Monday's Wrap-up

Last week has come and gone and this week is ready to begin.  Yeah, I didn't get around to last weeks wrap up.... 

 Bear moved up in swimming.  He first real session of lessons and she zipped right through to become a SUPER PIKE in just 4 weeks!  Of course this doesn't surprise those of us that know and love this water baby.  Miss. Lori, her teacher told us from the first, "she is a swimmer,"  and she loves the water.  The bad part is, she knows enough now to get a in whole passel of trouble.  She is also doing well in her Gym Kids class which is basically gymnastics for the 5 year old set.  At 6 she can register for the regular girl gymnastics.

We have continued on in our frame of building with blocks and since it is something she seems almost driven to do this week I am not going to stop it.  I think when a child is driven to do something there might just be a reason and their body needs that focus area.  So we have been building with blocks. 

We made a scare crow last week, Bear helped and really did most of it herself.  We also also painted some old mason jars for fall decoration as well.  We also painted a picture of an underwater scene for our fishing game we crafted for the Harvest Festival at church.

We have been working on sounds that letters make and picking out words that start with a given letter. and number recognition, i.e., matching numbers, including large numbers and doing simple addition.  3+3, 6+6, etc. 

The kitchen learning found us making chimichangas this week as well as homemade applesauce again.  The skill of helping to add, stir ingredients, roll  tortillas, etc can't be overlooked when working on strengthening motor skills.

Last week also began with a trip to Woodland Park Zoo.  Hubs joined us for the day and we had great fun exploring and learning about mammals, wolves, bears, etc.

We have been out getting in some last minute "indian summer" sunshine as we explored Wright park in downtown T-Town.  We explored the conservatory there as well.  While there we looked at plants, nuts, flowers, leaves, animals...  We discussed the animals living in the park and why they decided a park was the best place to live in a city (they get donuts I guess).

We went to not one but two pumpkin patches.  Monday we will begin planning for our month of Thanksgiving and our tree of thankfulness, although I am really leaning toward a turkey theme and turkey feathers this year.

The first week of November we are planning to make our own butter, as we continue on in our study of the early settlers.  Next week look for how we do this week grinding a grain (which we have done in the past before).  Our outside time will consist of digging up our carrots and playing in the mud.  *grin* 

Have a great week.  We plan to work on more pre-writing exercises as well as making letters and words, what's on your agenda?