Preschool Week of 11/19

Well, this was an interesting week! We finally quit the Parent Participation Preschool. It got to the point where Crumpet refused to go in, even on the day he was line leader. Normally, he loves to be line leader, so I knew we were done. That was Monday.
Tuesday, we delivered Meals on Wheels, and it went great. People knew us from the week before, so they were less shy, and they all love to see Crumpet, even though he won't talk to most of them yet.
Wednesday is normally a preschool day, and I intend to keep Monday and Wednesday mornings as school times. We got tons of work done at home and it felt good. Crumpet's reading is coming along in leaps and bounds. This process is truly amazing to watch. We started telling time to the hour in McRuffy math. This is mostly review for Crumpet, and he did well. In McRuffy science, we completed a topic called "Clown Attributes". This is a unit dealing with many differently dressed clowns. The child has to sort them according to a variety of rules, and at the end, they sort them using Venn diagrams. Crumpet wasn't exactly focused during a lot of this, and I think we may repeat it at the end of the year...
For science, we also did an experiment that I found in the book Science Crafts for Kids: 50 Fantastic Things to Invent & Create by Gwen Diehn and Terry Krautwurst. One day when we were at the beach Crumpet asked "How do waves be made? Fish bubbles?" This book explained how waves are made, and taught us how to make a wave in a bottle. I don't think Crumpet cared at all about the waves, but he enjoyed adding food coloring to vegetable oil and seeing how it reacts. Then he added raisins to see if they would dance like they do in Sprite... You just never know how an experiment may end up around here...
Wednesday, we also went to the Contemporary Art Museum in Honolulu. This was a really neat field trip. Some of the art was wacky, but we enjoyed a lot of it. There are beautiful gardens, and the cafe has wonderful chocolate cake!
Thursday, we went to the zoo with friends.
It was a nice week. I'm looking forward to having fewer scheduled events around here, and being able to get some learning done at home. For more preschool posts, visit Homeschool Creations.

Preschool - Learning about Service to Others

One of my more important goals as a parent is to teach Crumpet about service to others. I want him to understand how blessed we are to have so much, and that it is our duty to help others who are not so fortunate. I've thought about this for years, but it took me a while to find just the right starting activity. It's hard to find a volunteer activity that is appropriate for young children, especially one as shy as Crumpet. I think I've done it though, and this week we began delivering for an organization which provides Meals on Wheels!
This is perfect because Crumpet doesn't have to interact too much with the seniors we deliver to until he gets to know them better. At the same, they get to see a young child, and that made everyone's day. Due to poor communication, we ended up delivering several routes instead of just one on our first day. It took a long time because we didn't know where all of the houses were. Through it all, Crumpet was a superstar. He never once complained, even though he climbed in and out of the car 18 times.
Fortunately/Unfortunately, our first delivery was to the friendliest woman we met all day. She was delighted to see Crumpet. And, she gave him a little McDonalds stuffed doggie as a present. This was good because Crumpet warmed up to her right away and decided he loved this volunteer stuff! He kept talking about how she was 'too kind'. However, he was a bit disappointed when no one else spoiled him with presents. It led us into a good discussion about the fact that many of these people can't afford meals, or don't have the ability to get to the store to buy food or presents, which is why we are visiting them. It gave Crumpet a lot to think about.
We will be doing this every week, and I'm excited to see how we progress.
In addition, we will be making 75 pb&j sandwiches and brownies next week for a 'feed the homeless keiki (Hawaiian for children)' program. I'm not sure how much Crumpet will be able to help, but it will be another chance for him to see the adults around him being active in the community. This is also the week we will pack our box for Operation Christmas Child, and I'm taking Crumpet shopping to help fill the box tomorrow.

In other news, we went camping at the beach with friends. Spending 24 hours in a small cabin with other kids was a really great chance to work on socialization skills! And of course, we got to do lots of nature study, and we got lots of exercise.
We tried out a peddle bike. This is hard work and it was really too bad the boys have such short legs - they couldn't help!
We got really really wet!
And we were treated to stunning views.
For more preschool posts, visit Homeschool Creations!