Random thoughts floating in my head...

I have been tossing around the idea of doing a small preschool with Rachie and some friends this fall. I just can't decide. I know that I don't want my kids to go to preschool somewhere else (which isn't an issue anyway since we could never afford it), but at the same time I know that Rach would LOVE it!

I did an awesome preschool with several friends when Becka was 4, and then again with one other friend the year before Jake started Kindergarten. Jake's didn't seem as successful as Becka's, mostly because it was only with one other child, so it felt more like a playdate than actual "school." Plus, Jake just wasn't as interested in the academic part of it at all. He was more of a large motor skills, fun activity kind of guy. Once he got into Kindergarten, he took off. It was like he knew that this was "real" school and time to work. Maybe that is the difference between boys and girls?

I wonder how many other people would be interested in doing it with me? I feel really weird asking anyone, since everybody has their own strong ideas on their child's education. I know Rachie likes to do preschool stuff here with me, but I think she would be so excited if she had some friends here doing it with her. I see how much fun she has when she and Kylie are coloring and playing together, and think about the projects and things that we could do with more than just she and I, kwim?

I would be willing to do it all here for 2-3 other kids, probably twice a week if the other moms were willing to help me out with snacks and supplies and such. I just don't know. Writing it out here, I am wondering if just maybe scheduling time once or twice a month to do something planned and fun with a couple of her friends might be the way to go and then she and I can work on the other stuff together.

I really am qualified for teaching preschool, I did it for years. My main goals and ideas about preschool seem to be different than most other people's. I like to do things like getting in the dirt and digging for worms and bugs, coloring on blank paper instead of coloring pages, painting with our hands, going on nature walks and feeling flowers, tree bark, stuff like that. I do work on them with letters and letter sounds, but I am not one to push them into chanting letter rhymes and tracing letters/numbers. I think that I took the things I liked from all the different teaching methods I learned in college and sort of adapted them into my own kind of curriculum. I would worry that some other parent might not like me straying from a strict lesson plan every day. I would rather spend an hour talking about and looking at something "silly," like clouds, with kids who are excited about them than try and force them to sit at a table and write their name over and over again while they are bored to tears. I feel like they have to sit at a desk in regular school for 13 years and then onto college, so why force them to do it before then??

Anyway, sorry to just ramble on and on, I am just trying to get these random thoughts out of my head and onto "paper" where I can hopefully make some sort of sense out of them.