Happy New Year
I’m so happy to have you guys back with us this week. I love routine and having the kiddos here definitely helps me thrive.
This afternoon I took a quick run through social media and I noticed so many of my friends were posting pictures of their children doing activities from the traditional winter unit. Many of them were building ice castles, ice fishing, and all sorts of very cute activities. I struggle when I see those things. I used to teach that way.
I lived in Michigan for a couple years and we could drive the car on the lake – the ice was so thick. Fisherman fished in little holes in warm shacks on top of the ice. I too used to do units that reflected that type of “winter” but I have not done that in a long time. That is not winter to children in Arkansas. Although it might have a little relevance- not enough to focus our valuable time on . I mean, we know it’s winter. We talk about wearing different clothing outside and how when we put our fingers in the water outside they might hurt because of the cold.
The children find ice all over the playground in dishes of water that were left.
Sometimes I actually grieve the other way of teaching. Sometimes I want to grab some boxes and wrap them in white and pretend we live in Alaska. But alas , it just doesn’t make sense when the children don’t really understand the concept of cities or states to overwhelm them with something that is not in the realm of their real life. We have other things to do 🤷🏻♀️
Today we did self portraits. The first one of the new year.
Second semester I always tend to pay a little closer attention to the fine motor habits of my older kids. We begin to sign in in the morning so we have an extra opportunity to practice writing our name.
I don’t make a big deal about it and many times use a highlighter to help the children until they don’t need it any longer. My goal is not to test them but to assist them until they are successful.
We also made homemade hot chocolate today and enjoyed it when we came in from outside to warm up a little.
It was a really good day. We were all happy to be back even if we didn’t get to stick they guys or pretend fishing in a pretend ice hole.