Preschool

Charlize, Holden, and probably (hopefully) my nephew Jonathan will all be starting preschool next fall.

I'm always trying to think of ways to challenge and stimulate their little minds, give them a little bit of a head start and a leg up.

I'm always trying to get us into more of a routine.

I'm always trying to find more things to keep the kids busy without having the TV on so much of the time.

My biggest issue has been sticking with it. I can never seem to make myself stick with anything.

But I have a plan. Plans are nothing new with me. Sticking with it will be the new thing. If it happens. But I have faith that if I can MAKE myself stick with it for just 2 weeks, I won't want to go back.

My plan, my goal is to have a preschool program with the kids for 2 hours a day. By January. When Rayce goes back to school in January, that's when we'll start.

Nothing serious. Just sitting down with the kids for an hour or two every morning and reading, doing arts and crafts, learning colors and letters and letter sounds, that kind of thing.

I have SOOOOO many resources. and soooooo many awesome ideas, I just never put them to use.

So, for the next couple months I'm going to be getting my plans together, organizing my ideas, etc etc etc. I'm going to be researching activity ideas online, adding them to the lesson plans I already have, making copies and putting it all together into one cohesive plan.

I don't have the space or even enough kids to set up real 'learning centers' but we can do one activity at a time as a group.

Liliya will be 2 in January and I feel that she could definitely begin to learn colors and shapes and maybe even letters. Dante would *definitely* be able to start learning some letters, he'll be 3 in February.

Holden, Charlize, and Jonathan will all be 4 next spring/summer and I think learning some more things before they start school in the fall will help them out a lot.

I worked with Rayce so much when he was younger, and he's so smart, ahead of a lot of his class, and doing wonderfully in school. I wish I had had more time to work with the other kids from the beginning, but there were just too many kids too close in age when they were babies. Now that they're older it'll be easier, and I still feel like I have the chance to give them a head start.

I'm excited :o)