Preschool Homeschool Co-Op Plan”ish”

SO… this was the plan BUT it has kind of fallen to the side. One of the Moms is moving and my life kind of got crazy with new projects. I am not sure really what my plan is now but what I do know is the more I think about it the more I realize we (humans) only have such a short period of time when we have no responsibilities and if we want to play all day we can. My wild man is in the midst of this short lived place of joy and I struggle with having a “structured” learning time. I can guarantee he will not be starting school not knowing his alphabet or how to spell his name. He actually learns these things everyday while playing and surprises me daily with the ginormous wealth of knowledge he has obtained from “play.”

My next thought is maybe pick a book each week and focus on activities he will find engaging and “play” that way once a day.

Dang parenting is full of hard difficult decisions!

Anyway if you are interested here WAS my plan for the preschool homeschool co op. At the end I have included links to some of my favorite blogs about teaching teenies yourself.

I can not tell a lie I am an anxiety ridden over worrying Mommy! Preschool has been a thought we have struggled with for a long time, once he turned three I thought we would be able to pull the trigger but it was a bad week to try to make that decision. Here is what I saw on the news the day I was calling preschools… mass shooting in CO, whooping cough outbreak, and a TB outbreak (13 dead already.) Heart palpaations commence…not to mention that most places wanted my just turned three year to be fully potty trained, um we are on our way to potty town but haven’t fully arrived there yet (when I wrote this we weren’t NOW WE ARE! NIGHTTIME AND ALL.) I just felt like everything was lining up not quite right for us to start preschool. But I knew he needed something…enter the homeschool preschool co op idea. I got two of my friends with kids similar ages to join in on the fun and here we are. This is the “syllabus” I typed up and sent to the ladies to give everybody some guidelines as to what I am hoping it will be like.

Preschool Suggested Guidelines

1 day a week- same day every week for “school time”

1 day a week- playgroup (park, museum, field trip) with all children and moms attending

Rotation through moms as “teacher” every week

Children will be dropped off at 9 and picked up at 12

Each week will focus on a theme (probably a letter of the alphabet first) My thought on themes is I will put together a main list and we can choose from that every week

Time outs are the approved form of discipline for hitting, etc (especially for my kid

Sharing is emphasized

Learning to do a suggested activity when asked and with others is encouraged

Each week there should be an activity planned in each of the following areas:

* Letter or theme Introduction

Art/ Craft based on selected letter/theme
Sensory activity (cooking, discovery box, etc) based on selected letter/theme
Book with emphasis on letter/theme
A song or game using body introduced
General playtime

Also included each week:

Snack time all together with a helper setting up (whichever child’s house it is) provided by “teacher” that week
Reward stickers given on a chart with each child’s name (what do yall think about this?) not sure how to work it exactly
General skills are emphasized during each area whenever possible (colors, alphabet, numbers, etc)

Not a bad plan I don’t think but just didn’t pan out, and that is fine with me. I am a firm believer in what is suppose to happen will and honestly I still treasure our free no schedule days.

Here are a few of my favorite sites for teaching the at home preschoolers:

http://totschool.shannons.org/

http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/

http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/

http://theadventuresofbear.blogspot.com/

And if you want you can follow my preschool at home board on pinterest it is HUGE!

http://pinterest.com/laurensimply/preschool-at-home/