Gettin' Edjukated

Megan's birthday is at the end of September, which presents us with an interesting dilemma surrounding when to start school. I don't think she'll be able to start kindergarten for two more years because Texas law is pretty stiff on birthdays, and September 1 is the deadline. I still want her to do preschool for the next two years though, because she loves to do anything that even slightly smacks of "school." Texas has pre-k classes at the elementary schools, and we live literally around the corner from a great one... but again that pesky September 1 deadline means she can't go this year.
I have looked around for other preschool options around us at private schools and local churches, and even on Post. The ft bliss option seems to me to be more of a day care than a preschool, and the private christian school nearby seems a little too intense... full day classes and uniforms, plus tuition a bit higher than I care to pay for teaching my daughter days of the week and weather. All those things, plus the realization that if she were to start this year, it would be in LESS THAN A WEEK(!) scares this momma away from a formal preschool this year, afterall. What am I going to do instead? Go to the dollar store!

We love to go to the Dollar Tree just for an outing when we have nothing else to do, and Megan and Robby like to each pick out a toy when we go. What we discovered there, though, was they have an AWESOME school aisle. Little workbooks, posters, supplies, educational window clings, decorations, etc. I realized that the Dollar Tree and the internet have everything I need to form my own little curriculum and create my own classroom setting.

Since Robby is gone with Mike right now in Oregon, this morning we decided to try out a math lesson and see how it would go. Megan got an addition and subtraction disney princess workbook from dollar tree, and she just loves it. We have gotten preschool and kindergarten workbooks in the past there, and I think they were a little simple for her, so she's ready to try some real school stuff. It went well! I realized that the first thing I need to buy from the dollar store will be the numbers/letters poster pack, because she has a hard time writing the numbers from memory.

So here is Megan doing some addition! She had more stamina for it than I did.

She learned about counting fingers, pennies, or pictures to help her add

Some backwards and deformed numbers, but they are all right!

Oops! Need to erase and fix that funky number!

This girl loves learning!