Preschool Plans

I received an email from a friend this week asking me about starting a preschool group.  I have enjoyed teaching my kids preschool for the past 11 years and here is a review of some of the curriculums that I have used and liked:

I am still trying to decided what curriculum I want to use with my little 4 year old this year.  I enjoy them all!

 Pictures of some of last years preschool kids!

I have used the Joy School curriculum with some of my kids and I love the values and stories that it uses.  The Eyre's have just revised the Joy School Curriculum and it is now call Joy School 2.0.  The good news is that the new program is even cheaper than it was before.  

I have also adapted the "Five in A Row" curriculum for a preschool curriculum.  It was written as a homeschool curriculum, but can easily be adapted.  It is based on classic children's literature and you use one book per week to teach about many different subjects.  

We have most often just made up our own curriculum, there is so much available on the internet it is easy to just assign lessons like this:

Week 1:  Letter A, Number 1 (animals)

Week 2:  Letter B, Number 2 (balls) . . . 

Another idea that some of my friends have used in the past is FunShine Express.  It is more expensive, but sends you everything you need to teach preschool.  

I also like the Core Knowledge book "What Your Preschooler Needs to Know."

Here is a post I wrote called, "Picking a Preschool."

Tips for Teaching Toddlers

It is almost time for preschool to start!  To see my thoughts about picking a preschool read this post:

Picking a Preschool


This spring (April 2014) I wrote my thoughts about teaching toddlers and a few helpful hints:


I love to teach preschool.  This year marks my 10th year that I have had the opportunity to teach.  Last week when I taught we focused on the letter D.  We had so much fun with Dogs and we even ate our snack like Dogs!  The kids thought it was so fun.  

Here are a few of my thoughts for how to keep it fun for kids and for moms:

1.  Plan more than you think you will need!  Little preschool kids have very short attention spans so we move from one activity to another.  When I first started teaching preschool I really liked that the "Joyschool" curriculum has it all planned out for you and how long each activity should be.  It was a great way for me to start out so that  I learned how to plan my time.  I usually do something like this:

opening
story
craft
active activity
writing or cutting
snack
sit in a circle to learn
playtime
color or something at the table

2.  Remember you are there to teach, not put on a show.  One time preschool was at my house and I had an amazing idea for a snack that went along with the theme.  I was sure that it would impress the children and the moms would think I was amazing, so I got up at the crack of dawn to make fresh dough for my amazing snack.  In the end the kids didn't even eat it, they took one bite and pushed it aside!  I should also mention that not one mom even got to see how amazing I was for making such a great snack to go along with the theme!  All that stress was wasted!  Another time I had preschool at my house and nothing great to serve so we had a taste test party.  We had to choose between Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios and Craisins or Raisins.  They voted for their favorite snack.  The kids thought that was a blast, and they ate everything!

3.  Creative enough to be cool, simple enough to be sane!
I love pinterest.  There are so many great ideas, but I believe if we spend our time worrying about if our teaching is worthy to be pictured on pinterest we feel extra pressure and miss the magic moments!  I have seen mothers who completely burn out from teaching preschool because their personal expectations are too high! Preschool kids can't even put together some of the amazing projects that are presented.  

4.  Eye contact on their level
The best preschool classes that  I have taught have been the simple ones where  I got involved with the kids, looked them in the eye and was really on their level.  They love to feel your attention and love.  They also love to learn.  

5.  Go with it!
Recognize when they are interested or enjoying a particular activity and do it longer if needed or if they don't seem to understand, feel free to move to the next event.  

Letter D dogs:

Picking a Preschool

Picking a preschool is a big decision!  I have learned a lot of lessons about preschool quite by accident. When Abigail had just turned two years old we lived in Palo Alto, CA.  Justin was doing a Fellowship at Stanford's Children's Hospital.  Our apartment was across the street from Stanford.  Many of my friends or their husbands had attended Stanford or even Harvard.  As a parent of a two year old there was a lot of pressure about what preschool your child attended.  After all, they might not get into a great college if they didn't attend a great preschool :) (at least that is how I felt)

I didn't feel like I was ready to have our oldest daughter be gone so I opted to teach her at home and we switched off with a couple of other moms one day a week.  We moved and the next year and I did the same thing.  

The year before she went kindergarten I felt a tremendous amount of guilt because she hadn't attended a formal preschool.  It seemed that every other kid around me had spent years in formal preschool before setting foot in a kindergarten classroom.  As a mother I felt guilt.  To make matters worse, my husband was applying for jobs and it didn't make sense to enroll her in a preschool when we knew we would be moving; and to top it off money was tight.  More guilt. . . how would she do socially, academically when she started school? 

Guess what happened?  When she started school she excelled!  She made friends  and she did well academically and was even taken out of kindergarten for more advanced math.  

The day she started first grade and was gone all day I cried as I realized that she would be gone for so long every day.  I was so grateful that  I had taken full advantage of the years that I did have her at home and so I decided that the preschool years are mine, all mine.  I don't send my kinds to any kind of preschool.  I love being the teacher.  So far I have had four kids graduate from my preschool and they have all in turn started elementary and done well!  

The most rewarding thing I do in a day is teach my children and I have learned that the best way to learn to read is one on one. 

I recognize that this situation doesn't work for everyone, but so far it has worked for us.  

A few curriculums that we have used over the years are:

-Core Knowledge

-Joy School

-Five In A Row

-Workbooks

-I have also adapted the kindergarten curriculum to teach preschool.

-I have used the book, "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons"

Over the past 9 years we have had the opportunity to be in 7 fun preschool groups with other moms.  We also have some years that I just teach our kids one on one.  

I guess the best lesson learned 

is to not worry about any outside pressure that you receive from "what everyone else is doing" just do what works for you and your family:)

Afternoon Craft

This afternoon at preschool, Tanner and I made Halloween crafts.  This is what I made.  I found the idea on my friend, Telisa's blog!