Today, I am excited to share a day in our homeschool preschool with you. I chronicled our day last Wednesday to share with you; it was a fairly typical day for us. Most days, we have one scheduled activity (soccer, playgroup, field trip, doctor's appointment or errands) each morning and one in the late afternoon (swimming lessons, playgroup, playdate).
My girls are very young (Abigail is 3 1/2 and Charlotte is 16 months), so our schooling is more relaxed now than it will be in a few years.
7:15 - The girls and I get up. The girls start the morning with independent playtime while I make coffee and prepare their breakfast.
7:30 - Abigail and Charlotte sit down to breakfast. A few months ago, Abigail asked if she could have breakfast with just Charlotte. They both had so much fun during their sister breakfast that they have done it every morning since. While they eat, I empty the dishwasher, fold laundry, and check emails. After eating, the girls go back to playing.
8:00 - As I am checking my email, I see that our plans for the day need to change slightly. One of Abigail's friends was supposed to come over for preschool today. However, her mom e-mailed me to say that she is sick. So, I hurriedly come up with a new plan for our preschool lesson. Knowing that Abigail will be disappointed that her friend is no longer coming (and wanting to save the prepared lesson for next week when her friend will come instead), I try to come up with a fun lesson. Luckily, I keep a handful of prepared, fun lessons ready for emergencies. I decide upon our princess lesson (Abigail LOVES princesses right now!).
8:15 - The new lesson is ready. My husband comes in to say goodbye to all of us. I pour myself another cup of coffee and head to the preschool table.
8:20 - Preschool begins. We start our day with our daily devotions and then read a few of our favorite stories from the bible. Because it was supposed to be a special day (with a friend visiting), I did not have a bible lesson planned.
8:30 - We begin our Princess lesson. We read a fiction book, complete two princess preschool packets (downloaded from other mommy bloggers who share their creations), and do a few activities that I created. During our lesson, we work on spelling Abigail's name, handwriting, letter recognition, counting, number order, patterns, same/different, and putting objects in order by size. At the end of the lesson, Abigail uses the leftover materials (and a LOT of stickers) to make a princess collage.
We conduct our preschool lessons in the playroom. During the lesson, Charlotte played independently and spent some time at the preschool table coloring and working on a peg puzzle (she worked for about 30 minutes total, which is a long time for a 1-year-old!).
10:40 - Preschool is over and we head upstairs to shower and get ready.
11:00 - We go to the grocery store. Often the grocery store is the location of unplanned preschool lessons about money and healthy eating. However, today both girls are busy driving the car cart and neither is concerned about talking to me.
12:00 - We return home from the grocery store. I put lunch in the skillet to heat up while I put away the groceries. Charlotte is getting tired, so she is very clingy and insists upon being held while I cook/put away the food.
12:30 - The girls and I sit down to lunch together. We have spinach and chicken pasta and fresh fruit (clemetine oranges, blueberries, and apple slices). During lunch, we talk about what we learned in preschool and preview our afternoon.
1:15 - The girls get ready for naps. Abigail goes to her room to play quietly while I put Charlotte to sleep.
1:45 - Charlotte is asleep and Abigail is playing quietly in her room. I head to the kitchen to assemble dinner for my family and for a friend who just had a baby. I bake gingerbread cookies and make two chicken tortilla casseroles. While the food bakes, I clean.
2:30 - Abigail gets up from her rest time and heads to the playroom to have a snack (a banana snowman) and play while I continue cleaning/cooking.
3:15 - Charlotte awakens from her nap. We load up in the car and head to our friend's house to deliver the dinner on our way to our playgroup outing.
3:45 - We arrive at the playgroup outing (at a fabulous play area near our house). The girls happily play, run, and climb with their friends. I spend the time chasing Charlotte and doing my best to be sure that she does not get hurt (she tries to do all of the same things that the big kids do and often hurts herself).
5:30 - We head home, tell Daddy about the playgroup outing, and put our casserole in the oven. Abigail helps me set the table for dinner.
6:00 - While the casserole bakes, the girls and I talk with my parents via Skype.
6:30 - We sit down for a family dinner. We talk about our days and Abigail asks what we will be doing tomorrow. I tell her that we will be doing snowman preschool lessons, making pink lemonade (just like Pinkalicious), the babysitter is coming for a few hours so I can work on my dissertation, we are hosting playgroup, and she has swimming lessons. She says that sounds fun and then asks what we will be doing the day after that (to which I reply "a trip to the zoo, animal-themed preschool, and an evening playdate with friends).
7:15 - Dinner is over and we begin the bedtime routine.
8:00 - Both girls are asleep. I begin my evening list of work:
Preparing tomorrow's lunch so that it can be thrown in the crockpot in the morning
Laundry
Cleaning
Preparing the fruits/vegetables we bought at the grocery store this morning
Baking muffins and preparing fruit to serve at tomorrow's playgroup
10:00 - I sit down with a cup of hot tea and my computer to respond to e-mails, check my Facebook, and blog.
11:30 - I begrudgingly go to bed. I did not get everything I needed to done today (I never do!) and would love to stay up and finish more things, but know that I will regret it tomorrow.
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