School week 1

The thought of "I'm going to do school with my kids" can be a scary thought!!
 Top Questions I get
 1. Where do I start? Start, at the beginning! Start with the basics, and K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, silly. Nothing makes things more frustrating than over complicating things. You will quickly get over whelmed, your child will be more likely to get bored, frustrated, and want to stop if you can't even wrap your head around what you're doing! Colors, shapes, letter and number recognition are always the best places to start. Think of your child's education like a giant pyramid, you can't start working on level 2 if level 1 isn't complete.
2. Where do I get supplies? EVERYWHERE!! My favorite spots are, the dollar store, The dollar spot at Target, Hobby Lobby, Michael's, Walmart and the grocery stores when they have good sales! and GOOGLE!! Searching phrases like "preschool worksheets", "kindergarten worksheets", "preschool/kindergarten printable" will give you an ENDLESS supply of FREE things to use. I buy (cheap) workbooks for preschool and kindergarten and go from there.
3. Where do I get my curriculum/lesson plans? GOOGLE!!!! If you aren't aware, now is the time to learn, THE INTERNET IS YOUR GREATEST SOURCE, ALLY, AND TOOL!! Asess where you need to start, the "basics" your child should know to start kindergarten are very basic (in my opinion) But I am a "go big or go home" kind of teacher! You can go to any school district website and you SHOULD be able to find criteria for what your child should know by the start/end of every grade. This is a great way to determine where your child needs work.

 OK, Here we go! I am briefly going to give a run down of our weeks lesson plans and activities. (Please note that I have been working diligently with my son since he was about 2 so our lessons are closer to a kindergarten curriculum, than they are to a preschool one.) I am constantly changing what we are doing based on our schedules/moods/and how interested or uninterested my boys are in what we are doing! So NO JUDGING!

 General Week Rundown
Monday-Introduce new concepts, words, ideas, and info
Tuesday-Reinforce Mondays lessons with new worksheets, and activities
Wednesday-Reinforce Monday& Tuesday's lessons w/ new worksheets & Activites
Thursday-Project day! Review briefly what we did over the week and then do a craft project or project relating to our theme for the week
 Friday-Play Group

Daily Rundown: Each day our GOAL is at least an hour, 2 hours on a GREAT day! But I am working with a 4 year old and a 15 month old, so everyday varies!
Start right after breakfast is cleaned up(if we wait any longer it doesn't happen because our day gets away from us)
Date/day of the week/month
weather
heart word
Concept/theme of the week
writing activity
math activity
book of the day (I like choosing beginning reader books so my son can work on reading them to me)
 I always ask if there is anything he wants to do, like drawing, dot to dots, random worksheet pages he finds fun, or some other educational activity before saying "we're done for today, you can go play" 

Week 1- General Focuses *review (from our lack of being on top of things during summer)
 *Letter combination "_an" (to make words like, pan, ran, can, fan)
*Introduction to graphs, organizing findings
*Sight words, we call them "heart words" because they are words we need to know by heart :) (and because I got them off a great website find great printables here )
*Our Project this week was colored salts in a baby food jar to make "colored sand" layering each color on top of one another.
 Baby distraction: My baby (15 months old) had a hard time not being included in what my 4 year old was doing, so I tried my best to distract him with activities.
I tried letting him color, he ate the crayons, a pencil kept him happy and he didn't seem to want to eat it as much as the crayon!
I let him tear up construction paper
snack
I gave him blocks and a muffin pan and showed him to put one block in each hole
and finally today I gave him an old tissue box full of pom poms, and a mini muffin pan! It turned into a huge mess, but nothing that he wasn't able to help clean up! and it was the best tool I'd found all week!

A little bit of knowledge can go a long way!

The 1st and best way to show children that you care, is to teach them. By teaching them, wether it's how to ride a bike, change a tire, tie a shoe, build a house, bake a cake, draw a rainbow, or set up a tent, we feel love and bond best with those who have taken the time to show us something new.

Think about all the people who have been the most influential in your life, those you have the fondest memories of, those who you enjoy being around the most. They are most likely associated with helping your brain cells multiply! A grandmother who always let you help her cook or sew, a Grandpa who always told you stories, a Mom who taught you how to love unconditionally, a Dad who always took the time to teach you how to do something correctly (even if it was semi frustrating for both of you!) a teacher who took the time to help you understand how to solve a problem, or change the way you think, to build you up.

 Teaching is a gift, not everyone can do it, and not everyone can be taught the same way. Educating our children is essential, and I have tried my best to teach my children in a way that suits them best, in a way that is fun and easy to comprehend in their "style". I have always understood that children (and adults) have brains that work differently.

 I have once again started doing preschool with my 4 year old, who although he is academically ready for kindergarten he is NOT emotionally ready, so my curriculum has been an odd combination of preschool and kindergarten. I'm not sure how helpful my documenting will be for anyone but I want to share our experience anyway! I PLAN (I can't make any promises, because I am a human, and a woman) on posting our weekly school schedule/projects/experiences. My goal is to help inspire other moms or caregivers and show them how truly simple, easy, and inexpensive it is to do "school" with your children! Hope someone enjoys!

Our future

As a parent, I spend a lot of time, critiquing and criticizing other peoples parenting styles. I read articles from other types of societies, other countries, constantly trying to better myself, educate myself on how to be the "perfect parent". I'm the baby of 4 and I have recently become extremely aware of how differently all of my siblings and myself parent our children, and we all differ from how our parents raised us. But why? After talking to my sibling I realized that we are all trying to improve, my parents have obviously done a wonderful job raising us, for we all see the world, and what it is, and want to make our children better.
I spent some time with my family in Arizona recently and I left my oldest son with my sister while I ran an errand. When I got back she said something about my son being a lot to handle, more emotionally than anything. He's generally calm, polite, well behaved, but he is a tad bit OCD. And with that comes a lot of emotional "annoyances".
I was somewhat dumb founded by the idea that anyone would think my son was a lot to handle, usually people are so impressed with him, until I realized that my sister is the perfect parent, for HER children...and that I am a perfect parent, for MINE.
I believe in order to the universe. A chaos theory causes me anxiety, probably due to my own OCD tendencies. Not necessarily fate, or destiny, but...rightness, opportunity, faith in a higher power, a just God, a fair God.
I know that my children were giving to me with purpose. Because I am capable of being the perfect fit, for them. I have the ability to set them up for success, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
As a parent I don't take this duty lightly, and neither should any other parent. It is in OUR hands to truly change the future. Our world is broken, falling apart, sad, weak. But it has so much potential. Teach your little ones, teach them to be honest, kind, brave, sincere, gentle, faithful, trusting, trustworthy, self sufficient, clean, humble. Teach them in the ways of the Lord, not the ways of the world. teach them to value purity, chastity, honor. Teach them every action, good or bad has a consequence. Teach them that they are capable. Educate them, on the things your heart is prompted to teach them, not simply how to pass a test in school, but how to pass the tests of life. Teach them how to be successful.
My point is...TEACH THEM. It is NO ONE'S responsibility to teach and educate your children, but YOURS.
I am the perfect parent for my children, because I am TRYING. I am NOT perfect, and I am NOT a perfect parent in general. But because I am trying, because I am striving to do what I know must be done, I know i am the right person for this job, the only person for this job. If I was ever out of the picture there are few I would trust with this ever important job of raising my children, but those whom I would trust know who they are. I trust them because I know they would try...and that's all the Lord expects of us in this life, is to try our hardest, to do our best.