{Books We Read}

Our Ready-Made Preschool book this week was Even Firefighters Hug Their Moms. The little boy and his sister pretend to be several community helpers but the little boy never takes time to stop playing and come hug his mom…until the end! I am just going to go ahead and say that of all the books we’ve read so far, this was my least favorite. (Little Bug loved the book.) I just didn’t like the way the boy responded to his mom when she would ask for hugs. He came across as being disrespectful to his mom. Even so, this is a great book to talk about pretend play and community helpers with your child. Little Bug and Sweet Pea have recently started to pretend play together more and more and I think that is one reason Little Bug enjoyed this book so much.

Little Bug is into having chapter books read aloud to her and I can hardly believe it! I figured it would still be a couple years away before she would be interested in chapter books but we are currently reading two chapter books to her: The Boxcar Children #1 (Mommy) and The Jungle Book (Daddy). The Jungle Book does have a picture on every page but the Boxcar Children book does not. It is funny to me because even if there are no pictures on the page, Little Bug still wants me to hold the book in front of her as I do when reading a picture book to her! While reading these Read Aloud books she is often munching on a snack. We usually read these books to her after Sweet Pea has gone to bed and before Little Bug’s bedtime. It has become a favorite time with her for each of us. I look forward to when Sweet Pea will join in the Read Alouds too!

{Activities we Did}

We learned all about community helpers! Day 1 was learning about the EMT. Little Bug got to make her very own medical bag complete with some medical supplies that she and her sister played with literally the entire afternoon. Little Bug kept wanting her sister to fall so she could bandage up her boo-boo. Day 2 we learned about mail carriers. Little Bug was to make a card to mail to someone. She chose to make a card for Micah (yes, Rebecca’s Micah). These two talk about each other often even though they only see each other 1-2ish times a year. She also got to make some mailboxes (using boxes from our recycle bin) and pretend mail. Then she had to deliver her mail to the correct mailboxes. Day 3 we learned about police officers and how everyone in the world has a unique fingerprint. She did some Fingerprint Math and made the correct number of fingerprints in each box. Day 4 we learned about dentists. She got to brush a paper tooth using white paint, mint toothpaste and glitter. That was definitely a highlight in her week! We learned about healthy foods for our teeth. She made a happy face and frowny face paper plate and then we cut out foods from a grocery store flyer and she glued the foods on the correct plate. The happy face plate was for healthy foods for our teeth and the frowny plate was for foods that were high in sugar and are bad for our teeth if we eat them all the time. Our Bible lessons were centered around the story of Jacob and Esau. We talked about being dishonest and how that does not honor God.

{Concepts we Learned}

Our Letter of the Week was Ff. She made a “Flower F” and then enjoyed her activities that help reinforce the Ff sound and how to write the Ff. Ready-Made Preschool does have a strong daily emphasis on letter sounds and letter formation. Every day we talk about the letter sounds and every day she does one of her seven fun ways to write letters without using pen or pencil! Little Bug loves her Mystery Box at the beginning of the week. This is how she finds out what her Letter of the Week will be. I put something in her box that starts with our Letter of the Week and she has to find the Mystery Box which is hiding somewhere in the house. This week there were flowers in her Mystery Box.

{Places we Went}

We took a trip to the Post Office! Little Bug got to mail her letter to Micah, we walked all around the post office looking at all the packing supplies that were for sale, we watched people come in to mail packages and put our ears up to the mailboxes because you could hear people behind them talking. I told the girls those were the mail workers who were sorting all the mail. Later that day, we drove by the post office on our way to somewhere else and Little Bug noticed all the mail trucks parked in the back of the post office.

{Mudpies to Magnets}

We did an experiment called Rampin’ It (page 51). Little Bug and Grams built a ramp with blocks and a piece of cardboard. Then they picked two cars that were Uncle’s when he was a boy and they let the cars race down the ramp. The kept building the ramp steeper and steeper and measuring how far the cars would go. Finally, the ramp was so steep the cars were crashing. We asked Little Bug what she needed to do to her ramp to make the cars not crash. She said, “Take away some of the blocks.”

The girls also got to help Grams plant some pansies. We got to take a pot of two pansies home to put on our deck!

Little Bug’s work on display at the end of the week:

- Elaine