Pre-Preschool

Ah September. The leaves turn, the weather cools down, school starts, and holidays rapidly approach. Ok, so at least the last 2 are true for where I am. But even with the temps still in the 90's and green trees surrounding me, I feel like it is fall! The school buses are once again driving throug the neighborhood and while I enjoy the sight of them, I am thankful that my little kiddo's are too young to leave me! :-)

With that in mind, I was really excited when my friend Stephanie proposed a pre-preschool idea for Rose and James. The kids get introduced to a few basic concepts, but they learn at home from us. It's our weekly playdate meets preschool.

How it works: preschool is once a week (on Wednesdays) from 9:30am to Noon. We have pre-selected themes that we alternate teaching. The kids get playtime, storytime, craft time, snack time, and more playtime. It's a really fun, flexible way for the kids to play together but learn something at the same time. (Plus as a bonus, it gives the non-teaching Mom 2.5 hours to run errands or do whatever w/out a 2 yr old present!!)

Last week was our first class and it was at Stephanie's house. The topic was "First day of School/Apples." James was SO excited. He talked about it for the two days before Wednesday rolled around. We had gone "school shopping" the Friday before for a backpack and a little mat for him to sit on during circle time. He, of course, chose a SpiderMan backpack that came with a cute little water bottle. He was so excited because it was "just like Daddy's water bottle." He took great care in filling his backpack with his McQueen cars and his Lion King book. Then he pretendedd to walk to preschool and sit down. It was hilarious!

Here's a few pictures of him on his first day of pre-preschool:

He's so excited! He just took off and charged up to the front door!

Rose and James sitting on their mats listening at the beginning of circle time.

Putting the days on the calendar.
One of the things we do each time is talk about the seasons and what the weather is like outside and what day of the month it is. I think it's great! James has been way into numbers lately and he always likes to talk about the clouds and the wind.

I only stayed for the first 15 minutes to make sure James was going to be a good boy and stay on his mat and listen to Stephanie. As usual, he was like 'get lost Mom.' Sigh. He's so independent!

When I picked him up 2 hrs later, he was happy and so proud to show me what he had made. I love it when he does something new and then rushes right over to show me/tell me all about it. I just can't help but feel proud - even though he's so little and most of his projects consist of A crayon mark on one tiny piece of paper. But these were impressive masterpieces! A painting he had created entirely by using apples (well ok - he may have also used his hands a tad)and a popcorn tree. Lucky for me some of the popcorn escaped his tummy and actually made it onto the paper.