About Soil

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For this week, I’m taking Free Tip Friday to a new realm. This advice donation is about helping parents with potty training tips from a 25-year veteran childcare provider. I’ve held onto this draft for a few years, waiting for the correct moment. I currently care for ‘potty-trainee’s’ who are blessed with parents who are doing a wonderful job in this child-rearing arena. I could not ask for better cooperation and so in no way is this article for them 🙂 But I can tell you we all have made mistakes in raising our children so take my wisdom at face value. I have no ulterior motive in sharing these tidbits. I hope you enjoy!

  • Please don’t leave your child alone during pottying. They can give you some of the most insightful moments of your child’s life. There’s something about bathrooms and conversations. Girls, just ask your sister. Besides, they shouldn’t be left alone anyway. What if the dreaded worst happened??
  • Do not give your child Polyethylene Glycol (petroleum based laxative) if you want them to have success ‘holding it’ til they can tell you they need to go. Click here (or look it up yourself) on the risks of using these from pretty reputable sources. I can testify first hand that there is a link to behavior and the use of these products. Before I go on and on, just do your homework. Your children are worth it! NONE of them can be replaced.
  • Children don’t Have to have a bm every day. Ask your health professional if you don’t believe me.
  • It certainly helps if they will tell you they need to go. Language skills or even hand signals are a good sign they are ready to work on potty training.
  • Its not mandatory tho. Just try actually watching them. Novel idea for certain parents with attachment to gadgets
  • Incentives help. Sometimes whatever works in desperation. Just wash hands before rewarding treats, please. Yours And Theirs.
  • Rushing can backfire. Once you commit to trying to potty train, don’t back down. Be patient and celebrates small victories
  • It takes everyone involved to work on it. Not just during the day at the child’s daycare even tho they are often there 10 hours of the day.
  • Alert!!They are onto you if you’re not really trying
  • Keep it light hearted and not too serious. In the words of mothers and grandmothers everywhere,You get further with sugar than with vinegar. 

Just a few points to ponder for one of the most frustrating times for young parents.

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Columbia Repository/#thursdaydoors

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A childcare training got us out of the house early last Saturday morning. The destination was Columbia, Missouri. It took us a little over 1 hour to drive to the meeting place, Daniel Boone Regional Library. Daniel Boone is a big deal in this part of Missouri. I’ve written a little about his Missouri home here.

Daniel Boone Regional Library

Pardon the lights smack dab in the center of the building shot. It is a library that I had never been inside. So this was something to look forward to…..of course Thursday Doors was first in my thoughts.

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The rear door is the main entrance, or at least it felt like it to me. The sculpture has its twin in the first photo so it’s hard for me to decide the orientation they want you to have. So I’m just going with the ‘parking is in the back’ mentality.

The present building was built in 2002 in the exact location of its predecessor, the first being built in 1959. Quite a short life-span for that first building but that seems to be the way around here. Not too fond of this pattern of replacement personally.

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This painting was in a side hallway adjacent to the room I spent training hours in. No label to explain which building it is. But Columns are definitely a thing here associated with the University of Missouri. Just google ‘Mizzou pillars’ and you’ll get plenty of examples.

Inside the entrance
A full-size view

One busy place for a Saturday in August! It took a dual effort between the hubby and I to come up with people-free pics of the inner door view. (Thanks Ron!)

Looking at the hallway length in one direction
Looked like a group of painters
The end of the training

Much unused space in my opinion. But what do I know about building architecture??

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View towards the stacks. They sure have a lot of help desks. A good thing to see.

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I found this ‘door surround’ the most interesting focal point in the building. I’m not sure the exact meaning behind the mosaic of faces and images, but it’s definitely eye-catching.

Side note: I want this carpet pattern for my daycare. There would be sooo many hours of driving hotwheels all over the place 🙂

Hope you catch up with Norm 2.0 over at the original Thursday Doors spot. He’ll direct you to the blue frog button where you can peruse doors from around the world.

Tubes

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We like Dramatic Play in my childcare environment. And when you need something to fill the time, you make something the children can take home. But first, we do a ‘Test Run’. After all, it’s more fun to play with friends! Right?!

So showing you how we turned a simple color page into a way to extend our theme of Fire Safety into the Dramatic Play Center. This color page is from about 19 years back so sorry no link for making a copy.

This was such a great magazine!

 

But maybe you could find a back issue on Amazon??

 Notice the $5.50 price? Unheard of today.

 

Color page

What you’ll need

 

Here is a view of supplies needed including a color page. We printed ours on cardstock for more longevity.

