With Good Reason

It's been over a month since my last post, but I promise this time it is with good reason. Shortly after my last post, Jeff and I found out that we were pregnant with our sweet baby #2! We were excited, of course, but I was scared and very anxious about the possibility of morning sickness as I was very sick with Lucy all day, every day for 10 straight weeks. My days were spent eating, fighting fatigue to keep up with housework, and starting some Christmas fun with our busy bee. Oh, and sleeping. I did a lot of extra sleeping. But no sickness, praise the Lord for that! Christmas came and went in one giant wrapping paper, 2-year-old excitement, princess extravaganza. It was crazy, it was loud, and it was fun watching Lucy finally grasp the concept of Christmas and verbalize that it's Jesus' birthday. What a blessing her little mind is!

I will spare you the details, but a few days ago I was experiencing some problems so I called the doctor and went in to see our precious baby's heartbeat. I was told everything looked normal and good but to call if there were any more problems. I woke up the next morning with some faint cramping and I knew we were about to face one of our biggest challenges as a family. We quickly packed a few things, called the doctor from the driveway, and started our longest trip ever to Columbia. As my cramping worsened on the way, all I could do was pray and ask God to please take care of our sweet little one. I prayed that he (I was sure from the beginning this precious child is a boy) would find my grandmother and Jeff's grandmother and his two cousins who were also lost shortly after conception. All I could do was pray and repeat Job 1:21 over and over- "And he said, 'Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.'"

The doctor's office was as busy as I've ever seen it and all I could think as I was looking at those pregnant bellies was, "that's supposed to be me". I was finally called back and could immediately see on the ultrasound machine that there was no longer a baby or a heartbeat. My fears were confirmed and I was sent next door to the hospital for surgery. I can't describe the sadness, fear, and loneliness as I put on that hospital gown.

As I woke up from surgery and remembered how much our lives had changed that morning, I just felt empty. A mother's worse fear is losing her child and although we had only known this one for 8 weeks and 3 days, he was still a part of our family and I just can't fathom what to do without him; I'm not sure how to proceed. I know that life will return to normal and by the grace of God we will get through this but right now I'm struggling to remember life before him- before the cravings and the sleeping and the excitement of the little miracle growing inside of me and most of all the memories yet to be made.

I am so thankful for all of the sweet friends who have called and texted over the past few days. I am grateful for all of the prayers. I do feel all of them and just ask that you would continue to pray for our hurting family especially as we try to explain this to Lucy. She was so excited about her baby sister (she was certain we were having a girl) and it was difficult enough to explain having a baby to our 2 year old, but now to explain this will be even more challenging, especially when we don't fully understand it ourselves.

I am grateful for the scripture that my Facebook friends have posted as their statuses the past couple of days. I am certain that the Lord gave you that scripture for me because each time I have checked for status updates, perfect words from our Father have spoken to my heart and reminded me of his love and goodness.

And to my sweet baby boy (I'm sorry if you are actually a girl. I would be thrilled either way but I can only picture you as a boy),

Please know that your mommy, daddy, and big sister love you so much and we can't wait to meet you one day. You will always be our baby #2,; our perfect child, because you are now whole and perfect in every way. Please give your Nana some love from all of us and introduce her to your Memaw because I think they would be great friends. Let them spoil you and love you enough for all of us. Have fun with your cousins and know that you are the only 3 Rohrlack/Pruitt children who will never experience the time-out chair.

I am certain that mommies learn just as much from their children as their children learn from them, and you sweet one, have taught me some things in the short time that we have spent together. You have given me hope that I can be pregnant without being sick, you have shown me that I can love another child as much as I love your sister because I just didn't think it was possible, and you have helped me find strength that I never knew I had.

We love you sweet boy and one day we will hold you forever.

30 Days of Thanks (16-22)

16: I am thankful for my mom. She's a beautiful woman, inside and out, always puts others before herself, and is a fabulous example of a Godly wife, mother, friend, sister, coworker, and grandmother. Happy Birthday Mom!

