Oh, I thought that we would be doing some fun things this week, but unless that fun involved swimming in cool water or sitting and enjoying the nice cool air conditioning ~ well, it just didn’t happen.

We have MUCH to be thankful for this week. Last Friday night some freak storms went rampant through our area and many of our friends {just within a 20 minute radius} were without power and/or water for days. Some are still waiting for it to return.

Trees are down. Branches litter the roads. Power lines snapped. Millions in our area were without power ~ while outdoor temperatures soared into the 100 degree range. Quite honestly, it’s been unbelievable to see the damage this one storm did in just a brief time.

Our good friends {Cindy from Along the Way} had a 40 year old tree snap in their backyard and fall just short of their house. While the kids were excited to play and climb all over the fallen tree, it was such a sad thing to see. And oddly, a little domed tent in their backyard didn’t even budge an inch.

Go figure.

So…not a lot to report here this past week other than we’ve been reading together. Staying cool together.

And we’re thankful to be together.

How was your week?

A Few Preschool Links

Ready to Link Up?

Share what you are doing with your kids! Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below and link back here too! Grab a button for your post below and be sure to take a minute to visit the person who linked up before you. You can read more in the updated guidelines for Preschool Corner.

Be specific in your ‘link title’. Leave either your blog name or theme and provide an age range for your activities. Something a little like this:

Police Officer Theme {ages 4-5}

<a href="https://www.homeschoolcreations.net/category/Preschool%20Corner" target="_blank"><img src="http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y37/jolantheerb/PreschoolCornersidebarbutton210.jpg" title="Preschool Corner" /></a>

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Kaleb has been hanging around me much of the week…or on me. Just being a snuggler ~ which may or may not be something I appreciate when it is 95 and muggy {I will never tell}. But the little man did start swimming lessons and has taken off like crazy! We had originally signed him up for swim team with the older kids, but he said he didn’t want all those people yelling at him {cheering him on in the race}.

That and he couldn’t swim at all {ahem}.

He started lessons and every morning wants to know if he gets to go back to the pool. His teacher has been fabulous and in just a few short lessons he is already swimming with his face down and doing amazing. The sweetest part is watching all of the big kids get so excited for him and his progress!

Kaleb has also been on a baking kick {ok, I was, but he insisted on helping!}. This was a great chance to ‘read’ the words on the oven and follow directions and identify numbers {Push ‘bake’, the up arrow til the number is 350, then start’}. Oh, this little boy was so excited.

First he helped measure out the ingredients for our homemade granola bars. His favorite part was pushing it all down onto the baking pan to squish them out. Because then he could lick his fingers {and really, who can blame him}.

But then somebody mentioned peanut butter cookies. And when you mention cookies to a 5 year old boy, you had better be prepared to make them as well. So we made these yummy cookies ~ 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies. Yes, it has sugar in it. No flour…but they really are tasty {I promise} and very quick to make.

So the little boy mixed up the entire batch by himself and then helped squish the cookies down ~ and was nice enough to share some with the rest of us.

Next week, we are all excited because VBS starts!! Do you all participate in VBS over the summer at all? I’m curious too ~ daytime or night? The one we attend is during the day, but I know many that are in the evenings.

Link up and share what you are doing with your kids this summer!

More Preschool Links

Ready to Link Up?

Share what you are doing with your kids! Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below and link back here too! Grab a button for your post below and be sure to take a minute to visit the person who linked up before you. You can read more in the updated guidelines for Preschool Corner.

Be specific in your ‘link title’. Leave either your blog name or theme and provide an age range for your activities. Something a little like this:

Police Officer Theme {ages 4-5}

<a href="https://www.homeschoolcreations.net/category/Preschool%20Corner" target="_blank"><img src="http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y37/jolantheerb/PreschoolCornersidebarbutton210.jpg" title="Preschool Corner" /></a>

Don’t Miss Out!! Email subscribers of Homeschool Creations are entered to win a $25 gift certificate to Amazon each month. Subscribe by email now!

Summer Photography Camp for Kids ~ 3 week class for kids ages 8 – 13 to learn basic photography and camera techniques. Check it out! http://bit.ly/SummerPhoto

Somehow I was under the impression that school being out {a.k.a. summer break} meant that we would be slowing down. Instead it seems that we are jam packed full of activities and I am wondering if things will relax anytime soon.

The older kids returned from a 3 day camp on Sunday, only for me to throw everything into the washing machine, dump clothes back into bags, and then we traveled for a looooooong time Monday to spend some time with family at Great Wolf Lodge.

