The Singing and Dancing Never Ends...

Homeschool Showcase

Our Homeschool Showcase was so much fun! The kids each brought something to share from their homeschool activities. M. and W. brought their science journals. A. brought a worm habitat in a jar and a picture of a 6 foot worm (who knew?). B., S., G., M. and O. recited poems they memorized. C. wrote 2 of the words he can spell and L. shared a short story she wrote and illustrated.

Art Classes

I love our new art classes here at The Garden. We usually have a fairly small group of 4-6 children and everyone seems to enjoy themselves. Last week we made "Color Wheel Clocks" and the children experimented mixing the three primary colors. The children in our Friday class came up with a "new" color they called Icky from the planet "Icky".

Thank you for the singing and dancing Cindy!

What a wonderful class we had today for our 4-9 year olds. Our good friend Ms. Cindy brought her guitar and she played songs while the children all sang and danced. Cindy played some old favorites like "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "If You're Happy and You Know It". She also entertained us with new songs! Thank you so much Cindy for sharing your talents with us. The kids and the parents had a great time! The proof's in the pictures...

Halloween Party! What fun!

What a great Halloween Party we had at the Garden on Tuesday! All the kids looked so cool in their costumes. We had a variety of costumes, including a knight, a ninja, a couple of princesses, a genie, two sweet little flowers, a cute little baby mushroom, a beautiful witch (I think she was a good witch), the Corpse Bride, Jesse from Toy Story 2, Buzz Light Year, a blue unicorn, Diego (Dora's cousin) and other great costumes. During our party, we read aloud a few Halloween stories, decorated treat bags and searched for candy hidden throughout the store. We also had a Halloween Parade! The kids lined up in the parking lot and we marched our parade next door to the library. The librarians were so nice. They greeted all the kids and gave them treats for their bags. One of our distinguished party guests made a pumpkin pinata and brought it to share with everyone. We used our knight's sword to hit the pinata. Thank you to B. and his mom V. for making and bringing the pinata. Of course, there was also lots of playing for the kids and visiting for the moms. Thank you to everyone who brought treats to share. It was a great party!

Every Garden Needs Birds!

Today, we had the back door of the store propped open after our class on sound experiments. This was necessary as the children made megaphones. They loved these but the noise inside the store became increasingly loud, so we propped the door open and let the kids go out behind the store with their megaphones. (Thank you to all the patient moms! Also, my sincere apologies.)

A little while after everyone had left, I was on the phone and a sparrow flew right through the store! The poor little bird was frantic as it tried to find it's way out through one of the storefront windows. I "calmly" got off the phone and stood there, just as perplexed as the sparrow. The only difference was that I was not flapping my wings against the glass. I was running around in circles quite a bit though. At a loss for what to do, I called my husband who after laughing and laughing, suggested I throw a blanket over the bird and scoop it up! I said, "Are you kidding me?" No, that was his best idea. Well, after standing there for a little while longer, growing more concerned by the moment that the bird would hurt itself, I took a light weight cotton shirt and threw it over the bird. Much to my surprise, the bird did not freak out and start flapping even more frantically. I was actually able to scoop it up like one of the chicks at our Fort Wayne Zoo and rushed outside to release it! Phew!

My daughter immediately began building a birdhouse out of the MegaBloks so the next bird who flew in the store would have a "home". I closed the door, told her how thoughtful I think she is and we had a mini-lesson on appropriate animal habitats. Guess, we'll be keeping the door closed at the store from now on. Last year, when we opened the store, there were never any birds around. We started throwing seed out on the ground for them. Maybe, this bird was looking for dessert.

The End of Our Week

Saturday afternoons have become the official end of our family's week since we opened the store. Sundays and Mondays are our days off to be together exclusively. It's the end of another week and as always, I am exhausted and yet happy. I love to look back on each week at the store and think of all the wonderful children's activities that took place that week. I also love to think about all the children who come to the Garden regularly and all the fun they have just playing together! It makes me feel good that I get to spend time with other parents (some of who are my very best friends) and that they all get to spend time with each other. It's such a pleasure to look back on my work week and feel so good about everything that happened in my store. I will say I feel extremely lucky to be where I am today, to have created such a nice place for our family and for others, to be able to help parents, grandparents and teachers find the books and curriculum they are looking for, to meet new people everyday and to be learning so much myself.

It's hard to believe that only one year ago this month, the store wasn't even opened yet! My family received the keys to the store September 1, 2005. We spent the entire month of September practically living at the store. I remember being in awe of our two young children as they took it all in stride and did not complain about all the long hours spent trying to get the store ready for our October 1st Grand Opening. My wonderful, patient and supportive husband did not try to discourage me from my lofty goals. I still can't believe we pulled it off. We could never have done it without the help of our family and friends. My father-in-law especially helped us a lot the last part of the month. I'll always be thankful to everyone who helped make our dream a reality and those who still do!