Thinking About Next Year, in February

I'm looking forward to next year. It might start the first week of June. (Whether I'm kidding or not, I'm not even sure.) I can't wait to have Tyler home with us. Right now I feel like I have to let them play in the mornings because he has preschool in the afternoons, and it wouldn't really be fair for him to "have school" all day. I'm ready to switch that around and do school first, and then have time for play. I'll probably still use Nolan's naptime in the afternoon for some school, but I'm really excited about what we can all do together in the morning.

We will probably end up using a lot of the books I planned on using this year. It was too much for the time we had available to us (keeping mornings for play, and working around preschool drop off and pick up and getting Nolan down for his nap in the afternoon) and to be honest, it was too much for Lucas's abilities at the beginning of the year. He has really grown a lot though. He is narrating well, and his reading is improving - I think he is actually enjoying it! Now that he has been introduced to things like narration, nature walks, and picture study, I think it will be easier to add in more subjects. Tyler will catch on quickly. He will have his own little phonics lessons, but everything else, all of the read aloud subjects, will be together. Lucas will have sacrament prep (First Reconciliation and First Communion) and more reading/phonics that Tyler will not. Even math will probably be together.

I've been thinking about how Nolan will fit into our morning time. He wants to do everything they're doing. It makes it hard for Lucas and Tyler to focus with Nolan there - who wants to be there, but is noisy and wiggly. Right now they all have open access to toys. I'm wondering if restricting that access will encourage longer, better play with whatever I get out. It seems like he would be able to entertain himself with access to so many toys, but he doesn't, so I might try something different.

So here I am, in February, thinking about next year. Typical, I know. It's not that I'm in a rut regarding this year - I actually feel like we are finally getting into a groove because there haven't been as many tears about school lately! It is finally feeling good, and I'm looking forward to including Tyler in that and having a better routine to our day.