First Day of Pre-K

Dallin has been very excited for school to start.  He was in for a surprise when eight other friends showed up for our first day of school!

 A very serious, handsome Dallin

The real Dallin we know and love

Nine students is a lot but I have a 14-year old girl who is home schooled who teaches with me.  I don't know what I would do without her!

Dallin loves school and is learning so much.  I think his favorite part though is any playing with his friends.  He is always asking for a friend to stay after preschool for more play time.  The bigger class isn't his favorite though because he doesn't get as much attention.  He asked last week why he couldn't have his class from last year (just four kids).  Poor kid doesn't quite understand that more changes are coming.  One of his friends last year moved over the summer, another boy who is two weeks younger than Dallin and lives around the corner is moving to Australia in a month, and the last boy from last year is moving in December.  Thank goodness he has six other friends to get to know!

On a side note, when Zane worked for his public accounting firm, we considered taking a position in Australia through the firm.  It would have been the same city Dallin's friend is moving to.  After spending a couple of months looking into everything, we decided not to take the position mainly because it would be very hard to adopt while living there and we would have to put off our family.  It would have been fun to live in Australia with our friends though (and we are a little jealous)!

Summer Is Here!

 Obviously we are excited!

 I said goodbye to these boys...

with a little sadness. 

(Last day of school water party)

It has been an energetic, busy, fun year.  I'm amazed with how much these boys soaked in and I love their excitement over bugs, snakes, anything gross really and food.

I will see three of the boys next year (including Dallin) plus three new boys and two girls. :)  

Since school has been out (one week) we have hit the pool three times, gone to the zoo again, played at the tree house in the mall and visited the pet store, and had a picnic by the library (where I melted).  With no preschool, I have had more time to spend teaching Gavin who loves puzzles and shapes and start teaching Dallin piano lessons using a really fun, very beginner curriculum that involves lots of movement to expose a kid to the piano.  It is perfect for Dallin.  

I could barely keep my eyes open on my date with Zane Friday evening. 

Hope your summer is just as fun!

From Catepillar to Butterfly

Throughout the month of April, our preschool watched five caterpillars eat a lot of food, crawl to the top of their home, turn upside down, and form a chrysalis.  We then watched little butterflies break free.  It was so exciting!  After a few days, we let them fly to there new home.  Now every time we see a butterfly in our yard, Dallin asks if it is one of ours.

By the end of the month, we were ready to head to the butterfly museum

 where you can actually see all kinds of insects (like these cockroaches!!!)

 I took five four year old boys who were very well behaved.

We enjoyed a train ride plus lunch at the park.

In the end, I drove five energetic, talkative boys home wondering why they weren't more worn out.  I sure was!

Preschool Fun

 Crab Walks

 Jellyfish (or sea jellies)

Making donuts on Letter D Day

Future Veterinarians?

I love teaching these boys!

Halloween Fun at Preschool

We had a lot of fun at preschool getting ready for Halloween.  

 The cutest monster ever (Gavin thinks he goes to preschool too)

Preschool boys sporting their masks (they all picked the same one to make) and their bats flying from the straw

Scary Monsters

And Scary Pumpkins

We made a spooky lunch and invited the moms.  Our menu consisted of mummy dogs, cheese stick fingers, skeleton bone bread sticks, monster apples, jello worms, and spooky sugar cookies (recipes from Our Best Bites and Mels Kitchen Cafe

We had a lot of fun getting ready for Halloween and the boys crack me up!  Whether they are pretending to be bats or scary monsters, they are fun to teach.

 We had our first preschool fieldtrip this year to the fire station as we talked about fire safety.  The boys thought the truck was awesome especially when they got to sit in it.  They also thought the huge tires (which were bigger than some of them) were pretty cool.

There is something adorable about a baby with a fire hat.

 At least Gavin is adorable with a fire hat.

Dallin the fire fighter rescuing the stuffed animals.

The Start of Another Year

Preschool is officially up and running smooth!  Last year I taught with my sister in her home.  We both learned a lot and enjoyed two of us prepping as new teachers.  This year I am on my own teaching in my house a group of boys Dallin's age while my sister continues teaching our students from last year (these kids are a year ahead of Dallin).  I have a great group of four boys (including Dallin) who are full of energy and all get along great.  I was very apprehensive about this year because last year Dallin had a very, very hard time with school.  I was so pleased the first day of school to see Dallin sitting on his carpet and participating in class.  He has been wonderful!  I think a year's maturity, teaching in our own home, a small class, and teaching on his level all really make a difference.  Both of us are loving preschool days!

