Preschool ~ Ocean Part II

We haven't quite started with our "official" school year around here, but we are beginning to ease our way into it. We started our Sonlight curriculum two weeks ago and love it. It takes us only about 20-30 minutes to complete the Read-Alouds (we are doing P4/5). The kids love to read first thing in the morning (and again before naps and bed), so that's what we have been doing, and it's been working great. Smiley tends to wake up before his sister, so I've been trying to read the longer texts (without pictures) to him while the little one is still asleep. She doesn't quite have the attention span yet to listen to a story without pictures ;) So far, we haven't done any additional activities to go with our Sonlight reading, but we will likely start this  at some point...

The rest of our week was spent enjoying the rest of the summer and continuing to focus on our ocean theme. We learned about Tide Pools and the animals that can typically be found in them. We used books and a resource from Homeschool Share. I plan on using several other ideas from the Hello Ocean Lapbook as well.

We took a field trip to see a Tide Pool at a Nature Preserve just a few miles from us... The little hike down to the beach was just breath taking. Down by the beach, we had a blast wading through the tide pools and finding mussels, shells, sea crabs, crabs, lobsters, and algae :)

Other ocean-themed activities this week included an updated sensory box. It is very similar to last week's box, but I added sea animals that the kids loved playing with...

Preschool~ Spring Break Fieldtrips

Daddy has been on spring break this past week. We took full advantage of it and planned several fun fieldtrips. We started spring break with Legoland (see last week's post) and continued this week with a trip to the Long Beach Aquarium! We prepared with our fishing game :)

The biggest hit was probably touching baby sharks...

(they weren't that small...)

He even got to touch the shark eggs! We also had the opportunity to see how baby sharks grow in these eggs. So amazing!! We spoke to the marine biologist quite a bit and learned a lot about how sharks lay their eggs etc. LOVED it. Smiley kept playing baby shark for the rest of the day ;)

We saw see stars as well...

and jelly fish!

Art activity...
In prepariation for Easter, we made Easter cards for the grandparents. Smiley decorated foam crosses with Easter-themed stickers...

We built bicycles...

Smiley had his first soccer class today. He's been going to a gym and swim class at the local YMCA since September, but grew out of it (it's only until age 3). We thought that he might enjoy soccer and we were right :) Works really well for this active preschooler :) Our plan is to add swimming in the summer months as well...

Our last fieldtrip included a weekend at the central coast, visiting good friends. We spent a full day at the beach and the kids had a blast.

We also got to visit Hearst Castle! GORGEOUS!!! It was a bit difficult with the kids, because there was a strict "NO TOUCH!" policy...

Preschool~ Spring FUN

Easter Sensory Bin

I made an Easter Sensory Bin for the kids that included Easter decorations that we already had on hand. I put plastic Easter eggs, small Easter decorations, and pom poms on the bottom of the bin and then covered it with Easter basket grass. The kids LOVED this and played with it for over an hour the first day. They would have played longer, but the grass started to leave the blanket, so I had to stop the fun ;)

Stuffing eggs with Easter grass...

Making Ice Cream cones with sprinkles...

Art
We continued working on our spring collage, painting the background. We had so much other stuff going on this week though that we didn't get to finish it...

FUN
We spent time at the beach...

We don't have our own garden, but we went to farm to pick our own produce. We had such an awesome time. I recommend this to everyone who doesn't have a garden, but lives close enough to a farm. It's strawberry season, YEY!

We picked strawberries...

We picked sugar snap peas...

cauliflower and broccoli...

We saw chickens...

And we saw bees...

Learning Toys...
Just a few shots of Learning Toys this week. Smiley worked on his Solar System puzzle that we got from Pottery Barn Kids when we covered the Solar System a few weeks ago. He loves this puzzle and completed the entire one...

We worked with our magnetic geo blocks...

And we played A LOT with our new Legos. We spent a day at Legoland and LOVED it. We happened to get a $100 dollar giftcard (for attending a 90minute presentation), which we spent on lunch and lots of Lego ;)

We especially liked the helicopter...

but miniature USA was the biggest hit. Smiley couldn't get enough of seeing the Lego cities. He particularly was into all the small vehicles driving around the cities. Incredible! I really recommend Legoland for younger kids. It's the perfect place for preschoolers-elementary age children. Lots of things to do for younger kids. Especially boys will love this park ;)