Laurie's Everyday Notions

Last week I did a little craft project with the daycare kiddos. I did the first cross painting to model for the children how to create this water painted cross. As I showed them the importance of using just the right amount of water - not too much and not too little, we talked about Easter. I opened with the question, "Why do we celebrate Easter? What is it all about?" Responses varied but most had to do with the Easter bunny. Instead of getting discouraged I instead agreed with them (hold on here), "Yes, part of our celebration includes the Easter bunny. We sometimes add things to holidays to make them fun. At Christmas we have Santa and at Easter we have a bunny but......Why do we celebrate Christmas? Whose birth do we celebrate?" They all cheerfully exclaimed, "JESUS!" "Yes, Christmas is really about the birth of Jesus! Does anyone know who Easter is really about?" One boy hesitantly said, "Jesus?" "YES! It...

I may have missed writing down my praise for day 30 and day 31 but I did not miss the two days of sharing moments with my children (which includes my boy, my girl and my Little Sprouts). A quiet daycare day on Wednesday led to a fun-filled field trip. Quarry Hill Nature Center (one of my top ten favorite places to take kids), Sekapp's Apple Orchard and McDonald's play land made for a fun morning with the kids. Yesterday my sweet daughter motivated me to clean up the front porch so that we could do a little decorating for our treat or treat visitors. Traffic usually comes through the back porch, however for Halloween the front porch is much more convenient. Unfortunately the front porch had become a storage room of sorts. You know that room that some people have, the one in which items (or boxes of items) get stashed when company is coming? Yep, that's my front porch. I wish I had taken a before picture. Or maybe I'm glad I didn't. Just take my word for it - ...

In the last 8 days I've had two babies! Well, I didn't have two babies but two of my daycare families did. One of the benefits I have as being a daycare provider is that I don't have to do the really hard stuff. Like giving birth. Or sleepless nights. I can get my baby fix during the day and then send them home. It's a pretty sweet perk. Thank you, God, for the families that share their babies with me. I look forward to watching each of them grow. Watching coos turn into babbles and babbles into words. Watching them learn to roll over, crawl and take those first steps. I look forward to baby feet and baby cuddles. God, equip me to show these children....all the children in my daycare, love. My love and yours. Give me patience and wisdom. Let my eyes always be filled with the wonder of your creation. Thank you, God, for bringing two bouncing boys into this world and into my life.

Often I feel limited in the ways in which I can help meet the needs of children living in extreme poverty. Many times I've had to remind myself that, in this season of my life, I do have the opportunity to not only love and meet the needs of the child in my care but also to teach compassion and raise up world changers. This week I contemplated and prayed about how I can do more. I spent time clicking through the World Help website. I ordered boxes to fill for Christmas for an Orphan . I ordered a bundle of Gift of Hope catalogs to give to my daycare families and decided that this year, instead of Christmas gifts for me, I would ask for gifts of hope. As I searched the website I found many little things that I could do and I became excited. That excitement led to the realization that doing something small could have the potential of growing into something much bigger. “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”   ―...

Last week I had a day....yes, ONE day which looked like this ~ Disclaimer: Sometimes, when I share my minor catastrophes, I exaggerate to add some comic relief. Just keep that in mind. A pile of backpacks, coats, boots and winter weat. School was delayed for two hours.....until the school decided at 7:20 am to cancel for the day. This left parents scrambling and extra kids (kids FULL of energy and excitement over having a snow day) arriving at my house. I love my school-agers but they tend to be harder to care for than babies and preschoolers. I never hear a four year old say, "I'm bored......" but a seven year old? Ugh. I'm bored comes out of their mouths in 20 minute intervals. So, on days when I have a group of school aged kids I try to plan activities to keep them occupied. The first craft project was "hockey art". This involves placing a piece of paper in a cake pan, sprinkling paper with powdered tempera paint and using a Popsicle stick (ho...

I have to give my cousin credit for this cute craft! I did make a few alterations to make our spiders a little easier for the preschoolers to assist me. She used a real pumpkin, I opted for foam pumpkins. She also used a hot glue gun which I don't like using around the little kiddos.  Supplies: Small pumpkins Pipe cleaners (2 or 4 depending on length of spider legs) "Heavy-duty" glue Wiggly eyes 1. The kids painted the foam pumpkins with black acrylic paint. 2. Attach the eyes. I found some crafter's glue at Walmart and it worked! 3. Cut pipe cleaners in half and then fold in half. 4. Carve a small hole into the pumpkin to "stuff" in the spider legs (pipe cleaners). 5. Bend pipe cleaners to make legs. The middle spiders had full length pipe cleaners folded in half but I ran out of "legs" so decided to try shorter legs, using half a pipe cleaner folded in half. The kids loved this craft! I love that these pumpkin spiders ...

Summer always seems to pass by way too quickly but even more so this year as I closed daycare for the first five weeks of summer so that I could be with my daughter after the car accident . The week before school was to start back up, I realized that we needed to get some theme "fun" packed into our last week of "summer"! We devoted a day to pirates, complete with eye patches and treasure maps. Another day was Beach Bash which landed perfectly on the hottest day of the week. Beach Bash included doorway leis, pineapple, octopus cake, sand art and water balloons. We ended our week with "Princess Day" (the girls were thrilled!). We colored pictures of our favorite princess', read princess stories and had manicures and pedicures. Even I painted my toe nails.  This year I'm not so sad to see the departure of summer. I look forward to the changing colors of fall as well as the routine that school brings.    Follow @lauriervb  

Yes, it says, "Lorie ROCKS!" I have a new favorite at Laurie's Little Sprouts. He may have spelled my name wrong but  the word following my misspelled name makes it all ok. :) I found several recipes for sidewalk paint which used corn starch and food coloring. I had neither so I improvised. I mixed by sight so I apologize but I have no exact measurements. I simply mixed liquid laundry starch with powdered tempera paint. More starch than paint. Mix well.  Time to pretty up the driveway! Shared with:  

As a daycare provider I struggle with finding gifts for the kids to make for their parents that are useful. Really, I don't want to send home another scribbled drawing that a parent may want to throw away but the guilt of doing so causes the parent to add the artwork (artwork that looks like the thousand other pieces of artwork) in the stack of all the other "art" the child has made for them. I know. Some of you may be shaking your head in disbelief that I can even suggest that one would want to throw away Jr's precious abstract of dinosaurs caught in a tornado. But let's be realistic.  A few mementos are great but a closet full becomes a burden. When we use all our household space to keep memories, we tend to be too busy organizing the clutter to MAKE memories. My first challenge was finding something useful. Something that would either be used up or something that is genuinely worth putting in that memory closet. My second challenge was finding something the...