 

The color and cut stage

Connect the long tubes on each end ONLY.

Masking tape works best.

For the “People”, firefighters in this instance, use tape loops and attach to the smaller tubes.

Finally, slide the fire truck in-between the longer tubes. It should be a snug fit. Trim the ends if it’s a little long. And there you have it! Individual play sets for your theme to enhance Dramatic Play.

 

Skills Learned from Dramatic Play:

 

  • Learning to cooperate, to control impulses (like tearing it up by ‘crashing’, leads to less aggressive tendencies.
  • Eye/hand coordination, fine and gross motor skills
  • Developing literacy skills with use of new language, role-playing and problem solving
  • Learning to ask and answer questions. This introduces a larger view of the world they are living in. Some of them will relate the events of the evening news they see at home to their play. Great opportunity to ‘be there’ to discuss our times.

 

Talk with your caregiver about the importance of Dramatic Play.

This post is being updated and reblogged from my personal daycare blog from Oct. 17, 2015.

DeBruce Center/#ThursdayDoors

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The Groundbreaking for this entry into the Thursday Doors was in 2014. Not vintage doors by any means, but what lies beyond them are pretty cool.

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In an office somewhere back in 2013, a KU alumni purchased for a mere $4.3 million, the original rules of basketball. And these are the doors you enter to see them.

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James Naismith was the author of these original rules and KU has embraced both Naismith and the generously donated ‘rules’ with the DeBruce Center.  I’m a little short on time this week but hopefully the following collage will give it some recognition it deserves.

James Naismith complete with ‘baskets’
First View of the DeBruce Center
Centered is one of the bicycles you can rent for a ride around Lawrence
View of doors and Naismith to the left.
Quiet weekends won’t last long once classes resume.
Original Rules of Basketball engraved on this wall.
One of the metal Wheat depictions. Love this!

Please stop by Norm 2.0 for other wonderful Thursday Door entries. You’ll definitely be glad you did.

Color-full

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We gather lots of broken crayons around here.

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And they get stored in these extra large ice cream containers. When it gets about half full, I turn to ways to upcycle them.

Watching & waiting
More waiting

The hubby is pretty good at discovering bargains on ebay and found this Crayola Melt & Mold Factory at a decent price. It comes with a couple mold styles and looked like it would be a good way to occupy school-agers this summer.

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Here is where I insert the facts. If you have only a few broken crayons, this is the way to go because this is how many (I’m being Very generous) you can melt in one sitting. And in one sitting I mean 45 minutes from beginning to end. I wasn’t very impressed with the results as there were air gaps in the molds in the end so you ended up with half-baked crayons. Not very sturdy for those with a firm grip.

Time to move on obviously.

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My tried and true method that I have had a lot of success with are these little silicone bakers. They are great for practicing color sorting or color mixing that All ages greatly enjoy. I’m sure you can find many shapes in silicone bakeware or candy molds, but I just use the ones I already have.

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My round crayons give new shape, color, and variety to the crayon bin.

Did I mention they are stackable? Quite the item to take outdoors as well. It’s pretty hard to lose these bright round disks, and even harder for them to get choked on. They make great paper weights when the wind is blowing (so you can never have too many).I have a few other ideas I’m planning with these gems for the future. I’ll have to let you know how they work out.

Hope this “Free Tip Friday” brightens the start to your weekend!

Ta-Da!

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We’ve had a heatwave.

Plain and simple, the vegies I usually plant for a later harvest have struggled.

So to compensate, I dug through my stash of old sheets and between the hubby and I, came up with an idea that just might do the trick.

I present the Cucumbers of July 16, 2018 complete with sunburn and impending death.Cucs shaded9.jpg

What our young cucs needed was some relief in the form of shade. So I looked into the mesh shade cloth that you see at greenhouses and larger gardens.

It’s very nice, but I want to save a few pennies. That’s the whole point of gardening right?! Grow your own vegies to save on the grocery bill? And of course there’s the flavor 😉

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So here’s what we came up with. Two giant ‘sails’. Really just a curtain with rod pockets at top and bottom. Some old pipe came in handy to attach it to our raised bed. And when storm clouds rise or the weather turns fair, we gather it in the middle and tie it up until danger of getting ripped passes.

Cucs shaded

Taken just 1 week after assembling this shade curtain. And I will admit to having some nice rainfall to help the situation. Just a good all around combination.

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And here’s the mandatory garden view.

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Adding this post to my new page, “Free Tip Friday”. New content on the way!

