I have a startling announcement: "Ahemm... I'm not rich." Pretty?... my husband thinks so, Organized?... my friends think so.... Rich? No one even loses sleep wondering. I'm scraping by just like each one of you (except for each on of you that are rich).Even though I've never had an extra $100+ dollars a month for pre-school, I've managed to deliver preschool and extra activities on the cheap.
My favorite solution: JOY SCHOOL! I'm sure there are a million of you ladies who have participated in this fantastic value based program but for you Gazillion other ladies it's worth checking out. The philosophy is amazing. Just click on this button for an over view.
This does involve parental effort. In the past I would recruit other preschool moms (6-8) and set up a rotation. We held Joy School twice a week and rotated teaching so we only had to teach every 6- 8 weeks! That's it! You get 5-7 weeks off to run errands or take a bubble bath. For the cost savings it was totally worth it.
No, I don't get a dime for this tooting the horn of this program... darn. You young mommies who are decorating in Early GoodWill or Provincial Mother Hubbard can easily provide your kiddos with a fun preschool program that isn't a whole lot of stress. All the lessons are laid out by the minute, it comes with songs, stories, the whole shebang.... even a Cave Man can do it!
If you aren't into the pre-school thing you can do what our neighborhood has done: Organize a soccer league. We have million munchkins running around this neighborhood and a few high spirited mothers held a meeting and rallied the neighborhood to form a soccer league. It costs just $5 per kid for 6-8 weeks of practices and games... all parent run and coached. The $5 includes a trophy or medal and pictures (emailed to parents) and initially paid for net jerseys and chalk spray for the field (a local park). Now we have 4 teams for ages 4-5 and another 4 for ages 6-7. $5 a kid for soccer is worth a little effort from parents to keep costs down.
This summer a group of 8 ladies formed a craft day for our little girls. Again, we rotated houses each week and hosted the craft of our choice. Our girls enjoyed a chance to use their hands and imaginations while chit chatting about princess clothes and Barbies while the moms enjoyed conversation or a quick trip to the grocery store! Easy Peasy! Now you can do that! Right?
If you aren't into the pre-school thing you can do what our neighborhood has done: Organize a soccer league. We have million munchkins running around this neighborhood and a few high spirited mothers held a meeting and rallied the neighborhood to form a soccer league. It costs just $5 per kid for 6-8 weeks of practices and games... all parent run and coached. The $5 includes a trophy or medal and pictures (emailed to parents) and initially paid for net jerseys and chalk spray for the field (a local park). Now we have 4 teams for ages 4-5 and another 4 for ages 6-7. $5 a kid for soccer is worth a little effort from parents to keep costs down.
This summer a group of 8 ladies formed a craft day for our little girls. Again, we rotated houses each week and hosted the craft of our choice. Our girls enjoyed a chance to use their hands and imaginations while chit chatting about princess clothes and Barbies while the moms enjoyed conversation or a quick trip to the grocery store! Easy Peasy! Now you can do that! Right?There's still plenty of time to start up a Joy School. The sessions run from Sept- Jan and from Feb-June with all the gear you need provided. Now get out that email list of friends and become a Community Organizer... um... I mean a Proactive Nifty Thrifty Mom!
If you've done Joy School or another rotation based activity for your kiddos leave a comment and let us know!
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3 comments:
i'm just MAD that i wasn't invited to the dang craft day...am i not good enough? better yet is my daughter not good enough? hahaha!
More wonderful ideas!!!!
My neighbor and I held "pre-school" for our kids when my oldest was little. The kids learned a little and had lots of fun with other kids. Every other week Mommy was FREE for a few hours. Yeah!!!
I LOVE the crafty idea. That would be wonderful next summer
I've done both a neighborhood co-op preschool and the Joy School program. Joy school is totally worth it. We didn't do the kindergarten prep that you can order and my little kindergartner was just fine the whole year of K. They still love the songs that we learned. I didn't have anyone to do it with for #2, but I've already heard there's one in the works for the 10-11 school year, which means my #3 will get to to it. Wahoo!!
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