Blossoming Buddies Childminding

Yesterday’s fun at the park.
Today’s playing with the new toys (steering wheels on the climbing frame and bugs for the flower garden) and drawing.

In the garden this week.

We have played with ice to keep us cool and used some old sunflowers in our play for creativity and sensory enjoyment.

🌼The children here at Blossoming Buddies are amazing friends and truly love one another, they are always so excited to see their friends each day and it is a privilege to watch their play and friendships blossom.🌼

Making friends in the early years is crucial for social and emotional development.

Children typically form bonds through shared play and proximity.

In the early years, friendships are often "in the moment." Children prefer peers who enjoy the same activities, share toys, and are physically nearby.

At this stage, friendships serve as building blocks for:

⭐️Confidence: Interacting with peers helps children build a positive self-concept
⭐️Empathy: Children learn to recognize and respond to the feelings of others.
⭐️Communication: Sharing and collaborating enhance language and conflict resolution skills.

We had a lovely time at the park this morning, running, climbing, spinning, and sliding.

The children were particularly excited to see the aeroplanes.

🧊Painting on ice🖌️

🦖To dinosaur swamp🦖

We started off with different shaped ice cubes in the tuff tray on top of foil, with paints for the children to paint onto the ice. This occupied the children for a long time, next they made the tray into their dinosaur swamp, with the melted ice paint water and the melting ice cubes.

⭐️ Painting on ice builds fine motor skills, teaches colour mixing through melting, and provides soothing sensory input. It is an open-ended activity that lets children explore science and art at the same time.

Here are the top benefits of ice painting:
🧊Fine Motor Skills: Grasping a paintbrush or holding a frozen, colorful ice cube strengthens hand and finger muscles. These are the same muscles needed for writing.
🧊Sensory Exploration: Feeling the cold, smooth ice helps children explore different textures and temperatures. The cool sensation can also have a calming, soothing effect.
🧊Colour Mixing: As the ice melts, the colors blend and mingle. It is a great way to show how colors change and combine into new shades.
🧊Science Learning: Children learn about the properties of water by watching the ice melt and evaporate. They explore cause and effect by seeing how heat or a sprinkle of table salt changes the speed of the melting ice.
🧊Process-Based Art: Ice painting focuses on the fun of making art rather than the final product. This gives children the freedom to experiment without rules, which builds self-confidence.

This mornings messy play in the garden

Mark making with cars and foam.

The children enjoyed rolling the cars in the foam then onto the cardboard, and of course covering themselves in the foam and washing it all off.

💦Water play in the garden today💦

The children loved the coloured bubbles and washing themselves aswell as the dolls. There was lots of giggles as they shook the bubbles off their hands.

Yesterday’s messy play in the garden.

Spaghetti and cars.

The children loved pushing the cars over the spaghetti and hearing the crunch.

How nice to have the park to ourselves today.