Wordless Wednesday

Freiburg, Germany

Last night

I opened the drawer to my night stand. I rarely go in there. There was a lot of movement and to my horror the drawer was pulsating with stinkbugs. I was so grossed out that I threw the drawer into the front yard. Spent the next hour vacuuming. Woke up at 5 for a thunderstorm and realized that the drawer was still in the front yard so I put it in the garage where it still sits. Meanwhile I'm vacuuming up the stragglers. Hunting them down.

That is all.

Our guest for letter S week

was a California King Snake courtesy of our maintenance man. The children loved it. He came in and talked about his snake, answered their questions and let anyone who wanted to touch the snake do so.

Letter S/Preschool

 

 

Last week we worked on the letter S. Isn't it a hard letter to write for 4 year olds you might ask? Yes and no. Some want to write it backwards, some can write it correctly and a few could not write it at all. We look at it as introducing letters and letter sounds. S is an easy sound to hear.

Not shown in the photos are the big letter S's that we made . Added two googly eyes to one end of the S and made it into a snake.

We made sunflowers (idea expanded from Mailbox magazine). Each child was measured and their sunflower was made to be as tall as they are. Paper plates were painted yellow. Seeds added in the center. A piece of crepe streamer that was as tall as them cut and attached to the back of the plate (mostly by them - some of us learned how to work a tape dispenser for the first time). They added precut leaves to the stems by way of stapler (also a first for many of them). Then I added a note that said:

My Sunflower is as tall as me.
I am _______ inches tall.
I weigh ________ lbs.

Mailbox magazine also has a kindergarten worksheet magazine that our school gets. Instead of handing out a worksheet I enlarged a worksheet on posterboard. I had two children come to my table at a time and count the seeds on a sunflower card and match it to a number. A small game but it was perfect for their attention spans and it requires no writing. We could just focus on math.

I love cute little balconies.

Colmar, France

Age doesn't matter

is what is proven to me time and time again in teaching little ones.

Parents every now and then will look at a class list and say "My child will be the oldest in the class and too far ahead of his/her classmates." or "My child will be older than her/his classmates and think that they are babies."

In reality their assumptions could not be further from the truth most of the time. The only child who can read in my room so far this year just turned 4. The youngest in my class last year was the first to be able to write her first and last name. Socially, some of the youngest that I've had are more together than the older ones.

To put assumptions on a child due to their age is a disservice to them. Each child develops at his/her own pace.

I think fairies live here.

I worked the church social hour

yesterday for the first time in years. As we are relatively new to the church I thought that it would be a great way to meet some people and give back to a place we enjoy. Unfortunately I have a mind like a sieve and after meeting several people have forgotten most names.

Anyway. . .

Years ago, when I was a teenager, I generally helped out at coffee hour at our church in NY. My dad was the treasurer and as the money got counted after church there was a lot of hanging around time.

One Sunday stands out. A woman, who I was not especially fond of, was washing dishes with me. Her son was in my English class.

She looked at me at one point and said "My son really likes a girl in his English class." . . . I never worked with her again.

Bounty from the farmers market

 

I also talked to a gentleman who gave me more confidence that I could raise and process rabbits myself.

On gloomy days I remember bright colors.

I bought one of the hanging arrangements with the heart on it. It hangs on the door to my den and every now and then I stop at it and breathe in deeply. Smells of sunshine and hay.

Eye Candy

Be Kind, Be Safe, Be Neat

These are the 3 rules in our classroom. No more. They encompass all of life in the fewest words possible.

Today was Open House/Orientation. 14 little ones along with parents and siblings came to meet us and see where their hooks and cubbies are. 14 little ones whose parents needed to be reassured that we will love and look after their children as if they were our own. That their concerns will be listened to. We tell them that we are ready to be partners with them in part of their child's life knowing that to many of them we are complete strangers. There is a lot of reassuring. We will try to give their child the best year possible.

We have fun at school.

The place to be on a rainy day

is my livingroom. It has become my pride and joy. We love the green color on the walls. The table and chair used to belong to my grandparents. Now they lends its grace to the room. The bowl and pitcher belonged to my dad's mother. The green wicker rocker was found at a thrift store. It was originally black. The quilt on it's back belonged to my dad's grandmother. The beautiful white shelves in the room were not there when we moved in but made years later by my husband. They look like they have always been a part of the room. Hope that you have enjoyed this partial tour.