The Learning Umbrella

I’m a bit late with this, but I still need to have a plan for the month.

Kindergarten

Carbon and I are not doing history in order, so we’re just jumping right into something he’s interested in: castles and knights.  I’ve got several books from the library, and we plan to make a large cardboard castle.  We’re reading aloud the 3rd in the Green Knowe series, and we have The Wind in the Willows and Henry Huggins sitting by for our next read alouds.  I have two new science curricula sitting here waiting for me to figure out how I’m going to use them with him - more on that in a later post.

Preschool

The kids are just chugging along, and have used up most of the workbooks we had.  I have some more on order for them (they love these things at this age!) and I also am printing some preschool worksheets off EnchantedLearning.  Daycare Boy has made such amazing leaps, and can almost write his name without any help and does mazes before I can turn around.  I’m going to challenge him with some more number sequence work and a bit of sight words and phonics.  Daycare girl has had a slow down in her learning and the early arrival of performance anxiety.  She’s leaving me in two months to go to a Montessori school, so I’m just going to look for work that she really enjoys doing and let her have more fun with it again.  All the kids are doing a little exploration of how plants grow, and we have a root viewer set up with plants growing in it, and we’re doing a variety of other easy plant experiments and activities.

“Toddler School”

I’m not sure what to call this, but since Hypatia decided she doesn’t want to take a nap, she’s participating in school time.  She’s not ready for the worksheets the preschoolers are doing, but she really wants to be doing something of her own.  I have coloring books for her, and easy little puzzles and shape sorters.  I have no “learning goals” for her, but I need to keep coming up with different options for her that sort of go with what the older kids are doing.

Middle School

My sister is at a transition point, as we try to finish up the scope and sequence we’d put together middle school, and plan how she’s going to tackle the high school scope and sequence.  There are just a few things from way back in elementary that we still haven’t checked off, and then there’s a list of things that we need to cover still for middle school.  And then, we’ve accidentally already done a few of our high school objectives.  So, I’m busy organizing transcripts and looking down these lists to determine where exactly we are at this point.  We are also busy getting her set up at the community college, since we are ready to use that resource for math and science and anything else she wants to take there.  More on this in a later post, also.

Mommy School

I am still working away on my 8×8 in 2008 reading challenge, and trying to establish a workout routine I can stick to.  I’m also taking a French class once a week, so I’ll hopefully finally get some progress on learning to speak French!

Church and Earth Scouts

This is the last month of the year for regular Earth Scouts.  We are trying to finish up a badge on Democracy, and another on Economic Justice.  Carbon needs to make his creation for Economic Justice, and we need to do an Action for both.  I’m leaning toward sending him out doorbelling with his grandma (who’s running for office right now), and then organizing an icecream sundae sale outside church as a fundraiser for ACORN.

The church school year is coming to a close.  We just have a few more stories that I need to put together, including writing one from scratch to talk about Thoreau for preschool-1st grade.  Luckily I’ve found some picture books about him, and I’ll adapt one of those.  Then, I’ve volunteered to run the Earth Scouts program as a summer Sunday School program.  So I need to get that organized and prepared this month.

Home Front

This is obviously gardening season.  I’ve got most of my seeds in the ground, and now I need to keep the garden up and weeded and watered.  We need to get new gutters up on the house, and we’re going to get rain barrels as part of that.  There are other projects that need to be done, but realistically I think they’re going to go in later months.  I’m trying to build a new chicken coop by myself (that should go under Mommy School also), because our baby chicks really need to get out of the house.  Stinky!  I also need to keep on sewing as I try to get a pretty, comfortable, organic, and practical wardrobe created for myself.  Hypatia also needs a few things for summer, but luckily Carbon is set because of hand-me-downs.

Other

I have a few swaps to create this month: repurposed fabric, a stuffie to go with a children’s book, and some bookmarks.  Carbon’s birthday is this month, so I have party planning and birthday cake baking to do.  We’ve already reserved the park and sent out invites, so now it’s the food and party games.  I need to get something for the Moms before Sunday - oops, slipped up on that one!  And I also need to help out with my MIL’s 60th birthday bash, although my SIL has taken the lead on that project.  That’s on Memorial Day weekend, so we’re not going out of town this year.

There’s also a few interviews left to do for The Job.  I really hope I’ll have news to announce by the end of the month!

Does that sound busy enough, or should I take on another project?  Just kidding - no more!