Winter Wonderland Preschool - Week Seven

Primary Book: Dogteam

Enrichment Book: Snow Dogs! Racers of the North

Activity: Tin Lantern

Nature Study: Snow Tracks

Art: Cat and Bird

Poem: Stopping by the Woods

Flower Fairy: Pansy Fairy

Sunday Ted made a couple of tin can lanterns with Tavin. Ted gave Tavin a pair of safety glasses to wear while they worked. Tavin thought that was the greatest. We went for an early evening walk with the lanterns. Pictures to follow.

Monday we stayed at home. We played, read some books and worked in the kitchen. Tavin peeled carrots. Matilda played with the carrot peels and nibbled on a couple carrots. 

Tuesday was library day. We had our trip to the library, of course. We returned books, picked out more books (and a Veggie Tales video, they are all about Veggie Tales lately) and enjoyed story time. 

Wednesday we stayed home and played with puzzles (among other things) and baked banana bread.

Thursday morning we went over to a friend's house for a play date. We relaxed in the afternoon. Tavin and Matilda had fun with Susana and Cecilia (babysitters) while I went to an informative home school curriculum meeting. I got great advice and we made our decision on our curriculum for Kindergarten! Yay!

(If you're curious - Five in a Row, RightStart Math and First Start Reading.)

Friday we went to the Booking's Children's Museum with our friends Lindsay and Benjamin. Very fun time!

Prepare yourselves for a lot of pictures....

 Tavin and his lantern.

Matilda and her lantern.

Fun with blocks and muffin tins.

Magnet puzzle.

Tavin building a motorcycle.

Tavin and his finished motorcycle.

Matilda making a "nest."

Collecting eggs at the farm at the museum.

Gathering eggs and vegetables.

Scanning groceries at the market.

Changing a tire.

Fixing the muffler.

Checking under the hood.

Playing the wall drums.

Cowboy Tavin. The house in the background was his favorite.

Playing with sand. 

Fun in the little sod house.

Mini bed in the sod house.

Winter Wonderland Preschool - Week Six

Primary Book: Grady the Goose

Enrichment Book: Migration

Activity: Contact Paper Stained Glass

Nature Study: Frost Formation

Art: Cattleya Orchid

Poem: Stopping by the Woods

Flower Fairy: Orchis Fairy

Another fun week of Winter Wonderland Preschool! Ted was out of town for work so we tried to make a point of getting out and about every day. Monday was a play date at a friends house. After the play date we went to Great Harvest Bread for lunch and bought some bread too, of course.

Tuesday we went to the Main library for story time. The new librarian does rather well for story time. He changes his voice for different characters and doesn't talk down to the kids or go overboard with cutsie, gooey, pop-culture stuff. Refreshing.

Wednesday our outing was a trip to Costco. The kids sat in the cart briefly but then both wanted to get out to walk and help push the cart. I can't say that I blame them. They were pretty well behaved considering their energy levels.

Thursday the kids came along with me to a prenatal appointment. Baby's heart rate is 155, sounds good! Thursday we had snow and very high winds. There were some moments on our way home from the doctor that I couldn't see anything but white! We had close to 15 plus birds hanging out on our deck due to the weather but I'm sure our bird treats helped contribute to their choice in shelter. I've been trying to get some decent photos of the birds but they are apparently camera shy.

Friday was a much needed nice, relaxing day at home. Teddy came home around six and brought us all flowers. The kids thought that was a special treat! They enjoyed unwrapping their bouquets and smelling their flowers. They missed their Daddy! They were hugging him and climbing all over him!

It's been awhile since there was a good book de-shelving. As long as he is enjoying some books I guess.

Something about rearranging the play room got Matilda very interested in the easel. It has helped leaving the markers more accessible to her too. They are washable. However, the idea of leaving markers out for her made me nervous.

Flipping through books and magazines.

Matilda can get messy in a hurry.

Matilda was feeding Tavin raisins for a little while before they both pretended to be dogs.

I've gotten Tavin to do some simple tracing. He seems to like it in small doses. After he traced everything on this page he drew on the bottom of the page and made up a story. It was rather adorable.

I wrote Tavin's name down for him to trace. The top was solid, capital letters. Then solid, lower case letters. The bottom was dashes, all capital letters. I think he did pretty well! I think he is nearly ready for lined paper.

We got some finger paints! The kids weren't quite used to the idea of finger painting. I got out some Q-tips for them to use. They were very neat at first. Once they got comfortable they went from Q-tips to fingers, then to hands, to feet, to being put right into the bath tub!

Our Nature Study, Frost Formation. We got this idea out of the book Nature In A Nutshell For Kids. Lots of fun, seasonal activities. This one was about frost formation. We took a tin can, filled it with ice, then salt and stirred. Frost formed on the outside of the can. Tavin and Matilda thought that it was pretty neat.

