day 36 blog 36 first day of 2nd year of preschool

ok so this first photo isn't the best angle but sea was literally running out the door to let the first friend in...SO excited about starting school again...for those of you who do not know, i am part of a wonderful community of passionate and talented mommies and their children in a co-op preschool. we've been going for just over a year now and i should do an entire post on how it started, what our vision/ideals were and how they have evolved...but if i start on that i won't get to all these photos i posted from wednesday's "first" back to school themed class...so i'm going to let the photos do most of the talking and just supplement with what we did...here is sea literally biting her lip/fingers etc. with anticipation...you can see the easel, patchwork blanket for circle time and school related toys in the background:
more excitement before ru even made it in the door...
sea pointing to the welcome back to school sign she helped make...
story out of focus but so, so happy himself...
welcome back to school sign...sea made glasses and signed her name...colored herself orange...
i try to minimize tv/videos but let them watch a richard scarry (yes, old school, from the 70's and my childhood) video on the ABC's...miss honey the teacher leading huckle, lowly...oh and the quilt they are sitting on was made out of my dad's old shirts and neckties...
front view of ru and sea mesmerized by tv...
ella's new baby sister violet only a few weeks old...
ella packing a lunch...the three girls each filled their own lunch boxes even though we ate together...
gabe playing doctor with his mom...
right before everyone left i tried to get a group photo of the older kids holding letter books with the first letter of their names...i've included several attempts at getting them all to look at me...



finally, since i got very few photos of the actual bulk of what we did in preschool, i took some of the props after the fact...so to summarize, char came over early to cook her tasty indian fare while ru, sea and story watched the video...then once the rest of the group started arriving we sang our welcome song in a circle...then read books about going back to school...dr. seuss' abc book...asked them questions about what people do at school...here are some of the props...a backpack, school bus, coloring pages, crayons, books, playground, lunch box...
a close up of the coloring pages...school, bus, playground, lunchtime...
sea liked driving the kids in the bus...giving each of them a book to read...
this was the picture book we used to ask the kids about different aspects of school...
school means so many different things to different people...i'll have to do a future post on my ideals for kindergarten for sea...i haven't given up on the idea of homeschooling, either...

thanks to my coop friends and family for making last year so memorable...looking forward to blogging regularly about what we are learning, unlearning, creating, experiencing together...