Planning Vs. Prep Time

I am knee deep in activity restructuring and planning for the fall season of sprout school. We have joined a "Tot School" co-op and I want to be sure that I align our weekly group class initiatives with the other work I am doing at home. I am excited for the adventure and to be connected with local moms on the same track.

While the tot school is providing a "curriculum" of suggested play based learning activities, I am super committed to not leaving behind my Montessori, art and ASL initiatives. I'm excited to learn that some of the other tot schoolers are striving for a montessori approach as well. I was right to have confidence in the co-op moms putting the guide together the first 4 weeks are out and they are good fun activities. Many that we have done or do regularly and sourced from some of our favorite blogs! Hooray!! :)

My first surprise is that I think my approach may differ more than I initially anticipated to the most of the moms in the co-op. Ultimately, I don't think the differences will make a huge impact on our experience. But it's exciting to me to be exposed to so many different approaches. I think the diversity will only make the group stronger.

One of the areas that I have noticed the most diversity is how each family approaches planning and prep time. Here is how I manage both ...

Planning Time Vs. Prepping Time

Planning Time:
When I say knee deep in planning time. It's on paper and on the computer. I am using my planner printable to pop the concepts and ideas we are going to be working on into a structured plan. I am reviewing my Signing Time, Montessori at Home, Young at Art and favorite blogs and other resources. I am making a list of all the things we will need. It is one of the only times I believe I truly plan without input from my little ones.

Prep Time:
I consider prep time a big part of learning time. For that reason, I include my littles in almost all layers of prep time for activities. For example, once I have the list of supplies we need we grab our magnifying glass and go on a scavenger hunt for the supplies we need. If my little ones aren't into helping I don't force the issue. But thus far ... they almost never, barring illness, aren't into helping. If we need "play doh" for an activity they help me make it. Prep time is full of practical skill and confidence building opportunity. Yes, it can be a bit messy. But I have found that it also helps to build excitement about the activity.

I don't think or I should say I hope there isn't a right or wrong method. Just a right method for each family and learning style :) What is your method for prepping learning activities for or with your little?

Hello to a New Year ...

The beginning of the school year always feels as notable to me as the begining of the calendar year. It's a great time to clean out that supply closet, get rid of the supplies you don't need to make way for the supplies you will need.  While in the midst of all this re-organizing I decided it was also a great time to make some "new year resolutions". 

1. Join a Homeschooling Community: I already have this in the works.  We have joined a community that's school year hasn't quite begun.  But I'm excited that it intends to host weekly group classes! Here is hoping it's as awesome as I believe it will be!
2. I will keep up with my supply closet:  My supply closet seems to begin the year ready for it's close up.  But somewhere around week 6 it looks like a sick puppy limping along.
3. Be more consistant with table time.  So far while my intentions have been great table time happens at all times of the day.  This year I am committing to a morning table time and 4:30 table time.  Here is hoping a can make it stick!

I am so ready to get this party started!  Monday ... here we come!!!

The Unintended Lesson

I have been wanting to make this post for a while no; but the truth is, life has just plain old ordinary gotten the best of me.  In the middle of last week on a sunny morning I woke up feeling ready for my day.  I was super excited to take the littles to one of thier favorites, a gymnastics playdate.  The morning was moving smoothly and seemed as ordinary as could be.  I couldn't have been more wrong.  We were in an accident on our way to the gym.  Thankfully, no one was hurt.  The car didn't fair so well, but it could have been much worse.  As I pulled to the side of the road, I busied myself calling the troops (i.e. the police, insurance, family, and the friends we were supposed to meet at the gym).

One of my friends without taking a breath said, "Where are you? We'll be right there!"  And their she came, complete with her Mini-Van and toddlers.  I thought I was just fine, but as soon as she hopped out of her mom-mobile and hugged me ... I melted.  I have never needed a hug so badly in my life.  Being in an accident is stressful.  I knew this.  But I had never experienced an accident with the precious cargo that is our children in the back.  She immediately, started sharing her back seat toys with my littles, and got busy transfering thier car seats into her mini-van.  Then tossed her day out the window and spent the entire day playing at our house and helping me wrap up all the arrangements for getting my car repaired.

