Preschool

This year six moms from the ward all decided to get together and do preschool for our four year olds. We decided to rotate houses every two weeks each taking our turns teaching. It is great because it is two days a week for a couple of hours. My turn to teach was first which I was excited about and I dusted off my teaching supplies and set up a little area in my family room like a mini classroom for the kids. As I pulled out all of my stuff and start preparing my lesson plans I felt the excitement building in me. The concepts I had to teach were the letters A and B sounds and how to write them, the numbers 1 and 2, capital and lowercase letters, review colors and introduce vowels and consonants. Over the course of my days teaching I have had such a blast. We have done activities like shaving cream writing, life cycle of a butterfly and making butterfly wands, Wonder One art activities, fingerpainting number two hats, days of the week songs, puzzles, matching games, vowel hunts, show and tell etc. etc. etc. I have constant actvities going on the whole time they are here. I LOVE TEACHING!!! I didn't realize how much I miss it and it is even more special to get to teach Ave The kids are great. I love to watch them grasp the concepts and hear their little stories. It is fun and always exciting to see what each of their personalities contribute to the mix. She asks everyday if it is a preschool day and can't wait for her friends to get here. It has been fun to watch her in a group setting. She is often either the last or second to last to finish her work because she is worried about it being perfect. When she colors it is always perfectly in the lines. If something is supposed to be red then she will only use a true red. If she starts to color with an orange-red or a red-violet she will quickly abandon it for a true red crayon. When we were learning to write a number 2 she became frusterated because she couldn't do it just perfect like the example that she traced. She would try one and then look at it, shake her head and then erase and try again. I had to go over and explain to her that she was learning and that she just needed to keep trying and that it was okay that her numbers didn't look exactly perfect yet. It was so sweet. She has really good fine motor skills for a four year old. Considering she is definitely my free spirited, independent child I didn't expect that she would such a perfectionist when it came to her learning but she is. side note: At three she could make her own twin bed and at four she can comb and put her own hair into a ponytail. She loves being self sufficient. If any of the kids mess with their nametags or turn them upside down it drives her crazy and she asks them to fix it. She loves the music part of our preschool day and is usually the one singing the loudest. In true Burch child fashion she of course is the socializer of the group which I have to help her reign in sometimes :) Just one of the things that I love about Avery is that she has never been and I don't think will ever be a follower. When all the other girls in the group pick pink paper she picks yellow because she likes it and it matches her shirt. When they all say they like Cinderella Avery happily says that she loves Ariel the most. I love that she knows what she likes and who she is and is confident about it. I hope she will always have that confidence in herself and that awareness of who she is. Because Avery who you are is definitely someone wonderful :)