49/52

 "A portrait of my child once a week, every week, in 2013."

Logan: this holiday season, you have become the best shopping partner-- you pick out the best things, and insist on carrying the bags.

Only a few weeks to go in the 52 project over at Che&Fidel.
Favorite from last week: this sweet trip. 

preschool homeschool / / week 12

Our letters this week were "k" and "t." 

With Thanksgiving falling during this week, we were able to work our 'letter of the week' into our holiday themed lessons. I love this little foam glitter turkey Lo made.

I've created a little homework packet that I leave out on Logan's table for her to grab whenever she wants. So far, she takes her homework very seriously. I love those sweet little hands.

We've been working on writing. I try to pull a word from each entry in her creative journal and have her write it. I find she does better in writing capital letters over lower case. 

Any other preschool mama's have suggestions with that? 

Some days she loves to write, other days it's work.

 This cut out came from a National Geographic magazine. The kids faces caught Lo's eye right away.

 We hand made our Christmas cards this week too. Lo did a great job assembling and decorating the trees.

We did a lot of play this week-- more so than usual. This girl could spend hours playing with her doll house. We even put up the tree in the doll house.

 And we made a (very random) letter to Santa. Logan addressed, signed, drew a portrait of Santa, and told me what to write. Fun times!

This week was a random all around. We also did a pine needle paintbrush craft, and visited a Christmas shop. We spent lots of time using our button sensory bin. We've been busy with play-dates and visits with Great-Grandma (one of Lo's most favorite ladies.)

Week 13-15, I plan to focus more on counting and sorting.


With the Holidays upon us, the next few weeks are going to be hectic. So for lack of missing out on anything, I am going to start and end our week with a new "letter of the week" rather than going by the set week on the calander. These weeks are just going way to fast, I can hardly keep up. 

I am happy with the progress we've made so far and excited for some new things in the new year for our little preschool homeschool program.

book advent

 

It's no secret that Logan is nuts about books-- so what better way to celebrate the coming days leading up to Christmas than a Book Advent?!

Each day Lo gets to open a book-gift. Most books are either thrifted or ones we had in our collection. We did pick up a few new books too. 

We're two days in, and so far, it's been a hit. Logan loves waking up and opening a gift. She searches for the number, and we read our  book before breakfast. So far we have read Pooh's "Here Comes Winter" and a vintage copy of "Frosty the Snowman."

Some other books we'll be reading include:

Berenstain Bears Santa Bear
Christmas Mice
The Night Before Christmas
Home Alone (possibly a bit mature for her, but a classic!)
Merry Christmas Mouse
Christmas in the Manger
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (another classic)
What is Christmas?
Merry Christmas, Curious George
and Christmas Mice to list a few..
We also threw in some winter related stories for good measure.

Along with this, we plan to do some sort of 'cheerful' activity each week leading up to Christmas. 
We'll let our Christmas Countdown from last year be our guide.



Is there anything special you do during Advent?

48/52

 "A portrait of my child once a week, every week, in 2013."

Logan: We laid down to watch "Charlotte's Web" (your favorite story these days) and 10 minutes in, you were out. Naps are few and far anymore, so I treasured this very moment, of my sleeping baby (in a similar position earlier this year.)

Linking up here.

Favorites from last week: here, here, and here.

sensory play / / button bin

We l o v e sensory play. I have made sensory bins for Lo since she was a baby. When she was younger, and more inclined to put things in her mouth, I found myself limited and sacrificing creativity for practicality. Now that she is way past that phase at 3 1/2 years old, I can do more. She loves the different bins and she asks to bring tim out often. So I like to keep it fresh and exciting for her.

Since coming across a large bundle of buttons, I was brainstorming many ways we could incorporate them into our play, art, and learning. Thus far, we have glued them, counted, them, sorted them, showed them off, and now incorporated them into our sensory play.

This one is of a man throwing a snowball at snow people.

Fun for all ages. We all had our hands on this box and made different scenes.

I love this little multi-colored flower scene.

And how Logan sorted them here from big to little.

And this little face here, of course.

the last thursday in november

...to you and yours

and mine too.

   

nature in the home / / painting with nature

 

Every year I eagerly await the Holiday season. Much as that includes my love and appreciation for Thanksgiving, I just can't help but crave all things Christmas. There is something so comforting about coming home to twinkling lights, warm cookie smells, and evergreen. But I just can't bring myself to decorate until after Thanksgiving. To me, it doesn't feel right to celebrate one holiday when the one prior hasn't even ended. Crazy OCD, perhaps! So we save our decorating for the day after. But I do envy admire fellow bloggers and friends who are already blissfuly decorated. It's a struggle, I swear. Because of that, we have been trying to find little ways to sneak in some Christmas-ness, so that at that very second when Thanksgiving ends, we can (in good conscious) allow Christmas to take over.

Logan loved our new 'paintbrushes.' Sadly though, these were one time use, as they did not rinse well-- but it was worth it. 

We had intended to decorate this tree here with pine needles today, but mother nature decided to rain on our parade...literally. 

We'll have to try something with the pine needles again. 
Such fun to work with-- and only slightly prickly.