17: I am thankful that my mom's birthday party was at Chuck E. Cheese. I think that's the best party I've ever been to!

18: I am thankful for leftover fleece from our play group's ministry project and for all the Christmas gifts that will be made using it.

19: I am thankful for my sewing machine and for Lucy's new brown corduroy skirt that it produced.

20: I am thankful for the ability to experience a baptism service at Cedar Creek Church. Watching nearly 30 individuals, families, friends, and special needs children surrender their lives to the Lord is AMAZING! There is nothing more beautiful than watching families baptize each other.

21: I am thankful for the washing machine repair man who is coming to fix my machine tomorrow and for not having to dry each load for 3 hours anymore. I am also thankful for more free Christmas cards. (My goal is to get all my Christmas cards for free this year. I'm up to 35 at the moment.)

22: I am thankful for haircuts.

D is for Doctor (Pruitt Preschool)

When I told Lucy we were learning about doctors this week, she said, "Yay, yay, yay! Just like Pepaw!" Lucy's Pepaw is a doctor and I'm pretty sure she thinks he takes medicine, gives stickers, and plays with a stethoscope all day long. She was very excited to play with the band aides again from B week, and making donuts with her good friend Will didn't hurt either.

Our book of the week was My Friend the Doctor by Joanna Cole.

Our Bible verse was "A cheerful heart is good medicine." Proverbs 17:22

We started our week with our 1st family dinner at our new dining room table. I got this table for my birthday and it took a couple of weeks for delivery and assembly so it was ready just in time for D week and there were just too many d's to pass up.

Don't mind the unfinished, Halloween centerpiece; it actually did turn out cute but certainly not in this picture. And, apparently I like corn.

Next up, our 1st sensory bin. Sensory bins are just what they sound like, bins that stimulate the senses. This bin was filled with cotton balls, band aides, alcohol wipes, tongue depressors, medicine droppers, and other things out of our 1st aide kit and medicine cabinet. I also included a bottle of Tylenol so Lucy could shake it but I, of course, was their to supervise the whole time.

When she got bored with the bin, I pulled out some tweezers and a mini muffin tin so she could work on some fine motor skills by transferring cotton balls to the muffin tins using the tweezers. I had her transfer them left (the sensory bin) to right (the muffin tin) to help develop some early literacy skills.

Then we played doctor. I had 1 of Jeff's white, button-down shirts ready so Lucy could wear a "white coat" but she was not interested in that so Dr. Lucy went to work in her pj's.

Lucy created a " recovery room" for all of her patients.

We played with play-doh but we just called it "dough" for the week. She used different d cookie cutters to help reinforce our letter.

The highlight was making donut cookies with Will. This is a recipe from a cookbook that I have and they are perfect cookies for kids. They are small and just sweet enough to satisfy a sweet tooth.

Will and Lucy enjoyed these yummy donuts on their little date in the kitchen.

D week was very fun but I was not looking forward to E week (Eggs) at all!!! I think we made it pretty fun despite the stinky egg smell. Stay tuned...

30 Days of Thanks (11,12,13,14,15)

Has it been that long???

11: I'm thankful for our play group and for the many opportunities Lucy gets to share her toys.

12: I'm thankful for naps.

13: I am thankful for rest and leftovers!

14: While eating outside at "King Burger," Lucy said, "It's the perfect day!" I'm thankful for "perfect days" with my little princess.

15: I'm thankful for friends to talk to and chocolate chip cookies to help me relax after a long day.

30 Days of Thanks (7,8,9,10)

7: I am thankful for time to clean my house. I felt like I was always behind on housework when I was working, so I am thankful that I now have time to create a clean, healthy, and safe place for my family.

8: I am thankful for Publix. Not only for the hundreds of dollars they save us each year, but today especially for the cool cardboard gingerbread house they gave to Lucy just because we were in the right place at the right time.

9: I am thankful for our 2 fabulous home groups who we get to share our lives with and for my in laws for keeping Lucy safe and entertained so we can enjoy our time with friends and ministry partners.

