Change of Season

Yes!!! I got a little creative here on the farm and made this flower display I am finding it is working great for Fall too!!!!

We are in full swing of fall at the farm this year!  After much debate on preschool ideas we finally decided on a curriculum for our little ones.  Then there are the many extras LOL.  Example: "Bugs, and I were at Barnes and Noble and she found all these little kits for American Girl Dolls. "O Mom, look at these, I really want one"  I thought to myself yes I know one more thing to pull my children into this crazy idea of what is popular!!!! Ugggg!!! Then I took her over to the books and I told her you may get ONE, just one of these books.  Which happen to be an American Girl Doll Series book!!!! Well the rest is history as we came home with "KAYA" History for sure!!!! That evening we started to read before bed and finished with the 5th chapter.  The next morning here she came book in hand dragging in "Little L" to our bed ready for more.  I started thinking, maybe we could incorporate this into preschool along with our other curriculum.  Well a trip to the library, goodwill, and the dollar tree and we were set LOL.  We checked all the Kaya books out, then went to Kayas history, Nez Perce Indians, and the audio books.  Wow what a trip that has proven to be for our girls.  It was well worth it!!!

So this is what our week has looked like:
First we do a lot of hands on activities, because lets face it little people need to stay busy, so I do different things in the day to aid in this!!!! I took all of our beads and dropped in a bag of "LETTER BEADS" and read about Indian jewelry to the girls.  We talked about what beads Kaya would have worn and how to spell her name. Then I turned them loose, gave them each a tub and had them string their own bracelets.  They each made 3, and in the middle of one they spelled out the name KAYA, so they had to search among the beads for the right letters. 

I love how serious they both were!!!

This is serious business to "Bugs"

I love using cookie sheets to do projects on, this keeps the mess off my table cloth!!!  I found these wooden Indians at Hobby Lobby last year after Thanksgiving for .50, when we started this "KAYA" unit I dug into the Thanksgiving supplies what a wonderful surprise.

Then I went to one of my favorite blogs that I follow and printed off some of her nature cards!!! To go with our "Read, Build, and Write" Mats.  We use these a lot to go with different themes we may be doing at the time!!!  I like to use educational things that will fit more then one purpose.  "Bugs" is learning how to write and identify letters, while "Little L" just identify and that is fine for us!!!

We also use workbooks. Both girls enjoy there math books of preschool skills they are working on!!

Also we use many hands on items in our workbox system. Many times when "Bugs" and I are doing workbooks "Little L" is working on her workbox activities!!! It also gives her time to do things on her own with no big sister interference!!!

Plus there is always the fun painting and crafts!!!!! We are in the process of learning about tepees and fire so I had the girls paint on a piece of poster board which will later be a tepee and we painted the logs for our fire and the tissue paper which will make the flames!!!!

One of the things I did for fun this week was went to this link:http://picasaweb.google.com/hinkle9/AmericanGirlKayaPaperDollsThisFromFreebird6583 
and printed off the Kaya AMERICAN GIRL DOLL and friends paper dolls.  Then I laminated them and put them on to magnet sheets.  I will say this was a wonderful idea as the girl have played with them all week and they get to see the clothes and tools that were used in that time.  Plus they get to make up little stories and have hands on experiences of their own. I will be doing this again!  Even if my fridge and dishwasher have turned into Indian territory LOL. I found another use for cookie sheets !!!

I truly love these moments spent with our children.  There are sometimes that I questions all the little things that we do, the moments we take out of our lives to be MOM and DAD.  I ask myself as a mother to young children is this all worth it!!! But when I over hear our daughter talking to another little girl in the library and she is telling her all about KAYA and how she was a brave Indian!!! I think of my little Indians and the things they will face in this big world and realize this foundation which we are laying right now "It is important".  It is one of the most important things I will ever do, not just for my girls but for the generations to come!!!