Co-op, After All!

It's official--Aislin and I have joined a co-op preschool! No, this doesn't mean that I'm donating all my preschool materials to the co-op or ending my home preschool plans. It just means that on Monday and Wednesday mornings, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., Aislin will be learning with four other kids at somebody else's house. That is, unless it's my turn to teach! Yep, I'll be teaching the kids at my house every five weeks...and although I was terrified at the idea, I'm actually pretty stoked now :)
Last week, four moms from my church and I got together and discussed our ideas and came up with a general plan for the school year. Our lessons will include:

• A new letter and number each week
• A student spotlight every Wednesday
• A monthly theme (September's will be Safety, November's: Thankfulness, December's: Giving, etc.)
• Lessons on health, world studies, and science
• And your typical Group/Circle Time, Singing Time, Activity/Lesson, and Art routine

We're even going to attempt one field trip a month! This month, in accordance with the Safety theme, the kids will be visiting the local fire station.

I know Aislin's going to love this experience and appreciate being able to work and learn with other kids her age. I know Des and I will appreciate these twice-a-week preschool days because it will give us time together before the baby is born. My sweet little boy doesn't quite understand that a new baby is coming, but he senses a change nonetheless. I think those two hours together every Monday and Wednesday will help calm his anxiety, and also give me the opportunity to work with him, 1-on-1, on his speech.

September 10th, here we come!!

A New Home School Year

Voila--a finished board!!
First...we picked leaves for the border! Des was taking a nap while Tim was doing some work on his laptop, so Aislin and I took a small paper bag and a pair of scissors and walked out to the road. We collected 18 colorful leaves :) (And if you're wondering why they look kind of funny, it's because they're taped onto yellow, orange, black, and white construction paper with clear vinyl.)
Second...we painted pumpkins by mixing red and yellow paint. We printed pumpkins on card stock and squeezed paint onto the paper, then placed the paper in a plastic bag. The kids had fun squishing and spreading the paint around until it resembled orange. And the pumpkins look beautiful!
Now, I may have made the scarecrow with the disproportionately-shaped head and cut out the letters, but the kids made the awesome trees along the sides of the board:

After cutting out a rectangular piece of brown construction paper for the tree trunk, we squeezed red paint onto a small paper plate and yellow paint onto another. The kids then pressed one hand into one plate and stamped their hand-print onto blue paper. After going around in a circle, they repeated the process with their other hand and the other plate. And now they have two lovely trees with fall leaves :)

Inspiration taken from The Mailbox Magazine, Preschool Aug./Sept. 2012 edition, page 46. 

We had some paint leftover, so I let the kids do their own art projects until they'd had their fill. While Aislin was busy mixing colors to make her favorite one (why yes, it is pink), Des decided to continue making hand-prints. He certainly enjoyed it!

An update on our card-in-a-jar experiment: 

Today the kids chose FOUR cards. Yes, four, because the first two went by so quickly. The first two were songs ("My Hands" and "Nephi's Courage"), so once we finished singing, the kids just kind of stood around not sure of what to do. I asked, "Do you want to pick two more cards?" The answer was a simultaneous, "Okay!" So the third card was yet another song ("Do As I'm Doing") while the fourth read "Bible Storybook". This meant pulling out their bible board book (with the flaps covering some of the pictures). From it I read the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Umm...the story was barely a paragraph long, SO...I think I'll try to expand on it next time and maybe with some extra pictures and an actual bible by my side :) 

Thus was the end of our first week back in home preschool!

Summer was fun...but now Fall's begun!

Where have we been all these months?! Well, we've been on summer break ;) And yes, even home preschools need one! It may not have been my intention to take one, but once it stopped raining and feeling cold...it was awfully difficult for my kids and I to stay focused on our preschool routine. So we took a break, went to the beach, played at the park, rode bikes, went to bed late and slept in :)

Ice cream at the beach? Yes, please :)

Best. Sensory. Medium. Ever. 

Picking flowers at the park

This was taken on Aislin's birthday...which is why she's fully dressed in princess apparel!

On the hunt for seashells :)

Journeying together

Alas, summer is ending and the kids are definitely itching for more to do. In fact, I'd say they miss the structure of a planned day just as much as the activities themselves! So we've begun our transition back into school mode--slowly but steadily. We've been working on redecorating our bulletin board this week, and should be done by tomorrow (pictures and post to come). We've also started a new idea for choosing our lesson plan each day. Instead of preparing our lessons myself and laying them on the kids each day, I've decided to try out a less stressful, participation-friendly and fun approach:

I labeled each card with song titles, story ideas (Fairy Tales, Nursery Rhymes, Dr. Seuss, etc.), scriptures stories, group time activities and the word "Art" (for which I'll soon have a list of art ideas that the kids can choose from, but for now those particular cards are sitting on my desk), and each day both my kids get to choose a card. Today for example, Des picked out a song card ("My Hands") and Aislin picked out a group time activity card ("Phonics Fun"). We spent a good chunk of time on these two things, and so far the kids haven't complained about their choices :)

A simple jar with simple cards

Now, I figured the same would have to be done for Aislin's skillbuilding lessons too...so I labeled her cards with things like, "Practice Writing Numbers," "Play with Number Puzzle," "Work in Alphabet Workbook," "Match Picture Cards with Alphabet Cards (Phonics Activity)," etc. We tried it yesterday for the first time, and she chose "Work in Alphabet Workbook." She finished an entire (phonics) activity, A-Z, in which she drew a line from a picture to its corresponding letter. It was a lot of work, but she did a great job! 

