Covil Preschool: Days 14,15,16

In preschool we have been learning about Winter. Day 14 was specifically about the change of seasons from fall to winter, and how this change effects animals. We talked about animals that hibernate and birds that migrate to warmer climates. We read several books about winter, and played a freeze dance game. When the music stopped, the kids had to hibernate. They crafted adorable bear caves complete with berries, grass, snow on top, and a cute bear inside. For snack the kids had hibernation mix with berries, raisins, nuts, and of course, a little bit of chocolate!

Day 15 was Black Bear day. We learned all about black bears. The kids learned interesting facts such as black bears can be brown, reddish, tan, and sometimes even black! They learned about their habitat, their eating practices, their fur, and the proper names of the male, female, and young bears. They had brown bear sandwiches for snack, made with wheat bread, peanut butter, and honey, and cut into cute bear shapes. The eyes and nose were made of tiny chocolate chips. No preschool is complete without a sweet treat! For craft, the kids made a wonderful pop-up book about black bears.

Day 16 was a fun time of celebration. I decorated the classroom (aka the Living Room and Dining Room!) with odds and ends from the last five years of birthday parties. We had "Happy 1st Birthday" banners, "Happy Birthday" banners with firetrucks plastered about, confetti, and streamers in a variety of clashing colors. Chloe and Eli were so excited and perplexed. They were convinced it must have been J's birthday today, forgetting that she had a birthday just 6 weeks ago. When I set today's books out, Chloe finally figured it out. "It's Jesus Birthday party! Right, Mommy??!?" So, indeed, today was a birthday party for Jesus. We read nativity stories, had birthday snacks, did some fingerplays, sang Happy Birthday, and made darling nativity scenes. The kids had a wonderful time. They make me so happy with their excitement for all of my preschool ideas. They are never disappointed! I am so proud of them and their understanding of the season at hand. They are beautiful children with wonderful hearts for the Lord.

Preschool is now officially out for Christmas vacation. Hopefully I can use some of this time to come up with good ideas for the New Year!

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things..

An interview with Eli, age 4 minus 6weeks,

Favorite Foods: watermelon, pizza, and, uh, strawberries, and, jelly sandwich.

Favorite Books: about superheroes, and bats, and reindeers, and books about fall.

Favorite TV/Movie: Superman, Care Bears, Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Supersonic

Favorite Toys: my Buzz "Lightningyear", my little Batman, my Monster Truck, my knights, Spiderman, and I love my guns and swords, Mommy's headlamp

Friends: Chloe, Ryan, Terence, and little Samuel, and big Samuel

Things to Do Inside: play homework, go to preschool with Mommy and she's the teacher, play superheroes with Chloe and Ryan, and put bad guys in jail

Things to Do Outside: jog, play golf, play T-ball, play soccer, and play real baseball, and play football

Places to Go: Myrtle Beach, the plain beach, the pool, Ms. Becky's house, and Grandpa's house, and Grandma's house, and church

Things to Do at Christmastime: Open presents, looking at deers, looking at Christmas lights outside in the car and drinking hot chocolate, watch tv and drink hot chocolate again, and be Joseph, read about Jesus

Things that Make You Happy: Chloe when she plays with me, Cubbies, and that's it!

It's a Wrap!

A Fall Photo Shoot

A Quick Catch Up

Fall means Fair! Eli was Mimi's hero on the ferris wheel. He held her hand and kept her strong. His favorite things this year, not surprisingly, were the animals and the rides.

We had a lovely visit with the Millikans. They treated us to two rounds of Pirate putt-putt, and a lunch buffet. Eli absolutely loved playing putt-putt, and as usual, was pretty good. He was barely over par! He also thoroughly enjoyed the pi-a-rit show, and the skeletons scattered about throughout the course.

Eli is doing awesome in preschool. He knows nearly all of his phonics sounds, is sounding out some words, cutting, doing puzzles with ease, and is always a wonderful listener and model student. On pumpkin day, he made his jack-o-lantern happy because "he has LOTS of toys! More toys than anyone in the world!"

