a new chapter or two

I always think of fall as the beginning of a new chapter in life, even though it has had very little bearing on what we do the last few years. This year, though, I've started a soft launch of home preschool for the three year old and decided to continue my KonMari'ing of the house.

I emptied out our bookcase, and made up a box to give to the library book sale. Mr. Husband took a few out because he wanted to read them.

Then, Mr. Husband sent me to the library book sale to find Michael Crichton and Michael Lewis books. At $0.50/book, I might have gotten carried away. I guess I cancelled out any KonMari'ing of our bookcase. Oh well.

My decision to homeschool our 3 year old this year was for many reasons, but I was still anxious about starting. Before we began, I couldn't get him interested in any fine motor skills--beading, coloring, painting--it all turned into some truck-related game. I've been working out of 26 Letters to Heaven. It has a lot of ideas, but we can be flexible to fit everyone's mood and abilities. I've been pleasantly surprised at what's come out of it.

Week One:

Both kids enjoyed the gluing part, although the 1-year-old got a lot of help from me.

My late start actually worked out, because we were able to celebrate Michaelmas during our "A for Angel" week. I've been wanting to live more liturgically for some time, but felt overwhelmed until I decided to just try one thing at a time. So I got some ideas for a Michaelmas dinner, printed out some coloring pages to decorate our table, and made a blackberry tart. We said the St. Michael prayer with grace before we ate, and it seemed festive enough for a 1- and 3- year old.

And this week:

I was truly impressed with how neatly the 3 year old did this activity with letter B. We've been taking the crayons and stickers out more with both kids, so I guess we're starting a new chapter with art, too. Here's hoping we don't run out of steam in two weeks!