First Preschool: Joy School for Jessica

Although Jessica was only 2 1/2 by the fall of 2012, my friend invited us to join a preschool-at-home group for 3-year olds in our ward. It wasn't expensive, and was only 2 half-days a week, and I wasn't about to turn down the chance for several hours of free time. Here we are on the first day:

Plus, it was the same Joy School curriculum I had learned as a kid, which brought back sweet memories to me. The material is quaint, but with a few tweaks it was really fun to teach. It emphasizes happiness and gratitude, and age-appropriate hands-on activities over pure academics.

Our units were joy of my body, the earth, honesty, sharing, order, goals, obedience, humor, trust, confidence, imagination, and family. We started the lesson sitting in a semi-circle to do the weather & date, stories, songs, and show & tell object starting with the letter of the week.

Super Hero Me day, from "Joy of Confidence" day is pictured here. (I love that Jessica chose to borrow a Batman mask over Supergirl outfit, which looks even funnier with her girly clothes.)

I took this picture after the obstacle course activity for "Joy of the Body". Too bad Jessica was being a pill; it just happened that 3 kids wore red and two wore purple, so I was trying to get a symmetrical shot. Kids pull the funniest faces...

Our "faith fall" (let your friends catch you falling backwards) during the "Joy of Trust & Confidence" unit morphed into 20 minutes of "Cowabunga!" during playtime.

There was 20-30 minutes of playtime scheduled into the beginning, middle, and end of the 3 hour block, so it wasn't too intense for little kids (or the teacher!)

The kids were so fun to get to know; each one had their talents that surprised and delighted me. Here Ian, Mr. Hands-On, helped me make "fried snowflakes" for a snack, and Julia sang "I Am a Child of God" perfectly, for our "confidence" talent show.

Joy School lesson songs are clever, but sometimes wordy. So most of the time I only taught them a few keywords or actions. This song (during "Joy of Service and Sharing" in December) I just sang to them as I wrapped each of them, laughing, in Christmas paper: 

I Have a perfect present

To give to someone true,

To make us all feel hap-happy--

I'll give myself to you!

Just wrap me in some paper, 

And tie me in a bow.

Be sure I'm covered head to foot

So wiggly ears won't show.

Then give me to whomever 

Should need some love today.

You'll have the Perfect present when

I give myself away!

Arms can hug you tightly,

And feet can errands run.

A song to sing or story tell,

Before the day is done.

During that week, we also played secret service elves, and cleaned up the neighbor's backyard.

We also taught holidays and seasons. At our house, each kid took turns doing each part of a Nativity play, which I narrated and directed at lightening speed to keep up with their 2-minute attention spans. If you look closely, you can see that Jessica, as a wiseman, brought a gold Liahona, body spray, and red pepper flakes as gifts to baby Jesus.

Since there were 9 kids in Joy School, we split into two groups. But we joined together for holiday parties at Halloween and Valentine's.

Our group includes Jessica & I; ladybug Julia on Kristina's lap; Melissa behind Kristina and her mom Emily top-right; Buzz Lightyear Ian and his mom Jessica (taking the picture); and Tanner the tiger and his mom Lauren in black.

The other moms in my group were so great to work with. Thanks Lauren Malone, Jessica Shorter, Kristina Randolph, and Emily Bingham! I loved chatting them twice a week. Jessica loved Joy School and her friends, and was always happy to attend. Frequently, after it was over, and I was finished talking to the other moms, I had to go find her (like below hiding in her friend's closet) and drag her away.

Thanks for all the great memories!

There's a Triceratops Prowling Around Our House!

We had a lot of fun for Halloween this year. One week before Halloween we went to the  church Trunk-or-Treat. Jessica and I made these crow and acorn treats (from Oreos & Hershey Kisses) for it.  I have to say the crows look more like crazy birds, but they were easy to make.

 

(Story: I saw a picture of the crow cookies online, but I wasn't going to do them. I thought "those eyes are too much work, and where would I find black thin licorice?"........But then I was in Walmart buying favor bags in the cake decorating isle, and there they were in 2 neat packages: edible candy eyes and black candy whips. It was destiny, so I gave in. And bonus: the candy whips taste like fruit punch, not black licorice.)

We choose zookeeper outfits to match Jessica's dinosaur costume, which she sorta picked out. I already love sky blue, (it's the color I bought for her to wear on her first day out of the hospital.) She likes dinosaurs. She loved the tail and it fit like a glove. Lions & tigers & sharks were "too scary" she said; other cute costumes she liked didn't fit. She was more interested in the nearby toys anyway.

She was tired at the beginning, but perked up soon, and showed her disappointment when she saw cars leaving.

(We also bought a rocket costume---she knew exactly what to do when I counted down: took off running on a circle tour of the toy section. I didn't show her any princess, pumpkin, witch or cat costumes---she'll probably pick those herself someday. I think next year she'll understand she can ask me to be something specific.)

