It's hard to believe it is already MAY!!!  Can't believe that in 2 weeks I'll be turning 35, ugh!! I can't possibly be that old already!!  The good thing is that teaching preschool helps keep me young at heart if not in body.  This past week in our Little Builder's Preschool we've been learning about the farm.  We learned some of the animals on the farm and the kids learned a very silly song about all the sounds you hear on a farm.  I'll upload a video of our silly song later.  

On Friday, we did a little science by making butter from scratch.  We talked about how butter comes from milk and that milk comes from cows.  We talked about how our farmer friends used to make butter by churning it in big barrels but now there are machines to make it.  

We watched our small baby food jars filled with whipping cream turn from liquid to a very thick liquid all the way to a solidish ball of butter.  It took a little bit of time but we had fun shaking our jars while dancing around the room to some Hyper Static Union.  Needless to say, our preschool friends, foundations school boys and special guests (one of the base family's boys were out of school & joined us) had tons of fun.  

When the butter was compete, we even got to taste it on a slice of bread during snack time.  It was very yummy! Enjoy a short video of our class making their butter. 

So, what did you do last week??  

For those who don't know yet, I have officially moved back to Mexico.  This time around, I am living at our San Antonio del Mar Campus, just south of Tijuana.  I know what you are thinking.  How can you possibly live in Tijuana, it is dangerous, are you crazy???  Never fear, God is here! Seriously, I am exactly where God wants me for this season & that is the safest place I can be.  

So why am I living in Mexico again???  I'm so glad that you asked.  A few months ago, my friend and campus director Janet Lambert was showing me the preschool trailer.  As we walked in I kept oohing & awing at all of my wonderful preschool goodies that were being used once again.  If you didn't know, I taught preschool for several years prior to moving to Mexico and a few years ago my mom sent lots of my teaching materials & decorations over to use in Ensenada.  For the past several years it's been sitting in storage.  It was so good to see everything on the walls and out of boxes.  In passing, she made the comment that they were looking for someone to take over the preschool for the April quarter.  I replied, "find me someone to take over Mission Adventures registrar & I'll do it".  Again, all of this was said in passing, almost sarcastically.  As we left the trailer, I started really thinking about it & started getting excited.  About 30 minutes later, Janet's daughter, Rachel, came over & mentioned that I was going to take over preschool in April.  Again, I got excited & met with Janet to nail down some specifics.  

Fast forward to the end of March.  I moved down over the course of a week & transformed the preschool trailer from a daycare to a fully functioning preschool classroom.  Where all the furniture was pushed against the walls before, now there were clearly defined spaces with lots of kid-sized storage.  Small bookshelves become dividing walls and bilingual signs let you know the expectations in each station.  

April started with the arrival of our current DTS (Discipleship Training School) and along with them 2 families with 4 kids ranging in ages of 3 - 13.  I oversee the education from home of the 2 older boys (11 & 13)  as part of the Foundations School while full-on teaching preschool to the 2 DTS preschoolers and our 5 base kids.  Did I mention that I do this in two languages??  Yup, that's right, our school is bilingual.  It is really stretching my mad language skills! 

Did I also mention that I am still doing my regular San Diego work as well???  Needless to say, my days are full & I am definitely ready for bed in the evenings. 

My day basically looks like this now: 

8:00 - Base Clean-up & organizing materials for the day (1 day a wk we have morning small groups)
8:30 (2 days wk we have base meetings)
9:00 Foundations School (FS) boys (school age staff/student's kids) - debrief yesterday & independent study assignments
9:15 - Preschool students start to arrive for free play while I tutor one of the FS boys
9:45 - Preschool Clean up & Circle Time (songs, games, calendar, weather, lesson)
10:00 - Preschool Rotation Stations or Morning Specials (Music & Art)  FS - Morning Specials (Spanish/Mexico Culture, Worship, Art, etc)
10:30 - Snack Time
10:45 - More Specials (PE, Spanish/Culture, etc)
11:15 - Table Top (practice fine motor skills like write, tracing, cutting, etc) for Preschool & Independent Study for FS
11:45 - Group Reading Time
12:00 - Independent Reading with a stuffed animal friend (Preschool)
12:15 - Pack & Outdoor play
12:30 - LUNCH

Most afternoons are then spent catching up on emails & phone calls for our Mission Adventures teams as well as lesson planning & prep work for the Preschool & Foundations School kids. 

Dinner at 5:30 & sometimes, more emails or planning & prep.  

Pretty full days indeed but I am very happy with what all I am doing.  I get to work with all my age groups!!  I've always said that I love working with kids of all ages!!  

To leave you for today, check out a tour of our classroom and to see some pics of our kiddos in action, check out our facebook page (www.facebook.com/littlebuildersschool).  

Want to help grow these young missionary minds??  Consider donating some school supplies, teaching materials, costumes, books, etc to our classroom.  Leave a comment below for more details.