Preschool Starts

This morning was the parent orientation for a preschool program we are participating in with Nick. It is one of the free programs offered in association with the school district. It is well organized. The preschool "class" room is fantastic. It's just as good as or better than the pre-k classrooms Xander attended. It might be smaller, but all the resources are much newer.

There are "workstations" rather than "centers," named that way because the teacher/coordinator wants to emphasize that when children are playing they are working at learning. There is an easel with paints, art station, reading station, writing station with various surfaces to write on, science station, block station, manipulatives station, sensory station, math games and toys station, and the place where the kids pick up their picture/name tags and have their group time.

Preschool only happens once a week for a regularly scheduled hour. Our class is the one on Monday mornings. If we are more than five minutes late, they lock the door. I kind of like that because one of the reasons Erik and I wanted to enroll Nick is to get him used to a structured school-like environment. Of course, they don't lock the doors in public school, but they do make you go to the office and get a "tardy." I do hope to homeschool Nick as he gets older, but he will need these skills for many other kinds of groups he might want to join in the future.

The kids (mostly three-year-olds) start by "signing in" next to their name. Then they go in with their parent(s) and pick up their picture/name tag from the table to put it on. They explore the stations however they want to or however their parents encourage them. During the last ten minutes or so, the children gather together for group time.

The place is beautiful. They have a nice outdoor playground for little ones at their center (which is part of the portable buildings outside a local middle school). There is a child care area that is quite large. Xander will be spending the time there. He will be the oldest, since other older siblings are in public school, but he won't mind that. Just some of the things I saw in there were:

• a nice wall map of the United States
• all kinds of blocks and magnet vehicles
• a mini trampoline with bars to hold on to
• a "house" made of mats in formation
• a kitchen area
• a dress-up area
• a baby/toddler crawl and rocking chair area
• a marble run

 There were plenty of other areas and toys in there; I couldn't take it all in while helping Nick get his shoes on, finding Xander, and getting Nick's picture taken for his name tag.

One drawback was that both boys seemed worn out by the time we got home. It was only 10:15 or so, but I gave them lunch instead of a snack and then had Nick do independent playtime. Xander could not get any school work done without whining, so we went back and forth on whether or not he was going to do his schoolwork or lay down in his bed without playing toys. He rested for more than half an hour.

Meanwhile, Nick got out and admitted he had to go potty. I had him sit on the potty and bribed him with another ice cream cone if he did #2 in the potty again. I just really want to make this second nature for him. He did it! (Hurray! I shouted mentally.)

Nick and I read National Geographic books almost all the way up to naptime.

In fits and starts, Xander:

• listened to another two sections of The Story of the World
• colored, cut, and glued to index cards pictures of what he had heard
• put those cards on our wall timeline in order
• played Star Wards Jedi Math on his Leapster
• listened to The Hobbit
• discussed the saying "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" with me
• listened to Johnny Appleseed, the version retold and illustrated by Steven Kellogg (Xander was really captured by his illustrations)
• listened to the poem "Buckingham Palace" by A.A. Milne
• copied a phrase from This Country of Ours underneath his illustration showing the action: "the house was finished"

We're steadily getting through The Hobbit. Xander usually wants to listen to it at breakfast time and before bed.

Yesterday evening I went for a two-mile run and it felt great. I told Erik it was either the five days or so I took off or the temperature. For the last two days, we have had lows of about 60 degrees and highs of 90ish degrees. It feels wonderful.