I filled a plate with shaving cream and dropped in different colors of food coloring to make it like paint.  Essie “painted” on her plexiglass easel, which she calls her window.  This is a great sensory activity – the texture and scent of the shaving cream is much different than paint.

After she was finished, we took the plate of colorful shaving cream inside to repurpose it for another fun activity.   We laid white copy paper over the plate of shaving cream gently pressing down to make sure the shaving cream was contacting the paper (such a great way to learn the term gentle!)

Then we lifted the paper up and used a popsicle stick to scrape away the shaving cream from the paper.  This is no easy task for small hands making it a wonderful fine motor skill activity!

We allowed the paper to dry and now we have beautiful paper which can be used to mail a note to a grandparent or friend!

I’ve been reintroducing this type of activity into our home based on inspiration from The Homegrown Preschooler: Teaching Your Kids in the Places They Live. #sayyes

Back in March, Tony and I attended the Great Homeschool Convention in Greenville.  I mainly went to hear Sarah Mackenzie, who is just as lovely and fun in real life as I imagined her to be from reading her blog, Amongst Lovely Things, and listening to her Read Aloud Revival podcast.

I also love her Read Aloud Revival Membership Site! Please go listen to her podcast and check out this site!

I also anxiously anticipated hearing and meeting Christopher Perrin and Andrew Kern.  Both amazed me with the wisdom they shared while maintaining down-to-earth attitudes!

While there, I also met the creative and FUN ladies from The Homegrown Preschooler, Kathy and Lesli.  I listened to sessions from each of them and I was impressed with their thoughtful ideas for how early education SHOULD work for young children.  I knew everything they were saying to be true from my years teaching in a preschool classroom and from the absence of play based learning that my oldest two boys experienced when they started public school.

They have written a book, The Homegrown Preschooler: Teaching Your Kids in the Places They Live, which thoroughly explains their ideas and describes how you can provide this kind of education for young children ages 4-7.  In the back of that book they provide the building plans for an outdoor plexiglass easel which can be used in a myriad of ways.  My very creative and extremely handy Father-in-law built one for us!  So fun and we love it!

We have used paint and shower cream so far, but I can see many potential uses for learning and fun!  As the weather cools I envision us using this more and more!

Thank you for this wonderful idea, The Homegrown Preschooler! #sayyes