The Preschool Plans

Next week not only will I have a 3rd and 1st grader on my hands, but also two boys that are preschool age.  How awesome is it that Jackson and Emmett will only be one year apart in grades? (I apologize, that was typed in a sarcastic tone . . .) ;o)  But seriously, whatever was I thinking?  Actually I DO remember exactly what I was thinking . . . "Oh brain surgery was just a month and half ago, and Jackson's just 10 months, surely my body's not up for any people-growing at the moment . . ."  Nine months later, hello Emmett. ;o)

But getting back on topic.

Family planning or the lack thereof.  I mean preschool.

I want to make sure we're doing *something* this year, so I've devised a little plan.  It's a very simple plan because at this stage of the game SIMPLICITY is my middle name.  In the event you have a preschool aged child also, here are some humble little ideas to get the job done:

I'm going on a monthly theme based off of seasonal/nature stuff occurring outside right now. 
August--gardens, vegetables, and tractors (because they're boys who love tractors)
September--apples, fall, harvest
October--pumpkins, leaves
November--Thanksgiving, pilgrims

Each month has four weeks.  Each week we will focus on a different letter of the alphabet as our theme letter for the week.  We are going to put together Alphabet Notebooks. (Something like this only I can promise ours won't be quite so fancy) Each letter will have a few pages devoted to it, like a decorated  "Aa" and any corresponding art projects or handwriting practice.  We'll slip these into plastic page protectors and file them in a binder.  Jackson will be doing this workbook.  I'd love to see him sounding out words by the end of next year, but we'll see how this goes.  In the last month he has become much more interested in writing letters or asking how to spell things.  I'm pleased to see he recognizes that letters are involved. ;o)

And that's about all there is to it! I told you it was simple, but it accomplishes two things that I deem important:
1) Reading good books
2) Letter recognition (and hopefully learning the sounds and how to write them proper too!)

Here's my August book list--(all books from our city library):
Anna's Garden Songs~Steele
Driving my Tractor~Dobbins
Eating the Alphabet~Ehlert
Mrs. Rose's Garden~Greenstein
Oliver's Vegetables~French
One Tractor: A Counting Book~Siy
The Rusty, Trusty Tractor~Cowley
Tops and Bottoms~Stevens
Tractor~Brown
Tractor Day~Ransom
The Vegetables We Eat~Gibbons

And of course we will throw in some seasonally appropriate art projects, most likely stuff I find online (truly it is rare that I come up with my very own idea) and some field trips.  With that, I've got a whole semester of preschool basically planned out. 

Next step--
Implementing it. ;o)