Improntu

There has been a lot of it going around this week. Wednesday we walked over to the 7/11 to buy stamps and then to the post box. Ebi-kun stopped at a patch of land to watch the ants then from the ants he discovered snails and then it was the ladybirds, he got one to climb onto his finger and he decided he wanted to take it home to live in our garden - of course the ladybird had other ideas and off she flew.

We also found some interesting shaped leaves, lots of them in fact, so will filled my bag (and I wonder why I find bits of sticks in an acorns in the bottom of it!) and when we got home we did crayon leaf rubbings, I showed him how to do this when we were at camp and is really into it now. I remember trying to show him this last year and he wasn't interested at all. I was surprised at the variety of leaves that we found on such a short walk. If I had gone alone the round trip would have taken me maybe 10 minutes, it actually took us over an hour. It reminded me of something I read that Maria Montessori wrote, something on the lines of small children being interested in the things that we take for granted and as adults we forget to stop and and really look at the things around us. Going for a walk with a small child may take you only as far as the garden gate but that small distance might take and hour. I'm sorry I can't remember the exact words or even which book it was, but you get the drift.

Thurday we popped out for some milk, and ended up in the rose garden having a picnic - I am still not quite sure how that one happened! For anyone who lives in the area, the rose garden is now open and smells divine! Each May they plant new roses and have a bit of a festival, it was busy when we went, lots of people taking pictures.
Then yesterday we went over to the town all to do some errands and decided to drop by the jidokan (play centre) afterwards, it just happened to be the 3 & 4yrs old class, so there was singing and dancing (of course I didn't know any of the songs) some games and a storyboard show, lasted just over an hour and Ebi-kun loved it. It looks like they do it 3 times a month so I will have to make more of an effort to take him. There was one mom I felt truly sorry for, she has identical triplets and they are all clingy, non of them would let go of her leg, having one clingy child would be bad enough but three! this is maybe the third time I have run into her and each time the girls are the same - I hope they let her be when they are at home.
So, we haven't really done any planned activities this week, I did remember to buy the ingredients for another of the postcard snacks so we will be making that today as for the rest of the day...who knows what might happen?