Thursday, April 17, 2008

Preschool!

I've had some fellow bloggers ask me about the preschool I'm a part of, so I wanted to give you all an idea of the fun that we have every Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours. Plus, I'm counting it as a journal enrty for Jaxon to enjoy in some future year.
We use a program called Funsteps that sends us a box full of all the materials you need to teach preschool for a month. There are SO many fun ideas in it, and the kids absolutely love it. Plus, it's nice for us moms because there's not a whole lot of prep time involved. We have 3 boys in our group, but I think it would be nice to add one more to the mix. Just my opinion. My sister does it with 5 kids, or maybe even 6 and that works too. Here is a recap of our preschool fun today.


We start the day with looking at the calendar and gluing on the days since we last met, then we learn a number or letter of the day with a worksheet and some small activity. At this point, I don't know how much they are actually learning about the letters and numbers, but I hope it something.
We then move on to the topic of the day. Ours just happened to be Arbor Day, which I know is not until the end of the month, but the didn't seem to mind. We talked about why they loved trees, and different things that come from trees. (notice in the corner of the picture above...toothpicks, banana, apples...you get the idea) And they even got to try a spoonful of real maple syrup. Yum! (Jaxon of course would have nothing to do with it. What a stinker)


Next we headed outside to plant a tree for Arbor day. Boys + dirt = happiness. I let this part last as long as they wanted. No need to rush such fun.

Here's a picture of the proud boys....Damian looks like he's ready to beat up little innocent Payton. That's not what happened, I promise.



Next is another fun coloring project. I will just show you Jaxon's because I was seriously impressed with it. Notice the sun, tree trunk, and rain drops.

This is my personal favorite part. After about an hour, they are DONE with structured fun, so free time commences. And these boys actually play really well together. Most of the time.


They only way to drag them away from free time is to entice them with food, so snack time comes next. Today we ate things from trees, and pretzels.

We still have 20 minutes left, so more fun continues (remember, none of these are my ideas...they are all in the book) Anytime the scisors come out, these boys are happy.
Here we are making our fruit tree!
Payton had the bananas.
And finally we finished out last craft, the windsock they are holding, just in time for mom's to come pick them up.
I love this little program we have going, and I would highly recommend it to others as an inexpensive way to have your child in preschool. And the best part is, now I get 2 weeks off!!

8 comments:

Gary and Rebecca Dustin said...

fun....I need to do something like that for Garon....he really needs some structured learning. Good Idea.

Bridget said...

That is so cute. What a fun little thing. I love you new picture on the sidebar of Jaxon kissing Sage on the cheek. She looks so put out. :)

Rachael said...

This reminds me of my joy school days. I am really glad I spent time with my kids, teaching and playing with them. Those days were always more hectic but I am so glad I did it. I have some really fun memories doing things like that with each child, where I probably wouldn't have if I hadn't done "Joy" school with them. What a great mom you are!

Elizabeth Dimit said...

What a great preschool! I'm sure they love the time you spend with them.

Anonymous said...

how fun, it looks like the boys are having a great time! i remember growing up and my mom did the same thing and i loved it!

Darilyn said...

Was that fruit tree cut out for you or did you have to cut it yourself? Just curious. This also reminded me of my days doing preschool with my kids. We had a little group of four and the mom's rotated each week, just like you are doing. We didn't know about any box though. Darn. I'm also very glad I spent the time doing this with my kids. You are an incredible mom Stephanie. Jaxon and Sage are very blessed to be able to call you mom.

Kelsey said...

That's way cool babe. I thought you had music group and that's what you called preschool. Your preschool is really cool. And it sounds doable, even for me, if it all comes in a box and creativity isn't needed!

brenda said...

Sam and Abbie did that back in the day...can you believe it? Seems like forever ago.