Preschool

So I started this post a long time ago because I wanted to document what we've been doing for preschool, I haven't done well with taking pictures, but we have LOVED doing preschool with our kids. It is so fun that I get to do it with two long-time friends and we love that we all have kids with similar ages. It's also a fun way that I get to use my teaching skills. Charlie was more into his friend's toys when we first started but now he gets pretty excited for preschool. Our lessons have evolved over the last several weeks as we see what works best for the kids but our main format is we focus on a letter from the alphabet each week and do various activities and have a snack usually related to that letter.
I think we started sometime in May.

A- For the letter A, we discussed the alphabet, did an alphabet train puzzle, and an activity with Chicka Chicka Boom Boom where the kids moved the letters to the Coconut Tree. We did ink dot letter A papers. We had Apples and Almonds for snack!

B-We made playdough ball Bs and made Bee Bs. And decorated with Blue Buttons. We had banana bread. and peanut Butter and honey (from Bees) on Bread!


C- Decorated a letter C with cow spots, and we went on a scavenger hunt for items starting with the letter C: cars, crayons, candy...We had carrots, cheese, and cookies for snack

D-Daddy Forest outing which I shared in this post.  Letter D


E-All about elephants, we did an elephant dance and a made elephant masks.

F- We had a fish coloring page, and went fishing in the kiddie pool followed by water play.




G- Green Giraffe's Garden Grows activity with matching and magnets. Kids selected objects out of a basket that started with G. They later found Green item in the living room and put them in the box. We had green grapes and Gold fish for snack.

H-  Kids collected objects that start with H. Lots of fun with hats. Played a hopping activity.  They then built houses with blocks We had H-ham, Hummus, and carrots



I- We played pin the dot on the i, We then built an ice cream cone with the dots and then made real home made ice cream. While the ice cream was mixing, we played with instruments and squirted Ice to melt it and release the dinosaurs. We had meatballs on toothpicks (dot the i...get it?) cheese sticks and bread sticks...and of course homemade ice cream (it was sorbet that didn't turn out great...)






J-Sorted Jewels, read about jungle animals, jump to the jungle tree. snacks and Jelly fish under the tree. Juice and jam cookies

K- A kiss for bear with puppets, Key K, made kites, ate Special K bar and Kiwi




L: 5 Little Ladybugs, FlashLIGHT hunt for Ls. Painting Ls with Lemons, made Lemon-aid, Snacked on Cheese stick, L, Life cereal, Lemon poppyseed muffins and plums.

Miles tasted the lemon and got red paint on his lips.

We used clean Lemons for our homemade lemon-aid

And there you have it, a rough run-down of our fun preschool adventures. We really are loving it and I'm sure our kids don't care if their food correlates with the letter of the day but we have so much fun being creative with it. I'm lucky that I get to do preschool with two other very talented moms! 

Silver Falls

We had a ward camp out that went back to back with us leaving for our family rafting trip but we couldn't say no because it was at Silver Falls and we've been wanting to go there together for years and we hadn't made it happen yet. Friday was a stressful day of packing for our camp out, our rafting trip and for Miles' week with grandma. Also I had to make sure our rafting food was dropped off at Uncle jay's house. I questioned the idea of back to back camping trips many times as I attempted to pack! Anyway, in retrospect, we are glad we went. Friday Max came home from work, and we threw everything in the car then dropped off our rafting rood at Jay's house. We then headed down to Silver Falls State Park.  We got there just before the sun set so we rapidly set up our tent and Max reviewed some info for the spiritual thought he was about to share. It was a little frantic but it was fun to eventually go sit by the fire and enjoy the devotional, campfire, and s'mores 

After we got our kids to sleep, we enjoyed some campfire time with other adults and good friends. It's crazy how much you  crave interaction with other families when it is so rare since we all have kids that have bed times. We ended up staying up until 2am, which was pretty crazy considering our busy day ahead. We woke up to the sunlight coming through this beautiful forest.

 I must have an obsession with forests because I couldn't handle how beautiful it was and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get a picture that seemed to do it much justice. Anyway...I made Miles go with me to try and take some forest photos.

We had an amazing breakfast cooked by the men.

The dirt was a big hit for the boys...

 ...and Cora!

and this happened a lot...

 Are these trees not impressive?

So, we've been wanting to go to Silver Falls since you can go on some hikes and see tons of waterfalls. We were exhausted and knew there was tons to do at home but we knew we needed to see at least one waterfall. So we found a loop that would lead us there.

 Roots hanging over the cliff

This was Charlie's face when he saw the waterfall!

 Since it has been so warm the water was more of a trickle but it was still pretty impressive.

We sat behind the waterfall and had some snack time. 

Sleepy baby!

After our little hike we drove home. Charlie slept the whole way. We were so tired when we got home and felt like there was no way to be productive so we turned on a show for Charlie while Miles Max and I slept. It was worth it as I then had to finish packing Miles up and drive him all the way up to Longview to drop him off with my mom. We then came back, put Charlie to bed and worked really hard getting all packed for rafting.