The kids absolutely loved it. Especially Kaleb who is now able to ride the bulk of all rides. His confidence level in the water has also increased, so it was fun to be able to play along with him and let him enjoy it all as well.

The older kids were super-sweet with him as well and helped him out whenever they could. McKenna helped him ‘jump’ across the lily pads in the pool several times, which he was so excited to do.

We also made a pit stop at Cabella’s on the way home and started watching the fish in the HUGE tank right at feeding time. The kids all saw first hand the food chain ~ watching the little fish cluster in fear as the big fish circled around…and then had lunch. So many of them were swimming around like the above fish for quite some time, and Kaleb kept shouting “WHOA!!! Look at that fish!”

There were so many animal displays throughout the store and it was fun to show the kids some of the animals that I saw in Africa ~ and some that I didn’t see as well.

Thankfully we beat the bulk of the storms home {aren’t the clouds amazing and a bit intimidating all rolled into one??}.

Kaleb and I finished up the week picking blackberries together in the woods while the older kids had swim team. We managed to pick enough to make blackberry ice cream for dessert last night {yum!!!}. Kaleb loved helping get that ready ~ and eating it too!

That is a sum-up of our rather busy-with-travel week. We drove. We swam. We ate ice cream.

The end.

What did you do this week? Link up and leave a comment below to let us know. Be sure to visit a few others on the list this week and say ‘hi!’.

More Preschool Links

• ABC Printables
• Color and Shape Printables
• Early Learning Printables: Police Officers, fireman and more!
• Math and Counting Printables
• Phonics and Reading Printables 
• Preschool Planning Pages
• Preschool Resources Main Page

Ready to Link Up?

Share what you are doing with your kids! Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below and link back here too! Grab a button for your post below and be sure to take a minute to visit the person who linked up before you. You can read more in the updated guidelines for Preschool Corner.

Be specific in your ‘link title’. Leave either your blog name or theme and provide an age range for your activities. Something a little like this:

Police Officer Theme {ages 4-5}

<a href="https://www.homeschoolcreations.net/category/Preschool%20Corner" target="_blank"><img src="http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y37/jolantheerb/PreschoolCornersidebarbutton210.jpg" title="Preschool Corner" /></a>

Don’t Miss Out!! Email subscribers of Homeschool Creations are entered to win a $25 gift certificate to Amazon each month. Subscribe by email now!

Summer Photography Camp for Kids ~ 3 week class for kids ages 8 – 13 to learn basic photography and camera techniques. Check it out! http://bit.ly/SummerPhoto

This weekend I am at the Home Educators of Virginia annual homeschool convention and to say that it can be overwhelming at times is truly an understatement. There are so many ‘shiny’ things to see {and touch} that it can feel like your head is spinning.

For the older kids, most of the curriculum is lined up. For Kaleb, I’m still looking to tweak a few things in a few areas. Today as I wandered around the vendor hall, I did pick up a few things for him {some school related and some fun} and will share all of our plans later, but thought it might be fun to share a few things now.

Handwriting is one area that Kaleb is a little different than some of the older kids. He uses the sheets that I make in all of the printable packs, but using a Reason for Handwriting last year was a little difficult. While he may be ok with that later this year or next, for this upcoming year I picked up Handwriting Without Tears.

I truly think that the shaded squares will help give his brain that added visual on containing the letters. Once he has that mastered, we will try moving back to the other handwriting curriculum.

And just for fun, I picked up the Jericho: The Promise Fulfilled DVD for the little Lego lover in our house. I have a feeling that this will be VERY well-received when I get home {grins}.

That’s it so far!! The used curriculum sale opens up tomorrow and I am planning out workshops to attend. I love this part of convention, because it is always a time of recharging for me!

How has your week been? Leave a comment and link up to share your week!

More Preschool Links

Ready to Link Up?

Share what you are doing with your kids! Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below and link back here too! Grab a button for your post below and be sure to take a minute to visit the person who linked up before you. You can read more in the updated guidelines for Preschool Corner.

Be specific in your ‘link title’. Leave either your blog name or theme and provide an age range for your activities. Something a little like this:

Police Officer Theme {ages 4-5}

<a href="https://www.homeschoolcreations.net/category/Preschool%20Corner" target="_blank"><img src="http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y37/jolantheerb/PreschoolCornersidebarbutton210.jpg" title="Preschool Corner" /></a>

Don’t Miss Out!! Email subscribers of Homeschool Creations are entered to win a $25 gift certificate to Amazon each month. Subscribe by email now!

Summer Photography Camp for Kids ~ 3 week class for kids ages 8 – 13 to learn basic photography and camera techniques. Check it out! http://bit.ly/SummerPhoto