Are we really starting Preschool??

I love browsing store aisles this time of year. They are full of the beginnings of "Back to School" supplies. Bright colored pencils and notebooks fill the shelves alongside markers and crayons. I don't know why but it makes me happy and excited. I don't remember shopping for new school supplies as a child. I'm sure there was a list, and my mom got what we needed, but my mother never enjoyed shopping in my youth so it wouldn't have been an exciting trip to the store for new clothes or trendy folders like Lisa Frank... ah how I always wanted a Lisa Frank folder, or notebook, or anything.

Anyway, as you know, I love the $ section at Target. Well those small aisles also have back to school supplies, but geared more towards teachers. I found some Pre-K workbooks, and super cute-educational calendar supplies. I couldn't resist, and having worked in an elementary before, I know that even preschoolers do the day of the week along with the weather each day. So here we are. My big kid three year old and me. Beginning to learn the days of the week each morning during breakfast.

Cute right?!  $5!

So far we've been at it for three days. Babycake has mastered "Today's Weather," as well as tomorrow's. She gets partly cloudy mixed up and says partly sunny, but really who's to say she's wrong on that one? I think the weather forecasts have been so easy for her to pick up b/c we discuss the weather on a daily basis; "no we can't go and swing b/c it's raining," "would you like to go for a bike ride? It's beautiful and sunny out," "what animals or shapes do you see in the clouds?" etc. She loves to put up the weather forecasts as well as the date. We sing the days of the week and she has learned how to say each day, but does not have the order in which they go down. Really I'm not worried about that. There are second graders who don't know the days of the week, so she's fine. We haven't even touched the month area. July is just up there b/c it belongs there, not because we're at that point in learning.

Over the last year we've done some crafts that involved a little bit of tracing. Babycake loves to get into my pens and pencils whenever possible, so I wasn't surprised when she was excited that the workbooks I got involved tracing our letters. On our first day she sat and did 2.5 pages in the workbook. I figure she'll be a great student once she hits school age b/c she will sit and do crafts for hours, and proved with this activity that she'll sit for a good amount of time working in a notebook.

Babycake didn't want to use crayons
 (why use crayons when you have a "big kid" pencil)
so she didn't color in the pictures as instructed, instead she circled them.

Instead of being nervous or overwhelmed that we're doing "school" stuff as I image some parents would be, I'm actually relieved. By doing these activities everyday I won't have to come up with my own plans or lessons like I have been for the last two years. Of course if I wanted to be mother of the year, I would continue to make lessons and crafts to finish our "Letter of the Week" lessons, I mean we only have Xx, Yy, and Zz. But honestly, I think we'll be taking a break. Babycake already knows all her letters, and coming up with crafts, getting supplies ready, and doing it has proved harder now that Buddyboy has come along. I think I'll stick with filling up prep time with nap time for the time being. Once I have this whole parent of two thing figured out I'll get more detailed and elaborate with our lessons. For now workbooks and calendars will do just fine.