L is for Light

L is for Light

We started preschool at home this week with Max and I am so pleased with how he is doing! It was an absolutely CRAZY week to start and I wasn't 100% ready to get started. He kept asking to do school stuff so we just sort of started with a bang. This week we are studying the letter L using our Raising Rockstars Preschool Curriculum.

So far this week we have....

~Put Together our Learning Board

memory verse, life lesson, song, weather, show off section and highlights

~Practiced L's

~Learned that L is for Lego!

~Worked on our memory verse

matthew 5:16

~Cutting practice with our memory verse

cutting and pasting

~Learned L is for Lorax

~Worked on our L slideshows from RRSP and on Starfall.com

~L is for Listen and talked about our Life Lesson

{I can obey Mommy and Daddy. I can be kind to others. I can learn about God. I can tell the truth. I can share. I can show love to others. I can be brave. I can tell others about Jesus}

~Learned L is for Light and played with a new laser sword and glow necklaces

It's been a lot of fun to learn with Max this week and he really surprised me with his memory verse! I am so proud that he is starting to remember his verse for the week! He struggles a little bit with lettering so we go at his pace and do it casually when he wants to. It's been a fun week and I can't wait to finish up the letter L next week using our new workboxes!.

"Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven"

Matthew 5:16

A few times Max has substituted the word Daddy for Father which I think is sweet. He definitely loves both his earthly and heavenly Daddy's!

Always,

Jesi

Never Say Never

A lesson I REALLY need to learn.

I love looking back and seeing how God can bring things full circle. There are so many times when I have said "never will I" and  God has said "oh really?"

When I was young I never understood stay at home moms. My own mom worked full time and did an awesome job being a mom and working. I didn't really understand WHY you would go to college, get your degree and then "just" stay home with kids. It flat out didn't make sense to me.

me as a working mom

After Max was born I understood why there were women that chose to be stay at home moms. But I never wanted to be one. It took a few years of listening, prayer, job changes and pressing into God to desire it for myself. It's not always easy and it's a financial sacrifice to live on 1.5 incomes but I truly feel it's where HE wanted me. I quit my job when we just had Max. Little did we know that just a short 2 years later we would have not 1 more child but 3 more children. God was lining out HIS plan before we ever knew what was gonna hit us! Never say Never.

working as a stay at home mom

Twins, twins, oh my sweet twins. I cannot tell you how many times I made joking but cutting remarks about twins! I would laugh and say "If I ever have twins I am giving one away!" Of course I meant it as a joke! Because I never in a million years imagined we would have twins. Never say Never.

would you give one of these sweet things away? Me either!

School, school, blessed School. I have NEVER wanted to homeschool. I have lots of friends who do an awesome job at it. Not me. I have several friends who are organized and involved and love it and the whole time I am thinking "that is really great for them but never for me"

Funny story...Max is one of the kids who will have to wait until he is practically SIX before kindergarten because of the birthday cutoff in our town. SIX! He is a smart cookie and we did 2 days per week of Mothers Day Out last year and treated it like preschool. This year because we suddenly have four kids they will only be going on Thursdays so I can go work at the dance studio. We don't have the $$$ to put him in a private preschool and most of them are absurd schedules anyways. I have no desire to pack up 4 small children to drop him off for 2 hours and then turn around and do it again. No thank you!

ready for school last year

So I picked up a bunch of pre-k workbooks and some writing tools so that we could start some preschool work at home. So the other morning I asked him if he wanted to do some school? "I DON'T WANT TO GO TO SCHOOOOOOOOOL" Max is a homebody. He is very social and LOVES playing with other kids but he LOVES being at home. I reminded him we had school stuff at home. "HOMESCHOOL? YAY!" He yells. I busted out laughing. God loves to get me everytime. I would have the one kid who requests to be homeschooled.

can you believe this kid loves home?

No, I am not commiting to being a homeschooler. But we are going to do Preschool at Home this year. I just feel like Max is MORE than ready and needs to start doing SOME structured work in tracing, adding, sight words. My friend over at The Ruby Zebra is a GREAT homeschool mom so I plan to pick her brain a little since she did preschool last year with Ms.B. I stumbled across this preschool set up so that is what we are going to be doing for the year amongst lots of play and lots of babies! Max is pretty convinced he is a Rockstar and I love that it is very scripture focused so I think it will be a good match for some "school" with Mama and Max. If I only do preschool with all four of our kids that is still FOUR kids that can get good use out of some planning and directed activities.

Little stuff, Big Stuff.

I will  never...I would never...that's not for me. God can't, God won't, God would never. God CAN, God WILL, God MIGHT! Over time God can change your heart and your mind to new things! Never say Never!

Always,
Jesi~not ready to call myself a homeschooler~haha

Home "Schooling"

I have 25 days left at work, not that I am counting or anything. But in my “spare” time I started working on a learning plan for Max for the next year. Since he is so used to the structure of daycare and let’s be honest, he is quite the energetic kiddo and needs lots of activities before he melts into a puddle at the door crying, “Outside, Outside!” I thought it might be a good idea to have a plan for our days together.

And I do want him to continue learning. He gets so much interaction, new words, and activity at school every day and I don’t want to bring him home and leave the little monkey feeling tortured being home all day with boring ol mommy.

I used a list from my mom’s board and quite a few lessons from http://www.letteroftheweek.com/Preparatory_Outline.html too to put together a weekly plan for next year. Each week we will have a THEME and follow up throughout the week with letters, colors, activities, field trips and learning skills for the week! I will be posting these on my mom’s board for a group of moms but will probably post them here too, along with lots of pics of me and sweet M as we travel through learning, playing and cuddling next year.

I can’t wait to get started! When did 25 days seem like a lifetime?