by The FW on September 1, 2010

Just before 9 am on Tuesday morning, the Little Learners’ Homeschool opened its doors for the first day of preschool. The children were immediately greeted by the hospitality committee:

I guess you could call him our “Class Pet”.
The children got right down to business when their mother’s left: PLAY TIME. But then the small, human chairperson of the hospitality committee suggested crackers, and suddenly it was a toddler cocktail party — almost quite literally. The boys had their sippy cups in hand while Babycakes circled the room with a plate of Ritz crackers. Hey, it’s the first day! What’s wrong with a little extra fuel?
What a morning! We sang, danced, read stories, built with blocks, played dress-up, pushed the grocery cart, changed diapers, had “official” snacktime, sorted, worked puzzles, shared hugs, tossed balls, laced beads. Pfew! The best part — they were all smiles! Day one of getting to know each other was a bit like herding cats, but overall it was a HUGE success.
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by The FW on August 30, 2010
It’s that time of year again… Back to School!
Eager mothers in carpool lines are giddy with excitement as they drop their dear ones to unsuspecting teachers. They have grown tired of applying sunscreen, entertaining “bored” children, & refereeing sibling squabbles. Yes, it’s time.
Unless you’re me.
Instead of dropping mine off, I’m importing three more. You heard that right — three AND they’re all boys. All wonderful little boys, who like my Cakes are just shy of the school cut-off date.
Tomorrow is our first official school day — I’m thinking of calling us The Little Learners’ Homeschool. (Any other suggestions are welcome.) Cakes and I made a trip to the store today to buy some of our supplies like glue, kleenex, apple juice, snacks, & most importantly: Elmo band-aids. While shopping for these very few items, which by the way took us 52 minutes to complete, my dearest one came up with a new pose for her series of tantrums. You’ve heard of diving like a pencil into a pool — well, friends, an almost two-year-old can do a “pencil” in a dress in the middle of the store if you refuse to buy her a citronella candle.
Fast forward 54 minutes: we placed our purchases happily into the car. I say “happily” because her tantrums are short and quickly forgotten. After this, we went to the local Early Childhood Partnership to borrow a few materials. This is such a great resource! It’s for parents AND teachers, costs a minimal amount of money, and they allow you to borrow educational materials like toys, puppets, book, manipulatives, as well as use their die cutter & laminator.
Our August/September theme for preschool is Getting To Know You & On the Farm so we borrowed two flannel board kits and a sing-along book BUT not before someone with two-pigtails in a dress did this:

It was a short trip to the Partnership for today, but surely in the coming weeks she’ll learn to enjoy her time there. Right?
Until tomorrow… and you know there’s a story just waiting to unfold!