Getting ready for learning...

I just finished planning my first week of learning activities with Big E!! We are going to start a little later than most kids go back to school, the week of September 11th. Our focus for the first week will be the letter A, red, and circles. She already does pretty good with her colors and shapes so the activities we do surrounding those will just be a reinforcement for her. As for the letters, she can say the alphabet so now we need to focus on recognition. I'm not sure at her age (3) that she will be able to write the letters, but we'll never know unless we try. I'm also going to work each week on number recognition. She can count from 1-10 but she doesn't know what the numbers look like yet.

Week 1 will be my trial week with Big E. I'm not too sure how she's going to do with all the workbook pages I want her to do so we may have to save them for later if she doesn't do too well the first week. The one book of pages is for ages 3-5 and the other is for ages 3 and 4. So there will be a ton of things that she definitely won't be able to do. But I think she should be able to handle some of it. Part of being a teacher is being flexible. I want to make sure that I'm not making her frustrated so if she isn't ready now, we can always come back to it later when she is ready.

I'm also going to start incorporating learning into every day situations. It's all about making any moment a teachable moment! Kids learn every single day and they absorb so much more than you realize!! What is something that your child knows that you didn't realize they knew?

Naptime is the best!

It really is! It's the one time all day, besides bedtime, where I can just sit down, relax, and do nothing! Ha, who am I kidding! Naptime is the only time during the day when I can actually get housework or blog work done. See, once both kids are in bed at 8:00, my cleaning duties are done! I don't feel like cleaning that late at night. So I have to either do it while the kids are awake (which can be a pain) or while they are napping. Now that both kids are napping at the same time (for the most part, sometimes my little guy gets up before my oldest), I have more time to myself.

I start out by changing the litter boxes right after I get them both down for their naps. I used to change the litter boxes every other day (or sometimes every 3rd day), but have found that when they get changed every single day, it makes it a lot easier and quicker! So having a set time of day to change them makes me more likely to do it every single day.

Let me back up a little here and show you what I use to keep track of what I'm going to clean around the house and when. I mentioned in a previous post that I started using Young Living Essential Oils right before my little guy was born. Well, while listening to The Essential Oil Revolution Podcast, I was introduced to another blog called The Confident Mom. Every year she posts a Weekly Household Planner that you can download for free! I just went on her page the other day and she has the 2017 one on her site and ready to download!

She also has a supplemental pack for $7 that you can purchase which includes a master family planner, special occasion calendar/gift planner, holiday gift planner worksheet, babysitter information, quick contacts, and much, much more! You can click here to download the planner and/or supplement kit. I have been using this for a few weeks now and I'm definitely going to keep using it!!

What I love about it is that it is completely customizable! You can either start with a blank template and fill it all in on your own or start with the filled in template and add or delete items where needed. I'm telling you, this has really helped! I've tried other check lists to help me keep track of the housework, but this one actually works for me! I like having a visual of what needs to be done and feel so accomplished when I get to check each item off the list! And it isn't like there is that much to do each day. For example, Tuesday I clean all the toilets and then Thursday I clean the bathroom sinks and mirrors. So it's not like I'm cleaning the whole bathroom in the same day. So check it out for yourself!