The Clarksons: It's preschool time again!

Eli starts his 2nd year at Christ Preschool on Monday! He is in the 3/4 year old class this year and while it is the same school, he has a new teacher, new classroom, AND new classmates. We made the decision to switch him to the M, W, F class so his preschool days would be more consistently spread out vs. the T, Th, F schedule he had last year. We attended open house on Thursday and Eli was his usual social self! He already knows and is comfortable with the 3 teachers and 2 directors of the preschool due to the staff combining the classes for fun activities and everyone meeting for circle time conducted by one of the directors daily!

As most of you know, I have my BA in Elementary Education and taught Kindergarten and 1st grade about 10 years ago (WOW....can't believe my kiddos are in their senior year!!!). One of my FAVORITE parts of teaching was all the planning, organizing, and room preparation. So it should be no surprise that I enjoy doing the same for my own kiddos! This summer we had a flexible schedule that included language, math, science, art, games, physical play, games, and many field trips! With school starting, I wanted to continue a schedule with some academics (just one daily), but also continue the field trips. We have a couple groupons to use for inside bouncy house places along with wanting to continue going to Paradise Park weekly. Of course we hope to keep the parks & rec activities, library, and other fun kid places in the mix, too! Here is what I have come up with:

7:30-8:00am BREAKFAST
8:00-8:30am MORNING JOBS
8:30-9:00am READ ALOUD STORY TIME (great transition before leaving to preschool!)
9:00-9:45am (M, W, F) Take Eli to preschool
(T & Th) GAMES (board games,
file folder games,
made up games by Eli ;)
9:45-10:15am ABC’s & 123’s GAMES
(M, W, F Anna only; T, Th Eli helps; Eli has enjoyed helping teach Anna, too!)
10:15-10:45am PHYSICAL PLAY
(chase, tag, red light/green light,
outside, basement play set, etc.)
10:45-11:00am Snack
11:00-11:45am Anna naps
11:45-12:00pm (M, W, F) Pick up Eli from preschool
12:00-1:00pm LUNCH & Tidy/prep for afternoon
1:00-2:00pm
M: Baking (some kind of healthy snack for us to munch on throughout the week that Eli helps cook!)
T: Library Story time & book check out
W: Friend playtime (attending one of the many fun kid activities/places in the area or just a simple playdate!)
Th: Errands/Appointments/Clean
F: Paradise Park
2:00-2:15pm CALENDAR (including month, day of the week, & weather)
2:15-2:45pm
M: Science
(easy experiments, Sid the Science Kid
from PBS, etc.)
T: Language
(letter writing, letter sounds,
beginning sounds, etc.)
W: Math
(counting aloud, counting objects,
simple addition, number writing, etc.)
Th: Art/Music
(crafts & free art play; music DVDs,
Music with Mar, & free music play)
F: Paradise Park
3:00-3:30pm Snack
3:30-4:00pm PHYSICAL PLAY
4:00-4:30pm GAMES
4:30-5:00pm READ ALOUD STORY TIME
5:00-5:30pm Dinner prep/free play
6:00-6:30pm DINNER
6:30-7:00pm BATHS
7:00-7:15pm BEDTIME JOBS
7:30pm ANNA’S BEDTIME
8:00pm ELI’S BEDTIME

And Eli's visual schedule. Kids connect well visually & it helps them feel aware of how their day is going to run:

Our alphabet with upper/lower case letters & pictures that begin with that letter. Numbers with numeral & number word. I will add up to 20 soon. The bottom area will be for him to hang up his preschool work:

Each month the preschool sends home a newsletter with the theme, colors, numbers, letters, words to the songs they sing, and bible verses they learn for that month. This allows parents to extend to home what is being learned at school:

We talk a lot about the weather in our house, so I was excited to find these window clings for the weather. I printed and hung up "Today's weather is:" so we could change it out each day:

I also found window clings for shapes & colors that also had the words:

This is Eli & Anna's craft cabinet. There is paper, coloring/painting supplies, stickers, coloring books, and play doh. Eli used to have access to it all the time but Miss Anna keeps pulling the shelf down on her so now it is blocked by a chair:

Here is what is inside our ottoman/coffee table in our living room. A variety of puzzles, file folder games, flash cards & special books we get out to play with throughout the week. These items need adult supervision :)

Our living room play area is arranged with toys that Eli & Anna can play with TOGETHER. I moved the toys for Anna's age to her room & Eli's cars, trains, super heros, etc. to his room. This helps in several ways. Eli knows that what is played with in the living room is shared & played together. If he wants to bring out his super heros to the living room, that is fine, as long as he understands Anna can play with them, too. If he wants to play with them alone, he can either go to the kitchen table or his room. This has really helped him, He understands that he DOES have toys that are just his and a place to do just that. With the set up of our house, he just goes down the hall and it isn't a "punishment" to play alone. Then the living room has large puzzles, games, books, reading toys, mega blocks & other items that can be done together:

Now for the basement. We bought this playset with the idea that we will bring it inside to the basement during the winter for a place to have some physical play! It is the perfect size for Anna and Eli loves the rock wall on the side:

Also downstairs is the art easel that I will add supplies to for creative art time:

All of Eli's hotwheels tracks are in these tubs along with some toys & musical instruments down below. Also some toolsets for the kiddos to help "fix" things:

Another addition to our basement is this keyboard. Eli & Anna both love to play it & especially play songs to dance to. We will have many winter dance parties I am sure:

This summer we started learning character traits. We learned about 8 or so of them. Starting this week, I will just have one up a week to review and focus on for that week. I also want Eli to continue to be aware of his and other people's feelings. So I made feeling cards that we will also discuss what they mean, look like, and what are safe ways to express each feeling. We are definitely seeing expressions of anger in this house & I hope that just addressing emotions throughout the week will help:

Since cancelling cable over a year ago, Eli watches some PBS in the morning and at lunch. He loves Dinosaur Train, Curious George, Super Why, Sid the Science Kid, Clifford the Big Red Dog and especially Caillou. He really relates and zones into Caillou. Thankfully PBS has a great website with a lot of educational activities. I have started to print some off for our days. Side the Science Kid is especially great because they have experiments & other science activities:

I have kept some of Eli's preschool work from his first year. Eli's coloring a year ago was quite scribbly. Some of this was due to age and lack of fine motor skills, but also his desire to be fast & rough. But, I did see a great improvement over the year and this summer he totally surprised me by coloring this picture in the waiting room at Children's Mercy: