Preschool Prep Work

I've had several questions regarding how much prep work and printing goes into this process. All I can say is a lot! It is now my full time job. We are saving money by not having the girls in daycare so I view that savings as my income to perform my job the best I can.

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are"- Theodore Roosevelt.

Preschooling at home is now my new role at this point in my life. It may not have ever been on "my" path but it was on His path for me at this point in time. With that being said - yes, it is a lot of prep work, printing & laminating.

At first I debated the laminating process and using dry erase markers with the material. I wanted "proof" of what they had accomplished and didn't want it just wiped off. I realized very quickly that laminating the bulk of their work really helps! In the long run it is less printing because I can pass a worksheet from one child to the next. Laminating makes the work durable and I will be able to reuse for Scarlett when she gets to that point.

I bought a fairly cheap laminator from Amazon: Scotch Thermal Laminator

and it has worked great!!! I haven't had one issue with it.

I read on another homeschooler's blog that they have realized that the cheaper laminating pouches work just as great as the Scotch brand. So I have been bought 2 boxes of these Laminating Pouches

They are the thicker 5mil so they are very durable. I have laminated and cut out matching cards, lacing cards, etc. and haven't had any issues with it pealing.

I found dry erase markers and mini erasers in the Target dollar bins and they work perfect for our dry erase work. You can decide to just use the page protectors instead of laminating and they work with dry erase just fine. However, if any of the marker gets inside the top page opening its on the paper forever.

I also worried about the dry erase aspect being "messy". However, Reese and Emma have been very good with it. It is a bit harder with Emma being left handed though. But she gets so excited when I put a dry erase worksheet in front of her and even shouts "yay"! Keeping it fun is important I guess :)

Now, I don't laminate everything. Some of it is cutting practice, art activities, and a lot of it is coloring worksheets. I do plan on continuing a laminated memory book for each girl of their special pieces of work like they received at Concordia. I'll post more on that later once I've assembled their first books.

Hope this helps for anyone following along!