DIY Preschool: Easy Seasonal Wreaths

Arianna and I were reading one of her preschool books about Autumn and saw this easy idea for making a leaf wreath.  You trace a dinner plate onto a piece of cardboard (or cereal box, etc.) and trace a smaller bowl inside the bigger circle.  Cut out the outer circle, cut one straight line to the inner circle and cut it out, too.  Then, tape the cut line back up.  Next, collect fall leaves and your child can glue them on as they like.  Arianna also cut eucalyptus leaves off the tree outside our house and made a second wreath; we then put more glue on the leaves and sprinkled glitter for a Christmasy look.  I like this kind of craft because it is simple, my child can do almost all of the work herself, and it is fun.  Here are our results.  :-)

 

DIY Preschool: Fun Use for Paper Towel and Toilet Paper Tubes

Daughter #3 and I have fun thinking up fun, creative, and cost-effective activities to do during our preschool time.  Not that this happens every day, but we try and sometimes succeed.  Such is the case with reusing and re-purposing paper towel and toilet paper tubes (wow, I think we may have almost gone green with this project  by reusing something generally thrown in the trash).  Arianna loves to get these rolls and run around the house pretending that they are instruments, spy glasses, and any other number of items.  My dad and I have seen this, so we both started saving up the tubes when we were finished with the paper products.  When we finally had amassed quite a number of the rolls, I decided it was time to put them to good use.  Arianna and I brainstormed uses for these tubes and she liked my idea of making a robot (I thought a geometric object would be easier in construction).  Armed with a hot glue gun (only used by Mommy), scissors, and yarn, we were able to assemble and connect all parts of the robot.  Arianna wanted to play with the robot more than I allowed because he wasn't as sturdy as was necessary for a rambunctious 4-year-old.  Here the robot is in the first stage. 

Now, we were all set to decorate this lovely robot.  Hands down, #3's favorite art activity is painting so she was thrilled to have an entire robot to paint on her own.  I just set her up and let her go to town.  It is fun to watch Arianna experiment with the paint by mixing different colors together and make choices as to where each color should go.  Here is her finished product.  

 He is now hanging off a hook on Arianna's ceiling as a decoration for her room.

DIY Preschool

For the past few years, I have sent my oldest two daughters to preschool a couple of days a week that is located 15 miles from our house.  It is a fabulous preschool that is run and owned by the school where my husband teaches; I had planned on sending #3 there, as well.  When I began pondering the possibility of this for Arianna (#3), I realized that this just wasn't going to work for us this year.  I would now be driving my two elementary-aged childern to school on 2 different schedules amounting to three trips in the car a day - just to school.  I would have a new baby who would be sitting for much of her time in a carseat which I find very regretable; I didn't want to add a fourth and long trip to the mix for a preschool located quite a ways away.  I began calling around to preschools here in our town and just wasn't sure if I wanted to send #3 to any of them for what it would cost me to put her in for 2 days a week.  The year before she and I were already working on basic preschool skills and projects at home.  She is bright and catches on quickly to anything new and I realized we could just continue this at home and achieve the same academic results as in a preschool.  My dilemma was that I wanted her to have some other opportunities for socialization with kids other than her 4 sisters and a chance to learn classroom behavior with a teacher other than her mother.  After thinking about this for months on end, seeing that we were almost in May by that point and at the end of the school year, and feeling that I really needed to make some kind of decision, I had an epiphany.  A catalog for the city's Recreation Department arrived in the mail and got me thinking.  I realized that they offer many interesting classes geared for preschool-aged childeren here locally (an easier drive for all of us) and very affordable prices.  I had also been wanting to put Arianna in gymnastics because she is a very physical child that seems to need to move her body constantly.  When I compared the costs of putting her in a few classes of my choosing every month that I really felt she would enjoy and from which she would benefit versus just putting her in a traditional preschool, I felt that the choice was obvious.  When we got home from our summer vacation in August, I looked at the current Rec. Dept. classes and signed up #3 for preschool science and enlisted Grandpa to go with her to the weekly class.  I also enrolled her in gymnastics class at our local YMCA which has a very nice gymnastics gym and program.  And on the other days, we work on the academics and crafts at home together.  So, far so good, but I'll keep you posted.  DIY Preschool will be one of my regular postings as I have thought, ideas, or reflections on how it is going.