July 27, 2020 at 11:14AM

Hi friends! How are you? I hope your morning is going well so far. I’m looking forward to catching a Les Mills On Demand workout and taking the kiddos to the pool. The usual.

For today’s post, I wanted to chat a bit about school in the fall and our “learning from home” plan. This was an incredibly hard decision, but we unenrolled P from her preschool for the fall semester. We’ve been at this school for years (Liv went there for a little while too!) and love it dearly, but quite a few aspects about the upcoming school year made me uncomfortable for various reasons. In the end, we figured that the best place for her would be at home. We have an awesome babysitter who will be coming more often so I can get work done in the mornings, and she’s also a preschool teacher. She’s awesome at imaginative play and will also help P a bit with preschool skills, like numbers, letters, simple math, fine motor skills, etc.

For now, Liv will be doing online learning, and while it isn’t the ideal situation (distance learning was a struggle in the spring and it’s hard for kids to be engaged or immersed in a screen), I’m excited that we’ll have more flexibility to travel when we’re able, and enjoy more time in the afternoon together. I debated pulling Liv out of school to remove the pressure of the constant worksheets and projects, but we do want to go back eventually and we don’t want her to be behind. :/

We have a solid stash of kids’ art supplies (watercolors, acrylics, coloring books and different crayons and markers, sketch pads, clay, etc.) but I wanted to create a learning station that was just for P. I thought it would be cool to have a cart-type situation that she could easily access and roll around, filled with learning activities that are exciting to her.

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Here’s what I put together!

Preschool Learning Cart

At-home preschool supplies

This is the rolling cart I ordered from Amazon, which was really easy to assemble.

The top tray has some writing tools, markers, colored pencils, scissors, glue sticks, and a dry erase marker for the wipe on, wipe off books.

I also included a mix of puzzles and learning activities:

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– This letter puzzle

– Magnetic letters

– Muffin counting toy set

– Scissor skills

– Learn to read

– Pattern blocks and boards

P was PUMPED when I put everything together. She’ll often roll out the cart and ask me to do a worksheet with her or play with the pattern blocks (her favorite). I figured that I can add or swap out different items throughout the fall, depending on what she’s into or any holidays that we can focus around. I’m a little overwhelmed with the whole school situation, and mourning the loss of these childhood experiences for the girls. Kids are resilient but it’s absolutely sad. Fingers crossed that we find a groove over the next few months.

Parent friends: what are your districts doing for the upcoming year? Anyone else doing preschool at home? Please let me know if you have any online resources or activities your kiddo loves!

I also wanted to send a hug to everyone making difficult decisions right now. For us, we haven’t felt like there’s a concrete “right answer.” Everyone says “do what’s best for your family,” but every possible option feels weird and off in some way or another. Thinking of all of my teacher friends, parent friends, administrators and school staff as we navigate these tricky times.

xo

Gina

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