Joy School

With Shelly getting bigger and acting like she's ready to start learning, when I heard about a joy school group getting together I jumped at the chance to join. Then I got nervous about having a new baby and maybe I didn't actually have the discipline to do this and other such silly things. Turns out I wasn't the only one. One of the mothers if having a baby around Christmas time and has decided that the structure of Joy School is too much for her at the moment, so the weeks she's in charge, it's just a play group. The other three of us like the structure. It seems to work out fairly well. There are 4 of us, and Shelly is the only white girl. She's also the oldest - but only by 10 days - and the youngest is almost a year younger than her. We have 'class' twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30 to noon.

For the most part it all works out well. It's a bit more of an adventure at our house because Jason has play group on Tuesdays from 9:30 to 11, so I can't pick him up when I'm teaching and dropping them off at the same time in two different places is interesting. Plus when play group is at our house, it's harder to get her to Joy School. And Jason has speech therapy at our house on Thursdays from 11-12, so picking her up on Thursdays is tricky. So far it's been fine though. Mark has been home to help and he's good about making sure I'm not too overwhelmed. :)

Here's Joy School at our house for the first time back on October 6th. One of the boys was late so Jason sat in for him. We made popcorn so the kids could experience their 5 senses.

Then we went to the park so they could use their senses to experience the world around them. Mostly they just played though...
Here's Bennett and Ammon at the park

Shelly and Hayden playing in the sand

The 4 boys in the play house - Hayden, Jason, Ammon and Bennett
(Shelly was still playing in the sand somewhere)

Here's one from this week. Going around the table is Bennett, Hayden, Jason, Shelly, and Ammon. It's kinda fun having Jason join us. He often sits for the stories better than the other three boys do! I think he just likes that I'm actually paying attention to him... This week I tried to squeeze 2 weeks into 1 (to make up for the mom next week who's doing just a play group) and we learned about feelings and being honest. Shelly is the only one who I think actually gets what we're talking about. 2 of the other boys have a language and age barrier and the third just seems more interested in trucks and trains than listening. Oh well - it's still fun and Shelly still loves it!