starting our "school"

did you feel the change in the air over the past few weeks? school starting. i was able to spend a few days down at the school helping my sweet friend Renee. this time reminded me of this post and how nervous i was this time last year. (i can't believe it has been a year!)

being the nerd i am and missing the school environment, i have decided to start a little school of our own. really it's no school by any means but just an excuse to buy supplies and spend scheduled one-on-one time with sara. i know with baby boy coming i will be home in the mornings and wanted to find something that sara and i could work on and kinda "force" me (you know, keep me accountable) to spend a little time focused on her.

so, i looked around and was VERY inspired by many blogs... but kind of overwhelmed. there are endless resources available, endless ideas for toddler-ish activities and endless amount of "stuff" you can buy! so after realizing that i would have a hard time starting and staying organized, i bought the first month of the itty-bitty bookworm curriculum to try out.
all this to say that we are on a very loose 2 year old schedule. i dont think it is important for her to "learn" much by the end of this time. i just wanted something fun and easy with some sense of direction.

basically, we are focusing on a color and a shape each month. the itty-bitty stuff uses 2 books per month and have several suggested art-ish projects to go along with them. I don't know if i will buy more months... not sure if i'm ready for that much of an investment. maybe when sara is three or four. i hope to get in a groove and just use the books we have and the wonderful world of the internet... who knows.
i wanted to share with you guys some pictures of our "school times"...

for this project we sorted and crushed up fruit loops, then we "painted" with glue and a Q-tip and added the colorful "sand"

the end product...
for this project we colored "circles" (coffee filters) with markers, then used pipettes to drip water on them. it made a kind of tie-dyed effect...

i'm learning that it is all about the process for a two year old... not so much about the product.



also, we have this chart hanging on our fridge reminding us of the color and shape of the month. she has enjoyed seeing them and moving them from row to row.
the cards are from this great website... montessori for everyone and the chart was a dollar bin find from target