10: I am thankful for my precious neice and for all of the smiles and good conversation she and I shared this morning.

30 Days of Thanks (6) and My Kid's Funny!

I am thankful for my church because it's the best, Sunday afternoon naps, coupons from the Sunday paper, and for the funny things my kid does.

I left Lucy downstairs watching Pound Puppies while I went up to get her clothes. I came down and she was on all 4's with our dogs leash clipped to her neck (the skin of her neck) and she was taking herself for a walk.

We ate lunch at Firehouse Subs today. Lucy was a little out-of-sorts due to the time change and some Benadryl to clear up a rash. She likes to take my toothpicks that hold my sandwich together and eat her food with them. (Yes, I'm the great mom who give her child sharp, pointy things to eat with. Anything to keep her occupied, right?!) So she's eating her food with my toothpick and a family comes up to the table across from us to sit down. While the mom straps her child in the highchair, her slightly large hieney was facing Lucy. So Lucy picks up her toothpick and aims it in the direction of the ladies hieney then stops and looks at me for approval. I, of course, grabbed her arm but was laughing to hard to actually tell her stop. Fortunately she stopped before actually poking the lady, but my dad and I got the mental picture in our head and that was all that was needed to make this a very humorous situation.

Happy Sunday!

30 Days of Thanks (5)

I am bursting with thanks today and can hardly type because the excitement is just flowing out of me. First, I am thankful for my parents. Not just for being the amazing parents that they are because they really are the best (and I know a lot of parents), but today I'm particularly thankful that they came to visit us and take our 1st annual (sorry Jeff) Fall Family Pics (see above photo) and for hanging out with us and our crazy girl. I'm also thankful for Walgreens offering 25 Free 4x6 pics. So, in case you're like me and have trouble with math, our family pics were FREE!!! And now I'll end this grammatically awkward post.

30 Days of Thanks (4)

Today I'm thankful for my wonderful husband who occupied Lucy while I slept in and for finally finishing my Thanksgiving wreath. I'm also thankful for the ice cream that is about to walk through my door!

30 Days of Thanks (1-3)

I seen many Facebook statuses over the past few days listing things people are thankful, 1 for each day of the month of November. I often find myself complaining rather than being thankful so I thought I would take this as an opportunity to express thanks to God for so many blessings and to challenge myself to write 1 post each day for a whole month. (Yes, I know, I'm setting myself up for disappointment, but I'm doing it anyway!)

Of course I am thankful for Jeff, Lucy, family, friends, food, clothing, and all other necessities of life, so I thought it would be more fun to focus on 1 thing that I am thankful for that happened each day. Hopefully you will feel inspired to thank God for some pretty great blessings in your day as well.

Nov.1: I'm thankful that yesterday was Halloween and that Lucy went trick-or-treating for the 1st time at the age of 2 because she can't really eat all types of candy yet so I get to help her out! (Since that was really about yesterday, I'll do another for today.) I'm thankful that I get to stay home and teach my crazy Goose because we have so much fun and it's way better than teaching other people's kids. (Not that I'm not thankful for the time I had doing that; this is just more fun.)

Nov.2: I'm thankful for CVS because I saved $19 today, only spent $3.39, and got toilet paper for $.20.

Nov. 3: I'm thankful for cleaning out my wallet and checking the balances on all of our gift cards to find that we have $7.45 at Target, $6.36 at Dunkin Donuts, $6.85 at Moes, $50 at Victoria's Secret, $8.53 at Cracker Barrel, and $4.83 at Starbucks to spend! What a great day!!! (I'm also thankful for the many family and friends who gave us the gift cards.)

Potty Break

Yes, some of you are thinking, "Oh, thank goodness she's taking a break from all of the preschool madness" and while that is true, this post may be somewhat of a "stinker" as well.

