Preschool Update

It was a difficult decision in some ways, however very easy in others - we decided that preschool at the CDC was not the best option for Noah.  It was difficult because we knew that it was something that was fun for Noah, he would miss it.  Neither of us wanted to take something away from him, especially something he was enjoying so much.  However, the program that he was in was for ages 3 - 5, quite a gap.  I am certain that this wide range of ages drove the curriculum, it of course would have to - you must ensure that you are not going beyond the children in the classroom.  That meant that there was a theme and focus for the month, which wasn't something that we thought would challenge Noah - he knows his shapes and colors well.  I am of course sure that he would have learned throughout the year at preschool.  What we were not confident in was how much Noah would learn.  The curriculum was all based on each child's choice for the day, he would never be made to sit and work on coloring or writing or phonics type activities.  These are not activities that Noah races to when given the opportunity.  To be honest, he doesn't like to color and writing is enjoyable for maybe 2 or 3 minutes.  I understand the choices and not forcing a child to participate at 3, but at 4 I want Noah to begin to practice some of these skills more regularly.  We could do that at home, but with almost 1 1/2 hours a day on the bus and 2.5 hours of preschool, it would leave little time for playing at home. 

We explained on Friday to Noah that he wouldn't be going to preschool on the bus anymore, there were some tears shed (mostly by me, he had a few and then I had many!).  I hate to disappoint him, but Mike and I spent hours discussing the decision, we both prayed over it, we both are confident that this is best.  We will have more time at home to work on school, which is our intent next year - we will homeschool the boys, and Addison too when she is bigger.  After the tears we talked about the things we could learn about at home - Noah had quite the list!  He then was excited and asked me what games we would play to learn about sharks.  I don't think he's too terribly heart broken after all, but hope that this coming week is a smooth transition back to preschool at home.   He will continue to see his speech therapist down town and we'll let the school district here focus it's attention on others.  This week we will continue working on studying sharks, we started last week but didn't get as far as I would have liked (there were hours a day just gone without Noah!)