Winter Wonderland Preschool - Week 11

Primary Book: At Grandpa's Sugar Bush

Enrichment Book: Sap to Syrup

Activity: Sugar Shack

Nature Study: Pond Melt

Art: Wall-Eyed Carp

Poem: Three Little Kittens

Another week of fun with the Lewis kids. These two little squirts have a lot of fun and keep me on my toes. When I look back at all the pictures at the end of the week I'm reminded how thankful I am that I get to spend so much time with them. The pictures also help me remember everything! It's fun to go out and about but it can be just as fun, if not more fun, to stay home.

Matilda, you have a little something on your face.

This week was about maple syrup. The suggested field trip was to visit a candy store but Sioux Falls doesn't have the fancy-type candy store that we visited in Michigan last summer. I thought CH Patisserie would be just as delicious and fun. Tavin was eating a decadent brownie and Matilda was eating some peanut butter crunch ball creation. They were both good but Tavin's was definitely the best. The curriculum also suggests to make maple candy but I think tomorrow I'll make a big breakfast of eggs, pancakes and maple syrup instead. 

I thought this was a good capture of Matilda whining to watch 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs'. "I want to watch this!"

Instead of a movie the kids played with colored glue, pasta, googly eyes and toothbrushes while I prepared dinner. That's right, toothbrushes. We were given free toothbrushes at the library after story time. The kids wanted to play with their toothbrushes immediately. Matilda came up with the idea of spreading the glue around with her toothbrush. As you can see, things escalated. She can't resist smearing things in her hands. Thank goodness for Magic Erasers.

The sweetest big brother ever was gently brushing his sister's hair. She didn't mind at all. Most of the time she is against hair brushing. I'll have to teach Tavin how to put pigtails in her hair too.

Tavin saw a fancy pen of Ted's and wanted one of his own. Tavin loves his pen. He likes to draw on graph paper and narrate what he is drawing. He makes a lot of "maps" too. Sometimes he hides his pen away so Matilda can't get to it and then forgets where he hid it. 

Matilda took a liking to a pink pen of mine with a flashlight on the end of it. I will have to get another one for myself.

The artists at the beginning of the painting fun.

They switched sides a couple times.

They discussed each other's technique.

She can be a very serious artist. Notice the blue hand? She can't resist the feel of squishing things in her hands I guess.

A little wrestle time. Matilda really holds her own. They can't seem to stand a neatly made bed these days. The bed gets made and before I know it they have the comforter and sometimes even the sheets completely off the bed. I think I've convinced them to at least leave the sheets alone.

Here they are practicing their table manners with their napkins in their laps. Matilda is wearing her favorite outfit.

Tavin wanted to shovel some snow. Apparently he didn't care where. We did get a couple of warmer, sunny days. It still was rather windy though. We put our boots on and went out to stomp around in puddles and snow.

The book At Grandpa's Sugar Bush seemed to underwhelm the kids. It is a neat story about taping maple trees to make syrup but the kids just weren't that thrilled with it for some reason. We did recently discover, through a friend, some books by James Mayhew that have a clever way of introducing art to children. A little girl named Katie has many adventures that brings art to life. 

The kids love these books. 

Winter Wonderland Preschool - Week 10

Primary Book: Owl Moon

Enrichment Book: Where are the Night Animals?

Activity: Oil Pastels on Black Paper

Nature Study: Star Gaze

Art: The Snail

Poem: Three Little Kittens

FF: Queen of the Meadow Fairy

We had a fun week! We were busy. I don't like being too busy nor do I even like the word busy because of what the word can imply. I may have over-scheduled our week. There is certainly no need to be concerned about whether our children get socialized. We had fun but I'm not looking to do that to myself again anytime soon.

Monday we stayed home and did our "normal" routine. 

Tuesday we went to a play date meet up at Rainbow Play Systems. They open up their show room I think once a week for young tots to play. This was the last time they were offering it for free. After play time we went out to Culver's for lunch and then to the library for story time. 

Wednesday morning we had a play date at our house. Later we met Grandpa Jerry, Grandma Sandy and cousin Sara for lunch. Thursday we went to another play date, a Valentine's Day play date. Very fun! 

Friday we went to Vermillion for a memorial service. We stayed at a hotel and enjoyed the pool with some friends. 

Saturday we went to Great Grandma's in Irene for Grandpa Jerry's and Great Grandma's birthday celebration. Today, Sunday, I helped in the nursery/Sunday School for both services. Those kids wore me out. I can't pick other kids up anymore. I'm getting to be too pregnant and some of those kids are rather solid, at least compared to what I'm used to with our little peanuts.

The kids also helped Ted build some shelves to help organize our little office area. They had a lot of fun playing with the tools and watching daddy work. 

Owl Moon and Where are the Night Animals? are great books. The kids enjoyed them too, especially Where are the Night Animals? We did not go star gazing or do our oil pastels on black paper. The weather is supposed to be warmer this week so we'll have a night walk this week. We are supposed to take our tin can lanterns on our night walk, go star gazing and then enjoy some hot chocolate. The oil pastels on black paper is then done the next day and be of the things you saw on your night walk. It all sounds like a lot of fun so I'd really hate to skip it.

Matilda picking off the paper on her crayons (great for fine motor skills I guess) and Tavin coloring.

Dr. Matilda and patient Tavin.

