Laura Gillian requested that I create a Halloween post. I figured that I needed to do that before Thanksgiving came, so here it is.
Can I just pause here and say I am not deliberately not blogging, but the only time of day that my full attention (I am using the term full attention very loosely) is not required by someone else is nap time. I am lucky if nap time last two hours. There are a lot of things that have to be done in those two hours. Some of those things include, but are not limited to cleaning up or setting up for preschool activities. Have I mentioned on here recently that I love doing preschool at home? Best long drawn out decision we have made as parents. I think that both of my ladies are thriving doing school at home. I don't make Maggie sit with us and do school work. She has the option of free play if she wants it, but it never fails she always comes back to the kitchen table with us.
Speaking of school, most weeks we focus on one letter, but for about a week and a half before Halloween we did a unit on Fall/Halloween that culminated on Halloween day.
We had so much fun. I made them a "Boo Bowling" game out of toilet paper rolls (I'm not clever, I saw the idea on Pinterest of course :) They used their mini pumpkins as bowling balls. They loved this activity and even played with it after "school" was over.
In between the bowling Mags sorted acorns from a tray to a bowl, stuffed leaves into our busy ball popper to watch them fly around the room, and played a fall matching game.
When she wasn't bowling a strike, Libby and I read a fall story, then she found key words in the story and circled them...like leaves, apples, acorns, and pumpkin. She loves this kind of activity. Another favorite of hers from this unit was fall shape graphing. I printed a dice that had different fall pictures on it and we would mark on a graph each shape we rolled. Then we would see what shape "won" the game. She wanted to play this game several days in a row. I should really take pictures of these things.
I am seeing first hand a love for learning growing in my girls. Recently I've been thinking about investing in a slightly more challenging curriculum, for Libby. Since we started she is picking up on things so fast and I am really seeing that her desire to read by herself is growing each day.
Back to Halloween...after school was over Robbie and June Bug came over for a Halloween lunch. They had a pumpkin hunt, they played Halloween Bingo with candy corn, painted pumpkin pictures. and ate a Halloween themed lunch!
Try telling a 4, 2, and 1 year old they can play with candy, but they can't eat it...they did as well as could be expected :) We let them eat the candy corn when we finished the game.
The girls did really well on their pumpkin painting and insisted on giving them to our neighbors. That is another plus of home school for us, Libby's love for art is really developing. She has never been that interested in art projects, but I see her taking real pride in her work these days. This was aided in the fact that Ms Robin hung their pictures on the front door so that everyone that passed by Halloween night could see them :)
I have a genetic problem called "inability to buy a costume." Because my mother always made our costumes, I feel like I must make all costumes for my girls. I don't know why I feel this way, but I can't seem to stop it.
So here is hand made Alice
And hand made Mad Hatter
With thrown together White Rabbit
All together with the Cheshire Cat
Alice's dress was actually a hand-me-down dress that I altered a bit to fit her. I made her apron out of a white bed sheet and rick rack.
For the made hatter, I just frilled up and old onsie with trim and picked out some striped baby legs for her to wear. I did not make her hat, it was my splurge purchase since I don't splurge on buying the costume.
The White Rabbit just happened to have a waist coat and tie in his closest. His pocket watch was made with markers and two paper plates. His ears were kindly lent to us by our neighbors.
For the Cheshire cat, I bought some outlandish false eye lashes and borrowed a striped shirt from a friend. I also purchased my ears, which were promptly confiscated by the girls as soon as I was done with them.
We normally have a Halloween party at our house the night of Halloween, but we decided to instead to do trunk or treat with our church this year to help provide a safe place for children in the neighborhood (our church is in the hood). When I asked Libby what her favorite part of Halloween was she said "passing out the candy to the children." So thankful for this answer. I am aware that it might change to getting candy for myself, or dressing up or anything else, but for now her first answer was about giving to others and thinking of others before ourselves...which at the Jones Family Preschool is a big thing that we teach.
Till next October 31st
Happy Hauntings
Grace and Peace
xoxo
BTW, Grandma comes in T- 3 days!!! Woohoo! Who will comment on my blog while she is away?
