N is for Neighborhood

Here we go, Letter N.

Day 1

We hooked the computer up to the TV to get some music for this morning.  We sang "Shine, Shine, Shine" By Carol Peterson because we are ready for some sunshine around here!!  (And warmth).  We also sang, "I Can Hammer."  After that, we headed over to the board to do our name activity.  I had the letters of his name mixed up on the board. 

 He walked right over and said, "That's not how you spell my name."  

Then he put them in the right order =)  

We reviewed letters A-M and their verses, and introduced letter N and its verse

"Nothing can separate us from the love of God." Romans 8:28

Right after he repeated the Romans 8:28 part, he said, "Letter A has Romans, too!"  I was shocked.  He was right!  Then we made letter N's with numbers.

  Time to make a neighborhood.  I did a neighborhood unit with my former Kindergarteners, so I had some supplies left from that.  We started by talking about what a neighborhood is, and what you might find there.  Houses, a fire station, people, roads, buildings, and of course, ours would have a farm. =)  I started laying out the tape (roads) while Parker sorted through his toy box finding anything that might go in our neighborhood.  After I got the main roads taped down, we started on building the city portion.  I put numbers on the floor and got out the blocks.  He made towers on top of the numbers to make the skyscrapers.

Then I laid out upper case letters A-N in the neighborhood and had Parker match the lower case letters on the bottom of the houses to figure out where each one goes.

We set up the fire station and construction area,

put Thomas on the train track,

and filled up the parking lot.

Parker also set up the farm.

He did a great job laying it all out.  He lined up the machinery, made a fence, had the cow eating hay, and even made a fire pit =)

Then he played with it for the next few hours!  It was a major blessing because we were getting tired of being inside and this was a fresh new indoor adventure.  We built it under our stairs, so it was kind of tight.  He kept knocking over the city, but then he would call the fire department (me) and I would come help him rebuild it.  Whenever he called me, he always used a deep voice.  haha

Later that day, we read

and

He woke up the next morning and got right to 'work.'

Day 2

I didn't get much sleep the night before because Adley had a fever from teething and was very uncomfortable.  I didn't have a ton of energy for preschool, so we skipped the silly, up-beat songs ;)   I had Parker spell his name for me without looking.  He totally got it.  That was so awesome for me to see.  We are really getting in to things that he's never done before and I really feel like he's learning a lot lately.

Someone gave me this a while back.

There are all sorts of cards, but I started with one that shows how two little shapes can make one whole new, different shape.

Then he did the boat picture.

Next, we read Noah and the Ark from our  

Time for a craft.  I don't do crafts much because honestly, I don't know what to do with them when we're done.  I'm certainly not going to keep them forever, but I feel bad just throwing them away.  Bible crafts are a little more significant and I was able to incorporate some fine-motor skills we have been working on, such as coloring in the lines,

and tracing.

I drew these shapes out beforehand and cut them out in a way that would make it easy for him to cut on the lines.  He likes to use his scissors, but he pretty much makes slits in paper instead of actually cutting out a shape.  Here we go!

It was quite funny.  I held the paper while he cut.  I kept saying, "Open (the scissors), snip, move forward."  We were both laughing, but the shapes turned out surprisingly recognizable.  I saw some perfectionistic tendencies in Parker throughout this process that I tried to nip in the bud.  Wanting everything to be perfect can be so paralyzing!  Trust me, I'm not like that at all.  I usually just slop things together and call it good, but my husband likes things to be perfect, so we make a good pair!

I helped Parker glue the Ark to the paper and things were looking pretty good. The best part was that it looked like it was done by a 3 year old and not a 3 year old's mom.  I can't stand it when doing a craft with your child means doing a craft for your child so it looks better.  Well, that's how I usually feel at least, but then Parker said he wanted to draw a rainbow.  I hate to admit it, but I was thinking, "Oh great, he's going to ruin the picture by scribbling all over the page and it's going to look bad on the blog."  I tried to convince him that he should let me draw it and he could trace it, but he insisted that he draw it.  I finally gave in.  I got out all the markers and took a deep breath.  He started with the blue, and he drew a shape that had a very close resemblance to a rainbow!  Then he did the same with the green, yellow, orange, red and purple - my jaw dropping more with each color.  This is the kid that when I pick him up from Bible study, there are 12 crafts on the table and none of them have his name on it.  When I get him from Sunday School, his sheet entitled "The Parable of the Lost Sheep," has one cotton ball glued to it that the teenage helper probably put there just so he'd have one to take home.  Now, out of no where, he was drawing a rainbow!?  You can understand my excitement.  

When he was done, he added the red mountains, and then the picture was complete.  

I think I might put this is the "keep forever" pile.

Day 3

We were heading out of town for the weekend, so we read these

and then we drove to Uncle Nate and Auntie Natty's.  We were going to hammer some nails and work with nuts and bolts, but it was actually a beautiful winter day, so we scrapped that and played outside.  

N is for Never-ending Winter!  I really wish we could visit an ocean for O week...