I Heart Playschool!

Every Wednesday morning at 9 a magical thing called playschool happens.  I.am.lovin'.it!

I really debated what to do with Charlotte for pre-school this year.  She seemed ready for something more than sitting home with me all day- especially since last year with twin babies kept us pretty well home bound 90% of the time, and this year it's about  70%.  Every morning the first question I hear is, "Where we going today?"  She still seemed a little young to send off to pre-school 2 or 3 times a week, and her fear of strangers was awful  when it was time to sign-up.  Plus 3 years of pre-school seems like overkill.

Playschool has been exactly what we both needed! Here's why:

1. It's only once a week- we can stick to our own schedule the rest of the week since I don't have any school age children- doesn't overwhelm Charlotte
2. 2.5 hours long-  enough for me to get something done but she still comes home for lunch
3. Once a month I get to play teacher and I LOVE IT!!!  I have so much fun with these girls.  I get to be the parent and the teacher I wish I could be all the time. I put the twins down for their nap about 30 min. into it.   I don't worry about housework, I actually plan out fun lessons and games.  There are only 4  or 5 cute girls- talk about perfect class size and one-on-one attention!
4. The other 3 weeks I run errands with only 2 kids.   Or I put Abby and Olly down for their morning nap and clean uninterrupted.  Oh the things we used to call chores that are now luxuries, like mopping by yourself. Or I actually get to sit down at my computer and blog, do the budget, or (dare I say it) waste time in the middle of the day!
5. We keep it unstructured so no one has to do a letter of the week, required snack etc- it's a little play and a little school if you feel like it.  I'm not big on trying to make small kids grow up and learn too quickly- yes we teach a little but only if it's fun- because they're only 3 and 4.
6. I've seen a BIG improvement in Charlotte's fear of people and social skills.  I think part of that is her getting older, but I think it's helped for her to go to a friend's house each week for a few hours.  She is the youngest in the group- and probably the most anxious.  We've had a couple of weeks where she was a little sad for mom to leave, or was done before the time was up but she's done it which is a big accomplishment for her.  Here are some pictures- I won't list the other kids names since they aren't mine but aren't they darn cute together?!

First time at our house:
Beach theme-

• Check out all the library books on the beach.  I do have them do actions, repeat words, to make it more fun.  "Maisy at the Beach" and "Ladybug Girl at the Beach" were their favorites.
• Make a letter S with glue and Sand and Seashells- we did this outside to avoid a sand mess
• Played in the wading pool
• Each girl had an empty egg carton to color ( I wasn't brave enough to have them paint them blue) and put fish stickers on- I did write the number 1-12 inside each cup for them.  Have them count out the correct number of goldfish crackers for each cup (1 fish for the cup with the 1, 3 fish for the cup with the 3...)  a little too hard for them but good practice counting.  Here's the link from pinterest.
• Surprise biggest hit- throw 12 limes (they used apples at this link so they would float but I had limes already) in the pool- call them "fish" tell the girls to fish them out using kitchen tongs (practice fine motor skills, it's pretty tricky), and put them home in the muffin tin (they insisted I add water first to keep the fish alive), and have them count to 12 to make sure we got them all, also they would count how many they were missing.  They played this at least a dozen times.  Who knew right?
• Pretend to play Popsicle stand, again outside- seashells for money have them count a certain number.  I promise I don't feed them creamsicles every week- I was out of the cheap Popsicles- lucky girls!
• I was pretty concerned with getting four girls back into dry clothes.  I forgot something though- 4 girls this age can dress themselves.  Infinitely easier than getting my three kids dressed.  Sometimes I think I'm a baby for thinking it's hard to do anything with my kids- then I have an experience like this that makes me realize it IS hard- but it will get easier.  Hope!

Second Time at our house

Fire trucks and fire safety.

• Again read fire station books from the library.
• Quick lesson on fire safety
• Finger painting a big box left over from our new patio set for our "house"
• Wash off in the wading pool to stay cool
• Take turns being the firegirls or the mom and baby in the house to yell "help"
• I read a book called "Nurture Shock" that encouraged teaching kids to do extended pretend play so I got them going and they did this over and over again and even started it up again a month later on their own.

Waiting for the call at the fire station.  See look- we had watermelon this day!

Firetrucks, firegirls saving them from the house

"Help!" 

Now doesn't that look like fun?  They really play so well together- what a great group of girls!  I've had a few more turns at our house but I figured that was enough for one post.

Now I have to decide what to do with Charlotte next year... She still has 2 years after this before she starts kindergarten but all of the other girls are in the older grade.  Poor fall birthdays.