Neighborhood preschool

**The letter B, the color Blue, the shape Square,

and the number zero**

Last year I did "Joy School" with 6 other moms in our neighborhood. A schedule was created with each mom taking a turn once every 6 weeks to host Joy School at her home. The lesson plan was simple: teach a letter, color, shape, & number. There were 8 kids total (I have twins, remember?) and school only lasted 1 1/2 hours. It was the highlight of Becca & Mary-Gail's life and the excitement of "going to school" would build over the week until it was school-day. I took the girls w/me to get backpacks: Mary-Gail chose a "Dora The Explorer" backpack, and Becca chose an "Ariel, Little Mermaid" backpack. Oh how they loved their backpacks! And they loved playing with their new friends. Some of the existing bonds between the little 3 year old girls were stronger than others, which made me sad that Becca & Mary-Gail weren't "included" like I would have liked, but made me more grateful that I had twins and they were (and still are) each other's best friends.


This year we joined the neighborhood Joy School again. Some of the girls had already turned 4 and "graduated" to a different preschool in the neighborhood (we've been on that preschool's waiting list since April 2008! 2008?! I've had my kids on a preschool waiting list for 2 1/2 years?). And some of the previous moms wanted a smaller number of kids in the group - I guess 8 little 3-year olds were too much for them, but I didn't mind (then I remembered they're not used to having multiple children of the same age like I am). So the group was organized down to 4 kids. My first turn was on Thursday, September 16th. I was in charge of the letter B, the color Blue, the shape Square, the number zero.


Here's what I did: made bean bags with the Big & little letter "B" sewn on (I sewed the number zero on the reverse side). The material I used was flannel w/little blue squares and the finished bean bag made a large square. The kids filled their own bean bag with...beans, then I sewed them closed, all the while making the "b" sound and enunciating each word that began with the letter b: "Let's fill our b-b-b-bean b-b-b-bag with our b-b-b-beans..." Once we were all done, we played hot potato, except it was "b-b-b-burning b-b-b-beans!" So much fun! It was wonderful!!

Big B, little b, what begins with b?

We had a snack: Life Cereal (we called it b-b-b-brown squares) and then we went outside to b-b-b-blow b-b-b-bubbles, and to b-b-b-bounce! The bubble wand blew bubbles that looked like a large zero's, and the kids jumped on the large b-b-b-blue b-b-b-base that was the shape of a square. (It all came together very nicely, don't you think?) I seriously lost track of time, and before we could do anything else, everyone's mom's came to get their child. I sent each child home with a b-b-b-blue b-b-b-balloon. Just for the record, I hate balloons because my girls fight over them with a vengence; but everyone needs a blue balloon when you're learning about "B"

I loved it so much, and I loved playing with the kids. My dream has always been to have a house full of kids, and it was realized each time I had Joy School at my house. I tried to arrange my schedule w/day care to continue doing Joy School this year, but sadly, my day care rate didn't change, and I couldn't "afford" to be home for the roughly 3 hours it took me for prep, play, and clean-up. I had to back-out of Joy School. Last Thursday, 10/21, would have been my turn again. JoJo says I should start my own neighborhood preschool...maybe.