Nicholas Starts Preschool - 9/4/2012

Nicholas started Pre-K this week - Tuesday, 9/4/12! He is super excited about learning and having Mommy as his teacher. We decided to homeschool him this year because he's so far advanced beyond his peers academically. While Pre-K is learning a "Letter" of the week or counting "1-10", Nicholas is counting well beyond a googol and reading anything you put in front of him. Taking him to a preschool would be doing him a dis-service and we don't want him to lose his love of learning.

We will be learning many things this year to include: Math, Reading, Writing, History, Science, Art, Foreign Language, Maps, Telling Time....as well as other topics like learning chores, helping with Isabella, attending play dates, independent play, and getting exercise/playing sports.

How do we do it? The evening before, I plan the next days lesson. The first week was spent a lot on creating worksheets to see what Nicholas knows and where we need to start teaching him. I think after another week I'll have a good handle on new things to teach him. Each morning he woke up and saw the spreadsheets on his desk. We could see his eyes light up and a huge smile expand on his face as he saw the material and couldn't wait to answer the questions. He usually finished the spreadsheets within a few minutes while I fed Isabella and/or drank my coffee. He was then excited to show me his answers and ask if he got them all correct. He knew most everything. However, for the ones he didn't know I explained the answer and now we will work on those lessons to teach him in the coming weeks.

After completing the spreadsheets and breakfast we play like usual and get ready for our normal outings like swim, piano, OT, library, whatever and then come home for lunch. Afterwards, we work on a few pages of a 1st grade level workbook - currently the reading section(learning reading comprehension and remembering details in a story). He's really enjoyed it and did 7 pages the first day we cracked this book open because he didn't want to stop.

We're also doing lots of science experiments, snap circuits, and also tracking Grandma and Grandpa's trek out to California.

Our plan is to schedule one play date a week to socialize him. We had a neighbor come over the other day with her 5 year old son and 2 year old daughter and Nicholas interacted with them helping them learn how to play with his toys. It's nice to see him grow in this area.

As far as extra-curricular activities, he is in swim, piano, and karate. We are considering entering him in a mommy & me Spanish class at our community center(if they allow Isabella to come).

I was a little nervous how it would all pan out with Isabella here, but it all seems to be falling into place. Nicholas does better with structure so having a plan helps get through the day! Overall, our first week was a success! We will hold preschool on M-F and take normal breaks over weekends, holidays, etc....

Thanks for following our journey and reading about Nicholas' love of learning.