A dissertation on preschool

I have spent the past month agonizing over preschool.  I hadn't planned on sending Jilly this year since she has two more years before kindergarten.  Then we moved and everyone was abuzz about preschool.  Enter panic mode.  Initially I went crazy thinking "We're never going to make any friends if we don't do preschool!!!!!"  And then I researched and worried and  researched and worried and didn't sleep until Bryan finally told me, "I don't want to hear about preschool ever again."  I found a school that was close, got good reviews, was affordable, and registered Jillian- up to the last minute I was wavering, but I did it.  And I started to feel pretty good about a few hours away from Jilly each week.

Then we got a letter.  Unexpectedly, the teacher quit, and they were looking for another teacher but hadn't found one yet.  The preschool would still be there, but it would start a few weeks later and the teacher was TBD.  They offered to let us withdraw and get all our money back.  Which got me doubting.  Lisa was having a similar dilemma so we face-timed one morning at 7am my time, 4am her time (logical time to talk preschool, right?)  And thus began the researching and worrying cycle all over again.  It boiled down to a few facts:

- I did not think preschool was necessary.  I think she can learn anything she needs at home and she gets classroom experience at church.
- I was doing preschool solely for social reasons, which was not terrible, but still if I put in a little effort I could find plenty of ways for her to socialize with kids her age.
- This preschool was affordable, but still, not money we had planned on spending this year.  And the money could be used for other things like the zoo, the aquarium, gymnastics, etc.

So, we withdrew from preschool.  And I've already regretted it (mostly on the days when Jilly is a frequent time-out visitor and I wish so much that we could have a little time apart) but overall I feel really good about it and I'm excited.  I'm going to use some of Mattie's nap time to do preschool activities with Jilly, and I've found some fun resources and already started a little bit and it's gone great.  The day after I made my decision I found these two articles and they made me feel even better: here and here.  Not that I think preschool is a bad choice at all, and we will consider sending her to a school next year; I'm just thrilled to finally feel like I made the best decision for us this year.  My biggest regret is that we don't get to pick out a first day of school outfit.

Preschool

We were so sad to have preschool end last week, but we got to the end of the alphabet and everyone had a lot going on so we decided to just be done.  It's been fun to look back at how much they've grown in a few months.

When we started preschool Jillian maaaaybe knew the letter J.  And now she knows all the letters and their sounds.  She can write her name (if you write it for her to copy.)  And she's pretty good at writing most of the letters.  She knows a lot about rules; on the way to preschool she would always remind me "I will share and be nice, listen to the teacher, and not take off my clothes to dress-up." (The last rule was always the hardest to follow.)  Best of all, Jilly has learned to love learning.  She loves the little workbooks I bought for her to practice with at the beginning of the year.  All day long she points out letters and tells me what sound they make.  And, of all things, she loves to do flashcards.

It's been a great year with these cute kids! 

a little Valentine's Party

When we met to make our preschool schedule for this year I employed a little bit of strategy to assure that I was teaching the week of Valentine's Day.  I couldn't pass up an opportunity to have a party for my favorite holiday.  I tried to make it somewhat educational, and I went pretty simple to save myself from strife, but it was a lot of fun.

We made these heart leis.  I gave Clark (our only boy) the option to make a crown, but he wanted a necklace.  One of the girls heard me mention a crown and that's what she wanted and of course her little sister (who I had invited for the party) needed a crown as well.

Next we did some activities with Sweetheart candies.  We did graphing, patterns, and made towers.  

 For snack we had heart shaped pb&j sandwiches and strawberries.  Heart sandwiches have been Jilly's lunch request all month, and the other kids seemed excited about them too.

Then we played games.  I had cut out some big hearts and wrote numbers 1-10 on the back and laminated them.  I played music (the Frozen soundtrack) and the kids played "musical hearts."  When the music stopped, they turned over their heart to tell me what number it was.  Then we picked an action (I had put actions like spin, jumping jacks, etc. on strips of paper for them to draw out of a bag) and they each did the action the number of times their heart said.  Then we did the limbo with a heart garland.  Hysterical.

Lastly I gave them each a sugar cookie to decorate.  I spread the frosting and put out lots of sprinkle options.  They had fun decorating, but especially loved eating their cookies.  And then I sent the sticky, happy kids home.

 

friday four

1. It may be because I was desperate for a good book after lots of blah, or because Bryan was gone for a night last weekend so I spent many hours in bed reading but I LOVED What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty.  I finished in four days (something I haven't done in a long, long time) and loved every minute of it.  Go read it.

2. This "winter" has been one eternal day of sunshine and warm temperatures.  While it hasn't been great for California's drought situation, it has been great for us.  My girls will be devastated if the weather ever changes.

3. We had preschool at our house this week.  We did O is for Owls, Oceans, and Octopuses and had a great time.  These kids are so cute and learning so much.

4. Jillian is sweet and darling and fun. . . until she's not.  And then she drives me batty.  This was a batty week.  We fought over doing her hair, getting dressed (and I have low standards- she went to the grocery store in her nightgown and slippers this week), sharing with Mattie, cleaning up toys, being quiet while Mattie is sleeping, not eating snacks all day, etc. etc.  My patience was tested over and over again, and I'm afraid I didn't always pass.  So, here's to a happy weekend and a better week with a nicer mom.

F is fun

F was a very fun letter for preschool.  I got some feathers to use to practice the "f" sound.  Then we talked about frogs and foxes and flamingos.  This frog puppet was a huge hit- the kids enjoyed feeding it feet and feathers.

We made F's with our bodies and practiced writing F's on whiteboards.

 I let them watch a clip of the Monster Mash so they could see who Frankenstein was (this was back before Halloween.)

Then we made Frankensteins

 Next was fruit faces; I made pancakes before preschool, then spread peanut butter on them and gave the kids cut up apples and bananas to make faces- they turned out darling and delicious.

We practiced funny faces, colored an F page, and read Rainbow Fish then it was time to go.  Love these kids!

C is for Cookie

A couple weeks ago I taught preschool and we did the letter C.  We practiced writing C's and made C's out of pom-poms.

The kids did a Colors Puzzle I got from the library.

We talked about Colors, and how you can mix colors to make other colors.  I bought these squeeze bottles and put water and a couple drops of food coloring in each.  I got this idea from my friend Christina and she is a genius because the kids LOVE it.

And we made c-c-c-Crowns.

You absolutely cannot do C without cookies.  We watched a little clip of "C is for Cookie" then we ate cookies.  The rule was they had to use their first bite to turn the cookie into a C.  Yum!