Yahoo's Preschool at Home

Yahoo is 3 1/2 years old. Where did the time go? It feels like just yesterday Yip and Yap were 3 1/2! 

When the boys were 3 years old, and we lived in Illinois, I took them to an hour and a half "preschool" at the local high school two days a week. The program was through the home economics department, there was one teenager per child and basically it was giving these high school students hands on experience with young children. They had a big playroom, they provided a snack and usually the kids did some sort of fun art project with a teenage helper. 

The boys spent their next two years, still in Illinois, in a more formal preschool in the next town. Twice a week they spent the mornings at preschool in a nearby town while I ran errands. We moved to Kansas right before they started kindergarten. 

Out here in Kansas, where towns of any size are few and far between, Yahoo doesn't have the preschool options that the boys do. A lot of people have asked me if she's in preschool this year. But no, she's not. 

There is a preschool in our little town. Preschool is five mornings a week but they have to be 4 years old to attend. I sure wish she could go to preschool, she has so much energy that it really needs to be focused on something. 

We did look into going to Dodge City twice a week for a preschool, but it was just too far away to justify driving there so often (besides the days we drive there for football games.) 

I decided to have preschool at home this year. Now, I'm not an expert on kids of this age by any stretch of the imagination BUT I have subbed a LOT in the local preschool so I've stolen lots of ideas from there. 

Most days Yahoo and I have the same morning routine. 

We do our calendar and add another day everyday. We count the numbers and work on number recognition. We have pictures so she has an idea of what is planned for certain days; Sunday is for church, Thursday is for Library, Saturday is for football, etc. And we add special days on the calendar too, like birthdays or days that I'm going to be substitute teaching. 

We sing the days of the week song to the tune of the Addams Family theme song. 

Then we sing the Months of the Year Macarena

I laminated Yahoo's name (Leola) and she practices signing her name with a dry erase marker. Then she's in charge of marking what the weather is doing on her chart. Hmmmm....it's windy in Kansas??? I never would have guessed! 

Do you remember the Letter People? I remember this curriculum when I was in kindergarten and Yahoo loves to point to the letters and say the sounds but her favorite thing to do is watch this Letter People video! 

Some days she dresses Jesse the Weather Bear. 

Today he stood naked though, poor guy, it was only 65 degrees out! 

I bet he was freezing! 

I usually try to have some sort of activity to do with her. 

Some days we sit and count, make patterns with beads, go on a shape or color hunt. Today we made a fall tree. 

And then there are some days we don't do anything. Because after all she's three and sometimes she's just not in the mood which is fine with me. It's hard having your mom as a teacher I'm sure. 

It would be nice to have a preschool nearby but we're doing to best we can out here on the prairie. Besides, I can find just about anything I need on the Internet! 

Anyone have any great activity that Yahoo might enjoy? 

Marker Monday - Handprint Calendar Gift Idea!

Warning!!! 

To my Mother and Grandmother, 

unless you want to ruin the surprise of your Christmas gifts STOP READING NOW!

okay.....

.....that should be enough warning for them! 

My wonderful friend Melissa who runs our playgroup had a big workshop day, 7 hours long, where she had different stations set up for us to do 12 different paint hand prints with our toddlers. After they were dry she cut them out, added details and and a poem, and we attached the hand prints onto a calendar for a Christmas gift for grandparents!! 

They turned out so well I just had to share. Maybe you have enough time to do something like this with your kids. Melissa was kind enough to set this up early for me because our family Christmas is next weekend in Indiana. 

This is the cover made from two handprints. 

The first page. I wasn't able to fit all three kids handprints on every page but we rotated so there were two per month. 

Then with every month Melissa put a matching poem.I won't put them all up because there are poems all over the Internet you could use but for example, January's says;

These aren't just five snowmen

as anyone can see.

I made them with my hand 

which is a part of me. 

Now each year when you trim the tree

You'll look back and recall 

when my hand was just this small. 

Melissa also had a lot of options if you didn't like the handprint she had for a particular month. There were also strawberries, octopus, firemen, ghosts, lobsters, and some that you could do with your feet too! 

Fish and flags for July?

 Yes, odd but my boys didn't want to do the flags! 

The apples turned out perfect if you only paint the palms. 

These are such a cool keepsake for grandparents, I can't wait to give it to them this weekend! This makes me wish I ran a daycare, wouldn't this be a cool thing to do with your kids all year long and surprise their parents with? 

What kind of homemade gifts are your kids making this year?