Hallelujah Harvest: Week Three

It was a crazy busy week for us around here. We were all (well, mostly Mom) very tired on Monday from too much yard work over the weekend, plus getting Dad packed up to fly to Colorado for a week, so school did not happen on Monday. Tuesday we had an extra student at our school (I was babysitting another 3 year old), so school was minimal. We also had a field trip this week which took us away from the "classroom" for a few hours. Since Daddy wasn't returning until Saturday night, we managed to use Saturday to get all caught up for the week. Here is what we did...

Bible Story: Adam and Eve Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 3- This week we discussed Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit from the garden. For us, it was an opportunity to discuss disobedience (although my kids never disobey ;)).

Bible Memory Verse: Psalm 119:1 "Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee." I thought this one might be a little more difficult for them, but I added a few motions and sure enough, by the end of the week they both knew it! I am so proud of them.

Nursery Rhyme: Little Jack Horner

Songs: Standing in the Need of Prayer, God Made My Face, Be Careful Little Eyes, Way Up High (Way Up High was their favorite this week)

Other Preschool Activities this week: We were working on the letter "Aa" this week. Caleb has known all of his letters both upper and lowercase as well as phonics for quite a while, but this is a skill that Hannah has very little interest in. We like doing the letter crafts, but the letter sorting activities that are included with Hubbard's Cupboard are not really the way I would like to teach her plus the prep is a little time consuming. Next week we will spend more time playing one of our many games, puzzles, or other activities to incorporate letter review instead.

We also worked on learning our address and phone number. I was a bit shocked to realize Caleb already knew both since I had never tried to teach him before. Hannah can now tell you her street address, but the phone number may take us a while. I also did a quick check to make sure that both kids could tell someone the names of each of our family members (dad, mom, brother, and sister) for safety purposes. They both knew all the names and I love to hear Hannah say, "Ron Davis". So Cute!

Preschool Stories: I wasn't able to find any of the suggested books at our library this week. However, we have greatly enjoyed reading Calling All Toddlers by Francesca Simon and Susan Winter which was Hannah's pick from the library this week.

In Kindergarten this week:

History: We continued reading about the Egyptian people and then moved on to the Romans. I have changed my approach in how I present the reading material to Caleb in that instead of insisting on reading every word we mostly look at the pictures and I follow his lead on what parts to concentrate on. Once he had time to look at the pictures and I ask him a few questions then he starts getting interested and I read the parts that correspond to what he is interested in. We also started using our globe to find the places we are learning about and that was great fun.

Read-Alouds: We finished reading The Boxcar Children this week. It was a great book and I was very pleased with Caleb's comprehension of this story. He enjoys getting to tell Daddy about what happened in "his" story that day and that is a perfect way for me to see how much he is comprehending from our reading time. I am not overly excited about our next read-aloud selection, but anxious to see how it goes.

Math: We did a little beginning work with telling time on the hour. He likes doing this. We also worked on shapes, specifically "hexagon". The rest of math was pretty much the same, reviewing skills he already knows and fussing about having to write his numbers.

Handwriting/Spelling/Phonics: Caleb practiced writing his street address and the letter "c". We reviewed the letter "M". He had to find 5 pictures from a magazine that start with the letter "M". He found make-up, milk, mouse, mitten, and mushroom.

Science: More learning about weather. In the next week or two we are going to try out letting Dad take over the science teaching. I think EVERYONE will enjoy it more this way. Caleb will be thrilled to have the time with Daddy, Daddy will enjoy getting to be a part of "school", the experiments will get completed much more extensively, and I will be more than happy to pass off my most dreaded subject.

We did more scissor practice, cutting the legs on Cha Cha Charlie. We studied another picture in an art book and Caleb surprised me by flipping back to compare some of the art from two weeks ago with this weeks page.

Our bulletin board this week. Not as many crafts this week so it looks a little empty.

When Daddy is out of town we usually take one night to have a movie night. I painted Hannah's nails, Caleb popped popcorn, we watched Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Noah's Umbrella (the newest Veggie Tales movie) Caleb is still in love with Veggie Tales. We usually pre-purchase any new releases. He can even tell you the exact date the next movie will be released. After the movie we all piled in to Caleb's bed and went to sleep.

Our visiting student enjoyed music time then he was all finished with school and back to cars in Caleb's room. Caleb wears his silly glasses frequently. This week he wore them to the barber shop and to Bible Study Wednesday night.

Painting fingerprint apples on the letter Aa

Playing "Happy Apple". This game helps learn numbers, matching, taking turns. They love to play games.

We cut open an apple and counted the seeds inside then painted with the apple halves.

We had a fun field trip this week to Reed Creek Park. Once a month they have a Preschool Nature Walk. This months focus was Dragonflies. They sang songs about dragonflies, looked at some books to identify the different colors of dragonflies, used a spy glass (toilet paper roll) to look for dragonflies as we walked along the boardwalk, did a little dance in the pavilion, and made a craft (they got to color their own cloth dragonfly). It was a wonderful morning. We will continue participating in this each month. Caleb and Hannah are wearing denim overalls and white shirts, notice Caleb is always front and center!