First Day of Preschool

So this year I decided to do a co-op preschool with a couple other moms in the ward. Since Zoey has an extra year before she goes to kindergarten, I thought she might enjoy a casual school type atmosphere. For those that are unfamiliar with how a co-op works, the participating moms get together and choose a curriculum and then rotate who teaches each week. When we first got together, it felt like the only choices were Mother Goose Time and Joy School. I didn't have any experience with either, but two of the moms in our group had used both of them and there were things they liked and things they didn't like. Well, because I'm extreme like I am, I went out into the world wide web and found some more options and ordered a month's worth of materials from each of them to compare. I ordered from Star Brite, Funshine Express, The Learning Box, and Funsteps. Over the summer I tested them each out with Zoey..to an extent. As a group, we decided on using Funshine Express as our curriculum for our co-op. It's a good quality program, that does take some preparation.

What I found though just using the other kits with Zoey, I actually preferred Star Brite simply because each lesson was an individual packet with 4 or 5 activities to do, and that's what Zoey likes to do, get down to the crafting. The material quality was medium-low, but it is just right for her to sit down and I explain what to do with each activity and then let her at it. It was the least structured in terms of running the day and dividing out the skills used, etc. It was mostly simple crafts (cutting and pasting) but it was also easy to explain what the craft meant and to teach off of without really even reading the lesson plan.

Every time I've tried to do something from the Learning Box I find it is disorganized and difficult to follow and the crafts are heavily integrated, they don't stand alone at all. I have to sit down and read through the booklet for 5 minutes before I can even start to explain to Zoey what we're doing. I just didn't feel like it was easy to pick up and use. Material quality is medium-high.

Funsteps crafts were easy to pick up and do, but they almost never felt like they went along with the lesson material, or they were a stretch. They're extremely simple and not very open ended. But because of the ease of throwing one at Zoey and explaining what to do and let her to it, I reached for this kit second often, but she blazed through the activities really fast. Material quality is low.

Funshine Express crafts stand alone or support the lesson really well. They are fairly easy to pick out and just do, but they usually require paint or other messy stuff, so I didn't reach for this kit as often as Star Brite, but I think it was the best choice for the co-op. The materials are high quality and the included activity materials are substantial. It's well organized, and lends well to something you intend to sit down and prepare and teach from.

Anyway, Zoey was pretty excited to learn she was going to school and the first day she kept asking if it was time to go. It's too bad she wound up feeling under the weather the first week and was full on sick the first part of the second week, but Today was her first day of feeling herself again and she just really loves going. She's super excited that next week school will be held here.

She dressed herself. I'm ok with that.

Just had to share this picture of her fake nails. Brandon took her to CVS to get milk and they came back with these claws. She babied them as long as she could until they just got all kinds of random junk stuck in the adhesive and she woke up with them in her hair. They didn't stick really great, but they were fun for her while they lasted. She's such a girly girl. I have no idea where she gets it from.