How Old Is Jack?

Lilypie - Personal pictureLilypie Fourth Birthday tickers

How Old Is Amelia?

Lilypie - Personal pictureLilypie Second Birthday tickers

Friday, August 29, 2014

Week 1: Preschool at Home

We started the new school year this week for Jack.  I'm so looking forward to the year ahead doing learning at home with Jack & Amelia.  There is so much fun stuff to teach them and I'm so excited for all that is in store for this year ahead!  I plan on doing "school" with Jack most likely 2 days a week, sometimes 3 just depending on our schedule for the week.We will be going to bible study one day a week and play with friends 1-2 days a week already.   We will just have to see how the year goes.  I'm trying out the "Reading the Alphabet" curriculum from www.thisreadingmama.com along with various other fun pinterest activities I find.  Here is a sampling of some of the learning that we have done this week.
 We started the school year off with a yummy breakfast at the table.  Amelia is thinking she is a super big girl and wanting to sit in a big chair now.  She doesn't get away with it at every meal but she sure enjoys it when she can.
 Calendar time - Jack loved getting to put all the numbers in for the month of August.
At calendar we will go over the month, days of the week, counting, patterns, alphabet, weather, shapes, colors, bible story & bible verse.
This week:
 Letter: T
Number: 1
Color: Green
Shape: Circle
Sight Word: A
Bible Verse: Do everything without grumbling or arguing" Philippians 2:14
 They both loved practicing writing on the board.
 Decorating "My First Day of Preschool" hats
And of course, the' first Day of School' picture by the front door that everyone must get each year.

 Jack picked out his shirt for the day - Christmas in August. :-)
 Cutting practice
 Reading his first book.  He was so proud of himself for being able to read a book! We also read many other books together each day.
 We went on a treasure hunt, exploring God's creation outside looking for green things to put in our bags.
 We made a sun catcher with all the green leaves, grass & flowers we found.
 Letter a poke page - poke the letter a with a toothpick and look through it in the sunshine.
 Jack drew a picture of what he thinks he looks like on the first day of school.
 Amelia joined in on the activities too.
 Sight word "a" maze with a stamp.
 Building sentences that match his sight word 'A' book for the week.
 Cutting and gluing rhyming words
 Number recognition game
 T is for Turtle painting project.
 We took a fieldtrip to the mall for a friends birthday party today.  We got to ride the train,
 drive the ice cream truck,
 and go for a carousel ride.

 This afternoon we tried making patterns with things that started with the letter T. Oddly enough, this was the most challenging activity of the week.
Counting game with a dice & blocks.
Jack also started children's choir and Cubbies (Awanas) at church.  I think he is going to love both of these classes, have fun being with other kids his age, and learn so much about Jesus in the process.

We had such a fun week!  At least I know I did! I'm gonna try super hard to keep up with our activities each week.  I am so thankful for these precious little people the Lord has entrusted to my care and am so thankful for each day I have been given to teach them about Jesus and our world.

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Summer

Here is some of what we have been up to this summer....
 *Favorite time before bed...brushing teeth together
 *Finally trying on the cute outfits Daddy brought back for the kids from India

 *Watching a kids movie at the theater most every Wednesday morning
 *Keeping busy indoors with masking tape roads and little cars
 *A surprise dinner out at Texas Roadhouse with the cousins
*Playing dress-up with mommy's high heels. At least one of us is getting some use out of them!
 *Checking on GramPam & Pa-Pa's new house being built
 Amelia loves collecting treasures at the new house.

 *Jack wanted to have a turn pushing Amelia on the big swing
 *A tricycle ride
 *Walks to Mom-Mom & Pepa's house
 *Bath towel snuggles.  They like wearing their towels around after their showers and pretend to either be super hero's or Jesus. :-)
 *Little mugs of hot chocolate on a cool august morning
 *Playing outside
 *Wearing the new shirt mommy made
 *Posing for a picture after having gotten himself dressed for church all by himself for the first time - shoes and all!
 * Sister needed her picture taken too
 * Drummer boy music & dancing (Christmas music all year long!)
 *Learning how to play Candy Land
 * Fun with the hose and a watering can outside
 *All wet
 * Watering Amelia :-)
 *Amelia sitting on Jack's lap while he reads her a story
 * This is what she does when you ask Amelia to show you how strong she is!  And here you get the bonus of a face covered in a cupcake.
 *A ride on the big cart at Lowes.  Jack with his cup, Amelia with her baby doll
 * Jack wearing his "boots" (rain boots that he picked out) to Trail Dust Steakhouse.
 *Dancing on the stage at Traildust - Air guitar
* Facetime with Daddy while he was away in Belgium for the week
 *Pizza & games with Zachary.  They both got some cool looking teeth as a prize!
 * Living room  picnic lunch
 * Days at home with my babies are the best!
 * Swimming at the pool

 * Playtime for Amelia & Eliana
 *Taking a trip to the Frisco Firehouse
 *Amelia's 1st pedicure - 21 months old.  She was well overdue on having this done for the first time!
 *Getting ready for fall and trying on their new coats.  Jack was trying to get Amelia to smile for the picture.
 *A relaxing ride on the swings
 *Building a road with wooden blocks
*A little bit of sewing. This is the baby doll I made for Amelia.
 *Amelia taking 2 baby dolls on a walk.  On her way to give Eliana her baby doll.
 * Jack sleeps in his big boy bed...most of the time
 * Pigtails! She finally has enough hair!
Perfect summer with my precious family!