Preschool Begins.

I'm aiming to be back to my normal blogging self, but I've got a few other goals, so I'm combining two -

1. updating the blog

2. doing "preschool" with the twins (I "failed" with Carolyn - I mean, she learned to read, but she didn't do fun/cute stuff like I had in my head)

So, I'm going to keep it simple and fun (oh, and they're 3K, so they're not learning to read!), and I'm going to attempt to blog about it.

If I quit, either I gave up on the preschooling (which I hope doesn't happen), or I gave up on blogging about it.

I'll begin the week with what they'll learn/do and end the week with a video/picture of something they did/learned that week.

This is our first "real" week. We started the morning routine on the first day of school (August 19th) - that involves

• singing a 'hello' song (we're using welcome songs from the primary songbook)
• saying the pledge
• (singing) days of the week
• (singing) months of the year
• counting up to the day of the month (like today is the 30th)
• checking what the weather is outside today (singing too)
• knowing the season
• singing any songs that relate to any of that - season, weather, etc.

Then, we'll either do an activity right away (if there is one that day) or later depending on what's going on (see, I'm being flexible b/c I still have chores/shopping/stuff to do). Each week will have a little theme and a letter. Some months will have a bigger theme - if there's a holiday - I think we'll do Grandparents this month (Grandparents day and they have one Grandparent with a birthday this month)

This week: Opposites and the letter Z (I know, that seems backwards, but it didn't fit in any month, so we're getting it over with - and it's easy to trace for beginners)

Today's activities:

1. reading books on opposites (to learn what they are),
2. singing, "Once there was a Snowman", "Do as I'm Doing", and "Smiles"
3. talking about opposites in the store (like, saying, "do the opposite of run - what is it?" or "stop being wild - we need to be the opposite of wild...what is that?"...that was an off the top of my head idea...I might keep it up, you'd be surprised how much that helped!)
4. Then, before naptime - Opposites charades (act out opposites for us to guess - like open mouth, closed mouth, fast running across the room, slow walking across the room - I gave the idea whispered and they acted out for each other - ending with me doing "asleep/awake" to move towards naptime)

today's activities totalled probably 30 minutes-1 hour (if that) - but they are learning, and I'm still getting stuff done...we'll see how this continues! We'll try to play red light/green light Wednesday (Tues is library day for the fall and this thursday is a playgroup for the twins and Friday is payday - which means shopping - we'll have to put some opposites in there somewhere...?)

Maybe I should take a picture of them to start off the year too...?