Schooling at Home

Let me start by saying, wow.  I really do suck at posting regularly.  Whoops!  I keep meaning to write all sorts of posts, but I've just been living in the moments lately.  I promise I really do want to try to become a regular blogger again!

Evie is four years old now, and keeping me plenty busy.  She's been attending preschool two days a week (two and a half hours a day) this year, and learning tons.  She's always been really curious and interested in learning, and school has just enhanced that.  She's a little sponge for information, and I love seeing her little brain at work.

Now that the school year is starting to wind down, they aren't tackling as many new skills or concepts as they have been.  It's mostly testing and preparing for the end of the year program.  Evie, however, is continuously ready to learn new things.  So what is a mom to do?

I started scouring the internet--and Pinterest, which is my form of crack--for printables and worksheets that I  could start doing with Evie at home.  Evie has quite a few Preschool-geared workbooks at home already, but she's almost beyond them.  She mastered letter and number recognition long ago, and is ready to start learning early reading and math.  Wasn't she just a baby a few minutes ago?  How is she ready for this stuff already?

The internet is such a beautiful thing.  I've found a lot of awesome Pre-K and Kindergarten materials online that we've started working through at home.  I quickly realized unless I wanted to buy a million boxes of computer paper and new ink cartridges every other week, buying a lamination machine was a necessity.  They are pretty inexpensive, and now she can practice the new concepts over and over again until she masters them without worrying about killing a ton of trees.

I'm pretty excited about schooling her at home over the summer.  She loves learning so much that her excitement rubs off on you.  She has one year left of preschool before she starts Kindergarten so it's going to be interesting  for sure to see how far she comes.

If you're interested in schooling your little one at home, Confessions of a Homeschooler and 1+1+1=1 are two blogs that have awesome printables that I love.  You can also check out my Pinterest board for others that I've pinned for later perusal. 

If you know of other sites that have materials for at-home-use, please feel free to pass them along!  I'm looking for as much help as I can get!

Me

This is how I'm feeling today.  I'm not sure if I'm ready to write about what's been going on with me lately, but this pretty aptly describes how it's all affecting me today.

Paula Cole "Me"

I am not the person who is singing
I am the silent one inside
I am not the one who laughs at people's jokes
I just pacify their egos
I am not my house, my car, my songs
They are only just stops along my way
I am like the winter
I'm a dark cold female
With a golden ring of wisdom in my cave

And it is me who is my enemy
Me who beats me up
Me who makes the monsters
Me who strips my confidence

I am carrying my voice
I am carrying my heart
I am carrying my rhythm
I am carrying my prayers
But you can't kill my spirit
It's soaring and it's strong
Like a mountain
I'll go on and on
But when my wings are folded
The brightly colored moth
Blends into the dirt into the ground

And it is me who is my enemy
Me who beats me up
Me who makes the monsters
Me who strips my confidence

And it's me who's too weak
And it's me who's too shy
To ask for the thing I love
And it's me who's too weak
And it's me who's too shy
To ask for the thing I love
That I love

I am walking on the bridge
I am over the water
And I'm scared as hell
But I know there's something better
Yes I know there's something
Yes I know, I know, yes I know

And it is me who is my enemy
Me who beats me up
Me who makes the monsters
Me who strips my confidence

But it's me
And it's me
But it's me

Wordless Wednesday: Evie's 4th Birthday

Spoiled little girl had 4 different birthday celebrations!