Being a teacher for four years prior to JJ still has me getting giddy over classroom decorations every August! I love to browse the teacher store! I even get excited when I see school supplies! I was watching "You've Got Mail", and I love the part where he writes about sending a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils! Not that I enjoyed going back to school and summer break ending, but there is something about setting up a classroom and having a fresh start with new students.
Because of our very short stay here in Alabama, I thought it would be best to do preschool with JJ at home while we are here. We will decide when we get to our FDS whether or not I will continue the school year or let him start late. The last few weeks, I have been on the hunt for everything preschool! This has totally filled my void of teacher supplies! (I even sent a small package with goodies to my teacher friend!) I got workbooks, a lesson plan book (my favorite thing), art supplies, charts, a calendar that does the weather as well. I'm showing him what month, day and date it is! I have been pumped for weeks! I have also been nervous. I have done 4th grade, but I have never actually taught preschool. Fun, fun, fun! (As JJ says!)
This morning, I talked it up to J before we even got out of bed! I asked him who his teacher was going to be. He told me he didn't know. Then, I told him it's the one who takes care of him, feeds him, blah, blah, blah! His delightful answer was, "Mommy, Mama, Papa!" Can you tell he's been around the grandparents A LOT? We had eggs for breakfast. At this point, he was telling me no class, no food, class no fun, food no fun and so on. I tried to distract him by telling him how we have to eat, go potty, get dressed, maybe you could wear your Batman shirt! That was all it took! He garbled down his eggs and even had two small powdered donuts so he could be strong like Batman and smart for school! We then got ready, put his backpack on and went outside, so he could walk into class. He got upset that we weren't actually going bye bye. Major fail for mom at that moment. Totally felt like a loser, but I put it aside and told him I would go in first so I could greet him at his class! He came in, I asked if he was JJ and told him I was Mommy! He was so serious about it all. He put his backpack on the coffee table and got onto his block's box, which is his chair for school.
I started with prayer, then we did the calendar. He was soaking it all in and even saying okay to everything I told him and showed him! He can say the days! Amazing! We then did our charts of days of the week, months of the year (I pointed out his birthday month, mine and Daddy's), colors, shapes, numbers and letters! So fun!
Then, we did music and dance time! This was one of my favorites! He loves music and dancing! I have no coordination, so it was really funny watching him copy my sorry moves! Poor child needs to see his Daddy dance, so he doesn't get ruined for life!
We had an apple and orange juice for snack. This is where he discovered dipping apple slices in orange juice is "nummy"! He also dipped most everything else the rest of the day in orange juice. Gross, but he says it makes everything taste better.
Then, we read a story about Noah and the Ark. He also learned his first Bible verse. "All have sinned." He sounds really cute saying it! We sang the "B-i-b-l-e"! He loves that song now! He even told me a few times only he could sing certain parts.
Then we worked on our letter of the week "A"! (If you hadn't caught that yet!) He has fridge phonics, so we jammed to the letter "A" song! We worked on a cool picture of things that start with "A". I had a hard time finding things to cut out, so I was pretty creative with Allegra and Activia. This is one I will be saving, so he can remember how crazy his Mommy is!
Next, we did some pages in his numbers, colors and shapes books! We did an apple song that sounds like the "Itsy Bitsy Spider". He was trying to sit in my lap and copy my moves. Hopefully, we'll do better tomorrow! One of my favorite things we did was the "circle hunt". I hid circles around the living room while he closed his eyes in the kitchen. I gave him a basket and had him find all the blue circles. It was like an Easter egg hunt, only they were paper circles and didn't have anything exciting inside them, but you get the gist of it!
One of our last things was going outside and blowing blue bubbles. Well, they are in a blue container, so that counts. We ended up on the sofa reading a couple books!
This was one of those days I hope I always remember and cherish. I have never considered home schooling my children, but today made me thankful that I have the chance to do it! Even if it's just for a short while. I have dirty dishes in the sink, clean dishes in the dishwasher, laundry in the hamper waiting to be washed and clean clothes in the dryer waiting to be folded and put away, but I didn't care today. Today was about teaching my boy and enjoying watching him learn! I wish I could do that everyday, but I would have a really messy house, nothing to eat with and nothing to wear! Ha! I'll get caught up.... Maybe tomorrow!
Posts