Superman with muscles. He scored lots of candy in this cute get-up!

Boys Will Be Boys

I usually really hate that phrase, but in this case, I'd say it's spot on. Only a boy would find delight in this.

Yes, that's a spider on his ear. Yes, he put it there.
"I think he likes me, Mommy!"

Covil Preschool: Days 10-11

Day 10

Book: Have You Seen My Duckling? by Nancy Tafuri

Emphasis: Counting, Repetition

Craft: Paper Plate Duckling

Game: Memory Match- Match Mommy Duck to Duckling by matching uppercase and lowercase letters

Snack: Duck Food, or Honey Nut Chex Mix

Letter of the Day: E for eyeballs (it's all I had!)

Day 11

Book: Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney

Emphasis: Love, Size

Craft: Little Nutbrown Hare "I love you THIS much" cards

Game: Bunny Hop, stop, Hug!

Letter of the Day: G is for glue

Daddy Blog: Bad News

About 15 minutes after putting Buddy to bed
Eli: "Daaa-dee!!"
Me: "What"
Eli: "Daddy, I have bad news."
Me: "What is it?"
Eli: "Buzz Lightnear likes Zurg now."
Me: "He does?"
Eli: "Yeah! They're friends!"
Me: "Well, that's good."
Eli: "No! No, it's not. Zurg is still mean to Buzz!"

Soccer Saturday

After a week of moaning about not being old enough for soccer, Eli insisted on dressing as a soccer player this morning to go to Chloe's first practice. Luckily, I had two pair of soccer shorts from Melissa, Blue Cross and Blue Shield has sent me several balls for my good exercising habits, Ryan gave us an old pair of shin guards, and to a three year-old, there is no difference between soccer socks and black dress socks! Most importantly, the whole thing was incredibly laid back, so Eli and Patrick were able to "play soccer" on the sidelines for the entire hour. Not one utterance of "it's not fair!" the entire morning. Score again.

Covil Preschool: Day 8-9

Day 8:
Book- Mouse Count by Ellen Stoll Walsh
Emphasis- Counting, Cause and Effect, Guessing Outcomes, Collage Art
Craft- Make a "mice in the meadow" collage like the one in the book
Snack- Make snake bread sticks and decorate. We used frozen biscuits and let the dough thaw. Then, the kids rolled them into "snakes" and decorated them with cinnamon and sugar, and baked. When they were cooked, they added two M&M eyes.

It's hard to tell where the kids' work ends and the book begins! They did a great job!

Eli's work

Day 9:

Book- Lunch by Denise Fleming

Emphasis- Colors, parts of a book

Activity- Make our own books called "Lunch for Eli Mouse"

Craft- Sponge paint different colored mice and draw eyes, noses, ears, and tails

Game- Picky eating mice. Each child got a plate with a different color taped on thebottom. On the word "Go!" each child filled their plate with only the color (toy) food that their mice liked.

Letter of the Day- E is for Eyes. It was all I had to stick on.

Football Saturday!

Daddy Blog: Daddy's Helper

Little Buddy is such a great helper to his daddy. He doesn't just help out a little bit until the novelty wears off; he actually sticks with it. Whenever I'm working in the yard he's beside me raking or picking up sticks. And the amazing thing is that he is really helpful. He saved me a ton of time a few weeks ago by picking up the limbs and leaves that I had trimmed off the hedges while I was shearing. I love how I have a little shadow on the weekends.

Daddy Blog: Dream Quotes

Middle of the night...
"Daddy, I had a dream about bad guys....but, I KNOW! I can turn the pillow over and have a good dream about Buzz Lightnear!"
The next morning...
"Daddy, I turned the pillow over, but I still dreamed about bad guys!"

Eli insisted on wearing his football outfit to naptime (sans the helmet of course).
Daddy: "Hey, you're going to have football dreams wearing that outfit."
Eli: "Yeah!!"
15 minutes after lying down...
Eli: "Daddy, you hurt my feelings. I did not have a football dream!"

