This is How We Do It - Mommy School Edition

We've hit the pause button on Mommy School this week since we've been in Vacation Bible School. The hiatus has given me time to 1) rethink how we've been doing it and improve 2) clean my house, but that's another post.

This summer I've made a weekly 'plan' and then both girls and I have sat down together. I've gone back and forth between the girls to explain their work. We've never been able to get the timing just right so someone was always waiting on me. We would end school with the girls feeling like they never had my attention and me feeling like I could pull my hair out.

Starting next week: I've pulled the entire weeks worth of work into one basket. Each girl has a file folder labeled Monday through Friday that contains all they need for the day, I even put a sheet of paper in the day that there is a "quiz" so that everything will be ready for them (Kendall gets quizzed on site words). I like this idea because now if we decide to have school at the library or outside I can just grab the day's folders instead of finding all the workbooks or papers that we'll need. The basket will also hold any supplies that we need for the week as well as "busy work" which I'll detail below.

First we'll sit down to work on a project together, I have a lesson planned that is age appropriate for both girls (this week we're learning about maps, map symbols, and directions). Once we've finished that for the day one girl will work on busy work and the other will have Mommy School, then we'll switch.

The basket holds some general busy things: a new $1 section puzzle, a Highlights magazine that they haven't looked at yet as well as some things that will switch each day.
Monday - a new drawing book with paper, colored pencils...
Tuesday - sewing basket: yarn, plastic needles and other sewing gear.
Wednesday - farm stuff: a wooden farm that the girls love mainly because I don't take it out often
Thursday - large paper to draw roads and bldgs on and cars to drive through their city
Friday - play doh, google eyes, pipe cleaners and Dr Seuss books for inspiration

I'm really hoping our new system will help me give each girl some one on one attention.

PS The girls are in Vacation Bible School and their preschool teacher and principal are both teaching there (it's not at their preschool they just happen to attend the church where VBS is held). Kate's teacher mentioned that they like to reorganize and change up the preschool room every year. This is the room that helped to sell me on the school (among other reasons) it is FUN! I really had to restrain myself to keep from begging to be allowed to come help! Is there a "teachers planner" job? I would like that part, the room and activity planning.

Weekend Fun

I had decided for my birthday that I wanted to go to the hibachi grill. Brian and I really wanted to see the girls experience the hibachi so we took them there on Friday night. It was actually pretty adorable. Brian was super smart and was worried about their reaction to the fire and (as usual)  he was right, they were terrified at first (but soon loved it). When our 'table' went up in flames Kate's little lip stuck WAY out and she just couldn't seem to get it pulled back in! She was in a highchair next to me but she was leaned all the way over trying to hide her face in my shoulder. It was so cute but it didn't take long for her to love it, she kept a very close eye on that chef though!

Yesterday we spent the day at IKEA (a special birthday surprise). We just got a few things but it was actually a really good trip because a) we finally reached a few decisions on how we want to decorate some areas and b) the girls were ridiculously good. Kate isn't tall enough to go into the childcare area so both girls stayed with us and for 2 hours giggled together and shopped. Kendall kept picking out things for Kate, "This would be a good bookshelf for Kate's room, can we get it for her?"

And finally, my much anticipated (ha) to-do list. This isn't for today but really what I want to accomplish this week. I'm thinking about treating myself to a productive day of.... scrapbooking, I'm out of the habit and think it would be a great way to start off the next decade of my life. So this is the list of things I want to do on top of the regular house cleaning and mainly consists of organizing areas that have been bothering me.

• Organize bar drawer
• Post office (ranks on my list of fun things right next to root canal)
• Order Valentines
• Organize recipe binder
• Basement--getting the play area put back together now that we can put the carpet back down (although this will be messed up again very soon because we're having the carpet removed and the whole thing painted)
• Call painter/handyman (see above)
• Organize spice cabinet--exciting I tell you
• Research Week in the Life and 365 Project Documentation---this might be the only one that gets done today
• Plan art activities for the girls
• Clean mudroom--Check this off the list, we bought a shoe rack and mat at IKEA and I had to clean the room before I would put them out so this happened last night
• Kendall's bookshelf--needs tackling about once a month, the girl has a LOT of books and it gets  disheveled looking quickly.
• Call Goddard preschool to observe

There is also a rough meal plan on the right side, a short list of blog post ideas, the library book I want to pick up and the paint color we choose for said basement project.

Right Now

A snapshot into right now. What the photo doesn't capture is the sound of the girls playing in the basement (lots of giggles and an unidentified banging noise??). 

My cousin did an awesome blog post this morning that consisted of her (crazy ambitious--for me at least) to-do list. I LOVED it, I loved seeing that part of her, maybe because I love lists but mostly because I just love to see how other women work and what they do throughout the day. It left me wanting more, I have a list of people (in my head at least) that I want to peek into their to-do list. I'll include my own sometime soon.

I think it would be an fun scrapbook page to have a bunch of "right now" snapshots from various days. I've added a "Right Now" label so I can find them easily in the future. Wouldn't you love to have a snapshot of your mom's life 30 years ago. I imagine many of them included to-do lists and recipes but maybe not the laptop.