Let me just say that having a potty trained 2 year old is FRUSTRATING!!! First there's the constant need to go. Lucy drinks a lot. Like 3 cups of juice (1/4 juice, 3/4 water) or milk within the 1st hour of being awake a lot. So after her 2nd cup, the trips to the potty begin. Every 20 minutes. Every. Single. Morning. Your thinking, "Limit the amount that the kid drinks and get over it, lady" but Lucy comes from a long line of heavy drinkers and she really is thirsty so I feel like that would just be neglect and I can't just deprive the kid of liquids now can I?!

Of course, when your kid goes every 20 minutes, you have to plan your trips strategically. We used to have this great ritual of me saying, "Lucy, we're leaving in just a few minutes. Do you need to go potty?" and to which she says, "No, I not need to go." Followed by me saying, "lets try" and a huge meltdown because I carried her to the potty, wrestled with her to get her pants down, forced her to sit on the potty kicking and screaming just for her to sit there and not go. Then I say, "Ok, it's going to be a little while until we get there so if you need to go you're going to have wet pants." Then I gather our stuff, get her past the bushes, pine straw, flowers, and butterflies (she likes to bring nature on her journeys), and buckle her in her seat. Then I get myself buckled, sunglasses in place, Bob and Larry on the radio, get out of the driveway and she says, "I need to go potty, Mommy." Ugh!!! Is there anything more frustrating?!

We have gotten past the meltdowns and now she will generally go before we leave without much of a fuss. Instead she now has an obsession with public bathrooms. Gas station bathrooms to be specific. Some you may know that I have a fear of public bathrooms. Bad things happen in there. And gas stations are the worst. We have actually gone to a gas station bathroom (the outside kind) where the lights didn't work. Yes, try getting a 2 year on the potty without touching anything in complete and total pitch-black dark. And she thinks this is fun. She has even said when I've asked if she needed to go before leaving the house, "I go in gas station potty." Really??? She has to get this little pleasure from her daddy.

Because I have a blog and I can write anything I want, and since we're on the subject of public bathrooms, I thought I would share some public potty etiquette.

Rule: It is not ok to share with your fellow public potty uses what you are currently doing in the potty. We DO NOT want to know!

Here's a story for you.

We stop at yet another gas station potty (we live in a small town about 40 miles from our families and there are only gas stations) and Lucy is jabbering away as usual because, you know, she never stops, and the lady in the stall next to us says, "Do you have to go potty?" (Well hello lady. We are in a bathroom and it's certainly not by choice.) Lucy, being the happy little clam that she is, says "Uh-huh. You have to go potty too?" Lady: "Yes. I'm trying to pass some kidney stones. I just passed one 30 minutes ago and I've got 2 more to go. It's like having a baby." Me: (In my head) "Oh my goodness. Is she really saying this? Hurry Lucy, hurry. Must. Get. Out." Lucy: "You're having a baby in there? What's her name?" This conversation went on but it's kind of a blur because I was really focused on getting out of there.

In summary, my kid potty's a lot, public potties=gross, kidney stones AHHHHHHH!!!

C is for CANDY!!!

I do believe this is and will always be my very favorite week. I mean seriously, cookies, candy, chocolate, cooking, etc., etc., what is not to love?! I was somewhat apprehensive to do a candy theme with a 2 year old who receives limited sugar but then I read in a magazine that sugar doesn't actually cause a child to be hyper. It's generally the situation that increases the kid's energy level (think birthday party) so I thought, why not? (Yes, I do believe everything I read in magazines. What, it's not like it's TV and it's research based, right???)

Where was I going with this??? Ahhhh, yes... candy. So our theme was candy. Our book of the week was Chocolatina by Erik Kraft.

This is a very fun book about a little girl who loves chocolate so much that she wishes she could turn into chocolate but, when it actually happens, turns out she doesn't like it so much. You know, being stiff and melting in the sun and all isn't so great, not to mention that her classmates and health teacher want to eat her. Anyway, Lucy really likes this book and even though it makes the "ch" sound instead of the /k/ sound, it starts with a "C" so I chose to focus on that.

Our verse for the week was "Taste and see that the Lord is good." Psalm 34:8.

