Week 2 - All Aboard the Animal Train (MFW)

  We started each day with our usual routine. The boys love singing and dancing so we try to take lots of opportunities to incorporate music into our daily activities and tasks. They are enjoying the songs on the Sing for Joy CD as well.

This week, we read lots of books.

Played outside with red water beads and searched for other small red treasures

Made red pudding, finger-painted with it, then ate it and froze some as pudding-sicles

We also colored rabbit 'get well' cards for our neighbor.

Another great week!

Week 1 - AATAT (All Aboard the Animal Train)

That's a wrap for week 1!

We've settled into a good routine for our preschool. 

We start each day out with breakfast (that they usually help me prepare) and a morning show while they eat. I'll usually let them play in the playroom after this while I get a few things set up for the day. 

We usually start out each school day with 'calendar time'. First, we sing and dance to Shake Your Sillies Out by The Learning Station. Next we sing and move around to their 7 Days of the Week, 12 Months of the Year, and ABC Songs. If they still have a ton of energy, we sing Shake Your Sillies Out again before sitting down. I have a magnetic calendar where we talk about today's date, the seasons, and the weather. 

After that, we move over to the wall where we have our train taped above the window. We do a silly follow the leader train game around the house then back to that wall where we recite our Bible verse, look over our unit poster, and talk about the theme. Week 1 was all about LOVE. 

Next, we have a snack (sometimes with sometimes without a playroom break) then choose something from the MFW lesson plan to do (read a book, sing a song, make a craft, surprise box, etc.) I don't have any particular order in which we complete the lesson plan activities for the day. I just pick whatever goes best with the mood and activity level my boys are at in that particular moment.

After this, we do something more active like go outside to play, go to a jump place, have a friend over to play (or go to their house), swim, story time at the library...just whatever the rotation happens to be for that day. 

Friend fun and red juice-icles with strawberry bits

It's usually time for lunch after this, so we eat, watch a cartoon/show, then have naps. My boys sleep anywhere from 1-2 hours. I use this time to try to get some sort of household chore taken care of. When they are up, they are raring to go again. 

We usually try to go outside to play, but sometimes it's just too unbearably hot so we may play inside instead.

'Invisible' water bead fun

Next, they'll usually have another snack and watch a short show, play in the playroom, or choose a surprise box activity. Then I usually choose another activity or 2 to do from the lesson plans.  

Red Playdoh!

This week, we also had a red silly string fight, had friends over for swimming, went on a red color hunt, made 'get well soon' heart cards for our neighbor, and made cookie brownies for daddy :)

All in all, it was a great start to preschool!

Round 2 - Beginning...Again...

We were all set for the boys to attend Mother's Day Out again this school year. They loved it last year and wanted to go back. We paid all the registration fees, first months tuitions, etc. The only stipulation was, in order to enter the 3 year old class, they had to be potty trained. 

Yeah, we tried...All. Summer. Long. Drove myself crazy, drove them crazy, and it just wasn't happening; they just weren't ready.

So...I looked into a few other options, but with different days or time constraints, there really wasn't another good option out there :( 

My boys are busy, busy, busy...so I settled to the fact they would be home with me every single day and got to working on a totally different plan.

We are now doing preschool at home :)  I did it with my now big kids, but I've learned a lot over the years and we are adding in a TON more hands on stuff, taking A LOT of breaks due to my boys short and fleeting attention spans, and getting out of the house more for playdates-library days-jump world-playgrounds-swimming-field trips-etc.

We are doing My Father's World All Aboard the Animal Train. So far, they are loving it! I'm going to try to document each week as we go along. Feel free to join us and we begin round 2 :)