Yummy Lunches and Preschool

 Gotta love leftovers.  Last weekend my mother-in-law took us out to a very nice restaurant on a lake for dinner.  I had a ribeye, and brought some of it home.  When I reheated it I actually cut it in half - it was so thick I didn't think I'd be able to heat it through without killing it.  I added some blue cheese crumbles, toasted some Rosemary Olive Oil bread and had a very delicious sandwich.

 This is what the five year old's plate looked like the other day.  Probably not your typical five year old food.  Grilled cheese, grapes, mushrooms, carrots, a slice of colby jack and a whole red pepper. I was out of American cheese and when he saw me slicing the colby jack for his sandwich, he wanted a piece.

I had actually gotten the red pepper out for the three year old but he decided he wanted oatmeal instead.  I was going to put it away, but when I turned around, it was gone. And when I found it, it had several bites out of it.  So he got the whole thing.  He ate it like an apple.

 I thought since I mentioned what we do for scheduling the ten year old's homeschool, that I should share what I do for preschool.  We're pretty laid back.  We're pretty focused on books, so each week I pick up an assortment of nonfiction, and let the boys get any other books they want.  That usually amounts to fiction because of the way our library is set up.  The fiction books are easy for the kids to see the fronts of.  When we get home, the books go on this shelf.  The kids can then bring me any book they want to read, and we sit together on the couch and read it.  We typically read 3-5 books at a time, so I have to replenish the shelf fairly often.  I try to pick up something about numbers/shapes/math skills, something relative to the season we're in, any upcoming holidays, and lots of animal books.  If they ask a question about something, or are interested in a certain thing, I'll get books on that topic.  You can probably tell the five year old is interested in pigs right now.

I also print out activities from the internet, and I have a lot of other activities here.  We try to do puzzles, preschool learning games, matching games, letter and number recognition, counting, etc. each week too.  I just rotate the activities so we're not doing the exact same thing every day.  We do lots of coloring and constructive play throughout the week, and they always have access to paper, markers, crayons, scissors and glue that they use almost daily.  I don't stress out about scheduling the younger two.  We just do what they're interested.  We read every single day - usually at least three different times in the day, with an average of 3-5 books each time, so on a good day, we're reading 15 or more books, as well as doing the other things I mentioned.