Preschool

Natalie started preschool the first week of September. Our preschool is with a bunch of moms from the ward. We trade off weeks and are assigned a letter and topic. It's just on Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours. The first week, I hosted it at our house. My topic was "school" and the letter was "M".

The first day I focused on the "school" part. Each child got his/her own mini chalkboard that I had made and vinyled their name on the back. I told them I was Mrs. Bell their teacher and I rang the bell and had them sit at their "desks" (the table) by their name tags. Then we talked about rules that they might have when they go to school and what subjects they'll learn. They practiced writing the letter "m" on their chalkboards and then I rang the bell again and it was time for recess. When they came in, we read books, sang songs (Wheels on the Bus was a big hit) and had apples for snacks. Then it was nap time (which consisted of about 1 minute where they laid on the floor-that was about all they could take) and then we had snack time and school was over. Each child got to go home with "smarties" in cellophane bags and a tag that said "I can't wait to go to school 'cause I'm a 'smartie' ".

Thursday was "M is for Monster day". They got to trace the letter M and color a monster on paper. Then they made shape monsters out of craft foam, we read lots of monster books and danced to the monster mash. After that, I brought out my homemade musical instruments and the kids played those with fun music in the background for quite a while. We had marshmallows for snacks and then it was over. Each child got to go home with a mini monster snack box filled with m&m's. Lots of fun.

The kids' cute monster creations.

My little monster. He just happened to have this cute shirt that I had him wear on monster day.

The monster treat boxes.

My big preschool girl! I can't believe it.