Preparing :: Day 1

[aecastleberry]

Wow. So day 1 was harder than I expected. I guess since we were so used to doing everything together, jumping back and forth between two kiddos and two guides was quite the challenge for all of us. My ds had an especially hard time b/c he likes doing things with his sister...so he was a bit sad about doing his "own work." Once we finished our day, I felt like I needed a mental break and to not think about anything for at least 30 minutes. My brain is exhausted...and I'm a little apprehensive for day 2!!

I know it will get easier, but whew!

On another note, my dd LOVED her work. She said, "Mama, I love doing all of these activities!!" I think she's going to have a great year with Preparing.

[Nealewill]

It will get better....I promise. Did you do a full day's worth? If it seemed overwhelming, give it some time. Last year I did Preparing and Beyond. At first, it was tricky. I didn't have a good rhythm at all! It took me about half of a year to develop a working schedule. Did you check the schedules in the share your schedule area? If not, I can email you my excel schedule. I can't figure out how to post it in here using photobucket. But just let me know your email address and I will be sure to send it to you. I had two kids in Beyond and 1 child in Preparing. But Julie helped me tweak it a ton and it worked really well by the end of the year.

One thing that really helped was not having my dd do all of her independent stuff at one time. And then it helped not having my 2 younger kids have too much time to play and then too long of a stretch for school when play time was over. That was my trickiest balancing act of all.

As for your 2nd child being sad that he can't participate with the oldest, I never "banished" my kids from the each other. I let them listen when they wanted. I let them help when they wanted. Eventually, they stopped coming to help all the time. They do still hover around each other some, especially when they are looking for things to do. But it has become much less. Also, as my oldest got older, she got much more independent. If I wasn't there helping her with things - like the independent history project - then my other kids didn't necessarily care what my oldest was doing. I wouldn't stress over it and I would allow your other kids in the room with you and your oldest. It will be 2 years from now that your ds will hear and experience this stuff again. While it won't be 100% new and fresh, ds probably won't remember much of it anyway and he will still be learning because he will then be doing all of the learning activities associated with Preparing. I hope that helps and makes sense.

[aecastleberry]

It will get better....I promise. Did you do a full day's worth? If it seemed overwhelming, give it some time. Last year I did Preparing and Beyond. At first, it was tricky. I didn't have a good rhythm at all! It took me about half of a year to develop a working schedule.

We did do a full day's worth for both Preparing and Beyond. It wasn't the work load for either of them that was challenging (they are used to the amount of work), but it was the running back and forth that was exhausting to me. And them having to be patient waiting for Mama to come back was also a challenge. But I know you are right, and it will get better! I did create a schedule for both of them, and I highlighted the sections that they would do independently (neither had many, especially ds in Beyond).

It's just a different method to teach them individually, and we will adjust. Just hoping not to feel quite as exhausted this afternoon. We shall see.

Thanks for the encouragement!

[MomtoJGJE]

I can generally get all or most of the teaching portion of Beyond done while the Preparing child is working on their independent work. That way I just have three "blocks" of teaching.

Block 1: Teaching the semi independent things and going over the independent things in Preparing
Block 2: Beyond
Block 3: Teacher led things in Preparing. (Preparing child does chores or waits patiently if they get finished before I'm done with Beyond. Beyond child can finish up math, copywork type things at this point)

That way I'm not running back and forth all day.

[countrymom]

I taught Preparing and Beyond last year and I agree with the previous poster. You can go through the teacher material with your Preparing student and then work with Beyond. I put recess right in his schedule so he wasn't impatiently waiting for me. I am not at home, but my schedule looked something like this:
(I did not assign a time to each block - I can't deal with that )
Block 1: both independent work - this was limited because it was my hardest time. I didn't put too much in this block.
Block 2: Beyond/recess and chores; Preparing teacher time
Block 3: Preparing independent work; Beyond teacher time
Block 4: Review, dictation, and storytime with Preparing student
Block 5: review and finish Beyond student (this was because my Beyond student needed a little break so we didn't quite finish in our block together)

[Nealewill]

It wasn't the work load for either of them that was challenging (they are used to the amount of work), but it was the running back and forth that was exhausting to me. And them having to be patient waiting for Mama to come back was also a challenge. But I know you are right, and it will get better! I did create a schedule for both of them, and I highlighted the sections that they would do independently (neither had many, especially ds in Beyond).

I never found the work load to be the problem when I start either. It was my adjusting too LOL. That is actually why I go slow for a few weeks. It takes me time to adjust LOL.

I hope your day 2 is going well