First Day of Preschool/Back to the Books!
Originally uploaded by annamaren.The official portraits of the first day of preschool/back to the books celebrations!
The night before the first day back.......
Originally uploaded by annamaren.Today was L's first day back at the co-op preschool, and so we made it a special day for K too, by making a big deal of getting back into the rythym of having deeper learning experiences. I hesitated to use the term "back to school" because we have been doing learning all summer, and have done short but diverse unit studies on Volcanos, Shakespeare, Monarch Butterflies, etc.
The learning hasn't really stopped. I have been less detail oriented, taking no portfolio notes, keeping no strict records, not enforcing much of anything except journal time, and the occasional violin jam session.
So today we made a special day of it for both of them, with a "Back to School"-"Back to the Books" kind of feel. There were presents and a special breakfast meal, and decorations and secret notes.
L had a grand day back at preschool. He has the same teacher from last year, and I am so excited to be working with her again! I come away from class participation feeling refreshed and like I had spent time with a guru. She teaches the parents as much as she does the kids.
K also had a great day. I had F and J over for a chunk of the day, as Susan was not feeling well, so she kind of stuck to her couch. K and F worked on their math together in the form of making a cake. I wrote out the recipe for them in the form of math problems, which they had to solve to bake the cake! Then they did all the measuring and mixing, and basically made the whole cake themselves. I poured it into the pan at the end, becuase the bowl was so heavy!
(A secret: I taped their lesson to the bottom of the chairs they were sitting in, along with a note from the fairies-and then after morning snack, I wove a spell to make the next lesson appear. Oh, they were so funny when they found their next lesson on the undersides of their chairs! I can still get my magic on with these sweet 6 and 7 year olds!)
We shared our cake with friends and all in all it was a great day.
Ahhhh.
