Friday, October 12, 2012

Mommyschool

I have a friend who is blogging about doing Mommy Preschool with her little girl, who is 6 weeks younger than Ava. I made the mistake of reading about all their educational fun last week, after the makeup and glitter incident. I just cried while I read it. I felt like such a bad mom. I actually had thoughts of doing something like this with Ava this year but with house projects and teaching Let's Play Music, I just couldn't get my crap togetha.

So I cried. And had a pity party. I purged all the bad feelings.

And then we had General Conference and I started training for a 5K the next weekend. Magical things, I tell you. Endorphins! Coursing! Through ma veins! All the happy feelings! All the prioritizing! It all put me right. And I started planning.

Mommyschool kicked off this week with a reading of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and a making of a coconut tree in the play room that we will fill with all the letters in the alphabet as we learn them. My friend did this with her kid and I thought it was awesome and then I started researching preschool stuff and realized that quite a few people do this. Guys. If the bandwagon involves Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, I am totally on it (we did the play in kindergarten. I haven't been the same since).


We also previewed the letter A this week because I needed to pick apples at the orchard and can some applesauce. We're doing it for realsies this week.

So we're doing a letter a week and we'll have one word that is secular in nature and one that is spiritual (a fabulous idea of Alisha's) for each letter. A is for apples and apostles - you get the idea. We'll also just do some fun little crafts that are more seasonally based (a lot of them coming from this blog) and a science experiment every Friday. Monthly, I'll be doing a busy bag, like these ones, for Ava. I cleaned out her toy room today and realized that I haven't updated her toy stash for over a year (no wonder she's bored!)

So that's the plan. We are going to rock this.

3 comments:

  1. Good luck my friend! We love busy bags. Last year some people in our town did a busy bag swap. It was great! I got made 16 of the same busy bag and got 15 in return. Our favorites are magnetic pom poms on a cookie sheet and beads that string on pipe cleaners.

    I have to say, I was inspired by Alisha's posts and have been making plans to start mommy school too :).

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  2. You are awesome! Ava is such a lucky gal!

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  3. Well, first off, I want to say that I am SO SORRY. I feel awful that the Hillam Mommy School made you feel bad in anyway...NOT THE INTENTION. :(

    But that said, I am delighted that it turned into a positive for you!! I got the idea from Jeff's cousin who blogs about their Mommy School and it totally inspired me. I was so glad she blogged about it so I could get ideas about what might work for us and I am delighted to have paid it forward, if you will. I really think that a profound responsibility as a mother is to teach your children--and not just by example or about not doing drugs. I think this is an integral part (and POINT) of staying at home with kids.

    I am excited to see what will come of this. There are so many ideas out there and so many ways of teaching and all kids are so DIFFERENT. And it is all good. Yay for Ava!!

    A last word(s): Don't be deceived by the pretty-ish pictures and activity descriptions. Most of our activities do not last very long, Minnie refuses to go along with things all the time, and none of this is as smooth as it looks in a blog. Really. It is a ton of work and sometimes doesn't have much pay-off in the moment. But I think Minnie is happier and I KNOW our relationship is better and she's learning along the way, so on we go.

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