Demise of Pompeii

So the story of our wild, crazy, and messy day of preschool (from the beginning)...

Last August our family went to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg and my macho husband (seriously you should have seen his strut) won this life-size dolphin. From the beginning I was not a fan--wondering not only how we'd get it home, but where it could possibly reside in our home! However the kids were smitten and Glen was so proud of his superior aiming skills that there was no denying I was outnumbered, thus the addition of "Pompeii" into our bustling home (named after one of the kids' favorite rides at Busch Gardens, "Escape from Pompeii").

I've been secretly hoping for his "death" for many months, mumbling under my breath every time I had to move him from a bed, to a couch, to on top of Ellie's play kitchen...anywhere out of the way. The kids even took to riding him down our stairs, a process I hoped would speed his destruction.

After 6 plus months of stair rides, wrestling matches, and usage as a giant pillow I was beginning to think he was indestructible...until today.

Five minutes after preschool began today I had a breathless preschooler run up the stairs to tell me that Cami's dolphin was broken. I was quite unconcerned as I came down to take care of it. If I would've known that this was the sight I was to be greeted with, I would've run a lot faster and probably not have grabbed the camera, but hey at least I have some documentation of the crazy day now.

After a super speedy trip to Pompeii's final resting place...the trash can...


I came back in to find them literally rolling on the floor and covering each other with his styrofoam stuffing.


This is what they looked like at this point (maybe a total of 15 minutes into preschool now).


So, while they played, I vacuumed and vacuumed and vacuumed some more, but every time someone took a step they left a trail of white footprints ( the epitome of a vicious cycle)...


... so the only thing I could think to do other than giving them all baths and a fresh change of clothes was to vacuum the kids (how's that for a fun preschool memory?).


Vacuuming was a little more effective on the boys with their short hair...


...than on the girls who were still quite a sight to behold even after a thorough vacuuming.

Eventually we did have a little preschool time (confined to the basement so as to minimize the spread of Pompeii's innards through the house). The kids thoroughly enjoyed playing store and going shopping with real money, but I imagine if you ask them the highlight of the day it will probably be related to a giant dolphin!

Who would have ever thought that Pompeii's demise would be as explosive as his namesake's ?

The Five Senses

Today at preschool we learned all about the five senses.


We used our sense of smell to sniff things like vinegar, rubber ball, lemonade, and play doh.


Then we used our sense of hearing to...


FREEZE DANCE! (they had so much fun)



Then we used our sense of sight to look at sizes, shapes, and colors of things.



Then we used our sense of taste to try some different flavors, like sweet...



and not so sweet...salty, bitter, and sour (they all thought the salt was sugar and took healthy samples, then did the same with the unsweetened cocoa--they just thought chocolate...it must be good. I really wish I would've had the camera out at that point to capture their faces. Huge drinks of water were had by all!)



And finally we used our sense of touch. We felt bumpy, smooth, soft, rough, and scratchy (in their own words).

It was another great day at preschool!

Happy Valentines Day

Here are the girls making hearts with their hands, everyone making "V" for Valentines, and the boys being buddies. What a fun morning!

Preschool Schedule for May 2009

May

Field Trip Idea: GreenSpring Gardens
Hidden Oaks Nature Center

Becca T.:

Tues. 5^th : George Frederic Handel: conducting & composing music

Thurs. 7^th : Honoring your parents (Mother’s Day is May 10^th)—make special present for Mom

Andrea:

Tues. 12^th : Outer space & astronauts: planets, solar system

Rebecca R.:

Thurs. 14^th: Jungles: where in the world are they? Jungle animals

Fri. 15th: FIELD TRIP: Greenspring Gardens (Alex)

Alex:

Tues. 19^th : Manners: the basics of manners and being respectful

Lara:

Thurs. 21^st : Life cycle of butterfly

Becca T.:

Tues. 26^th : Bugs: the basic parts, have magnifying glasses for everyone, different kinds

Jana:

Thurs. 28^th : Sports/Exercise/Olympics: Have fun learning about why exercising is so good for our bodies, play games, run races, obstacle course, etc.

Tuesday June 2^nd: Graduation Day (evening or during preschool time)

Lara: Booklets and certificates

Jana: Food assignments and planning

Rebecca R.: host

Alex: Activities

Preschool Schedule for April 2009

April
Field Trip Ideas: Frying Pan Park
Eakin Park (pond)

April 7^th and 9^th: NO SCHOOL (Spring Break)

Rebecca R.:

Tues. 14^th : Tadpoles/Frogs: learn about their process of change

Thurs. 16^th: All about Color: Using paint, play dough, colored water, etc. experiment with color mixing

Fri. 17th: FIELD TRIP: Frying Pan Park (Lara)

Lara:

Tues. 21^st : Rainbows: Make rainbows with prisms, mirrors, etc.

Thurs. 23^rd : Leaves: take nature walk, look at the differences and similarities in the leaves, make leaf book, leaf rubbings, collection

Andrea:

Tues. 28^th : All about Farms & farmers, Food: where does our food come from? Working hard. Little Red Hen—use hand wheat grinder and grind wheat and bake some bread (Lara has hand grinder)

Thurs. 30^th : Volcanoes: all about volcanoes, make your own volcano to explode

Gratitude Party

What a great time the kids had thinking of all of the blessings in their lives and all the things they are thankful for! They thought of things they were thankful for and put them on our big gratitude tree.

[sorry I forgot to take a picture, so here's the picture from the Oriental Trading Company where I got it]

Then we spent some time doing our own little gratitude trees that each of the children took home.

Eden W., Adam, Coco, and Benjamin working on their gratitude trees

Our gratitude trees!

I was amazed at how thoughtful each child was as they thought of all the blessings from our Heavenly Father. The children really had a wonderful time!

Families and Thanksgiving

On Tuesday this week we learned all about families. We talked about physical traits we inherit from our parents, the special names we're given, and the wonderful blessings that families are.

Everyone especially liked looking at the pictures of their parents when they were kids!

Martha
Snack time on Tuesday with the alphabet crackers from Trader Joes!

Logan

Emi had to take extra letters, since her name was so short!

Ellie couldn't contain her hunger long enough for me to help the kids flip their names around (so they'd face the camera) and then snap her picture. Of course, she still wanted her picture taken!

Coco immediately recognized the advantages of spelling out her full name, rather than her much shorter nickname.

There was a vowel shortage in our bucket, thus we had to resort to creative measures to finish the job!

More creative vowel formations.

Adam wanted nothing to do with me flipping his letters around for the camera. He liked them just the way they were and let everyone know!

On Thursday we learned all about Thanksgiving! We talked about being thankful for our blessings and cut out our own cornucopias and put together a count your blessing puzzle. Then we told the story of the pilgrims while the kids held up cute little puppets. Then it was snack time...how shocked and disappointed they were with the five frozen corn kernels I gave them, which was an entire day's ration for the pilgrims during that first horrible winter in America. Of course then we had some popcorn, and they were a lot happier with that snack!

And the major distractions of the week...Lucy (a gerbil)...

..and Fui (they're actually both girl gerbils, but Spencer and Adam got to name one and Cami and Emma the other and I have to say that the boys are in denial that she's girl as well) !

It was another fun week at preschool!