I'll keep you posted on our finished bulletin board, and our progress with this new card-in-a-jar idea!

Super Aislin a.k.a. Desmond's Big Sister

All was well at the mall playroom until a little boy Des' age tried to push him away from a toy. Des, not having very many words yet, shouted at the boy. Then, before he knew it, he was stumbling backwards, offended, and wondering if anyone else had seen the assault! He knew his options--whimper and walk away or jump back into the ring--so he jumped back in, desirous to stick up for himself. 
It could have gotten ugly...but we'll never know because Super Aislin came to the rescue! Des' big sister gently rested her hand on the boy's shoulder and said, "This is Desmond's toy." And when the boy wouldn't cooperate, she blocked him from her brother (and the toy) by stretching both her arms out on either side like someone directing traffic. When the boy attempted to push past her, she firmly said, "Don't argue with me." 
She then led him away to a different toy and said, "Let's play over here!"

This event may not seem home preschool-related, but it is to me. My mission as a stay-at-home mom and toddler/preschool teacher is to teach my children what they would learn at any preschool or early childhood center, but above all my mission is to teach them how to be respectful and kind, how to make good choices, and to treat one another like the allies they will always be. 

A Trip Down Fairy Tale Lane

The kids had a blast with the fairy tale theme two weeks ago, so the theme for last week ended up being Fairy Tales & Nursery Rhymes since it's impossible to squeeze the most memorable fairy tales into one week of curriculum :)
Here are a few pictures of the kids' art work from the past couple weeks:

Aislin's Cinderella coloring sheets turned into a crown :) I broke the story up into six clip art pictures to help her with story sequencing and give her something to color afterwards, but it was all her idea to cut the pictures up, glue them onto two thin strips of construction paper and then connect the two to make a crown! I thought it fit the story perfectly :)

"The Little Red Hen" by Aislin

"Jack and the Beanstalk" and "The Three Little Pigs" by Desmond

In other news, Aislin's last ballet class is next Monday; we're taking our first out-of-state family road trip in a couple of weeks during which we'll be celebrating my birthday AND Des turning 2; and, come December, the kids will have a younger sibling :)

A Little Needed Perspective

Not that I've become anti-facebook or anti-blogging (obviously), or that I've suddenly decided that there's something evil about getting online to research new ideas for preschool activities. I have, on the other hand, realized that I've strayed from one of my goals as a stay-at-home mom. Aside from my mission to teach my children, I had planned to simply enjoy being with my kids, to play with them, to be present when with them. For that reason, I've decided to cut back our lessons to three days a week (M, W, F), and the only thing I try to do on a daily basis is the calendar.
Of course this doesn't mean that we sit around doing nothing on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Instead we take those opportunities to do more outside of the house, to have field trips and play dates, to play together and to relax from our otherwise busy schedule.
So, without further adieu, here's the article from The Power of Moms that inspired this new post, my new schedule and my renewed motivation to be a more engaged mom and not just a busy preschool/toddler teacher!

Your Children Want YOU!

A Turning Point

I guess I've reached that point in this full-time SAHM/teaching experience! If you remember from my previous post, I had talked about making changes for my daughter who needs more interaction with peers than I can provide (without having to pay some sort of tuition). I've had two interviews in the last couple of weeks for PT positions at child care centers. I wasn't too pleased with how I did in the first interview, whereas the second one was so easy and quick that the Program Supervisor wanted to hire me on the spot...but because I wasn't too pleased with them (after taking a tour) I declined the offer. So now I'm starting to consider full-time positions, which has led to the inevitable feeling of regret for leaving my job five weeks ago. In my search for a PT job, I've learned that most centers only offer a 50% discount (as opposed to my previous 75% discount), don't always accept employees' children or, if they do, don't offer a discount at all, or they just don't pay as much.
Last night I even proposed to Tim the idea of opening my own preschool or day care. I had been so shocked by the Center I had declined the job offer from that I thought, Well, instead of trying to put my kids in another Center, why not just open my own? 
Wow, is she some sort of control freak, or something?? you must be wondering.
Why yes, yes I am. That, and I've already bought a ton of preschool teaching materials that I doubt other parents keep in their family rooms (hence the reason I've stopped mentioning the possibility of a co-op). That, and I've been working diligently, day and night, to observe how my kids learn, what kinds of activities they enjoy and which ones lose their interest, in what order we should have our lessons and activities based on how they respond (for instance, do their attention spans falter after starting with a Group Time activity versus having Singing Time and Story Time first?) and what works best for my almost-4-year-old versus my almost-2-year-old.
Now, the real question is: Am I crazy for wanting to open a day care or preschool from my own home?