We Have Begun!

And we're off. Today I did my first "official" homeschool-preschool activity! But the secret? It sure didn't feel like a school activity. This morning Abby and her friend Geeves, who is spending the day with us, decorated a cut-out letter 'A' with stickers.

Writing this down, it doesn't seem as momentous as it did when I actually sat them down and did it. But it is a big thing for me, and the reason it is a big thing? I planned it.  Yes, I finally got my butt in gear this weekend and planned out my first week of preschool.  I knew that I had reached my limit of reading up on different activities and methods; I had to take what I had learned, decide what would work for me, use the resources I had, and start implementing them. 

Each week will have a different 'unit.'  (As a side note, I feel so official calling them units, and it makes me feel kind of funny.)  This week we are starting with the letter 'A', even though Abby does recognize the letter already, I wanted to do them all.  We will also learn a number each week, obviously starting with '1'.  And there will be a Bible story for the week, and maybe even a shape, though I haven't decided on that for sure since I seem to keep adding stuff.  But everyday we will do some kind of paper craft with the letter and the number.  I will read through whatever Bible story we are learning, maybe with a different children's Bible each day since I have plenty.  I also have a craft book for Bible stories, so we will do that after reading the story.  We will read through the lesson for the letters from The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading by Jessie Wise and Sara Buffington.  I am just using the first 26 lessons that teach letter sounds for now.  I also have Modern Curriculum Press's Phonics level K book that I am going to use for some activites for the letters. 

I am not scheduling a time for these but am basically just checking them off my list each day.  We will see how that goes.  It seems like a lot to me, especially since Abby and Leigh have never had any kind of structured activities before.  We have always just let them do what they want, within reason obviously.  But since we are serious about homeschooling, they will need to learn to sit for a specified amount of time sooner or later so why not now. 

The Day After Yesterday

God is gracious. Truly. Yesterday was a day that I defined to my husband as the day from Hell. It was definitely one of the hardest days of my life. The girls just weren't satisfied with anything, except maybe TV watching, but I didn't want them to watch TV all day long (ok, a part of me really did just want to give in). And anything that I tried distracting them with was rejected.

Abby threw several temper tantrums, usually over small, silly things that I don't even remember now. And she displayed a shockingly teenager-like attitude that is starting to become a real problem. I have tried talking to her about it (she just continues talking back), putting her in her room makes no noticeable difference either. I am running out of ideas.

But today was a walk in the park, comparatively. We had a friend over who is the same age as Abby so the girls were less under foot. And over-all they seemed happier. I am so glad because I don't know if I could have taken another whiny day, especially since Leigh was up in the night for several hours.

And as I was bathing the girls tonight, I was reminded how much I love them, and how blessed I am to be able to be their Mama. They are so precious to me and I can't let the bad days overshadow the good tea, because they will soon grow up and be gone.

Lessons in Glue

On Saturday I decided that I would try to do a craft with Abby. I feel guilty admitting that this would be the first time but I need to get over that. I'm not perfect and I can't even keep up an image of perfection. Anyways, I won't go down that well-used bunny trail.

An elephant-toilet paper roll was what I decided to do, so I got the tp roll (right off the rack in fact) and drew up an elephant head to fit. I sat Abby at the table and let her draw eyes and a mouth on the elephant. I showed her how to swipe the glue on the 'body' of the elephant and she seemed to like that well enough. She did fine squishing the paper onto the tp roll.

But when I tried to show her to put glue on the back of the head and put the head on the body she started to freak out and pulled the head back off. I tried reasoning with her (why?) but she refused to cooperate. I was getting very frustrated as well and was ready to throw in the towel for the whole homeschooling thing. But then I recalled that she is only three, and I have never really sat down and required her to follow my directions so I decided to try something a little different.

I got a single sheet of paper and then cut up some squares of a different colour and had her glue those squares onto the paper. She did much better with this project. She would only usually apply glue to one spot on the paper but, though this aggravated the perfectionist in me, I told myself that she did really well.

And it's true. Maybe it wasn't what I had originally planned, but it was the same lesson in a way that worked for her. And that is what matters most.

Where Do I Put It All?

Yesterday I bought a bookshelf, secondhand, and finally, FINALLY got to unpack some of my books. We moved into town four months ago and all of our books, except for the kids ones were in boxes by our front door. It makes me feel unsettled. But yesterday I hot to fill the shelves and now I only have four boxes of books left! And actually two of those boxes are magazines.

It is amazing how great I feel just because of this. But now it has me thinking of my other storage issues, like all our craft/coloring supplies. Right now they are taking up space in my pantry but I am running out of room there. And I would really prefer an area more specifically just for them. Maybe something like a bookshelf or cubby holes. Maybe drawers.

I'm just not sure what is the best way to go. Another thing to consider is that my one-year-old likes to get into everything, so something that closes, like cupboard doors or drawers, might be best, especially if we can lock them.

The problem I ran into while looking for a bookshelf was money. New ones were very expensive, and even the secondhand ones were more than I was willing to pay. I think that this may be an issue for this as well, trying to find a storage cupboard within my price range.

All I can do is keep an eye out. If anyone has any storage/space-saver ideas I'm thankful to hear them.