I love MINNESOTA!

Minnesota has a wonderful program called ECFE. It is run by the Continuing Ed dept. in our school. ECFE offers a ton of classes, both during the day and in the evening.

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D and I attend classes on Tuesday and Friday mornings. We love it. Each class is 1 1/2 hrs long. During that time the kiddos have free time to explore the class room, do art projects, play in the sensory table, check out the science center, play with puppets, etc. After free time we have a circle time where we sing and read. D is finally enjoying this time. Last year he was too busy to come and sit.

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After that, the kids have snack and the moms and sometimes dads separate for a parent discussion group. This is usually for about 35 mins or so. During this time the kids have free time again. The parent discussions are so helpful. If you have any concerns there is always someone who is either going through the same thing or has just gone through it. We have a Parent Ed. teacher who is wonderful and so full of knowledge.

D at the sensory table. Excuse his shirtlessness. Is that a word? Anyway, every week I bring an extra shirt for him just in case the sensory table has water in it and guess what I forgot this week. He usually gets pretty wet so I figured who is really going to care. Right?

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Stamping with face expression stamps.

Coloring with chalk that is dipped in water.

Painting using stencils.

He loves to paint.


Checking out the magnets at the Science Center.


They sometimes have a little microscope at this station that D loves to use.

Checking out the cars.

He said he had airplane ears.

Playing with Mom.

That dang Mom is always asking for kisses.

If you are a MN resident check at your local school for an ECFE program. To my knowledge there isn't a program, like ECFE, available for us in NY. I hope to find something similar. Something that has both parent and child time together and then time away from each other. Wish me luck in finding something.