 

 

Throwing Some Shade/Thursday Doors

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When your daughter has a request, you do what most mothers do…..Fill that request. On this occasion, I took myself through this door and got busy.

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The plan was to get some window treatments to keep the heat out in summer and the heat in during the upcoming winter months. Trying to save on the utility bill in other words plus stay comfortable. Not to mention, the daughter gets to control the thermostat for the whole building. Sounds good until she found out her apartment was always the warmest in summer and coldest in winter. The culprit….all those dang windows. shadescollage So rather than buy the store variety, we joined our resources and with a little elbow grease, thread and time, we managed to recreate for 1/3 the price what she could have picked up. The only downside was the wait. It takes time to measure, cut and sew it all up. But mission accomplished and if nothing else, the sun won’t be quite as bright in those east windows every morning.

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I think this is where I’m supposed to insert something about ‘on the backs of immigrants’ as I wasn’t tall enough to reach the foot pedal while making the shades. We are very proud of our immigrant heritage and I’m going to heist those books someday in the future for some ‘light’ reading. History is always worth reading and remembering.

For other wonderful Thursday Doors entries, please visit Norm 2.0 and he will direct you to the blue frog.

Missouri Pacific Depot

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I’m sure saving old buildings is a thing.

 I’m just not seeing much of it in my small town. There are plenty of grants out there but I suppose the investment of time is becoming too much for folks these days. So before another one bites the dust, I’m using it for this week’s Thursday Doors entry.

MoPac depotedited

As the pictures says, this is an old depot that was once not so forgotten, the Missouri Pacific Depot. I’m sure these doors have stories to tell. I’ll leave you to wonder what they may be as I give you a few more pictures below.

East door with some recent repairs
Gving you a little more perspective
An overpass bridge next ‘door’ that keeps traffic flowing when trains are passing through.

A pretty hazy day with our unrelenting heat wave. I decided against filters this week. You’re getting the real deal.

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The roof is in good condition, at least on this portion.

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Back view with some stairs lying haphhazard.

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Many of the rails are gone but we still have these left.

For other wonderful Thursday Doors posts, please visit the blog of Norm 2.0 and follow his directions.

South Thompson/#thursdaydoors

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Keeping it local this Thursday Doors. The art on the side of this garage is hard to ignore, and I apologize, but I’m really not 100% certain on what the painting spells. I’m relying on some of my visitors to give me your opinion.

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The artist may step forward once I share this with Facebook friends? Who knows?! However, my focus was on the doors per the requested topic of each Thursday.

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I felt the ‘white hot hue’ of the forground in the middle frame went well with our 4th hottest June on record. I didn’t get out of the vehicle for this photo assembly. Praying for temperature relief for a better photo opportunity soon.

For other wonderful Thursday Doors posts, please visit the blog of Norm 2.0 and follow his directions.

Longwood/Thursday Doors

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“CHAPTER XIV.—LONGWOOD TOWNSHIP. Introduction—Name—The English Estate of Longwood—Organization—The First Voting Place—Pin Hook Mills—The First Court in the County—Physical Features—Churches —Schools—Potter Lodge, A. F. & A. M.—Longwood Lodge, I. O. O. F.—Incidents— Murder of Mr. Majors—Col. Fields Killed—Murder of Mrs. Raines—Murderer Burned by a Mob—Village of Longwood—Biographical.”  Excerpt from the History of Pettis County dated 1882. Shared digitally online via archive.org.

Longwood is an unincorporated community in north eastern Pettis County, Missouri. It had its share of goings-on according to the highlights of the chapter indicated above. The building is likely an unused community building and the dates are very faded but I can definitely read 188? to 19??. I know. A big help right?! I chose to photograph this building for the sake of preservation. Too many things being let go in this part of the country and as always, I’d love to hear the stories these doors could tell.

Longwood Community

This section of the county makes for a very pretty Sunday drive when you don’t want to go too far but need to escape summer tourist traffic. So I leave you with a little more from that chapter on Longwood.

“Name.—Longwood derives its name from the town situated on its eastern edge. Of this place it may be said it derives its name from truly aristocratic lineage. In England one of those grand old estates which we delighted to read about in our childhood days, is and has been called for centuries, Longwood, and in this far western county is repeated after the lapse of years, a name that is loved and honored in “that far-oft-house across the sea.” The town was first called Hermantown and the postoffice Oak Grove.”

I hope you’ll decide to head over to the Thursday Doors home at Norm 2.0  and visit the other entrants of doors from around the world.