, monique! the playgroup itself has an organized binder of their artwork and achievements, which is pretty much the same thing in a more condensed form - i've had a look through her book a few times and it's like time capsule already. it will be wonderful for them to go through these things later on when they're all grown up.
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