Homeschool Preschool: Week 4

This Week-in-Review post is pretty late, but we had a busy weekend.  Last week was very full for us, but mostly with non-traditional learning.  Here are some of the activities we managed to fit in:

I found some mini-erasers that I got in the Target $1 section a couple weeks ago.  E enjoyed some one-to-one correspondence work by placing them in a paint palette.  L finally started getting the hang of ABAB patterns (the girls haven't really been that interested in sequencing patterns until now).

We threaded plastic drinking straws and Cheerios to make necklaces.  Then the girls played with the straws to make shapes and letters (pretty much independently):

There were a lot of miscellaneous games from items we found lying around like these robot-themed erasers and foam beads:

As always, we did a lot of art activities:

Cooking (here L is helping me tear up bread pieces for meatloaf):

Dramatic play (here L is sailing in her boat):

Building (E is our architect/builder):

And reading (here E is reading one of Baby H's lift-the-flap board books):

Over the weekend, we visited a local corn maze:

Their favorite part was riding on a pony (I was hanging out with Baby H in the shade, so didn't get any pictures).  They also finally got to see fireworks for the first time this year for an end-of-summer celebration (the 4th of July fireworks were all cancelled due to wildfires), and we had a blast.  Baby H had a great time, too, and didn't even flinch at the loud noise (a benefit of growing up around yappy dogs).

E has hit a learning spurt, where she loves working (both independently and together with me) on educational activities and begs for Preschool all the time.

L, on the other hand, has hit a phase where she vehemently rejects any learning activity she doesn't want to do.  Basically we can talk about all sorts of things, but if I ask a follow-up question that she perceives as 'educational' she starts having a fit.  For example, when we were in the car we passed by a reservoir dam and the conversation was something like this:

Me: Check out that dam.  It looks like it's made of rocks.  I think it's for keeping the water in the lake - even when it rains the water won't go over that big dam.  That dam was made by people, but there's an animal that builds dams too.

Girls: A beaver!

Me: Yeah, is a beaver's dam made out of rocks?

E: No, it's made out of wood.

Me: Does the beaver use an ax to chop down wood for his dam?

L: Beavers have sharp teeth for cutting down wood.

Me: That's right.  I wonder what other animals have sharp teeth.

L: I don't want to play a matching game.

Me: We're not playing a matching game, we're just talking.

E: Yeah, L, we are just talking with Mommy.

Me: Sharks have sharp teeth.. oh, and crocodiles, too.

L (yelling): I don't want to play a matching game.

It's strange - I wonder if she feels like I'm quizzing her..  I want to create an environment of curiosity about the world, not to have the kids feel like they're on a game show.  I'm also wondering if E's sudden interest in learning activities and demonstrating the things she knows is related to L's reluctance to engage in those types of activities lately (like finally E can get a chance to outshine her sister?).  When L tells me she doesn't want to do something, I switch to a different game/activity, or tell her that she can go play with something else because E wants to work with me. 

I've heard from other moms that the 3s can be harder than the 2s because kids at this age are very determined.  I think sometimes the kids have no idea why they are having certain moods.  L said to me this morning (after a fit over something): "Mommy, why am I grumpy?  Is it because I didn't get a nap today?"  After going through 2 full-term pregnancies filled with hormones and mood swings, I can relate.  We'll see how things go...

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