Planning Period

I never, ever wanted to be a teacher....but I have always wanted to be a Mommy.  So therefore, I, without realizing it, have always wanted to be a teacher. When we got home this morning, our curriculum was waiting for us on the door step.  I didn't hesitate to get started....I had my first Planning Period!

I looked through the calendar and wanted to see which Letter we would do each week.  Call me crazy, but we are not going in alphabetical order.  I want to do L the week Lent begins, which also happens to be the week the day of Love falls.  I want to do special feast days with certain Letters like E right before Easter and P with St. Patrick's Day.  As my wheels began turning....so many fun things popped into my head and the excitement was beaming!

Here is how our Spring/Summer is looking:

Week 1 - 1/14-1/18 - Letter C

Week 2 - 1/21-1/25 - Letter A

Week 3 - 1/28- 2/1 - Letter W

Week 4 - 2/4 - 2/8 - Letter F

Week 5 - 2/11 - 2/14 - Letter L

Week 6 - 2/18 - 2/22 - Letter U & V

Week 7 - 2/25 - 3/1 - Letter G

Week 8 - 3/4 - 3/8 - Letter K

Week 9 - 3/11 - 3/15 - Letter P

Week 10 - 3/18 - 3/22 - Letter J

Week 11 - 3/25 - 3/29 - Letter E

Week 12 - 4/1 - 4/5 - Letter R

Week 13 - 4/8 - 4/12 - Letter M 

Week 14 - 4/15 - 4/19 - Letter D

Week 15 - 4/22 - 4/26 - Letter O

Week 16 - 4/29 - 5/3 - Letter T

Week 17 - 5/6 - 5/10 - Letter X & Y

Week 18 - 5/13 - 5/17 - Letter S

Week 19 - 5/20 - 5/24 - Letter B

Week 20 - 5/27 - 5/31 - Letter H

Week 21 - 6/3 - 6/7 - Letter I

Week 22 - 6/10 - 6/14 - Letter N

Week 23 - 6/17 - 6/21 - Letter Q

Week 24 - 6/24 - 6/28 - Letter Z

I have quite a few Field Trips in mind when we hit certain weeks: GA Aquarium, Atlanta Zoo, Yellow River Game Ranch, Mayfield Dairy Farms, Southeastern Railway Museum, Washington Farms and Fernbank.  I look forward to all our adventures!  Zoe is at such a fabulous age and every new experience is amazing to witness!

We have also decided that the TV will not be a daily occurrence...unless 100% necessary!  What Zach and I have discussed and we are SO excited about is a Friday Family Movie Night.  The movie night is part of our hopes for Zoe learn responsibility, manners and respect through Positive Reinforcement.  Throughout the week, Zoe will have opportunities to earn Tickets....when she she cleans her room, goes to bed without whining, shares with Evan, uses her Ps and Qs, etc.  To have a movie night, she will need at least 5 tickets.  If she has more, she will be able to use her tickets to purchase popcorn and candy or a special treat.  When we talked to her about this tonight....she was PUMPED!  She earned her first ticket when she cleaned her room tonight and it was like gold.  Together, we found a good place to keep her tickets...her little polka dot purse...and she just squealed and squealed.  

When we put her to bed, we reminded her that she will get chocolate milk in the morning if she stays in bed and doesn't scream during the night.  She added "And 2 tickets!" Smart girl!

I love that there is so much room for flexibility,  but I do love to have things down and set so I can plan mentally and financially!  What our typical week will look like Tuesdays will be Library Day with Story Time and then some computer games and finding books specific to our week.  Thursdays will be more of a craft day and we will be home.  Fridays will start with Ballet Class and end with our Movie Night.  Field Trips will be on whichever day works best that specific week, but my hopes will be Fridays.

A big prayer of mine is to take Zoe to a weekly morning Mass, hopefully Wednesdays.  Weekly Masses are usually shorter and there are a lot less people, so I think these weekly dates could help Zoe learn the best way to act during Mass.

Lots to look forward to!