gramma school

 Since we were in town helping a friend move on Sunday we made plans to pick Tessa up on our way home thus saving her parents the long drive to our house. 

During the drive home we talked about "doing school" at grandma's (the title Tessa lovingly bestowed on me during her stay at our house last spring) house. 

"Ha," I thought, "What a great name for our little school! Grandma School."

Tessa is just getting started on the basics of written language so I decided to start at the logical place...the first letter of her name.

Hello T Week.

I found these adorable, but cheaply made, little alphabet bean bags at the teacher store last week. Since I now have a school stipend I splurged and payed way more than cost for a set of 26 bitty bags. When Natale opened her gift word Monday morning Tessa opened her gift letter.

While laying in bed lesson planning the night before our first day as a school of preschool I came up with an activity the girls could do together. I gave them both little flash lights and sent them looking for things in the house that began with the letter T. They found (with some hints) toy, towel, toilet, trash, tub, teapot, and table. After lunch we added tomato and for dinner we celebrated T week with a taco.

 

 After Natale left at 5:30 Tessa and I braved the cold and dark and made a trip to town for school supplies (and the taco). On the way we continued the conversation from school, (me naming things that started with T and having Tessa say "T, ta, ta, ta ____".

Suddenly there was a flash from the backseat and Tessa asked, "What does Starbucks start with? What does ___ start with? What does ____ start with?"

Ahhh! Just what this grandma school teacher was looking for...a connection between the alphabet (that up until this point has just been a fun song) and the written word. Success on day one!