First Preschool Fieldtrip and Letter Learning

The best part of a Michigan fall is the apple orchards.  Every one of our kids' first fieldtrip was to an apple orchard and Peter got his chance today.  He was so excited.  We rode the wagon out to the orchard and picked apples and pumpkins.  Then he got to ride on a tractor himself and play the rest of the morning on hay bales and inflatable obstacle courses.  He didn't even notice that I kept him away from the donuts all his friends were eating.  He was too busy having a great time.  A perfect day.

 In other Peter news, he's becoming a champion bike rider.  He's not pedaling yet because he's not big enough for the smallest bike we own, but I got him a balance bike and he rides it obsessively.  Every free minute I get asked if he can go ride. Well, that's not the whole truth.  He often goes out without asking and I end up frantically searching for him, only to find him several houses away cruising along.  The other day I was summoned outside by my neighbor because she wanted to inform me that she'd seen Peter across and down the street on his bike all alone.  A couple days after that I found him riding bikes with our 8 year old neighbor boy while I thought he was in the basement.  He can unlock all the doors in the house and open the garage, so I have no way to keep him in, but we've had some serious talks about this and I've even had to take his bike away for a couple days.  I hate that I have to do that, but cars drive fast down our street and we don't have sidewalks along most of it.  He's just too young still to understand.  So I try as often as possible to accompany him and I love seeing how much he enjoys it.  He'll get himself going fast, lift his legs up, and roll along with a big grin on his face. 

Now that preschool has started, I've made a renewed effort at sparking an interest in letters.  He's been completely uninterested up until now, but I'm hoping I'll find a few activities that are fun for him.  This week I got lucky.  I put up sticky notes with letters on them around the basement and then drew the letters on the white board.  We played music and had a dance party while he tried to find the sticky notes and match them up with the letters on the board.  He enjoyed that for longer than I thought he would and then proceeded to roll around on the yoga ball for far longer. :)  Today we used those same sticky notes and I laid them on the floor.  Then we went from letter to letter and did an action that started with that letter - kick on K, wiggle on W, jump on J, run on R, etc.  He seemed to like that even more and he kept brining it back up later as he did other things.  I'd hear him say to himself, "kick the K!" or other such things.  Made me happy that maybe I'd found something that works.  I don't want to put any pressure on him at such a young age, but I also know that Peter can learn anything he really wants to learn, so if I can make it fun and active, hopefully it'll stick.

Back To School!

 We now have two high schoolers and once again a preschooler.  That means that once again we're getting up at the crack of dawn for seminary and staying up late with homework and football games.  I'm already exhausted and it's only been a week. So far things have been going well, though, and Peter was fantastic on his first day.  No tears, no worries, just walked right in and started to play.  He was very happy when I got back and had lots of good things to report. It was so dark when Benjamin left that this picture turned out quite sub-par, but his smile still shines through.

The picture of the three of them was on the older kids' first day, but I wanted a picture of Peter on his actual first day too. 

Before the big day we held our traditional back to school dinner.  This time my mom got to join us.  Our theme for this year is "Go With God."  We discussed asking ourselves questions every day such as "Have I made time for Him today?" "How have I noticed Him in my life today?" "Would he want to be here?"  "What would he have me do right now?" Every day becomes better when we invite God to be with us on our journey.  Kelly also gave all the kids a father's priesthood blessing for the school year.

Peter wanted to have a fire outside afterwards and I thought that would be a fun addition to the tradition.  Of course, no fire is complete without marshmallows.

After a long week of school, Benjamin was too tired to join us for our service project in honor of the 9/11 national day of service and Bella had a scout meeting, but Peter and Christian came along to a nearby farm to weed and do other work along with dozens of other members of our church.  It was a wonderful, although very hot, day.  Peter made a little friend along the way, but the highlight for him was definitely the farm's animals.

Last Week of Summer

I can't believe school starts in 4 days.  Summers in the US are way too long in some ways but when you've reached the end, it feels like it only lasted a few days.  We tried to stuff some more fun into our last few days finishing up our bucket list items.

Greenfield Village one more time. I love that Bella got excited to come when I mentioned it.  Lately everything has been me, Christian, and Peter.  But Greenfield Village holds a special place in all of our hearts.  The older ones even got into the fun at the playground.

We've been coming for 16 years and this was the first time I actually saw them load a train on the roundtable and turn it.  Very interesting.  Peter loved everything about it except the engine and steam sounds.  A bit loud for his little ears.

Christian had so many questions but the guys working there never made themselves available to answer any.  A bit sad.  Thank goodness for google.

Sky Zone trampoline park with friends.  We met 4 other families there and since a lot of schools have already started, we 5 families had the place nearly to ourselves!  We kept commenting how it felt like a private party.  It was so much fun for way longer than our allotted time because it wasn't ever crowded enough to necessitate our departure!

Impression 5 science museum and Michigan State University in Lansing.  Peter's favorite place in the museum was the room for kids 4 and under.  Besides the amazing climbing and sliding structure and toys, he spent almost an hour at the water table.  Far better than the table at the science museum in Ann Arbor.  I finally had to drag him away because I felt so bad that Christian had been alone in the other parts of the museum the whole time.

Christian's favorite room was the nuclear power room.  His favorite of that room was the isotope display - multicolored balls whizzing around this maze and you have to flip levers and switches to isolate "isotopes."  The whole room was full of really great hands-on ways of teaching nuclear concepts.

Of course, the giant bubble room never disappoints.

After the museum we went to the campus of Michigan State University.  None of us had ever visited it and it was the day of a football game so it was the perfect day to show Christian how fun a university campus can be.  Marching band, tailgate parties everywhere, crazy antics at the frat houses, thousands of fans in green and white, etc. etc.  It was a lot of fun.  Of course, I didn't take a single picture. :(

Touch-A-Truck Day.  Christian refused to join us on this one.  He'd had enough last year and felt he was too old.  I agree with him. Peter, on the other hand, had a blast.  

I had to get a picture of him in the Rubicon again to compare to the picture I took last year.

Last year on the same day:

All we have left of our summer is the Labor Day picnic.  I'm excited for new adventures and my little boy's first day of preschool!