Getting Ready

E is 31 months old

I have been enjoying all the posts from those of you who are getting ready to start a new school year.  I am getting excited to start up again as well!  So even though you haven't read anything from me related to school work for a while, it's on the agenda.  I'm planning on giving E (and myself) the month off and we will be starting up again in September. 

I have been thinking about what to work on with E and planning out our school time.  Sometimes, I do think I enjoy the planning more than the executing.  OK, who am I kidding, I ALWAYS enjoy the planning.  Everything always works out perfectly in my imaginary dream planning world.  Not always so in real life!
 

 I'm hoping I can get E more interested in our Montessori materials - part of the reason why we're taking a nice break.  I loved having K for the summer and he sure loved coming to do his "work," but E had some difficulty with him being here.  She only wanted to do the materials he was working on - not her own - and he is a year and a half older than her.  So they are definitly in different places!  I'm hoping that we'll have a nice break this month and start in September with a clean slate.

Things I want to do with E this year (as far as preschool is concernced) are:

* continue with our Montessori work as much as she wants, setting aside at least 2 times a week to focus on it (but hopefully MUCH more!)

* utilize a "theme unit" twice a month or so.  We're going to start with apples in September, but I am planning for this to be child-led for the most part.  What we do for theme units around here is: lots of books about the subject, crafts, outings, games, and practical life and science works.

* continue with our letters of the week.  We don't really do one letter per week, it's more like two a month or so.  We'll finish uppercase and move to lowercase.  I want to use the Heavenly Homemaker's new ebook Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve along with this.

* learn by memory the prayer before meals, guardian angel prayer, and selected Bible verses.  The verses will probably go along with our letters of the week.

* get outside more!  I am pretty much an indoor kind of gal.  Unless there is something specific to do outside, I tend to stay in.  There is so much beautiful scenery and great parks around here, I want to visit at least one new park a week. (I guess that's not really preschool per se, but if I don't put it down somewhere, I won't hold myself to it!)

Happy new school year to everyone!