This Is What I Do

Lately my days have been filled with crafting, crafting, and more crafting!  From Save the Dates for our wedding, to numerous Preschool crafts, I have been a busy lady.

Speaking of Preschool crafts, I don't think I have talked much about what I do on a day to day basis.  I am full time student, hopefully graduating later this year.  My ultimate goal is to get my BS in Human Development, (my focus is Child Development), and to get licensed as a teacher in my state.  I want to be a kindergarten teacher.

Right now I also work part time at a "Playschool."  A playschool is just a cute name for a daycare that focuses a little on the actual academics of the children's education; mostly the children learn through play.  While I know play is a very important aspect of child development, (especially in the social and physical categories of development), I am convinced that our facility needs more structure. We, the "teachers", need more time to teach the children proper school etiquette, and basic material. I want to teach more lessons, and actually put lesson plans that I have had to create for my schooling, into practice. The problem is, there is a shortage of materials I can use to put lesson plans together at my work. This creates a lot of outside work for me, (and often a lot of extra expense), which I have to take care of in order to prepare the curriculum and activities.

Trips to the library, craft stores, internet and book research, preparing the outline for the lessons, prepping the activities, gathering supplies...it all takes so much time.  It is difficult for me to balance school and  be the best I can be at my job.

 

Regardless, I keep on trying to come up with a happy medium that works for me.  School always comes first, but if I only implement a few new ideas at my work a couple times a month, so be it, that's how it is going to be, and I am almost satisfied with that. I know an improvement, even if small or made slowly, is still an improvement.

This week a few nice things happened: I finished with one of my finals super early, and my tax returns came!  Because of this I was able to make a very in depth craft, that will help me create more structure during circle time, and foster more learning.

 My Circle Time Felt Weather Board

Learn the days of the week, notice the changing weather, and temperature recording! 

Happy Little Faces!

 

It is so neat that felt sticks to felt.

If you remove all the weather objects, you could tell fabric stories on the board too!