First Day of First Grade & Preschool

It's hard to believe it's this time already!  I'm thankful, though for the wonderful summer we had, for Hannah's new teacher and for the blessing of being in good school district.  The transition to 1st grade was a whole lot easier for Hannah and for Momma.  She popped right out of bed in the morning and was ready to go!  She LOVES her school!  

An apple for her teacher 

 My beautiful little girl ready for 1st grade.  She wants to be a scientist when she grows up.  

 Isaac loves her so much and is so proud of her.  

 She picked a "littlest petshop" backpack this year.  

 So fun to get to school and see familiar faces.  Look at those smiles!  

 BIG hugs from Isaac!

 Hannah and her new teacher

 Now...Isaacs turn.  I'm excited to get to do 4 year old preschool with him at home...he's pretty excited too!  On his first day, we went to a kinderealm and learned all about nighttime animals...he loved it!  We also set up his calendar binder and started reviewing letters and sounds.  When Isaac grows up he wants to be a construction worker. :)  

Preschool 2012

Well...we were much later in starting preschool this year...didn't start until November, but better late than never right?  We are using the Five in a Row curriculum...we read a book a week and have a different subject area focus for each day.  Both of the kids are loving it and it fits their skill levels well.  

Here's Hannah's first day of kindergarten picture...she wants to be an author!  

Isaac always wants in on the fun too!

We started our first week with the book "The story about Ping".  This book is out of print, so none of the libraries in our system have it anymore...but I was able to find the scholastic video.  The kids loved listening to the book being read to them every day.  We learned all about China and the Yangtze River.  

Here are a few highlights from the week:

We had egg drop soup for lunch (thank you Aldi)

We did sink and float for science..they both loved this!  

Hannah made predictions, and got most of them right  

For art, she learned how to draw reflections on the water, puddles around an object int he water, and movement lines in the water.  I think she's quite the little artist.  

We got our map in the mail and found China, where Ping lived.  

We added our first character to the map  

made a passport of all of our adventures and added China  

She sequence the whole story of Ping...I couldn't believe how much she remembered!  She loved doing this!

To finish our week off, we went to Chinese dinner as a family.  

We are all super excited about FIAR and look forward to many more fun book adventures ahead!  

Microwave Puff Paint

The kids had fun painting with microwave puff paint...a fun recipe that I found in family fun magazine.  

We mixed up different colors and went to work (they are painting with Q-tips)

 Hannah had so much fun microwaving her picture and seeing the results  

Microwavable Puffy Paint

Source: Family Fun (www.familyfun.com)

Mix for each color

1 Tbs. flour

1 Tbs. salt

1 Tbs. baking powder

2 Tbs. plus 1 or 2 tsp. of water

Several drops of food coloring

Stir until smooth. Apply paint to card stock (works the best) – all we had was construction paper (it worked fine but the edges curled up in the microwave). To dry and make the paint puff up, put the artwork in the microwave for 20 seconds. Keep adding 10 seconds at a time until dry.

Some Winter Preschool

 It's been a while since I've given any preschool updates.  Here's a bit of what we have been up to this winter:  

Examining snowflakes  

Shaving cream snowman. Mix part shaving cream, part elmers glue to make a really fun paste that dries fluffy.   

Christmas patterning  

Growing borax crystal snowflakes.  We found the idea here.  They turned out really neat!  

Hannah loved reading "The Mitten" and we did several different activities to go with the story.  Here she is matching the characters to words from the story.  She also loves retelling the story with the characters.  We got our printables here  

Advent Activities for you and your little one

I typed up a list of advent activities to share with my Cubbie parents.  I thought that since I had already done that work that I would share it here too.  Maybe someone who reads my blog will also enjoy these advent activities   

These will help to make this Christmas season more meaningful for you and your child as you focus on the birth of our Savior.  

The names of Jesus Advent Chain:  

Talk about the different names of Jesus each day and make this beautiful advent chain.  Includes free printables

http://www.spelloutloud.com/2011/11/names-of-jesus-advent-chain.html

Make a Christmas Countdown Chain:

Includes a free printable with a verse and activity to do with your child each day leading up to Christmas.  I did this with Hannah last year and she loved it.  

http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/Verses_for_Advent_Countdown_Chain2.pdf

Advent Activity Calendar

An activity/scripture for each day of advent and Christmas day

http://www.thrivingfamily.com/Features/Magazine/2011/advent/2011-advent-calendar-week-1.aspx

http://www.thrivingfamily.com/Features/Magazine/2011/advent/2011-advent-calendar-week-2.aspx

http://www.thrivingfamily.com/Features/Magazine/2011/advent/2011-advent-calendar-week-3.aspx

http://www.thrivingfamily.com/Features/Magazine/2011/advent/2011-advent-calendar-week-4.aspx

http://www.thrivingfamily.com/Features/Magazine/2011/advent/~/link.aspx?_id=53D6D5DF2BC148E8B719555AD8C47806&_z=z

Make a Jesse Tree

Free printables for an ornament to make each day

http://christmas.yourway.net/jesse-tree-ornaments/

The Truth in the Tinsel:  An Advent Experience for Little Hands:  
http://truthinthetinsel.com/

This is an ebook that does cost $4.99.  Includes a printable for each day of advent to put in your advent calendar.  Each day gives your child a clue of what to listen for in the scripture reading and you will make an ornament together to go with the daily scripture reading.  

**This is what I will be doing with Hannah and Isaac this year.  I'm so excited to get started today!  We are also reading through the Christmas story each night during our family devotion time with Daddy as we light the candles in our advent wreath (maybe a future post if I get time).  

What do you do to make your Christmas season more meaningful?

Preschool: September

We are doing home school preschool this year.  This is a continuation of what we called "toddler school" from last year.  Hannah LOVES to learn...so she just begs to do school all day long.  It's a JOY to be her teacher :)  

We started preschool at the beginning of September.   Here she is on her first day.  I'm planning to take this same pic all the way through her school years to see how her handwriting changes and how she grows.

Here she is writing her sight words 

 probably one of her favorite thing about school is cutting with scissors

 wight word practice

 we made a chicka chicka boom boom tree to play with letters  

 more cutting

 We learn a new character trait every week.  With each character trait we learn a Bible story and Bible verse.  We have read aloud that also help illustrate the character trait.  Her character traits so far have been: orderly, attentive, teachable, and obedient.  She loves using the word through out the week and we are both learning to apply these character traits to our lives.  It's a joy to be learning and growing together.  

One of her favorite stories so far has been "Listen Buddy".  We made "listening ears" to go along with the story.  She of course loved cutting them and wore theme everywhere!  

 Isaac got in on the fun too!

 my little listening bunnies

 We review one letter each week.  Last week the letter was "S".  To help remember the letter and sound we do exercises together to go with the letter.  Here's Hannah doing some sit ups for the letter Ss.  Check out the face..she's working hard!  :) 

More to come....