Brand New Adventure

I decided a few weeks ago that Audrey needs more enriching education in her life. She gets to go to her preschool group once a week and she learns about the world around her simply because she's in it and pays attention!

I figured that with a few weeks of preparation, I'd be able to teach her something every day. I knew I'd get bored quickly if I just did worksheets and the occasional craft. I found a website in my online searches called The Perpetual Preschool . I liked their themed lesson ideas and started planning. I liked how simple some of the suggested themes were.
So, today was the first day of Audey's one-on-one preschool with me. Our focus today was on Strawberries.

First thing this morning, I made her a Breakfast Split. Instant Oatmeal (sugar & spice), pineapple, a drizzle of chocolate syrup, a dollop of whipped topping and, of course, strawberries! (I didn't think anything of the fact that it was called a split in spite of having no banana.) The picture to the right is similar to what I served her, though I didn't use blueberries.
She was skeptical when I put the bowl in front of her and insisted that she didn't like it. I told her to try it and see. Needless to say, she ate it all. I also gave her strawberry milk to accompany her breakfast split, but oddly enough, she didn't like it much.

For lunch, Aud had a PBJ (strawberry), raspberry lemonade and goldfish crackers.

After lunch, I had Audrey guess where she thought strawberries grow. She guessed that they grow underground like carrots or radishes. I showed her pictures of strawberries growing in their little bushes. I asked her what the little yellow spots were on strawberries and, to my surprise, she told me they were seeds. I told her that strawberries can have as many as 200 little seeds.

I read her a cute story called Cook-a-doodle-doo by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel. It features the great-grandson of the Little Red Hen, Big Brown Rooster. He wants to eat something other than chicken feed and sets out to cook himself some strawberry shortcake! Audrey really liked the story and loved looking at the illustrations!

I gave her a strawberry coloring page and let her watch the Strawberry Shortcake movie! She almost completely ignored the coloring page. I'm going to have to get her a book to put all her coloring sheets in so that she can color them whenever she wants.

We had lasagna, garlic bread, raspberry lemonade and strawberry Jell-o with pineapple and strawberry pieces in it. Everyone ate rather more than should be advisable. As people were starting to drift away, I quickly hearkened them back for dessert: Strawberry Short Cake.

The angel food cake I got at the store turned out to be strawberry angel food cake, which I had never heard of before today. Sugared strawberries topped the cake and Cool Whip finished the whole thing off. Again, rather oddly, Audrey wasn't fond of the cake, but ate the strawberries and Cool Whip.

After dinner, my mother asked what the theme is for tomorrow, obviously excited for another yummy meal. With a smile, I sweetly responded, "Alligator Day."