Ready-Made Preschool has three weeks of lessons per month so that leaves one week per month to either catch up, review or do something else! As I said before, Little Bug was not happy at all that we were not doing Ready-Made Preschool this week, but she ended up having a good time doing the fall activities and fall crafts I had planned for our “break week”.

Speaking of “break weeks” I haven’t really decided if we are going to school year round or keep to the traditional public school schedule. I am leaning more towards going the year round route because it might give us a little more flexibility throughout the school year. I guess this is one of those things that we will decide as we go along.

Monday and Tuesday of this week were spent with Rebecca and her family and then the remainder of the week we did various activities to reinforce the letters we’ve already learned.

{Fall Printables}

We worked on several literacy and math printables. Little Bug did Which One is Different? She first went out on our deck and picked up five acorns to mark the picture that was different. Then she did a Phonemic Awareness activity where she had to put the words in order and then draw a yellow apple. We did another activities that had Little Bug counting syllables in each word. Then she would put a clothespin on the correct number to mark how many syllables were in that word. We played a math game called Apple Sums. Little Bug rolled two dice and then added the numbers together that she had rolled. Then she marked the number on the apple tree.

{Letter Formation}

We reviewed all the letter sounds we’ve learned so far using our Leap Frog Letter Factory Phonics toy. And then there was lots of play in salt another day! Little Bug was making lots of letters and having Mommy and Unk guess her letters. She made a “W” for Uncle Wesley. Then one time she made a smiley face! Little Bug LOVES writing her letters in the salt.

{What We Learned}

I picked up Brain Games for Kids. We went out on our deck and sat out there and did a few pages in this book. There are fun literacy, critical thinking and math questions in this book that get their brains thinking! Little Bug didn’t want to do this at first, but then she kept asking for more questions once we got started. We review fraction concepts by playing with the pumpkin pies she had made. November 1st was during this week so Little Bug changed her calendar from October to November. And then Little Bug had fun with Unk playing with her Melissa and Doug Animal stamps. Unk was telling Little Bug all about the sheep farm he used to work at when he went to Seminary.

{Fall Crafts}

We had fun one afternoon making a Fall Tree. All we needed was red, yellow and brown paint, cardboard cut into the shape of a tree trunk, toilet paper rolls and white paper. After we made the Fall Trees, the girls wanted to paint with their water colors which is a favorite activity for them right now. It is a favorite with me too because water color paints are easy to clean up!

{Hands-On Math & Bible}

We continue to work on Dividing Shapes into Equal Pieces in our Hands-On Thinking Skills. We continued to read Joseph’s story in the Bible. This week we read about God allowing Joseph to interpreted dreams that Pharaoh had. God gave Joseph the ability to interpreted these dreams so that He could free him from slavery. Joseph was made a ruler over the people of Egypt and when the famine came to the land, he had prepared for it and was able to provide food for all the people. We learned that God always has a special plan for His people, even when things are looking bad for them.

{Places We Went}

Halloween was Thursday of this week! We decided to stay in our own neighborhood this year and try to meet more of our new neighbors. This was a wonderful evening for our little family of four. I gave the girls their baths before dinner, we ate an early dinner (that Daddy cooked!), the girls went to their dress up box and picked what they wanted to wear. Little Bug was Rapunzel and Sweet Pea was Minnie Mouse. A little before 7pm we headed outside and took a few pictures (of which the girls cooperated for!). Then we went to every house that had their lights on on our street.

We were able to meet three neighbors we had never met or spoken to before! We saw NO other trick-or-treaters out! Our neighborhood is not very lively at all, but then again, we live among a bunch of retired older couples! We arrived at several of the houses and they would say “We were hoping we’d see these two little ones!!”. They all had a big bowl of candy ready to pass out even though our two girls (and another little boy that came to our door when we were already home and getting the girls to bed) were the only ones to come by. We made their nights coming by and it was wonderful to get to meet more of our neighbors.

The older lady you see in the picture on the right had just buried her husband of 68 years five days prior to Halloween. I am taking the girls back to her house after nap today so they can give her a bouquet of flowers. There are many opportunities to teach my girls about loving and serving others in this neighborhood.

Our work for this week:

- Elaine