We started the week with some yummy chocolate chip muffins. (Thanks Martha White!)

We also had delicious candy cookies for dessert.

We went to Will's house to bake "Cookies for Kairos". Our goal is to do 1 ministry project each month. We are finding this very easy to do because our church does 1 "Be The Church" project each month and they are "coincidentally" corresponding to our themes. This project was a prison ministry where families bake cookies for prisoners, pray over them, deliver them to the church, and the church delivers them to prisoners to let them know that God loves them and through him they can find forgiveness.

To say Lucy and will had fun is a huge understatement. These 2 made a huge mess and taste-tested their way to make 4 dozen White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies. They also put on a little concert for us while the cookies were baking...

Lucy practiced cutting,

coloring,

played Candy Land,

and cooked crayons.

Directions: Heat oven to 250 degrees. Break your crayons into small enough pieces to fit into your cupcake pan. We used crayons that were already broken because Lucy refuses to use them anyway. Line your cupcake pan with cupcake liners. (You can find many ways to do this online, including using cookie cutters or mini bread pans or silicone pans. I wasn't willing to risk loosing my cookie cutters and I didn't have the other options so I used cupcake liners.) Put like colors together in the cupcake liners then pop in the oven. I checked mine every 5 minutes until all lumps were gone. I tried stirring them but the wax just sticks to the spoon so I wouldn't recommend that. When they are sufficiently melted, put them in the fridge to harden, about 15 to 20 minutes. Then peel the paper off. (It comes off very easily.)

While our crayons were hardening, Lucy made a cereal necklace.

(She was very quick to tell me that you aren't supposed to play with your food.)

We ended the week with a bang by meeting Will at a candy store. The kids had a blast, as did the parents!

(It actually did rain that day, hence the rain boots.)

After the candy store, we enjoyed lunch at Chick-Fil-A.

"Look, we found a "C"!"

We all had another great week of preschool. I do think this will be the sweetest week ever!

B is for Bear

So it's been FOREVER since I've posted our preschool fun (so much for that weekly post, right?). We've just been so busy learning there hasn't been time for the blog. Since I'm so far behind, you may see lots of preschool posts in the next few weeks (if I can get myself together), so sorry to those who could care less about Lucy's preschool adventures.

Our book of the week was Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do You See?

Lucy loves this book and can "read" it by herself!

Our weekly verse was, "God's tests will never be more than you can Bear." 1 Corinthians 10:13.

We were still in Columbia when "B Week" Began so we met Lucy's Best friend Will at RiverBanks Zoo Bright and early Monday morning to see the

Bears,

Bats,

Bunnies, and

Birds.

Lucy and Will went home for some quick naps then we met at Teddy Mountain so they could Build their own Bears.

That thought Back-fired when Lucy decided on a unicorn and Will chose a tiger, but they had a Blast nonetheless.

I made Beary-yummy pancakes for breakfast the next morning.

(This also Back-fired as Lucy now wants all of her pancakes to look like Bears. Since her pancakes are usually made by Aunt Jemima and come from a box in the freezer, that's not possible.)

We went through our usual morning routine on Tuesday. Lucy created her B page for her alphabet book,

and practiced following directions and identifying body parts by playing the teddy Bear Boo-Boo game.

I used to play this game with my preschool speech kids and it is always a favorite. Get a Bear (or in Lucy's case, unicorn) and some Band aides. Then tell the child where Bear (unicorn) has a Boo-Boo and tell them to put a Band aide there. For example, Unicorn hurt her neck. Put a Band aide on Unicorn's neck.

Tuesday is dance day so we talked about how B is for Ballerina.

Please excuse the strange face. Lucy went through a weird smile phase. Glad that's over!

On Thursday, some friends joined Lucy for preschool so their mom could unpack and organize their new house. We enjoyed Pear Bear Muffins for Breakfast.

My pears had gone bad so mine are decorated a little differently than in the recipe, but the kids enjoyed them anyway.

The kids made Bird feeders by putting peanut butter on a pine cone and rolling it in bird seed.

