A New Vision

[Country Kids]

I'm having a new vision for my childcare! I was so inspired yesterday when we visited a toy store that sold Vintage toys-

My son and I sat and played with some of them and he kept asking me how to do them-. Even though he is 10 some of these things he only had ever heard about them. You should have seen him with the top! He kept taking it between his hands and tring to spin it-:: I showed him how to spin it with the pumper thing on top-how fun to watch his eyes-lovethis

They also had a wooden popcorn popper thing that the little ones walk around with. There also was the things that you turned upside down, then right side up. I remember playing with those as a child! My son found those pretty interesting also.

Just very inspirational! Then I suddenly had a vision and I'm going to go through with it and very excited. I changing my program to a Vintage, Nature, Country program-

I want to get rid of as much plastic as I can but honestly I don't have that much. They had blocks that were made from recycled plastic which I thought were pretty neat. Things like that I wouldn't mind. Going to slowly change my toys over to Vintage ones and build up from there.

The Nature part would be playing outside as much as possible and exploring the outdoors. Will be working on that one as it might be hard but not impossiable. I picture also baskets with sticks, wooden blocks, pine cones, etc. for them to play with. Any ideas what else we could use? Also, I might do a nature table-something with binoculars, paper, magnifying glass,etc to explore things.

Country-Pretty much like the Nature part but emphasizing healthy eating and where our food comes from! Maybe going to the farm stands and things like this. Need to find some good receipes for this area. I want it to be a very, very positive experience.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions please feel free to give them to me. I'm running with this and making it mine! I have started some what but going forward and making it real. Going to put it down on paper with a business plan and show that this is a very serious business-

[cheerfuldom]

I think this is me....we dont have any electronic toys or screens in our playroom and we spend a lot of time outdoors. I strongly prefer classic toys (even if the toys themselves arent vintage) and we dont have anything (or very, very little) toys with cartoon characters or anything like that on it. Its all very traditional.

Have you looked at the "untraditional toy thread" that I started....I posted some good links in there.

[daycare]

this past fall, I added a nature center to my daycare. it is not always out, but we use it quite a bit.

I collected tons of things I found outside. Branches from trees that needed to be cut down. then I cut them with the bandsaw and I sand papered the ends to make them smooth. I made them all different sizes, with and etc. The kids LOVE building things with them. We use them for all sorts of things;;;

measuring
sorting from small to large and vs versa
building forts
pretend campfires
the kids use as fishing poles
couting in math area
painting area-dip the logs in the paint and roll them on the paper. makes a cool textured look
train tracks/car roads
etc

We also have rocks that we use
pine cones
large tree trunk bottoms
sea shells
acorns
beach sand, in shallow buckets
snail shells, but these are in a sealed jar and are not for playing with, jut loolking at however they want.

other things that we have to rid of from time to time are
leaves for rubbings
leaves for using as a paint brush
flowers
pine needles to paint with, make cool paint brushes

It also covers many themes:
fall
winter
camping theme
nature
beach

[Country Kids]

I think this is me....we dont have any electronic toys or screens in our playroom and we spend a lot of time outdoors. I strongly prefer classic toys (even if the toys themselves arent vintage) and we dont have anything (or very, very little) toys with cartoon characters or anything like that on it. Its all very traditional.

Have you looked at the "untraditional toy thread" that I started....I posted some good links in there.

Yes, I did and I'm actually going to reread it and bookmark sites on it. Thats another thing I want to do though is really, really cut down on computor, phone, and I don't watch alot but tv time also. I want to get down to a very simple life style for my own family as well.

I read an article where a family lost their home, had some land donated or something and built a 148 square foot home on it. They were able to bank her income every month for savings to build a larger home debt free. It was amazing what they had/didn't have and were very happy!

[daycare]

I think this is me....we dont have any electronic toys or screens in our playroom and we spend a lot of time outdoors. I strongly prefer classic toys (even if the toys themselves arent vintage) and we dont have anything (or very, very little) toys with cartoon characters or anything like that on it. Its all very traditional.

Have you looked at the "untraditional toy thread" that I started....I posted some good links in there.

cheer I loved that thread....I don't have any gender specific toys either or commercial toys I guess we can call them.

last year we did a them called inventors and we had to invent all of our toys....talk about fun. I think I might have some pics from that, Ill have to look and see.

