Mark and I decided quite a while ago that when our kidlets turn three that we would start them in preschool. We also decided that we would at least do the first year at home and then go from there. This isn't meant to be something very formal. First of all, I don't really feel like preschool should be very formal. I feel like I have a pretty middle of the road opinion about it. I feel like there should be some structure to it because I feel like preschool should be a time where kids learn how to follow instructions and begin learning those skills that they need to be successful once formal school begins. However, I also have always had a sincere love for learning. I know a lot of that might just be my own personality but I also believe a lot of that was how I was taught at a young age both at home and at school. I definitely don't want our kids to think of learning as being drilled and something that is dreaded. Mark and I are actually not opposed to home schooling beyond this but that is a whole other topic. We plan on just taking everything year to year and seeing what feels best for each of our kids as well as for our family.
I have been so excited to plan preschool. I love planning things in general - I know that sounds strange but I really do. And planning preschool has been no different. We had planned to start the end of August but since our lives were so up in the air I just kept postponing it. I was pretty sad about it actually but it just didn't make sense to me to try and do it. So once we got more of a plan worked out we decided that we would start the beginning of January once the holidays were over.
Each week I plan on having a theme and a letter and number that we will be reviewing. Also, each month we will have one to two colors and shapes that we will also review. Everything has gotten a little scrunched since I lost the first three and a half months but I think it will still work mostly how I had originally wanted to do it.
The theme is mostly to make things more exciting (plus learn about something fun!) and using it to learn some of the other things. We will also read books about the theme throughout the week. Jacob already knows all of his letters so the letter a week is mostly to begin learning the sounds and writing. Numbers are the same, Jacob is very solid about his numbers but we will again mostly be focusing on writing them as well as beginning some math later on. The same goes for the colors and shapes, Jacob is quite familiar with all of them already but it will just be reinforcing the concepts.
So this is our family preschool. Most of the things that we will do are ideas I got from the internet and so I don't take any credit for coming up with what we do. This blog is mostly just for us - our family - and a place for me to document what we have done, what has worked and not worked, etc.
Here we go!
Theme: Snowflakes
