Summer school 2020: Lily (and Brynna)

 We were originally planning to send Lily to the same preschool that Claire attended. We had a great experience there and knew that Lily would also love it. But then...COVID. There's just so much we didn't know/don't know about what this school year will look like. So, we made the decision to preschool at home. 

I have never taught preschool, and I've definitely not taught preschool while simultaneously teaching second grade. But we're all doing things we've never done before in this, the Year of our Lord 2020, are we not? I decided to stagger second grade days and preschool days, though, for the first few weeks so that I would have a chance at gaining some footing. 

I think that if I was just doing preschool/pre-K 4 with Lily, it would not be taxing to me at all. She has really enjoyed all of our activities so far and is learning very quickly. The difficulty is...the 2-year-old. I knew that Brynna would be interested in all that we were doing, and I had prepared for it a bit. I just wasn't prepared for her to DEMAND to do exactly what Lily is doing and to be fully included (I don't let her run the show around here, but I can't actually control her despair-filled wailing when she feels left behind). That threw a major wrench into my plans; some of the activities I had planned for Lily are easy enough for Brynn to join, but given that she's only 2, there's so much she can't actually do yet. 

Practically speaking, this means that giving Lily my mostly undivided attention is impossible. It also means that my plan of eventually setting Claire up with independent school work while I do preschool with Lily won't work exactly as planned because, well, I need Claire's help with Brynna. This is still a very fluid situation as I try different ways of including and/or distracting Brynn during preschool activities. I've already DRASTICALLY lowered my expectations for what preschool will look like (and given myself permission not to feel guilty about it). I've been compiling lists of ideas, as well as noting what works and what hasn't. I think I'm making some progress, but it's still very challenging and will continue to require a lot of trial-and-error, I think.

First day activities

Trying her hand at it, too

I was pretty impressed that Brynn colored in the holes of the "B" in her name.

If this doesn't demonstrate their personalities, I don't know what does. Lily took the time to fill in the letters of her name and then made the whole thing "beautiful." 

I've been using quite a few ideas from Days with Grey and Busy Toddler (I haven't purchased her preschool curriculum, but I might!), as well as making this alphabet book with them. Our preschool days essentially look like this:

1. Fine motor game or activity (which is often just practicing cutting with scissors or picking up craft pom poms with tweezers)

2. Reading a book that may or may not go along with the letter/phonics of the day.

3. Thinking about words that have the sound we're working on.

4. Making our letter pages for our books.

5. Optional: an activity that goes with what we read (If You Give a Mouse a Cookie --> make cookies)

We're usually done in less than an hour and then I turn them loose to play (or sometimes provide some guided play) while I work with Claire. Sometimes things go really well and really smoothly. Sometimes they don't. I'm learning not to stress about it and to remember that SHE'S FOUR. She doesn't have to be proficient in much of anything at this point. Plus, she gets bonus learning as she listens to Claire's lessons (she listens to our history lessons on cd with us daily and often sits in on our science lessons). They other day, I was working with Claire on a poem she's been learning, and when Claire hesitated, Lily jumped in with the next three lines!

She's going to be fine. She'll learn to read and write and how to use scissors. I will not let preschool or a 2-year-old defeat me on this!

Speaking of the 2-year-old, she has impressed me in a few ways, as we've included her: she can use a glue stick quite well, she's already practicing coloring in the lines, she's learning how to hold scissors correctly (and what our rules are), and she's making progress correctly identifying colors. It's not all for naught, it seems.