Winter Theme - Part 3

Here is part 3 and the last post about our winter theme.  There are a couple of science experiments we did that will be in separate posts to come but that is it for winter. The kids have enjoyed this theme even though we never got snow for them to play in and do a few activities. Here are a few more books we read for this unit.

We tried a new activity we have not done before where you roll a die to get a piece to build something.  In this one we built a snowman.  M and A both caught on quickly and asked to play it over and over again. I found this Roll and Build Snowman at 2 Teaching Mommies in their snow and ice unit.

Then we did some work on making patterns.  For A I made a pattern and then had him finish it.  M is great with patterning so I let her make her own patterns with the snowflakes that we got from the Snow and Ice Unit from 2 Teaching Mommies.

We also read The Mitten by Jan Brett and did some mitten activities to go along with the story.  I let the kids play with their mittens and see what toys they could find of theirs that fit inside the mitten and which were to big.  Sorry no pictures of this activity. M is really into rhyming words right now, so I had the following mitten rhyming matching game for her that is out of an old teaching book I had.  She really enjoyed doing this activity, and is still going around the house saying, "Mommy, ____ and ____ rhyme."

A worked on his counting skills with the following mitten activity.  He had to tell me how many mittens were on each card.  I found this printable at Oopsey Daisy.

Throughout the last three weeks we have done many other activities to go along with this theme but I didn't always get pictures.  The blogs I have all ready mentioned in this post and the past winter posts have many other printables that I used along with this theme too.  Starting next week we will be doing our Valentine's theme. 

A Weekend of Firsts

        We had a very interesting weekend with a couple of firsts.  On Saturday, we had registration for preschool for next school year.  Both of the kids will be going, and it was a little emotional signing up my baby to go to preschool in the fall.  A is 3 and will start first year preschool which is two half days a week, and his sister M will be in junior kindergarten four half days a week.  I can't believe for the first time since having M I will have two half days a week to myself.  Luckily, we still have some time to get adjusted to the idea of A starting preschool because he is not so sure about wanting to go and was actually worried I was leaving him at school when we signed up on Saturday. 
        Sunday we experienced another first.  M has become very interested in skating and enjoys watching hockey.  My husband has been talking with her about going to try ice skating.  The last couple weekends we were going to go but then M decided last minute that she didn't want to go, and we were not going to push her to do it.  Well, this past Sunday she woke up and told us we were going ice skating, so after lunch we packed up and headed to the ice rink.  I was a nervous wreck but tried to hide it.  We got to the rink and it was so crowded which made me more nervous because I did not want someone knocking my child down.  M and her daddy got on the ice skates we rented and got on the ice.  I was on the sidelines watching with A, because I am very accident prone and have injured almost every bone in my body so I was not going to chance an injury.  M went around the whole rink once with her daddy helping her.  I could so tell she was scared but she did it and is talking about going back and doing it again but when she is older she says.  Here she is with her daddy on the ice.

Book Review: The Midwife's Confession by Diane Chamberlain

 

I just finished reading this book for one of my book clubs the other day and loved it!

 Here is the book description:

Dear Anna,What I have to tell you is difficult to write, but I know it will be far more difficult for you to hear, and I'm so sorry…
The unfinished letter is the only clue Tara and Emerson have to the reason behind their close friend Noelle's suicide. Everything they knew about Noelle—her calling as a midwife, her passion for causes, her love for her friends and family—described a woman who embraced life.
Yet there was so much they didn't know.
With the discovery of the letter and its heartbreaking secret, Noelle's friends begin to uncover the truth about this complex woman who touched each of their lives—and the life of a desperate stranger—with love and betrayal, compassion and deceit.

My review:
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and had trouble putting it down.  It is a great story about three women who thought they knew each other really well, and come to find out after one of them commits suicide there were a lot of hidden secrets. I enjoyed how each chapter was told in the perspective of one of the main characters in the story, so you really got to know each of them well. There were lots of twists and turns in the story that always had you thinking and as soon as you thought you had it figured out there would be another twist that had you guessing again. There is so much more I could say about the book but I am afraid I would give the story line away so i will stop here.  I would highly recommend this book to read, and I plan on checking out some of Diane Chamberlain's other books.