Ruth

Our story this week was Ruth and we emphasized how Ruth and Naomi stuck together and were friends.  For our preschool craft the girls made barley colleting bags and then I put arborro rice mixed with sand into some plastic bowls and they had to find the rice (which I called barley for the sake of story continuity!).  They had a really good time and only Rebekah tried to eat the sand.

Faith August - 36 Months

Faith is now 3 years old, my my how the time does fly!  We had a wonderful birthday party at a park on base the day before her birthday.  It was a flower party, complete with a flower cake, flower candies, and the kids painted flower pots for a craft.  The party went really well and I think Faith loved seeing all of her friends and family who were able to join us.  Her actual birthday however, she woke up with a 102.5 degree fever and felt terrible all day.  Much to her disappointment we stayed home from church but we read every book we own, at least 5 times and this morning the doctor gave her a clean bill of health!  We are grateful for short illnesses :)

Eating:
We instituted the utensils or starvation rule prior to her birthday and she is doing remarkably well!   I am so proud of her.  She is pretty proud of herself too now that she doesn't need us to wipe her hands off after a meal because they didn't get dirty.  She continues to eat well and loves most food, broccoli being the one major exception but she will eat her required bites when it is on her plate. 
Sleeping:
Faith's nighttime sleep continues to go well (except for the sick nights!).  She knows that she and Rebekah are going to share a room when the new baby comes and they've had several opportunities to try it out and most recently it has descended into a giggle fest for about 30 minutes.  It is super cute to listen to and I am sure they will get used to having each other in there after a while of it no longer being a novelty.  Her naps continue as before... it usually takes her about an hour to fall asleep for naps but then she'll sleep sometimes for 45 minutes, sometimes I have to wake her at 4:30.  There are a few occasions when she doesn't sleep at all but they are not the norm. 
Playing:
Faith has really gotten into playing preschool.  She enjoys doing our home school preschool so much that she has become the teacher for her dolls.  That is all she wants to do during solo playtime and I can hear her in there doing her days of the week and months of the year songs, the pledge, and reading to them from her "letter books".  She continues to enjoy putting table settings together and pretend food for her and her dolls.  Faith still loves her dolls and in addition to teaching them preschool, and feeding them, she still likes having them to play outside and send down the slide and push in the stroller.  I imagine when she has another baby in the house, it will only increase. 
Skills:
Faith is doing really well folding laundry and LOVES cleaning the bathrooms (which who could be upset with that!).  She is starting to enjoy tracing her letters and recognizes at least half of her lower case letters.  Her counting is awesome and I am so impressed with her memory!  Pre-school is going so well and she really enjoys learning, both the academic side and the Bible side, which I plan to keep as part of our curriculum for their entire schooling.  Faith can put on her shirt by herself now and is basically self-sufficient in getting dressed.  She still loves helping me cook and prepare our meals.  Tumbling class is still a highlight of the week and she loves all parts of it but I think the trampoline and the hanging bars are her favorite.  She is helping me potty train Rebekah and really is happy for her sister when she does well, which I love to see. 
Our Schedule:
0800 - Wake, get dressed, breakfast
0900 - Preschool (On Thursday we do this until 1130)
1000 - Snack, outside
1130 - Sibling play
1200 - Lunch, chore, time with Mama
1400 - Nap
1630 - Snack, dinner prep, solo play
1800 - Dinner, family time, bath time, Bible story, bedtime o/a 2001 (she loves to hear taps being played and we call it "Good Night Air Force Base"

Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho

We sang that kids song  A LOT this week but the kids loved it!  Sabrina made helmets for our little warriors and I had them make a trumpet out of paper towel rolls covered in yellow construction paper and then a rolled up bell stuck in one end.  I set up our couch cushions in the living room and the girls walked around them.  I kept count with the Munchkin Bath Numbers and when we got to 7 we gave a good shout and jumped all over the cushions.  It goes without saying that the kids all loved this activity!

Letter of the Week - M, N, O

Just a little behind here but I think this is just going to be the way it is :)

Okay, apparently I didn't take any pictures of our M projects but I do remember what they were!  We made a Moose which the girls LOVED!  I painted their right foot brown and then both their hands and they stamped a paper and then later we glued eyes on the Moose.  We also glued cotton balls to a mouse.  For meals we had meatloaf and mashed potatoes, mushrooms, and manacotti.

For N we used Nest. We made the nests out of some excelsior and then I hid eggs in the yard. In the eggs were the LOW capital and lower case Ns. The girls LOVED this activity which was pretty exciting since I came up with it that morning while running :) We also made counting sticks (1-5) and the girls really enjoyed that as well.  Meals this week were: pesto with pine nuts and naan.

For O, we made foam octopus with pipe cleaner legs.  One day we ripped paper and glued it to an owl.  During preschool we also did a "How Many Legs" game where I printed out about 6 pictures of different animals (including a snake) and the girls had to identify how many legs each picture showed.  They enjoyed this game which made me happy.  For our meals here we ate: black olives, oranges, french onion soup, and onion rings.

