Summer Vacation 2013 and the Invasion of Harry Potter

I have long abandoned the idea that this blog would be the perfect, continually updated source for parents who want to use thematic curriculum at home.  In some ways, it's a failed experiment that I just refuse to drop completely, because I haven't been really doing the research I set out to in the beginning, or at least I haven't analyzed my data from the first couple of themes.  In other ways, it's a realistic picture of what a parent can do when they are a stay at home parent of two children with a spouse who, due to a long commute, is gone for long hours every day.  The reality is that I don't get very much planning time (none if we are busy on the weekends) and our focus shifts depending on what's going on.  With my oldest in Kindergarten, and my little one spending some time in his co-op and in his 2 hours, twice a week preschool gymnastics class, I was able to find some time this spring to implement a theme here and there around our other activities (swim lessons, gymnastics, playdates, planning for our ridiculously over-done thematic birthday parties, school work, making dinner, making lunch, cleaning the house, taking care of the cats, etc.).

May was the last month of school and I think both RJ and I were burnt out from it.  I was burnt out from the constant drain of finding new ways to get him to do his (boring) homework and I think he was just done with the whole thing.  We were also spending inordinate amounts of time focusing on preparing for RJ's birthday party, which transformed our home into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  Yes, my now 6 year old has been obsessed with Harry Potter for a good year since we picked up the first book to read to him.  Some of the themes, especially in the later books (we're two chapters from the end of Half Blood Prince) that we're getting to now, are quite advanced for a young elementary school kid, but he was so interested in the books when my husband and I were reading them last year, that we decided to try it anyway.  I don't think that either of us expected him to be the Potterhead that he has become; rather expecting that he would be bored by listening to the stories without any pictures and quit the series before finishing the first book, thus avoiding having to discuss the more difficult story lines concerning death and being a double agent.  But that was not the case.  Instead he looked forward to us reading more and more, and seemingly absorbed every last deal, thus making it so that we have had to deal with all those difficult themes, and he's just kept on going.  Even around his Kindergarten work and my themes, Harry Potter was always present in his pretend play.  It wasn't until we were planning his birthday that I temporarily dropped the music theme and let him just focus on Harry Potter, of course bringing L along with him (he might only be 3.5, and has never had the books read to him, but he still knows and loves all the characters and the basic story just from playing with RJ and watching RJ play the Lego Harry Potter game on our Wii).

So for the month of May and much of June, we handcrafted wands, I sewed Harry Potter wizard robes, we cut fabric scraps to make owls out of toilet paper roles, we research "spells" for pretend play usage, we even put together a few potions at his birthday party (which of course required planning), we cooked food and treats that were depicted by J.K. Rowling, the boys played with the Harry Potter legos, and RJ had limited time to master his problem solving and hand-eye coordination by playing the Lego Harry Potter game on the Wii.  His birthday party came and went, and now, a couple of weeks after, we are midway through Summer Vacation and finally ready for a refocus of our activities.  The last couple of weeks have been fairly unplanned and random (around our regular activities of course), which is nice to do from time to time, but with vacation time withering away, we want to make sure that we cover all the things that we want to, before the grind of the school year starts up again!

Our activities are going to include a mix of themes for a little while.  We are going to be getting some caterpillars in the mail in a couple of weeks, courtesy of a birthday gift, and so we will be spending a good deal of energy on taking care of the caterpillars/butterflies, and documenting their development and learning about them.  I also have some random activities that don't fit themes that I've wanted to fit in for a while, and we have a lot of summer fun to engage in, like swimming and play dates, and field trips to various places that we're doing before school takes over our lives again.

So, stay tuned...I generally don't go MIA from this blog for TOO long before coming back.

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.