Back to school

Jonny's school starts up earlier than most around here. Teachers were back this last week, and students start on Monday. Since I'm such a structure, list, and routine sort of girl, I decided to make a plan for my weekdays with the boys. I figured it would help me to not go crazy! So far it is working SO well. I feel so much more productive! There is way less chaos and the boys aren't arguing with each other as much.

So here's what I do. Mon., Wed., & Fri. we have a bible lesson and activity during Josiah's morning nap. On Wednesday, for example, the lesson was on worship, and the activity was making music shakers. (See pic to the left.) The lesson is followed by 'free play'. (I don't know how else to phrase that, so I went with the preschool lingo.) To make their play time more interesting, I organized all of their toys into bins, and put them out in the garage. Each week I'm going to rotate two new bins inside. So far, this has been awesome- the boys are SO much more interested in playing with toys they haven't seen in awhile, and with less toys there is less of a mess. After play time, we clean up, have lunch, and take naps. (Eli has quiet time.) At 2ish we have school time, followed by outside play or errands... something to get us OUT of the house. When we come inside again, it will be Josiah's afternoon nap, and I will make dinner while the boys can watch an educational video like a bible video, reading video, or a Signing Time video. Then its just dinner, baths, bible story and songs with Dada followed by bedtime!

Tuesdays and Thursdays will look a little different. Tuesdays I have Women's Study in the morning followed by soup lunch, so the boys will get to have some social interaction with other kids and also practice listening to a 'teacher' other than Mama. Tuesdays go by really fast because its nap time when we get home, and then we'll probably go to Daddy's cross country practice or home meets. Thursdays are going to be our friends or outing day. We'll either invite friends over to play or go somewhere fun. This last Thursday we ate lunch at the duck pond, fed the ducks our old bread ends, came home for naps, went swimming, and then went to Eli's first race! (Pictures of that later!)

Anyway, that's all. I'm excited about this school year and am looking forward to the fun things I get to do with my boys. I love doing little lessons and activities with them and seeing their excitement! Its so fun being a Mommy!!!