Then Lucy and Caleb searched for Buried treasure in the sandbox.

Everyone had a fun week and I'm finding that our mornings go better on the days we have preschool. Lucy asks to play preschool almost daily and is always excited about the fun activities.

A is for Apple (Pruitt Preschool)

We had a bit of a slow start to our preschool days. Lucy had a new cousin who was supposed to make her debut on our 1st day of preschool so Lucy spent the day with her Memaw while I spent the day with my nephew. Kylie decided to take her sweet time so we only got one day of preschool in our first week. We didn't mind one bit because we got to spend some time with our newest and cutest family member.

We started with our "morning meeting" (at 6pm). Our book of the week was:

Our weekly verse was "Keep God as the apple of your eye" Psalm 17:8. (I know Lucy is waaaayyyy too young for idioms, but the whole point is to fill that little mind with scripture starting now while she's very young so, mission accomplished.)

Next we painted with apple stamps.

The painting was used to make Lucy's "A" page for her alphabet book.

For snack, we made applesauce using this recipe without the sugar.

Putting in the apples

Mashing them up

1 and a half thumbs up

Next she searched for "A's" that I hid around the living room. This is now her favorite game. She found a "C" (I'm a few weeks behind on my posts) on her carseat today and got very excited.

Then we did some table work. I used some activities and printables from this site.

Same vs. Different

Saturday was Lucy's Memaw's birthday so we made a homemade apple pie just for Memaw.

Lucy thought the apple pie was delicious!

Lucy had a great time and now says, "Mommy, want to play preschool with me?". I'd say we're off to a great start!

A Meaty Secret

Jeff Pruitt, if you are reading this, exit out and forget your ever saw it. This post will not reveal a secret gift, just a cooking secret I prefer you not know. Thanks Mr. Love you!

Now that he's gone I can share my secret freely.

A few years ago I learned something very important about my husband. We were having some friends over for dinner before a church softball game. Since the boys would be playing softball, I thought we should eat something kind of light and I already had the ingredients to make Pampered Chef's 3-Cheese Garden Pizza so I thought that would be a good choice. I sliced all my veggies, mixed everything up, spread it on top, popped it in the oven, and pulled it out just as our guest were arriving. I began serving it and Jeff says, "Where's the meat?" to which I replied, "There isn't any. It's a GARDEN pizza." Then he asked, "Well then, what's the main course?" "Ummmm, your eating the main course." "But there's no meat. This is an appetizer. Main courses have meat." Lesson learned: Dinner must have meat.

That was pre-Lucy so we had millions of dollars to buy all the meat we needed for dinner. (Yes, millions!) Well now we have Lucy and 1 income and we lost all of our millions so I'm left to find ways to save on our meaty dinners. One blog I frequent says to eat 1 meatless meal per week to help save money. My 1st thought was, "Yes, that would save us money. I would only need to do that 1 time and the poor hubs would starve to death so then I'm just left feeding Lucy and myself. Cha-ching!" But then I realized that if I starve the bread-winner, there would be no more bread so Lucy and I would starve too. Hmmm no meat = no more Pruitts. My sister-in-law once told me about a book she read that said to cut the meat called for in a recipe in half. When she told me this, we both said that would never work in our families. Imagine making meat for tacos. No, no. That will never work.

Buuuuuttttttt, 1 night as I was going to make dinner, I realized I only had half a pound of hamburger meat when I needed a whole pound. What's a girl to do in this situation? I could load up the kid, drive to the store, buy the meat, load up the meat and the kid, drive home, and make dinner an hour later than usual, OR try the half the meat thing and see how it goes. Bet you can't guess which one I chose... Half pound of meat it is! So I made my meal and guess what... no one starved! We all had plenty to eat plus leftovers and no one could tell a difference. I couldn't even tell a difference. So I tried it again the next night, with chicken. It worked again. So I kept trying different recipes using half of the meat called for in the recipe, including with tacos, and we're all still here so I'd say the little experiment was a success. The secret is to cut the meat into small little pieces. When browning hamburger meat, you'll need these 2 things:

Pampered Chef's Mix n' Chop

Pampred Chef's Large Micro Cooker

The mix in chop helps you get the meat into little tiny pieces. It really doesn't have be used with the micro cooker, but the micro cooker allows you to brown your meat in the microwave (sounds gross, but I promise it tastes exactly like it's been done on the stove) which is great because I hate the smell and sight of cooking meat.

