Preschool Prep

Since I've been home, I've made it a priority to spend quality time on education with the kiddos. I was going to be taking Aidan out of his preschool so I felt it only appropriate that I make time in our day to work on Kindergarten prep! I focused on the same things he was learning in school - colors, shapes, letters, and numbers. He was pretty comfortable in the first two areas; however, letters and numbers we are still working on.

Over the summer, we did the majority of our learning in the field. As a family, we have a yearly membership to the local Children's Museum. We spent a lot of time there through the summer and found it very educational. So much so that I made a point to take Mikayla's Daisy troop there for a field trip. We also explored the library and local parks. 

Now that school has started again and  Mikayla is gone through the day, it's time for Aidan and I to begin our last year of Preschool together. At first I thought I shouldn't make a plan and let learning happen spontaneously. And then I thought it through. While spontaneity is imperative to a child's development, structure is equally important. We have a typical home structure I would imagine and I feel my children benefit from the expected. 

Structure is also important to keeping MOMMY on task, on schedule, and ACCOUNTABLE! It's easy to fall into the chore trap or the let's-just-play-all-day trap and forget about the goals we've set for ourselves. For me and my eldest son, it is important that we prepare for Kindergarten next Fall. So I spent the last month of summer break researching and tweaking a curriculum that mixed education and fun for the right combination of learning!

My goal as Aidan's mommy teacher is to make sure he learns all of his letters, upper and lowercase, as well as the many sounds they make. We will work on recognizing all numbers and counting to 100. We will work on pre-writing skills as well as name recognition and writing. We will also focus on more abstract ideas, such as what being a good member of the community looks like, learning basic cooking skills, animals, holidays, cultures, and independence.

WHEW! I'm feeling exhausted and overwhelmed just typing about it!

Again, hence the importance of a PLAN! My plan is still coming together and I have not completed everything yet, but we are more than halfway there. I still have our "classroom" (AKA the loft) to spruce up as well as a few things to complete for our circle time. But we are well on our way! Our plan is to start school when we return from our Disneyland trip, so our first day will be September 9th. 

If you have a little one at home and are looking to begin the prep for Kindergarten, there are so many resources available to you! I think the two best resources I've found are Pinterest (I have a HUGE Mommy School board if you're interested in checking it out!) and the library. There are so many FREE resources, I encourage you to check them out. You can follow my Mommy School board (and any other board you'd like) at http://pinterest.com/tiffanyclyne/mommy-school/. 

So here is what we have so far! Like I said, we aren't done yet and our classroom is still a work in progress, but our curriculum and supplies have all been completed!

I have a small white desk downstairs that I use for completing my own homework. (I am a crazy mom in a graduate counseling program). I put the printer on the floor beside the desk and used the space for a plastic three bin drawer and material we will use daily. 

I found the silver buckets with the chalk label in the dollar section at Target. I love them!

I found this book holder also in the dollar section at Target. I have several that I use to hold my magazine obsession, I mean collection. I use it to hold workbooks, my planner, as well as the dry erase lined paper boards we practice writing on. 

Inside the three drawer container I have items we will use every day. The middle drawer has everything! Flash cards, counting bears, card games, matching games, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom letters - all the manipulatives we will use in our every day lessons. 

I found these flashcards, again, in the dollar section at Target. I purchase a ton of items there as well as the Dollar Tree.

The bottom drawer is used for paper! Lined paper for writing (which we probably won't use but I have it just in case) and construction paper. Construction paper can be bought on the CHEAP at Walmart and Dollar Tree!

The top drawer is a bit of a catchall right now. Inside I have a small container which holds items we will use for crafting, like stickers, beads, buttons, EYEBALLS! 

One activity we are carrying over from  last year is the Daily Learning Notebook. This is a tool we use every single day! I purchased the Letter of the Week program from Confessions of a Homeschooler. The Pre-K Daily Learning Notebook is a part of this program. You can find it at http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/letter-of-the-week. 

One item inside the Daily Learning Notebook is the personal information sheet. It is a way to help your child learn his/her address, phone number, and emergency numbers. I have pictured a blank one here.

There is an activity sheet for each day of the week. I have laminated these sheets so that he can use a dry erase marker so we can use this daily as part of his learning!

Next is the name writing page. This is NOT laminated so that we can keep track of his name writing through our homeschool year.

There are also laminated pre-writing school pages. He traces the lines to practice his writing skills. 

Then comes the curriculum binder. OMG. This thing is HEAVY. But, it has a page for every single day of our upcoming year, so we will never run out of ideas. I also mapped out each month's activities, including books we will read and concepts we will master! The planner can be found and printed at http://www.livingwellspendingless.com/our-homeschool-planner/. 

The curriculum I found to go with the Letter of the Week program is from Preschool Palace and can be found at http://www.preschoolpalace.org/Curriculum.html.

Mikayla and Aidan both have a homework caddy full of anything they would need to complete schoolwork. This is a picture of Aidan's.

These are extras for when things run out throughout the year.

