This Week in Preschool

I've been enjoying Friday morning preschool with my granddaughters ever since they moved nearby in March.  I used to teach preschool and it's been fun getting my preschool teacher persona out and dusted off every week.

This morning, we began the day by dropping colored vinegar into pans of baking soda.  The girls loved it!  Look at the concentration on those little faces!  They stayed with it for an hour.

My son-in-law the chemist, who works from home, came by at one point and said with a smile, "Leave it to Grandma to turn science into art."  :)

Later, Arane did a couple math pages.  I'm not a big fan of worksheets for preschoolers, but these are really more like activity pages.  I found them at The Measured Mom's fabulous website.  Arane really seems to enjoy doing these.

Then we all three sat on the couch while I read aloud some nursery rhymes, illustrated by my beloved Eloise Wilkin, which included singing some of them, of course.  Call me old-fashioned (Please do~I'll consider it a compliment!), but I believe in nursery rhymes and singing.  

Then I read a chapter from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods.  I began it two weeks ago when the little ones spent the night at my house, and when I asked if they would like to continue today, they were enthusiastic.  I'm reading to them from my own crumbling copy, which brings back a flood of memories.  How I loved those books as a child!  I still do, truth be told, and was happy to read them to both my daughters many times as they were growing up.  I still have a fondness for pioneer stories!

Busy Week

This has been a busy week, but aren't they all?  Yes, but this one was busier than usual.  We moved Dave's mom from her current assisted living place to one that will provide a higher level of care.  I think it would have gone very smoothly if not for being interrupted by a lengthy, urgent, though non-emergency, trip to the doctor on moving day due to her having a 102 degree fever.  But she is recovering nicely and settling in well.  Her room is spacious and light.  Here's one part of it~

She even told me that she thought it was pretty, and she is not given to saying such things about her living quarters.  I am pleased she likes it. :)

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Dave and I took Arane to see a live production of Peter Pan yesterday on the University of Missouri campus.  She had never seen a live play before and she couldn't wrap her around the idea when we tried to describe it to her.  But she liked it and was very attentive.  Afterward, she was intrigued by the columns on the quad, so of course, we had to explore them for awhile. :)

Day Trip to Kimmswick

Well, it wasn't even a whole day really, nor even a whole afternoon.  Once a month, Dave drives over three hours to preach at St. John's Lutheran Church in Pocahontas, MO, a church currently without a pastor.  I went with him this time, and we stopped at the tiny historic town of Kimmswick on the way home.  Truth be told, we had less than two hours there, but it was fun.

There are lots of cute little shops and restaurants.  Our first stop was The Christmas House, which was crammed with Christmas trees which were crammed with ornaments.

Sorry for the blurriness!

And that was just one room!

The town is full of old houses . . . old by American standards, anyway.  This one houses a museum, which we did not get to visit.  (It was closed.)

These buildings were (are still?) a winery.

Not all the buildings are made of logs.  The Kimmswick City Hall~

We saw this in a shop and it made us laugh~

A Scrappy Quilt

Hannah asked me to make her a quilt.   Red and orange, she said.  That's my Hannah, lover of all things bright and beautiful.  Now, she is a far more accomplished quilter than I am.  She has made numerous darling quilts while I have made a total of two . . . counting this one, which isn't even finished yet. But I like the idea of my children (and their children) possessing items made by own hands, so I set to work to make a quilt for my quilter.  On Sunday I finished the top.  Here 'tis~

And here is a close-up of some of the fabric~

Some of the corners came together less than perfectly, but I'm okay with that.  If I were to get bogged down with perfection, Hannah would never get her quilt.  As Edith Schaeffer said, if you insist on perfection or nothing, you'll get nothing.