Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Ideas for Starting A Small GT Preschool Co-Op?

http://shopping.hwtears.com/category/prek
I've used Handwriting without tears products, but not for this age group.

Worth looking at -
http://www.criticalthinking.com/parent/best_sellers.html?code=p

I also love this catalouge
http://www.chinaberry.com/index.cfm?tid=803081204

What about a Montessori-esque environment with more advanced materials? Basically setting up a lot of low shelves with activities that the kids can help themselves to like science experiments, maps, books, art supplies etc. If you just have one of each activity then the kids have to learn how to share or work together on the activity.

I think it might save you a lot of time/effort because herding a bunch of preschoolers to one activity at a time might be a near impossible task!

The other thing I was thinking of was lots of fun outings (not sure where you live?) but maybe you could round up some parent volunteers and take them to places like the zoo, art museums, natural history museums, a farm, factories etc.

Are there any parents that speak a second language in the co-op? Could it be there day at least once a week and everyone needs to speak that language? Maybe even switch all the posters/books over to that language on that day too. Songs in that language are always a must (and lots of fun too!).

My daughter learned French in preschool. They also had tubs to plant various plants. This was from a grant and they learned so much about growing plants.

Your ideas are wonderful!! Thank you again!!!

If this doesn't work out, we're looking at a Spanish-immersion preschool w/ a Montessori-trained teacher. We considered straight Montessori, too. Then we realized that we loved various aspects of the other preschools we saw too, like the science labs in one and theater in another, so our hope is to combine those ideas together. By the time we start, the children currently in our group will be between 3.4 (mine) and 3.9, so I think they'll be ready for a lot of these ideas, including the pre-k HWT. I'm not very creative, but the other two are, so I think we have a great team!

I'll let you know how it goes!!

I wish we lived closer, we'd go play with you since mine's the same age. We live in the country so it's just us. I'm going to start timing my grocery shopping to match story/craft time at the library, at least.

This is a random preschool activity comment -- I've noticed that with cut and paste it's the cutting (and the gluing too but not so much anymore as he is getting better at that) that keeps my DS3.5 from making exactly what he wants to. If ahead you cut out construction paper circles and triangles and other shapes of many colors (even some odd shapes that are for example hand or foot-like) and in all sizes, then starting with a empty sheet of paper or large square of cardboard to glue onto, preschoolers can make some complex and interesting pictures. And all on their own or with just the minimal help of getting glue on the pieces, without losing interest 2 minutes in because of being frustrated with not being good at cutting yet.

Polly