V is for Valentine

I know I've been doing alphabetical order and I'm not one to stray from such patterns but it's Valentine's Day, and I wanted to do V is for Valentine so I did it!
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!

S is for Snow

Our week started the weekend before as we went on vacation to Big Bear and played in the SNOW!!! We talked that week about precipitation and all its forms but we focused on the most beautiful - snow. We used snowflake stamps to create a winter picture, and we made paper snowflakes.

Our book was A Snowy Day by Jack Ezra Keats. This book in all its simplicity was a huge hit! We loved reading about all the snowy adventures this little boy in the red snowsuit enjoyed. It was probably extra special since we had just enjoyed so many of these same snow adventures in Big Bear. We read other snow books including one that talked about building a snowman so our snack that day included marshmallows and peanut butter so they could build their own snowmen. It was just a few mini marshmallows and I didn't even get pictures as it was pretty much just a peanut butter mess, but it was yummy fun.

Our field trip this week is another S - Skirball Museum and Cultural Center

R is for Rabbits...no, Rockets

Jill loves bunnies and I've been wanting to read the Tales of Peter Rabbit for sometime so it seemed logical - R is for rabbits. 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...

R is for Rockets! 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.

And it turns out R is also for Rainbow. Years ago we bought an Elmo book about eating all the colors of the rainbow. We applied it to our life and tried to eat from every color. Rather than eating any R foods this week, I decided to bring back the rainbow. We posted the colors and kept track every day of the colors we're eating. It's great when your kids tell you - mom, we haven't had any green today, you better make broccoli for dinner.

Are you eating your rainbow?

Q is for quilt

Our main activity this week was dividing paper squares into Quarters and then making them into a paper Quilt. Here is Adam working on his Quarter Quilt.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.) And then Jason fell off his bike and banged his chin up. I went a good 24 hours wondering and stressing - to take him to the doctor or not to take him (it's been two weeks, he's healing very well, thankfully.)

It was just one of those weeks...fortunately we found time to read our story multiple times, talk about quarters, and even make a paper quilt. I'm going to be happy with that!

P is for Party

Adam spent this week celebrating his big brother!Jason's birthday took over most of our week activities. We spent our time preparing for a party! Shopping, decorating, wrapping...

Our story for the week was Curious George's Surprise Party. It shows George decorating for a party, making a cake, and then being surprised as the party was for him! Here's Adam's letter P.

Maybe you can see it better as Beth demonstrates...we have fun :)And then our week concluded with, what else, a party!

O is for Owl

Our book this week was Owl Moon. A child goes owling with her father. It's a beautifully written story and so simple, yet you find yourself on the edge of you seat waiting to hear an owl. We all practiced our owl calls - who, who, who, whoooooo. I also enjoyed reading many non-fiction books about owls. We looked at the snowy owl, barn owls, and many others. We learned that all owls have a facial disc, amazing eyesight, and excellent hearing. I also found it interesting that the fathers do most of the hunting to feed the young. It's so much work that by the time the babies are ready to hunt on their own, they are larger than their overworked dads. We didn't do many activities this week. It was really about getting back into a routine after the Christmas break. We did, however, go to the Discovery Science Center where Jason and Beth took a class on owls. They dissected an owl pellet. Actually, Jason dissected one. Beth thought it was too gross. As for Adam, he was too young for the class but we enjoyed playing in the museum. And a friend has collected owl pellets on her walks so maybe he'll get to dissect one himself soon enough.

N is for Noel

We're in Christmas mode so what else could N be but Noel? We are preparing for the birth of our Savior and enjoying every minute of it! We did take some time to talk about the letter N. And I'll admit, I thought I could also teach N is for numbers to fill in our activities. What was I thinking a week before Christmas??? We are enjoying plenty of Christmas activities and even read some of the books I got from the library with a counting theme but really this week was all about Noel, the birth of the Christ Child! Our book was Elvis Presley's The First Noel. I enjoyed singing this beautiful song accompanied by the beautiful pictures in the book and the singing voice of Beth (she loves to sing :)This week we also enjoyed a trip to the El Capitan Theatre with Grandma to see Tangled. I can't relate this to Noel or the letter N but it was a fun and very special part of our week :)Merry Christmas to all!