Preschool

I thought I was prepared. I thought I had everything ready. Once again preschool mowed me flat. Behind the cut is a really long description of what running a home preschool is like. Everything in the description took place today between 9:30 am and noon.

The first arrivals were greeted with glee by Gleek. As they arrived I tried to usher them all down to the family room, but Gleek kept leading them to her bedroom to “get things”. So I’d have to herd little girls down the stairs where they ping ponged trying to settle on something to do. Gradually they settled and co-operative play emerged from chaos. Five 4-year-old girls and one 2-year-old Patches made up today’s preschool class.

Preschool always starts with some free play time because of the ping pong effect and because it is rare for all the kids to be on time. In theory free play provides a little down time for everyone including me. In practice I always use free play to prep the next stage of preschool because I know that the secret of managing that many children is to think two steps ahead of them. So with the greeting over and children playing I went to the kitchen to make sure everything was ready to tackle learning the letter J. It wasn’t. I’d forgotten to make jello for the snack. I briefly considered frantically making jello and hoping that it would set in time. I then opened my fridge and realized I would first have to make space for the jello. Scrap that, we’ll have Jam on toast with Juice. Jam and Juice are just as good J snacks as Jello. We’ll have Jello when I host again on Friday.

The preschool supply bag arrived this morning with one of the girls. I was supposed to pick it up last Friday, but forgot. Then I continued to forget all weekend. This meant I wasn’t able to pre-prepare the J page in their journals. I wasn’t too worried because all I had to do was draw block letter Js which we’d smear with glue and sprinkle glitter on. I drew the Js. Then I remembered that singing time goes much better if the girls have little papers they take turns choosing off of a chart. On the backs of the papers are the songs we’ll sing. This gives the kids the illusion of picking the songs, when in fact they have no choice in the matter at all. In past weeks I’ve used the internet to print out pictures appropriate to the letter. I’d forgotten to do that, so I just wrote some Js on the fronts and scribbled song names on the back. Done.

At this point I looked at the clock and realized I was 10 minutes overdue to start Circle time. I announced this and the girls ran to get their back packs. Each pack contained a “share item” that started with this week’s letter. Before hauling out the show and tell, we sang the ABC song. “Sang” is probably not the right verb here. “Shouted” is much closer. It began as singing but somehow each girl felt a need to be louder than all the others so swiftly tune and meter fell casualty to sheer volume. I’m not sure what not-feeling-well-and-trying-to-sleep Howard felt about this rendition, but all my attempts to lower the volume were futile as they shouted their way to the very end of the song. Then each girl got a moment in the spotlight as she described her share item. 3 girls brought “jewelry”, one brought a journal, and one brought a box of jello. Patches didn’t have a share item and looked a little sad, so I scooped him on my lap and announced “Patches is my share item! He has nothing to do with the letter J, I just like him.” Patches grinned from ear to ear, being a share item was the coolest thing ever! We whipped quickly through our calendar & weather chart because I could tell I was losing the girl’s interest. I could tell this because they kept getting up and walking away.

Next came craft time. Jewelry was the theme of the day, so we took beads and pipe cleaners to make bracelets. Kids love beads, but stringing them can be hard for little fingers. Pipe cleaners are nice stringing tools because beads tend to stay put and the ends are already fairly stiff. Even so the kids all needed some help to get the bracelets done. I hovered and helped. Snack has a better chance to be happy for everyone if all the children recieve their food within mere moments of each other. This meant I needed to have all the bread toasted & jammed before shouting “snack time!” So in the moments when no one needed help I began toasting bread and mixing juice. The beading project finished before the snack was all prepared, so I let the girls have 5 minutes of unscheduled free play while I frantically toasted and jammed and de-crusted the bread.

Song time came next. Preschoolers aren’t very good at sitting still for long, so most of the songs are active ones. We sang Jack & Jill, Jack be nimble, John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, 5 monkeys jumping on the bed, did jumping jacks, and jumped along to “Clap Your Hands” from They Might Be Giants. As teacher I have to jump and clap and stomp and shout right along. As an adult I have a whole lot more mass to move around and I wear out faster. This was compounded by the fact that Patches wanted me to hold him while jumping, stomping, singing. Fortunately after all the enthusiastic movement the girls & Patches were ready for me to read stories. The challenge of reading stories to a group is that if I turn the book so that I can see the words someone invariably shouts “I can’t see!” this problem is compounded by the fact that Patches feels that his rightful place is on my lap, but he’ll lean out to see the pictures thus blocking the view of some little girl who naturally protests.

