Planning Week Recap

Big Girl and I have returned to school time this week after another hiatus (man, I'm getting good at those). In my update a few weeks ago, I mentioned that I was taking last week off to plan for the Fall and promised to share the results.

It was a very productive week for me! I was able to accomplish some organization and decluttering projects around my house (imagine me in my pajamas at 11 pm, furiously scrubbing, painting, and rearranging my laundry room). Big Girl, on the other hand, was not a fan of the break. Sister loves her routine, and Mama not inviting her into the school room during Baby Sister's nap is not a part of that. Some mornings, she came out of her room asking for "sool time." I occasionally pulled a few things from the week before, but she didn't seem to mind that she'd seen them already!

Over the last couple of months, I have been jotting down ideas and thoughts for what we would be doing after Tot School Printables and some new things I want to incorporate. Considering the end of TSP is bittersweet; it's hard to believe our first home school season is coming to an end, but I'm so excited for the next part of our journey!

I didn't accomplish exactly what I thought I would, but I got a lot done nonetheless. So without further ado, here are 

3 Things I Accomplished During Planning Week:

1) I trimmed down my to-do list. 

I had some big, unrealistic lofty goals on my list as I began to plan last week. Part of what I accomplished was axing things off or moving them up. I had planned to prep through the end of Tot School Printables, but I ended up just prepping through "Rr is for Rainforest" because a) ink is expensive, b) our dinosaur printer is slow  3) I didn't want to plan too far ahead in case I think of an awesome activity for that theme the night before I start it, as I often do (ha). 

I had also intended to begin both a daily Bible time with both girls and a daily calendar time with Big Girl. I decided to begin only one now because of our strict budget and the fact that two new things could be overwhelming for all of us (Bible time won).

2) I nailed down exactly what we'll be doing after Tot School Printables. Almost.

As I said before, it's unbelievable that it's time to think about life after TSP with Big Girl. This has been such a wonderful season for both of us: she's getting the structure she craves plus one-on-one mom time, and I've had so much fun learning who she is as a student and who I am as a teachermom.

She's zooming through the materials I'm presenting now, so I can't wait to challenge her further in the next few months. Here's what I've got planned so far:

Reading--I'm going to make the leap and purchase our first curriculum. I've done a ton of research for a good pre-reading curriculum, and I've landed on All About Reading (which happens to be what Carisa from 1+1+1=1 uses). It also checks out with my SLP friend (Thanks Katie!). I considered just continuing to pull things together from what I find online, but as my degree is in Middle School education, I'm getting into "I'm not sure what to do next" territory, so I know I'll feel more comfortable with some guidance.

Letter Reinforcement--I want to continue doing letter focus with Big Girl, and there are tons of activities that I've found and put back for our preschool time. I like this Animal A-Z program (I promise I look outside of this blog, but it is just tailor-made for Big Girl!), but I'm still looking around for this one. Here's a really cute set of books that I'm considering purchasing if I do go this route.

Math--Oh, math. I am not a fan. MisterKidd will definitely take an even greater role in schooling our girls as this subject advances. However, it is important for life, so I will teach it! My math plans are similar to what I'm working on now: number recognition, writing numbers, one-to-one counting, and patterns. I will just continue to vary the activities I present and possibly add a "number of the week" focus. We will also be doing calendar time, which will add tons of number exposure.

Theme--This might be my favorite aspect of school time right now. I love incorporating the theme into our lives outside of the school room, decorating the school room in the theme, buying pulling toys we already have that go along with it, and reading books with Big Girl about that subject. I will definitely continue this after TSP.

The themes are built into TSP (last week was Oo is for ostrich, and the theme was African animals), so I had to develop my own method for choosing a weekly theme. I've decided to choose a book to focus on each week and build a theme around it. This will consist of all the ways I've been incorporating the theme, plus a few new ones: reading the book daily with Big Girl, doing craft/reinforcement activities throughout the week, and exploring the world inside the story with props. I'll expand on this as I get more plans on place.

Tot Trays--This Montessori-inspired method of presenting the work to Big Girl has been so successful, so it will be sticking around a little longer. It makes planning easier for me, she's able to see what's available to her, and I can see at a glance what we've already accomplished in a session without having to check my planner. Stick with what works, y'all.

3) I realized (again) the beauty of homeschool.

I am the teacher, and I have no authority (outside of God and my hot principal). I have two students. I have no deadlines, no pacing guides, and no standards to meet. Sometimes this is difficult, sometimes I'd like some structure, sometimes it's daunting, but most of the time, it's beautiful.

I didn't get all of my planning done last week. In fact, I'm planning right now at my favorite sushi place. 

But that's ok. I'm developing a complete, 16 year IEP for each of my children, and that's going to take some time.