Playschool

Something that has been so great for us to be involved in here is Playschool. Playschool is every Tuesday morning for our little Preschoolers. My understanding is that it is a co-op, but I can’t say I know anything about how a co-op works. :) It is organized through Fuller, and we are so thankful for it!

Basically it is structured so that there are three groups of kids that rotate to different stations during the morning. There is outside play, which has been anything from water toys to games with flour to playing with beans and pasta. There is also a painting option, but my boys tend to be too interested in the other option (i.e. running around or making a mess :).

Water play

Flour play (that was seasoned with lovely smelling baby oil!)

Playing with glass beads..

and letters!

Another station is indoor play. This is things like parachute games, tunnels, a trampoline, and bean bags. Not to mention balls galore. Asher tends to be a risk-taker, throwing himself over the balls (these are bigger, exercise-type balls) and standing on the rolling scooters. You know, anything to make Mama nervous.

But his personal favorite all year has been these little roped buckets.

There is a string of about 6 of them and he loooves walking across them over and over. Today they even turned into a train carrying all sorts of ‘goods’ around the room.

There are all kinds of things to experience with indoor play, and my favorite thing is that we have almost none of it at home. It is always a new experience for them, which means they are always excited!

The last station is Circle Time/Craft. Circle time involves singing and reading stories about the monthly themes. The craft tends to be related to the theme or a nearby holiday. Both boys do pretty well, but nothing much would be crafted without some help and encouragement from Mama. :) Though I do try to keep my hands out of it, and they are both getting better at using glue sticks.

These pumpkins were made around Thanksgiving, and they even have real pumpkin seeds on the other side! Just today the boys made Valentine wreaths that are hanging on our door.

Another favorite time during Playschool is snack time! There’s a variety of fruit and snacks available, and snack time at Playschool was Asher’s first experience sitting by himself in a 'big' chair! So cute!

This is from the very first day. Both boys were pretty confused, but they knew what to do during snack time!

Playschool also begins and ends with group singing and a prayer. It’s been so great to watch both of them as they’ve grown through this experience. Asher’s early experiences were difficult because he was still taking a morning nap. Going that long without a sleep was stretching, but now the nap is gone and he is full-throttle at Playschool! Aed’s early experiences were punctuated with fits as he learned how to be a part of a structured activity, having to leave things he really wanted to do for the sake of things he didn’t know he wanted to do :). He has changed so much from the beginning! He is such a good listener and easily changes from one station to another. It’s been great for sharing to be emphasized in another setting, as well as for him to see that sometimes it’s ok if things aren’t fair. General lessons learned when you’re spending lots of time with lots of other children, from several different cultures. :) It’s not always smooth-sailing, but I am so thankful for this opportunity for us during the week!

We do lots of different play at home too, and I thought this one was fitting to go along with playschool.. I often let Aed play with his trucks and beans. He loves it! I thought it would be a good distraction while I tried to take a shower when both boys were up.. especially since we don’t have a shower door which means they are always trying to get in. It worked for a few minutes, but made a huge mess! The shower was successful and the boys had fun, but admittedly, I haven’t gone this route since – ha!