Hi everyone,
I'm usually writing about DS6, so thought I'd briefly introduce my DS-28months here. Like most of the other "2s" here, he could pass the general benchmarks for kindergarten readiness, even though he doesn't even qualify for 3 year old preschool for another year. As a second child, he doesn't get nearly enough 1-1 time, so his ability to pick things up on his own is obvious.
This semester, he is starting a 2 1/2 hour once/week early preschool class at our homeschool co-op. The class has 13 children who are 2 1/2 and 3 (he should be the youngest), and I'm co-teaching the first hour to make sure the bar is raised. (I'm teaching Story Stretchers, with theme based books, songs, and crafts/fine motor.) I think it's a good mix for him since I'll be there for 1 hour, and then he'll spend the rest of the time w/ the other teachers (where they focus on snack and gross motor/group games).
I am also trying something new with a few friends and starting a once/week 1-hour "unstructured school playdate." We're going to follow the "Letter of the Week" curriculum, and engage the kids in circle time, fine motor activities, etc. We've all spent thousands over the past two years with music/art/gym classes where we spend $15/20 hour, and we can do better on our own for free!
DS's third morning of the week is in our unstructured playgroup. I think this is the greatest thing a 2 year old could have. We have 9 kids, and they've developed so much in terms of social skills/the meaning of friendship/etc etc.
His 4th morning will be 2 hours at an hourly drop-in daycare that runs a low-level "preschool program." I think it's incredibly weak as a regular preschool and nearly all play-based, but perfect for him while my DS6 is at Spanish class.
Our 5th morning is at home, but DS is also crazy about the playcenter at our sports club, where they have a fabulous collection of toys and great ad-hoc art/gym activities for his age. He spends a few hours there every week, too.
During our "housetime," we don't do very much in terms of "academics" w/ DS2 because we homeschool DS6 and that is time consuming. DS2 doesn't get "exposed" to very much in terms of schoolwork because DS6 is studying 2-4 years above his level, but he does get to go to a lot of homeschool field trips and co-ops, which is always great, and usually sits in on our science labs and art projects. We do try to do a fine motor activity every day together, and he is starting to write letters and "play school." Otherwise, most of his day at home is simply normal play (Thomas, puzzles, and books, books, books. He's starting to read, and heads to books non-stop.) He does love ABCReading Eggs and usually begs to do that a few times a week, and likes Rightstart A and the easy activities in FamilyMath, but we don't do that too often.
I wish I could decide what to do next year. I really don't want him going off to school 5 days a week, but I haven't found a preschool that seems ideal. It's the same issue that we had with DS6: do we even bother to do preschool, or do we just continue to fill our days w/ enrichment activities.....
Everyone else's plan sounds great! I'm looking forward to hearing how it all goes!
