Back in January, one of the moms in my Moms' Group came up with a wonderful idea of doing our very own "renegade" preschool. We find a location, purchase our own supplies and then teach our own lessons while still giving the children the experience of a preschool at a fraction of the cost.

Sign me up!!

The pressure to send your kids to preschool at an early age is very strong here. Plus, the cost is pretty scary too. Then, multiply that by two kiddos and it's down right frightening! So this idea was very appealing to me.

Pictured above is our first day. Week 1 we discussed the classic (well, at least it's a classic in our home!) "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" by Eric Carle. We discussed the Red Bird, the Brown Bear and the Blue Horse.

Week 2 we discussed Things We Love to go along with Valentine's Day. Unfortunately, I neglected to get any photos of our adorable Valentine's Cards we made before I mailed them out. Sorry...but then again, maybe you were the lucky recipient of one! :)


Week 3 I taught the concept of Rain and Rainbows. We read "The Little Cloud" by Eric Carle as well as "What Makes a Rainbow" by Betty Schwartz. We colored rainbows and made our very own Rainstick!



Week 4 we discussed the concept of Up and Down. We read a couple of books dealing with this as well as sang "The Itsy Bitsy Spider". So of course we needed to make some spiders to go along with the song! And being the particular person she is, A felt hers needed one green leg! :)

Week 5 we discussed Birds. To go along with this theme we made these fabulous bird feeders out of large pinecones, peanut butter and birdseed. (Ironically, the very same day we made these, we were also cutting down our beautiful Redwood tree to make room for our home addition. So sad.)

Week 6 we discussed Caterpillars and Butterflies. We read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle (do you see a trend here? It is my belief that he writes fabulous toddler books...or at least L&A think so!) You may notice that one butterfly is a little more "spot on" than the other. A was more into putting the glue on the pieces than on actually placing the pieces together. Whereas, L preferred putting the pieces together. Together they make a great team (well, sometimes!)

So this has become our "new" activity in our regular routine. They both really seem to enjoy it. In fact, we'll be driving there and still be 2 blocks away from the school building and they both start chanting "school, school". I'm excited to see where it will lead us. I'll be sure to keep you posted...