This past weekend, I was bouncing my ideas constantly to Jordan about our first week of school with the kids. Yes, I am extremely annoying when it comes to this. Helena can testify to my constantly talking about ideas and her feedback. Thank you for listening for all those years of my teaching career! You are amazing!
It was different this time though. I was excited and curious as to what would take place. I remember the first time I taught wee little ones, and I was amazed by all they could do, yet their attention spans are very short! I knew that I would be working with very short attention spans, including having a baby toddling around the room. Haha! That never happened in the classroom!
Poor Jordan has had some eye trouble recently. Due to his eye trouble, he decided to work from home. It was great to have him there so he could witness our little ones being excited and learning. (Please keeps Jordan's eye health in your prayers. I took him to the clinic on Sunday to check it out. They found a particle, but he still didn't feel complete relief. He has antibiotic/steroid eye drops, and finally this bug....yes bug came out of his eye. I removed it with a qtip in the corner. Eventually a larva looking substance emerged as well. He will go to the eye doctor tomorrow morning to be sure all particles have been removed.)
We decided to go with naming their school time a few weeks back (Thanks again, Helena, for listening!), because we thought it might make it more fun for them. Little Saints seemed to symbolize a great deal for us, because essentially we are trying to raise "little saints" in our family.
This week's focus was to practice routines and songs we would be doing essentially each time. Expectations for circle time were set, and Magdalene did very well with that. Tobias is joining us for some activities, because he seems to want to join in. He had a hard time sitting on his little square when he saw the flashlight in our activities. But overall, he did very good! We started with ideas from the Catholic ABC's book. We really liked the setup of the routines. We started with practicing the sign of the cross for Tobias, and Magdalene was focusing on signing more reverently. I had a feeling placing a cross sticker on Tobias' right hand might bother him. Yes, it did! He didn't seem to like the feeling. So I have a backup plan until our little man knows the motions well. I bought a cross stamp, and I just plan on stamping a cross on his right hand to help him with learning how to properly sign. They both seemed to enjoy the morning prayers and songs as well.
We will normally focus on a letter of the alphabet each week, but this week I just wanted to set expectations and routines. We practiced looking at the agenda, calendar time, and such. Today we focused on studying more about how God created the world. We focused on numbers one through seven as well. They had a great time, and you know what, I had a great time, too!
I know this sounds crazy, but I did write a lesson plan complete with reflection at the end of the week. It's not because I have time to write this out.....it's because I am programmed this way. I am not the most organized person in the world. Yes, I can hear Helena and Brenda laughing right now. But when it comes to coming up with ideas, I need to write them in a lesson plan format.
We ended our school time with a simple sign of the cross at the holy water font and gave hugs and kisses. Magdalene then said, "Aren't we going to color? It's school time." I just smiled and said, "Yes, most of the time we will have something to color, but today we will not." She then found her own coloring page and said she was pretending to do school time and wanted to color. She was quite determined to fit in coloring whether or not it was the plan. This leads me to, I believe, the most difficult part of her personality. Magdalene is determined. Stubborn. Wants to do her own thing. She is the complete opposite of my personality when I was a child. I was submissive and wanted to please. I am helping her work on this more. I understand it may always be there for her, but helping her not always take the lead or decide every game she plays will be a goal. Yes, she gets choices, but sometime children need to practice being okay with here is what you do and obey. That's it. God will use her determination for good, but that's the beauty in parenting isn't it.....helping them use their God-given talents and temperament for good.
Yes, Magdalene, we will color tomorrow and all this week! I found some neat coloring pages we will bind together for a mini-book. Also, I am pretty excited about our food activity tomorrow. The kids helped make the pudding tonight for dirt dessert. We will use that snack as a representation of when God created land and plants. I found some gummies shaped like fruits (plants) to place on top of the pudding and crushed up cookies. Hmmmm......sounds like a fun day of school to me!
Magdalene had the chance to pick her own outfit today for school. She needed to wear shoes! It was very important to her. I chose to be barefoot, and so did our little man.
Our agenda. I have had this corkboard covered by fabric set up on our wall for over a year in the hopes I would finally put up an agenda. The moment has arrived!
Magdalene immediately noticed the little picture of the grandparents on the calendar. We explained later that Mommy and Daddy would be taking a trip alone sometime soon, and Grandma and Papa would take care of them while we are gone. I plan on placing that picture up when they have special times with their grandparents.
I knew Magdalene would immediately love this little girl signing herself. She noticed the details immediately. That's a girl for you!
