Preschool is Officially in Session!

We have been 'playing school' with Evan since the beginning of April.  But today marked the official start date of Preschool!  We have been telling Evan for awhile that he was going to start today, so he was really excited.  As a matter of fact, he wouldn't even eat his breakfast this morning because he was so excited.  He just kept saying, "No, I want to go play school!"  He just couldn't wait to get in the school room.

Evan eager to start Preschool.  Alan along for the ride!

We used 'Days of the Week' magnets to fill in the blanks on our whiteboard.  Today is...Yesterday was...Tomorrow will be...  Then we learned the Pledge of Allegiance.  We have a flag hanging on the wall, but he really wanted to hold his own (fortunately, I had an extra one in the closet!). 

Evan learning to say the Pledge.

We always start school with a Bible Lesson.  We have been doing this since April so he knew the routine.  A couple weeks ago, Evan wanted to play school so we went in the school room and I got a few things out for us to do.  He just sat down at his table and said, "No Mommy, we have to talk about Jesus first."  Children sure have a way of putting you in your place!  The Bible concept for today was that God is our Father who always was, is now, and always will be.  We talked about how God has given us a very special gift - our world and everything in it.  He made all of it for us.

I pretended that my phone rang and had an imaginary conversation with God.  He told me that he had a special gift just for Evan and that we needed to go outside and look in the mailbox.  This of course, thrilled Evan to no end.  He loves to go get the mail, and knowing that there was going to be something for him in the mailbox made him ecstatic!  He ran to get his shoes on and we went outside.  One of our little neighbor girls was outside riding her bike.  Normally Evan would just want to play with her, but he ran right past her saying, "I am playing school right now and God put a present in the mail!"  Inside the mailbox, Evan found an envelope addressed to him.  He couldn't wait, and he opened it right there.  Inside, he found an earth stick puppet.  He said, "Mommy, mommy!  God gave me the earth!"  What a joy it is to see the excitement on his precious little face. 

Evan so excited to get his 'letter from God.'

Evan then got to make his own earth stick puppet.  He enjoyed coloring, cutting, and gluing his earth. 

Evan proud of his earth stick puppets.

We got out our Rubber Duck family and sang the "Three Little Ducks" song.  Great song to emphasize obedience to the father - many lessons there!  He loves this song and especially loves making BIG quack sounds for the Daddy duck.  After singing it several times, we took turns putting on a play using the ducks.  We used Alan's chair turned on its side as the stage.  This was new to him, and he loved it.  After I would act it out, he would imitate what I did and then act all shy and want me to do it again.  This went on for awhile! 

Daddy duck says "Quack, quack, quack, quack," and three little ducks came waddling back!

Along with the "Answers for Preschoolers" curriculum that we are using, we are also using the "Before Five in a Row" program.  We started today with "Play with Me" by Marie Hall Ets.  I had made stick puppets of the animals in the story and he enjoyed acting it out.  He wanted me to put on a play using the animal puppets and the Rubber Duck family.  My storyline became quite interesting!

We worked on the letter Aa today.  We learned that Aa is for alligator.  I had alligator pieces precut that he was able to paint green.  After it was dry, we put it together and made an alligator puppet.  I checked out several books from the library on alligators and we have enjoyed reading them together.  His favorite alligator book is, "There's an alligator under my bed" by Mercer Mayer.  Really cute book!

Evan painting his alligator.

Aa is for Alligator!

Day 1 of Preschool = SUCCESS!