Rainbow Play Systems fun. I just had my camera phone, as usual, which doesn't always focus on the people or objects I want. 

Peek!

Captain Tavin.

It's a long way down.

Preparing for the Olympics?

Swinging fun!

They were climbing up here, going down the slide and racing back to climb again. They did this over and over. Tavin lapped Matilda, which made her mad.

Lunch at Culver's.

Drawing in their Valentine booklets from the Valentine's Day Party.

Pool fun with Daddy. Guess who forgot her suit? I did. 

Matilda stayed like this for quite awhile. She was so relaxed and did not want to get out.

Winter Wonderland Preschool - Week Nine

Primary Book: Valentine Bear

Enrichment Book: Saint Valentine

Activity: Valentines

Nature Study: Winter Bubbles

Art: Rabbits on a log

Poem: Three Little Kittens

Ted and the kids were coloring and making a pipe cleaner snowflake with Borax. 

We spent Saturday afternoon at the Gillen's, we wanted to help entertain Piper. The kids made Valentine's. 

On Monday we visited the Museum of Visual Materials in downtown Sioux Falls. These blue blocks, or Imagination Playground, are a relatively new addition. The kids loved them!

The Kids Craft Corner at the museum. They were fully stocked in craft supplies.

Here the kids were making window cling art from the Kiwi Craft Kit. They both started out all neat but once they realized how much fun squirting out colored glue could be they forgot about being neat. This craft was definitely all about the process and not the end product. Their window cling art is more like window cling blobs, that's okay, they had fun.

Playing with their sand paper letters and numbers. We started out with singing the alphabet and putting the letters in order but after a bit the kids just wanted to play with them in their own way. 

Something inspired Tavin to run and get some wood blocks to use with the letters. I'm not sure what he had in mind but I just let him have fun.

Contact paper "stained glass" art. This craft was meant to go with another week but I thought it seemed more like a Valentine's Day-type craft. They had fun cutting and ripping the tissue paper and sticking it to the contact paper.

Tea time! Matilda was wearing a dress she borrowed from her friend Sophia. We were over at a friend's house on Thursday and Matilda became rather attached to the dress, a purse and a vest. Sophia thought Matilda should borrow them, very thoughtful of her. I guess it is time I get more play dresses and accessories for Matilda. 

We went to story time at the library again on Tuesday. The librarian, Brian, was feeling well enough for reading the stories again. He had a dragon puppet named Fuchsia, the kids thought the puppet was funny. 

Wednesday we stayed home and did various things...we started Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I'm not sure how ready Tavin really is for it. He seems like he is but we will just take it slow and wait awhile before we try to do the writing part, a good tip from one of the book reviews. He is only four, after all.

Thursday was our five hour, fun play date at my friend Barbara's. Friday we stayed home because I knew a large package would be arriving...the kindergarten curriculum for next year! Very exciting! After I went through the box to make sure everything was there the kids played with the large box. They were enjoying it still today. I might as well let them enjoy it until they destroy it.

Winter Wonderland Preschool - Week Eight

Primary Book: Gregory's Shadow

Enrichment Book: Groundhog Day

Activity: Shadow Portrait

Nature Study: Winter Warmth

Art: Peaceable Kingdom

Poem: Stopping by the Woods

Flower Fairy: Mallow Fairy

Ted was gone for the whole week! We tried to keep ourselves occupied. We had some fun even with Matilda not feeling well. We watched more videos than usual...but I tried to make sure they were educational. Veggie Tales at least has good lessons. We also watched the Leap Frog Letter Factory several times. Very good video for learning your letters and their sounds and the kids love it!

Saturday we did some crafts from our new Kiwi Crate kit. 

Sunday we went to church. I helped out in the nursery as best I could with both kiddos being a little clingy. Grandpa Jerry and Grandma Sandy came over after church and brought us milk, bananas and presents from our cousins Jay, Liz and Mia from California. The kids got musical instruments! How cool! A clarinet and a saxophone!

Monday we baked bread and had some scissor practice. Tuesday was story time at the library. That was the day Matilda came down with a fever of 102.6! We stayed home for the next couple days and just got lots of rest. We played when we had energy.

Tavin working on his polar bear paws from the Polar Bear Expedition craft from Kiwi Crate.

Making the ears.

All done! Grr!

Matilda putting together the ears for her polar bear.

Lacing up her first paw. She hasn't finished her polor bear craft. Something distracted her from finishing it and we haven't gone back to it yet.

Tavin playing his clarinet.

I gave them their own ingredients while we (I) made bread. They looked at everything closely...the yeast, the salt, the flour, etc.

They stirred their dry ingredients...

added water...

and of course tasted it all.

They have been rather interested (Tavin especially) in our medical encyclopedia's lately. Tavin flips through the pages and asks me what is in the pictures. Cousin Piper broke her leg this last week which got him interested about bones and casts. Tavin was quite concerned about Piper. 

Paper, stencils, markers, scissors. They both enjoy cutting straws. It is a fun way to learn how to use scissors. Tavin has gotten pretty good at using scissors but still doesn't care much for carefully cutting things out, just cutting things up. Matilda was very determined to figure it out. She has gotten pretty good at cutting up the straws.

Both kids love to play with coins. Matilda has taken an interest in lining anything and everything up. Coins are no exception.

Mini sandbox fun.

Mighty Mind game.

Tavin said, "We're building a science museum." 

Fun with broccoli and veggie dip.