This Week in School

Here's some highlights from our first week of school. In a way, it's pretty hard for me to call it "school" because...well, I guess you'll see why as you look at what we did this week. We do sit down and do a couple of coloring/work sheets, as this is a valuable skill to learn, but overall most of our learning encompasses everything but that! :)

FIREHOUSE TRIP
This was a joint field trip with two moms groups. There were about 10 kids of varying preschool ages (plus a couple of babies). Fireman Lee was absolutely amazing with the kids! He kept them so engaged, and taught them so much! He focused on two things with them: 1) Toys are to play with. Tools are NOT for playing with. 2) Yellow means friend.

The trip even included a tour of the fire house, and it was so obvious that Ian enjoyed it. He was so intently focused on everything the fireman was saying! Zoe enjoyed walking around the station and touching the trucks.

There was even a question/answer session with moms at the end. I learned some new things about fire safety. He reminded us of the importance of the kids' bedroom doors being shut at night (one more barrier between the fire and them). A fire doubles in size every 30 seconds. And, the WORST place for a fire extinguisher is under the sink. It should be mounted near an exit...so the fire can't be between it and your exit. We all got free smoke detectors too!

When we got home, Ian proved how much he'd been paying attention. He pointed to the tools and said, "Toys are for playing. Tools NO TOUCH." Wow. I'm very impressed.

I wanted to be a fireman when I was little (my dad did, too). As much as he talks about driving that fire truck now, and helping people, I wonder if he wants to as well. Regardless, it was fun to share in his excitement. After all the library books about firemen, seeing it come to life is priceless.



LOWE'S
I picked up a few project items, and we learned about a lot more tools. This trip is the beginning of a new lesson for Ian too. We'll be planting some flowers in the yard (perhaps today or tomorrow), and talking about how things grow. Isn't it fun that our colors lesson involved the nursery section? :) I LOVE how many questions Ian asks about EVERYTHING.

LIBRARY
A couple of trips to the library...and this time, we got some read-along talking books. The look of concentration on his face as he listens for the page turning noise is hilarious. He only missed it a couple of times. He especially enjoyed "The Dinosaur that Used to Live in My Backyard."

Our first trip (we made two this week) was to the Beaufort library. I'll be posting a rant about this disaster later. I will NOT be returning to this branch! I gave them two chances! Ian was listening to me complain to Erica and told me, "Mommy, that library is broken. They need fix it. I want to go to my NEW library. We need to find it." I wonder if Ian's videotaped complaint would carry more weight than the letters I'll be writing.

HEALTH
I'd call this topic a success in terms of dental hygiene. Ian now tells me every morning that I need to brush my teeth. No arguing with this one!

Those are the main highlights of the week. Ian is now swimming with Daddy at the pool, and even went through the checklist of what he would need. I'm so impressed with how much he pays attention to everything! :)