Riley's Preschool & First Field Trip
Back in Henderson, Riley and I participated in a little preschool co-op with three other moms and their toddlers. It was once a week, and Riley really enjoyed it.
Since moving to Toledo, I hadn't been able to find another group of ladies willing or interested in doing something similar. Everyone puts their children in proper preschools, which I am unwilling to do. No only would I much rather take that extra $300 a month and get some furniture for the house, clothes for myself and the children or find other fun things to do as a family, but I only get a few precious years to be the primary teacher for my child and then he is off to school to be in the world full time. Sometimes, I think that I am the only one out there who isn't in a big hurry to put my children into full day school. All of my children are doing just fine socially and academically without starting preschool at age 2. Once they are gone, they are gone, and I want to enjoy the sweetness and innocence of their preschool years.
But anyway, back to preschooling - Last year, Riley and I started "Mommy School" on our own. Twice a week or so, Riley and I would sit down with a theme for the week, including a letter of the week, and do fun learning activities together. He learned the days of the week, we looked at the weather, he learned how to write his name and all the other letters and numbers confidently. We did math activities, art projects and things like that. He would ask about when it was time for Mommy School, and when I would ring the triangle he would come running with a big grin on his face.
This year, though, I knew that it was time to step things up a bit. He is four and really should be starting kindergarten next fall (at least if I have anything to say about it...and if he passes the early entrance exam). He is at a stage now where he needs more social interaction, more time away from me, and more opportunities to expand his knowledge base. I would love it if we could have him fully reading. He is really SO CLOSE.
I spoke to my friend and fellow residency widow, Natalie Mitts, and she was interested in getting together to do a co-op preschool with her three-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Addie. After polling our friends, we were only able to come up with one other willing mom - my friend, Jessica Pederson, but three was doable. Jessica was excited to do something for her son, Greg, who is in Riley's Sunbeam class at church. So, the three of us are working together to do a drop-off, once a week, two hour preschool. We chose the letters, sight words and themes we wanted to teach, and our first time meeting was last Friday at my house. I volunteered to be the first to host/teach and we did "I is for ice cream" along with the sight words "I" and "can". I think the children all had a lot of fun. We kept busy, even made our own homemade ice cream, and the time flew by.
In addition to holding preschool in our homes on Friday mornings, we agreed that it would be fun to attend library story times together weekly and try to do a few field trips over the course of the year. The first field trip would be to a dairy farm. Natalie knew a resident whose family owned one, and she set us up. Today was the big field trip.
Only 20 minutes from our house, the family-run dairy farm was very interesting. The resident's dad showed us around. We saw the cows eating their breakfast of mashed up corn, then we went over to see the stalls of new calves. There were some calves that were only four days old. Even then, they were pretty big newborns. We saw a pregnant cow and, boy, was that girlfriend huge!
We went around to see where they pump the milk and then run it to a cooling tank. From there it is taken by various companies to be processed into cheese, yogurt, etc.
Finally, we saw the mature cows and the bull hanging out. Apparently, they are milked twice a day. All 64 or so of them.
Riley most enjoyed seeing the tractors and all the tractor treads in the mud. He kept pointing out all the "tracks" left behind. He wouldn't pet or get anywhere near the cows, but admired them from afar and then rushed to go look at more tire treads, silly guy.
I think all of us moms enjoyed it just as much as the children. I know that I learned a lot. For instance, did you know that cows are pregnant for about 10 months before giving birth to their calves, which are anywhere from 70-100 lbs. each? Did you know that the life of a dairy cow is about 8 years? After that, they are pretty much done with their "calf bearing years" and milking abilities. Then, they are usually ready for slaughter. There is usually only one bull doing the rounds in the dairy. At this particular dairy, things go on the old fashioned way, and the cows are prego year round. Did you know that the ring in the nose of the bull is meant as a way of calming him down? If he is too aggressive, they will put a chain through it and chain him to the ground to keep him still and mellow.
