"Educational"/Preschool Type Playdate or Play Group

Hi K.,

When my daughter was 3 & 4, I participated with some friends in a coop preschool. We did Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-12. There were 6 kids so I had the kids at my house every 6 weeks. We purchased curriculum from http://www.valuesparenting.com/joyschool/
It was great for only a $50 enrollment fee and then $75 a semester we got all the lesson plans and music needed to do the preschool. We did contribute money for supplies that traveled house to house but it was great. My daughter made good friends, the curriculum was about finding joy in the world around her, and for the 2nd year that we did it, the site provided the kindergarten readiness stuff too.

This was the only way my husband would pay for preschool.

D.

Back when my kids were Pre-school age, a former Pre-school teacher and I set up playgroups based around play that had learning themes. We'd tackle colors, counting, reading, etc. Playing of course is the most important thing at a young age so everything was fun and different crafts were edible or exploratory to the senses. When I established a bigger playgroup with Pre-school friends, I would have playgroups that had spelling Bingo, Rocket Minds spelling and Math, crafts, and snack. We always had a lot of fun and everyone had different ideas so we ended up doing lots of things. There are plenty of educational places to go with a Pre-schooler. The library has lots of free story times. Habitot, the Discovery Museum, the Discovery Bay Museum, etc. are also fun places to visit. Make the most of the time when they are young and have lots of fun. Best of luck to you.

We did this for both my son and my daughter. We started at 3 months with both kids. Our playgroup/mom's group evolved from our yoga class when we were pregnant and when they started rolling and crawling we started what we called Development Group. Playgroups rotated from each mom's house, but Dev. Group was always at the same house. We started with knocking on the door and entering quietly without any hellos. Mom's would sit quietly at the perimeter of the living room which was redesigned for the babies only. The room was filled only with age appropriate toys for each learning stage. We did not speak at all to each other only engaging with the babies and letting them explore with the items. Make sure to have enough of each item so that every child has an opportunity to explore without tug wars. (we each contributed $100 to purchase the items, nothing was brought from homes so that there was no ownership perceived by the little ones) Every 3 months we changed the room and items to grow with the development stages of the children. (even small inside climbing structures) We also made a small table with tiny chairs in the kitchen and had them sit down with bibs and washcloths before snack time. Each mom took turns bringing snack with colorful varieties of smell and taste. We would show the orange whole and then slice it in front of them letting them manipulate the orange before and then serving them each in turn. Only one mom would serve as each mom sat quietly behind their child (they could leave the table and go back to the room if they wished but they could not stay to play). We did this once a week until they were about 2yrs old (we took summer off for travel plans and started again in the fall). We so enjoyed both groups and since we all had our babies within 3 months of eachother we naturally started having our second babies at the same time as well so it worked out great. I would suggest keeping the age span for Dev. Group no more than 3 months because the stages of learning as you know are leaps and bounds. A 3 month old would be at a very different stage than a 7 month old. Hope this helps...and have fun!!

I did this type of thing with 3 other parents and our then 3-year-old children about 10 years ago. We met twice a week and would take turns being in charge, so we each got at least once per week of time off while others were in charge (sometimes we had one person handle all 4 children, sometimes we had 2 if the day was more complicated or a field trip). We did things like teaching manners with a tea party, teaching about map skills through a treasure hunt, a field trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, crafts, and others. It was a great way to bond with everyone involved, and get a little time off without paying for a school. I did also have my son in another preschool program at the time, but our own preschool was very memorable. You just need to be sure you have a group dedicated to making it work.