All we had to do for our costume was buy Dave a two-pocket khaki shirt and make labels. Dave quickly rigged up some bars for our trunk, and we brought the stuffed animal zoo we made for Jessica's new toy room. And I couldn't resist the giant plastic shackles from the Halloween store. My mommy-alarm went off when I saw them: I could see my future children having a blast with them!

Dave passed out candy from behind bars and told the trick-or-treaters that the little Triceratops put him in there.  They thought that was funny. Jessica loved her triceratops costume. She kept the hat on, ran around, barred her teeth, and cat-hissed at people. 

We fully understand the symbolism of parents who want to play "lock up the child" for Halloween. It could be a disturbing sign of psychologically tormented parents that fantasize about doing this to their toddler, bwa - ah- ah - aaaaaah!

A few days later, Dave helped me make some fake bones. He made the economical version using watered-down glue to adhere white paper napkins to taped newspaper; (after they dry for 2 days, you have to paint them white). I tried the more expensive version with cardboard tubes, paper & masking tape, and plaster wrap (from Michael's craft store). I just dipped strips of it in warm water, and smoothed it on, and it dried in 1 day: white & hard as a rock. Now we have some cool homemade decorations!

We carved pumpkins the night before Halloween. Jessica used the little carving kit tools to pock mark our pumpkin while Dave scooped and carved.

Then I tried to light it and get a good picture, while Jessica thought it was funnier to keep blowing out the flame. So I pretended I was very offended and she just giggled more and kept huffing and puffing.

We started Halloween with my Mom's cheddar holiday soup. We had a great time trick-or-treating with two other families from church in their neighborhood. 

Julia, Jessica, and Nolan are all the same age and brought up the slower tail of the group. It was frigid.

I loved seeing that gaggle of kids waiting on doors! Last year Jessica was just learning to say "Ween!" This year she said "Whick or Wheat!" "Fank you" and "Happy Hawoween".

We also trick-or-treated in our old neighborhood a bit. Dave wanted to leave after an hour, when it got dark. Jessica during the second hour spent more time admiring carved pumpkins and petting dogs, rather than running around for candy. Only I wanted to keep going. We imposed a heavy parent tax on her Halloween candy, but she still got a big pile.

We were supposed to have our Joy School party the day before Halloween, but Hurricane Sandy, a.k.a. Frankenstorm came through and we decided to hold it the day after.  With nine preschoolers, nine moms, and four extra kids, we were squished in our new house, but it was jam-packed fun.

Our local mother-taught Joy School is awesome: reliable fun women, smart little kids, and a pre-made curriculum. It's split into 2 groups. Our group includes Jessica & I; ladybug Julia on Kristina's lap; Melissa behind Kristina and her mom Emily top-right; Buzz Lightyear Ian and his mom Jessica (taking the picture); and Tanner the tiger and his mom Lauren in black.

The kids got some darling portraits taken, thanks to the talented Jessica Shorter; I love the bone clenched in our triceratops's hand.

The kids decorated cupcakes and foam pumpkins. We asked Jessica if her pumpkin had the measles or just extra noses--she said the latter. I think the eyes make it extra hilarious!

Our friend Zachery here is singing our 2 songs: "First You Take a Pumpkin" (to the tune of "Sing a Song of Sixpence") and "I'm a Mean Old Witch With a Hat" (for which one girl left the room for fear of witches). Jessica is not phased by scary stuff, yet. She's the one who asked for a "mean" face when we carved our pumpkin at home.

We played 3 games based on our first three lesson units: Musical *Hugging* Ghosts (Relationships), Hot Potato/Pumpkin (the Earth), and Skeleton Treasure Hunt (Bodies). I altered them to be less competitive for toddlers. But 3-year olds are clueless about basic game play, which makes them extra funny.

The first was like musical chairs, except you stood on paper ghosts. The more ghosts that were taken away, the more you had to "hug" to stand on the last ghost. Some kids got the humor of cramming together, but some were so eager to help, they assumed when the music stopped it was time to clean up all the ghosts.

We played "hot potato" with a small pumpkin. When the music stopped, whoever held it was eliminated; and the last kid would win a large white pumpkin. But they didn't understand the passing part, so the whole time every mom had to coach their kids "Ian, give the pumpkin to Jessica." "Jessica, pass it to Julia!" etc. But I didn't want kids upset, so I gave them a treat bag when they got out. This incorrectly incentivized the kids, like Haven below, to keep the pumpkin because they would rather lose and have candy than be the winner. The last round of 2 girls passing it back and forth was very confusing for them.

The last game was a Skeleton scavenger hunt, which ended in our basement and a bone-themed dance party. 

Sadly, I don't have a picture of it. My kid "skeleton songs" playlist was cute, but not loud enough. It wasn't dark enough to see the glow-in-the-dark bracelets or dance lights. But each kid got an animal balloon in the shape of a bone, which they loved using to beat each other and a plastic skeleton hanging in the middle. When they were all popped, it was the perfect segue into cupcakes.

That's pretty much how children's lessons go for church, piano, or preschool: plan several activities in the hopes that part of one of them sticks!