My New Way of Starting Each Monthly Theme with Mother Goose Time

This is the year of learning just how different my son is from my daughter regarding learning preferences. For that I am grateful...As an elementary school teacher I never imagined that someday I'd be differentiating for my own children as their teacher. I was staunchly against homeschooling during my years of teaching. When I had to leave my teaching career abruptly due to my daughter possibly not surviving, I wondered when my next chance would be to teach little souls who would look up to me, and little did I know that the next little souls would be my own children. 

As a new homeschooling mom, I feel lost and I question myself often. Oftentimes it's as if I have never taught before. Strong B is doing Mother Goose Time with me as his preschool program and I don't feel as confident teaching preschool as I did with the other grades. I'm so thankful that I have this program to guide me, and I'm also thankful that it's a program that can be totally tailored to meet the needs of each student.

I have found that Strong B is motivated by looking through each day's curriculum bag. I decided to take out my Teacher Guide and look through each day's lesson, and talk to him about the lessons that we could do this month. 

We talked about his interests within the realm of "Community Helpers" which is our theme for the month. I also encouraged the day's lessons that had my favorite things which are included every month.

We chose dentist, doctor, shopkeeper, author, hairdresser, and bus driver. Having a child choose what they want to learn is a huge buy in for them. What a way for them to feel in control of their own learning. How empowering that is!

The kids were very motivated by the toothbrushes in the Dentist pack. The Doctor pack included an art project done with syringes...and HELLO what former tube-fed child wouldn't want to do art with a syringe?! Strong B loves money and therefore the Shopkeeper pack was very interesting to him. I encouraged them to pick the Author pack because it has the I Can Read book which is one of my absolute favorite parts of Mother Goose Time. I wrote about it in my last post here. The Hairdresser pack had the puzzle which is also another of my favorites, and the Bus Driver pack had the monthly book, which is an absolute must. I know that six days of lessons doesn't sound like enough, but truly, with all of the extra things we are doing, such as the Experience More Math and Literacy Workbooks, I'm finding that it's just perfect for him. He is also doing some of Tiny B's kindergarten work. I have no doubt that at the end of the month we will be picking a few more to do if we have time, with it being Thanksgiving break.

I then pulled out the other parts of the program that came in this month's box that I will definitely be using. The holiday pack that is included every month is a must-do. We listen to our monthly themed CD multiple times a day, and Dance n' Beats is a big part of our physical education. I squealed when I saw that the manipulatives for the month were the connecting cubes. I use the cubes from last year nearly every day with Tiny B's kindergarten material and I know that Strong B has been wanting his own set.

I decided to keep it simple this month. Rather than covering lots and lots of days, I'm choosing to go deeper into the days that we end up choosing. The holidays are a time of celebration and (should be) relaxation! 

We will see how I switch it up next month. The only way to grow as an educator is to keep trying different things until you find something that you love. And then you'll probably have to change it again!

Just wait until you see the Bus Driver lesson that we did...It was the most fun Friday night that we've had in a long time! I love it when I can teach on a Friday evening and call it FUN!