Buddies ~ wee houses

***In September 2011, 6 families got together and started Buddies Home School. We meet every week in each other's homes and follow a simple rhythm: music and movement, craft or baking, snack time, free play and a story. Each part of the session is led by a different family. We are sharing this week's activities with you here...***

To begin our session this week we warmed our bodies up by jumping and bouncing and shaking all over the room.


Flo lead some yoga moves, gently stretching our bodies and getting ourselves ready for our morning's work.
We also warmed up our voices and imaginations pretending to be all sorts of different animals cats, snakes and very loud lions!
Have you ever seen such a cute lion?!

When we were all warmed up we started our craft. Susan helped us to make the gorgeous little row of houses at the top of the picture.
She started by giving each child an empty cardboard pot with a little cone roof stuck on top that she had pre-prepared.
The kids glued on plain paper walls,
These were decorated with tiny paper doors (with people behind), and windows that had little small curtains hanging from them.
The kids really enjoyed this, they could do it all by themselves and were very industrious!
O's house
H hard at work.
Over the weeks we have noticed a beautiful closeness form within the group. This for me is one of the most special things about our wee home kindergarten. I feel a lot of love and affection within the room between the kids and the mums. During free play the children really played together, not just next to each other as they did in the beginning but they worked together to build towers and played music together as a group. It is a very special thing to watch how the children are getting know each other and are happy to allow themselves to relax and form friendships. This is something that may not have happened for all our little Buddies in a more formal out-of-home kindergarten.

However all this work and play made for some very hungry little people and a silence descended on the room when the snack was placed upon the table,
and we didn't hear from them again until every last scrap was gone (after the plates had been refilled several times).
We ended the session with a living story: a telling of the Three Little Pigs that I have posted about separately here.
It was a great session and I'm already looking forward to next week :-)