St. Andrew’s Home School

Another post brought over from my personal blog. Originally posted on January 17, 2006.

First a little preschool history lesson. No, not a history lesson, a preschool history lesson. In years past when we lived in Hattie?s Town we sent our children to preschool at our church. They have a wonderful program that I still miss greatly and I believe my children miss as well. The program was simple PreK-3 three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for three year olds from 9:00a to 11:45a. The PreK-4 program was also simple, 5 days a week with the same daily hours. The church also provided a Kindergarten that was from 8:45a to 12:00p. This worked great for siblings who attended any of the classes because of course they allowed younger siblings to enter the few minutes early if they had a sibling in the kindergarten program and it was no big deal for them to wait the few extra minutes in the carpool line to be picked up either. This was a small school - three PreK-3 classes with 12 children each and one teacher and one assistant per classroom. Same with the four year old, but they had 15 students with one teacher and one assistant each. And one Kindergarten Class with 15 children, one teacher, and one assistant. A parent couldn?t ask for a better situation for preschool, especially when PapaJohn was just down the hall in his office should they ever need anything. I was even blessed with PapaJohn being able to bring them home most days when he came home for lunch. Some days he took the children with them when he went to work and some days I took them through the carpool line at the start of the day.

What I miss the most is gong to all the special programs and parties. I think I had as much fun as the children had. It was fun planning the parties with other moms and it was fun watching the children at the parties and then on stage singing their special songs for whatever the occasion. Let?s see how many I can remember:

* the Fall Festival
* the Thanksgiving Feast
* the Christmas Program
* Valentine?s Day
* the Easter Egg Hunt
* Grandparent?s Day
* the End of the Year Program
* Kindergarten Graduation

There were other special days too, like:

* community helpers day - student gets to dress like their favorite community helper and lots of community helpers were there to talk about their jobs.
* the Teddy Bear Picnic - self explanatory, what they did when they (4 yr old classes) finished their circle shape book
* the Triangle Parade - what they did when they (4 yr old classes) finished their triangle shape book
* the 3 yr olds had a day when they dressed as their favorite nursery rhyme character after doing a unit on nursery rhymes
* Muffins for Mom at the end of the year (close to Mother?s Day)
* Donuts for Dad day was near the beginning of the year
* My absolute favorite was the Boot Scoot Rodeo the four year olds had
* Quarter Day with the Quarter Queen

Student 1 and Student 2 went to all three years to the preschool and Kindergarten before coming home. Student 3 went to three year old and most of four year old (she didn?t get to finish because of our move). Student 4 went to three year old preschool until we moved. I have not yet been able to get them into a preschool here; the preschools were full when we moved and then I wasn?t able to afford it for this year. I miss it greatly. It makes me very say when I think about it. Yes, I love having them home with me, but the memories and how much I enjoy watching all those little children on those special days singing their Thanksgiving songs about fat turkeys and Pumpkins sitting on fences and Rudolph?s red nose and even the funniest dancing children wiggling to Ballin? the Jack. I miss my children getting in the car with all their handmade treasures that I just can?t find the time to do at home. I miss those little painted turkeys made of their hand prints and the Mary?s little lamb made of glued cotton balls to a piece of construction paper.

So today I post a picture or our preschool. They are precious and beautiful.