I start the week and year with such specific plans for Michael, sometimes we stick to them and sometimes not.
The past two weeks, we've hit and miss on our learning a new song a week (among other things). He's been working on Old McDonald's (as he says it). We spelled E-I-E-I-O and did a buttermilk art project. That's pretty much it.
We've done reading lessons everyday, which I'm slowing down as of next week. They are just too long for him to sit through at this point.
Most of the days, he's doing something like this....for hours at a time. Last week, it was k'nex and this week it's been Snap Circuits. He sits at my feet usually in case he needs help while the other 2 are doing schoolwork. For a four year old, he does pretty well following the diagrams and figuring out how to make things. It's been quite refreshing and impressive.
No matter what my plans, my priority is that he'll learn to read and have fun things to occupy his time. So, even if I don't get to everything on my list, it really doesn't matter in the big scheme of things.
I love Kathy Barbro's drawing tutorials at Art Projects for Kids. We did these on perspective and just didn't quite get around to the watercolor step. But I like them as drawings, too.
School work is humming it's little tune in and out of our day. I'm so much more relaxed feeling this year. I feel that's because I'm planning one week at a time using my Apologia planner. I'm getting up before the kids every morning and getting breakfast on the table. I'm having my devotions in that quiet time in the morning.
AND.... we're sticking to our family priority of being home 2 whole school days a week (at least). I have felt for a while that God wanted me to do that this school year. It's so freeing! When I see an opportunity come up, I automatically look to see what day it's on. If it's not on Monday, Wednesday or Thursday, it's an automatic-"No, sorry we can't do that.", this school year.
It was so nice when I was setting up a play date with a friend that she asked me if that was one of our days to be out. If not, they could come to us. How awesome is that!
The kids and I slept in on Friday and started school later because we knew we had no where else to be. We might start that as our Tuesday and Friday routine. I have felt more like a hermit these first couple of weeks just because we are trying to get into the regular routine before our last 3 school activities start back up. Sometimes during the down times we feel like we need to heap on more activities, because we forget the things that haven't started yet. We add more things for the moment and then are overwhelmed later. Making being at home a priority has helped me put boundaries up that prevents that.
Some Psalm 23 activities that I'll be including in my Walking in the Way column article on how to actively teach your kids the Scriptures.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight."
Proverbs 3:5-6
