Preschool Week 2

Week 2 was our introduction to North America. It was really fun to pick out picture books for this unit of the curriculum. It made me realize how truly diverse North America is. To be honest, I don't always think of North America as having the cultural diversity of, say, Europe, or Asia. But there are a lot of very different cultures here, from Native American to Mexican to Caribbean to Eskimo. Plus, there's a lot of diversity in the land, with deserts, islands, forests, ice caps, mountains, and so many others. I only wish we could cover more!

We started reading Little House in the Big Woods, which is a lot of fun for me because I loved that book as a kid (and still loved it when I re-read it not too long ago). I love picturing what life was like back then. I think it's interesting to read it with Rhonda, because I'm not sure how much she really understands of it. I don't know what she's picturing when I read about a pig being butchered, or butter being churned, or even Laura playing with a pretend doll that's just a corn cob. (Can Rhonda imagine a life without dolls?) I'm glad there are some pictures in the book to give her at least a little bit of reference. She always listens attentively.

To go with our Little House reading, we made homemade bread and homemade butter (just like the Ingalls family did!...If the Ingalls family had had a KitchenAid.) Rhonda loved making her own little loaf of bread, just like Laura.

We started reading Thirteen Moons on a Turtle's Back, which has Native American stories about the different moons of the year.

We two crafts this week. One was making a suitcase from a cereal box. I had a lot of fun making this craft. (Rhonda had a lot of fun cutting and gluing scrap paper, and then putting stickers on the suitcase when I finished making it.)

At the end of the week we made papel picados out of tissue paper and hung them on the wall in our playroom. 

We read some other books about the United States that I found at the library: 

The Scrambled States of America

The Scrambled States of America Talent Show

My Grandfather's Coat

Johnny Appleseed

L is for Lone Star: A Texas Alphabet

Unrelated to school, Rhonda asked to have a "cookies and milk tea party." I thought this seemed like a reasonable request, and she kept asking for a few days, so I invited over a little friend of hers. Michelle loaned us a kid-sized table and chairs, a little plastic tea set, and a cupcake ferris wheel. We made sparkle sugar cookies and got both chocolate and regular milk. The girls dressed fancy. They had the BEST time! They sat at the table for ages and poured endless cups of milk from the little teapots. Sierra also enjoyed herself, and even managed to drink out of her own teacup with very little spilling. 

Rhonda had a really fun time with all our activities this week. I found it a little difficult at times to fit everything into our schedule, but I love having really fun things planned out for her.