PRESCHOOL!?

Yup, it's true. This fall, my little Spike will be starting preschool! I think I will write a separate post about that decision, and for this one I'll stick to my amazement at Isaac's preschool-like behavior lately.

It seems like my boys grow in sudden spurts. They'll have one set of abilities, preferences, and attitudes for a time, and then WHAM! suddenly they're on to the next stage of development--whether it be going from crawling to walking, not talking to learning five new words in one day, asking for stories told to telling stories of their own...it never ceases to amaze me.

Our first indication that Isaac was suddenly a big kid was that he came of age to move from the nursery to the preschool class at church. I was a bit nervous because it's certainly the most formal thing he's done so far--having to sit quietly among his peers, wait his turn, participate in an activity, etc. But he loved it right away.

One Sunday we didn't pick up the picture he had colored, so we didn't know what he had learned about. We asked him, but he replied, "I don't know." But suddenly that evening he randomly busted out with "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved." Ha! Okay, so that's what you learned! He had a cross sticker on his shirt and he told us, "That's why I got my cross sticker!" Hee hee, I thought it was so cute--his first memorized verse!

Anyway, I was starting to feel guilty about how much TV Spike was watching and how few of his letters he could recognize, so I decided to institute a bit of a pre-pre-school at home. My first bit of inspiration came from Roxanne. Each day when Anders took his nap, we read a few verses from Genesis 1 and then did a "project" showing what God had created. (A note to Biblical scholars--we did not end up creating projects that corresponded day to day because some days were very abstract [e.g. God separated the light from the darkness on the first day] while other days were jam-packed [e.g. God created all the animals and people on the sixth day]. So we just went with what made for a good project.)

Isaac totally loved doing his projects. When I put Anders down for his nap, instead of asking, "Can I watch a show?" he started asking, "Is it time for my project?" We kept it simple so it was something he was actually doing, instead of him watching me make a project for him. Here is his handiwork:

The great thing about the above picture is that the blue blob on the left is Isaac's interpretation of God and that yellow triangle at the bottom is a "roof" that Isaac insisted must be included even though I insisted roofs hadn't been invented yet. :)



Adam and Eve were a rather half-hearted effort (I mean our project, not God's) because we had less time that day and I didn't have any creative ideas for it. And apparently this is them after the fall because they're wearing clothes. :)

One side effect of Isaac's projects is that he became fascinated with scissors. He practiced and practiced until he learned to cut on his own. But the funny part about it is that he can only cut once into the side of a paper--he can't go across it--so he'll cut snips all around the edge of a page and then ask for another. Funny kid.

This week we've moved on to alphabet projects, so that will keep us quite busy for awhile!