Coffee House Kindergarten

The preschool co-op started for PJ this week, and I had the good fortune to be in the classroom with her on the first day. She has the advantage of familiarity with the way the day begins, having watched her big sister the last two years. PJ walked in the door and right away knew what to do: put her show-and-tell in the basket, hang up her bag, wash her hands, and find her nametag. From there it was different, because she stayed and her sister left.

PJ had a pretty good first day. She did three paintings, made two "kissing hands," and played at the bean table for a long time. I hope she will do well without me next week. I'm a little nervous about her because she was so clingy, but she has friends there and she likes her teacher. She's going to be okay! And I'm going to repeat that affirmation to myself to make it true.

What does TJ do while PJ and I are at school? It won't happen all that often, but when it does, she is off to Coffee House Kindergarten with Jennifer and G. Jennifer took the kids to our usual coffee place (for the record, this is not an SBUX but a locally owned cafe). They played with Cuisenaire rods by making patterns with them. Jennifer brought along her yarn dobbie and knitted rainbow snakes that the kids formed into letters.

And they ate doughnuts.

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Thank you, Jennifer, for the Tinkerbell bracelet and necklace! PJ is so attached to them, that she has to know where they are before she goes to bed.

We're doing the fun stuff

I attended the orientation session for PJ's preschool this morning. I like the co-op aspect of it, and I like that it will give her a chance to rely on herself and not on me. She'll decide what activities to participate in, she'll follow someone else's directions and rules, she will experience success and failure and then come home and tell me all about it.

TJ's preschool teacher was there this morning too. I like talking to her, and she has a real interest in TJ's homeschool experience. She asked how it's going ... which is a question I've been getting from a lot of people ... and what is there to say? We haven't changed much about what we do at home except that we have a bunch of activities that are starting up with the school year. I told her that I didn't think there was much to do, school-wise, for a kindergartner. "What do they do all day there, anyway?" I asked. "Mostly just move the kids around," was her offhand remark.

I know that isn't true, exactly, but that is one of things that I sense about a kindergarten classroom of twenty-seven children. And that's another one of the reasons why we're homeschooling. TJ's peers have spent much of the week learning how to sit at their desks, raise their hands to visit the restroom -- or not, as I understand that there were a number of kids who got home and the first thing they said was, "I have to go potty!" -- and other new behavioral rules. TJ played, played, went on a field trip, and played some more. With friends, for anyone about to use the S-word.

There are many academic expectations for kindergarten, according to the Virgina Standards of Learning. Not that I am following the SOLS! I refer to them in the moments when I doubt myself and wonder if I really can homeschool. The document reassures me that I can so do better than what is expected.

Of that long list of objectives, the set that interests me most is for social studies. TJ can count to thirty, count backwards from ten, and pretty much do the math that is expected by the end of the K year. (To see the Virginia SOLS for all subjects and grade levels, click here.) Same with the reading objectives ... so that leaves us to pursue the fun stuff.

The next time someone asks, I guess I can say just that. "We're doing the fun stuff!"