On Valentine's Day, Adam chose this shirt all on his own saying, "This is my Valentine shirt."
Unfortunately, starting the day before, the flu hit our family. One at a time, it took a good 10 days of our life. Oh well...at least it was cold and rainy. We spent the week watching videos, being read to, and taking many naps! 
As the one week concluded and I was preparing for the next, I realized we did very little for V because of the flu, yet I was preparing to move on. But then I realized I don't have to move on, I can stay on V for another week, I have freedom! So V is for Valentine lasted two weeks :)
My main focus for Valentine was love and the heart shape. Adam learned to draw hearts (mine are pointed his have more of a rounded edge on the bottom :) 
We had heart shaped pancakes on Valentine's Day (this flu bug did not involve the stomach, just fevers, achy, and congestion) and heart shaped sandwiches later in the week. We jumped up and down and felt our hearts beating. We made valentine's cards and crafts for family and friends sending literal hugs across the country. Our "cards" where our handprints cut out and stapled to a piece of string as long as our arms - a hug :) Adam really impressed me cutting out his own hands. I wish I had taken a picture of his but his got mailed off to Anja (happy birthday!) Here's one of Beth's, which is going to Grandma Mae, to give you an idea... 
Our books for the week were Clifford's Valentine and Winnie the Pooh's Valentine's Day. They are both easy readers, not high quality content but simply friends making cards to share their love for each other.
One of my favorite aspects of V week was our Bible connection. Jason and Beth's memory verse this week happened to be "I am the vine, you are the branches." V is for Vine! 
So we ate grapes and colored our Bible verse Vine pictures. We then talked about how when we remain in Jesus, we produce fruit. What fruit - the Fruits of the Spirit. And what is one of the fruits - Love! So we talked about love :)
Happy Valentine's Day...or weeks as it may be!
But last week was quilts with a story about a little girl. And the week before was P is for party, as in Jason's birthday. I realized this week that I somehow lost sight of the big picture. I'm doing preschool so that I can focus on Adam a little bit each week. I want him to know I planned something just for him. So, although he actually liked the Tales of Peter Rabbit, he didn't want to do any crafts about cute little bunnies. And he didn't want to read books all about rabbits and their habitat and long ears. He spent the week playing on the computer or begging me to let Jason play with him. I'm not saying we should cater to our children. There are times they will have to do things that they don't like but in this situation, I decided R deserved a do-over...
We learned about the history of space flight. Did you know the first living creature blasted into space was a Russian dog? We talked about the role of rockets in sending spacecraft beyond our atmosphere. 
We enjoyed the rocket exhibit at the Discovery Science Museum. Adam learned about thrust as he watched the rockets fill with water and then blast up when the pressure was released at the push of a button. 
I learned that he was actually paying attention when I asked him the next day whether airplanes could fly in space and he answered, "No because they don't have water pressing out of them." And to fulfill Adam's desire to play with his big brother, I gave them the assignment of building an International Space Station out of Lego. They rose to the challenge, and we learned about life as an astronaut living in space. 
Rockets definitely were a blast for us. 
We read A Quilt Story, a sweet book about a pioneer family and a quilt the mother makes for her daughter. The Quilt is a cape, a picnic blanket for tea parties, and comfort when she's sick or after a big move. Many years later, the quilt is discovered in an attic and gives a new generation the same comfort and familiarity. Adam enjoyed the story even though it stars a girl. He did not however enjoy any coloring sheets that had queens on them or girly looking quilts. I had intended to take on sewing as a project and even planned to teach Adam to make a small pillow with a scrap of Toy Story cloth I picked up some time ago, but my week did not go as Quietly as I would have liked. In fact it was Quite the week...Daddy was out of town. Jill colored her hair with lipstick (do you know how hard that is to wash out of hair?!? It required oil and lots of scrubbing and rinsing and scrubbing and rinsing.)
