Still, the thought of teaching my boys their numbers, shapes, and ABCs has me totally terrified. In fact, 95% of the people I've talked to about the necessity of preschool have told me not to even bother with it. That - plus the expense plus geographical limitations - is what convinced me to forego formal school for at least a few more years (and possibly longer).
But something in me still feels like their little minds are such sponges right now that I don't want to miss a window where they can soak up all kinds of learning, so ready or not; here we go.Pressley Prep is officially in session.
Well, "officially" may be too strong a word. I've turned one wall of the playroom into what kinda looks like a classroom. There's a calendar and Christian and American flags (which the boys have marched all over the house carrying on more than one occasion). There is a bulletin board-shaped rectangle bordered by cartoon-y fish, Office Depot's royalty-free Nemo knock-off, and there's a table with three chairs around it where my boys and I will sit while I (attempt) to teach them the foundations of learning.
From where I sit, brain surgery may be an easier endeavor.
The boys have been super excited to see the playroom transition in to a classroom over the last week. Yesterday, they were so thrilled after I hung the flags in there (learning the pledges to both flags and the Bible is on my list of goals for the year) that I decided to let them try out their chairs and play around in some of the wipe clean books I bought off a friend's Usborne Book party. To see how quickly they took to it totally affirmed my intuition that the time to start is now - I've got to strike while the irons of their little minds are blazing hot with a burning desire to learn.
But still, I have NO idea what I'm doing. Or why I'm not leaving this to the experts with actual education degrees.To help give me vision, Pressley Prep has a very simple two-part mission statement: "To Teach & to Train." The "to teach" part is ripped from Deuteronomy 6:4-9, which says:
"Hear, o Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is ONE. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I combed you today shall be on your heart. You shall TEACH them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as fronts between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."
"To train" comes from Proverbs 22:6:
"Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it."
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| Amazingly, Freddie immediately knew how to hold his pen. |
"To Teach & to Train," then, encapsulates both endeavors of Pressley Prep - raising earthly children to serve a Heavenly purpose (my beloved friend Brooke is working on an official logo, because, OF COURSE, I have to have monogrammed pullovers for whatever fields trips we may take. Also, the yearbook will need to look official).
So ready or not. Here we go.
Somehow, the stakes seem so much lower when I'm bluffing my way through a lecture on a particular part of theatre history about which I know so little. If I mess up when laying the groundwork for my boys' education, though, woe be unto me.
My goals for this year are simple - I want the boys to learn to recognize their numbers, letters, shapes, and colors. I also want them to learn the pledges of allegiance to the American and Christian flags and to the Bible. If we can accomplish this by this time next year, then I will consider Pressley Prep a success.
If not, Asheville Christian is already on speed dial.
Say a prayer, Y'all. We're gonna need it.
You can do this. :-)
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