Kolbe's first week of preschool

This week was Aa week at our house for Kolbe.  I don't think I will document each week of preschool on my blog like I did with Gemma, but I wanted to make sure and commemorate his first week.  This year I purchased downloads for a Letter of the Week program from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  This will be a good fit for us.  There is so. much. good stuff out there it is overwhelming.  This year we will use this (and a few other resources I already have from Gemma's preschool) but I'm not going to look for much more.  There's just too much, and then I go through the whole paralysis by analysis thing and then nothing gets done.  This program has a PDF file for each week (letter) that has anywhere from 30-60 printables (and it's not just worksheets and coloring pages).  Most of them are color (but can be printed black-and-white).  I am trying to plan 3-4 weeks at a time (she already has lesson plans, I just have to print them and hi-lite what we want to do!), and send what I want in color to Office Max or FedEx and print the rest at home.  I request the books we need from the library, pull any other stuff out that I have (I have files for each letter of the alphabet and a stack of books and flashcards as well) and we are good to go!  It's going to be a good year, and Kolbe is very enthusiastic about preschool.  I honestly thought he wouldn't be as into it as Gemma was, but he is every bit as excited about doing school each day as Gemma was, if not a bit more!  It is fun watching him grow and learn, and I can't believe what a big boy he is getting to be.  We are enjoying working on preschool when sissy is at Kindergarten in the morning.  Here are some snapshots of our week (and of some of the regular activities Kolbe will be doing).

Kolbe's first day of preschool, looking grown-up and very proud to be a preschooler!

Matching upper and lowercase A's

Letter "A" puzzle

Find the letter "A" (he's still a little iffy with his pencil grip)

Peek-a-boo!

Doing his "A" do-a-dot page

Counting apple seeds

Some of my favorite alphabet books, that we'll be using weekly are:
Museum ABC
Baby Einstein's ABC's of Art
A is for Altar, B is for Bible
An Alphabet of Catholic Saints
The Baby Signing Book

Next week will hold another big first for Kolbe, as he starts weekly speech therapy with our local school district!  It will be a big, fun year for my sweet little guy.

Journal: settling in

TODAY

Out my window:  Sunny and hot.  Summer is definitely back.  We've even actually had to run our sprinklers!  Guess the well wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Clothing myself in:  Shorts and a t-shirt.  Glamor personified, let me tell you what.  I do have a fresh haircut though, and that always feels good.  

Around the house: Decluttered some more...this time in the master bedroom, namely clothes and a little costume jewelry.  This minimalism thing, it's good stuff.  I also organized some of our preschool/learning items and culled a few things we just haven't (and probably won't) use(d) now that I have a better idea of Kolbe's needs and Gemma's too.  I spent some time the end of last week getting things together (making plans, printing items, requesting color copies, etc.) for Kolbe's preschool at home.

 

The baby:  He's been a little fussy and clingy.  I'd blame it on teething, but he has all 8 front teeth now and this would be a little early (at least in my experience) for molars.  Hmmm.  He is walking more and more each day.  He likes dancing.  He folds his hands when we pray, all on his own, which I think is so adorable.  I don't remember our other kids doing that at one.

 

The kiddos:

GEMMA is settling into her school routine really well.  We had tears all three days last week, that got progressively worse, so I was pretty worried come Monday morning, and not too hopeful when Aaron left with her for drop-off.  He called about 10 minutes later to tell me he walked her in, she met her teacher at her door and told her she looked beautiful (I thought that was so cute) and happily bounced into the room.  Aaron had to remind her to come give him a kiss!  God is good, hopefully we are past the hardest part and ready to settle in to school.  Half day seems to be a really good fit.  She lost her fourth tooth last night.  She was playing with the boys and absolutely freaked out, thinking she had swallowed it.  Super-mom ended up finding it on the living room carpet.  The tooth fairy brought her five dimes.  

KOLBE and I started our at home preschool this Monday.  I was planning on waiting another week but he just seemed ready so we went for it, and I'm glad.  He tells me multiple times a day that he "loves preschool." His favorite things to do while sissy is at school have been preschool, listening to CD's, reading stories, and he has really been into listening to his Bob the Builder Pilchard Goes Fishing book-on-CD lately.

In the kitchen: Enjoying quiet(er)t lunches since we eat before picking Gemma up (she eats at school).  Don't get me wrong, I miss Gemma when she is gone, but this has been a welcome reprieve.  What's cooking this week?  French Dips, zucchini and green beans last night; Chicken Picadillo tonite; pork cutlets, savory potatoes and steamed broccoli; smoked (wild caught by my uncle in Alaska) salmon; salmon, pasta and veggie casserole.  I need to make some muffins or pancakes or something for breakfasts.

Crafting: Finished our cloth napkins!  All my pictures are stuck on my camera, so I'll post pics on my sewing tab next time I get pictures.

Learning:  It is Aa week for Kolbe.  Since (as aforementioned) my pictures are currently in digital limbo I may do his own post for the first week of "school".  I've snapped some cute ones, but you'll just have to use your imagination for now.  I am enjoying revisiting some of the resources I used with Gemma in addition to the new program I'm using.  We are going to meet one day a week with some friends to do activities together as well.  

Gemma has a math sheet every day for homework and sometimes one other thing, so when she gets home we have a bit of quiet time (IE, the kids watch TV and I catch up and prep for the afternoon) then we have homework time where she does her homework and makes sure her bag is ready for school the next day and Kolbe either works on more Letter of the Week stuff or some of his Kumon books (which he also loves and asks for frequently).  He likes the cutting ones the best.  I have ordered him a few more things like this to work on, as I'm finding it is important that he is engaged in something he can do relatively independently so I can focus on Gemma for a bit.

Reading: My latest Catholic Company review, The New Evangelization and You: Be Not Afraid just arrived, so looking forward to diving in after my, um, entirely-too-long-respite from reading anything.  Still working through Schoolroom in the Parlor with Gemma.  Lots of Aa books for Kolbe, including one of our favorites An Ant's Day Off and lots of books about apples.

Watching: the usuals.  Nothing riveting or worth writing about really.

Bringing me joy: Watching the boys dance.  Our new schedule, it is so nice to be settling in to the "new normal", and a "normal" that I like at that!  Spending some more one-on-one time with Kolbe has been a joy.  I mean, Clem is here too, but it's just different.  It was hard to do a lot with Kolbe without Gemma wanting to answer every question and do everything for him (I think that's just how big sisters are ;-D), so this has been nice.  Gemma seems to really like school, and that brings me joy too, knowing that when she's not here she is somewhere that she feels peaceful and happy.

Thinking about: how I should finish up this post and get off the computer.  Later-gators!!

Pictures to share: 

Watering at the neighbors'.

Boys in hats.