In my last post I discussed my exciting delivery of Delores' new curriculum, but I can't forget about my little fireball, Lydia. If you remember from my post "Get ready...," I mentioned that I had decided I was going to continue to use the Montessori method with Lydia but I was going to use a more laid back approach. Below is what I've come up with for her lesson plan for the month of September.
As you can see this is a great deal less stressful than what I was doing for the last two years. If you are unfamiliar with my previous lesson plans please visit "May calendar," or "June calendar," to get a
better idea.
Originally I started to put together my usual day-by-day calender but apparently all this free time has made me a little more lenient and the thought of sticking to a schedule just made me cringe. So, I came up with the list above of some things we'd done before but, I thought she might need a refresher on, and some new things. All while keeping in mind what I would like to accomplish for our first month. When we ended, what I guess you could call, our school year Lydia was developing a good stretch of concentration time. So, my goal is to rekindle her focus and build on her concentration.
I also plan on taking a different approach in putting together and presenting lessons. In the past I would put together a new activity almost every night and put it out in the shelf the night before I presented it. Which, as you can imagine, was a bit daunting. Beginning next Tuesday however, I plan to put together and put out all the activities at one time. She can go through the activities as quickly or as slowly as she wants and choose what she wants to do. I can't offer a whole Montessori classroom to her but at least I can put out a month's worth of materials at a time. From there I can judge her interest level and whether I need to increase our decrease the number of activities as well as whether or not I need to challenge her more.
A lot of changes are being made this year but I can already feel it is for the best. The air doesn't seem so tense and I don't feel stressed or pressured by the subject matter. In fact Delores spotted her box of materials today and get very excited at all the crafty type things we will be doing. Lydia has been showing signs of eagerness to get back to her lessons. So I'm feeling pretty comfortable that this year will be the most successful year we've had so far and that is all I've really wanted. For my children to develop a love of learning and for us to enjoy the blessing of being able to homeschool.
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