Preston's Blog

Dallin's Birthday:  a blurry picture, but one that captures Preston's love for Dallin perfectly. Hanging out in Dallin's hammock. A game of checkers.  Checkers is currently one of Preston's favorite games.  He beats me by a landslide every time.  I'm pretty sure Dallin is the one person he cannot beat.  Prest is really into board games in general right now, and he and I (and sometimes Sariah, if she's up), usually play one first thing every morning. These are out of order for some reason, but these next pictures are from the Fourth of July: Preston thinks he needs a new snack for every part of the school day.  Here is his pick for story time: oatmeal, German pancake, and lots of oranges. Lost in thought after a watercolor painting session.  He was painting a portion of the fairy tale Snow White and Rose Red. Beeswax figures that Preston and I modeled and put on the window. Sariah is actually l...

Preston is continuing to enjoy school.  One thing that is a huge part of first grade for us is the telling of fairy tales.  I believe that the archetypal symbols in fairy tales are important for young children, and that they really relate to them.  So each week during this language arts unit, I tell a new fairy tale that forms the basis for our learning for that week.  Story time is Preston's favorite part of school, and every day he asks if we are going to have a story and if it can be the *first* thing we do.  (Usually it's last--I like to use it as a bit of bait to get him through the other parts of school.)  We did have one fairy tale that proved to be a bit of a disaster.  I learned that Hansel and Gretel was too scary for him, which was proven when he ran from the table in the middle of it and refused to hear the rest.  Lesson learned!  I didn't try to force the issue, and before the next morning I'd looked through and chosen a differen...

I don't have pictures at the moment due to computer issues happening yet again.  (I'm having to borrow James' work computer because our other one is currently dead.  Hoping a new cord will solve the problem.  This is the one replacing the computer that crashed last fall...  Sigh.) We started first grade five weeks ago.  Preston was determined that he did not want to be in first grade; he was sure it would ruin his ability to play all day, whenever he wanted.  However, he has adjusted quite well and while he is not quite ready to openly admit that he loves first grade, his actions and attitude during lessons tell me that he is generally having a good time. We follow the Waldorf educational philosophy, and "school" looks rather different that what you'd seen in a mainstream situation, but I love it, and it works really well.  Every day starts out with 45 minutes to an hour of poetry/verse, songs, and various movement activities such as hand-clap gam...

We've had the busiest month ever.  My mom came to visit and we thought we should cram in as much sightseeing as possible.  First we went down to Lancaster County, PA.  This was just me, my mom, Sariah, and Preston as Dallin was in Florida with his boy scout troop, and James had to work. Since Sariah had been learning about Pennsylvania history and the Amish, I wanted to continue that with an extended field trip.  First, we visited a recreated Amish farm. Right after we took this picture, he got his head stuck in the hole and it took awhile to get it out. Sariah and Preston were both absolutely fascinated watching the blacksmith work. The next day we went on a buggy ride among the real Amish farms.  Poor Preston was allergic to something in Lancaster County because both days every time we went outside his poor eyes couldn't stop watering.  Sariah had her turn when we went to New York the next week--something was affecting her...