Ok Plainswoman..how does your work day look like? We have a routine that we follow more or less..do you???

We start the day with a gathering where we talk about the day with the kids..then we have some activity..often putting the kids into groups..easier to work with them. And then it´s lunchtime. After that it is time for rest..either sleeping or taking it easy awake.

A small snack..sandwiches usually, follows..and then the children play until their parents come to pick them up. We close somewhere between 5:30 and 6:30pm. WE open att 6:30am.



Does this sound familiar to you?? I wonder how your day looks like? I know that you work just part time..but you worked full time before???

Looking forward to your answer/ hugs!!!

Yes, I worked full time before but in this preschool it's just 8:30-11:30 3 days a week. Preschool in the U.S. is 3 and 4 year olds.

We start at 9:00 with the pledge of allegiance, then move on to the day, month, date and year and sing a song learning the days of the week. After that we work on the 12 months of the year. Depending on the time of year we work on different things. Beginning with the 8 basic colors, numbers and then letters. The colors, obviously, are easily taught. We move on to the numbers 1-10 which we work on learning to recognize them by sight and write them with their pencils. After the numbers we work on the 26 letters of the alphabet. To actually learn to recognize and write all 26 it will take the full 2 year preschool program. As with all of us some learn quickly, others take longer. There is no prerequisite of passing preschool to go on to kindergarten when a child is 5.

At 10:00 we have a snack. Usually someting like crackers and cheese and a cup of juice.

The children play again for awhile then we work on our color, letter or number but mostly just to color a picture of it and then to cut it out by themselves and glue it to a paper.

Helping the 3 year olds with learning to cut is something that almost drives me mad. Fortunately the other teacher has amazing patience with it so it works out well.

The last part of the morning is a story and songs.

This last Friday was the end of our preschool year. I am finished until the end of August and am looking forward to my summer off.

So what are your hours humlan? Do they vary or are they regular hours each day?

I have always been curious about this as I could never cut straight.

I sat in my older grandson's Montessori class on the day my daughter was having her second child in hospital. The activity for that day was cutting strips of coloured paper to make buntings and chains. Naturally, I had to participate. But, que horror! The children were doing a better job of it than I was. My grandson's teacher said that it had something to do with relating "eye to object" and manual dexterity...and that my nursery teacher was amiss in refining that ability. Is there any truth in that?

Ross alwaay jokes that he flunked scissors in pre-school. He's left-handed so that may have something to do with it.

How much time do the kids get ourdoors?

I'm sure there have been studies done on the subject Lola but I really don't know. I know in some of my classes I've learned that a child needs to be talked to, held and touched, made eye contact with, crawl before walking, etc. etc. for things to develop correctly but learning to cut, hmmm, good question.

The children do sewing cards, puzzles, fitting objects into different shaped holes, etc, for eye-hand coordination but for the manual dexterity and eye-hand coordination there's nothing quite like cutting.

Thanks, PlainsWoman. I actually tried it again today. Nope. I'm still cutting wonky. I even drew (with a ruler) a line on the paper and used that as a guide. Nope. Still wonky.

Most boys aren't impressed with cutting so I can see where Ross feels like he flunked it. It seems in MOST cases the girls like the coloring and cutting much more so than the boys. However they all like playing with and using the glue sticks.

They play outside very little. Some in the fall a tiny little bit in the spring but they mostly play inside. With 3 mornings a week and living in Iowa there aren't too many warm mornings in the fall and spring. By the time it warms up enough and the things dry off the morning is usually about over. Winter in Iowa is extremely cold and snowy. They have lots of things to play with inside, slide, things to climb on, kitchen sets, balls, painting at the easel, Leggo's, Tinker Toys, blocks, puzzles, books, etc. etc. They also have lots of time to play, 30-45 mins. in the morning and another 30 mins or so after snack.

Practice, practice Lola, that's what we have the children do!

Oh, bummer. Can't I do puzzles instead? LOL! Must be why I never got past "GO" with cutting. LOL!

You and Humlan should tell us more about your days with the children. Do you come home with glitter and splashes of paint as well? I admire people who work with children. Both of you must be very gentle souls.