(And All My) Work Be Praise

Bible story: Samuel and Eli Books: Leaf Jumpers   (by Carole Gerber) , Leaf Man (by Lois Ehlert), Leaf Trouble   (by Jonathan Emmett). We loved  Leaf Trouble and read it repeatedly. Fun story, vibrant illustrations! Crafts: leaf-covered L, leaf placemats Math: candy corn math   from Royal Baloo   (Yes, I realize this doesn't start with L. But since I opened a bag of candy corn for a Bible study, I thought we might as well use it.) I also have a leaf packet from 3dinosaurs.com , but we just plain spent more time playing than sitting at the table this week. I think it was a good decision! Since the weather was so beautiful, we started out the week with a long walk to observe and collect the changing leaves. We filled the stroller basket to overflowing! It amuses me greatly, the way they run up to me with the ugliest, most mottled, ripped leaves and proudly declare, "here's a pretty leaf for you, Mommy!" I'm sure there's a metaphor in there about find...

Bible story: Tower of Babel Books: None. I'm sure there are hundreds of cute pumpkin-themed picture books in the world. I'm also fairly sure that every single one of them is checked out of the library during the month of October. And, well, I needed a nap more than I needed a trip to the library on Sunday. It so happens that P oky Little P u pp y was the book of choice every night this week, so we still got a P-themed book, even if it wasn't about pumpkins! Crafts:   pumpkin paper plate masks ,  Pumpkin-scented playdough Science: pumpkin observations Food: pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin muffins Blessing others: pumpkin muffins for Peter and Patrick  (two brother-friends at church) We started out Pp week with a local community's pumpkin festival. The boys got to play in seeds, make crafts, pick out a mini p umpkin, and ride a p ony . . . if they so choose. Both older boys sat on the horse, but Owen started screaming as soon as it shifted weight under him and wouldn...

Z is for Zebra at the Zoo! Bible story: Jesus Clears the Temple Books: Zoo (by Gail Gibbons), A Day at the Zoo   (by Sarah Harrison), Z is for Zookeeper (by Marie & Roland Smith) Craft: zebra-Z marble painting Snack: animal crackers Science: animal facts Blessing others: zucchini bars for Zeke's daddy (a friend who 1) had a birthday this week and 2) has a son named Zeke) So while our character trait-alphabet curriculum started out great for my boys (attitude and bravery, etc.), I'm quickly finding out that it's not all preschool-friendly. Zeal? Really? And the activities to go along with it were way out of our league. So, we just talked about being excited for doing things God's way and left it at that. We can always come back to it in a few years. (Oh -- I just looked it up, and it's designed for ages 4-10. Well, that explains some things.) We started out the week with some spontaneous imaginative play. (By "spontaneous," I...

A moment of silence for the passing of a dearly beloved family member.  . . . That's right, folks, my eldest child has stopped napping altogether. For months I've been putting off my grief, living in denial, justifying that he fell asleep at least a few days a week, so really he still napped. Not so anymore. For two weeks I made him rest in bed for a while, then let him read in his room for the rest of nap time. Then I just let him read in his room. Then I put a clock in his room and said he had to stay in there until 3pm. Day after day, in these last two scenarios, he'd come out earlier and earlier, stand at the top of the stairs (directly outside light-sleeper Silas's room), and stage-whisper (rather unsuccessfully, I might add) that he was ready to come downstairs. Silas would wake up and that would be the end of any peace for me. Because really, that's what nap time is for, right? Peace for the mommy. Anyway, I gave up taking him upstairs at all, and s...

Bible story: Prodigal Son (with emphasis on forgiving father) Books: Firefighter Frank by Monica Wellington  (which we love) and Firefighter Ted (which is dumb) Crafts:  Fireman Craft and Handprint Firemen If you want to make yourself completely overwhelmed by preschool options, google "f is for firefighter." OH MY WORD. And so many of them are so cute! My browser is a mess of open tabs right now, leaving pages readily available "just in case we have more time to do one more thing." Yeah, right. We started out with these adorable  Handprint Firemen .  After I did their handprints, the boys still wanted to paint more, so I put out red, orange, and yellow paint and told them to fill the whole paper. They chose brushes over fingerpaints, which is fine with me! Making "swirls of fire." I cut up Owen's painting to make flames for our finger firemen to spray water at, and then Levi said we had to hook the hose up to a fire hydrant, so ...