Clara's First Day of Home Preschool

For those of you who don't know I have been wanting to try homeschooling with Clara for a long time.  Our local public school system is known for its poor quality, and private schools in our area are quite expensive.  Plus I just want to be involved when the light bulbs of knowledge go off in her little head.  So to that end we have offically started our year of home preschool.  I figure we'll start now and that way if it blows up in my face there is still time to look into other options before kindergarten.

The Plan:  Each week we will focus on one letter, one color, one shape, one number, one sight word, and one theme.  For our first week I have chosen: A, Black, Circle, 1, 'the', and seasons.

 Luckily for me there is a ton of lesson plan ideas available on the internet.  We are doing worksheets, art projects, story time, songs, and games.  Basically I am trying to keep it fun, but a little more focused than our regular play.  Above and below our two of Clara's 'A' art projects.

 And here she is coloring a sorting worksheet that let her glue big, bigger, and biggest objects.  She loves gluing!

 We took a little break mid-lesson today for some tower building.

Perhaps you've noticed that her cheeks are chapped red.  As it would turn out, my great plan of a glorious first day of school was brought down a peg when Clara came down with a cold yesterday.  She is a runny-nosed mess, but at least since we are having school at home she didn't have to miss her first day.  Also, you may have noticed that she is doing her lessons in a pink leotard.  That is because today we signed her up for a year of ballet/tumbling lessons at the local dance studio.  Class doesn't start until September 6th, but I have a feeling she will be wanting to wear her hand-me-down leotard (thanks Marian) every day until then. 

The dance class is one of my two regular social activities I have planned for her since that is the one key area that home school will fall short on when compared to normal preschool.  The other social activity is an hour and a half each morning at my gym.  They have a great kids room and staff that Clara just loves... unfortunately we missed today because of the sniffles.