Yes, I am still doing preschool with my kids. We're on Y. I am loving it, but quite frankly I am ready for a little break! One of the things I've tried to do with our preschool is to have little projects or outings near-daily basis. Sometimes we'd just head out to the driveway and open all the car hoods so we could see the engines (letter E). Other times we'd roast marshmallows over a fire on the gas stove or go to the fire station (letter F). We made different colors of play-doh (letter P) and various foods. I even bought a bag of sand and gave them various buckets, spoons, etc. and let them go to town (letter S). I think our very favorite outing, though, was visiting several construction sites on BYU campus with my dad (letter C). He even got the kids hard hats to wear. They loved seeing all the cranes, trucks, and other machinery, and talked about it for weeks afterward.
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Our favorite and most frequented spots: (free unless otherwise marked)
Clark Planetarium
Bean Museum at BYU
Temple Square
Children's Exhibit at the Church History Museum
Library
Various Playgrounds
Story Time (Barnes & Noble is best)
Living Planet Aquarium - Year passes are on a per-person basis and definitely worth it.
Zoo - Year passes are $80 per family and also well worth it.
Natural History Museum at the U - Free every first Monday of the month.
(We often took Trax to the downtown spots. Kids 5 and under are free, so it only cost my $4 round-trip ticket. Trax is an adventure in and of itself!)
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Of all the home activities, I think our taste graph was the favorite (letter T). The kids loved the adventure or trying different tastes, and especially loved drawing the smiley or frowny face depending on if they liked the food or not. I made this chart (yeah, it's not very fancy) and made Sam draw little pictures of the food. If you click on it you can print your own copy.
Sour: pickle, lemon
Salty: saltine, potato chip
Bitter: cocoa, orange peel
Sweet: kiss, licorice
Friday, March 19, 2010
Random Thoughts on Preschool
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11 comments:
A pickle sounds delicious about now.
I love all the fun outings you've been taking! The BYU construction sites look especially cool--who WOULDN'T love that!?!?
We need to settle in a place with a more moderate climate--the WI winter kept us indoors most of the time. UGH. We had a preview of spring this week which has been lovely!
Way to go Mom! Your preschool is awesome!!
That sounds so fun! It's exciting that your kids love it so much, too. Awesome for you! Thanks for the ideas!
Very cute idea! I love it! So, did they actually eat the orange peel??? Can you do that???
where do you get your lesson plans?
Man I wish you lived nearby. I would so pay you to take Keyton in as a student. I am just so unmotivated and lazy.
Cara - yes, you can eat it. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, I think it's the healthiest part of the orange. That said, Seara spit it out. Elijah swallowed it, though.
Gina - I actually wrote my own curriculum based on the info in stacks of books my mom has. I have also used a lot of information from this site:
http://www.letteroftheweek.com/Preparatory.html
and
http://www.letteroftheweek.com/preschool_age_3.html
Those two curriculi are pretty nice. I do the same idea of a letter a week. But I kinda come up with my own things most of the time. Hope the links help!
We are totally going to use that chart. How cute! All your posts make me laugh, especially the darndest things your cute kids say.
Very good ideas. You really are a super mom. I tried a rotating preschool with Kate and 4 other kids. I've decided it takes very special people to actually enjoy trying to teach little kids (esp. if they aren't your own). As a result, I'll be SENDING Andrew to preschool.
Krishele - There is a reason I'm only doing preschool for my own kids and not at all interested in teaching anyone else ...
ps. I should say that I only mean preschool. I don't mind doing activities like making playdoh, doing music time, having story time, etc. And I'm loving Primary (much to my surprise!) But I'm not at all interested in teaching other kids to read and write. My own are challenging enough!
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