School Days

I guess it's no secret that I love school. I love reading, thinking, analyzing, discussing, writing, and everything in between. Like many parents, one of the big ideas I hope to to communicate to our children is the importance not only of a formal education but of a constant openness to learning as well. This world is BIG, and there is so much to learn and discover! I know they learn a lot at this age playing, but I also like for them to have some more structured activities as well. I have taken advantage of community classes for Charlie (and hopefully this upcoming calendar year, for Henry too!), library story time, and lots of outings with friends. We read to the boys a lot and try to provide a variety of experiences for them. This year I thought it was time for a little something else for Charlie, but preschool around these parts is a bit expensive (in our opinion). After looking into some different options, we finally decided on 

Granana Preschool!!

Granana didn't know she would retire from 30 years of teaching elementary school to come teach preschool!

Mom comes every Tuesday to have preschool with Charlie, and Henry hangs in there and does some fun activities too! They work on one letter a week, doing all kinds of things involving words that start with that letter. She brings various art projects, manipulatives, books, games, and whatever else she finds that she thinks Charlie will enjoy.

I have also been in school this semester, taking British Literature at Southeastern. I finally felt like I was in a position to begin taking classes again (I took American Lit before Henry was born), and it has been wonderful. I am registered next semester for Literary Theory (where the major pieces we focus on will be Paradise Lost by John Milton and Perelandra by C.S. Lewis- woohoo!!) as well as a class on Shakespeare. I am hoping to accumulate enough credit hours in English to then apply for my teaching license through "NC Teach" at NC State. I am praying over these things and know that the Lord could lead me differently at some point or have another end objective than the one I'm envisioning, but if it's His plan, I hope to be a high school English teacher when all is said and done!

Jimmy will also be starting his online CCNA class in January, which requires a lot of outside study time in addition to the virtual class time. His class had an initial meeting a couple weeks ago, and even though it's online the teacher could tell if he was there! There was also a button he could push if he needed to "raise his hand." Nifty, huh? Jimmy really enjoys his computer niche and is a voracious learner in this area. Come January, all the Byrds will be studying!

Anyway, back to Granana Preschool. Here are some pictures from this "semester"!!!

(The different sized pictures are the result of two different cameras. Sorry!)

On the first day, "A" day, after Mom arrived. Sorting pom poms is fun!

Working the alphabet puzzle.

Coloring the "A" picture. Charlie colors one each week which corresponds to the letter they are studying that day. Henry likes to color now, too (as opposed to just dumping all the crayons)!

Working hard!

School is fun (and funny)!

Playing with the doctor's kit on "D" day.

Listening to Grandma's heartbeat.

Playing with dinosaur stickers.

With various "E" things: eggs, Elmo, Ernie, the elephant he made, and egg stickers on the window.

An alphabet and number puzzle Charlie and Granana put together!

The fire truck puzzle on "F" day.

With his fishing pole and fish, a frog game, and Fall Leaves on "F" day.

Fishing.

Henry wanted to play too!

Dumping various sports balls and putting them back in containers. Lots of fun for little ones!

Wearing his giraffe hat and playing with the car garage on "G" day.

Playing hard.

I love this picture of both of them playing with cars and trucks!

Concentrating.

A game for "G" day.

Reading with my boy!

Henry reading about gingerbread men.

Building a house on "H" day.

Putting the roof on is hard work!

Reading with Uncle D- so precious!

Hats!

Where's Henry?

Busy looking at books.

You can't see these very well, but Charlie took his Halloween decorations outside.

"H" decorations- H is for house, Humpty Dumpty, Halloween, and hands! They traced everyone's hand and hung them up!

Making an igloo on "I" day.

A close-up of the igloo. When we weren't looking, Henry got into the igloo and ate some of the marshmallows (and the glue on it...)! Whoops!

Playing "Don't Break the Ice."

It's fun to watch them play together.

They took a trip to Lumpy's on "I" day and shared some ice cream!

Yum.

Priceless. And so completely precious.

The other side of the table is cute too!

Some "I" artwork- an insect collage and Charlie's ice cream cone.

This wasn't during preschool, but I took a picture of the way Charlie organizes his toys one night because he is very intentional and particular with the way he plays certain things. He loves lining his cars and trucks up and putting his Mickey Mouse figurines in them! He has really enjoyed sorting, categorizing, and organizing things. He seems to have a bit of an analytical mind in that he is always trying to figure out just how things work.

Today was "M" day. Charlie made a mushroom, a picture of mittens, and a mouse. Henry played a monkey game, and they had M&Ms for dessert at lunch. Fun times! More to come next semester! : )