15 min of Pretty School

There are times when I really miss living close to family so much it hurts. Like when my kids occasionally call pre-school, "pretty school" taught to them by their adorably funny cousins. Renae's kids are still convinced it's "pretty school". All of my nieces and nephews are adorable and sometimes I get so sad our kids aren't growing up together.

Anyway this post wasn't going to be all about my current homesickness. Two weeks ago we started our own little condensed version of school. I heard of this idea from a friend. You do something educational for 15 min on the hour, 4 times a day. And I noticed over the holiday break the kids were just getting so restless and so much whinier. We needed a little bit more structure back into our lives. Plus I haven't done a whole lot in preparing them for school beyond the very basics.

Around here I am constantly asked why I haven't put both our girls in school yet. I'm definitely not worried about their abilities to cope socially or mentally when the time comes. I'm in no hurry. But I have thought I definitely could take advantage of this precious time I do have with them here. To maybe shape their thinking early on about learning and school in general. I want them to have fun and enjoy it.

The first 15 minutes we go over recognizing their names. Spell it, write it and usually put it in some kind of fun game. Like finding their letters taped up around the room and then putting them in order. Stuff like that, but always we set the timer and when 15 min are up we're done. And to introduce more structure for a school like setting I usually have them sit on a blue blanket they affectionately call the "school blanket". After we conquer their name we'll probably move on to the letters of the alphabet.

Then I set the buzzer for 45 min and tell them they can go play while I get something done on my list. I am much more productive with my time this way. And they are eager to play and eager to run back when the buzzer rings.

During the next 15 min i read them books on the blanket. One book always remains the same until they memorize it. A simple one of coarse. The rest are always different. Saydee loves reading books. Elli doesn't like to sit still for this too long. If she can't I ask her to go play until we're done with school. But of coarse she doesn't want to miss out on "school with Saydee" So she really tries to stay and read.

The next two 15 min sessions constantly change from learning shapes, numbers (very simple math), mixing colors, using scissors, or a simple science experiment. For these we usually play a little game or an activity with it.

I can't say everyday I get a whole hour's worth in. What can I say, some of my days are off. Some days we can't find 4 consecutive free hours in a day, so its here and there. And I wing it alot and some days we only get in 1 or 2 sessions, but hey better than none eh. They love it and I don't put too much pressure on myself to plan something elaborate and time intensive. So, it makes me love it too.

Kids are easy to please and pretty much anything can be adapted to a game. The important thing is they still love doing it and they are easier to live with. Who doesn't function better on a schedule. I love watching them develope into these amazing little people with so much personality and with preferences and opinions and just ways of being. People are fascinating in general and all very special but when they are yours its even more exciting to watch them grow.

Lately I've fallen out of the habit of taking pictures. Here are the girls practicing their letters in jello and elli just mostly making lines and curves. We don't get too picky. I braved the possibility of stains but they were surprisingly careful.

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I don't know how long we'll keep this up or maybe try something else. I'm not usually locked into a particular style or method. Just what easiest for me to do and what flows best with our life at the moment. For now it works and as always consistency is the challenge.