More art. I can't remember what these things are called but I need to get some more of them. The kids love them! They feel similar to little styrofoam pieces. All you need is a dab of water and they stick together or onto things.

Free jersey!

Tavin, Ted and Grandpa Jerry went to a hockey game! Mom and Matilda stayed home. Matilda was rather pooped and fell asleep shortly after a bath and stories. 

Winter Wonderland Preschool - Week Five

Primary Book: The Mitten

Enrichment Book: Under the Snow

Activity: Fleece Mittens

Nature Study: Warm Covering

Art: The Horse Fair

Poem: Stopping by the Woods

Papa came for a visit from Michigan! The kids enjoyed giggling with Papa and swimming in the hotel pool. 

The Gillen Girls joined us for a swim too and they all had a blast. 

What a fun way to enjoy the beginning of a cold January.

Our friends and neighbors, Lindsay and Benjamin, met us at a bouncy house place in the mall. The kids had fun but not $7 per kid worth of fun. It seems they had more fun playing around on the free merry-go-rounds. I say free because we refused to put any money into them. I think the kids spent just as much time, if not more, climbing around on the cars and what not than they did in the bouncy houses. Lesson learned.

Tavin and Matilda got a hold of some dollar store coloring books that I had stashed away. They colored pretty much on every page and ripped the pages out and threw them around. It entertained them for awhile. Tavin kept saying he was "doing homework."

Pasta and beans sensory bin. This is always good fun, they hadn't played with this in awhile. It worked well to have them keep it all on a blanket, easy clean up.

Tongs and pom-poms.

I found this Thomas the Train set and table on Craig's List for a great deal. The tracks are very well used but the table and trains are in good shape. We were a little worried about finding a home in the apartment for the table, we didn't want it out in our living room forever!

I rearranged the playroom to make everything fit! Tavin and Matilda love it! 

We had a fun week. Tuesday we went to a Community Center that has a gym full of toys for young children. We met some new friends and got to burn off some energy.

Story time at the libraries has started again. We tried a new location but I wasn't thrilled. We may go back to our original location. Our favorite librarian retired so we should see how his replacement does with story time. 

Thursday we went over to a friends house for a play date. It's always fun to play with other kid's toys.

Friday was our day of running around in the mall. Friday evening the kids were at the Gillen's while Ted and I went on a date! Saturday the kids were at the Gillen's again while Aunt Heidi and I had a sister outing.

We didn't make our fleece mittens this last week. We will get to it this coming week. The kids mostly just played and I read to them a lot. If I catch Tavin at the right time he can sit still and quietly for a surprisingly long time while I read to him. Other times I just read in the same room while the kids play.

Winter Wonderland Preschool - Week Four

Primary Book: First Snow In The Woods

Enrichment Book: Animals In Winter

Activity: Pine Cone Bird Feeder

Nature Study: Tree Age

Art: Grovesner Hunt

Poem: First Snow

They were each occupied with their own thing here but were getting ready to build a dune buggy on the tool bench.

Enjoying the train a little bit more before it gets put away with the Christmas Tree. Tavin even put on his conductor hat!

Drawing with stencils and fancy, tree-twig colored pencils. I saw the colored pencils at World Market a few months ago and thought they were unique and fun. 

They are only intended for decoration even though they do actually work. 

They were fun to try out anyway.

Bare butt bumble bee!

They were making pine cone bird feeders. We had collected pine cones at Grandpa Jerry's a couple weeks ago and got to put some to use. 

I mixed corn meal with peanut butter, smeared it on the pine cones and the kids sprinkled bird seed over the peanut butter. 

A nice, yummy treat for the birds if we could just get out of the sub-zero temperatures for some birds to make an appearance.

A silhouette of the kids in front of their bird feeder and pine cone treats. Matilda's hair looks wild even in a silhouette.

Ted and the kids are looking at the items in a crystal science kit. Most of the activities in the kit were a bit above their heads but they enjoyed looking at the stuff. There was a crystal, a rock, a tray, colored gels, a dropper and also a pair of "goggles" that made the Christmas tree lights appear 3D.

We taped the colored gels over some flashlights. The kids love flashlights! They enjoyed turning all the lights off and running around with their colored flashlights.

Alphabet magnet fun. Tavin likes to spell his name and then lists out other things he wants me to spell. There is apparently some imaginary skunk he refers to as Alex, so we had to spell his name too. 

I'm not sure how the skunk came along in his imagination.

Coloring on the floor. Matilda goes through a couple outfit changes every day but this one seems to be her favorite.

Next week story time starts again at the library! We are going to try out a different story time at a different library. There is a new library that is much closer to our house and with free parking. I think the new time will work better for the kids' "schedule." I hope it's a good story time!