Barbie's Family Child Care

 This Page Is Still Under Construction!!!  Come Back and Visit Often.

This page is dedicated to giving more information to other child care providers.  I will put information about activities we have done, materials to use in your child care home, and links to other sites of interest.

A friend's husband made my sound garden.  It is quite simple.  The frame is made from pvc pipe.  Then interesting sounding objects can be hung from the frame so the children can explore sounds.  Here are some photos so you can see how it is made.

In the following photo, you can see how he drilled holes in the pvc pipe so you can string objects onto to it.  The colored straps are 'cable ties' from the hardware store.  They are easier to push thru the hole and hold up better than string, but you can use string.  The objects hanging on it now are some huge bells and some metal baking molds that I found at a thrift store.   There are also some metal spoons and a wooden spoon which the children use to hit the bells and molds.  When these objects get too rusty, I will change them and use some large windchime pieces that I got through freecycle. (www.freecycle.org)

The pvc pipe is about 2 inches in diameter.  We made it so it is about 3 1/2 feet high but you need to use pvc pipe that is longer than that so you can put it at least a foot into the ground.  To hold the 3 pieces of pvc pipe together, we used pvc elbow pieces that fit the pipes.  I don't know if he used a glue or something to connect the pipes all together, but you could do that.