Preschool Guilt
I have this guilt about preschool for Michael. I know I posted about preschool a few weeks ago, but as it has been weighing on my mind lately I have to post again. So I have this guilt about preschool for Michael. I have every intention of filling our days with pre planned and prepared "school activities". I have every intention of sitting down with him for hours on end and learning shapes, colors, and the days of the week. But then life happens and we don't. Someone posted this article to Facebook and I loved it. I signed Michael up for preschool this year. He is going to go two days a week, I think, to two different in home preschools. It's only about 2.5 hours a day, I'm sure there will be plenty of unstructured craziness, glue, snacks, and the occasional song. I was hesitant. Two days a week seems like a lot, he's three, and once he goes to school he won't ever not go to school (you know until after he finishes that graduate degree i am set on him getting and gets a job). But I think I'm going to send him. He needs the social interaction, the structure, to learn to deal with other children his age without me. And though I am quite sad to see him go, and who knows I may pull him out from one of the days a week, I think it will be good for him- or so I keep telling myself to assuage the guilt I feel.
Now back to preschool at home. Some days we do school activities. We made a name train, and a name dino recently and he loved it, but some days we don't, well most days we don't. We play, read, clean, make messes, go to the store, the park, and the pool. We just live life. I have to believe that simply living life is teaching him something. I see kids his age that go to expensive (and I'm talking expensive) preschools and they don't seem that much smarter or more advanced than he is. He's a bright kid, I have to believe that somewhere along the way we are teaching him some of what he needs to know. Sure we could count more, read more, practice our letters and animal sounds more, but I think sometimes we are doing ok. He loves to read, he's starting to have a concept of all the numbers 1-5, he can tell when it is going to rain, he knows his animals, he knows some of the days of the week, animals, all the shapes, colors, etc. I still have high hopes for all the crafts and worksheets, but maybe making cookies, coloring while I make dinner, and picking out letters on store fronts as we drive past is teaching him more than I thought. Maybe he's learning more by living a normal 3 year old life than he would in a brightly colored, organized, and planned out preschool classroom or if his mom were on top of it and did an activity each day. In the meantime we are going to settle for life, somedays we will get with the program and somedays we will just get through the day.
Now back to preschool at home. Some days we do school activities. We made a name train, and a name dino recently and he loved it, but some days we don't, well most days we don't. We play, read, clean, make messes, go to the store, the park, and the pool. We just live life. I have to believe that simply living life is teaching him something. I see kids his age that go to expensive (and I'm talking expensive) preschools and they don't seem that much smarter or more advanced than he is. He's a bright kid, I have to believe that somewhere along the way we are teaching him some of what he needs to know. Sure we could count more, read more, practice our letters and animal sounds more, but I think sometimes we are doing ok. He loves to read, he's starting to have a concept of all the numbers 1-5, he can tell when it is going to rain, he knows his animals, he knows some of the days of the week, animals, all the shapes, colors, etc. I still have high hopes for all the crafts and worksheets, but maybe making cookies, coloring while I make dinner, and picking out letters on store fronts as we drive past is teaching him more than I thought. Maybe he's learning more by living a normal 3 year old life than he would in a brightly colored, organized, and planned out preschool classroom or if his mom were on top of it and did an activity each day. In the meantime we are going to settle for life, somedays we will get with the program and somedays we will just get through the day.
No worries--play is the best preschool in the world, and unstructured play counts. Expensive preschool is fancy daycare, and "other" preschools are for social skills and/or mom alone time. You've got brilliant kids.
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