Where the heck have I been? For a moment, I forgot I had a blog. My mom always told me that time gets away from you the older you get (I believe this was supposed to start in my 20's). Well she never said it ran in leaps and bounds. What have I been doing? I started a LOOSE homeschooling unit to give Emma and Mary some introduction to the alphabet. Thanks to my genius brainiac friend (I'm referring to Lydia here), we have embarked on a preschool unit based on learning the alphabet through exposure to a South America theme. So we started with Anacondas. I actually started in the fall and then all of us got stuck, so we restarted the middle of January. Lydia mostly supplies the content, but all of the moms (there are 5 of us crazy women, spread out from Virginia to California) contribute to the website. We just finished up C is for Capybara (with a strong focus on caterpillars) and completed the unit with a Continent Cake that I made in the shape of South America. I also got a brand new gym membership to Lifetime Fitness (thanks to my fairy godparents) - that just happened last week but I felt compelled to provide adequate excuses for my extended absence from blogging. And this past weekend I went to an all day crop (scrapbooking, for those who don't know) and completed a satisfying pile of 13 pages. Usually those take 1-2 hours each so it was a good haul.
I have also been spending my spare (?) time engaging in some new playgroups in the subdivision and searching out preschools for Emma, who turns 3 in March. I have to say, I am an education snob. My eye had been on the local Co-op preschool until I went to their open house this past weekend. The teacher that would be running Emma's class room could not remember how to talk to someone who was not 3. She also couldn't give me a straight answer. And, they have no benchmarks for Kindergarten readiness. Now, I don't want Emma to be sitting at a desk for 2 1/2 hours doing letters, but I want to know when she is done with 2 years of this place that she will be allowed into Kindergarten. And "Miss Susan" wasn't really that reassuring. Then Jim and I had the argument of cost. The Co-op is, of course, VERY reasonable. But the other choices have more structure and allow for readiness to pass onto the next level. So this week we are at a stall. I have sent out for information from mores schools, but think I may be just as annoyed and end up choosing what I think is the lesser of two evils.
For now, we are getting ready of tomorrow's lesson for D. We are doing a drum circle and painting some little Ducks. I haven't figured out what kind of snack to have - nothing really beats the Churros we made for C. If you want to check out Lydia's awesome website, click on the underlined, purple website word. I have some pictures up under each of the kids, but I am working on putting them under the letter tabs. You know, when I get a chance....
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4 comments:
Yeah, I know the feeling about being busy. It's a different busy, but it still counts. You'll notice that I didn't even complain about the lack of posts (which is kinda not like me).
You and Lydia sound like a tough crowd. Sesame Street was more my speed, though I'm sure that's way more multi-cultural now than it was when I was watching in the early & mid 70's. If I ever have kids (go ahead, get those laughs in), I need to find DVD collections of Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers.
And just for the record, very few of us are surprised to hear that you're an education snob.
As for your "D" snack--it's gotta be doughnuts!!! Doritos might be OK, but some Dunkin' Donuts would be perfect. I might even join for that, in case you want to dish out a little Billy Madison on the kids.
Sesame Street- still played on PBS, just like the old days. They play re-runs, so it is actually the same show we watched. If you have upgraded cable, check out the schedule for a little channel called SPROUT, which is all preschool PBS shows all day and all night AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN.
On the education thing: Phooey.
Donuts - well, I was avoiding going out and buying something, as well as trying to make something less junk food oriented. But if you are going to come by, I will run out and get a few dozen donuts. Just let me know when you are coming in, as I would like to vacuum before any guests visit. And bring your own drum, I haven't got enough to go around otherwise.
Don't pull out that vacuum just yet, though it looks like I may be in MI in early June.
I'm on DirecTV instead of cable, and I haven't seen any notes about Sprout being added, but that sounds promising.
Seems we're both stuck on January 30th for our last post. We'll have to see who can get the next one up first. I'm going to try to post something tonight, but we'll see.
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