Producing Preschool

Hey y'all -

So, we've banded together with a few other parents in town to teach a rotating preschool class - three hours every Wednesday at one family's house. Every fourth Wednesday, it will be our turn to host, and today was our first time.

To prepare, I searched a lot of preschool blogs looking for activities. Scratch that. To prepare, I called Thor and old him he'd best plan on taking the afternoon off work, because if he thought I was going to entertain multiple young'uns in our house all by myself, he had another thing coming.

Here's what I learned today: preschoolers enjoy an activity in inverse proportion to how much time you spent planning it. If, say, you've planned a craft that required you to spend hours cutting out a bunch of pieces of paper for the kids to assemble, they'll think it's lame. If you say, "Um...I've got some food coloring in the pantry. What if we mix it all up in jars and see how it looks?" they'll proclaim it awesome.

I had the idea that we'd have a loose theme of "Things that Fly," since Thor was going to be home and could talk about planes and being a pilot. We made paper airplanes and launched them off our second floor. The kids got to play with Thor's helmet and turn on the microphone light and try it on.

Her name is Cedar but you can call her Maverick.

I made marshmallow launchers out of paper cups and balloons. No one cared.

I put mason jars on the table with vinegar and food coloring and said, "Well, why don't we take this ten pounds of white rice and turn it different colors?" Everyone loved it.

Yep, she's dying the marshmallows from the last project. 

When the girls wanted to paint and Shea didn't, Thor taught him how to tie knots and they practiced lassoing a moose, which is actually a useful skill here in Montana.

When it was over and the kids had gone home, I got a call from my friend Will, asking me how it went. Will and I are great friends and have been in the TV business together for 12 years or so. I said, "It's tough, because they get bored so quickly, so to keep them from wandering off, you have to keep throwing out new ideas and coming up with crazy ways to capture their attention." "Sounds like network executives when we're pitching a show," Will said, "You don't like that idea? Try this one? Don't like it yet - here! We'll throw in a monkey. Do you like it now?"

Exactly. Preschoolers and Network Executives: Loud and self-obsessed, with the attention span of a gnat.... but you wouldn't be half as entertained without 'em. 

Five minutes after the other kids left.

Love,
Mom