Preschool Weekly Wrap Up

I haven't been doing a great job taking photos specifically relating to homeschool preschool activities that we're doing these days.  A touch of guilt over having Samuel enrolled twice a week at an outside preschool, prehaps, coupled by a baby and a perpetual low grade cold and a busy busy calendar.  Maybe.  But I do hope to pick up the snapshots now and get back into the groove.

In that vein, here's a not very good recap of our week.  What I can remember of it.

Coins and Water Play:

My husband brought home some especially awful looking pennies from work to illustrate to Samuel how vinegar works on copper.

The result after a few days of sitting was bright green water and fairly shiny coins.

We collected our other spare change from around the kitchen and had a coin bathing party.  A little bowl of soapy water, a scrub brush, and a happy toddler with a pile of clean coins.

Samuel worked on fine motor skills in scrubbing and stirring the coins and manipulating the bar of soap.  He and I discussed how the names of the coins are different from the pictures on them (a difficult concept) and I suggested we sort them into piles according to their type.  We couldn't quite manage that - sorting isn't a task we've done enough of I think.  I might try more sorting and matching activities in the next week or so.  We also did some comparison work:  which coin was shinier than the other?  Which coin is bigger?  Which coin is darker?  Etc.

Nature Walks

We went on one of these!  Ack!  In my defense it was terribly cold this week and I was also caring for another toddler for two days, but still.  Only one nature walk.  Samuel and I spent about half an hour in our backyard (which is fairly large and includes a lightly wooded area).  I don't have any pictures, but here's a list of what we did.

- Used sticks to pretend to fish and also to write in the snow.
- Followed a set of animal tracks through the bushes.  Then followed our own footprints.
- Played Hide and Go Seek behind the trees.
- Pointed out lichens, mosses and fungi around us.
- Dug through the damp leaves around the base of the tree and found bugs.

Group Activities

Wow, an especially bad week for group activities as well.  Samuel went to his 6 hours of weekly preschool, which was good because there wasn't a lot else I had planned.  We made it out to one playgroup on Friday for just over an hour as well.  Samuel refused to attend the Sunday School activities at the church we were visiting.

Reading and Christian Education

We didn't completely suck at these categories at least.  We did an activity with number and letter blocks, Samuel 'read' stories to his little sister and to us, and over breakfast I've been reading a Bible story to both children.  We did that twice this week - and both times it was Genesis.  Samuel's favourite books depend on the situation:  for naptime he likes to lie in bed with David and read Green Eggs and Ham, books about construction equipment and pirates.  David recently introduced another book to his repetoire:

Other Activities

We introduced two new puzzles into rotation!  A 30 piece floor puzzle borrowed from a toy lending library, and a 24 piece holographic puzzle picked up at the local thrift store.  Both have been big hits.  24 pieces seems to be right where Samuel is these days in doing a puzzle on his own.

So that's about it.  I promise next week I will have taken pictures and actually done something a bit more structured!