So Doug and I finally got to make our long-awaited road trip out to New Hampshire. We packed the mini-van full of the nursery furniture (thanks Uncle Rick and Aunt Catherine!) and drove it out to it's new home.
The drive was really not bad - 15 hours in all. We packed lots of snacks so we only stopped for 23 minutes the whole time, according to the Garmin. :-) We listened to a book on CD from the library and that really helped to pass the time.
We had a wonderful visit. It was the first time in a long time that we vacationed without the girls somewhere other than at home. So there were truly no responsibilities. Plus we got to see Michelle and Greg and we always enjoy spending time together. :-)
It was great to see Michelle's belly in person. So cute, dontchathink?
Aside from some CrAzY New Hampshire drivers, ahem,
we had a lovely first day taking in some scenery and meeting Greg for lunch at a local restaurant.
Math:
- Number 4 worksheets
- Pattern worksheets
- Concept of a dozen (used egg carton for a visual)
Science:
- Ducks (my mom is a SERIOUS birder, so this topic was right up her alley)
- Dams (Grandpa and Grandma took the girls to see a man-made dam and also a real beaver dam!)
Social Studies:
- The Desert
- Read desert books
- Saw real cacti (and "touched one, but not the other one" C tells me)
- Made a desert diorama:
Sight Words:
Did, Dig, Desert, Dog, Duck
Snack:
- Doughnuts (and lots of Grandma N's cookies...)
Last week the girls were at my parents house - for the WHOLE WEEK!!! Doug and I were going to drive out to NH to visit Michelle and Greg and there is NO way I would take the girls on a 15 hour drive. (We can barely make it 4 hours and that's with a DVD player...) Anyway. My mom - who is amazing - agreed to take on the homeschooling mantle for the week. I prepared all the books and crafts and activities in advance and tried my best to explain the lesson plans.
So here's what a week of preschool looks like - in a box:
Wow - I can't believe I forgot to post on the one year anniversary of Sadie's Tightrope CCL surgery! In a way it's a good thing, because it means that things have been going very well.
Sadie is doing great! She gets some glucosamine chondroitin each morning with her food (to help with arthritis) but other than that she's med free and pain free. I still get paranoid about letting her run around and get too crazy spinning and jumping. My worse fear is that the other leg will give out or she'll re-injure the bad leg.
But she's really done well. She still doesn't have the same range of motion in the "bad leg" but it's only noticeable when she sits (it doesn't bend as much). I took a video to show how spry she is, but ironically filmed a spill! :-( Thankfully it didn't effect her at all. A testament to her healing and the success of the Tightrope procedure.
Math:
- Number 3 worksheets (clouds, and workbooks)
- Classified animals by habitat (I made an Animal Habitiat game by printing out pictures from Google Images, laminating them and having C match them to their correct habitat. The game should come in handy later when we learn about the desert, ocean and specific animals.)
A Stinky Skunk... Science:
- Clouds
- Cloud Worksheet (cut out and match types of clouds to picture)
- Science Journal Page
Social Studies:
- Christopher Columbus (this was interesting, because as I pre-read the books I realized that Columbus was a pretty terrible person. For some reason that never really stuck out from my memory of learning about him! I debated changing the topic, but decided to go with it and use the opportunity to point out some of the "bad choices" he had made. This book, The Story of Christopher Columbus (DK Reader Level 2: Beginning to Read Alone), glossed over the not so nice details, if you're looking to go that route).
- Looked at globe to see where Columbus sailed on his journeys
Sight Words:
Cloud, Can, Cup, Cat, Cookie
Snack:
- We baked some cookies of course! I had a package of Sugar Cookie mix that the girls eagerly helped me mix up and cut into shapes of their choosing. Favorites were the ice cream cone and the ambulance.
Music:
- Aaron Copland CD from library
- This is modern classical music which is a bit unusual to me and not what I would normally choose to listen to. But I found it fascinating how C has responded to it. We've had some great discussions about how the music makes us feel (scared, sad, happy, dancey) and she also likes to make up stories about what's happening during each song. "A man is running away from the bad guys. Now he's hiding and peeking out. Now he got away! He's happy now. He's with his mommy." Sometimes she says the music sounds like a mouse running down the stairs or snake creeping along. We just sat and listened and talked - what a cool experience!
Game:
- Checkers - Doug introduced C to this game and she won the first round! This may be the first time Doug has ever let anyone else win...
Bible Stories:
- Jesus Heals Man w/Leprosy (I put little circle stickers all over the girls' faces and hands and talked about what it would be like to have leprosy in Biblical times. C was deeply affected by the thought of being sent away from your family and not being able to hug or touch anyone. It made Jesus's actions of touching and healing the leper in the story more meaningful to her.)
- Jesus Heals a Woman
- Elijah and the Ravens (a little confusing to do after we learned Elijah went up in a chariot of fire to be with God, but we're rolling with it...)
(C colored and cut out this 5-piece raven completely on her own! Her scissor skills are really amazing to me.)
My girls both love that nasty, unnaturally colored, over-priced kiddie yogurt. I've tried in the past to substitute generic brand yogurt, buying strawberry flavor and even putting it into old kiddie yogurt cups. But they don't like the chunks.
So I had another brilliant idea - buy the vanilla flavored yogurt (no chunks!) and color it myself at home. The girls always eat the blue colored yogurts first, so I whipped up a couple blue concoctions last night and waited to see their reactions at breakfast.
It was a hit! I also realized that they can request colors and mix it up themselves. This could also be a fun way to teach color mixing (i.e. Blue and Red make Purple). At lunch C had pink, and E had purple. It amused me to hear C ask how the purple tasted...
Math: - Handwriting worksheets - Sorting with buttons. The girls loved playing with all these great buttons my mom gave to us. Some of them are from their great-great grandmother!
Science: - Bats (coloring page & read books) - In retrospect I should've skipped the details about vampire bats, but I am a bad mommy and got a little dramatic at that point... - Bat Craft: - Science Journal page:
Social Studies: - Benjamin Franklin (read books and talked about being creative and also how America gained freedom from England)
Tuesday was the first day of fall and we'd been counting down the days to Autumn on our calendar since school began. Finally Fall had arrived and I let the girls help me decorate the house:
Snack: - Chocolate Covered Banana Pops
Music: - Listened to Bach CD from library
Bible Stories: - The Lost Sheep, Prodigal Son, and Jesus with the Little Children - Sheep Craft
, glossed over the not so nice details, if you're looking to go that route).