For chicken recipes I use 1 chicken breast cut into about 1/2 cubes or 1/4 inch strips, depending on what I'm making.

Of course, this won't work for everything. If you're making steak or chicken to be served as whole pieces of steak or chicken, then you'll need the whole thing. For this, I give Jeff a whole breast or steak and Lucy and I share 1.

I hope this little secret helps you save some dough. Happy cooking!

Pruitt Preschool

As I've mentioned, Lucy is not attending a preschool program this year so she and I are doing preschool together. She loved her class last year and still talks about all of her friends so I'm hoping she will enjoy preschool with Mommy just as much. Her favorite part was her friends and I can't provide that but I have lots of play dates already in the works with lots of different friends so hopefully she'll have plenty of social time.

We are doing preschool on Tues. and Thurs. mornings and using the rest of the week for field trips, play dates, and unfortunately regular household chores. (Contrary to popular belief, stay at home moms actually have lots of work to do... Who knew???)

I'm a little on the OCD side and I need a fairly strict schedule to stick with or I'll put things off until they never get done. I used a sample preschool schedule as a guide for our schedule, changing the activities to fit what I want to do. Here's our schedule:

9am: Morning Meeting

9:30: Art

10: Snack

10:30: Table work

10:45 Playtime

11:15: Music

11:30: Bible story

11:45: Review/Reading

Here is a {very} detailed look at what we will do:

Morning Meeting:

During morning meeting, we'll be using our Morning Meeting board:

• Knock Knock song (This is a song we learned at story time at the library forever ago that Lucy loves. I tried to find it on You Tube but I can't so maybe the librarians made it up??? Maybe one day I'll video Lucy singing it. )
• Greetings (What can I say? I'm an SLP and it's never too early to work on appropriate social greetings.)
• Days of the Week song
• Days section of morning meeting board
• Months of the Year song
• Calendar section of morning meeting board
• Color of the day (Lucy chooses a color from a pile and sticks it to the morning meeting board. I point out some things this color, we talk about other things that are that color then I set a timer for 2 minutes and we go on a color hunt for things around the house that are that color. Throughout the day, I point out things that are the color of the day.)

• Letter of the week (There is a letter of the week curriculum that I know nothing about other than you focus on a different letter each week. All of our activities for the week will revolve around this letter. During this time, I introduce the letter, we talk about the sound it makes and read a book filled with this letter. Ex. A is for Apple so we will read 10 Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss.)
• Bible verse of the week (Ideally this will be a verse related to our letter theme, but sometimes that just won't be possible (I don't think there are D- donuts or dentists in the Bible) so I'll have to stretch it for some of these.)
• Weather (I printed this chart for us to fill in each day. We will then use our weather report to dress Lucy. I took the idea of "Weather Bear" and made a "Weather Lucy" by taking a picture of Lucy in her undies (I felt kind of creepy about this) and printed it in an 8x10, cut it out, and laminated it. Then I "shopped" for clothes for each season online and printed and laminated those. She'll check her "weather report" and dress her picture each day. It's never too early to learn how to dress appropriately for the seasons, right??? She's wearing her Fall dress in the picture below. I'm currently on the hunt for a picture of a great pair of boots.)
• The idea of the morning meeting is to introduce our theme and some basics that I want her to know. You would be surprised how many children don't know how to read a calendar or understand basic time concepts. My child won't be 1 of them!
• Originally I wanted a very small calendar so we could talk about the days of the week and learn the months so I started with this:

Obviously the words are too small and there is so much going on with the scrapbook paper you can't read anything. It just didn't turn out like I expected so I did a little research and came up with my Morning Meeting board. I really would have preferred it to be smaller but I kept thinking of skills I wanted to work on each day and didn't really want a million smaller boards to carry around if we do preschool on the go so I made 1 big one. All of the pieces are velcroed to the board so Lucy can easily stick things on when it's time. (She loves this part!) I keep all of the extra pieces in laminated envelopes on the back so everything is with me when I need it.