10 Commandments

Our first 10 Commandments craft was using small cereal boxes that we covered with paper bags and I gave them each a copy of the 10 Commandments that we glued to the boxes to make them look like the tablets that Moses brought down from Mt Sinai.  Later in the week I painted the girls' hands and then wrote one commandment for each finger.  This allowed plenty of opportunity for counting activities!

Rebekah Joy - 18 Months

I love this age!  Rebekah is so cute and curious and her little smile just melts my heart.  She is so excited to hear the garage door opening because she knows that brings Daddy home and she announces it to the house!  She has gotten one more bottom tooth in this month and is working on 2 more top.  She has moved into 12-18 month clothes; most solid 18 month clothes are a little big on her but they work.  Rebekah does not like glue on her hands during craft time, it is pretty funny for me but she is disgusted by it! 

Eating:
Rebekah continues to be a champion eater although you wouldn't know it by her petite little frame but she can pack away the food.  There are very few things she doesn't like and will normally clean her plate (meats are still the exception but it depends on what kind of meat it is and how she feels about it).  I continue to warm up her breakfast milk but that is all; she gets the rest of her milk cold and she still drinks it :)  She also loves water as a general rule and we've finally tasted success with leaving the sippy cup in the snack area and coming back to it when she wants a drink rather than toddling around with it in her arms.  I served lemonade for snack during our L week and Sabrina served "kid's wine" (cranberry juice and sprite) during our Passover meal and Rebekah rejected both. 
Sleeping:
The one nap continues to go well and I tend to put her down between 1:15 and 1:30.  There are days when she will simply walk to her room and point to her bed to let me know she is ready for sleep.  The teeth have caused her to wake periodically at night to cry for a minute but that is not even an every other night occurrence, which I appreciate. 
Play:
Solo play time continues to go well and she actually runs into her room when it is time for it.  Her continued enthusiasm in there depends on the toys I think but she doesn't cry and is entertaining herself, even if it is by singing to herself.  She enjoys pushing the Cornball Popper and putting the shapes into her numerous shape toys.  Books continue to be a huge favorite of hers and she loves to read them as well as be read to. 
Skills:
Rebekah has become significantly more vocal this month.  She is continually identifying an object's owner as well as pointing out every time she hears an airplane, sees a dog, and she knows the names of her friends Brock and Mackenzie.  She has also started to repeat what we say much better.  She shakes her head "yes" when I require a "yes, mama" response which is awesome!  The biggest stride for us this month has been potty training.  I've been putting her on the potty for practice for months now, usually just before bath or when Faith is on the big potty.  Multiple times this month she has walked into the potty and sat down on her own and gone after I've taken her diaper off, so I knew it was time to start.  Plus, Sabrina was ready to train Brock so we decided to do it during the same week.  I am writing this on day 3 of potty training.  It is going about as well as expected.  I am taking her at intervals of about 30-45 minutes during the day.  She has had her share of accidents certainly but that is what this week is for, so that both of us can figure out when she needs to go.  She is beginning to understand that she gets a raisin when she goes potty on the potty but not for accidents.  I usually keep her on the potty for 4 minutes each time I take her.  I am hoping that each day gets better and better.  It is helping her sleep more for her naps.  I don't understand why but potty training is exhausting for kids!
Our Schedule:0800 - Wake up, get dressed for the day, breakfast
0900 - Preschool time (pledge, calendar, weather, Bible story, craft, worship time)
1000 - Snack and outside
11ish - Sister play
1200 - Lunch, chore, freeplay
1330 - Nap
1600 - Time with Mama
1630 - Snack, dinner prep or kitchen play
1715 - Solo play
1800 - Dinner, family time
1915 - Bathtime, Bible story, bedtime o/a 2001

How Does Our Garden Grow

We finally got our act together to plant our garden.  This year we decided to scrap the corn and go with some other choices: watermelon (which yielded one or 2 last year), zucchini (a decent crop last year), cauliflower (new this year), cantelope (a composted one yielded the most fruit of anything last year!), beets (new this year), and sunflowers (also new and mainly so the girls can watch them grow really tall!).  Here are some pictures of planting day.

Letter of the Week - L

For L this week in pre-school we made chalk letters and then laid down on them to make the letters with our bodies.  Later, for learning time we made ladybugs out of paperbags.  The girls loved painting them.  We did black cottonballs and black pipe cleaner to finish them off.  Additionally this week we had Lasagna, Lemonade, Leeks, and Lentils!

Parting the Red Sea

This week we continued to learn about Moses, this time on the parting of the red sea.  My big craft for the week was on Thursday for my pre-school day.  The girls each made rods like Moses.

Earlier that morning, Frank helped me make a masking tape travel route from the school area to our bedroom which the girls were going to take as a route to the promised land.  In the hallway we set up our camping sleeping mats covered with blue towels (the Red Sea).  After the strong east wind came to blow the sea back (me moving it), the girls marched to the promised land.  They loved it.  Each girl had to be Moses twice and eventually we camped in the Promised Land for our snack of crackers and lemonade (L was our letter of the week).