1  | 

I found this helpful Thank You! Your vote will be tallied soon!

This week is our first week of preschool at home.  Spring break is over for us and the vacation sadly came to an end.  I've had big plans all along to start really focusing on Kindergarten readiness as our first priority and so far it seems to be going well.  I'm planning to keep a daily log of everything we do that is preschool-like.  Every day we'll sit down for at least a few minutes and do "activities" from Alex's Hooked on Kindergarten workbook, which he finds challenging, but fun.  We're also practicing lower case letters on that special paper with the dotted lines I remember so fondly from my own childhood.  (I write the letters out in faint print and he traces them.)

Of course, I picked a lousy week to get sick.  I had big plans for play dates and working in the garden together and going to the library, but none of that is possible when I feel like a slug and want to nap all day.  I've been relying heavily on the Internet (my favorite reading website for kids is starfall.com), the television and Grandma, who conveniently lives right across the street.  We've managed to do at least some school work every day, but there isn't nearly enough structure yet.  I also want to get us out of the house a lot more often.

Some of my other ideas are:

Bike rides around the neighborhood
Recess at the park
Recess at the local coffee shop with a play area
Play dates with friends
Trips to the Portland Children's Museum
Trips to the OMSI (big awesome museum in Portland)
Trips to the Portland Zoo
Trips to the Kid's Museum in Olympia (about 90 minutes away but worth the drive)
Hiking trips
A trip to the local sanitation plant (I've heard it's cool)
Farmer's Market (I guess it can still be preschool on the weekend)

Naturally, I also want to include my four-and-a-half year old in more of our daily activities at home like cooking dinner and gardening and cleaning.  I'm looking forward to weekly play dates with his school friends and weekly trips to the library as well as soccer practice every Saturday.  I hope to keep both kids busy.

The hard part for me is closing the laptop and paying more attention.  When I was home in the morning with Genoa while Alex was at school, I often let her watch Teletubbies so I could get work done and that doesn't really work anymore with both kids home.  Alex needs more stimulation and structure and as we get used to the new schedule, I'm sure we'll find our way.

Any ideas from homeschoolers?  How do you stay on track?