7 Baths Did Naaman Take

2 Kings 5 was our text this week discussing Naaman.  For our introductory craft I used baby powder to put leprous spots on the girls.  I had a mason jar with clean water and one with water mixed with dirt from our garden to represent the Jordan River.  After learning a song about Naaman, I had the girls dip their leprous finger in the Jordan 7 times to make it clean.  I left the waters of the Jordan on the table for the rest of the week as a reminder.

The preschool craft for Naaman made use of a blue plastic cup, a homemade die cut which the girls drew leprous spots on, and a craft stick.  Then they dipped their Naaman in the Jordan 7 times and turned over the die cut to the other side where he was clean!

Letter of the Week - T

T was such a great week, I love this letter :)

On our preschool day we made turtles out of painted paper plates and some construction paper.  It occurred to me that Faith had never seen a turtle so I pulled up a video on You-Tube for the girls to watch before we did the craft.  Our outside game was running (and other forms of movement) to some chalk shapes I had drawn in the drive way.  So, after the turtle was dry we glued shapes onto the shell. 

Our other T craft on preschool day was to make a T like a Tree.  I pulled some bark of a dying tree in our yard and some leaves off a rose bush and the girls made their own Tree.  For our books this week we had Miss Spider's Tea Party, Turtle Splash, and The Busy Tree. 

The Friday before Memorial Day was an Air Force Family Day so Frank had the day off and we decided to visit the All Aboard Restaurant in Little Rock.  Sabrina had done a Train as the T activity on her preschool day so this fit right in.  The food is delivered by a train suspended above the tables.  I knew Faith would love it but Rebekah had a blast!  She waved at the train every time it went past us and they eagerly anticipated when our turn would come.  The girls each got a little engineer hat to top off their luncheon outing!

I feel like God is blessing our little homeschool pre-school.  I mentioned above that I didn't think the girls had ever seen a turtle before so we did the You-Tube thing.  Saturday morning Frank took Lady on a walk since Sabrina and I decided to do our long run on Sunday and while he was out in the new construction area, he found a turtle!  He brought it home and we kept him in a shoe box all day (closely guarded by Lady) and the girls had a great time looking at him.  We shared the site with the Langehaug children when they came over for our tea party.  The turtle is now in their care!

As if we hadn't already done enough cool T stuff, the week culminated with a Tea Party!  We invited the Langehaugs over to celebrate with us and our fancy dresses and china.  The girls painted little tea pots out of cardboard that morning and then decorated them.  They held them while singing "I'm a Little Teapot" which was just adorable.

For the Tea Party, I made (and Faith helped a good deal) a honey tea loaf with mashed banana and a little lemon juice for the sandwich, Sabrina brought fruit, and we started off with milk in the tea cups.  I served the tea with dessert which was lemon cupcakes.  They were better received than the tea by the girls :)

When everyone arrived we started off with crafts.  We made tissue paper flowers for the table and the kids decorated some tea cup place cards Frank had drawn and cut out.

The biggest hit prior to the tea itself was a stacking game with sugar cubes.  I gave each of the kids a cup of sugar cubes, with instructions not to eat them, and they stacked them into towers.  They all loved it for well over 20 minutes!

Prior to sitting down for our own tea and meal, I had the kids set up a tea party for their dolls with the plastic set that Faith got for Christmas. 

The Tea Party was awesome and the kids had a great time.  Faith announced today that she would like to get dressed up again for dinner tonight and have tea again!

The Lord is my shepherd

By the time we were done with this Bible story, Faith knew the first 2 verses of Psalm 23 by heart and could get through the rest while I was reading it with her.  We sang the first 2 verses to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb all week so undoubtedly that helped!

For our main Psalm 23 craft, I had the kids paint and then decorate with stickers, a wooden frame and I had some printed out copies of Psalm 23 for them to put in them.  Faith and Rebekah both have theirs displayed in their rooms.

Letter of the Week - S

S is for Spider, Stickers, Snow, and Spaghetti!  We had a great time with all of these activities this week.  Additionally, our Bible story was Psalm 23 and we made a sheep which of course also starts with S but that is in the Bible story post for this week.  Here is our Spider (a painted paper plate with eyes and taped on yarn for legs!).

 

S is for Sticker; the kids had a great time with this one!

On Friday, I had Faith and Rebekah make snowflakes.  It is the end of May here in Arkansas and there is no natural snow to be found but the girls had a great time making these and then "making it snow" in our kitchen!

Finally for Family Fun Night we had Spaghetti for dinner and I made an extra batch of noodles to do a sensory activity for the girls.  They played with the spaghetti and then painted it.  It was great fun!