Gavin is also doing well.  He takes one nap during preschool, enjoys snack time and recess time with the boys, and plays with toys in the "cage."  He loves the attention and gets very excited to see all the friends coming over.

Here's to a great school year!

Saying Goodbye

My first year as a preschool teacher has ended. We ended the year with a super fun swimming party which ended with a big water fight which may or may not have been started by me. I may or may not have also taught some water fighting tricks. We had a great time.

This was also a sad party because I'm saying good bye to these students. My sister and I taught together this year, but the plan was always for us to split up after the first year so that I could teach Dallin's grade level. She will continue with the majority of the above students and I will start my own preschool for Dallin's age.

Here are the things I loved about teaching preschool:
1. The students. It was great to be a teacher again. I loved seeing the students outside of school and have them run up to me to give me a hug. I loved seeing growth, excitement about learning, and kids imaginations. My favorite time was story time when the students were enthralled in a story. I also loved excitement about the themes we were doing and questions that were asked (and some of the funny comments.)

2. I enjoyed teaching with Haley. My family had bets that there would be fights and this might ruin our friendship, but we survived! I will miss bouncing ideas off each other, sharing the work load, and learning from her. She is a wonderful teacher and a great coteacher.

3. I learned tons this year about teaching 3 year olds (very different than 12-14 year olds and yet in some ways very similar!)

Here's to summer break (and preparing for next school year)!

Zoo fieldtrip

We had tons of fun on our zoo fieldtrip with preschool. Dallin loved being with his friends and rarely walked around with me. At the last minute, my mom joined us which was really helpful with my own kids.

We made these masks for our art project in preparation for this fieldtrip

Dallin loves animals right now. The only TV show he likes to watch is Wild Kratts. It is a new find and I really like it. He is learning so much about animals and I enjoy watching it too! He especially likes anything to do with alligators/crocidiles, snakes, and sharks. So you can imagine how cool it was to see a live alligator! (Dallin is the one touching the alligator with the tank top on.)

It was a long and tiring day but a lot of fun!
(Can you see how tired they are from this picture!)

Preschool Fieldtrip- Butterfly Museum

At the beginning of March, our preschool (my sister and I teach together) took a trip to the butterfly museum (we left our babies with Grandma). This is my 3rd time going I think, but it was still as enjoyable as ever. Dallin loves all the critters and things to see in the museum part and really enjoys walking around looking at butterflies and saying hi to the iguana. He had an even better time because he was with his friends. We had a picnic at the end and let the kids run around. I love going on fieldtrips and having the students experience what we are talking about. I also love going to places at a cheaper rate because we are a preschool. My friend asked if we were going to look into Sea World and see what kind of discounts they give for preschool fieldtrips! Enjoy the pictures!

Nurturers

There are times while I'm teaching preschool that Gavin has to just wait for what he needs like when nine 3-4 year olds are waiting for their snack and Gavin decides that he wants to eat too. Gavin will let us all know that he doesn't like being put second. On this particular day, Gavin was being very clear that he wanted something and one by one my 3 to 4 year old girls got up and started playing with him on their own initiative. If you know Gavin then you understand that if someone just looks at him let alone plays with him, he is the happiest of babies. He was in heaven when four girls chose to play with him.
Now where were the boys in our preschool class? Sitting at the table eating their snack. Apparently a crying baby doesn't make them jump up and try to help especially when there is food in front of them.

Girls will be girls and boys will be boys.

Fun with Bugs

We learned about bugs this month in our little rotating preschool. March has been my month to teach and I have enjoyed every minute of it. It is especially great when you find out you taught your son something. Here was a recent conversation.

"Look mommy, honey."
"Who makes the honey?"
"Bees!"
Love those moments!!!

As part of our bug unit, we decided to go check out the butterfly museum. I'm not sure why three stay-at-home moms chose to go during spring break where it was crazy, but we had a lot fun anyways.

Can you imagine these cockroaches in your house??? My worst nightmare!