Home Preschool

Kim and I have been busy making our way through the alphabet with Reid and Noah in our home-preschool.  Here are just some highlights from recent classes:

D is for Daniel & the Lions, door-hanger and dolphins...

The boys learned that dolphins are mammals and they swim to the surface of the water to breathe air with their blowhole.  After reading the story of Daniel and the Lions, they made lion door hangers.  Reid's door hanger reads, "Reid's Room - Come on in, guys!" which is his typical greeting when he answers the front door, regardless of who it is.

E is for elbow macaroni, english muffins, ears, emperor penguin and estimation...

If you ask the boys how the emperor penguins keep warm, they'll waddle their way into a huddle.

 

F is for flag, frog, fish, and "Feeding of the Five Thousand"...

That week they learned about the American flag, went fishing for fish with magnets, paper clips, sticks, string and fish which they helped cut out of construction paper.  They also learned about the life-cycle of frogs and created books, illustrating each stage.

 

 

 

Speaking of frogs...

 

 

G is for giant (David & Golliath), giraffe, grasshopper, gorilla, green glitter...

(I forgot my camera that day and Reid's been playing with the giraffe puppet he made with a popsicle stick, so I can't find it at the moment.)

H is for handshake, honey, hot chocolate and the Holy Land...

The boys learned and practiced some basic rules in handshake etiquette, read about heaven, made hot chocolate gift cones (Reid clearly enjoyed his, as you can see in the last photo), and read about how bees make honey.  

I'm really digging the little factoids I've been picking up in the process of teaching and have found my bi-weekly trip to the library to be like a treasure hunt.  Did you know that bees dry the nectar once in the honeycomb by fanning it with their wings in order to turn it into honey?  I was even lucky enough to find a jar of honey with a piece of honeycomb for them to see and touch at Del Osso Farms during our annual trip to the pumpkin patch.  After reading about honey, Reid and Noah got to make honey bee art with their handprints.

Ist das Wienerschnitzel?

I found my first gray hair the day before I turned 28.  That's ok, though, because Colby really went all out for my birthday.  He's usually resistant to my "birthday month" belief, but this year he seemed to get it.  

It started with ammmazing seats to see "Wicked", compliments of mom & dad-in-law (thanks, guys!), followed by an unusual, yet delightful dinner at Suppenküche, a charming, little German restaurant on what happened to be the first day of Oktoberfest, a festival of which we are now big fans, and finally, a memorable dinner the following weekend along with japanese-style karaoke with a bunch of my favorite people at a sushi bar in Dublin called, Amakara, where my brother served us.  I'm spoiled.

Darndest Things -Pt. 2

Colby:  Ok, climb into bed so we can pray.

Reid:  Dad?  Will you please pray for me?

Colby:  What would you like me to pray for, Son?

Reid:  That I will be a good boy for Mom.

Colby:  Ok.

Reid  ...And Miss Corinne.

Colby:  Sure, son.

Reid:  ...And Miss Lilibeth.

Colby: Yeah...

Reid: ...And my basketball hoop.

Pre-Homeschool

Or is it "home-preschool"?  Whatever you want to call it, Reid is loving it.  My good friend, Kim and I partnered up a few weeks ago for the preschool phase of our boys' homeschooling since her son, Noah is about Reid's age.  We've developed a format to follow to ensure consistency as we alternate between each of our weeks (one week Kim teaches at her home and the next I will at mine).  The format includes songs, crafts, snacks, books and a bible story, all of which coordinate with the letter and number of the day.  Here are some of the boys' projects since we started a few weeks ago:

For their first class the letter of the day was, you guessed it, "A" and the number was "10".  Kim taught them how to make homemade applesauce as well as what an anchor is and its purpose, which Reid will tell you about if you ask him!

Singing songs:

Each class, the boys also practice writing their names within block-lettered print-outs we've made them.  For the letter "B" and number "11", I had the boys glue 11 buttons on their name pages...

...Learn about how baskets are weaved, practicing with construction paper, which proved too be a bit advanced for them, which is why they lost interest before we finished :) ...
...And make their own butter for their banana bread snack.

Today, for the letter "C" at Kim's they made handprint crabs...

...Learned about the cross, while constructing and decorating their own with popsicle sticks...
...And surprised me with a birthday card and cupcakes!

Because Kim and I are so excited and motivated by the potential we see in our boys, we are finding that we can easily become overambitious, so we're constantly reminding ourselves (and being reminded by our husbands) that they're THREE and to keep this fun for all of us.

Our Outdoor Retreat -Currently Under Construction!

After over a year in our new home, we're finally ready to do something with our dirt mound of a backyard.  In order for us to avoid compromising our design, Colby's taken on the daunting task of landscaping on his own.  Here's a rough, not-to-scale drawing of the design we came up with:

While it may prove to be unrealistic, our goal is to be close enough to completing our project by Olive's 2nd birthday (11/25) that we can recognize the day by planting her memorial olive tree with family & friends.  The tree is designed to be the focal point of the yard, with a contemporary-style stone waterfall as a backdrop.  One of our favorite things about our house is the wide-open layout, which is perfect for entertaining and we definitely look forward to bringing future parties into the open air with the outdoor kitchen-style barbeque, bar area, fire pit... not to mention the hot tub!  The design also includes a veggie garden along the side, which I'm so excited about incorporating into the boys' homeschooling.  

Reid was thrilled that we had our "own" tractor during the excavation phase a few months ago. 

Since then, we've gotten the gas, water, and electric run...

And after overcoming some hurdles, including realizing halfway through laying the first stones of the retaining wall  that his level wasn't... well, level, Colby was able to make some progress on the retaining wall this last weekend.

With the retaining wall mostly complete, it's been pretty cool looking down from our bedroom window, seeing our design actually coming into fruition.

Darndest Things

(Takes place as Colby is tucking Reid into bed)

Reid: Dad, when I grow up I want to go to work like you.

Colby:  Really??  Why is that?

Reid:  Because that's what dads do.

Colby:  Oh, yeah?  And what do moms do?

Reid:  Cook.

Colby:  Cook, huh?  What else?

Reid:  Fix my cars.

Underoos, Oldies but Goodies & Breakfast in Bed

 

 

As fulfilling as it was to have Reid rush ecstatically through the door into his Lightning McQueen party after spending the night at Big Ma's, I must say the actual day of his birthday was pretty exceptional too.  It was just us, but I wanted to make it special, especially since it was the first birthday of which he was actually aware of it.  I brought him breakfast in bed: homemade waffles, dripping with butter and syrup, topped with a McQueen candle and some milk in his new McQueen drinking bottle.  I wanted to surprise him with it, but he woke up earlier than I'd expected, so I sent him back upstairs with the c.d. he'd been wanting that I finally got around to burning for him for this occasion: Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons.  As I finished up his surprise breakfast, I cracked up, watching him in his underoos on our video monitor seriously getting down to "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," Walk Like a Man," and other songs from his new c.d.  He got a total kick from the breakfast in bed thing, as you can see:

The day was filled with phone calls, wishing Reid a happy birthday, not to mention a surprise visit from Big Ma, bearing cupcakes with frosting so blue it had an encore, if you know what I mean.

 

 

That evening we checked him into a detox clinic to ensure a safe withdrawal from all of the sugar.