Rebekah Joy - 19 Months

Sleeping:
Rebekah's nap continues to be 1:30 to about 3:30 but she usually waits quietly in her bed until 4 when I am finally ready to get her up.  That time between 4 and whenever her sister gets up (usually about 4:30) is such a nice special time for us to spend time together, just her and mommy.  Her nighttime sleep continues to go well.  We gave her a pillow this month and she was excited about it at first but didn't sleep on it, just kind of scooted off of it.  Within a few days however, she loved it and now we have to say good-bye to it after sleep time in addition to her blankie.  She also has taken an interest in the animals on her sheets.  One sets has ducks and frogs and the other sheep.  Once I turn the light on in her room there is always several minutes of pointing out each animal.
Eating:
Two molars came in during this month and naturally her appetite took a little hit accordingly but things seem to be back to normal now.  Rebekah is not a huge fan of kefir milk which is part of our morning snack (when we have it).  I usually have to withhold snack until she takes a few sips of it.  I have been doing kefir in the morning during these early months of potty training.  She gets water in the afternoon.  Her use of the fork and spoon is still going well and she continues to be pretty proud of herself when she uses her utensils. 
Play:
I am so glad that we took a stand on solo play!  Lately she has been running to her room for her playtime; it just brings a smile to my face.  She is doing really well even with the potty training and solo play with minimal accidents in there.  Of course she loves all the gifts that Faith got for her birthday so those have been the big toys around here for a few weeks.  She really enjoys the chunky puzzles.  She can get in and out of the raised playgrounds by herself now and go down the slides as well which makes park time so much less work for me :)  She has also started "hanging" at the park as well, imitating her sister at tumbling class.  Reading to her dolls and stuffed animals has also started this month which is always heartwarming each time I see it.  Sister play is also going well and I think they really enjoy hanging out with just each other.  Rebekah does not like getting glue on her hands so it has been slightly challenging during craft time but she is getting more used to it.  She is not that into coloring but she still loves to be involved in whatever we are doing and I have never had a problem with her during preschool, she loves to be a part of the group.
Skills:
Potty training Rebekah has been so awesome.  The first week of course was terrible and exhausting and even by Friday I was wondering if we'd made any progress at all but then by Monday it was like a little light went off in her head and she got it.  Part of the ease of this I am sure is because I am more calm about it, knowing that this is the best road to go down after seeing the results with Faith.  Please make no assumptions that it has been perfect, we have had plenty of accidents but almost all of them have been at home, rarely (in fact as I write this I can't even think of one) out in public.  She does not like to go in public and if we are only going to be out for an hour or so, I don't even bother taking her.  She also has an aversion to sitting on the big potty without the potty seat.  Within the last 2 weeks she has been much better about telling us when she needs to go and has only a few times said she needed to go in order to get out of doing whatever it was she was doing :) 
I feel like Rebekah's language has just exploded this month.  She tries to repeat everything Frank and I say in addition to everything Faith says.  Her answer is always "uh-hu" whenever you ask her a question, it is cute.  Her climbing skills are much improved.  She can get up and down the step to the porch by herself and gets on and off the couch.  Which actually she has been getting off the couch for over a month now but she gets on using my stool so not exactly by herself. 
Our Schedule:
0800 - Wake, dress, breakfast
0900 - Preschool (calendar, weather, Bible story, worship, letter, craft)
1015 - Snack and outside
1115 - Training time (which she does awesome with!) followed by sister play
1200 - Lunch, chore, freeplay, reading
1330 - Nap
1600 - Time with mama
1630 - Snack, dinner prep, solo play
1800 - Dinner, family time, bath, Bible story, bedtime o/a 2001 (randomly, Rebekah loves hearing Taps when played from the base at 2000 each night.  She also really likes the National Anthem at 1630 when we can hear it)

David Killed a Big Man

In addition to reading our Bible story of David and Golliath, I found a song on this blog and used it throughout the week.  I actually only used the first stanza of each section, I found the kids stayed focused on it better and they could actually learn it in a week.
For my preschool activity each kid got to paint 5 rocks each.  They really had a great time.  If they'd been a little older I probably would have put up the face of a giant outside and let them throw the rocks but their coordination isn't quite there yet and I didn't want to make a trip to the ER part of our preschool experience :)

Letter of the Week - P, Q, and R

Letter P
In addition to our Letter of the Week activities that I got from Confessions of a Homeschooler, for P this week we made pearl necklaces.  I bought craft beads, strung them and then dipped them in some white paint we had in the garage.  In the morning my knight in shining armor used his exato knife to make sure the holes in them were still open and the beads able to be threaded by a 3 year old.  The girls loved making and wearing these.  I accidentally left Faith's on when she took her nap that day!  The girls also had a great time making the letter with their bodies :)

Letter Q
Q was the first week that I didn't have to teach preschool as we have another addition to our little group.  We all wanted to continue with preschool only 2 days a week but with 3 teachers, I get a week off every once in a while.  Q seemed like a pretty good week to get off :)  I had some fun of my own on non-"school" days.  We did some Q-tip painting:

I glued some Q-tips onto the paper for display so the kids would remember what we used to paint the pictures.  I stole this idea from Enchanted Mommy a great blog for preschool ideas!

We glued fabric to our Qs in order to make a quilt.  Faith really wanted hers to look like the Sunbonnet Faiths that are on her big girl bed quilt from her Gran. 

We also did our first Family Fun Friday this week.  We made quesadillas for dinner and played a matching memory game after dinner.  Frank had court marshal duty all week but he made it home in time for the end of Family night, which is good as he is a big part of it :)

Letter R

For R, I used this opportunity to work on colors with Rebekah as well as the letter with Faith.  We made an R is for Red collage and then had a little scavenger hunt for red objects I'd placed around the room.  The girls really enjoyed that a lot.

I used the Confessions Rainbow material for the other things during the week, including upper and lower case matching which Faith really enjoyed.  She got the all the first 13 letters correct with a little help on L and I.

On our preschool day we made Rainbow Hands which looked really nice but it was rather hard because I was the only one cutting the hand prints out after tracing the kids' hands.  I had their R collage sheets (we used rice) and 2 worksheets on big vs. small (to correlate with our Bible story on David and Goliath).  Having the kids work on those while I cut out the hands worked out well.

For Family Fun Night Friday, the girls and I made ravioli (with my new ravioli maker!) and rice pudding.  Other meals during the week were red snapper and red beans with rice.  Oh, we also have a verse each week that corresponds to the letter we are working on.  This week was "Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth" - Ecclesiastes 12:1.  All the verses are from the ABC Bible verse songs CD.  Faith knows them all by about the 2nd or 3rd day of the week.  It is amazing what songs can instill in a memory! 

The Anointing of David

I didn't teach this week so these are the crafts that my girlfriends had the kids do for the anointing of David.  One is a harp and the other is a crown.