Ali's House Preschool

06/07/2024

06/11/2023

My sister, Lauren, started recording children’s book read-alouds for our nieces, but has kindly made them public for all children to enjoy. She is a talented reader. I know many of your children will enjoy these books.

07/12/2021

Thinking about September already ? Is your child going to kindergarten (or pre-k)?

This is my list of “kindergarten readiness” skills. Throw those apps and workbooks away, and do these 4 things instead.

1. Read to your child. Read to yourself in front of your child. Listen to audio books. Talk about books. Talk about words. Make jokes. Can’t stress this enough. Read.

2. Build your child’s sense of self. Do this by giving your child lots of opportunity for authentic success, not with false praise. Let your child pick their clothes, make themselves food, chose their own play activities, clean up after themself, etc. Step back and let them start to figure things out on their own.

3. Help them build healthy habits. School days are long and exhausting, especially if your child hasn’t been in full day preschool/daycare. Work on bedtime routines. Work on healthy eating. Play outdoors as much as possible to build strong bodies.

4. Work on independence skills. Can they pull up and down their pants/underpants, wipe, flush, and wash their hands? Zip and unzip their jacket? A big one, open and unpack their lunch box! Trust me, their kindergarten teacher will thank you. So will your child.

05/28/2021

With a smoothie and joke party our school year comes to an end. These amazing kids created a bright spot in a challenging year, and I will never forget being their teacher. Some are off to kindergarten next year, and some are off to brick and mortar preschools. I wish each of my students the absolute best this summer and a really successful next year.

05/25/2021

These photos, from the past couple months of school, bring me so much joy. While an online preschool experiance isn't typical, it can still be filled with exploration, creativity, and joy. The school year is ending this week, at Ali's House, and I am already so sad, thinking about how much I am going to miss these little faces!

05/17/2021

Each online class has ended with a joke, all year long. This is just some of the giant stack I have accumulated. I’ll miss these jokes, this summer!!

05/17/2021

A couple more of our gardens. I just can't get enough of these!

05/15/2021

Check out our flower gardens! We took a couple days to make these masterpieces, and I think they look spectacular. We painted egg cartons to create flowers, then used paint, markers, and paper collage to finish our gardens with grass, bugs, and other garden animals.

04/30/2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ynb46XfQdxY

The celebration of Earth Day continues. Please enjoy "Greta and the Giants" a picture book about Greta Thunberg.

04/29/2021

Wow!! We found amazing examples of nature in our homes and in our neighborhoods this week. This is just a small sample of the many amazing discoveries we have made. We are becoming quite the botanists!

04/27/2021

This week is all bout the Spring, of course! We started our week by painting our own nature scavenger hunt games. Join our fun, by printing your own, painting each square a color you might find in nature, and then taking your scavenger hunt frame outside on a nature walk. What colors can you match?