Taking Preschool On the Road

Due to an out-of-state funeral (and a field trip) we had a very short week. Most work was done away from home. Rather than just playing with toys, the wii, and watching movies at Grandpa and Nana's house I brought a few activities with us. In the midst of a crazy week disrupted by grief I suspected it'd provide some sense of normalcy. It did.

Field Trips:

You could easily say we took four this week. Going to his great-grandpa's funeral, watching a tae kwon do class, going with  our homeschool support group to an Ornithology center, and going to my ultrasound. Busy, busy, busy.

We are involved in a homeschool support group that meets once a week for classes and once a month for field trips. They have classes starting at preschool age 3 (using My Father's World K, Handwriting Without Tears pre-writing exercises, and Answers In Genesis pre-k bible) through 3rd grade (a separate campus goes through 12th). This month was the first field trip of the year, and we visited an ornithology center. T and the others got to see three different kinds of local owls, a kestrel, and a hawk. 

T's grandpa is an assistant instructor at a martial arts school. While we were down he invited us to come and observe a class. They had both children and adults that evening. T liked parts of it. Other parts weren't nearly as interesting.

T got to watch the ultrasound where we learned what we're having. Then I took him shopping. He was very particular choosing a gift for baby sister! The only thing I had to steer him away from was a preemie outfit (I hope it wont be needed). BTW, part of why I find Flowering Baby such an amazing curriculum is its flexibility. It even worked through first trimester sickness!

Spanish

We are continuing reading From Head To Toes in Spanish, and reading a Bible story in Spanish. Flip Flop Spanish is  proving a good choice. Very short lessons, easy to incorporate review throughout the day. This week's words continued focusing on colors, and working on counting in Spanish.

Letters & Numbers:

We are beginning a new project. A letter book! Get several pieces of white paper. Fold in half. Write child's name and ABC Book in traceable lettering on the cover. Get out dot a dot paint. On the left side have the child write a capital and lowercase letter. On the right side, have child use glitter glue and markers to draw something beginning with that letter. I can tell this project will take a while.

For math practice we did a lot of counting up and down, in English and Spanish (of course he can go much, much higher in English). T's dad helped him write the number 10. We also played a Busytown Matching Game while at T's grandparents' house.

We again used play dough to make letters. That and shaving cream are favorites around here.

We were a bit crafty at his grandpa's house. Here's a quilted q. It's quite simple to make. Tear strips of construction paper into small pieces. Trace a q on a paper plate. Trace over that with glue. Sprinkle your paper confetti over the glue, pat, shake, and you're done.

He also used rice crispies to make o. The other letters he practiced writing mostly.

Bible

This week we continued our theme of God's promises by talking about God's covenant with Abraham. We pretended we were on a long, long journey as we "camped" "baked bread" and "gathered water from a well or stream" in Nana's living room. We discussed faith, and where we get it.

 Collecting water on the journey.

Camping in the living room. "I'm sleeping under the stars!"

A wall-hanging to remind him the Lord gives us faith.

Human Body

We read more books on the human body. DK has a great one I'll be sure to highlight in September's Book Bag. We read The Magic School Bus Inside The Human Body several times. T really though enjoyed the day we read Germs Make Me Sick and played with a doctor kit.

Our week inspired by:

Linking up!

The seasons of life: one passes, another grows

This week was up and down.

We received one of those late night phone calls a couple weeks ago. Prepare yourself, my father-in-law told my husband, could be any time now. Then last Saturday the second, expected, call came. My husband's grandpa had died. We pulled out a book recommended by Sonlight P3/4 "Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs", read, and discussed it. We answered any questions 3.5 yr old T had about his Papaw's death. Questions like, "Does God see my papaw right now?"

The next day was Sunday. We left after church and arrived at my husband's maternal grandmother's place just in time for supper (fried chicken and cheetos. Not my norm by any extent). The next couple days were extremely busy. I tried to keep some semblance of normal for T. We did a few preschool type activities on Monday. Tuesday was spent with family and at the funeral. When we got up, we found my inlaws had left for my mother-in-law's mom's home already. We scrambled to iron clothes, feed ourselves, and make sure a change of clothes and a busy bag was prepared for T. We got to my husband's mamaw's place, waited for more family to arrive, then all trooped over to the funeral home for family visitation.

T asked to be picked upas the family filed in through the dimly lit room. It was rather different from the come and go visitation for my own Grandma's funeral, just a few days shy of three years before. T looked at the still, empty body of great-Papaw lying in the open casket. Mamaw cried. T said, "That's Papaw's empty body. His soul left it and went to God, right?" Then he snuggled up to Nana and her mom, great- Mamaw, to comfort them.

He did pretty well for the rest of the long, long day. The service itself was a bit long for a little one. At one point I almost took him out because he got pretty restless. He recovered though. When we were at the cemetery an 11 year old cousin shrieked "Eww! We're walking over dead bodies!" She hurried away towards the pavement. T looked at her, astonished. "No we aren't," he said as he hurried after, "We're walking over earthworms!"

The next day, late, we loaded up the car and drove the long road home only to wake early this morning. It was worth it though. In the midst of thinking about death the whole family was also thinking about life, and looking forward to this morning. "Be sure to call me right away!" my mother-in-law said. When I asked if she wouldn't rather find out at our next visit, well, let's say that didn't go over all that well. You've probably long guessed. This took a long time to get one to stick. We finally have a sticky bean, and we've made it half way! After the ultrasound I took T to Buy Buy Baby where I let him pick a gift for baby. He was most particular about what to buy.