home again...

So the school thing was interesting....I let her get on with testing Abigail and she explained everything as though I was a first time parent who was a little simple....and then after she was through I mentioned that I was taking over the local preschool and was interested to hear from her how I could help most in preparing these children for her kindergarten classes...'


Well.......she changed completely and was just so so helpful....in fact it was as though she had waited years to be asked this! She was on a roll...showing me lots of ideas to introduce to the children...explaining what most of them have difficulty with...she gave me three books aimed at pre-K.......she showed me all her little tricks and games and ideas for teaching certain subjects...and skills....

Basically she would like me to focus on:

colours (some kids going into K don't know their colours!)
cutting (thumb up and move the paper not the scissors!)
tracing....shapes...letters...especially diagonal lines (ie roof tops or teepees)
counting to ten forwards and backwards
reciting the alphabet even if they don't know the individual letters....
writing letters the correct way

She showed me tricks she uses with egg boxes and math blocks.....she suggested LOTS of sorting games....using buttons and things like that...sorting by colour....shape.....size......

The books she gave me seem really useful too and I can't wait to add her ideas into my planning process for the Fall.....

So we came home and then I drove Chris to his party...Mom came with me and got a chance to see Birch Bay Ranch.....which is where the party is....Chris is lucky enough to be friends with the kids that live there (his parents manage it)...Birch Bay is a summer camp facility.....with horseriding, swimming pool, ziplines and climbing walls etc etc and families pay for their children to go there for a week in the summer....the dorms look like a Western scene......

So Chris gets to go there for parties and just to hang out now and then...and today his class has their end of year party there.....swimming, bbq etc etc....

As for the rest of us...we are off to Katies Crossing for ice cream......