School Days, School Days, Dear Old Golden Rule Days

Long title for post but when I think of school days, my mind automatically goes to this golden classic "School Days."  No....I wasn't alive when it was written or recorded!  We sing it a lot at the nursing home in our music therapy session so I know it by heart now.  I think my kids do to!

Moving on.  Now that B is 3, we have started doing preschool here.  He loves school and has begged since he was 2-1/2 to do "school."  That school consisted of Before Five in a Row things when I would get a chance to prepare it.  I kinda fell off the wagon a bit through summer and he has asked nonstop about doing school since then.  Because of his enthusiasm for learning, which I say he got from me because I would still be in school if we could afford it and I could balance life, I decided to start preschool.  We do school for 1-2 hours (some days more and some days less) depending on his level of focus.  I've spent lots of time planning, prepping, laminating, cutting, and printing.  I'm LOVING all that I've found for him to do.  I'm so excited about the themes for this year.

To start off, I'll show you our morning school routine.  It's a fun way to start our morning.  I used several different websites to get calendar ideas, but I mostly got my printables from here.

Here is a look at our foam board calendar.  We also have a laminated calendar beside it where we add our days to the squares.

Every morning, we start with singing our books of the Bible.  I learned my books of the Bible through song, so we're using that song.  The song is actually from the Wee Sing Bible Songs CD.  I like the tune and still sing it to this day!

 I think that it's never too early to start learning character traits.  I know I'll be teaching it to them throughout their entire lives, but I want B to give an idea of them.  For this month, or maybe longer, we are learning about obedience.  I found a workbook that is meant for his age that is full of games, puzzles, and coloring pages based on the Bible.  We spend a few minutes each morning talking about how certain people in the Bible obeyed and then what happened when they chose to disobey God.  We are also learning a Scripture verse that corresponds to the trait.  B has actually had this verse memorized since he was 2, so we're just saying it every morning now.

I used the Days of the Week Songs to start this section of our calendar.  We sing the songs, going through the days.  We then find what today is, label the day for tomorrow, as well as figure out which day was yesterday.

I haven't put the Velcro on this section of the calendar yet, but it has cards to go with it.  They show snow, rain, sun, and clouds.  This will help us be able to look outside and observe what the weather is like at that moment.

To be honest, this is the part of the calendar that I'm the MOST excited about!  We are using the Children's version of Operation World and are spending about a month going through different countries, learning the basics about them for right now.  I started with the U.S. because I thought that would be a good place to start.  We are committing to praying for the people in that country and are going to be writing a missionary to each country, as well...unless there aren't missionaries in the hard-to-reach countries.  I plan to use this throughout our homeschooling time and expand our knowledge on the countries, religions, and learning more about the people groups, and praying specifically for them.  We'll probably start out with the countries of several of our friends that are missionaries and then go to the countries where our Compassion and World Vision kids are located, since they hear from them quite often. (So in the next couple of months we'll be studying Argentina, Brazil, Thailand, Uganda, Philippines, and Rwanda.)

We are learning seasons and have learned we are in summer now, but headed towards fall.  Perhaps it will start raining again in the fall!  We desperately need it!  Our house hasn't gotten rain in over a month.

So, that's a look at our calendar.  I'm excited about our school year and all of the fun learning things we're going to be doing.  We'll be adding lots of things that I'll share as we do them. 

Welcome to Preschool, B!

Change

We have entered the season in our lives where change is happening.  We've had to make many decisions as to where and which ministry we feel God is leading us to, house decisions leading up to selling, job decisions, and more.  I hate change.  I think I can say I despise it.  I am like my father.  I like routines and predictability.  I don't like not knowing what's coming up because I like to plan.  I like familiarity.  At this moment in our lives, change is happening almost daily and important decisions are being made.  I'm learning to let go and to take things on that I'd never thought I was capable of doing.  I've sought a lot of wisdom on these matters and feel at peace with all but 1 work decision so far.  However, I think God may have started to answer that prayer today!  So, if you remember, pray for me to accept the changes coming and that have already occurred and to "go with the flow."  This is one time I wish I was more like Daddy T....laid back and change can happen and he hardly notices.

On another note, please add our nephew D to your prayer list.  He found out Friday that his father died.  Uncle Mike had to break the news to him.  Pray for Uncle Mike, Aunt Lea, and K to be able to know how to encourage D and to know how to love on him.  Pray for D especially over the next few days as there is the funeral and all the events that go on with that.  Pray for comfort for D.

Decisions Part 1

Let me start this post with the fact that I know everybody is different.  I knew that thought would come up as a response to this post, so I figured I'd go ahead and say it!  However, that said, I have prayed for clarity this week in how my fall schedule should look like.  It's been a blessing that my music therapy business is getting so many offers and many want to take lessons and Kindermusik and Sign classes.  I'm thrilled that so many people are interested in all of this.  I truly am.  However, I am one person who has 2 kids under 2 (until next month!  Just the age changes, not the number of kids I have...just to clarify...) and I am a wife that has a house that is full of jobs to do in order to enter the next big thing in our lives that I'll share more about later. 

Those who have all of these descriptions as well will relate when I say that there's not enough of me to give to all of that.  I've known that I couldn't take on too many more therapy jobs since I'm determined to only work 1 day away from my kiddos and that is truly a great break for all of us.  Not that I want to get rid of them, but I love what I do and the kids get to go play with their friends so we all win.  I've sent some replies back and have been saddened to have to put them on waiting lists, but I know that this is what I'm at peace doing. 

That said, knowing that God has called me to minister to my children and that I want to be at home with them so that I can develop a deep relationship and enjoy them as much as I can, why is it so hard to give up job opportunities?  (By the way, I'm not saying that those who work outside of the home cannot have the same relationships and enjoyment with their kids.  I just feel that my main focus needs to be at home.)

I think the answer is a selfish one for me.  Yes, I do enjoy it and yes it brings in money.  However, what do I have to sacrifice for that?  My sanity is one and I find that when I'm balancing too much on my plate then my kids and husband suffer.  Mostly it's B that suffers because I tend to take it out +on him.  I find that I'm stressed and can never get things done.  I end up in tears by the end of the day because I feel like I've failed yet again.  This is what has led to me making some big decisions about my schedule and I've realized (thanks to my husband) that it's okay to say "no" even if you really DO want to do something.  Sometimes, that's not the best thing for my kids or me for that particular week.  That's hard because I do love playdates and letting my kids be with friends.  However, I don't want to have to be gone every day of the week especially because of the new stresses we are about to be adding to our already crazy lives!  So if I say "no", don't be offended!  I'm just trying to simplify our schedules and make room for the homeschool schedules that will need to be added into our days, as well. 

My head is still swimming with trying to figure out what else needs to be changed in our schedule, but at least I'm getting some answers about where my focus needs to be at the moment and what needs to be set aside for a different season in our lives. 

I'm just curious, though.  Has anyone else had to simplify their schedules to make it a little easier once you had 2 kids?  What did you find was not as important?  What was the most important?  Do you regret what you took out at all?

Schedule...or not?

This week was quite possibly the most frustrating week of all.  Baby M is on breathing treatments 7-8 times a day.  I've been trying to figure out how to get the 2 in first thing in the morning among all of the other things that I have to include in my morning routine.  It seems like all I do is plan my day around these treatments.  I can't imagine how people with more serious health situations spend their days!  I only have a little taste of it and it's enough for me!  This week I felt like I was just turning circles between Baby M and B.

So....to make me happier, I'm sharing my pretty babies.

Yeah, this makes me feel much, much, better!  Perhaps one more picture would help me a bit more...

Much better.