Life in Texas: Week 4 of Pre-K

This week we finished up our study of the sun on Monday and started our study of the moon. This has been a busy week and we'll be on the go quite a bit for the next few weeks and months. Collin and I both have over-committed ourselves, which isn't the first time. I'm coordinator for the Tuesday Ladies Class at church and I'm also teaching two weeks. Caden and I are in three homeschooling groups, one meets once a week, the others have events weekly but we're not committed to a certain day/time. We're both teaching Caden's Sunday school class at church and are on the missionary committee. Collin has been asked to be on the board for the budget at church, I'm in hand-in-hand, we both participate in Z and Pursued events, as a family we're in journey groups, and I'm homeschooling. Needless to say, we are kept pretty busy. This doesn't include play dates and other events. In fact, I haven't found a good time to sign Caden back up for gymnastics or start martial arts.

Monday: This morning I had a doctor's appointment. The baby still looks great. Caden went and hung out with his granddad and went to a playground. We ate lunch with my dad and Collin and afterward I took Caden to get a haircut. Then I took Caden to the mall to get a few things. While at the mall I took him to the playground there, he had a blast, and then we went to the grocery store, then came home and did school work. We read books, finished our study of the sun and had lots of fun time outside. In My Father's World Kindergarten, they recommend taking 6 days per unit. On day 6 you're supposed to have more fun/free time, outside time, etc. You could really do each unit in 5 days but I'm going to take advantage of a more laid back schedule and include day 6.

Getting a haircut

Playing at the mall

Checking our grapes

Physical Exercise

Tuesday: Ladies class started up this morning. Caden got to play with his friend, Jeremy, and the other kids who were there. We had a pot luck afterward, went to Lowes, then came home. We started our study of the moon and read our read-alouds.

Dot painting the letter M

Cutting out the different shapes of the moon

Look a cresent moon!

Making a moon page

Full moon, half moon, and cresent moon - also letter M

Grapes are looking more raisin-like

Wednesday: Today was a fun day. The only thing we had planned outside the home was Caden's tennis lesson that is now in the afternoon. It was nice to spend a morning at home relaxing and doing school work. We also met Collin for lunch which is always fun. We are studying the Moon right now and are doing things that involve the letter "M" and the number "2." I'm impressed with how many words he can think of that start with "M" and how quickly he can put a picture of something with an "M" or in the "other pile." Most of our lesson involves fine motor skills such as cutting, coloring, and writing practice which is still really useful. We talked about the 4-stages of the Moon and since the weather has been so nice lately, in the evenings we've been taking a family walk and get to see the moon and what shape it's in. Caden picks up things pretty quickly and already knows somethings about the Moon. I wasn't sure what new moon meant until I looked over his lesson, eventhough I took astromony in college. A new moon is the first phase of the Moon, when it's closest to the Sun and is positioned between the Earth and Sun. It's when the Moon and Sun have the same ecliptical longitude and is not normally visible at this time except during a solar eclipse. We also talked about a full moon, half moon, and cresent moon. He colored the phases of the moon and then told and showed me the picture of the different phases of the moon.

Cutting

Handwriting practice

Sound discrimination game

He still wants to write really big.
He started off pretty good with the "M" and then started writing huge.
He traced the 2 and then wrote it as a 5. Handwriting practice is very much needed.

Drawing phases of the moon

Coloring the phases of the moon

Our grapes

Tennis lesson

Collin came and surprised Caden at his tennis lesson

Caden's granddad came with us to watch him play

Day 4: Thursday mornings we have a co-op science class that meets at our church building. After breakfast Caden wanted to play with play-doh. While he played with play-doh, I cleaned up breakfast. He was then ready to start school, which was good because we had a busy day planned. We talked about what a pair is and how it's two items that are the same. He cut and colored, then matched and glued the correct beginning letter sound with the picture for another activity. Lastly, he colored two pictures if they were the same and drew an "x" over them if they were different. Then we went to our co-op group. The teacher today was fabulous and a lot of fun. Since a few kids were sick and missing, only Caden and his friend Toby were there, they brought in a few kids from the preschool that meets at the building. One of the girls was in his class last year so he was excited to see her. They talked about colors and even did a science experiment with milk and food coloring. The teacher played music and they danced. They matched colored pictures to the right color page. It was a fun time. After class we went to a swim party at one of the boy's houses in our co-op. They have a wonderful pool with a big waterslide. Caden had a blast!

Play-doh!

Coloring pairs

Finding and coloring pairs. When he colored the items the same he wanted to blend colors
so he used red and blue to make purple and blue and yellow to make green.

Cutting out the letters

I got them all right!

Seeing if the items are identical

They rolled a colored cube and pointed to things in the room that were that color.

Pasting colored pictures to his colored book

Science experiment time! They started with milk in a dish.

Then we added food coloring to the milk

Then they swirled the milk and colors around

This was a fun experiment

Swimming at the pool

He just went down the slide

I just missed getting a picture of him going down the slide

My phone wasn't fast enough to catch him in the air going down the slide

He wanted me to go with him and a friend got this picture

The almost raisins are looking good!

Day 5: Last night Caden didn't sleep very much. He's never been a really "good" sleeper. The doctor told us that some kids just don't need as much sleep as others do. Lucky us! I had him lay with me a little while this morning because we had a busy day today. When we got out of bed, I made him moon pancakes. He loved them! Then we got ready and he did his school work. One of the projects he made today was a rocket. We talked about getting to the moon and how someone would get there. A little later we met some friends for lunch and then went to one of my homeschooling friend's house for a playdate baby shower combo. There are four of us in one of our groups that are currently pregnant. My friend, Darcy, and a few others decided to give us a little shower. They brought some diapers and other sweet baby necessities for us. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures from any of this. If I don't take pictures right away, I usually end up not taking any. Overall we had a wonderful week!