Snack time comes next. Being waitress for 6 preschoolers is a full time job. I had to field shouts of “I don’t want this!” “I want the pink cup!” and “I want more!” while trying to distribute food, make more food, listen to the important things that girls absolutely needed to tell me about their brother’s fish, enforce politeness, and mediate quarrels. For once nothing got spilled. Towards the end of snack one girl announced that when she was done she was going to play outside. It was 35 degrees outside. I attempted to dissuade, but 3 other girls announced their intention to join her. This made the end of snack a scramble to wipe faces & hands, find shoes, find coats, and make sure that the shoes & coats ended up on the right children. Gleek decided that everyone needed gloves, so I had to rummage in our copious supply to find gloves for all the girls. This meant wiggling 40 little fingers into the right spots while Patches followed me forlornly trying to get me to help him with his boots. After all those fingers, Patches got to wear mittens. One girl decided to stay inside. Bless her.

The kids were outside and I had a moment of peace. Unfortunately instead of enjoying it, I had to clear the table so it would not be sticky for the next part of preschool. Sometimes I can actually get dishes loaded during preschool, not today. Everything is still in the sink. I realized that I did not want girls smearing glue with their fingers for the glittery J pictures. They would love doing it, but then I’d have to line them all up and make them wash their hands in my dish-filled sink. So I rummaged in my craft box to find popsicle sticks to use as glue-spreaders. (I love my craft box, it was the source of today’s beads, pipecleaners, glitter, and popsicle sticks. Thanks mom for giving it to me!) I also opened the package of glitter shakers and inspected my row of glue bottles to find on that didn’t have the top glued shut.

I also kept an eye on the kids outside. Preschool conflicts happen suddenly and deteriorate into physical violence quickly, so I have to pay attention to the first shriek and move fast. The girls were having fun “skating” on the small patch of ice on my back deck. Then Patches tried it. THUMP! I brought crying Patches inside. The sound of crying triggered Howard’s daddy reflexes and woke him up. He came downstairs and volunteered to take Patches with him to “the bagel store” to use one of the free bagel coupons that someone wonderful handed out on Halloween. Patches was already dressed for outdoors, so I just handed him to Howard and turned to the horde of little girls who came trooping in. They’d all gotten cold. I told them to take off coats & gloves and come to the table.

Spreading glue and sprinkling glitter went really smoothly. There is something about shaking glitter that kids love. I controlled the glitter mess by only letting one child at a time have a shaker and the picture was placed on a cookie sheet. Once the shaking was done I merely shook the picture over the cooke sheet and let the extra fall off. After all the girls were done I scooped the extra glitter back into a glitter jar. During the closing phase of this activity Patches arrived with his bagel. Howard toasted it and sprinkled it with cinnamonsugar. However Patches glimpsed the colorful cake sprinkles and insisted on having a few of those as well, either that or glitter. We elected to let him have edible cake sprinkles rather than inedible glitter.

The girls had free play for 10 more minutes until their moms came for them. During their free play I mediated conflicts, cleaned up loose glitter, and contemplated writing this entry. Then it was all over…. until Friday when I get to do it all again.

The good news is that I’m only the preschool host one week out of 5. It rotates through the homes of all of the girls. It is lots and lots of work, but it is also fun to plan and to see my Gleek with her friends. And 4 weeks out of five I get time off from Gleek. The bad news is that on Friday NotMyBaby will be here. I’m contemplating the preschool schedule and trying to figure out where I’m going to fit 2 bottles, 1 babyfood feeding, & settling down for a nap, into the schedule. Not to mention holding the baby so that he doesn’t get overwhelmed by 5 girls who love babies. I can just picture trying to do circle time with NMB in my lap and Patches trying to push him out so that HE can have the prime real estate.

I think that in order to manage, I’m going to have to ask Howard to be involved somehow. I try not to impinge on his work time because it feeds us, but I’m not sure I can manage otherwise. Also I don’t like admitting that I’ve bitten off more than I can chew.