The First Day of School

Today, September 1st, is the first day of school for all the children here in R-land! Yesterday, I talked with some children, and they were all excited and ready to get back to school... so the anticipation was in the air! :)

Since the other children began school today, and since Aria will be turning 4 in a couple of weeks, we decided to begin 'preschool' here at home. This morning, we spent time singing songs, working on memorizing some verses, learning how to say the days of the week, reading books together, having individual play time, working in the girls' workbooks, doing a little experiment with paper, and well, just having fun! Micah 'learned' and had fun right along with us... except when he was sleeping (which, unfortunately, wasn't that long today!).

The last time we were all in the States, David and I got the girls some great pre-school workbooks at Wal-mart. Since then, my mom has sent us some great learning books and such too! Today we spent some time talking about the color 'red', and comparing the sizes of different objects. Aria is working through a workbook, while Nina colors in a coloring book.

If any of you have ideas for fun learning activities for young kids, I would love to hear them! I'm totally new at this, and just kind-of learning as I (we) go!

Just thought this was kinda funny...

The other day we were looking at a book together. We came to a page where there was a picture of all kinds of different animals, everything from monkeys and elephants, to dogs and mice. I asked the girls to tell me which animal they thought was the most beautiful (the giraffe? zebra? lion?). Aria pointed to the little green frog! Then I asked them to point to the animal that they would like to cuddle with at night (thinking perhaps they'd pick the dog, cat, or even tiger). Aria pointed to the peacock! :)