Preschool for this Season

I have to laugh when I read all the preschool posts I have made in the past because they simply were plans. None of them came to fruit. This past year, I've had to let go of my Montessori materials and my Waldorf ideals. But now, now this post is different. This post is about what is working and happening in my household. Not what I hope to do.

For a bit of a background, preschool happens in the morning. During that time, my 7yr does his independent work in a separate room. So I work with the 5 yr and the twin 2 yr on two sets of Ikea children tables and chairs in the kitchen.

This is generally the routine -

I work with my 5yr on the Angel phonics program, memory book and Chats with God's Little Ones.

I have the twins work dependently on jigsaw puzzles and art materials. I don't rotate the items in them. I find that they really don't need variety; It must be my adult misconception. They are slowly mastering the same six jigsaw puzzles. The art materials consists of a large sketch paper and they tend to go through their art materials in the same order - washable markers, stickers, watercolor pans (I add drops of water directly into the pan) and scissors. They have happy scribbling, sticking, painting, fingerpainting and lastly making little fringes all along the border. By that time the paper is well-spent and they join us for for songs, fingerplays and nursery rhymes. I do have a tub of play-doh but they haven't touched it for the past two months. Prior to that, that was all they ever wanted to do. I find that these art mediums are a perfect substitute for Montessori practical life activities. We do have baking day and cleaning day so those other areas of practical life activities are naturally incorporated into the day.

For songs, fingerplays and nursery rhymes, I have gather six different books and stick paper clips to mark the days' selection. We sing about two pages of materials in each book before moving the paper clip to mark the next day's selection. This frees me for having to pre-select the material and gives my older child variety. After repetitively cycling through these books, my 5 year old has memorize everything. The books consists of children songs, Catholic songs, fingerplays, nursery rhymes and poems.

The last segment of our preschool program is independent work for my 5 yr. He works on MUS, a handwriting book, a phonics workbook and an art project of his choice. I, in turn, start lunch. :)

Just before bed-time, I read-aloud to the twins from their book basket. Once again, I find that variety is more for the sake of the adult than the child. So in keeping with that, the books are only rotated when they lose interest which is about 6 months! And I only have two rotation of board books!

After putting the girls to bed, I join the boys in their bedroom and read picture books they have selected. He has his collection of favorite books in the bedroom and I'm appreciating the importance of re-reading books. A few well-written books with worthy thoughts and inspiring tales memorized is better than many books quickly forgotten. I must remember this for my older child!

And that, me dears, is the honest-to-goodness truth of our present homeschool preschool.