A Time for Preschool

Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the 

fear of the LORD ~Psalm 34:11

Preschool at home that is! We have not sent any of our kids, so far, to preschool. It's not that we are against it we just haven't felt led to do so and since I stay home and am more than capable of teaching them the basics to prepare them for kindergarten, I do. Before you know it, it's time for them to start school and if you don't feel led to home school, which we don't, then they're off and it comes so fast! I just don't want to miss these precious years and feel willing to put in the effort myself to teach them while I still have them at home. Gabe is so excited to start Kindergarten. When Noah and Owen come home and tell us about their day Gabe will chime in and say things like, "yeah well you know what I did at school today..." When Noah and Owen politely tell him he didn't go to school today he insists he did because in his mind that's where he is. It's so funny!

Gabe and Will have their own backpacks now for preschool with a workbook, crayons, and of course, a snack! The workbook I am using is called Number and Counting for the preschool level. I really like these worksheets and they don't take a lot of time, which is good, because Gabe's attention span is almost non-existent! I happened to find my books at Marden's for $1.99, which was a steal! I also got one in Math for Noah and Owen's age group so that they can still keep up with their math over the summer. I did this last year with Noah and it seemed to help. A friend of mine also lent me the flashcards she used with her son called Hands-On Learning-ABC's. Her son and Gabe have similar personalities so she suggested doing what she did to keep him interested. She would hide the flashcards around the room and then tell him to find her the letter "A". He would then go looking for the flashcard that had "A" on it. I haven't done that part yet but we've looked at and discussed the cards and these are the best flashcards I've seen so far. They're great and I highly recommend them. The other preschool at home tool I recommend to help your child learn to read is the book called 100 Easy Lessons to Teach your Child to Read. I was able to borrow this book from a friend. There are other methods and books out there for doing this so it's just a matter of finding one that works for your child.
The other book I've been wanting to recommend is a devotional book my sister-in-law bought the kids called Fins, Feathers, and Faith by William Coleman. We read one devotional from this book in the morning before Noah and Owen go to school and all the boys really like them. 
I know a lot of people worry about their kids socialization but really for us not only do we have plenty of kids in this house for them to socialize with they are also at church 3 times a week with other kids, go to Good News Club with other kids, we have play dates with other kids, they socialize at the park, at the lake, at birthday parties, etc. There are so many opportunities in everyday life for our kids to interact with other people that I just don't feel the need to send them to preschool to get that and they were not at a disadvantage for it when they started kindergarten. Everyone has to do what best for their family but for us this has been the way to go and it has cost us a whopping $6 for 4 kids so far!

*TIP* For Noah and Owen I took the preschool workbooks that my sister had bought but never used then gave to me and ripped out all the pages I liked. Then I put each page inside a plastic protector and put that in a 3-ring binder. We then bought dry erase markers and so I wasn't using up paper. We would just erase it when they were done and it could be used again. I still have this and plan to use it later in the fall when Gabe is older and more responsible with markers, haha! For now he loves the idea that he has his own workbook and papers to stick on the fridge just like his big brothers!