Thank goodness for ECE

first off, i really love sam's creative design he's brought to the blog. i never had the time or patience to dilly dally with this spread or that song...and thankfully sam is great at it. with his greater interest and increased input, i've had more time to devote to some other pressing matters...like raising my kids! :) i've been feeling a little crazed lately and i don't think it has anything to do with the weather change, but more to do with the fact that makayah loves to dump her yogurt on the floor just to hear the squishy, splashy sound it makes. anyway, i've noticed that i tend to have times when i'm completely focused on my children and all my energy goes into being involved in their daily activities, and then things turn slightly and the backyardigans become my babysitter once again. lately, i've felt a little lost without a color-coded schedule on tacked onto the door of my fridge - yes, i'm a little ocd. BUT, it does help calm the nerves and create a more organized and productive feeling throughout the day. and i need that. the past couple of months being an early childhood educator, i know what i am supposed to do to really get the most out of this young age-hands on, age-appropriate activities. however as a full-time mother, sometimes you just need a break! so i will say, i do appreciate the television in MODERATION. the struggle is trying to find the right balance of actively being involved and taking that much needed break once in a while to work on non-household projects and hobbies. so once again, i've created an updated schedule to help me keep this balance and prevent me from falling into my uphill/downhill cycles. i finally broke out my preschool lesson plans from my byu preschool teaching days. and i think it may be helpful to some of you mommies who, especially during the winter, are scrambling for activities. here is the basic schedule and you can cut and paste where you like to fit your needs. every good and productive schedule needs to have an underlying theme to create a solid foundation. you can either ask you child what he/she is most interested in learning about, or if you child is too young to give you an answer, you can decide. since it happens to be the month of october, and the fact that isaiah is crazy about pumpkins, pumpkins it was. with the project approach, it is important to remember to include your theme into your hands-on activities. Theme for the Month: Pumpkins Monday:Art/Creative Focus Tuesday: Emergent Literacy Focus (Reading/Writing - for pre-preschool children it usually tends to focus on a letter of the alphabet or the letters in his/her name) Wednesday: Math and Science Focus Thursday: Library Day and Picnic/Playground Day Friday: Music Focus AND Movie and Popcorn Day This is a very general schedule intended to be flexible enough for the various families out there. however, i do have more detailed activities such as our "morning wake-up stretch", circle time, and accompanying story-time activities if you are interested. the hands-on themed activities are usually very simple, so keep that in mind. you don't have to wear your brain out trying to think of things to do. a simple nature walk with your child, noticing the changing colors of leaves, or crayon rubbings of various textures will suffice.