Preschool Co-op

One of the cool things about Ben doing his MBA at BYU is that there is a very active Spouse Association affiliated with the program that has been helpful in many ways.  One example: geographically organizing interested moms into preschool co-ops.  I was reluctant at first, since I just didn't feel like I could commit to another "thing," but I decided it was better for me to have something else to do and for Jack to get a bit of a school experience than nothing at all.  So I met with the group - just 4 3-year-old BOYS - and talked to the moms about how we were going to go about doing the co-op.  We agreed to just start out meeting once a week, which was perfect for me; I only need to prepare to teach once a month.  We also planned on having a few field trips sprinkled here and there.

We divided up the necessary daily materials and each made one item.  I contributed the schedule chart (below) which has Velcro on each picture, so that a child may move the picture to the other side as we begin each activity.

When I taught the group a few weeks ago, we talked about dinosaurs, the color orange, the letter A, and circle shapes.  We ate apple slices, stamped painted apples onto construction paper, and read and sang about dinosaurs.  As one of our activities, I had the kids glue orange spots onto large posterboard dinosaurs.

We also had some dinosaur play time, which made for a few cute pictures.

The following week, a friend taught the group and they talked about rocks and dirt, among other things.  Here the boys are digging for rocks in the sand box.

Then apparently Jack saw a truck.  And took his shoes off.

Eating "dirt" (crushed cookies in chocolate pudding).

Yes, I think this will be fun.  And hopefully, Jack will learn a thing or two.