I meant to do this awhile ago, but as usual, time gets away from me. Here we are in middle of November and the girls have been in preschool for 3 months. It seems like we just started! The weeks just fly by.
Hannah has three girls who are her best buddies at school. She doesn't play with the boys, which is funny since most of our friends' kids are boys and she likes doing boy things. They have a letter, color, and shape of the week that they study during whole group time. The classroom has lots of centers to go to during free play time: house, book, art, computer, puzzle area, etc. Hannah's favorite is the house area where she and her friends play dress up and pretend to be mommies and sisters. She is very into pretend play now. She also loves all the art projects- cutting, painting, and jewelry making. She says her favorite thing about preschool is recess and playing with her friends. Both girls have two outdoor recesses a day. In September they started special classes: Monday- phonics, Tuesday- Spanish, Wednesday- music, Thursday- movement, Friday- art. Art is Hannah's favorite. Although she also really likes her phonics teacher. I'm impressed by the amount of Spanish she has learned with only one lesson a week. The other day we had this conversation:
me: Who was at preschool today?
Hannah: There were only 4 boys.
me: What about the girls? What girls were there?
Hannah: Diez.
me: Who is Diez? I don't know her.
Hannah: Silly Mama! Diez is a number not a name!
Hannah loves all of her teachers. I often get parents who ask me, "Would you tell my kid that is okay to (insert random thing here)? Because he won't believe me, but he'll listen to his teacher." And it's true. Teachers have magical powers. I tried to get Hannah to write her name all summer. She would do an H, sometimes attempt a A, but refused to try the N. The first day of preschool her teacher asked her to write her name, and she did it on the first try! She can write all of her letters now. It makes me wonder how homeschooling works when your mom IS your teacher.
Some of Hannah's artwork:
These next two are from their first phonics lesson. I think it is neat to see what the same lesson looks like at different age levels. Yes, I'm a weird teacher-nerd.
Olive got off to a slow start, but she soon warmed up to preschool. Her teachers are wonderful. They have a different learning theme every week. Usually it relates to the seasons or holidays. One week they studied apples and the kids tasted all different kinds of apples and apple products, made art with apples, sang apple songs, read apple books, etc. By the end of the week all of the kids could say apple. It's so fun to watch how fast she is learning new words. Olive's preschool favorites are singing and coloring, and of course she loves all the toys. Her least favorite things are sharing with other kids, getting her diaper changed, and finger painting. Her teacher writes very detailed descriptions on the backs of Olive's artwork. This is what she wrote on one (I think it is hilarious and so "Olive"):
Olive was very reluctant to touch the paint. I put my finger in the paint to encourage her to try. She let me put some paint from my fingertip onto her fingertip. She made a motion of wanting it off so I showed her how to rub it onto the paper. I did this with all three colors then Olive said "no" and signed "all done". She was excused to wash. This activity strengthened her fine motor skills, color recognition, and sensory experiences.
This was during their week studying family. She pointed those scribbles out as us.
We're very happy with preschool. The teachers are great, the special classes are amazing, and they even bring in field trips and speakers. They had a petting zoo, pumpkin patch, and firetruck come to the school. About the only thing we don't like is the cost. Oh yeah, and the sickness. Being around so many kids has meant the girls get sick just about every week. So far we've had coughs, runny noses, ear infections, wheezing, vomiting, hives, and fevers. Just this week both girls missed 2 days because of fevers. Oy! Thank goodness for Grandma and Granny or else I think I would have used up my sick leave by November!
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