No education experience would be complete without the computer. We use the learning site ABC Mouse (www.abcmouse.com) for tons of activities. We use it for learning as well as a treat when our chores have been completed. I have a link from the desktop so the children can access it easily and without my help!

And that's it so far! Once the loft/classroom is complete, I will do a room tour so you can see! If you are interested in using ANY of these items above, check out my Mommy School Pinterest board - all the links are there! http://pinterest.com/tiffanyclyne/mommy-school/

I hope this was helpful! If you are a mommy teacher and have any ideas you would like to share, please do! I would LOOOOVE to hear them. I have no teaching experience other than substituting so everything I'm doing is from research I've done on other homeschoolers. 

Here's to not screwing up my kid!

Well, hello again!

I didn't realize it had been WELL over a year since my last blog post. I guess I didn't have much to say... or did I? My last blog post was a bit overwhelming to read. I didn't think those feelings of anxiety and dread would come back - but they did. I'm pretty sure I will not be reading previous posts from this point on.

So what has the Clyne brood been up to? A LOT! So much has changed over the past year and a half. So much that I don't want to bore you. So let me give you a year and a half in review - Cliff Notes version!

I got REALLY pregnant with a healthy baby boy. Daily belly injections of blood thinner kept him safe and sound - and he grew and grew!

I was so big and pregnant - yet I tried not to complain. I was so happy to have a healthy baby boy in there, no matter how uncomfortable I got.

Ronan Everett was born 3 weeks early on June 4th, 2012 weighing 7 lbs 8 oz. I had a natural birth in which he came so fast, the doctor didn't even make it! My husband, the hero, helped him find his way out.

Ronan's first year has been a WHIRLWIND! I quit my job shortly after he was born to become a stay at home Mom. Mikayla went to kindergarten. Aidan and I started homeschooling. We found every excuse to love each other and love LIFE! It has been an amazing year!

It has been a crazy busy year and it is just beginning again!  Mikayla just started First Grade yesterday! She was so incredibly excited! All her friends from Kindergarten are still at the school - although not in her class. They were so happy to see each other!

Now it's just the boys and I at home. We are working on getting the house back together after our crazy summer of trips to California, New York for the family reunion, and lots of pool time! Aidan and I will be starting our last year of preschool at home before he starts Kindergarten next year. Ronan and I will be working on his sensory skills, learning colors and shapes, and finally learning to WALK! He's only 14 months after all.

Let the fun begin!

My Little Owl

I must start this post by apologizing for being absent for so long. I have been so consumed by the constant bombardment of worry and stress that comes along with a pregnancy after a loss. I thought I was prepared for this - I read the books, I talked it out with my husband and friends, and yet nothing could have prepared me for what was yet to come.

I'm in my 17th week now and I can't even begin to describe how weird that feels. Although I have been pregnant three times before, it feels as though I have never been here before. The sweet feeling of little hands and feet pushing from the inside feel like alien novelties to me although I have felt them twice before. And I seem to have forgotten all the woes that come along with the bliss of pregnancy. Like heartburn, gas, bloating, fatigue, and sharp pains in the nether-region. It's as if this is the first time I am feeling these things.

For the past 5 weeks, I have seen my doctor every week. It all started with a horrible dream in which I had a feeling that something was wrong with my baby - and no one would check. I woke with tremors and a daunting feeling that something wasn't right. I called my doctor who had promised me a visit at any time should I need it - and I took her up on that offer. I was so anxious when I finally made it to the appointment that the nurse attempted to read my blood pressure three times - and yet my body refused to give a good reading. I was stressed beyond belief and the blood pressure cuff let us know how that was affecting me physiologically. Luckily enough, all was well, and there was a bouncing baby growing inside.

Since that appointment, my doctor has offered to see me once a week. Knowing my growing anxiety as we inched closer to the time of my previous loss, she promised to give me a peak into my growing womb once a week until I felt comfortable enough to see her every two weeks again. I could have kissed her.

The shots are getting easier and easier - however, the side effects are getting harder and harder. In previous pregnancies, especially with my son, I acquired a few of what I call battle wounds (or more commonly known as stretch marks). They were incredibly low and didn't show up until the last month of my pregnancy. This is NOT the case with this pregnancy. The Lovenox seems to do something to my skin because right where I do my daily injections (which is on either side of my belly button) have begun to sprout little pink lines. I could scream - but Peanut is worth it.

Every visit I've asked my doctor to check for gender - and every time baby was wiggling or turning or had the cord between his or her legs. We couldn't see anything. Until today. Today we had our anatomy ultrasound, and baby decided it was time to reveal itself. There was no wiggling or moving or cords in the wrong place - just a calm baby, a steady heartbeat, and a clear view of a gender... drumroll please... WE HAVE A BOY! :) We are going to be welcoming another baby boy into our lives. The only problem is we were convinced it was a girl, so we have no boy names picked out. We are starting from scratch.

The moral of the story is - a healthy, beautiful, Clyne baby boy is growing deep inside of me, and I couldn't be happier.