"Daddy, I had a bad dream. I dreamed that Buzz Lightnear started lasering everyone!"

"Daddy, I had a bad dream. Bad dinosaurs turned everything into gold!"

Covil Preschool: Day 7

Day 7

Tuesday was Labor Day (observed) at Covil Preschool, so we spent the day running some errands and (most importantly) scouring the library for new books and ideas for Fall Preschool. I got several good resources and stories to take me through the next couple of weeks, so we should remain on schedule, for a while at least.

Book: It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles Shaw

Emphasis: Shapes, in an abstract kind of way

Craft: The kids made milk paint with water, powdered milk, and blue food coloring. They then taped down a shape cutout, and painted milk paint over the entire page to create a cloud illustration just like the ones in the book.

Snack/Activity: Make "Cloud Puff" out of marshmallow fluff and powdered milk. Shape the fluff into a fancy cloud, and eat (if you really want to!).

Game: Cloud charades

Letter of the Day: D (is for Diamond)

Eli's cloud- a Lion

Shaping his Cloud Puff

A Lion cloud!

Yum!

After preschool we headed to pick up J's brother, and spent 2 hours at Kidstown park in Apex. What a big morning!

Covil Preschool: Day 6

Day 6

Emphasis: Colors, Opposites, Counting, Movement in pics


Book: Freight Train by Donald Crews


Activity: Fill a colored box (freight car) with objects of the same color


Craft: Create Freight Train paintings with rectangle sponges, a bottle top, and paint. Make a Daytime and a Nighttime painting.


Game: "Color Train" and recess outdoors


Snack: Chex Mix trains

Letter of the Day: C

Eli's (brokedown looking) Daytime train. He's so proud!

"Eli, is your train moving like the one in the book?"

"Yes, it is moving! And also, it's made out of fire!"

Practicing T-ball during "recess" with his "batter's helmet." Hehee.

Covil Preschool: Day 5

Day 5

Emphasis- Zoo Animals

Books- Eric Carle's 1,2,3 to the Zoo, and Noisytime for Zoo Animals, Splashtime for Zoo Animals, and Mother and Baby Zoo Animals by Caroline Arnold

Activity- Create zoo maps with construction paper and markers. Draw animals on the four corners and glue black paper paths to connect the areas. Practice finding things on a map, and use Elmo to practice navigating routes on a map.

Craft- Zoo animal headbands

Games- A variation of "Mother May I?" and "Pretend Zoo"

Elmo navigating the zoo on E's zoo map

Eli's Zoo Map. CW from top left: Giraffe, Tiger, Lion, Monkey

A Tiger at the Zoo.

Tiger Close-Up.

Wolfpack Boys

ABCs

Each week I will add a picture of our letter puppet and song of the week to this post.

(to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat)

Fill, Fill, Fill Your Boat with the Letter A

Ants, apples, and alligators

They all start with A

(to the tune of If You're Happy and You Know It)
If you see the letter B, Shout Hooray!

If you see the letter B, Shout Hooray!

B's for buttons and for bears

And barrettes in your hair
If you see the letter B, Shout Hooray!

I have a little camera that I take around with me
I snap a picture when I find
things that start with C
I take a picture of a cake
and cookies in a jar
I take one of a cow
and a big, shiny car!

Covil Preschool: Day 4

Emphasis-Colors
Book- Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh
Activity- Combining colors by placing bags of colored water on top of one another
Craft- Making colorful scarves using paper towels, colored water, and straws
Game- Dancing with our colorful scarves
Snack- Crazy Colorful Pie
Letter of the Day- B

Colors

Our Color Wheel

Yellow + Blue= Green

Dripping Drops

Fruity Pebbles Pie

Lazy Daze Festival

Firefighter E

A Ride in Safety Town


Cool Off Tent

A Pi-a-rit! The downpour that soaked us to the bone made us miss the show, though.

