08 June 2009

Tot School--G Week

Tot School

Isaiah is almost 40 months old

For "G Week" we enjoyed games, gangs, gargantuous amounts of rain, and lots more, but here are some pictures from the week:

Well, actually first, our Bible verse and Bible story:

G is for God (of course!)--Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

G is for Gideon

We read about Gideon in our giant family Bible (ok, not really that big, but to Isaiah it is!) and in his Russian Children's Bible (again good practice for mama). And since mama also had 3 grueling language lessons this week, Julia came to take great care of Isaiah, and she was able to read to him about Gideon without the language limitations, so he heard it correctly in both languages. And incidentally, when I returned home from my lesson one day, Isaiah was only speaking in Russian! He did a great job, too!

I had hoped to do some crafts with the Bible story this week, but 3 lessons rather did me in!

Gang

But the peaceful kind! Tuesday Isaiah and I enjoyed hanging out with Oksana and Slava (Оксана и Слава, for those of you interested in the Russian spelling). This was fun for the mamas and the boys. We were able to take a walk in the glaring sunlight (the only day we had sun this week).

Green grass growing in the ground

On the way home from Oksana and Slava's we stopped off at our park.  I had forgotten how gorgeous the color green can be!  We gazed at the green trees and grass with gratitude to God for bringing spring at last!

And what could be holding Isaiah's attention so well?  A big machine digging in the ground, of course!  He watched this for about 20 minutes with occasional smiles flashed at me.


Grandparents glued under glass

Living so far away we take every advantage to make sure that Isaiah knows his family; praise God for Skype!  But I thought it would be fun to add to our collection of family pictures, so I printed out larger copies of pictures of his grandparents.  First we glued them onto brightly colored pieces of paper.  For the first time I let him use the glue all by himself, and he did great!  He didn't want to stop!


Then I cut the paper so that a small frame was still around the picture.  For glass we used something akin to contact paper, but it was a little thinner and a little more difficult to work with than what I had been used to in the States.  But it worked.  To work on fine motor skills, I cut a small piece for Isaiah to try to peel apart the sticky side from the backing; here's his reaction:  I don't think he's a fan. :)


He did however enjoy rubbing down the "glass" to try to make it smooth over his grandparents faces.


Then he loved on them with hugs and kisses.  And now he kisses them goodnight every night.


Garage

We don't own a car here, so we don't have a garage, but Isaiah does!  He got this little set for Christmas, but most of the smaller cars that came with it have broken.  It's supposed to shoot cars out really fast, but Isaiah enjoyed playing with it like this:


The rest of the activities/songs/foods don't have pictures, because I was usually really involved in them and couldn't take pictures.

Gravity

We dropped his animals into different containers, and they always fell.  Gravity is pretty predictable that way.

Grapes

Isaiah LOVES grapes and can even say the word fairly well.

Guitar

Isaiah also LOVES the guitar.  Every day when we have family worship, Daddy lets Isaiah strum the guitar after each song we sing.  He even tries to use the pick now!  I do hope to get a picture of this, but usually he's in my lap for family worship, and then I forget later.

We sang lots and lots this week, but here are the songs that are G-ish:  God is so Good; My God is so Big; No More My God; (sensing a theme?); The Green Grass Grew All Around; Great is Thy Faithfulness; The Graham Cracker Song; and I think there were some more, but that's all I can remember for now.

We sadly did not get to read very much this week beyond the Bible story.  And we don't have very many G related books anyway.

We are jumping to J next week, since we recently did H and I.  See you then!

For more Tot School fun, don't forget to check out 1+1+1=1.








2 comments:

Valerie said...

Wow, what an incredible blog you have and wonderful post for Tot School. I am fascinated and intrigued by your story and can't wait to read future posts! You did an incredible amount of activities with your your little man on the letter G.

Good luck with the Russian language. I imagine being immersed in the culture helps immensely! My great-grandparents came to America from Poland and I grew up hearing my grandparents speak it when they wanted to talk in "private"! My parents could speak only their prayers in Polish, but could understand the language. I can neither speak nor understand Polish...so sad!

Maybe I'll take up Polish some day...

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

It's a pleasure to meet you via Tot School. I am the opposite of you - a native Russian speaker living in California. The story of Isaiah is amazing and inspiring. I am going to subscribe to your blog and come again to learn more about your family.