Theme Hiatus

Nothing is more regular in my life than being behind on something (usually something for me).  Whether it is being behind on the housework, posting blog entries about my kids' development, or not getting a project done around the house (hello $5 hot pink bookshelf that I haven't painted yet!), being a stay at home mom of a 3 year old and a 7 month old means that everything seems to take a back burner to whatever the immediate concern is.  Some of my faithful readers have mentioned that reading my activity plans exhaust them  (the thought of what I'm doing, not the ACTUAL reading of the blog.  err..I hope!).  It is exhausting, but it's only happening because I have put the curriculum above a lot of other things in our lives, which is one reason why I can't seem to find time to write more on this blog. However, in the grand scheme of things, actually planning and doing the activities is the point of this whole thing.  Documentation would be fabulous (and I will eventually get there - I have the videos and pictures, it's the processing that takes time.), but actually doing these things with him is the key.  With that said, we're taking a couple week hiatus since the next few weeks are a little busy and I'd like to catch up. 

Why are they busy? 

Well, for one, I have a first job interview this week, so if all goes well, I might have additional interviews and if those go well, I might not be a stay at home momma much longer.  This makes me sad, but I do need to go back to work eventually, and a couple of potentially awesome positions opened up now, so I didn't want to miss the opportunities at the risk of not being able to find a job when I need to go back.  If either of these positions works out, we might get to move closer to where my husband works, which will help our work/life balance.  

Also, we're trying to organize our closets full of random, unorganized stuff, which will help immensely if we have to move, and will make room for the boxes that came home from my office in June AND we have family coming to town at the end of the month (and the office boxes have been scattered all over the guest room!).  I really didn't want to have to stop and start a formal theme multiple times, because that can hinder learning and is frustrating for everyone.  However, this does not mean that I will stop spending quality time doing activities with RJ - only that nap times will be used for going through closets rather than planning specific activities and preparing them!  During this time, we're doing some more informal thematic curriculum that isn't as far removed from our everyday routine - focusing on Healthy Living.  We'll cook together (which we have to do anyway), and exercise together (perhaps spending more time at the park now that the heat has subsided a little). We'll still work on letters and do art, just more basic stuff than I had planned for the last theme.  Some of the things we touch on might lead to a more formal theme after things settle down a little bit. During this hiatus, I want to document my son's pre and post assessments from the Transportation theme and post some documents describing my philosophy of early childhood education.  Hopefully these posts will tide you all over until we get going again.

Transition Tuesday: Ending the Transportation Theme

This week we will be easing out of Transportation - I don't have any major plans, but do want to do some webbing with RJ to go over what we've learned.  Interestingly, he's already asked, "What are we learning about next?".  Over the weekend, I hope to conduct the first post-theme assessment.  Then I want to take a short hiatus to regroup for the next theme, which will be a healthy living theme.  We do a good amount of this anyway with our weekly CSA crate and talking about what new foods the baby is eating, as well as getting exercise at the playground, but I want to delve a little deeper.  This will also work out great to kick start some daily yoga into our routine, which we can even get the baby involved in.