My Approach for 3 year old Preschool

Last year was my first year doing this sort of thing. I have to admit, it does not come easy to me. Despite that I used others pre-created things and ideas, it took me A LONG TIME to pull it all together. I was over-thinking what we should be doing; Learning myself about how/what to prepare and teach; etc.  There are so many great ideas, things to learn, activities to do.... It was a bit overwhelming in that I wanted to do and teach it all.

This year, I'm doing things differently. I've assessed my goals. Turbo turned 3 at the end of June. This very well maybe my last year with him full time. Next year, he'll likely go to a local Preschool, then it's off to Kindergarten and then....well, the time just flies.  *sniff* I get a little sad just thinking of it. 

So my goals for this year are very simple, but keep me grounded in my planning.

1. Have Fun!
2. Explore
3. Learn New Things
4. Play Outside  *note: we play outside everyday, but I'm talking about taking the learning outside and playing in different ways and places then we would normally.

That's it. No goals for him to write his name, count to 100 or anything like that. I'll work that into our learning of course and he likely will do that, but really it's not my main focus.

Main Elements of our Preschool
We're doing Themes and I'm super EXCITED about it!  There are so many things Turbo is interested in doing and learning. This is a great way to explore these areas in more depth. 

- Activites - Our Preschool time will be interactive with a lot of hands-on type activities. We'll touch it, take it apart, put it together, make it, break it etc.  He's that kind of a boy!

- Outings - We will do outings related to the theme we're doing.  (This is my favorite part!)

The Second key element are what I call the Weekly Extras - These are the tray type activities that we'll work in when we have time or he needs something to do and I'm otherwise busy.  I'm planning 6 trays per week - they'll be letter of the week worksheets, Playdough, word games, puzzels etc.

Lastly, we'll play a different game for several days each week. These could be board games, card games and such.

There are other things I want to incorporate - like country studies, Raising Rock Stars Preschool, Artist studies and more. If I have time, we'll work them in. If not, then no worries, I have the basics planned!

There you have it! My approach for the year.   I'm planning less things (although it still takes me a long time) and allowing more time to complete them. What if we get it all done early? Then we'll do them again! Preschoolers love repetition!