A Look at This Week

September 4, 2007 at 7:01 am (Homemaking, Homeschool)

Sitting here this a.m. enjoying a last few moments of quiet before the sounds of waking girls fills the house. I’m on my 2nd cup of coffee and have had some time in Matthew this morning. Good stuff.

I’ve been looking over my schedule for this week and, as I’ve mentioned before, you can tell it’s fall. This week is packed with stuff that needs to get done … some that come with fall-ish activities that are starting up this week and next, and others that have just all come “due” right now. : ) I’ve also got a fall cleaning schedule that I’m trying to keep up with … the weather is cooling down (oh.so.slightly) and that puts me in the mood to dust and rearrange the furniture. which is actually what we did yesterday. I think that is becoming one of “our” little family traditions when we have a three day weekend – Travis and I move the furniture around. : ) I like it – it keeps me from wanting to buy new stuff for our house. Just by shifting a few pieces of furniture, and taking the time to REALLY vacuum up the dog hair under said furniture, I now have a whole new family room. : ) Cheap entertainment, folks.

Anyway, on tap this week:

  • super cleaning on our front room/Travis’ office/music room
  • 4 month check up for baby Betsy-girl today
  • start the work on my Daniel Bible study (using Precept materials by Kay Arthur)
  • print thank you notes that I’ve designed for my friend Natalie who is getting married (she is the friend that our Natalie is named after)
  • doctor appointment for me on Friday – appointment with a new OB, one closer to our home. (No I am NOT pregnant!) : ) I loved my old doctor, she was just 45 minutes away, and every appointment was a huge 1/2 day outing just for a simple checkup. This doctor is 5 minutes away – close enough that Travis can come home and watch the girls while I go. Much better deal.
  • And just the regular stuff of life…

Oh, and we had our first day of “school” yesterday. It went pretty good – we talked about the letter “A” and the sound it makes and then just did some coloring at the table. I already knew a LOT of the first several days/weeks of this would be just working on table skills, but it didn’t go too bad since we’re easing into it. We didn’t do a full hour yesterday, but that’s okay. We have lots of time. : )

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HomeSchool Plans

August 24, 2007 at 11:15 am (Homeschool, Munchkins)

So yesterday was a slow relaxing day around here. To give you an idea of how relaxing it was, Elizabeth (3 mos.) took at least a 2-2.5 hour nap after each feeding, Natalie (18 mos.) took a 2 hour morning and 3 hour afternoon nap, AND Noelle (3.75 yrs) slept for about 2.5 hours yesterday afternoon. We are all much more rested today. : ) Right now, the littlest ones are napping and Noelle is at her desk playing with her school supplies. We are trying to remember to get them out when Natalie is napping. I don’t mind Natalie coloring (on paper and herself, of course) but sometimes it’s hard for big sister to really get work done on a project with she has a little “helper.” : )

What did I do during nap time? Planning! : ) I typed up our tentative schedule for the fall. This won’t be the norm everyday, and the times are obviously not set in stone, but I needed to give myself a little more structure so things that I want to accomplish get done. Several of you had graciously offered up preschool suggestions for me last week and that was so helpful. My starting plan is to aim for three mornings of semi-structured preschool/table time for Noelle. Why three days? Well, we have Bible study at church on Wednesdays and this gives me a little time with other adults and the two big girls some playtime with friends. Then one day will also be for errands/library day (probably Friday mornings). I found this great list of preschool goals and will use it starting place for some things to work on with Noelle. Other things that I will be doing as well as resources will be:

~ Before Five in a Row
~ putting together a nature journal of things we find on morning walks
~ concentrating on one letter per week and while doing that we’ll…
~ make an ABC notebook, cutting pictures out of magazines and printing them on the computer
~ lots of time with markers, glue, scissors, and other crafty things
~ Bible memory (we’ll use her Awana materials for this)
~ helping with special Mama projects whether housecleaning or cooking something
~ lots of reading aloud

We’re planning to start officially after Labor Day, but next week will have several trial runs, I’m sure. And I can already tell a difference with Natalie by making sure she has a morning rest time, even if she doesn’t sleep. It’s been good for her to have that structure back … I kinda messed her up thinking that she was going to be dropping her morning nap and she (and I’m) not ready for her too.

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