"H" Week

My Kidamerinks' Papa and Nonna came to town this last week. 

We always love visitors, but I had a little anxiety when I realized we were going to be WAY too BUSY for Preschool (and blogging)!! 

I had a lot of things planned for "H" week and I was really excited about it, but we were on-the-go constantly and there simply was no time for "structured" Preschool. 

Plus, I didn't want to take away from that special one-on-one time my Kidamerinks got to have with their Grandparents. 

So... I took a deep breath and realized we could still have a learning experience even though we didn't get to start our Preschool with our Calendar! It doesn't feel official without the calendar, but I need to learn to be flexible sometimes... :)

It actually turned out to be a very fun-filled educational trip.

Here are a few things we saw, learned about, and focused on this week.

"H" = History!!

First of all, we went Upstate to visit the Catskills. We stopped along the Hudson River to enjoy the view on the way up there and we went across some amazing bridges that crossed the Hudson River. My Kidamerink thought the bridges were pretty cool, and we took some time to talk about "H" and the Hudson River.

 Then, we stopped at the Home of the Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site. We walked around there for a bit and talked about the President (in little Kidamerink terms of course) and learned a more about him and had a little History Lesson.

(And apparently a snack with Elanor, FDR and Papa)

We continued that History Lesson as we went down the way a bit to tour one of the Vanderbilt Mansions. This one is right on the Hudson River and is considered a "Country" Mansion and is actually the smallest of the Mansions. The tour was amazing. The Mansion was breathtaking. And the grounds were gorgeous. My Kidamerink had fun running around the gardens more than anything, but we tried to make it a learning experience by talking about life back then.

On our trip we also stopped at the FASNY Fire Truck Museum in Hudson, NY. They have quite the collection of Fire Trucks that date way back to the Horse Drawn Carriages and the times of the Bucket Brigades. So we had an impromptu History Lesson on Fire Trucks. My Kidamerink was in Fireman Heaven!!

They had a really neat tribute for the Hero's of 9/11. We made a card and attached it to the "wall."

My Kidamerink stenciled a Fire Truck and Colored it, then wrote his name on his card. That was our writing practice for the week! :)

I also helped him write "We will never forget" on the inside. 

After a few days upstate, we came back and ventured downtown. We took the Ferry over to Liberty Island to see the famous Statue of Liberty. We had another History lesson and enjoyed the visit.

We also incorporated a little science lesson into our discussion about Lady Liberty. My Kidamerink kept asking me, "But, why is she green?" He couldn't quite grasp the concept of oxidation - which is way beyond his level of course - but it was funny to hear him try to tell his Dad that she changed colors because of the salt in the ocean. He thought it was pretty cool and thought he was pretty smart!

So, even though we didn't have any "real" structured Preschool Time, I think we had a pretty successful "H" week. I am going to continue with "H" week for next week though, because I have some very fun things planned and I want to get through them. And, my Kidamerink needs some writing practice with "H" and some "real" preschool time.

So, Stay tuned for next week and try to think of ways to turn your next trip into a learning experience!