One month in

Over on that sidebar in the "About Me" section, I should have mentioned that I disappear for long periods of time, occupied by other things. Blogging has never been something at which I particularly excel--I think it's the diligence thing? Who knows. But almost a month has passed since we started our Pre-K year of homeschool and...we've done stuff! Learned things!

Naturally, now that I've settled in to write an update, I don't remember what any of those things are. Fortunately I'm trying to develop a habit of record keeping in preparation for the official year of Kindergarten, when I'll be accountable to the school system.

The short version is, we spent part of August with Five in a Row and then the latter half with Wee Folk Art's Simple Seasons curriculum. I haven't decided which I like best but for now I have a week's worth of WFA books from the library so we'll do that (learning about farm things) next week and with our upcoming trip to the National Aquarium, I'll bring out Night of the Moonjellies and Five in a Row. I'd like to think the side by side comparison will give me an idea of which way to proceed but I doubt it'll be that cut and dry. I do believe Five in a Row books and studies will be more--well, we'll be able to do and understand more--in the Kindergarten year but I miss the guided literature study and linked activities. WFA's curriculum gives me a nice seasonal thread to follow (which FIAR does not) but I don't feel we're getting as much from the literature portion.

Our week basically looks like themed literature and linked nonfiction, Progressive Phonics and Get Ready/Set/Go for the Code activities (which...might be redundant but I figure better to work from the beginning and go faster, than skip ahead and possibly miss something/come up against more frustration), Handwriting Without Tears (which isn't as great as I expected, maybe because I only bought the workbook and none of the extras), Math through cuisinaire rods and Education Unboxed, a "foundations" workbook from Critical Thinking Co, and I'm trying to incorporate more "living math" fiction. That's tough to find at Pickle's age but I'll keep trying.

I think science, art, etc are falling to the wayside. They were better covered in Five in a Row than in Wee Folk Art and it's possible I'll switch things up to put WFA as weekend reading and FIAR as school-week reading...

In short, I'm still in the "I'm not sure about this" stage. We've certainly tossed the idea of a structured school day, anyway. I might try that again soon, though, by playing less loosey-goosey with bedtime and starting our day deliberately with an alarm clock.

I'm glad we have this exploratory year. I'd be a mess if we were working on Kindergarten right out of the gate.

Despite my continued tweaking I do believe we're learning and on our way! And I'm super proud of Pickle's progress with physical therapy. His scissor work is getting better, he's developing more hand strength and willingly trying letters, and--this is the best thing for me--I feel like he and I are closer. Learning is good. :)

Imperfect Mom Ruminations

It's been a busy ten days since my last post! Unfortunately, it's been busy due to a mom-work deadline instead of playing and learning with my little guy. Well, that's not entirely accurate.

There has been some playing and learning, and we almost have our school room set up. I'm not sure it will feel complete to me until we start putting up some artwork but in the meantime, Nicholas loves the room. Yesterday we spread out blocks on the floor and built a town "where boats have to drive through the streets like in Papa Piccolo". The town included Mike Mulligan's house, water bridges, restaurants, police, fire stations, and the best thing is we enjoyed ourselves.

I think he's ready. I, on the other hand, am feeling really overwhelmed by a work deadline that's messing with my head. The deadline is stressful. I'm not starting my mornings off in a positive family way because those few hours are the only ones I have free to work (before DH heads out) and that tone just isn't good for me. I'm stress eating, I'm stress Facebooking, I'm stress parenting (which means I'm letting Netflix parent). In short, I feel like a mess!

My deadline is Monday morning and the project will be out of my hands. That afternoon, we also have Nicholas's physical therapy appointment, and I'd sincerely love to go to the gym in the evening because I've been sitting and eating for almost a week.

But it's Monday, it's August 1, and I feel like we should just get going...but I also don't want to start off on the wrong foot, for the wrong reasons. Plus, I'll have to spend Monday morning finishing up deadline work to turn it in and won't be able to begin our new school morning routine.

I'm just torn, a ball of indecision and second guesses. I'm no longer confident Five in a Row is what I want to do and I've been thinking of A Year of Playing Skillfully (probably because I'm a terrible parent this week; in a more rational moment, I would realize that A Year of Playing Skillfully would completely suck me dry). I looked at Wee Folk Art (very sweet, love the crafts, activities and art study) and that temporarily shook up my confidence in Five in a Row, but then when I started looking more closely at the themes/materials in WFA I realized those books are more like play or enrichment books, so I think I'll take story, the extra activities and the art and make them our art curriculum. But I need to find the Five in a Row love again. I'm also undecided over the co-op I recently joined and right now I feel like I should remain with it so the co-op group can off-set my failings. That's probably not a great reason, is it?

What do they say? Don't make important decisions on your best day or your worst day?

At least I know what we're doing for calendar time and math! Maybe we'll just start with those two things and an easy craft early Monday a.m.

Or maybe I'll put it off til Tuesday! I think procrastination is one of those things I'm going to have to overcome during this school journey...