preparing for home kindergarten

Today I thought I'd share with you a little of the preparation we do before home kindergarten.

The other 5 mummies and myself decided to start this group as a little bridge. We wanted an in-between for our children; something to stimulate them, to give them the chance to listen to and follow other adults' instructions, a way to play with and socialize with other children. We wanted all of these things without them having to leave the comfort of home. We wanted the security and ease and homelinessthat there is nowhere else but home.

I keep this in mind when I prepare my home for hosting 'Buddies Home School'.

Firstly, we transform the kitchen (really I just push the table up to the window and the chairs against the wall). For Benny though this is a complete transformation and our home becomes Home School. We sweep the floor, a complete necessity after breakfast in my house ;-)

We try to make the environment as safe as possible for the children and, well, the environment. We close the doors to rooms we don't want the kids to go into. We move any special things or valuables out of reach.

I lock the kitchen cupboards that I don't want opened...this is really because Joa like putting things into the bin at them moment (this morning I found 4 perfectly good carrots and a welly boot in there).
I set up any equipment we need for the day, including gathering cushions and blankets for sitting on. I also make sure we have things like loo roll in the toilet, towels and dish cloths and also hot water for washing up and washing hands.

Just before everyone arrives I burn some lavender oil and put the kettle on.

We starting this week with the wonderful songs we started to learn last week. It was so lovely to see the children remembering the songs and joining in. Repeating the same songs and rhymes from week to week really helps them to become internalised and the children become comfortable with the music and movement session.

Today Susan lead an apple craft.

The kids used finger paints to make a tree shape on their card using different parts of their hands and different coloured paint.

Susan had also brought some pre-cut out pictures of juicy red apples and smaller pictures for colouring in that the kids could stick into their cards.

A whole lot of gluing went on :-)

'Apples, apples, growing on a tree. Apples, apples fun for you and me'

We hung our finished cards to dry.

They came out beautifully and the kids were really proud of them.

After we washed hands and had a snack it was on with coats and hats and out into the garden.

Again we check that it is safe, that the gate is closed and that there are appropriate toys to play with.

While the kids were at play us mummies had a well earned cuppa, planned our next session and got 3 babies to sleep.

Do you see baby Sophie asleep in the bundle of blankets?

We ended the session with a story. We told the three billy goats gruff again and the effect was as good as before. Emer told me it was her favourite story :-)

We're hoping it will stay at least a little bit windy for next week as we're planning a kite theme. It was a good session and I'm really looking forward to next week already :-)