Lexi in Preschool- Part 1

Lexi started preschool last year as a teeny cute little 3 year old! My little baby is growing up so fast. Because of her birthday being late in September, she actually gets 3 years of Preschool before starting kindergarten! My friend Tenille asked if I wanted to be part of a mom-based preschool program that would get to try out a brand new curriculum. The program is called Live Move Grow. We teamed up with another mom, Sara, who used to live by Tenille, and we got our three cute 3 year olds together to learn. Lexi was so excited!

On their first day, we all stayed for the lesson and watched as they got their very own rug to sit on with a name tag. Lexi wore her little princess backpack so that she could feel like she was really going to school! Every lesson was held at one of our houses, rotating every week, and they all started with a welcome song, days of the week song, theme song, Melissa and Doug calendar, and attention grabbing activity. Look at Lexi's moves!

That's cute little Jackson, at his house.

After the lesson on Monday, we would go on an outing on Thursday with all the moms. This outing was to Gardner Village, for a scavenger hunt! This week, the first lesson I taught, we had learned about the sense of SIGHT. They made cute binoculars, and I love Lexi's little eyes peeking behind hers. That's cute little Alli on the right.

She was so little! My sweet blonde haired blue eyed beauty....and a scarecrow.

We fed the ducks.

And check out this AWEsome sunflower we found! Holy gorgeous color contrast.

Lexi enjoyed using her eyes to find all these things and mark them off. She's a PRO at finding things, and that's her favorite page in every Friend Magazine and favorite book from the library...the hidden picture ones!

Made a quick stop at the toy store and she pretended to have a tea party. Love her little face.

The next week's outing was for the sense of SMELL. We went to Great Harvest Bread, and learned and watched how fresh bread is made. It was really cute....the owner gave us a tour in the back, and likened everything to The Little Red Hen book. The place did smell amazing! (Darn that gluten). The kiddos got to enjoy a fresh hot slice of bread slathered with honey, butter and jam. YUM. (Cami wouldn't have been such a fan, but Lexi is a little bread lover, so she was.)

Sense of taste time!

I taught the lesson at our house, and had the kids taste salty, sweet, sour, bitter. Lexi loves tasting lemons, crazy girl!

The outing was one of my favorites of the year! We went and took a tour at my favorite frozen yogurt place- Menchie's! We got to sample different flavors, and the kids got their own with toppings. 

The manager showed us how they make the frozen yogurt in the back, then gave the kids pencils, stickers, and coloring pages. Fun!

Me, Tenille, and Sara- the 3 Mom teachers. It was so fun getting to know them better this past year! Haha I love Jackson's face in this one, and Alli's hand on him.

Lexi's sense of touch worksheet the next week...

And the outing was...a manicure!

How cute and teensy is she in that chair?? We went to a beauty school where they did the kids' nails for $5. Cami and I watched Lexi get pretty pink princess nails. Love!

Alli's sister, Hailey, came along for this outing, too. I really should have splurged and let Cami get her nails done too! I'll have to take her on a special date sometime and do that. Jackson got his painted Batman black. :)

And here are some random lesson pictures that were posted on the preschool facebook page by Tenille and Sara.

They learned about bugs!

Blue eyed bug beauty

We visited the Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point. There's a fun bug room in the rainforest section.

Studying bugs

And we found lots of big bugs on the wall outside in the children's gardens!

Next lesson, we learned about wild animals! I just happened to have these Halloween costumes lying around. How cute are they?? Jackson's wearing a tiger hat, and he's also the explorer.

This is one of my all time favorite pictures of Lexi Lou. Classic.

Sometimes, the lesson required me to do lots of crazy prepwork that I didn't enjoy, like trying to make jungle animal masks out of paper plates for each child. I did it, but they did not turn out so pretty, or practical.

We saw some "wild animals" at Scheels, and I love this one of the kiddos and stinky skunks.

ROOAARRR!

The following week: Farm animals! We are so lucky to have Wheeler Farm right nearby. We got caught in a gaggle of geese!

Cutest smiling kiddos! Love my little Cowgirl Cami!

Preschool provided lots of fun adventures for Lexi, that she wouldn't have had otherwise.

Like who stands in a cold water tub to be like a penguin?

And eats chocolate covered sunflower seeds, pretending to be a chicken??

Such fun for little 3 year olds, and their moms! We did our bird outing to Tracy Aviary.

Tenille was really good about having super fun free time activities for the kids, like water play!

Is that not the face of a super happy kid?? I LOVE Lexi's smile here. I need to give her water to play with at home.

They even got to build forts and pretend to be bats in a cave!

Made musical instruments...
                  
And enjoyed music and art at the Curiosity Museum

A windy day was perfect for making and flying "wind chimes"!

Look at that awesome flossing practice!

Occupations and community helpers time

We decided to visit our favorite community helper- our Librarian, Allison! We did a preschool storytime and tour of the library and the back room where they check in the books. It was so cool! Here, Lexi was super delighted over bubbles! Eager anticipation with hands clasped.

More free time play- with shaving cream! Genius! Why don't I let my kids do stuff like this??

We made a snake craft once. The crafts always turned out funny and cute. And primitive. But they had fun!

This is when I asked them to show me how to BLINK.

Cute happy friends!

Christmas time stamping with fruits and veggies.

And for the last activity before Christmas break, we went to the grocery store, purchased ingredients, and came back and washed and assembled little grinch hats made with grapes, strawberries, bananas and marshmallows. What a good little helper!

I love my bonding time with this cutie!