Covil Preschool: Days 2-3

Here is a synopsis of what we did last Thurs. and today at CP. I will try to keep up with posts throughout the year. The info will often be very similar on each blog, but I plan to make these into books next year, and would like both children to have the information. While it will be mostly redundant, I will do my best to add unique info ans stories when appropriate. On Thursdays we will be joined by our almost 3yo friend, JC. I'm excited about adding a third student! It made things more interesting on Thursday, and definitely added a dose of reality for the kids!

Day 2:
Emphasis- Shapes
Book- Brown Rabbit's Shape Book
Activity- Shape/Present Game
Craft- Make shape presents like Brown Rabbit
Snack- Brown Rabbits made from all sorts of sugary treats
Game- Planned game didn't work. Resorted to playing with balloons from Book Time, and the kids had a blast. They are still playing with them nearly a week later!
Letter- A, songs and flashcard game
Solo Time- flashcards and library book of his choosing




Day 3:
Emphasis- Alphabet
Book- Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert (During Book Time Eli correctly identified over half of the letters and told me the correct sound for all of the ones he could name. This is up from knowing only 4-5 letters last week!)
Activity- Matching food with the plate labelled with its correct beginning letter
Craft- Make placemats by dipping cut fruits and veggies into paint, and pressing on paper. Will be laminated this afternoon!
Snack- Fruit slices
Solo Time- PUZZLES! Eli has become a puzzle fiend. He spends hours on them almost daily, and does 35 piecers without any help or direction!

Our First Day of School

This morning commenced our new routine of Tuesday/Thursday morning preschool. We used the book Clap Your Hands by Lorinda Cauley as our main source. Our focus was rhyming, and the kids did a great job playing a rhyming game to cement their skills. Rhyming skills are an essential part of learning to read. We read the story, acted it out, played a rhyming game, made a fingerpaint craft, made a fun snack, and ended with a silly parade like the one in the book. The kids were to go and dress up as silly as they could, and come back for a follow the leader parade. This is what Eli came up with, with a little help from his sister.

I wish I could have recorded the giggles that came from Chloe's room as they assembled their costumes. They were absolutely contagious!

During his solo time, I worked on Eli's ABC flashcards with him. He gets very frustrated because he can't seem to learn them without a little work and a few mistakes. Imagine that. Poor guy has my complex when it comes to making mistakes! He is doing great, though, and will have it down in no time, for sure! Overall, the kids LOVED school more than I ever anticipated. If I could have a classroom of children just like them, I would absolutely make a career of being a real teacher!

Summer's (Un)Officially Over

We have had a wonderful summer filled with adventures, vacations, and no less than a dozen "firsts." It was incredibly busy, and blogging was the last thing on my mind. It's funny how we consider summer to be the season of rest, relaxation, and vacation, but it is by far the busiest! When we weren't away from home, we were either washing and packing or unpacking and washing. And those few times when we were home for extended periods we were hopping from pool to party to fun event and back to the pool! I have no intention of recounting everything on the blog, because if I made myself document everything, I would just give up altogether. I made a lovely photo album with beautiful memories of our very first family vacation, and am confident none of us will ever forget it. I will, however, record some of Eli's favorite firsts since firsts are so very important to me.

This summer Eli had his:

first ride on a subway
first ride on a subway while standing

first (and possibly only) ride on a Duck

first overnight camping trip

first Putt-Putt game with Daddy

first ride on a pony

first bike ride

first trip to the Air and Space Museum

first 4th of July fireworks (close enough to actually hear and see!)

first time jumping into the pool with no one to catch him

first family reunion

first wedding

It was such a spectacular summer, and we enjoyed it to the fullest. Now that summer is pretty much past, and everyone around us is preparing to return to the monotonous routines of fall (which I live for, by the way), I decided that we were ready to do the same. Tuesday and Thursday mornings will officially be Home School Preschool at the Covil house. As Eli puts it, I will be his "for real pretend teacher." I have no clear cut curriculum, but I checked out several teacher's books from the library to fill me with good ideas. My desire is to have Eli's phonics down by next summer, and Chloe reading. Although I cringe at the thought of long-term homeschooling, I look forward to spending my last year at home with the children learning and making fun memories together.