Preschool Week 8 (November 23-28)

Our theme this week was Thanksgiving.

• We continued to talk about gratitude, and what “Gratefulness” means – Being thankful and happy for everything God and others do for me.
• We learned Psalm 136:1 “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.  His love endures forever.”

Our book list included:

• The Deer in the Wood by Laura Ingalls Wilder – This is an adaptation of a story from the longer book “Little House in the Big Woods”.  Pa goes hunting one night because the family needs meat for the winter.  But for various reasons, he never is able to shoot the deer that come under his tree that night.
• Squanto and the First Thanksgiving by Joyce Kessel – This was the most requested book of the week.  Tells more about the life of Squanto, the Indian who helped the Pilgrims learn how to live in America.  Excellent!!
• Thanksgiving Day by Gail Gibbons – Another book describing the origins of Thanksgiving Day and modern traditions.
• Corn is Maize: The Gift of the Indians by Aliki – Describes how corn grows and how the Indians taught the Pilgrims to grow it.  Learned some interesting things, but it was kind of long for the kids attention span this week.
• The Story of the Pilgrims by Katherine Ross – Another story about how the Pilgrims came to America in search of the freedom to worship God and how God preserved them through many difficulties.

Activities this week:

Ronnie was on vacation all week, so we enjoyed doing things with dad.  We spent Thanksgiving Day at Granny and Grandpa Shinpaugh’s house (including spending the night).  Then we had a another Thanksgiving gathering on Friday at Grandma and Grandpa Russell’s house.

The Shinpaugh/Davis/Russell family photo…(thanks to Rick and Katie McKowen)

(back row) Danny holding Nathan, Grandpa Shinpaugh with Jenna-Anne, Ronnie holding Jeffrey

(front row) Marian with Sarah and Susannah, Granny Shinpaugh, Travis, Amy with Heather.

 

Travis and Heather and Jeffrey had fun making a “bonfire” out of the freshly cut sticks from the former fig tree in the back yard.  All the kids spent most of the afternoon outside playing after lunch.

 

Jeffrey enjoyed somebody’s cell phone…

 

Granny and Nathan talked about how thankful they were tha he was getting over his bronchitis…    

 

“Look what I found, Mom!”

Good friends Rick and Katie joined us for the day….

Jeffrey found a comfortable chair….

Getting ready for bed…

 

We got to meet cousin Hannah’s fiance, Jorge and some of his family at the Russell’s house.  Jorge played his harp, and later all the musicians joined in playing a number of hymns.

   

Jeffrey wanted to know more about this thing….

“There’s a hole in there.  Can I stick my  hand in it?”

Ronnie played saxophone, of course…

Jorge on the harp, John Luke on the guitar, and Levi with the mandolin… 

Hannah played piano while Deborah sang…

… and Travis pulled out all the stops on the organ.

Travis and Heather and Abigail crowd around Uncle Mark and his laptop.  I think they were doing Starfall (www.starfall.com).  Grandpa Russell and Levi watch and Uncle Adam, John Luke, and Uncle Jon visit

We  spent a second night at Granny and Grandpa’s house.   As we were packing up to leave, Jeffrey was being a cute 18 month old, climbing up and down on the cedar chest.