A New Preschool

A couple of months ago, Dave and I made a pretty tough decision and decided to put J in a preschool. This meant that we had to take him out of MMO at our church, which we loved dearly. An opportunity came open for him to attend a preschool that can help him with his speech, as well as, offer more academically. There are actually state academic standards for 3 year olds! Overall, it was a difficult decision, but some of the burden is taken off of me to help J with his speech and just making sure he is where he needs to be for kindergarten in a couple of years. I know those kindergarten teachers are thanking me already! I can now focus on what Miss Lori wants me to work on in the area of speech, and I can just reinforce what is covered at preschool instead of trying to teach it myself. J just completed his second week of "big boy school", and it is going great! His teacher is so sweet and has high expectations for the children. A few school changes for him have been: unpacking his belongings in the morning, verbalizing EVERYTHING he wants or needs, a behavior system using little jewels, participating in circle time and other group times-eyes and ears always on the teacher. Let's just say everything is a little tougher for the little guy, but I love it. In my opinion, every child should attend a preschool or MMO at least 1-2 years before kindergarten. It offers so much more than just the basic academic skills people think about. Speaking of academic skills, the children learn a color and shape a month, a letter a week (letter and sound recognition)using Sounds in Motion (which happens to be have been created by a speech therapist), patterns and numbers using a calendar, the weather and appropriate clothing, beginning math skills, fine motor skills using Handwriting Without Tears, cutting, gluing, folding, the days of the week, a rhyme a week, and so much more! I just love it all!! They even do a morning message just like I did with my students, but J has to look for the mystery letter and date. This is how he finds out what he will be doing that day. Did I mention there is a smartboard in his classroom?!?! Before going in, J knew his colors, most of his shapes, could identify numbers 1-12, but only knew the letter J. Now, he already knows the letter D and S. We are keeping track of them on his white board at home.

He is also being exposed to so many books and themes. He tends to like his same 20 or so books at home, but we are now pulling books off of our shelf that coincide with his weekly theme. This also teaches J that we have to give new books a chance, but we can still read our favorites, too.

Yesterday, they had a Gingerbread Extravaganza that parents were invited to attend. I was all over it! We were the last ones to get there, and his teacher said the children were so concerned about J. They didn't want to start without him. So precious!! There were stations set up, and the teacher showed them where to go by placing their picture under the station on the smartboard along with a verbal reminder. Everything ran so smoothly!

Needless to say, this school stuff excites me, and J is all smiles about "big boy school", too!!