Plans for the Upcoming School Year

All summer long I've been contemplating what I should do with Lincoln for the school year. He's still so young that I don't really feel like it's time to start a full blown curriculum with him. I don't want him sitting at a table all day (nor do I think he would have the attention span for it). But let's be honest, the kid is not one bit self entertained, and if I don't have something planned for him to do then he's at my heels all day long wanting me to entertain him. That's why we started doing our preschool stuff in the first place, so that we both knew what was going to happen during the younger kids' nap time. With callings, things to do around the house, and other activities I'm involved in, the time I have at night to prep something for preschool the next day is getting shorter and shorter. I was looking for something really flexible, that had all the ideas for activities pretty well planned out for me, and something that was more than just a workbook, something where the activities planned involved movement, but still allowed us to work on our ABC's and early reading skills.

I found a program called Before Five in a Row, that I really liked. The basic idea was that you take classic children's books and focus on one a week, and then you do little activities each day to go with. My only concerns with BFIAR were that the textbook was EXPENSIVE, even used. And quite a few of the books they used are out of print, which means I'd have to spend a lot of time and maybe money rounding them up. So I continued to search for something similar, and came up with this:

Peak With Books (PWB). It's the same idea as BFIAR, except none of the books on the list are out of print, and the activities are given in a little more detail. Also, it only cost $17, not $35. I think it was written for classroom use, but seems easily adaptable to homeschooling.

The books I've chosen to do for September are:
-Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.
-Bedtime for Frances by Russell Hoban
-The Gingerbread Boy by Paul Galdone
-On Market Street by Arnold Lobel

This week I've been prepping for the activities that go along with Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. The textbook gives a list of other picture books (fiction and nonfiction), songs, and poems that go along, or tie in with Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, so I've been gathering those. We're also going to make a big coconut tree out of construction paper and put it up on the side of the fridge. Then we'll use our alphabet magnets and stick them all over in the tree, just like the story. We'll probably have to do a reenactment, and knock all the magnets off the tree, I'm sure my boys will love that. Another thing we're going to do is each pick a letter, and then collect things from around the house that start with that letter's sound. We'll play a matching game...pick a letter off the coconut tree and match it to it's capitol letter. For an art project we'll make a hand print coconut tree and maybe stamp the letters on with stamps. One activity that I really liked, was to write a little note to the child each day and have it hanging from the coconut tree in the morning, that way the child makes the connection that letters and words have meaning, and they'll be excited to see what their note says each morning. I also know a softball cheer that starts, "I said a boom chicka boom!", which I think I will teach them just for fun. :) There are also a lot of fun writing/drawing activities. I'm really excited for Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and to start planning the activities for rest of the books we'll use.

 Another thing I want to do this year is have a "schedule". But I say that in as loose a way as possible. :) I guess a better word might be routine. I want the routine to be something like this:
-Wake up/eat breakfast/ get dressed
-Take Aaron to work/scripture study (we read scriptures in the car on the way to Aaron's work)
-20 minutes for chores (we've recently given Linc a chore chart, which includes getting dressed, making his bed, cleaning his room, brushing his teeth, and clearing his place at the table)
-30 minutes read aloud (I'm hoping that this will be a good reward for getting chores done. Give or take on the time, depending on the attention span of my children.)
-Going over the calendar (what is today's date, day of the week, month of the year, season, and weather; this should only take about 3 minutes max)
-Pledge of Allegiance
-Our PWB activity (estimated time frame for this is 45 minutes to an hour)
And that will be "school" for the day, with the possibility of a math game from Marshmallow Math in the afternoons one or two days of the week, and some sign language thrown in there somewhere. I also have a goal to spend at least 15 minutes outside every day, no matter how cold it is, just so we can get a breath of fresh air and clear our heads.

I should probably also mention that starting in September, my friend Suzy and I will be doing weekly "letter days" again, with Ivan and Kaitlyn this time. Lincoln and Nathan had such a great time with it, I'm glad we're doing it again with the younger ones. If you're interested in what we did with the older boys, you can go to this link. Suzy and I have decided to switch letters this year, so stay tuned throughout the year for more Letter Day ideas. :)

Well, those are my big plans so far. We'll see how they pan out. What are your plans for the upcoming school year?