Curriculum and HOPE Orientation

Today was Maisie's HOPE school (we call it Friday School) orientation. She has 5 friends in her class of 8 students (K-1) :) She is thrilled about that! We've also had the conversation with her about not leaving other kids in her class out of playtime and lunchtime because she is so close with the other kids. We've talked about how to invite the other kids to sit with her, play, etc.

The teachers are wonderful and I think the program is going to be great. They have PE first thing in the morning, a couple hours of instruction, then an hour lunch to run off more steam. They will also have a morning snack and brief recess, and an afternoon snack and brief recess. They'll have Math, Science, Reading/Writing and Art as well as Sign Language.

I also picked up our curriculum today We choose whatever curriculum works for us and the school provides it for us. We're still short a couple books on order, but in all we received most of it. I was pretty grateful so I can start lesson plans (I'm through the first 14 weeks now) and get a feel for the lessons. We have Math U SEE, Core Knowledge Geography and History, Everyone can Sign (Sign Language), Sing Spell Read and Write, Foresman Science, and a great Art Book. I'm trying to keep each of the lessons to 20-30 minutes tops and no more than 3 subjects in a day. Especially since the girls already have Spanish once a week, gymnastics once a week, and Maisie has Music once a week.

Wednesday will likely become our "down day" to do laundry and chores and the girls to have time to just play together.

I'm seeing now how important it is to have a "plan." NOT to overschedule, but to plan well so that there is plenty of time for the things the girls need--like creative play time to roll play.

Since Maisie will be at HOPE on Fridays, Dani and I will concentrate on her letters and numbers on that day. Katie and I will work on her colors :)