Art

Last year in preschool, Lucy "illustrated" her own Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? book by painting the colors of the book. I stole this idea and decided to have her create her own ABC book. Each week, she'll decorate a letter according to the theme. For example, for A week, she'll stamp A's with apples cut in half and covered in paint. This activity will account for 1 art activity for the week. The 2nd art activity will be theme related. For example, for B week, she is going to make a bird feeder by covering a pine cone with peanut butter and rolling it in bird seed.

Snack

Snack will also be theme related. For C week, we are talking about cookies and candy so she'll get to eat cookies for snack. (Any recipes for healthy cookies are welcome!!!)

Table Work

You'll notice that table work is only 15 minutes long. Preschoolers learn best through play and hands on activities so that will be the majority of our time but I do want to target specific skills each week so we will have some theme related but fun table work. For example, for B week, one of Lucy's field trips is going to Teddy Mountain to build a bear. She will use this bear during the next day's table work time to follow directions and locate body parts while putting bandaids where I tell her. (i.e. "Put the bandaid on Teddy Bear's ankle.") See, fun and educational all in 1!

1 "work" activity we will do each week is a letter hunt. I will hide our target letter around a room, on various themed toys, or in plastic eggs for Lucy to find. At first I'll hide all of 1 letter to help her learn to recognize individual letters. As she becomes more proficient at recognizing letters, I'll start hiding various letters, some for that week, some not so she learns to discriminate between several letters.

For help with skills to target I am using The Core Knowledge Sequence. Last year I was able to download the preschool goals in this sequence, but now I can't find them. This link is the closest I can find. I will also be using this book.

Play Time

Sometimes I will select a variety of theme related toys for Lucy to play with during this time (Ex. F is for food so we may have a pretend picnic) but most times I'll let her decide and follow her lead.

Music

1 of my fabulous practicum therapist created a song folder for 1 of our therapy programs and gave each student clinician a copy. It's basically pictures representing various kids songs (Wheels on the bus, London Bridge, Itsy Bitsy Spider, etc.) printed, laminated, and velcroed to a laminated file folder. Lucy picks a song, we sing it, then repeat with another song. She also likes to go on You Tube and sing songs/watch videos of kids songs. We'll also use her instruments to make our own music.

Bible Story

Since is it my job as Lucy's mom to "repeat (God's commands) again and again to (Lucy); talking about them when we are at home, and when we are going to bed and getting up," we will be reviewing Lucy Bible stories from church during preschool. Each Monday, our fabulous Kidz Creek leaders post that weeks Bible story/scripture reference on the church's blog and gives ideas for connecting church and home. I will re-read the story, talk about it, review the memory verse, and pray with Lucy during this time. I may have a coloring page for her to work on while I read if I feel the story is a little long for her attention span, but she enjoys these stories so it may not be necessary. (Just to brag a bit... last month she learned about Jonah and the whale. On Saturday, she told me the story of Jonah and said she wanted to tell her friends at dance. Yesterday she learned about David and told me that he was a shepherd and God helped him fight people. Yep, that's my 2 year old!!!)

Review/Read Books

During this time we'll review our letter of the day, verse of the day, and talk about what she liked and didn't like about preschool that day. This will help me plan future lessons. Lucy loves to "read" so she will have some time to read our themed books from the library while I make lunch.

I will {try} to post our preschool fun each Friday. Of course, this is just the preschool overview post and this week we will be beginning "C week" so I'm not off to the best start. That's the great thing about being your child's teacher; you can be a slacker and there's no one to complain about it! Happy learning!!!