[cheerfuldom]

cheer I loved that thread....I don't have any gender specific toys either or commercial toys I guess we can call them.

last year we did a them called inventors and we had to invent all of our toys....talk about fun. I think I might have some pics from that, Ill have to look and see.

okay cool! it sounds like you are getting into minimal living (as far as downsizing and looking for traditional options). Thats totally me. Let me get a few more links together for some good reading on all things minimalism!

[daycare]

okay cool! it sounds like you are getting into minimal living (as far as downsizing and looking for traditional options). Thats totally me. Let me get a few more links together for some good reading on all things minimalism!

about 8 months ago. I donated about 9 full huge boxes of toys to a children's safe house.
It sounds like we are much the same, no batteries and nothing that takes ME having to do for them. Of course i will assist if you ask nicely, but I will not do it for you.....

[littlemissmuffet]

I think this is me....we dont have any electronic toys or screens in our playroom and we spend a lot of time outdoors. I strongly prefer classic toys (even if the toys themselves arent vintage) and we dont have anything (or very, very little) toys with cartoon characters or anything like that on it. Its all very traditional.

Have you looked at the "untraditional toy thread" that I started....I posted some good links in there.

Sounds exactly like my daycare!

Enjoy the process of changing over, Country!!

[spud912]

When I remodeled, that is essentially what I was going for. I replaced most of the plastic stuff with wooden stuff and the only battery operated items left are the Little People activity center and cube that plays classical music. I chose to keep the Little People toy because it is very open ended and still fosters a lot of creative play. I kept the musical cube because it plays classical music and isn't annoying. The only time the kids play with it is when they want to dance, so that makes it acceptable IMO.

Ultimately, I would love to go through and replace our dolls with multicultural dolls, add more puppets, and replace the plastic food with wooden play food. I would also love one of these:

[Lianne]

Country Kids, check out Pinterest.com for ideas. There are tons of ideas for natural play spaces & experiences. If you need an invite, let me know and I can send you one.

[Country Kids]

Country Kids, check out Pinterest.com for ideas. There are tons of ideas for natural play spaces & experiences. If you need an invite, let me know and I can send you one.

Could you please do that! I don't have facebook though but I did try and sign up once through there sight and they never contacted me back. I'm not sure if its because I don't have a facebook account or what.

[daycare]

Could you please do that! I don't have facebook though but I did try and sign up once through there sight and they never contacted me back. I'm not sure if its because I don't have a facebook account or what.

ditto on this

[SunnyDay]

I love your vision! Please keep us updated on how you pull it off.

[Lianne]

Happy to send out invites to Pinterest. I just need those interested to pm me an email address.

Pinterest is an online bulletin board site. The site sets you up with some boards when you sign up. You can keep or delete those boards and add boards that suit your own needs. People post a myriad of ideas on any topic imaginable: recipes, fashion, travel, books, crafts, DIY projects, preschool ideas, home design, cute sayings/pics, history, photography, etc. You browse through other peoples ideas aka 'pins' on their boards and if you like an idea, you pin it to one of your own boards. You can search by idea (preschool crafts) or by person. You can 'follow' another pinner, whether you know them or not. I follow many people who obviously work with children and when they find new ideas and pin them to their boards, I'm able to see the ideas. As you gather pins and boards, you may find people will 'follow' you as well. This is how the ideas get shared and passed around.

When you find something you like and pin it to your boards, all you'll see is the picture of the idea/item and a comment of some kind (usually a brief description). To access the idea or item in full explanation, you click the picture and it will take you to the site or blog the idea/item came from and a full explanation/instructions should be listed.

Pinterest can seem overwhelming at first. Don't give up on it! Take some time to get familiar with it and how it works. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. To those familiar with Pinterest, if I've left anything out of my post to help explain how Pinterest works, feel free to add to or clarify what I've posted.

[Meyou]

For outside my kids love our mud kitchen. When I replaced some kitchen items I kept the old ones for the kids. They have a real mixer, spice rack and a real set of pots and pans with lids out in the backyard for the mud kitchen. They love it and it was free to me! My dh built a rough counter and that was it.