In the Swing of Things

So nice to have a fairly normal week again!  A normal week means Silas and I had three or four "preschool" sessions (we call it "playing games").  He really surprises me with his skills sometimes, usually by knowing something more thoroughly than I expect.

He received a set of four wooden puzzles from his Grandma at Christmas time.  They are beautiful, bright, busy puzzles and he really likes them - especially the ocean scene!  I believe they are about 48 peices, so they are quite a challenge for him.  We sorted the pieces before beginning - all the ocotopus pieces here, all the killer whale peices there, and let's put the Nemo fish peices over there - and that made a big difference for him.  He's finally getting to understand that by looking at his "map" (the picture of the completed puzzle) he can get some clues on the placement of each part of the puzzle.

We worked a little bit on match upper case letters to lower case letters.  He knows all of the sounds to at least ONE of the upper/lower case combo, so I'm trying to help make those connections.  You can see there in the picture above that he's even beginning to spell a few words.  He has no idea that's what he's actually doing when I sound a word out for him and he finds the letters needed, I'm just waiting for that "Aha!" moment for him.  

Silas loves to help me in the kitchen!  He's great for preparing veggies and buttering bread, adding ingredients and stirring pots.

One morning Silas found a nickel lying around and asked me for his piggy bank.  Oliver, of course, wanted his too, and these boys spent the better part of half an hour dumping the coins (the nose unscrews!) and re-inserting them in the slot.  Such great, unplanned fun!

They spent more time with the "construction" sensory bin.  They're really getting into moving the rocks around, either with the machinery or the wide popsicle sticks.  I'm glad because last time Oliver was just throwing the rocks around the house - this is a much better occupation!

Here's one skill Silas apparently needs more work on.  He still has a fairly awkward grip and his hand tires out fairly quickly.  I helped him cut the pictures above as he powered out part way through each picture, but was determined to do more!  I'll probably get another Kumon cutting book (we both love the vibrant, fun pictures!) and I'll try to incorporate more cutting in to our art days.

Stamping is still a ton of fun - he loves when I bring this Melissa and Doug set out.  So far I only have letters, but I'm trying to add at least a few stamps every season and collect a few random stamps when I go to the dollar store.  

He also spends Saturday mornings with Auntie, helping to feed to cows and grain the yearlings and the bulls.  He adores his auntie and I adore the time to spend with Oliver and get a few little jobs done around the house!

And that's the way it went this week!  This post will be linked to Preschool Corner and to the Weekly Wrap-Up.