Harvest Time Preschool - Week 12!

Harvest Time - Week 12 

Primary Book: In November

Enrichment Book: Caps, Hats, Socks and Mittens

Activity: Quilt Squares

Art: Fast Break

Poem: Thanksgiving

They were working on cutting skills and fine motor skills. They cut straws into pieces and put them on pipe cleaners to make bracelets. 

Tavin loves to cut straws and watch the little pieces fly. I think those blue scissors have been the best for him at this stage. Finding the right pair of scissors can minimize frustration immensely.

We found this train set on Craigslist for a pretty good deal. We were hoping the set would fit with what we already have and were disappointed when it didn't. However, the kids love it and it's a toy we'd like to encourage. Train sets are a much better choice than a lot of toys marketed to kids these days.

Dress up! Tigger and Pooh as a pumpkin. That Pooh costume is hilarious, it's basically a fat suit.

Help in the kitchen. Both kiddos learned how to crack open an egg. I'm sure Matilda was breaking a few health codes. She's interested in someday having her own nude cooking show. Tavin took great pride in whisking the eggs and adding salt and pepper. We made a spinach and goat cheese frittata. (I'm not normally a fan of goat cheese but this goat cheese had garlic and herbs in it and went well with the spinach and eggs.) While the frittata was cooking Tavin took one look at it and said, "Mommy, I want a hot dog." We were able to convince him to try a bite though.

We've had a couple of warmer days and have tried to take advantage of them. The kids enjoyed making tire tracks in the sand.

Play date! It seemed when I thought to take out the camera something always happened to either distract me or the kids. It was a good time though!

Crafting at the Gillen house. They were making paper bag owls.

Tavin's finished owl. He did a good job on this I thought. He took it all apart about ten minutes after he put it together. Good thing I took a picture to get evidence. (He's playing either Piper or Raina's harmonica in this picture. I got a couple for the kids as stocking stuffers.)

More crafting. Finger print owl trees. Tavin also destroyed his tree shortly after he put it together. Maybe duplos and blocks are more his thing.

We had another fun-filled week! We had two play dates, well three counting our time with the Gillens. One play date was with new friends. 

Yay for new friends!

Story time at the library was an owl theme. I didn't plan our owl crafts to go with the owl themed story time but I'm glad it happened. The stars aligned for us. I feel good about our decision to do preschool at home. Ted does too, of course. We've  enjoyed the Harvest Time curriculum and molded it to fit our needs. I started out trying to do too much, I think, but was smart enough to know when to back off. Let them play!

We will be working on our Harvest Time Quilt the next couple of weeks. This project is out of my comfort zone but I'm excited to do it! It will be a wonderful way to commemorate our time together. Grandma Sandy is going to help get me started. She will help pick out what I need for the fabric and she is also setting me up with a sewing machine. Thank you Grandma Sandy!

This concludes our 12 weeks of Harvest Time. (Except for the quilt, I will be sure to post finished pictures of it.) We will take a short break and start with Winter Wonderland after Thanksgiving. 

Harvest Time Preschool - Week 11

Harvest Time Preschool - Week 11

Primary Book: The Very First Thanksgiving

Enrichment Book: Sarah Morton's Day

Activity: Handprint Turkey Placemats

Art: Baseball Players

Poem: Thanksgiving

Flower Fairies: Nasturtium Fairy

Paint in Ziploc bags. I was glad I just left the bags on the table because they came back to them throughout the day.

They were wearing hoodies because they were pretending to go trick or treating. They have also been playing "No Noggin." Something they learned from Curious George's Halloween Special. It's similar to the Headless Horseman but more kid friendly. No Noggin stole hats, not heads. They put blankets over their heads and walk around. They also put blankets over balloons and put hats on the balloons for their No Noggins.

Science experiment time. Colored vinegar dropped into baking soda. We've done this before but it has been awhile. Tavin asked me to get this activity out for them again. Using the muffin tin was fun and less messy than two separate containers.

