Presenting Wammyville Preschool

I think every inch that can possibly be sued has been used in the Preschool Room.

This is Command Central.  Well, this and our Private Facebook Page.  It hangs on the front door when all the dates on the calendar for the month have been firmed up.  And it is a good thing that someone else reads it.  Sometimes I make little slip-ups...

We line up at the front door and go in first stopping at the shoe cubbies.  Everyone can already find their names and can take their own shoes off and put them in the cubbies.  Even the two-year-old who wants so much to be a 'big kid'...and he could in some respects.

Next stop hanging jackets and bags on their hooks.  These belong to the non-Preschoolers.  We have a Blessings Tree.  If I should need things like paper plates, or grocery bags...small things that families might have around the house I put the on a cutout and place them here.  Families can then pick one if they would like.  After all the housekeeping to the table for breakfast.

We call these the Steep Cubbies.  They are never in the same order from day to day so every day they have to be on their toes.

Below our shapes are the hooks for the Preschoolers.  They are pretty excited about having their own place.

The Art Center is always in high demand.  But only two friends at time.  The three pictures above the Center are of the 'little kids' as Adi calls them.

Every chance the dogs get they take naps on the soft foam mattress.  They love the Book Nook.

And there is the Hall of Fame.  The first-ever Wammyville Preschool students as Adi calls them.

This is our Staff.  And when the big kids (almost all grads of Wammyville) come to visit they wear their ID badges.  Rori even came by to pick hers up tonight to wear it to school tomorrow because it is All About Me Day at Meadowview.  Makes my heart so happy.

The Writing Center is becoming the place to be now that we have figured out that letters make words and some words we can read.  It is amazing to see how bright those little lightbulbs are shining.

And this is where all the action is for about 10-15 early in our day.  The Science Bench, The Classroom Helpers Chart, Counting 100 days of school chart, the calendar, our Rainbow Mats, the Book Box, the flannel board.....

And when you turn the corner or shift your bum slightly to the right you have the schedule, Busy Boxes, and the Thinking Chair.

Lots of action goes on in their room.  The only bad thing is that we are right over the two boys taking naps.  Sometimes Mark says that it sounds like elephants stampeding through the house.  

Whoever heard of a quiet Preschool.

Then we move into the kitchen or what we refer to as the cafeteria.  I saw this on Pinterest and ordered the stencil and my friend, Casi 'Dorko' Sanborn, owner of Simply Rustic Signs and Designs, made it for me.  I love it.  Jase the newest three-year-old but says he is five is the only one that has memorized the prayer.

We actually have three tables now.  Sometimes someone might need a little help with their table manners so they get to come down by my purple chair.  When it is time for lunch they each go to the garage fridge and get their bunch boxes and then find their chair at the table.  Like Step Cubbies, they are hardly ever in the same place.  Lots of reasons behind that.  We say the prayer and then they proceed to unpack their lunch bags.  They have plates, cups, and plastic wear they can use with lunch.  We have little plastic water pitchers that we use for filling up cups.  Lunch bags go under the chairs.  We eat using our best 'going out to eat at a restaurant' manners.  Everyone is responsible for packing up, cleaning up, doing their dishes when we need to, trash in the trash can, recycle in recycles and compost in the compost bin.  Then it is off to Busy Boxes for the preschoolers and naps for the Wammyvillers.  Our inside time is over around three o'clock and out outside gross motor time is until the parent's pick-up, which is usually 20-30 minutes.  And then I crash!

We have been blessed more than you can even imagine with gifts of furniture, manipulatives, puzzles, teacher stuff...and I am sure lots of prayers.  The parents were taking a big step sending the yahoos here and not where they had planned.  We are thankful that they thought enough of our health to even consider such an adventure.  I have never doubted we couldn't handle it.  I just want to make sure that it is the best it can be and that the yahoos have fun and learn lots of things along the way. 

Our village makes sure that the kids have awesome experiences like the Pumpkin Patch, the vegetable gardens so they can experience science in action by watching this grow and then harvesting and eating the vegetables, have an awesome Rock Box with cool plastic tools to play in, are safe by making a toy parking lot and gate with a latch, cut our grass, clean out the gutters, feed us, pick up meds, go COSTCO shopping for us, drop off bags of chalk and you had no idea we were running low, people volunteering to be Special Readers, clean the house to make it look and smell great, chase the dogs when they escape, say yes when I get a wild hair like school pictures, drop off little pick-me-ups when they know we have had a rough day, deliver mail when it is raining...the list goes on and on.

And I have to put in a plug for Pappy.  I am on his case most all the time (he might say that I nag just a bit) but just let me tell you that since he has been down and out with his knee I never even came close to realizing how much he helps out.  There is no way I could ever even think I could do this all on my own.  It is a team effort for sure.  So thanks Pappy.  There I said it, mark it down and move on.

Seriously, thanks to everyone for every little thing.  You are making it possible for me to do what I love to do more than just about anything in the world...maybe even more than chickens...and you all know how I loved my chickens!

Thank you!!!