Ella's First Day of School

I know it's strange to be starting school in November but let me explain.  The school year here starts in June and ends in March.  When I looked into putting Ella in preschool at the beginning of the current school year, I was disappointed that I wasn't able to find anything that was only a couple days a week. I did find a school I really liked but it was five days a week and I was just not ready to have Ella away from home that much to start out. I really wanted to transition her gently into something that would expose her to school and get her used to the idea of being part of a class without it being full-on school yet. She wasn't even quite four at the time so I figured school at this point wasn't totally essential, especially if I was intentional about our time together at home and getting her lots of opportunities for social time. Those things so far haven't been a problem.

What I decided was to do an experiment with a little preschool at home. Things just came together so well when I started looking into it. Ella has made some friends in our church congregation over the past year or so. She has really gained confidence socially and the fact that at age four she is more developmentally geared toward interacting with other kids really helps her readiness for this. It's so different from the 2-3.5 year old stage of independent play alongside other kids. So these particular few of Ella's friends are all within just a few months apart. They had no plans for preschool and seemed to also be very ready for something outside the home for a few hours a week (not to mention their mommas!).

We are doing a second semester of the 2012-2013 school year (November to March). I hired a teacher who is a friend in our congregation. I utilized the wisdom and experience of another dear friend Ellen, who was a preschool teacher in Hong Kong for years and is a wealth of knowledge. She has lots of resources she has been willing to share with me as I searched for curriculum to use.

I am using a Montessori at Home curriculum with some other stuff thrown in. It's been really fun learning about the Montessori philosophy and how great it is at nurturing a child's innate ability to learn through play. I also got Before Five in a Row, a literature-based preschool curriculum that I may try out a bit at some point. 

Our class is Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:00 till 3:30 pm. Each of the moms are rotating assisting at each class and bringing snacks.

Today went GREAT! I was SO delighted to see Ella enjoying herself so much. She was eager and interested and participated fully. All five of the children seemed to have a great time. Here are a few shots of our playroom turned classroom and the new students.

Teacher Cherry Ann

Snack time!