L is for Listen and Leaves

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 finding beauty in unexpected places, or seeing life through a child's innocent eyes, or something. You know.

Inspired by the L is for Leaves packet from OopseyDaisey Mommy School, I wrapped some masking tape around Levi's arm during our walk, sticky side out, for him to adorn with leaves. Owen didn't want one, but Levi loved choosing just the right leaves for his bracelet!

Showing off his leaf bracelet.

Mostly we looked for brightly colored, flat leaves, but we also picked up some big crunchy ones. The latter, we crumbled into a bowl and then glued on to a letter L.

Crumbling leaves and picking off the stems.

Gluing leaves down. His face looks funny because he hums constantly.

Observations on this picture:

1. WHEN will I learn not to take pictures into a sunny window?

2. Yes, those are his jammies. Sometimes, clothes aren't worth the fight.

The finished product, plus Levi's leaf bracelet stuck to the wall.

The bright, smooth leaves would have worked great between piece of contact paper to make placemats, IF I had only done it the same day we collected the leaves. Instead, I left them in a pile in the basement until we had time to do it on Thursday, and they were too brittle to lay flat by that time. But we did it anyway. :)

On this day, we really did stay in jammies all day. On purpose.

As usual, Owen did not want to do this activity at all, but then was way more into than Levi by the end. 

They look much better hanging against a window, but of course then the picture is awful!

I had hoped to track down a leaf-shaped cookie cutter sometime before this week, to use with the pumpkin playdough that was such a hit last week, but failed to remember on any trips out. Instead, we tried to make leaf prints, but nobody had the patience to roll the dough out thin enough to make a good mark with the already-brittle leaves. It was a good thought, anyway.

Smashing a leaf into playdough.

For lunch one day, I spread peanut butter on toast, made a leaf-less tree out of pretzel sticks, and gave them each a small bowl of mini M&Ms (just red, orange, yellow, and brown) to put fall leaves on their trees. Owen ate all of his immediately, but Levi meticulously placed each one just where he wanted it. (There's a lot of "one boy did, one boy didn't" happening in this post, isn't there. Funny thing is, they also played together better than ever for most of the week.)

Decorating the pretzel tree.

For most of the week, we read the story of God calling Samuel. The boys got really good at chiming in at the appropriate parts: "Here I am!" and "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." The curriculum suggested whispering for part of a day, to practice listening closely, but I'm so often calling to Silas -- "hands off!" -- that it didn't seem practical. I think the big boys would love it, though, so maybe we'll still give it a try at some point this weekend.

The last night, Isaac read instead from John 10, about the sheep listening to and knowing the Shepherd's voice. He gave an impromptu object lesson, pictured below. The train tracks make the sheep fold, and the pumpkin is the shepherd, sleeping in the gate so that enemies can't get in and the sheep can't get out. Meanwhile, Silas sat in his high chair, saying "baa baa baa" over and over again. I love these little moments.

A note to my father: it was a free t-shirt. Don't hate.