Her First Day, Too!

To say that Raegan is a wee bit disappointed about not being able to start preschool this week, like her beloved big brother, would be a gross understatement. The child has talked about nothing else for the last week and she is clearly so bummed that she's not old enough for "Peeeescool" (which is funny if you look at it from a PT standpoint because she totally doesn't need that kind of school!). Like most, I wanted to find a way to, perhaps not "fix", but at least to ease this transition for her.

Thanks to various activities available around town, our Tuesdays and Thursdays should be fun-filled and active this fall. Fine Arts Tuesdays will be a snap thanks to Little Music Makers and Toddler Art. Thursdays will be MOPS and Toddler Time at the library (if I've got the right story time in mind, anyway). But MWF are pretty wide open and RL and LT and I just don't quite know what to do with just ourselves and not Mr. Harrison along for the ride. That is why, when a friend suggested last week that we do some preschool books with Raegan at home while HD's at school, the light bulb went off over my head. Brilliant! She's the kind of kid who will actually sit and do such things for an extended period of time, so I hopped on Amazon that very night to find some great workbooks for the preK set.

When I mentioned the idea to Raegan this weekend, however, I was met with something pretty similar to this face:

But guess what? This picture was taken this morning on our first official day of Home Preschool (and yes, she asked me to take her picture but then gave me this face)! Now, I'm not actually claiming to be leading a home preschool. I'm not cut out to be a home school parent or a preschool teacher (god bless those who are!), but for Baby Girl, I decided to do my best and give her a chunk of time three times a week to "do" preschool here at the house. I went to the store, got a little tote and some various supplies for it and we're just going to see what happens. Here is what the rest of Day One looked like:

Delight upon opening the tote and looking through the contents! If she would let me pull her hair up more often *ahem* you might better be able to see said delight.

Checking out the goods. My idea is that I'll switch the books each few weeks and add/subtract craft supplies/projects whenever needed. Now, none of this may float beyond this week - I'm just throwing out the very rough "work in progress" here for y'all!

 As far as trial runs go, though, I'd say this morning was a huge success. She played with different activities for AN HOUR (!!!!) and then again when we got back from an errand run. Craziness. The stickers were a huge hit, although I had to do a lot of helping to get the backs off because somebody, for reasons and in locations unknown to us, has been biting her fingernails for the last year, at least. Perhaps this will motivate her to stop?!

Sweet Miss with her finished creation. I put it on our door, right next to one Harrison made shortly after we moved into this house, when he was roughly the same age Ragean is now. They make my heart smile. 

The pony beads on pipe cleaners were fascinating for RL, as well. She filled at least two of them completely and managed to not make a huge mess with any of the stuff she did this morning. In fact, she even helped clean up the mess from the stickers! So, yes, she whips a pout and throw plenty of attitude at me, but dang, the girl is a rock star, too. 

Now we just need to figure out what LT is going to do while RL does "preschool" here. I tried putting him in his chair with some crayons and a piece of paper taped to his tray this morning and it started off beautifully. For a few minutes, I thought I would actually have some of his artwork to hang in the house today, too! 

But naturally it did not take more than five minutes for him to start trying to eat the crayon and then he found the tape under the paper and then he was just done. Can't win 'em all, eh?