After a shockingly fun day and a late nap.  I decided we could surely get in our 30 minutes of table time before dinner time.  The littles had a blast we worked on our pattern block skills, threading, and letter shapes.  Then in keeping with the three part lesson. I asked the children what we learned today.  After a long pause my son looked up at me and said, "friends are GREAT!"  Indeed they are.

So there you have it the unintended lesson, that totally rocks!  No prep or planning required.  All you need is an  amazing friend!

Sending a super big hug of thanksgiving for our super friends!

If It's Broken: Don't Fix it!

No, that's not a typo. I have learned that sometimes if it is broken not fixing it can be a great way to reinforce the importance of taking proper care of toys and such.  When I started integrating montessori/reggio environments into our reasonably small home I was terrified!  Why? Because I have dumpers, scatterers, and all over the floorers.  If you have one or two in your home ... you know exactly what I mean.  My then toddlers and now preschoolers love to dump bins and buckets out to explore them.  They hop quickly from one thing to another and don't always put things back.  So the thought of total access totally terrified me. 

Then, I decided that I would try a few stations.  If things got broken or left out instead of replacing them.  I would leave those spaces empty and place those items on a shelf in a closet for 3 days.  Much to my surprise the technique worked relatively quickly.  Of coarse, these lessons are on going and we are far from 100% accuracy.  However, by enlarge we are doing great!  Especially in areas like the art center.

"Practically Perfect in Every way"

Lately, Mary Poppins has been floating, umbrella in hand, into my head.   I can still remember as a child reading the book and watching the Disney movie over and over again.  It was funny, thrilling, heart-warming, and inspiring.  One of my favorite parts of the film "Mary Poppins" is when Mary stretches out the tape measure to find herself "Practically Perfect in Every way".  Indeed she was, always perfect with a beautiful voice, perfectly done hair, a mysterious white apron that never got dirty, calm tone, the right answer and the well timed lesson for children and adults alike.  For goodness sake, she even made popping in and out of a chimney look effortless.  While it was one of my favorite movie moments it was also one of the most terrifying to me.  Even at a very tender age, I can remember feeling a tinge of fear thinking about where I might measure up.

A few nights ago I had one of those realizations that left me certain the tape measure would find me far short of perfect! While everyone else in my house was fast asleep, I was reading through my Montessori Home School Resource Guide and I had a horrifying realization.  My bins are all wrong!  The activity bins.  The way I chose to organize the bins just doesn't fit very well with the approach.  So in the middle of the night, I began to plot how to correct my misstep.  All I needed was a hammer, some nails, and a few more hours in the night to get things back in shape before the morning.  The morning light found me half finished with my activity center redesign.  I was able to get things squared away by the end of breakfast.  Now, we just had a few errands to run and then we would head home for our Sprout School activity time, lunch and nap.  

I loaded one sleepy sprout, one laughing sprout, and one crying sprout into the car to knock out our morning errands.  The line at the bank was phenomenally long.  Happily, the littles were awesome and we had fun counting the people and finding all the colors and words we knew hanging around the room.  Then a "quick" trip to the farmers market turned into a long trip to the farmers market.  We had a wonderful conversation with an organic grower in our area .. but while I was speaking with her my precious littles started scarfing her blueberries.  I mean an OBSCENE number of blueberries mushed on hands and faces.  My son looked up at her and said Yummy, DELICIOUS!  I was embarrassed, apologized and of coarse offered to pay for the extra items eaten or damaged.  She laughed and said if she could have a picture of their blueberry filled faces for her table she would call it even. SOLD!  By the time we arrived home we were already @ lunchtime.  So sadly Sprout School and my "perfectly" redesigned bins would have to wait until after nap.  We had a great lunch, fun conversation, good food, but I was feeling like I totally failed and my head was reeling with the list of to dos during nap time: put away the pile of laundry in the family room, clean the dishes from lunch, clean the bathroom and so on. 

Then it happened, as I tucked my son into bed for nap time he grabbed my neck, then looked deeply into my eyes and said "Great Work, Mom!"  I almost cried.  Not because he had no idea what he had missed this morning ... but because I had almost missed how Great this morning really was.  Today, I learned that, that tape measure will most likely never find me "Practically Perfect in every way" but it has found me "Imperfect but blessed in every way" ... and I can honestly say, I'm good with that!  :) 

P.S. Sprout School time did eventually happen ... but.... I still haven't gotten to the laundry.  Sorry, Mary! :)