Joy School

It has been a fun experience for me to teach Jared and a few of his little friends in a "Joy School" class.  I'm not sure why it is called "Joy School" or who started it, but it is basically preschool done by a bunch of moms in their homes.  You can purchase curriculum for the classes or you can just come up with your own, which is what we did.  (Well, one of the moms already had the stuff from a previous year). 

I am already the nursery leader at church and so the kids in my joy school group are also in nursery.  (That just makes it easier because I already know them.)  Joy School is basically glorified nursery to me.  We do snacks, singing time, reading time, crafts, and play time.  The only difference is the focus on academics, learning some letters, shapes, colors, and sight words.  Plus, there are only 4 kids in the group so each mom ends up hosting one week out of each month.     

Can we take one home, mom?

One of my favorite things about joy school has been going on some fun field trips with the kids!  In September we went to the dairy owned by one of the mom's parents.  It is located out in Amalga, kind-of by Benson, Utah. (On the way from Tremonton to Logan).  They have a very large dairy with some pretty amazing technology, including a carousel milking barn where they cows step in and go around a circle while milking.  I am not sure who had more fun on the tour- Me, or Jared.  I was pretty-much giddy walking around that farm.  I would have LOVED growing up there!  We got the whole tour, including the chance for the kids to feed the baby calves.  At the end we got to sample some of the milk and cheese they make there.  They are the show farm for Gossner's cheese factory.  All their milk goes to them and when anyone travels to see where Gossner's milk comes from, they are sent over to this dairy.  So much fun!   

Another really fun place we went the week before Halloween was the Pumpkin Walk up in Hyde Park, Utah. (North of Logan).  If you have never seen this, you need to!!  I was quite impressed!  This is an annual tradition which has been put on every year for over 30 years.  Every year it gets better, and it's completely free.  There can be long lines to get in, though.   I guess during the day it's not as bad.

Anyway, what it is is a giant pumpkin walk with displays put on by different groups.  Everything is completely donated.  Each display has a different theme.  For instance, the one above was "pixar" (Which was, of course, Jared's favorite and I had a hard time getting him to move on to the next one).   They had scenes from all different movies, TV shows, or books, made almost all out of pumpkins!   It was pretty amazing!