Back to school, back to school...

Yesterday marked the start of “Mommy Preschool” for Lily and Tristan. I came across a few blogs of moms (mostly former teachers) who make and follow lesson and unit plans for their kiddos. I have tried to do at least a themed project a month or so with the kids, and we do flashcards every day, but both kids have been soaking things up like sponges so I figure there is no better time to start a more structured day.

The theme I chose to start with is shapes. I used my handy dandy notebook to brainstorm a few ideas for easy projects that would take up a little bit of time each day and act as a change of pace from our daily routine. I racked my brain for simple projects I used as time fillers or sub plans in my classroom. I decided to start with the easiest---pasting circles on a circle.

After breakfast and some free play time, we followed the leader back to the dining room to start project time. I taped a coloring book sheet to each high chair to entertain whichever kid was not gluing. I find that taping the pages down prevents some agitation and frustration for them since their papers are not slipping all around the tray. It took about six minutes total for both kids to glue the pre-glue filled circles to the paper. I did not really let them put the glue on themselves nor did I let them manipulate the colored circles too much because we were using my Modge Podge and not Elmer’s. (Non-toxic glue is on my next shopping list). It didn’t take a ton of time up, but we talked about circles and sang about circles during those minutes.

We went on a circle hunt after lunch and looked in each room for things shaped as circles. We knew what things were circle because “it goes round and round!” They loved marching around and pointing things out to me, even if they weren’t always circles. It was fun to march around on a mission.

The more structure day made it go by faster and kept the fighting to a minimum. I am no fool. I know that this won’t work every day. My projects won’t always go as planned. We didn’t do any projects or circle walks today, but we did our flashcards and read our books and had a play date with Aunt Alyssa.

Ashley did tell me that last night while Tristan was taking a bath he started to point at something and say a two syllable word that she thought was ‘turtle’ but there wasn’t a turtle in the tub. Turns out he was pointing to the drain saying CIRCLE! I am so very proud of my baby geniuses!