It was a fun day at the dairy farm.
Since moving to Toledo, I hadn't been able to find another group of ladies willing or interested in doing something similar. Everyone puts their children in proper preschools, which I am unwilling to do. No only would I much rather take that extra $300 a month and get some furniture for the house, clothes for myself and the children or find other fun things to do as a family, but I only get a few precious years to be the primary teacher for my child and then he is off to school to be in the world full time. Sometimes, I think that I am the only one out there who isn't in a big hurry to put my children into full day school. All of my children are doing just fine socially and academically without starting preschool at age 2. Once they are gone, they are gone, and I want to enjoy the sweetness and innocence of their preschool years.
But anyway, back to preschooling - Last year, Riley and I started "Mommy School" on our own. Twice a week or so, Riley and I would sit down with a theme for the week, including a letter of the week, and do fun learning activities together. He learned the days of the week, we looked at the weather, he learned how to write his name and all the other letters and numbers confidently. We did math activities, art projects and things like that. He would ask about when it was time for Mommy School, and when I would ring the triangle he would come running with a big grin on his face.
This year, though, I knew that it was time to step things up a bit. He is four and really should be starting kindergarten next fall (at least if I have anything to say about it...and if he passes the early entrance exam). He is at a stage now where he needs more social interaction, more time away from me, and more opportunities to expand his knowledge base. I would love it if we could have him fully reading. He is really SO CLOSE.
I spoke to my friend and fellow residency widow, Natalie Mitts, and she was interested in getting together to do a co-op preschool with her three-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Addie. After polling our friends, we were only able to come up with one other willing mom - my friend, Jessica Pederson, but three was doable. Jessica was excited to do something for her son, Greg, who is in Riley's Sunbeam class at church. So, the three of us are working together to do a drop-off, once a week, two hour preschool. We chose the letters, sight words and themes we wanted to teach, and our first time meeting was last Friday at my house. I volunteered to be the first to host/teach and we did "I is for ice cream" along with the sight words "I" and "can". I think the children all had a lot of fun. We kept busy, even made our own homemade ice cream, and the time flew by.
In addition to holding preschool in our homes on Friday mornings, we agreed that it would be fun to attend library story times together weekly and try to do a few field trips over the course of the year. The first field trip would be to a dairy farm. Natalie knew a resident whose family owned one, and she set us up. Today was the big field trip.
Only 20 minutes from our house, the family-run dairy farm was very interesting. The resident's dad showed us around. We saw the cows eating their breakfast of mashed up corn, then we went over to see the stalls of new calves. There were some calves that were only four days old. Even then, they were pretty big newborns. We saw a pregnant cow and, boy, was that girlfriend huge!
We went around to see where they pump the milk and then run it to a cooling tank. From there it is taken by various companies to be processed into cheese, yogurt, etc.
Finally, we saw the mature cows and the bull hanging out. Apparently, they are milked twice a day. All 64 or so of them.
Riley most enjoyed seeing the tractors and all the tractor treads in the mud. He kept pointing out all the "tracks" left behind. He wouldn't pet or get anywhere near the cows, but admired them from afar and then rushed to go look at more tire treads, silly guy.
I think all of us moms enjoyed it just as much as the children. I know that I learned a lot. For instance, did you know that cows are pregnant for about 10 months before giving birth to their calves, which are anywhere from 70-100 lbs. each? Did you know that the life of a dairy cow is about 8 years? After that, they are pretty much done with their "calf bearing years" and milking abilities. Then, they are usually ready for slaughter. There is usually only one bull doing the rounds in the dairy. At this particular dairy, things go on the old fashioned way, and the cows are prego year round. Did you know that the ring in the nose of the bull is meant as a way of calming him down? If he is too aggressive, they will put a chain through it and chain him to the ground to keep him still and mellow.
It was a fun day at the dairy farm.
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