P is for Preschool

This year Mimi will be four, my sweet little Mimi beans, or Mimi Skies or one of the zillion other names she has...ok, I exaggerate.... there are less than 10 nicknames (I think). I have struggled with the decision to put her in preschool or let her stay home with me, and after much debate, I decided that next year, she will be in school full time, and since she is my baby, I will keep her at home for as long as I can. But, I realize the importance of certain pre-K skills such as letter recognition and cognitive learning skills. I am in the process of developing my own pre school curriculum with the help of the blogosphere. I am hoping for a semi structured program of about 2 hours a day 4 days a week with breaks for snacks and outdoor play.

So, yesterday I pulled out all of our homeschool leftovers, and plowed through it all (and made a HUGE mess in the process) and dug out the preK and Kindergarten workbooks and materials. I still have a lot to go through (particularly the art supplies) but here is the start of our little school. 

 The upper cabinets house most of the workbooks and hands on activities, top left I have our reading rods (the green and yellow notebook), alphabet and number games, memory games, scrabble apple for letter learning activities, and a fun game (a bit too old for her yet). The bottom shelf of the cabinets holds a huge pile of file folders for file folder games (link to the site below). Alphabet and sight word flash cards, our beloved Bob books (pre reader collection). Kindergarten art, science, phonics, history workbooks which can be whittled down to her level. ABC books, and one of my favorite books called "Fun with Mommy and Me".

The drawer below holds our "colors" watercolor paint, markers, colored pencils and crayons (as well as a random glue stick, lol). I am in the process of restocking and organizing our art cabinet that is going to be a chore and a half!  Pictures to come when its all finished.

Here are some of the blogs/websites I currently use and plan on using in our curriculum. 

http://filefolderfun.com/

This website has hundreds of file folder games and activities from preK up till 5th grade. My kids all love these games and activities.

http://www.ourpreschoolhomeschool.blogspot.com/

Lots of useful information here, including free printable lesson plans.

http://www.savvysource.com/

Very well laid out with lots of information and activites for preschoolers

And one of my favorites:

http://www.oneprettything.com/

Not really preschool related, it is a craft roundup, they however feature a "kids craft roundup" with links to blogs with children's crafts, lots of fun things to do there!

If I had all day I would list them all, however there is not enough time in the day:) I can't wait to start our little school up, and Mimi is excited as well. See: 

Her face says it all:) 

Stay tuned until Fall.....