Instead of enrolling Leo in preschool, we opted to have a home visitor come and read him stories twice a week. This is a FREE program our town offers as an alternative to formal preschool where children spend several hours a week away from their parents (we also take the boys to a drop-in play center called 'Playschool' that is also in our town a few days a week. Parents stay with their children and guide/supervise them through activities in a giant gymnasium and classrooms set up for various age groups. It's a casual drop-in setting, so parents can choose to bring their children there anytime, though they are required to stay with their children and engage in all of the activities with them. ALL TOWNS SHOULD HAVE THIS. It has been an absolute sanity saver in the colder months!)
In home preschool, the same visitor comes TWICE a week for THREE years to the house for 45 minutes to read books and to engage the child/children in activities that are related to the story that is being read. The program doesn't merely encourage parental involvement, it requires parental involvement so much so that if the parent's home phone rings the teacher will STOP what she is doing and wait until the parent comes back to the circle before resuming the story/activity.
Our teacher comes to the house on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:15 to 12:00 Noon. Today she read the boys a story called "Who's Hiding on the Farm?" an Usborne children's book. Julius especially enjoyed making all of the animal noises. He was really quite good at it, learned very quickly, and I was impressed!
Parents see the curriculum ahead of time, and it's similar to "Five In a Row" in the sense that the same story is read at each visit during the week with a new activity (relevant to the book of the week) presented at each visit. We are given a special "treasure chest" at home where we can KEEP all of the books and activities to encourage us (as parents) to keep engaging our children in these activities. And they are ours to keep FOREVER. Isn't that SO NEAT?
It's great. I love it. And most importantly, so do the boys :-)
2 comments:
Can I move to your house and sign up for this program? MAN! OH MAN! The same worker? At your home? With your supervision and involvement? FOR FREE? I am swooning over here with envy. That is so, so cool.
Yes, it's bliss. A dream come true. And if we get the house in the next town over, we can keep the same teacher b/c there are three towns that participate in this and both the town we live in now and the town we're hoping to move to participate in the program.
Post a Comment