Preschool update

I noticed that I haven't been posting much about homeschool preschool so far this year, after posting about it constantly all fall.

I just haven't been as into it in January. I was reading the latest post in my favorite blog, and the author makes reference to "the eleven weeks of January." Oh so true! I mean, it isn't, but it feels like it. Where was I reading -- oh, The New Yorker recently had an article about Danish TV and someone in the article talked about the months of the year in Denmark being all the usual ones, plus November, November, November, November, November, and November. (I might not have the right number of Novembers, but you get the idea.) And I spent some time thinking about which month is worse, November or January. But I think January is worse, because in November you've got Thanksgiving to look forward to (of course, the Danes don't), and then of course the whole Christmas shebang. In January you've got Martin Luther King Day and you can look forward to Valentine's Day. Uh uh, doesn't cut it.

Anyway, homeschool preschool has been languishing. I'm still doing it, but with much less enthusiasm. I get up as late as the twins will let me, we get dressed and have breakfast, maybe I put in a load of laundry -- and then I'm done. That uses up all the energy I have. (I am really a tortoise, you know. Or a bear. I should be HIBERNATING right now.) Baby B will say mournfully, "Can we do school?" and I'll think, "Are you out of your mind?"

We're working our way through the alphabet now, and I've had some misses. A is for Airplane week was a definite miss, since I'm not interested in airplanes. B is for Bird week was better, but since we'd already put up the bird feeders back in December, there wasn't much to do. We played Bird Bingo (a Christmas gift to me), which the twins like a lot, and one day we made bird cookies.

C is for Colorado was a boring week, because it's not like we can go to Colorado for a quick visit, and anyway, the twins barely understand what a state is. The most fun thing we did that week was bake a mountain-shaped cake in a pyrex bowl, frost it with chocolate frosting, sprinkle "turtle crunch" on top for rocks and such, and spray it with whipped cream for snow.

During D is for Dinosaur week we made dinosaur cookies and ate soup with Dumplings in it one night and at Denny's another night. We also read a lot of dinosaur books. But again, I wasn't really inspired.

This week we're doing both E is for Electricity and F is for Fire, and that's been kind of fun. We got out all their toy fire trucks and compared them to the pictures in a library book about fire trucks, and then we had all the fire trucks rush to put out a fire in the Bat Cave (another Christmas present). We talked about what to do in a fire, and found two exits in each room. We had Fish sticks for dinner on Monday and scrambled Eggs tonight. Today we also did some experiments with static electricity, including the one where you put rice krispies on the table, rub a balloon on your hair, and watch the rice krispies jump onto the balloon,

and the one where you tie a cheerio to a string and hang it from the table and then bring a balloon (that's been rubbed on your hair) close to it and watch the cheerio jump toward the balloon.

I'm not sure if the twins understand the connection between static electricity and the electricity that runs the lights and the TV and the vacuum cleaner, but it's OK. We did read The Magic School Bus and the Electric Field Trip, but they haven't asked to read it again, so I think it may have confused them. The main thing they took away from today's activities was an interest in balloons. I could barely read a bedtime story to them tonight, they were so busy trying to blow up more balloons.

Anyway, my big news is that as of Monday, the twins will start going to real preschool -- that is, they'll go to daycare from 9 to 2 instead of 11:30 to 5, so they'll be there when the formal "school" activities go on, such as Circle Time and workbooks. I have mixed feelings about this, but we're going to give it a try. It means that my own "school" stuff will be more low-key, but since it's already more low-key, I think that'll be OK. I'll still plan activities around a weekly theme. We'll read books and play games and do art -- and when we cook, we'll be making dinner and dessert, rather than a morning snack.

We'll see how it goes.