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Back to School Starting Point

We met with Briana’s Montessori teacher this week to get ready for the new school year, and Briana sat down to write her name on a piece of paper for fun.  It wasn’t that bad, nor was it as good as she used to be able to write.  Everyone slides back a little during the summer, but I think we could use a back to school crash course this week to get back into the mindset of the school year.

The priorities (ie the stuff that we let slide this summer) –
  1.            Letters and numbers
  2.           Shapes and color
  3.       Table manners

1. Letters and Numbers
Refreshing our letters and numbers was the easiest of the three because letters and numbers are everywhere (all of their tv shows deal with letters or numbers, and of course books) so the kids are constantly seeing and talking about them.  I have been working on not doing everything for the kids that they can do for themselves as my own personal goal this summer, so I let the kids tell me how they want to work on their letters.  Briana gets out her Leapfrog letter writing toy.  I’m very happy that she picks something to help with the writing (and not just the reading) of letters.


Abby gets her letter puzzle out. No surprise – Abby loves puzzles.


When they get bored we sing the alphabet song and Briana tries to use the magnetic letters to put them all in order, but Abigail has other ideas…

  
Briana also has to fight Abby off while she puts the numbers in order:


So she settles for the floor:


I am happy to see that while Briana’s penmanship has deteriorated this summer, her recognition of letters has stayed and Abigail’s recognition of numbers and letters has increased this summer.

2. Shapes and Colors
In the afternoon we spend some time refreshing our memories on shapes and colors.  The kids select their toys and we practice first the colors and then the shapes for Abby.


For Briana she has to say the shape and color together to get used to things having multiple modifiers and to make it more of a challenge for her.


Briana alternates from bathing suit, to pjs, to a dress every few minutes.  A habit leftover from last week’s shore trip which could have been named ‘Briana’s Runway Vacation’ because she chose to change clothes every 10 minutes all day.   Abby follows suit and every time Briana changes outfits she changes her shorts.  I think Abby doesn’t care what she’s in, but she doesn’t want to be left out on the fun her big sister is having.  

3. Table Manners

The first 2 are much easier to refresh than the last one as mealtime has been everything from the kids watching tv while at their little table in the playroom to eating on the couch with grandparents to eating in the car on roadtrips.  As such our table manners have slid to one step above anarchy.  One Small step…


In case you are wondering – that’s Abigail hiding in the curtains at lunch today with a handful of grapes. :/

Fixing the table manners turns out to be basically starting over with table manners. 
  •  Before summer it had been a long time since I had to remind the kids that they must take at least 1      bite of everything on their plates.  Now I say it at every meal.
  • There are constant reminders of what is an inside voice and what is not.  Abby likes to police this one for me so if she or Briana gets too noisy, she will quickly say “Too loud.  Calm down.”  Sometimes that’s helpful, something that infuriates Briana so it’s a gamble.
  •  Luckily it seems to have taken only one day of mealtime timeouts to convince Abby that she shouldn’t throw her food or silverware again.  Of course I think that the defiance was replaced by wrapping up in the curtain so the curtains are tied out of her reach now.  I’m so glad that I decided to sew my own curtains for the kitchen for now because no curtain could survive these kiddies at mealtime.  We should have put them on the other side of the table.  Hmmm…
The kids can’t wait for school so they also practice putting things into their backpacks today and putting on and taking off their coats and boots.  They are ready.

I hope other parents are feeling more ready for the school year to start than I am!  It’s so baffling why I always say I want a break from the kiddies and when school looms ready to steal them from me I feel so sad about it.  I’m sure, as was the case last year, I’ll only feel sad the first week and then my calendar will fill up with gym time, coffee with friends, spa time, and reading time, and I’ll feel much less sad about my alone time J

<3 Pedigreed Housewife

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