VERY Tentative Preschool Plans

Since there is nothing set in stone at this point, I think I'll just share my thoughts and the goings-on around here.

Brian and I have been talking about doing preschool from home for Kayla. I know that when I mention this to the families, it will cause an uproar. To put it simply, they are all very pro-preschool. The expected her to be in one by the age of 3, so I know the topic will be coming up soon.

Financially, it's just ridiculous. We have looked for some options that wouldn't put us in the poorhouse in two months, but it's just not happening. So, we decided to look into just doing preschool at home. Surprisingly, I'm loving the things I'm reading and the prospect of it. I'm so excited that this may be happening that I can barely focus on anything else lately. I've stayed up late to work on projects for it, putting together information and organizing papers and outlines. I have found two websites that I really like and have been using them as my basis for 'lesson plans'.

Five in a Row-
http://fiarhq.com/fiveinarow.info/index.html

and Letter of the Week-
http://letteroftheweek.com/

Both are awesome, awesome sites. Since my original goal was to have her in preschool at around age 3, anyway, I figure that I will begin immediately with the preparatory curriculum from Letter of the Week. I have plenty of time to go through all, or at least, most, of that before September, when I thought would be a nice time to begin the Five in a Row curriculum. I would also continue the Letter of the Week in addition to the Five in a Row, too, because I just love it, and it's very simple and easy to incorporate. Five in a Row is highly literature-based, so I am loving that aspect of it. I also have a friend who's has first-hand experience with it and is even sending me one of the Volumes. (Thanks, Jen!!)

Since I don't really feel like taking and uploading more pictures at the moment, I'll do that soon. I raided The Dollar Tree today and found a bunch of cute things to help with some lessons I've already been working on for week 1 of the the preparatory Letter of the week program. The great thing about this entire thing is that it's mostly based on play. A toddler learns best through play, so it's not difficult at all to teach them things. All I have to do is think of creative ways to keep her interested in the themes and subjects I'm focusing on that week. I also love that this program breaks things down into days, for some of the topics, and gives a few suggestions for activities to reinforce those themes. The first week's theme is Cows. The vocabulary word is 'calf'; the shape of the week is a square; the number is 1; the letter is A. On Friday of each week you learn a nursery Rhyme or song that pertains to the them, so this week's will be "Hey Diddle Diddle" and throughout the week, you sing songs, read books, and do art projects all about that particular theme- in this case, cows. I'm very excited about all this.

Since socialization is an important aspect of preschool, as well, I have to make it a specific effort to take her different places on a regular basis, especially once the weather warms up a bit. I have posted on a several message boards asking for advice, and a preschool teacher responded to one of my posts explaining that most Kindergarten teachers can't expect much more than at least a 10 minute attention span and for them to be potty trained. Aside from the INFORMATION aspect, which will be much easier to provide for Kayla, there are certain other things that she needs in order to be successful in Kindergarten. She has to learn how to play with others, how to share, and how to take turns. She also has to be able to sit still for extended period of times when she may not really want to and learn to speak in turns. The poster suggested that I take her to story time at the Library, book stores, and other places that may offer it. That will not only give her time to interact with others but help her to learn to sit quietly while the reader is reading. If I also take her to parks, zoos, museums, science centers, activity/jumping places, and other public places to give her time to explore the real world, then I should do enough for her for Kindergarten. I can also plan 'field trips' for her by finding apple orchards or other places that are unique. For example, if I wanted to wait to do the theme on cows, I could have possibly taken her to a farm nearby (we live near several) to see actual cows in person.

Anyway, that's the general idea of it all. I will post more, I'm POSITIVE. I don't have a huge outlet for this stuff just yet so I'll need to vent somehow!!

Wish me luck breaking the news to the family!