Preschool

December is my second and final month hosting our little preschool at my house. I was so excited about having it this month because there is so much fun stuff to do in December! Chase's class is the cutest little group of kids and he is enjoying preschool so much (i.e. he has burst into tears the last two times when all the kids go home). I wanted to document all the fun things we've done so that in a few weeks I can feel at peace with throwing the projects in the trash.

We are working this month on patterns and sorting. We decorated these Christmas trees, but first I made the kids sort their M&Ms into piles of red and green. I think this was their favorite activity.

I got braver this month and let them paint, which Chase was so so excited about. We made these little candy canes when we were working on patterns. No clothing or furniture was ruined in the process so I will call it a success.

 I had some extra time to fill one day and wasn't quite sure what to do and my mom came up with this idea- have them put glitter on stars. So simple, but the kids loved it. I planned on having them sprinkle the glitter on a cookie sheet to eliminate the mess. Chase was the first kid to go and just as I was showing them that we were going to pick up one corner of the star to let the (huge pile of) excess glitter spill off, little Chase took a big breath and decided to blow the glitter away- GLITTER EVERYWHERE! The best laid plans...

 We learned about Rudolf one day (and had a little lesson on being kind to people/reindeer even if they are different in some way). I traced all their hands and feet to make these reindeer. I just love seeing these little projects come together. They don't look perfect, and I love it that way. I love seeing the messy learning process of a three year old!

Lastly, we made little ornaments for our Christmas tree. The kids really got into the pipe cleaner/bead activity I could have/should have planned for time for it and just let them really go to town instead of just making two candy canes. 

Preschool for the month was supposed to wrap up on Friday with a Christmas party. With all the holidays and craziness (and just a little bit of my general laziness) I hadn't actually planned that elaborate of a party- it was going to include a little gift exchange, a few simple games, some Christmas books and songs and then in all likelihood- some sort of Christmas movie off Netflix. As it turns out, Hudson came down with a flu bug (that has been nasty- more on that later) and so I just cancelled the Christmas party. I couldn't quite figure out how to manage my sick boy and the party at the same time, and I really didn't want to spread this awful bug around to 4 more homes. Luckily, I hadn't really told Chase much of the party, so I just casually mentioned to him that we wouldn't be having preschool that day and he pretty much accepted it (his Aunt Heidi is in town, so he had plenty of other excitement going on). I felt bad, but on Friday morning when Hudson threw up 3 times during the window that would have been preschool I was pretty thankful we'd cancelled!

Having preschool at our house in December ended up being so fun! I really love the little cuties in Chase's class and I've loved being part of their preschool experience. The other moms involved are awesome and really it has been the best experience for Chase. He loves going to preschool every single time- and he usually doesn't want to leave either when it's done. He just loves it!