This was supposed to be the hand print turkey place mat activity but they just wanted to paint with the brushes.

Matilda decided to paint her hand though, something she usually does anyway.

Here she is trying to make her hand print.

They decided that trains making tracks in the paint would be fun, and it was. I'll laminate their art work for place mats even though they didn't make hand prints. It was fun to try.

Counting with horse chestnuts.

Tavin and Matilda discovered my glass jar stash. They unscrewed the lids, lined the jars up and put different little objects in the jars. This kept them busy for about an hour. Who needs toys when there are glass jars? I was only slightly nervous about this activity, we kept a close eye on them.

Here they are playing with the groceries after a rather exhausting trip to the grocery store. (Exhausting for me.)

Here are our little No Noggins!

We had a nice snow fall this week on our library day. We still made it to the library for story time and made it home before there was too much accumulation.  After we got home and had a snack the kids were ready to play in the snow. They didn't care that it was still snowing, it was too exciting to pass up! 

We all made some new friends at a play date today. It was a great week!

Harvest Time Preschool - Week 10

Harvest Time Week Ten
Primary Book: The Ox-Cart Man
Enrichment Book: Farmer's Market Rounding
Activities: Beeswax Candles, Gingerbread Cookies
Field Trip Idea: Farmer's Market 
Art: Pinatas
Poem: Thanksgiving
Flower Fairies: Strawberry Fairy & Coloring Page

What a busy week we had! When I was uploading the photos for this post I couldn't believe we did all of this all in this last week. No wonder we're all so tired. There were also two trips to the library, a trip to Hobby Lobby and a trip to the grocery store. One evening the kids and I went out to eat too. Ted was traveling, the kids had late naps and we needed to get out of the house.

We didn't do the Beeswax Candles activity yet. I ordered a beeswax candle making kit and it was on back order. That will teach me to order supplies earlier. It should arrive next week though. I did manage to come up with many fun alternatives.

We collected a few rocks, washed them, painted them and decorated them. This photo above is right when they started painting. They were very excited about painting the rocks. Don't you love Matilda's wild hair?

Here they are a little further in to the painting project. They added wiggly eyes and yarn for hair. Pet rocks! 

Playdoh, straws and wiggly eyes. Wiggly eyes are a good item to have on hand with these two. I should buy a variety pack soon.

Fun with Sandpaper Letters from Etsy. We matched the upper case with the lower case and sang the alphabet song.

The Mighty Mind puzzle game. 

Pasta letters and cutting practice, an idea from Slow and Steady Get Me Ready. I would have liked this activity to have gone a little bit differently but they still had fun...and that's the point, right? We'll have to try it again soon.

Tracing stencil shapes with my homemade paper plate stencils. Another idea from Slow and Steady Get Me Ready. Awesome book.

Painting on tinfoil with Q-tips, straws, pom-poms and pipe cleaners. Matilda also painted her hand, as you can see here.

They thought this was pretty neat. The Q-tips and pom-poms were definitely their tools of choice. Matilda is fine with using her hands too.

Their finished art. Matilda's is the one above, Tavin's is below. Tavin's reminded me of Starry Night by Van Gogh.

Convoy fun in the kitchen.

Halloween! Here they are in their costumes. Matilda the police officer and Tavin, Woody, the sheriff. Aren't they sweet?!

A group photo of the trick or treat gang. They all had fun trick or treating. The extrovert in Tavin came out. Halloween must be his thing. He led the group during the trick or treating and was the first one to go up to the doors 95% of the time. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

We were "supposed" to make gingerbread cookies but the baby and I thought sugar cookies sounded better. The sugar cookie process is rather similar anyway.

Matilda was all about this. Tavin was rather oppositional at first but he eventually came around to join in on the fun. 

This got a little messy, flour all over. We didn't mind, it was worth it. The cookies turned out great. Very fluffy and delicious. We will bake more tomorrow and frost them. We were all too worn out to do much more. We all have the sniffles....so we probably shouldn't share our cookies with anyone. Darn it.