 Hey everybody, welcome to the Well Doc wine. I'm Jessica. Today's video is going to be all about preschool, what preschool looked like for us, what worked during our preschool years, what didn't work during our preschool years, and since hindsight is 2020, what I would have done differently and what I wish I had known. Now, I know you might be thinking your daughter is in the fifth grade. Why are we talking about preschool? But we're talking about preschool because over the past few years, there has been a huge influx of homeschoolers, new people wanting to start homeschooling. And well, if we're being honest, I wasn't blogging or doing YouTube when Emily was in preschool. So I don't have a lot out there for the preschool years, but I learned probably the most I've ever learned on our homeschool journey about myself, about her and about homeschooling in general during that first year. And well, like I said, hindsight's 2020. So let's talk about that. So what did preschool look like for us? Well, if we're being honest, it looked like school at home. I had the huge poster board with the calendar numbers on it that we put on and took off with Velcro. We set our pledge of allegiance. We sang our days of the week and our months of the year. I mean, we had this whole circle time going on and it was just me and her. And then after a circle time, we sat down at the table and we did our schoolwork. And our schoolwork when we first started homeschooling preschool, well, it was a lot more than it should have been. I remember being so excited as a new homeschool mom. I've wanted to try it all. I wanted all of the things. And so as a beginning of our preschool year, that looked like explode the code, hooked on phonics, horizons, math. That's just what I can think of off the top of my head. I'm sure there was even more than that, but that's what it started out looking like for us. We would sit down, we would do our curriculum book work for, I don't know, 20 to 30 minutes, and then we would be free the rest of the afternoon to live life. The funny thing is living life for us looks a lot like watching magic school bus or wild crats on TV, playing games together while we waited on daddy to get home from work, cooking in the kitchen, going outside and playing, doing an arts and crafts project, doing puzzles. And as our preschool years moved forward, and as we kind of got a few months into it, I realized that we, well, Emily and myself, I guess we're learning more when we were living life than when we were, well, doing school. And so that was the point when I really kind of started to back off and reevaluate our preschool a little bit. I decided to ditch some of the things that weren't working and keep some of the things that were working. So some of the things that weren't working were the huge circle time because there was only two of us. So that went from this big circle time down to more of a short end calendar time. We would do just a little bit. We would cover a lot in a short period of time. And we would basically do a, you know, kind of calendar, I guess, notebook, if you will. I kind of put it in a binder instead of a notebook. And then we would read together. So what's funny is basically before I even knew what a morning time or a morning basket was, essentially that's what we were doing. As we evolved our school like circle time into a morning time. And that's how we started our day. And then for a table time, we ditched a lot of those curriculum. And instead we did more fun printable worksheet. So I just scoured Pinterest and I added more things like from this reading mama and the measured mom. And we were just doing fun things like that. And then I slowly created the alphabet pack so that we could even bring in more hands on fun into our preschool. So those are the things that worked for us. The reading, the calendar time, the hands on interactive fun, playing games, watching shows, like just enjoying schooling. And so if I had it to do over again, what I would have done is a lot more of that. I would have let Emily be little just a little bit longer. I would have not pushed so hard. We would have been a lot more chill, but we would have had a lot more fun too. And so that's kind of where my heart was when I created purposeful preschool, which if you are a mom like me and you're looking for something that's flexible and fun, but will still cover those key preschool academics, then that might be what you're looking for. Purposeful preschool is designed to be done in 26 weeks. Each week covers an alphabet letter, a math concept such as colors, shapes and numbers. And then it also includes an element of play with our pretend and dramatic play packs. Now there are over 65 different printable packs within Purposeful preschool. There are alphabet mazes and alphabet pattern blocks and number do a dots and number mazes. There are 26 different themed pretend play packs. When you name it, there is something in here for every style learner and everybody. There is a loose plan for you to follow. There are alphabet snack ideas. There's book lists. There's a YouTube playlist. It is basically me giving you everything that you possibly could need or want. And then you choosing whatever fits your child, your home school and your family the best. Whatever they find the most fun, that's what you're going to do more of. So if you've got a kid who loves do a dots, well, then guess what? You're going to be doing alphabet do a dots and number do a dots and shape do a dots. And that's what you're going to be doing to cover the skills that are laid out in the lesson plans. You have a kid who loves cars. We have some transportation number mats where they can drive their cars to make their numbers. Pattern blocks. Maybe you have a kid who loves to build. There's alphabet and number and shape pattern blocks included. And then like I said, 26 different themes of pretend play. Now, there's one scheduled for every week, but you don't have to do them all. You don't have to do all of any of it to cover those concepts. I'm just giving you tons of resources to do whatever fits best for your child. So if you have a kid who loves construction, there's a construction pretend play pack. Set that up and let them pretend to play construction, involve yourself with them and watch the learning happen. Play really is the work of kids and they will learn so much through play that you will be blown away. I know that it's hard to let go and trust the process, but that is the glory that I have in sitting here five years out from preschool telling you the process really does work. Trust it. Hindsight is 2020. You can let your kid be little just a little bit longer. Enjoy their childhood and trust in the fact that there's going to be years to come for all of that shiny curriculum. And if you decide to dive into it a little bit too early, you might be like me and regret doing it and wish that you had just been a little more relaxed and had a little more fun while your kid was still young. So that is what purposeful preschool is. That is what is on my heart for preschool. I just kind of really wanted you guys to hear that. And I would love it if you would tell me down in the comments. First, are you homeschooling a preschooler? Second, if you are, what is it going to look like for you? And then if you're not homeschooling a preschooler, I would love to know what your hindsight is. Like what would you have done differently? What worked well for you? What didn't work well for you? And what would your, I guess, advice be for new homeschool moms who are starting out on the preschool adventure with their little ones?