Up-time
Last year, Teg was in preschool: a little, private preschool with 5 kids, located on a walnut farm and taught by the most wonderful lady. This year she can't open the preschool (for reasons I fully support and understand); but that then left us with the question of what to do with Teg?
I talked with a bunch of friends and visited a highly recommended preschool - but did not love it. (Indeed, I think we loved last year so much it would be hard for anything to compete). So I have decided to have her home this year, and it's been interesting thinking through what that will look like.
Teg is 3, so I'm not ready to use big words like "curriculum" or to wear the homeschooling badge yet (the 'H' word, as one of my lovely homeschooling friends calls it) - but it does mean I need to make a shift in our time at home.
Last year, she had preschool 2 mornings a week, and I had bible study one morning a week (with wonderful kids activities organized - so almost like a different preschool or kids club). She also took a couple of gymnastics classes, and we had playdates at the park with a bunch of friends. All of that left some time at home - but mostly that was 'down time'. Time for reading stories/doing puzzles/relaxing.
This year, home time needs to include both 'down time' as well as 'up time'. If we are to be at home 4-5 days a week (although there will be friends, and there will be play dates), I need a game-plan which includes crafts, experiments and other games which go beyond the regular down-time repertoire.
So 2 weeks ago we were reading nursery rhymes and we came across "little miss muffett" and "itsy bitsy spider", and I thought "That's it! We'll start with spiders!" And we duly went to the library and found 3 story books about spiders and discovered a whole new, previously uncharted (by us) territory of the NON-FICTION secion of the youth library. We read about spinnerets and fangs, we watched a few you tube clips about spiders spinning webs, we went hunting for spiders in the garden and stared at them through magnifying glasses, we practiced the letter "s" and we created webs and spiders in craft time. We had a blast.
It took a little more effort, but I had more fun at home with my kids than I've had in a long time.
Last week we did snakes, and I've got to tell you - on Monday when we visited the Sacramento Zoo, I braved the reptile exhibit for the first time and I just about did a dance of joy when we saw a green tree python JUST LIKE the snake we'd read about in the story book Verdi. Yes, folks, she who has cried "enmity! enmity!" all my life on seeing snakes, actually got excited about a python.
I think I'm going to like this preschool thing even more than my kids :-) Who would have thought????
Up-time? bring it on!
I talked with a bunch of friends and visited a highly recommended preschool - but did not love it. (Indeed, I think we loved last year so much it would be hard for anything to compete). So I have decided to have her home this year, and it's been interesting thinking through what that will look like.
Teg is 3, so I'm not ready to use big words like "curriculum" or to wear the homeschooling badge yet (the 'H' word, as one of my lovely homeschooling friends calls it) - but it does mean I need to make a shift in our time at home.
Last year, she had preschool 2 mornings a week, and I had bible study one morning a week (with wonderful kids activities organized - so almost like a different preschool or kids club). She also took a couple of gymnastics classes, and we had playdates at the park with a bunch of friends. All of that left some time at home - but mostly that was 'down time'. Time for reading stories/doing puzzles/relaxing.
This year, home time needs to include both 'down time' as well as 'up time'. If we are to be at home 4-5 days a week (although there will be friends, and there will be play dates), I need a game-plan which includes crafts, experiments and other games which go beyond the regular down-time repertoire.
So 2 weeks ago we were reading nursery rhymes and we came across "little miss muffett" and "itsy bitsy spider", and I thought "That's it! We'll start with spiders!" And we duly went to the library and found 3 story books about spiders and discovered a whole new, previously uncharted (by us) territory of the NON-FICTION secion of the youth library. We read about spinnerets and fangs, we watched a few you tube clips about spiders spinning webs, we went hunting for spiders in the garden and stared at them through magnifying glasses, we practiced the letter "s" and we created webs and spiders in craft time. We had a blast.
It took a little more effort, but I had more fun at home with my kids than I've had in a long time.
Last week we did snakes, and I've got to tell you - on Monday when we visited the Sacramento Zoo, I braved the reptile exhibit for the first time and I just about did a dance of joy when we saw a green tree python JUST LIKE the snake we'd read about in the story book Verdi. Yes, folks, she who has cried "enmity! enmity!" all my life on seeing snakes, actually got excited about a python.
I think I'm going to like this preschool thing even more than my kids :-) Who would have thought????
Up-time? bring it on!
posted by Bronwyn at 1:50 pm
2 Comments:
Yay! Go Teacher Bronwyn! :)
You go girl! Hate to say it, but I told you that you'd be great! Enjoy Bron!
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