{Books We Read}

The week of Valentine’s Our Ready-Made Preschool book was Love You Forever. I have always found this book a little creepy! A mom sneaking into her grown son’s bedroom to rock him in the night is just really creepy. But the parts of the mom sneaking into her toddler’s bedroom and then the man coming to rock his dying mom are sweet. The mom rocking her teenager son is borderline creepy, but then the man rocking his baby is sweet. So, there is a mixture of sweetness passed down through the generations and creepiness throughout this book!

Since it was Valentine’s week we enjoyed several Valentine’s books!

{Letter of the Week}

Our Letter of the Week was Letter Ll. Little Bug made a lacey Letter L craft. We still use the Letter Factory toy to listen to the letter sounds. Such an awesome toy for toddlers all the way to a preschooler learning her letter sounds! Little Bug did her Do-A-Dot Letter Ll and she made the letter Ll using play dough.

{Lollipop Math: Graphing and Measurement}

Little Bug really enjoyed our lessons that used lollipops! She even got to eat one one day and she thought that was just the greatest! The first day she sorted the lollipops by color and then I asked her which color had the most, the least and how many more one color had than another.

Another day we did Lollipop Measurement and Little Bug was very much into this activity. She was to guess how many lollipops long she thought each object on our paper was and then she was the measure each object to get the actual measurement. The first object she wanted to measure was the broom. She guessed it would be 20 lollipops long, but it was actually only 12 lollipops long. Then Little Bug measured a couple of the other objects (book, frame) and then she told me she wanted to measure me!!

So I laid down on the floor and then was floored at how smart this kid is! She went to the kitchen and got the broom and laid it beside me to help her guess how many lollipops long I would be! Since the broom was 12 lollipops long and I was a little longer than the broom, she guessed I would be 13 lollipops long! I was 14, so she was not too far off! I just couldn’t believe it was even on her mind to compare me to something that she had already measured and knew how many lollipops long it was!

The last lollipop activity involved us gathering several stuffed animals to role play several addition and subtraction scenarios. Then I was to write the problems on paper to show Little Bug what they looked like. We talked about the plus and minus signs and what they mean. Ready-Made Preschool is doing a great job of introducing addition and subtraction concepts to the preschooler.

{God’s Love}

There was also a Valentine’s theme in this week’s activities. We read John 3:16 from the Bible and talked about God loving the world so much that He sent His son to pay the penalty for our sins so that we can live forever if we believe in Jesus as our Savior. Little Bug got to weave paper through a heart. I was a little concerned she would get frustrated with this because fine motor skills usually frustrate her, but she did surprisingly very well with this and I was so proud of her work!

{Hands-On Thinking Skills}

We took a break from Hands-On Thinking Skills through the Christmas holidays and finally got back to them in January! We’ve been working on Completing the Shape through various exercises ever since. I find that Little Bug usually turns her nose to Hands-On Thinking Skills when I first bring it out, but then once she gets going on the activity for that day, she seems to enjoy it and does very well with it.

{Mudpies to Magnets}

For Science this week the girls each got a bucket and went exploring in the yard to find a leaf, stick, seed, rock, mulch, flower, acorn and anything else they wanted to put in their bucket. Then we came inside and they glued their items on their paper. My girls love anything to do with exploring and collecting things in buckets from outside so they were loving this!

{Valentine’s Day Crafts}

We had a lot of fun with several Valentine’s crafts! I cut a black heart out of cardstock paper. Then I gave the girls strips of red, pink and white foam paper that they cut into small pieces and glued onto the heart. These turned out so cute and were a great fine motor activity.

The girls also made a Paper Hug and and an “I Love You to Pieces” Valentine’s card. Little Bug wanted to take hers to Mrs. Betty, our 85 year old neighbor. And then Little Bug wanted to make Micah and Levi a Valentine!

Our board at the end of the week:

- Elaine