Preschool

So I am teaching our boys preschool. We decided it might be best if I taught the boys becuase we can't afford preschool costs and now since we are down to one car it would be pretty difficult for me to go get Hunter, but hopefully by the time Hunter is ready for kindergarten we will have a second vehicle so for Christmas 2 yrs ago (2008) I got a bunch of flashcards and coloring books and puzzles from the dollar store. I was thinking they would be great to use with Hunter (2 1/2 at the time), well he was just not having it. Fast forward to end of October and beginning of November 2009. Late one night I had a long talk with my mom about a lot of things. It was a really good talk, one we hadn't had in a long time, well lets just say it helped get my butt in gear on a few things. So the next day I worked up a school plan for Hunter, thinking Jaxon was too young still I didn't include him. I went through and made a chart of all the school related activities we could do. Puzzles, letters, numbers, shapes, colors, videos, books, etc. I also included simple chores for him too. Cleaning his room, bath, brushing teeth, etc. For each thing he did he would get a sticker. at the end of the week if he had made it to a set number of stickers he could have his choice of a hot wheel car (he loves them) or a candy. Hunter actually took to this pretty well and was excited to do school and get stickers and prizes. Jaxon started to pay attention to what I was doing with Hunter and he started to run over to where I had Hunter's chart up and would point and say "school" and "sticker". So made a chart that would be age appropriate for him. It has worked really well.

There were days when the boys were just not cooperating too well so they might not get any stickers, but there were days when they wanted to keep doing more and more. I tried to get the mto do school on the weekends but since Mark was home all day they weren't really focused, so we would only ask them to do chores. When Thanksgiving came around, they got the day before and the the day of off because they could play with the uncle (my brother) and Mark's family. Then the week before Christmas I decided that the next week I would give them off, sort of in the spirit of a Christmas vacation like what I used get. Then I realized I should do it for the week of New Years too. I was all ready for when Jan 4 came around, but the boys were not having it so I gave up, mostly because my mom was still on her break from work and they are very distracted when shes around. So I waited until this past Mon to start and so far we have gotten 2 days done. When the boys get up from their naps today we will start school.

For Christmas 2009 I went back to the dollar store to pick up some more/different school supplies to help with expanding and verying the "curriculum". Every four weeks I have raised the amount by 4 stickers for them to reach and strive to learn more. Though the amount I have set is really only for Hunter to reach, I usually give Jaxon a prize if Hunter has reached his goal since Jaxon doesn't have the same amount of thinghs to do and has a small attention span. Since I started I have also add to the main chart a behavior line where I can "score" their behavior for the day (1-10 for Hunter, 1-5 for Jaxon). If they are good at least 50% they get a "big sticker" worth 3 little stickers (what I use for their school). At the end of a few months if they have a certain amount of stickers (don't remember exactly the amount right now) they can get a big prize. The boys have so much fun piclking the stickers to use that day and which activity they want to do next. Jaxon has now started to show an interest in some of the things Hunter is doing so I have started to include him in on those instruction times. It probably takes us about 2-3 hours to get through everything and I do it during and after lunch time when they are in their chairs and more focused than in the morning when all they want to do is play and watch Playhouse Disney and I have to make sure they are finished before Grandma comes home because they just want to play with her.

So I am hoping this all works out and that the boys are learning a lot. They can sometimes pick yup on things really well, sometimes not so I hold off for awhile to give them more time before I try it again. My step-sis-in-law used to teach preschool so she gave me some materials that I could possibly implement into my school, unfortunately a lot of the things I want to do from her stuff is crafts and I have absolutely no room for the craft supplies here at my parents house, so hopefully once we get on top of our bills and back in our own place again I will be able to have space to do crafts with the boys. But there is some units that she had that I am going try to do either in a couple of weeks or months. We'll see.

Wish me and the boys luck! (On some days I need it ;-D )