On Preschool

08 January 2015

So thanks to travel and illness and holidays and my laptop hard drive totally spazzing out, this blog has not been getting any attention.

Save yourself some grief and back up your hard drive right now. We had most of our really important stuff in the cloud, but we hadn't backed up our images since like mid 2013. Stupid stupid stupid. So now we're playing the lovely game of Just How Much is It Worth to You to Retrieve Those Baby Pics.

Blergh.

Instead of blogging and fretting about all my lost data, I've been working to build some structure into our days - A Mother's Rule of Life style. I read the book ages ago, when Jake was a few months old, and I could never get past any initial endeavors to schedule our day because I was too overwhelmed and Jake was too unpredictable.

My life isn't exactly a Caribbean sunset now, but I have more of a sense of what rhythms I can count on to build order around.

One of the things I'm doing is starting some preschool stuff with Jake.
I ordered this book after Rachael blogged about it, and two days in, it's going pretty well.

Jake LOVES it.

I never imagined doing any kind of preschoolery stuff with my kiddos. In my mind, Preschool = Overkill. I dreamed that their worlds would be wide with play and imagination, but instead, by 11am I was merely getting a stream of requests to play on Papa's iPad. So on days when the weather pushes us inside and I have no recourse to his primary teacher (mud), Jake needs more stimulation, and as much as I want to be this super creative mom, for now, we have a preschool workbook that we do during Lucy Juney's morning nap.

My husband is very sure I will homeschool our kids. I am very much NOT sure. This is very typical of my marriage.

Perhaps we will just wait for the fruits of my preschool labor. Because so far...
they're "hopeful" at best.

I'd love your thoughts on indoor activities I could do with a NOT laid-back three year old. Even shoot me a link to a Pinterest board, if you have one.



17 comments :

  1. So glad you're doing this so I can follow along ;) I've got the Rule of Life book, and I think I'm oh, three pages in. I need to read the silly thing and get to it!

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  2. Gold star for you! I was just thinking that I should *maybe* read some parenting/organizational books. Mom fail.

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  3. Okay I don't think my first comment worked, but the gist of it was you know I've struggled with this! I think I'm going to buy Before Five in a Row so I have inexpensive guidance. My mother-in-law swears by Explode the Code for phonics. Just bought the mathbook! Oh blogging peer pressure and how it will help my son learn ;)

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  4. That is a good start, believe me. Backwards J is more common than right-side J in preschool world. And the million line E is just one of my favorite things. :) Does he take a million years for him to draw those lines just so? Believe me, it's just perfect. You will be sad when he grows out of it.

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  5. That's a pretty epic E! Go, Lake, go!

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  6. I am so terrible about preparing activities for my almost-three-year-old while her older sisters do school. I do have a Pinterest board with a few ideas ( http://www.pinterest.com/agirlmom/school-time-for-sis/ ) I'm really intrigued by the latest one I pinned about the 5 favorite busy boxes, but I've not done any of them, or really any of the other ideas, yet. Can you guess what one of my goals for the new year is??

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  7. Okay, how old is Jake? Because my 3.5 year old can't write a letter to save his life. He just wants to be moving, running, and all things sports related. Give him a pencil and/or crayons/markers he'll doodle the whole page just to be done faster! Go Jake! And, I'm looking forward to all these upcoming preschool posts because I'm right there with you!

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  8. If you don't have it already, you WANT this book: Preschooler's Busy Book: 365 Creative Games & Activities To Occupy 3-6 Year Olds (there's a toddler version as well)

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  9. Oh my goodness she's come out with even more versions since Sam was a toddler--- sounds like this one would be great too! :The Wiggle & Giggle Busy Book: 365 Fun, Physical Activities for Your Toddler and Preschooler

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  10. First of all, am I the only one who read "A mother's Rule of life" and got sweaty palms... She even schedules when she clips her kids toe nails... I thrive on some schedule with flexibility.. although I gave up homeschooling so perhaps, that's my problem. My favorite winter activities for 3 year olds are bath time, sewing cards, having them sort anything into jars (coins, legos by color, different colored beans), play dough, and more baths. I think three is the HARDEST age, but I love, love, love age four. It's the best. Hang in there!

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  11. For inside play with "active" boys I suggest a Fischer Price basketball hoop and one of their little plastic slides. Endless fun- my boys especially enjoy turning the slide upside down so it can be a fort/tank/spaceship. When we get really bad cabin fever I let little ones ride their trikes in the house. It's crazy, but not as crazy as we'd all go otherwise :)

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  12. i read about that book on rachael's blog too and bookmarked it for with julian gets a little older. but even at 9 1/2 months, we run out of things to do!

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  13. Oh Kate, I think you are going to like homeschooling, should you decide on that for your family! Wait, I take that back. I KNOW you will like homeschooling! The satisfaction of choosing how & what to teach your own kids is much like the satisfaction of homemade yogurt topped with raw honey made in your own backyard, only better!! :-D

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  14. Kate - I love your writing, so funny! So here is what got us through some winters with active kids:
    http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=46747116&cp=2255956.2273442.2255969.32493136.2257613&parentPage=family

    And I can't wait to try your queso dip. I think you could definitely food blog, homeschool and remodel your home in the next few years. Without a doubt, because you're amazing :)

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  15. Oh man. This is Johnny and I have no advice. Except for a big sister to keep him busy. Not helping, I know.

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  16. Oh I like this book recommendation! I do believe I'm just one perfect schedule away from freedom!

    Jake is nailing the letters! I'm finding the book to not contain as much math as I hoped---right? But I'm intrigued by all the new language stuff that's coming out of it, this vs that, connect, etc. Anyway, we feel super productive for the 30 minutes we sit with it. : )

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